Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 1:1
Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
1. And it came to pass after the death of Joshua ] The events which follow belong, however, to the life-time of Joshua and to the period covered by Joshua 9-12; moreover, the death of Joshua is recorded in chap. Jdg 2:6-10, in due sequel to Jos 24:28. As referring to what immediately follows the words are therefore incorrect; but taking them in connexion with the entire Book they have a certain fitness, for the death of Joshua may be regarded as marking the division between the period of conquest and the period of occupation. In the same way the Book of Joshua opens with the death of Moses, Jos 1:1 a. The sentence is an editorial addition.
asked of the Lord ] most likely at the sanctuary, through the medium of the priest; cf. Jdg 18:5, 1Sa 22:10 ; 1Sa 22:13; 1Sa 22:15 etc. The ephod and the Urim and Thummim came into use on such occasions; the divine response was conveyed as a priestly oracle. See Jdg 17:3, Jdg 18:5, 1Sa 14:18 (RVm.), 41 (LXX), 1Sa 23:9 ff., Deu 33:8; and Driver, Exodus, p. 312 f.
go up ] From Gilgal, 800 ft. below sea-level, the march into the Southern Highlands (2500 to 3600 ft. above the sea) was a continuous ascent. The verb may be used, however, in a general sense, of a military expedition, 2Sa 5:19, Isa 7:6.
first ] of time, cf. Jdg 10:18; not first in order or rank.
the Canaanites ] The Jehovist’s name for the various tribes of Palestine; the Elohist calls them ‘Amorites,’ cf. Jdg 1:34. If the Canaanites had been extirpated in the manner described in the Book of Joshua there would have been no need to attack them again.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
After the death of Joshua – But from Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 2:9 is a consecutive narrative, ending with the death of Joshua. Hence, the events in this chapter and in Jdg 2:1-6 are to be taken as belonging to the lifetime of Joshua. See Jdg 2:11 note.
Asked the Lord – The phrase is only found in Judges and Samuel. It was the privilege of the civil ruler, to apply to the high priest to consult for him the Urim and Thummim (marginal reference). (Compare Jos 14:1; Jos 18:1, Jos 18:10; Jos 19:51). Here it was not Phinehas, as Josephus concludes from placing these events after the death of Joshua, but Eleazar, through whom the children of Israel inquired who (or, rather), which tribe of us shall go up!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jdg 1:1-10
The children of Israel asked the Lord.
Simplicity in prayer
Just that! How we have modernised and complicated and destroyed prayer! The children of Israel asked the Lord. How simple, how direct, how sensible, how likely to succeed! The altar may have lost its power: no atheist has pulled down the altar, no outsider has taken away one stone from the holy pile; the suppliants may have torn down their own altar. We will modernise and invent and enlarge and embroider the simplicity that would have saved us. The children of Israel asked the Lord, whispered to Him, hailed Him, arrested His condescending attention by some sign of necessity. They whispered to the Lord, they told Him plainly the condition in which they were placed, and brought the whole need under His attention; they wanted leadership and captaincy and guidance, and they said, Who shall do this? The method has not been changed; Jesus Christ added nothing to this old method. Said He, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask. We have changed all that; we now are in danger of approaching the Lord as if He were an infinite Shah, and must needs be approached with long words and logical sequence. Speaking to God elevates the mind; prayer, however brief and however tremulous, takes the suppliant up to a higher level than he has ever scaled before. The whole idea of religion is intellectually elevating; no man can be truly religious and meanly little; to touch the Divine garment even at its edge is to rise to a new stature and to breathe a new air. I repeat, therefore, that asking God, talking to God, communing with God, elevates the mind. It is the spiritual exercise that elevates the soul; the words themselves may be poor, they may be ungrammatical, they may be uttered in a very halting and stumbling tone, but the exercise, spiritually understood, rightly interpreted, lifts the soul world on world a thousand worlds higher than can ever be occupied by a mere denizen of this world of dust. We cannot look God in the face without catching something of the brightness of His smile. Do they take knowledge of us that we have been with the literature of the day, with the journals of the morning, with the gossip of the time? or do they take knowledge of us that we have just come from the altar, that we have just seen the King, that we have not a moment ago been closeted with Christ, having shut the door, and do we come out of the presence-chamber new born, newly ordained, just crowned with the approbation of the Divine love? Talking to God, asking God, laying the whole case before God, sometimes laying it before Him without words, sometimes simply looking into His face, sometimes letting our throbbing, aching misery look into the infinite peace of the Divine tranquillity, will lift a man to a new status and clothe him with a new influence and enrich him with an abiding benediction. Let your misery seek the face of the King. Do not keep anything from God; yon know perfectly well that you cannot keep anything from His omniscience; that is not the meaning of the exhortation; the meaning rather is, tell God everything as if He had never heard it; go and tell Jesus. Do not ask the man who never prayed to tell you what he thinks of prayer. People are tempted to make a great mistake in that matter. They are going to hear an agnostic lecture on the subject of prayer! A prayerless man cannot lecture on that theme. Sooner ask a dead man to tell you his candid opinion of Beethoven than ask a prayerless man to tell you what he thinks of prayer. Ask the man who never was an inch from his own fireside what he thinks of the climate of the North Pole or the South. Consult saintly souls about the value of prayer. The children of Israel asked the Lord. They did not dictate to Him. Prayer is not dictation; prayer is not always even suggestion, and when prayer is suggestion it is offered with halting breath and with a most reverent faith, lest a suggestion should be not only a sophism but an expression of selfishness. Ask God about everything; you undervalue life if you think there is anything beneath His attention; the very smallest thing that concerns you concerns Him; He has told us so in many a beauteous parable. Saith He, A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without My notice. Observe, the people in question were the children of Israel. Character is implied; character is not only implied, it is recognised and held up as a lesson. They belong to a praying host, to a covenanted ancestry, they were involved in the baptism of an oath. Do not imagine that a man can leap out of atheism and begin to pray for some selfish purpose, and have his answer on the spot. Character determines prayer; the simple heart suggests the right petition; the sincere spirit, praying at the Cross and in the name of Christ, can alone pray with lasting and ennobling effect. In this respect there is something in heredity, there is something in the covenant, something in the eternal decree. We stand the last members up to this moment of a great ancestry of prayer. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?—
Dead leaders and living duties
I. A great leader dead, and lifes duties as pressing as ever.
1. Let who will and what will pass away, our own work only passes with our own life.
2. The advancement of Gods purpose is dependent on no life in particular.
3. Great lives are sometimes removed that other lives may better feel their responsibility and cultivate their strength.
II. human direction suddenly failing, and Divine guidance specially sought.
1. Prayer prompted by the removal of long familiar light.
2. Prayer over unfulfilled commandments.
3. Prayer provoked by gathering dangers.
4. Prayer for Gods appointment of our post in life.
5. The realism of prayer to every true-hearted suppliant.
III. An eminently faithful past demanding a no less vigorous future. Judah had already done well. He who has done well in the past is under perpetual obligation to do no less well in the future. God also chooses those for new duties who have best served in the past.
IV. God specially choosing some of His servants, but leaving them liberty to seek the help of others.
1. The benefits of co-operation. What one cannot do, two can. What one can only do with difficulty, two can do easily.
2. The limits of co-operation. Judah might only seek aid from his own brethren, not from idolaters.
V. The Lords call to great duties followed by His rich blessing on those who seek faithfully to perform them. The Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand.
1. God calls and sends none of His servants in vain.
2. Gods blessing answers to His own promise of blessing.
3. Gods blessing satisfies His peoples highest hopes. (F. G. Marchant.)
Dead heroes missed
1. In that this people was now constrained to look about them, and (now Joshua was dead) to do that themselves for their peace and quiet which he was wont to do for them, we are taught that when special persons are taken away then they who were left behind must put forth themselves and take the more pain than before. The which being so, men should make this use of such changes to provide and learn to want their good helps and friends beforehand. They should also acknowledge daily with hearty thanks to God what a benefit they have of them, while they enjoy them, and do all good that they may by the help of them. Which they cannot do, but they must of necessity feel the loss of them to be very great, and see that they must now lay their shoulders to the burden. For the which purpose this I add–oh, how sweetly and to their good liking have many lived when they had others to bear their burdens for them–as husbands, wives, subjects, children, neighbours: there is no doubt but that (which is the chiefest of all} they have therewith, that God is their friend also. But seeing many depend only on them in a carnal manner, and on their living still with them, and rest not on God, therefore their props fail them, and their desolation cometh upon them as the enemy upon an unarmed man.
2. We are taught here by their example, who sought to God in their doubts for counsel and resolution, that in all our doubtful eases, partly touching our estate towards God, and partly particular duties and actions if our special callings and conditions of life, while we remain here on earth we should consult with and ask counsel of God for our resolution, in such manner as He hath taught us, and in no wise to conceal and bury our wants and defects that trouble us, or pass by the sins that cleave to us, or other difficulties in our dealings and business that oppress us, for so we provide ill for ourselves, even to live in ignorance and sorrow (with ether inconveniences annexed thereunto) for ever after. (R. Rogers.)
And the Lord said, Judah shall go up.
God sovereign over His servants
May we not pause here to allow this oracular response to sink into the heart? How full it is in its manifold meaning! It asserts the sovereignty of God in disposing and ordering the work which His servants have to perform. It reminds us that every one is not to attempt everything; for Judah is to fight the enemy and the other tribes are to remain at home. It promises victory, not to every ardent soldier who might volunteer to take the field, but to the tribe whom the Lord shall order to the battle. It disturbs all rule-of-three calculations of success in proportion to the number of agents men may induce to go to work; success is for those whom the Lord shall send. It allows of no objection, no plea of incompetency, no deceitful humility, on the part of the called soldier: Judah shall go up; it is the word of a King. It hides pride from man, by declaring that although Judah would conquer, it would be only through Divine ordination and help. (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
Adoni-bezek.–
The punishment of Adoni-bezek
I. The instability and uncertainty of worldly greatness. Look at this man–and behold in what slippery places God sets the mighty and noble. From the eagerness with which mankind pursue the distinctions of life, we should conclude, not only that they were very valuable in themselves, but that no kind of precariousness attached to them. But let not the strong be secure; let not the honourable be vain; let not the rich be high-minded. What is all history but a narrative of the reverses to which all earthly things are liable, however firmly established they once appeared to be; of the revolutions of empires; the destruction of cities; of the mighty put down from their seats; of counsellors led away spoiled, or politicians disgraced, generals banished, and monarchs put to death!
II. Judgment overtaking the sinner in this life. Nor does Adoni-bezek stand alone as an instance of the present punishment of sin. Adam and Eve driven out of paradise; flood; cities of the plain; Lots wife; Gehazi; Ananias and Sapphira, etc. This, however, is not always the case. The misery of the sinner is principally reserved for a future world, and we are now in a state of probation. But God would confirm our faith in His adorable providence. If all sin was punished here, we should look no further; if no sin, we should not easily believe in the power, the holiness, the truth of God. We may add that the punishment of sin in this world is sometimes unavoidable. If nations are punished at all, they must be punished in time–for in eternity men exist only as individuals. Nearly the same may be said of a family. Yea, the present punishment of sin is in some measure natural. For how frequently do mens sufferings arise from the very sins they commit! Extravagance breeds ruin–indolence, poverty–intemperance, disease.
III. Punishment inflicted after long delay. Behold the career of this sinner! What a lengthened course of iniquity was here! So long and so often had I done this, that I thought God had not seen, or did not remember. But He has found me out; and I live long enough to be a miserable instance of this awful truth–that however long punishment may be delayed, it will at last be inflicted–as I have done, so God hath requited me.
IV. A correspondence between sin and suffering: What I have inflicted upon others, is now inflicted upon me; and in my very punishment I read my crime–as I have done, so God hath requited me.
1. Between sin and punishment there is sometimes a comparative conformity. This is the case when we suffer things which have some resemblance to our crimes.
2. Sometimes there is also between them a direct conformity. This is the case when we suffer in the same way and in the same things in which we sin.
3. But there is a future conformity still mere dreadful (Gal 6:7).
V. The hand of God acknowledged, while men are only employed–God hath requited me. But who saw anything of Him? A good man perceives the hand of God in all events, and he wishes to see it. But it is otherwise with the sinner. His apprehension of God is forced upon him; he would gladly get rid of the conviction: it is all terror and dismay to him–for he knows that God is his adversary, and He may now be coming to lay hold of him; he knows that he has a long account to give, and this may be the time of reckoning. Hence the bitterness of affliction: it is regarded not only as a trial, but as a punishment.
Lessons:
1. Abhor cruelty. It is equally disgraceful to religion and humanity. It renders you unpitied of God and man.
2. Improve the case of examples. If they were not particularly adapted to do us good, the Word of God would not be so full of them. Lodge them in your memory. Often reflect upon them. And make use of the dreadful as well as the pleasing. It is necessary that we should be awakened to flee from the wrath to come. (W. Jay.)
The story of requital
I. The life of man cannot escape the judgment of God: Be not deceived, God is not mocked, etc. Man may deny it, may theoretically disregard it, but cannot escape it! At the heart of things is the spirit of judgment. Human life appears to be confused, but before the Almighty it has shape, and plan, and purpose.
II. Let no man take the law into his own hands: Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Why have we suffered loss in business? May it not be that we have oppressed the poor and needy? Why are our schemes delayed and thwarted? Probably because we have been obstinate and unfriendly towards the schemes of others. Why are we held in disesteem or neglect? Probably because of the contempt in which we have held our brethren. So we are to look at the moral working of things, and to see in the results which are forced upon us, not the petty anger of men, but the holy and righteous judgment of God.
III. Every good deed will be honoured with appropriate reward.
1. Good deeds are their own reward.
2. Deeds done merely for the sake of reward cannot be good.
IV. Though justice be long delayed, yet it will be vindicated eventually. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Adoni-bezek; or, righteous retribution
In the accompaniments of war, not only have the most terrible injuries been inflicted during the battles, but when over the persons of the conquered have sometimes been subjected to worse torments than any they could have endured on the field. These doings have often been defended on the ground that they were necessary to self-defence and self-preservation. Alas! they are sometimes only to be explained by the depraved desire in the human heart of exercising arbitrary and cruel power. The practice referred to in this chapter–that of excision of the thumbs of captives–comes under this class. Probably it was to brand men as cowards that Adoni-bezek carried on such a cruel practice. He had evidently delighted in practising as much cruelty as possible. If he had thus treated seventy-two kings, it is probable that he had maltreated, or caused to be tormented, many others of inferior rank. The victorious Israelites advance, and Adoni-bezek has to fight a battle in which, instead of being the victor, he is the captive. He was taken and led, a prisoner, into the presence of another. Never had he anticipated this; much less that he would have to suffer as others had done through him. With hands and feet writhing from the recent excision, he makes this acknowledgment: As I have done, so God hath requited me.
1. Adoni-bezek notices the remarkable correspondence between previous barbarity and present suffering. He takes it in the sense of retribution.
2. The evil which falls upon us may ofttimes be the consequence of the wrong-doing of others. Sometimes various circumstances connected with bringing the offender to justice are so remarkable, and seemingly so responsive to crime, that there arises in the minds of others the belief that it is a special and divinely-imposed retribution.
3. The recognition of the correspondence between past acts and his present misfortune leads Adoni-bezek to ascribe it to a Divine hand: God has requited me. He was not an Israelite, had probably been an idolater, and may have trusted in false gods for a long time, He had heard of God, and what He had done to other nations; now he finds himself conquered, and is led to attribute his personal sufferings to the God of the Israelites. God has so arranged natural law that it works in harmony with eternal justice. There is a subtle connection between our acts and our sufferings. We may see illustrations of this every day. A man may act in a certain loose and careless way and prepare for himself consequences the most terrible and unlooked-for. Another gives way to fierce, ungoverned passions, and makes himself, thereby, wretched. Another chooses to spend his time only in the pursuits of pleasure, and to squander his money on every foolish thing that pleases his eye; he soon finds himself without the power to enjoy, and without money to procure such enjoyment. Another gives way to pilfering, and soon finds himself discharged, characterless. Even if he is not punished by law, he is dishonoured. Or a youth may have kind parents, and every opportunity of making his way in the world, but he gives way to dissipated habits, and finally, when character is gone and friends are dead, is glad to earn the most trifling sum under men whom he once despised A just retribution in all such cases certainly follows the sin. Like Adoni-bezek, such must confess that God hath requited the wrong-doing.
4. This acknowledgment concerning the just requital of sin is sure to take place in the other world, if not in this. Pagan mythology taught that the mean and sly will, in the other world, take the lynx form; the slanderers, that of the vampire fanning ever to sleep, and sucking the life-blood at the same time; that the hypocritical will be as crocodiles, crawling in mud and shedding false tears; and that the narrow and bigoted, fearful of truth and loving error, may be as owls, hooting amid darkness and ruin, in the forsaken and desolate regions of the other world. May not the dishonest man there have to cringe and hide himself still more? May not the drunken man have a constant craving, a burning thirst, a racking brain? May not the ambitious man have a constant anxiety to obtain power, and the torment of always being supplanted, or effectually checked, by others? May not the avaricious man be in a constant fever of suspicion? May not the ill-tempered man be in a constant whirl of passion, and make himself more and more wretched? May not the ruthless and cruel fear the scorn of their victims and clutches of their enemies? May not the voluptuary have to bear the torment of an inflamed heart and ungratified lusts? (Fred. Hastings.)
A thrilling life and its lessons
I. The life. Brief biography. Throned. Successful in war. Cruel. At last a defeated tyrant, Three scenes.
1. Celebrating his victories.
2. Feeding royal captives.
3. The defeated tyrants unsuccessful flight.
II. The lessons. Note three–
1. To what depths of cruelty it is possible for some to sink themselves. How came Adoni to be such a tyrant?
(1) Possibly, in part, through parental neglect.
(2) Through neglect of self-discipline.
2. Honoured men sometimes fall from palace to prison.
3. Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Homiletic Review.)
Punishment delayed
God often forbears and defers His punishments. As I did long ago, saith Adoni-bezek, yea again and again, seventy times one after another–so long and so often that I thought God had either not seen or quite forgotten me; yet now I see He requiteth me. How true this observation is, is sufficiently witnessed by their experience who have little less than stumbled hereat. This made Care, a heathen man, to cry out: The disposals of Divine providence are not a little cloudy and dark. This made David, a man after Gods own heart, to confess and say: My feet were almost gone, my steps had well-nigh slipped. This made Jeremiah cry out from the bottom of an amazed soul: Righteous art Thou, O Lord, when I plead with Thee; yet let me talk with Thee of Thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they happy that deal very treacherously? Yea, those martyred saints (Rev 6:10) are heard to cry from under the altar, How long? etc. Now as these forenamed have stumbled at Gods delaying His judgments, so others there are who have been quite deceived, verily believing that with God what was forborne was also forgotten. Such an one was Adoni-bezek here, who, having escaped so long, thought to have escaped ever. And such were those whereof David spake (Psa 10:6). Such an one is the great whore of Babylon, that sings: I sit like a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Such an one was Pherecydes Syrins, master of Pythagoras, and a famous philosopher, and one that is said to have been the first philosopher that taught among the Greeks the soul to be immortal; and yet among all his knowledge had not learned this one principle: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. For, as AElian reports, he used among his scholars to vaunt of his irreligion after this manner, saying that he had never offered sacrifice to any god in all his life, and yet had lived as long and as merrily as those who had offered several hecatombs. But he that thus impiously abused the long-suffering of God came at length to an end as strange as his impiety was unusual; for so they report of him that he was stricken, like Herod by the angel of the Lord, with such a disease that serpents bred of the corrupt humours of his body, which ate and consumed him being yet alive. But that we may neither distrust the righteous ways of God, nor prevent His unsearchable counsels with our over-hasty expectation, let us a little consider of the ends why God oftentimes defers and prolongs His judgments.
1. For the sake of godly ones, for whom God useth to forbear even multitudes of sinners. So had there been but ten righteous persons in Sodom, Sodom had never been destroyed: I will not destroy it for tens sake. So for good Josiahs sake God deferred the plagues He had decreed to bring upon that people (2Ki 22:20).
2. To give time of repentance and amendment (2Pe 3:9). This is shown by the parable of the fig-tree (Luk 13:7). A hundred and twenty years the old world had given them before the flood came.
3. The opportunity of example by them unto others and of manifesting His own glory. God is Lord of times; and as He created them, so He alone knows a fit time for all things under the sun. He, therefore, who knows all occasions, when He seeth a fit time for His judgments to profit other men by example, and most of all to set forth His own glory, then He sends them forth and till then He will defer them.
4. When God, intending some extraordinary judgment, suffers mens sins to grow unto a full ripeness that their sin may be as conspicuous unto the world as His purpose in their punishment shall be. Thus God punished not the Canaanites in Abrahams time, but deferred it till Israels coming out of Egypt; and that, as Himself witnesseth (Gen 15:16): Because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. And therefore is not this last end to be looked for in all Gods delays; but it seemeth proper to His extraordinary punishments–when God meaneth, as it were, to get Himself a name amongst men, then God stays to have the sin full, upon which He will pour a full vial of wrath and indignation. (Joseph Mede, B. D.)
Adoni-bezeks confession
I. The suffering of punishment extorts the confession of sin. The reason whereof is the very nature of punishment, which always implieth some offence, and therefore is a good remembrancer of the same. Thus Josephs brethren, when they were distressed in Egypt, cried, We are verily guilty concerning our brother. Proud Pharaoh, when he saw the plague of hail and thunder, said: I have now sinned; the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. The proud stomachs of the Israelites came down when once the fiery serpents stung them, and then they came to Moses and said: We have sinned; for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Manasseh, whom all the threatenings of Gods prophets in fifty years space could never move, yet when he was bound in fetters and carried prisoner unto Babylon, then he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. Whosoever, therefore, he be that feels not this fruit and makes not this use of his afflictions is worse than hard-hearted Pharaoh, worse than cruel Adoni-bezek. But if by this means we come to see and acknowledge our sin, then may we say with David: It is good for me that I was afflicted, and give praise unto our God, who is able out of such hard rocks as these to make flow the saving waters of repentance.
II. Gods judgment for sin is one of the strongest motives to make an atheist confess there is a God. Those who say, There is no God, David accounteth them in the number of fools (Psa 53:1). Solomon styleth punishment the schoolmaster of fools. If for all fools, then also for atheistical fools, that they, either by their own or by example of Gods plagues upon others, may be taught to put away their folly. Most certain it is, the not observing of Gods judgments, or the supposed examples of some who seem to escape the hand of God in the greatest sins, is a main occasion of atheism. For this cause, therefore, David, as jealous of Gods honour and knowing what force Gods judgments have to keep atheism from creeping into the hearts of men, desireth God (Psa 59:13). Hence it is also that God often in Ezekiel doth plainly affirm this to be the end of His judgments, that it might be known that He was the Lord. As in Eze 6:6 thus He threatens Israel: Your cities shall be laid waste, and your high places shall be desolate, etc. verse 7: And the slain shall fall in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the Lord. And again, verses 12, 13: He that is far off shall die by the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword. Then shall ye know that I am the Lord. And Eze 25:17, concerning the Philistines: I will execute great vengeance upon them, saith the Lord, with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord when I shall lay My vengeance upon them. If this, then, be so as ye have heard, let us learn hence a good preservative against atheism and all the ill motions of the devil and our flesh drawing thereunto; not lightly, as most men do, to pass over the judgments of God upon sin, but duly and diligently to observe them; if in ourselves, then more severely; if in our neighbours, curiously but charitably.
III. As punishment in general bringeth sin to mind which else would be forgotten, so the fashion and kind thereof well considered may lead us as it were by the hand, to know the very sin we are punished for. Gods visible judgments have usually in them a stamp of conformity with the sin for which they are inflicted; for either we suffer the same thing ourselves that we have done to others or something resembling or like unto it, or else are punished about the same thing wherein our sin was, or, lastly, in the place or time where and when we sinned. I am persuaded there is no judgment which God sends for any special sin but it hath one of these marks in it. Come, therefore, to Adoni-bezek, and let us learn of him by Gods stamp in our punishment to find out what sin He aims at. If we would once use to read this handwriting of God in our afflictions, what a motive would it be to make us leave many a sin wherein the devil nuzzles us the greater part of our life without sense and feeling? For if anything would scare us from sin, sure this would, to hear word from God Himself what the sin is He plagues us for and so sharply warns us to amend. Whensoever, therefore, any cross or calamity befalls us or any of ours, either in body, goods, or name, or in the success of anything we take in hand, let us not rebel against God with an impatient heart, or fret at the occasion or author of our misery; but let us take a just account of our life past, and thus reason with ourselves: This is surely none other but the very finger of God; I am punished, therefore have I sinned. I am punished thus and thus, in this or that sort, in this or that thing, in this or that place or time; therefore God is angry with me for something I have done, the same with that I suffer, or something like unto it, or because I sinned in this thing, or at this time, or in this place, when and where I am now punished. As I have done, so surely God hath requited me. Therefore I will not look any longer upon any other cause or occasion of this misery, of this cross or calamity, but look unto my sin and give glory unto God who sent the hand which hath done all this unto me. (Joseph Mede, B. D.)
The law of retribution
The fox finds himself at last at the furriers, and his fate is all the more certain because of the foxy conduct in which he has been engaged. They say A bad deed never dies; and they might further say that its life is quickened and its sting intensified by the cumulative influence of time. He cant reap wheat that sows hemlock; the harvest must be to the full as poisonous as the seed. As we brew, we must drink; so we cannot be too prudent as to the purity of the materials or too careful of the mixing. Do well, and have well; do ill, and look for the like. Remember the reckoning is a pregnant old saw that might well be suspended in home and office, hearthstone and wayside; it would often save men a tremendous balance on the contra side of the ledgers both of money and morals. Sin and punishment are like the body and the shadow, never very far apart. Who sin for their profit will not profit by their sin; you may see nothing but well in its commission, you will see nothing but woe in its conclusion. The law of retribution is as fixed as the law of gravitation. There is a connecting string between ourselves and our misdeeds. We tie ourselves by an invisible and enduring thread to every evil deed we do. There is an Australian missile called the boomerang, which is thrown so as to describe singular curves, and falls again at the feet of the thrower. Sin is that boomerang, which goes off into space, but turns again upon its author, and, with tenfold force, strikes him who launched it. (J. Jackson Wray.)
The retribution of God acknowledged
In saying, God hath requited me, it is to be noted that he, an heathen idolater, could see so far as to ascribe to God his affliction. Whereby we may see that very bad men do acknowledge God to be the striker and punisher of them. But where should he learn it? for though it did him no good to acknowledge it, yet it is that which many who have been baptized do not come to, but curse and ban, rage and fret, in their afflictions, crying out of their ill-fortune, as they call it, so far are they from resting in the justice of God, and to say, He hath done righteously. Also as they ascribe to chance and fortune their calamities, so do they run for help to witches and sorcerers when they be oppressed with them, which is greatly to the convicting of them. (R. Rogers.)
Retribution inevitable
Gravitation is not more unerring than retribution. Sin and punishment have been said by Emerson to grow out of one stem. Sin is like the flower that appears first; but punishment is the fruit lurking and swelling within, and destined to appear when the flower is blown. (G. A. Sowter, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
THE BOOK OF JUDGES
-Year before the common year of Christ, 1443.
-Julian Period, 3271.
-Year from the Flood, 904.
-Year before the first Olympiad, 667.
-Creation from Tisri, or September, 2561.
CHAPTER I
After the death of Joshua the Israelites purpose to attack the
remaining Canaanites; and the tribe of Judah is directed to go
up first, 1, 2.
Judah and Simeon unite, attack the Canaanites and Perrizites,
kill ten thousand of them, take Adoni-bezek prisoner, cut off
his thumbs and great toes, and bring him to Jerusalem, where
he dies, 3-7.
Jerusalem conquered, 8.
A new war with the Canaanites under the direction of Caleb,
9-11.
Kirjath-sepher taken by Othniel, on which he receives, as a
reward, Achsah, the daughter of Caleb and with her a south
land with springs of water, 12-15.
The Kenites dwell among the people, 16.
Judah and Simeon destroy the Canaanites in Zephath, Gaza, c.,
17-19.
Hebron is given to Caleb, 20.
Of the Benjamites, house of Joseph, tribe of Manasseh, &c.,
21-27.
The Israelites put the Canaanites to tribute, 28.
Of the tribes of Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali, 29-33.
The Amorites force the children of Dan into the mountains,
34-36.
NOTES ON CHAP. I
Verse 1. Now after the death of Joshua] How long after the death of Joshua this happened we cannot tell it is probable that it was not long. The enemies of the Israelites, finding their champion dead, would naturally avail themselves of their unsettled state, and make incursions on the country.
Who shall go up] Joshua had left no successor, and every thing relative to the movements of this people must be determined either by caprice, or an especial direction of the Lord.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
After the death of Joshua; not long after it, because Othniel, the first judge, lived in Joshua’s time.
The children of Israel asked the Lord; being assembled together at Shiloh, they inquired of the high priest by the Urim and Thummim. See Num 27:21; Jdg 20:18; 1Sa 23:9.
Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first? Being sensible that the Canaanites are troublesome to them, and expected great advantage against them by their heedless condition, and finding their people to increase and multiply exceedingly, and consequently the necessity of enlarging their quarters, they renew the war. They do not inquire who shall be the captain-general to all the tribes; but (as appears by the answer) what tribe shall first undertake the expedition, that by their success the other tribes may be encouraged to make the like attempt upon the Canaanites in their several lots.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Now after the death ofJoshuaprobably not a long period, for the Canaanites seem tohave taken advantage of that event to attempt recovering their lostposition, and the Israelites were obliged to renew the war.
the children of Israel askedthe LordThe divine counsel on this, as on other occasions, wassought by Urim and Thummim, by applying to the high priest, who,according to JOSEPHUS, wasPhinehas.
saying, Who shall go up forus against the Canaanites firstThe elders, who exercised thegovernment in their respective tribes, judged rightly, that inentering upon an important expedition, they should have a leadernominated by divine appointment; and in consulting the oracle, theyadopted a prudent course, whether the object of their inquiry relatedto the choice of an individual commander, or to the honor ofprecedency among the tribes.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now after the death of Joshua,…. With the account of which the preceding book is concluded, and therefore this very properly follows after that; though Epiphanius b places the book of Job between them:
it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord; that is, the heads of them who gathered together at Shiloh, where the tabernacle was; and standing before the high priest, either Eleazar, or rather Phinehas his son, Eleazar being in all probability dead, inquired by Urim and Thummim:
saying, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? for they had no commander in chief, Joshua leaving no successor, though the Samaritan Chronicle c pretends he did; one Abel, a son of Caleb’s brother, of the tribe of Judah, on whom the lot fell, out of twelve of the nine tribes and a half, to whom Joshua delivered the government of the nation, and crowned him: but this inquiry was not for any man to go before them all as their generalissimo, but to know what tribe should first go up, and they were desirous of having the mind of God in it, when they might expect to succeed; which to do, at their first setting out, would not only be a great encouragement to them to go on, but strike dread and terror into their enemies; and this is to be understood of the Canaanites who remained unsubdued, that dwelt among them, and in cities, which though divided to them by lot, they were not in the possession of; and these being troublesome neighbours to them, and besides the Israelites daily increasing, needed more room and more cities to occupy, and more land to cultivate.
b De Mensur. & Ponder. c. 13. c Apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 522.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
With the words “ Now, after the death of Joshua, it came to pass, ” the book of Judges takes up the thread of the history where the book of Joshua had dropped it, to relate the further development of the covenant nation. A short time before his death, Joshua had gathered the elders and heads of the people around him, and set before them the entire destruction of the Canaanites through the omnipotent help of the Lord, if they would only adhere with fidelity to the Lord; whilst, at the same time, he also pointed out to them the dangers of apostasy from the Lord (Josh 23). Remembering this admonition and warning, the Israelites inquired, after Joshua’s death, who should begin the war against the Canaanites who still remained to be destroyed; and the Lord answered, “ Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand ” (Jdg 1:1, Jdg 1:2). , to ask with Jehovah for the purpose of obtaining a declaration of the divine will, is substantially the same as (Num 27:21), to inquire the will of the Lord through the Urim and Thummim of the high priest. From this time forward inquiring of the Lord occurs with greater frequency (vid., Jdg 20:23, Jdg 20:27; 1Sa 10:22; 1Sa 22:10; 1Sa 23:2, etc.), as well as the synonymous expression “ask of Elohim ” in Jdg 18:5; Jdg 20:18; 1Sa 14:37; 1Sa 22:13; 1Ch 14:10; whereas Moses and Joshua received direct revelations from God. The phrase , “ go up to the Canaanites, ” is defined more precisely by the following words, “ to fight against them; ” so that is used here also to denote the campaign against a nation (see at Jos 8:1), without there being any necessity, however, for us to take in the sense of . signifies “ to go up in the beginning,” i.e., to open or commence the war; not to hold the commandership in the war, as the Sept., Vulgate, and others render it (see Jdg 10:18, where is expressly distinguished from being the chief or leader). Moreover, does not mean who? i.e., what person, but, as the answer clearly shows, what tribe? Now a tribe could open the war, and take the lead at the head of the other tribes, but could not be the commander-in-chief. In the present instance, however, Judah did not even enter upon the war at the head of all the tribes, but simply joined with the tribe of Simeon to make a common attack upon the Canaanites in their inheritance. The promise in Jdg 1:2 is the same as that in Jos 6:2; Jos 8:1, etc. “ The land ” is not merely the land allotted to the tribe of Judah, or Judah’s inheritance, as Bertheau supposes, for Judah conquered Jerusalem (Jdg 1:8), which had been allotted to the tribe of Benjamin (Jos 18:28), but the land of Canaan generally, so far as it was still in the possession of the Canaanites and was to be conquered by Judah. The reason why Judah was to commence the hostilities is not to be sought for in the fact that Judah was the most numerous of all the tribes ( Rosenmller), but rather in the fact that Judah had already been appointed by the blessing of Jacob (Gen 49:8.) to be the champion of his brethren.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Judah Attacks the Canaanites; The Punishment of Adoni-bezek. | B. C. 1425. |
1 Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? 2 And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. 3 And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him. 4 And Judah went up; and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men. 5 And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 6 But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. 7 And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. 8 Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.
Here, I. The children of Israel consult the oracle of God for direction which of all the tribes should first attempt to clear their country of the Canaanites, and to animate and encourage the rest. It was after the death of Joshua. While he lived he directed them, and all the tribes were obedient to him, but when he died he left no successor in the same authority that he had; but the people must consult the breast-plate of judgment, and thence receive the word of command; for God himself, as he was their King, so he was the Lord of their hosts. The question they ask is, Who shall go up first? v. 1. By this time, we may suppose, they were so multiplied that the places they were in possession of began to be too strait for them, and they must thrust out the enemy to make room; now they enquire who should first take up arms. Whether each tribe was ambitious of being first, and so strove for the honour of it, or whether each was afraid of being first, and so strove to decline it, does not appear; but by common consent the matter was referred to God himself, who is the fittest both to dispose of honours and to cut out work.
II. God appointed that Judah should go up first, and promised him success (v. 2): “I have delivered the land into his hand, to be possessed, and therefore will deliver the enemy into his hand, that keeps him out of possession, to be destroyed.” And why must Judah be first in this undertaking? 1. Judah was the most numerous and powerful tribe, and therefore let Judah venture first. Note, God appoints service according to the strength he has given. Those that are most able, from them most work is expected. 2. Judah was first in dignity, and therefore must be first in duty. He it is whom his brethren must praise, and therefore he it is who must lead in perilous services. Let the burden of honour and the burden of work go together. 3. Judah was first served; the lot came up for Judah first, and therefore Judah must first fight. 4. Judah was the tribe out of which our Lord was to spring: so that in Judah, Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, went before them. Christ engaged the powers of darkness first, and foiled them, which animates us for our conflicts; and it is in him that we are more than conquerors. Observe, The service and the success are put together: “Judah shall go up; let him do his part, and then he shall find that I have delivered the land into his hand.” His service will not avail unless God give the success; but God will not give the success unless he vigorously apply himself to the service.
III. Judah hereupon prepares to go up, but courts his brother and neighbour the tribe of Simeon (the lot of which tribe fell within that of Judah and was assigned out of it) to join forces with him, v. 3. Observe here, 1. That the strongest should not despise but desire the assistance even of those that are weaker. Judah was the most considerable of all the tribes, and Simeon the least considerable, and yet Judah begs Simeon’s friendship, and prays an aid from him; the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee, for we are members one of another. 2. Those that crave assistance must be ready to give assistance: Come with me into my lot, and then I will go with thee into thine. It becomes Israelites to help one another against Canaanites; and all Christians, even those of different tribes, should strengthen one another’s hands against the common interests of Satan’s kingdom. Those who thus help one another in love have reason to hope that God will graciously help them both.
IV. The confederate forces of Judah and Simeon take the field: Judah went up (v. 4), and Simeon with him, v. 3. Caleb, it is probable, was commander-in-chief of this expedition; for who so fit as he who had both an old man’s head and a young man’s hand, the experience of age and the vigour of youth? Jos 14:10; Jos 14:11. It should seem too, by what follows (Jdg 1:10; Jdg 1:11), that he was not yet in possession of his own allotment. It was happy for them that they had such a general as, according to his name, was all heart. Some think that the Canaanites had got together into a body, a formidable body, when Israel consulted who should go and fight against them, and that they then began to stir when they heard of the death of Joshua, whose name had been so dreadful to them; but, if so, it proved they did but meddle to their own hurt.
V. God gave them great success. Whether they invaded the enemy, or the enemy first gave them the alarm, the Lord delivered them into their hand, v. 4. Though the army of Judah was strong and bold, yet the victory is attributed to God: he delivered the Canaanites into their hand; having given them authority, he here gives them ability to destroy them–put it in their power, and so tried their obedience to his command, which was utterly to cut them off. Bishop Patrick observes upon this that we meet not with such religious expressions in the heathen writers, concerning the success of their arms, as we have here and elsewhere in this sacred history. I wish such pious acknowledgments of the divine providence had not grown into disuse at this time with many that are called Christians. Now, 1. We are told how the army of the Canaanites was routed in the field, in or near Bezek, the place where they drew up, which afterwards Saul made the place of a general rendezvous (1 Sam. xi. 8); they slew 10,000 men, which blow, if followed, could not but be a very great weakening to those that were already brought so very low. 2. How their king was taken and mortified. His name was Adoni-bezek, which signifies, lord of Bezek. There have been those that called their lands by their own names (Ps. xlix. 11), but here was one (and there has been many another) that called himself by his land’s name. He was taken prisoner after the battle, and we are here told how they used him; they cut off his thumbs, to disfit him for fighting, and his great toes, that he might not be able to run away, v. 6. It had been barbarous thus to triumph over a man in misery, and that lay at their mercy, but that he was a devoted Canaanite, and one that had in like manner abused others, which probably they had heard of. Josephus says, “They cut off his hands and his feet,” probably supposing those more likely to be mortal wounds than only the cutting off of his thumbs and his great toes. But this indignity which they did him extorted from him an acknowledgment of the righteousness of God, v. 7. Here observe, (1.) What a great man this Adoni-bezek had been, how great in the field, where armies fled before him, how great at home, where kings were set with the dogs of his flock; and yet now himself a prisoner, and reduced to the extremity of meanness and disgrace. See how changeable this world is, and how slippery its high places are. Let not the highest be proud, nor the strongest secure, for they know not how low they may be brought before they die. (2.) What desolations he had made among his neighbours: he had wholly subdued seventy kings, to such a degree as to have them his prisoners; he that was the chief person in a city was then called a king, and the greatness of their title did but aggravate their disgrace, and fired the pride of him that insulted over them. We cannot suppose that Adoni-bezek had seventy of these petty princes at once his slaves; but first and last, in the course of his reign, he had thus deposed and abused so many, who perhaps were many of them kings of the same cities that successively opposed him, and whom he thus treated to please his own imperious barbarous fancy, and for a terror to others. It seems the Canaanites had been wasted by civil wars, and those bloody ones, among themselves, which would very much facilitate the conquest of them by Israel. “Judah,” says Dr. Lightfoot, “in conquering Adoni-bezek, did, in effect, conquer seventy kings.” (3.) How justly he was treated as he had treated others. Thus the righteous God sometimes, in his providence, makes the punishment to answer the sin, and observes an equality in his judgments; the spoiler shall be spoiled, and the treacherous dealer dealt treacherously with, Isa. xxxiii. 1. And those that showed no mercy shall have no mercy shown them, Jam. ii. 13. See Rev 13:10; Rev 18:6. (4.) How honestly he owned the righteousness of God herein: As I have done, so God has requited me. See the power of conscience, when God by his judgments awakens it, how it brings sin to remembrance, and subscribes to the justice of God. He that in his pride had set God at defiance now yields to him, and reflects with as much regret upon the kings under his table as ever he had looked upon them with pleasure when he had them there. He seems to own that he was better dealt with than he had dealt with his prisoners; for though the Israelites maimed him (according to the law of retaliation, an eye for an eye, so a thumb for a thumb), yet they did not put him under the table to be fed with the crumbs there, because, though the other might well be looked upon as an act of justice, this would have savoured more of pride and haughtiness than did become an Israelite.
VI. Particular notice is taken of the conquest of Jerusalem, v. 8. Our translators judge it spoken of here as done formerly in Joshua’s time, and only repeated on occasion of Adoni-bezek’s dying there, and therefore read it, “they had fought against Jerusalem,” and put this verse in a parenthesis; but the original speaks of it as a thing now done, and this seems most probable because it is said to be done by the children of Judah in particular, not by all Israel in general, whom Joshua commanded. Joshua indeed conquered and slew Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem (Josh. x.), but we read not there of his taking the city; probably, while he was pursing his conquests elsewhere, this Adoni-bezek, a neighbouring prince, got possession of it, whom Israel having conquered in the field, the city fell into their hands, and they slew the inhabitants, except those who retreated into the castle and held out there till David’s time, and they set the city on fire, in token of their detestation of the idolatry wherewith it had been deeply infected, yet probably not so utterly as to consume it, but to leave convenient habitations for as many as they had to put into the possession of it.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Introduction – Judges
The Book of Judges takes its name from the accounts of the persons whom the Lord raised up to deliver Israel from oppression and re-establish their worship of the Lord between the death of Joshua and rise of the kingship. Accounts of only thirteen judges are found here, the last two judges, Eli and Samuel, being in the book of First Samuel. There may have been other judges who did not get into the record, and of those found only six are more than casually mentioned. These are Ehud, Deborah, Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson.
The author of Judges, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is unknown, but many feel that it was the Prophet Samuel. It relates a period of repeated apostasy and repentance. The fickle Israelites appear to have been easily led into pagan idolatry by those they had neglected to exterminate from the land when it was conquered under Joshua. God would allow them to suffer subjection to the pagan nations until they cried out to Him in repentance. Then He would raise up the judge or deliverer, literally savior, for them.
The Book of Judges covers a much longer period of time than does that of Joshua. It might seem an easy matter to ascertain the time period from a notice of the length of each judgeship together with the time between the various judges. But some of the judges were contemporary, and there were periods of indefinite length also. In Act 13:20 the Apostle Paul, preaching at Antioch -pisidia, refers to 450 years for the judges. This was to the time of Samuel, whose judgeship was a considerable period of time after those recorded in the Book of Judges. Also, Samuel’s judgeship coincided with much of the reign of Saul, whose reign was forty years, during which Samuel exercised continued authority over Israel. Chronologists settle on dates for the entire judgeship from about 1375 to 1075, so that to accumulate the 450 years of Paul’s sermon we should probably include the time of Joshua to the beginning of David’s reign, when God at last was ready for a king over Israel.
Judges – Chapter 1
Adoni-bezek Subdued, vs. 1-7
The implication of the opening words of the Book of Judges is that the things about to be recorded occurred very shortly after Joshua’s death. Since Israel continued to serve the Lord through the lifetime of the elders who were contemporary with Joshua (Jos 24:31), it should not be thought that apostasy had led to renewed war with the Canaanites. More likely the increase of the people necessitated more land for them, and this was the method the Lard had chosen to give them the land as they needed it (Exo 23:29-30; De 7:22).
When inquired of by the Israelites the Lord told them the tribe of Judah should lead in the campaign, and He promised the victory. In the end it appears that the initial campaign took place only in the southern tribes. It should be remembered that Simeon had received his tribal allotment within that formerly allotted to Judah (Jos 19:1; Jos 19:9). Therefore these two tribes co-operated in driving out the Canaanites and Perizzites who still dwelt among them.
When they came to Bezek, which is thought to have been west of Jerusalem on the mountain slope down to the Mediterranean Sea, they encountered a leading king of the area. He is called Adoni-bezek, which means “lord of Bezek.” He had made himself lord of all the Canaanite people around him, having subdued seventy other kings whom, to humiliate, he mutilated by cutting off their thumbs and big toes. This rendered them rather helpless, and to further humiliate them Adonibezek made them rake their food off the floor under his table. When the Israelites captured him they requited him by cutting off his thumbs and big toes. The wicked king admitted that it was the retribution of God which had befallen him. He was brought to Jerusalem where he died, possibly from his wounds, or his own shame.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE THING TO DO
Jdg 1:1
THE Book of Joshua is closed. The life of Joshua is ended. The history of Joshua is written so far as that history could find expression in words. It would seem that time ought to stop. There are some men who have so long been motive powers, that when their hands are stilled and their feet are slowed, and their brain rests and their tongue is hushed, we almost expect the world to stop turning with a sickening thud, and the sun to withdraw his smiles behind some impenetrable veil. Moses is deadthat matchless man! Born at Heavens appointment, saved by the intervention of Providence, royally bred for a royal purpose, clandestinely instructed for Gods work and the cause of truth, Divinely called to Israels deliverance, wondrously preserved and directed for the wilderness leadershipMoses, the child of priestly blood, the youth of kingly training, the man of Israel and the man of God. Can time go on after his fall? Did he, like Elijah, leave his mantle for another? Is there one who can step into his tracks, think his thoughts and do his wisdom and valor?
Yes, Joshua, under God, has proven himself every whit the man for such an hour as that of Moses loss. Joshua, the faithful warrior, Joshua, the courageous servant of Moses, and the choice of Heaven in emergencys hour.
But who can take Joshuas place, for Joshua is now dead? That is the question with which Israel is wrestling; that is the question that her elders are not able to answer; that is the question which her children have brought to God.
Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the Children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them (Jdg 1:1)?
We can imagine the reluctance with which they bring this prayer. It is hard to pray when there is one dead in the house. It must be harder when that one was the central figure for years, the safest counselor, the wisest leader, the surest defender, the stay, the hope!
And yet our text is a lesson to each of us in that it shows a sorrow-stricken people confiding still in the living God, and in straits for which their wisdom was insufficient, confidently submitting the whole question to the Lord. The loss of a man, however great and good, cannot terminate the eternal purposes of Heaven; should not rob the family of all joy and hope, shake to pieces the worlds market, or clog the wheels of Christs church. Some one can fill the place vacated. We may not know who, and we may easily mistake if we attempt the appointment; but we shall be led aright if, Israel-like, we ask the Lord.
But there are specific lessons in this text.
First,
THE RECOGNITION OF DIVINE CONCERN IN HUMAN AFFAIRS
There is something simply beautiful and beautifully simple in the matter-of-course way in which our text is spoken, The Children of Israel asked the Lord. The language seems to introduce us into Jehovahs presence, not by translating us to heaven, but by recognizing a fact too often disregarded, namely, that God is as much on earth as in Heaven. We do not much favor the complaint, sometimes made, that all progress is stopped and the wheels of society, political, religious and other sort, are turning backward. Whenever we hear much of that sort of thing, we are reminded of the saying of one, who, hearing a man upbraid his times as evil and his generation as having turned things topsy-turvy, replied, I am glad to hear you say so my friend, for that would leave them right side up, since when I was a lad my father was constantly affirming that things generally were upside-down. But while, through the ages, one increasing purpose runs, and the mind of man is widened with the process of the suns, I think there is one point touched by this text at which we have made too little advance, if indeed we have not retrograded. The God of the Christian churches today is too far removed from those who worship Him. Not that He has in the least deserted His own; not that in point of fact He is one foot farther from every one of us than He was from Jacob in the night wrestle, but that we treat Him and think of Him as living in another universe almost from that of which our world is a member and our lives are a part. We can understand why the godless should rather form and adopt such a conception of Jehovah. As F. W. Faber once said of that class, They pass God over and ignore Him. He is an inconvenience in His own world, an impertinence in His own creation. So He has been quietly set to one side as if He were an idol out of fashion and in the way. Men of science and politicians have agreed on this, and men of business and wealth think it altogether the most decent thing to be silent about God, for it is difficult to speak of Him and have need of Him without allowing too much to Him. But the Christian too often is guilty of the unintentional wrong of seating God on a distant throne in Heaven and thinking of Him as never coming nearer. There can be no doubt that Israel long labored under the mistake of thinking that Gods presence was confined to the place of the Ark, and located with it, in the sacred city. Daniel, one of the most advanced and spiritual of Jews, turned his face toward Jerusalem, yea even had his windows open in that direction, that he might be heard in prayer. Israel had some ground for such a notion. God Himself had taught them to think of Him as in that holy place. We have not forgotten that when Solomon was about to dedicate the temple, he stretched his hands toward heaven and called upon God to verify His Word. He reminded Him of the promise in Deuteronomy that His Name should be in that place, that He would hearken unto the prayer which His servant should make toward that place …. to the supplication of His servant and of His people Israel when they should pray toward that place; but that Solomon made not the mistake of bringing the Infinite One into the narrow bounds of the temple and the narrower limits of the Holy of Holies, is evidenced in the speech added to that quoted, Hear Thou in Heaven Thy dwelling place: and forgive. But, that notion, narrow and unwarranted as it was, clung to Israel until the time of Christ. In His conversation with the woman at the well of Samaria He found occasion to show its fallacy and to declare the truth, Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. . . But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit (He is not located, confined, fixed, He is everywhere): and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Jewish notion was in some respects at least superior to ours. They made the mistake of confining to a single spot of earth. We are blundering in that we banish Him to the distant heaven. We shall love God more, enjoy Him infinitely better, take delight immeasurably keener in His service, when we think of Him as being ever as close to us as the very air we breathe. Did you ever hear Mr. Moody pray? Then you will understand us, when we say God is near enough to admit that men commune with Him as friend with friend.
This text has no hint of infidelity in it. It does not read like an experiment. There is nothing in it that savors of the prayer-test notion, as infidels have often proposed. It is rich with a tone of assurance, and as we read, remembering the necessity of the hour, we are reminded of Micahs words, My God will hear me. There is a notion abroad to the effect that Gods attention is only gained where men are in such straits or difficulties as leave no hope of possible human help. That mans extremity has often been Gods opportunity we allow, but that philosophy of religion is false which leads men to think that God does not find other opportunities. We see perfectly why God should hear Josephs prayer, when at the instigation of passion run mad, he languished in prison! We expect the intervention of the Son of God when the three Hebrew children are cast into the fiery furnace; we watch for angel descent when Daniel is, thrown into the lions den, and we are not surprised that the bolts of the Philippian jail should be turned back by radiant spirit, and the whole place rock with his majestic tread, when the bleeding Apostles, with feet in stocks and manacled hands, are spending the midnight hour in praise to God. But has God confined His action to so narrow a circle as that of dire necessity only? How have we read, to so conclude? Why have we forgotten that when Elijah was blue and despondent, heaven knew it, and sent an angel to encourage and strengthen? Why have we been unmindful that when a poor widows food was failing, and her son dying, God sent His servant to that house that abundance might come to it, and the dead be raised to life again? Why should we not remember that Hannahs silent cry for a child as surely got Heavens attention and brought down Heavens promise and blessing, as did the louder appeal of the thief upon the cross draw from the Masters lips the promise above promises? Somebody has said, The worldling plies his prayers as sailors do their pumps, when the ship leaks and the storm rages, from the fear of loss of the ship and cargo. Surely it is not Christian to make prayer a sort of last resort.
That man has reached a point to be devoutly desired who believes that God takes interest in all human concerns, be they small or great. We know not where people get the notion that the Lord is not interested in the lesser affairs of life. Jesus taught very differently. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Mat 10:29-30). Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls (Luk 12:24)? That is a miserable, narrow notion of Gods interest in men which confines it to religious life only. There is no right thought in which He is not waiting to sympathize; there is no right walk in which He will not gladly accompany us; there is no possible right employment in which He is unwilling to embark as our best partner. That domesticity in which God has no place is deranged; that social sphere into which He cannot be invited is scandalous; that political caucus that gives no room to Him is poisoned and poisonous, and that financial scheme, out of which He must be left, deserves to, and will eventually fail! But one says, I dont like to trouble God with little matters. That sounds very much as if you felt capable of attending to most of life, and only reserved power Divine for special occasions. You need not fear imposing on Gods time or patience! God is ever ready to hear His own childs requests, and though ten thousand of them speak at once, no one need fear that his voice will be hushed or lost in the crowd. My God will hear me.
It is said that during the Civil War, President Lincoln was so besieged by visitors on various embassies that he could not attend to all, and men of influence had to be turned away often without an audience. Many went away from the White House disappointed at not being allowed to come into his presence. But the Presidents little, and much loved son, Tad, came and went when he pleased. How much surer is God to leave open Heavens prayer-gate to the incoming of His child. Jesus never hinted that we might come too oft, or inquire about affairs too frivolous. On the other hand, He seemed to fear the very failure of which we are guilty, and pled that we come oft, saying, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
Second,
FAITHS PREFERENCE FOR GODS WISDOM
We do not read that the Children of Israel held a long consultation and finally adopted the following, Resolved, that in the judgment of the solemn assembly, Judah is the best man to assume control of the army, and to succeed our fallen heroJoshua. That is the way it is often done today. There are times when men of this twentieth century assemble to decide matters of the highest possible import, involving the deepest interests, and yet they go recklessly about it, never caring to ask help of the Lord. When our great political parties gather in convention to choose one as a possible chief magistrate of the land, the form of prayer, when gone through, is lost in the howl of the mob. There may be wisdom with men, and great wisdom with leaders, but the highest wisdom has ever been, and must ever remain with God. In politics whatever the bosses decide upon is their action to the letter; in war the generals decide the attack and retreat; in religion the bishop or pope utters infallible decrees. But precedents to the contrary notwithstanding, we believe every man a dupe, every woman a weakling, every organization a tool, that is dominated by men, without asking the Lord.
Wisdom is not with the people even. There is an old Latin sentence, Vox populi, vox Dei, The voice of the people is the voice of God, and there is often a large measure of truth in the statement. But it is as fallible as uninspired. We have a great deal of faith in public opinion, but at best, it is fallible. Israel had learned that truth out of sad experience. She had had some councils in which the voice of the people was acted upon and the voice of God had not been even asked. When Moses went into the mount for the tables of the Law, the voice of the people was, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. Soon the golden calf stood behind the altar. But that days decision cost three thousand lives, and set all Israel a mourning at their grievous blunder. There was a time in which Israel held a war council and decided to attack the Philistines. They asked not the Lord, and four thousand men paid the penalty of life for the mistake of public opinion. There was another day when that same army went out against that same enemy, after having said to the prophet Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. That day the Philistines were subdued, and from that time came no more into the coasts of Israel. Better far than the judgment of the multitude is the plain Word of the living God. It is reported that William Rufus, once looking upon the coast of Ireland from some rocks in North Wales, said, I will summon hither all the ships of my realm, and with them make a bridge to attack that country. His threat was reported to Murchard, Prince of Leinster. The Prince, after a moments thoughtful reflection, said, Did the King add to this mighty threat, If God please? Some one present assured him that the King did not so much as mention Gods Name. Then, said Murchard, since that man puts his trust in human, not in Divine power, I fear not his coming.
Third,
RIGHTEOUS MEN MAY EXPECT IN JEHOVAH AN ALLY
We do not understand that Israel might only seek temporal counsel from the Lord, thinking to have no further need of Him. On the contrary, they expected Him to appoint Joshuas successor and then give him a kindred aid to that already enjoyed by Israels previous leaders. There is no more healthy sentiment indulged than the sense of dependence upon God. Such dependence as drives us to Him for counsel oft, such dependence as causes that we look to Him in dangers hour, such dependence as will make Him our stay and joy when all is calm. Samuel was fit for the office of prophet because he oft communed with God. Joseph was elevated by such sweet counsel, until his character made him the prime minister of Egypt; David held constant converse with Heaven and so was fitted for the office of king, and proved more fit than his fellows had ever done. Jesus Christ Himself could not have been the Messiah without constant intercourse with Heaven.
But when we have His counsel we have not all that can come from an ally. His assistance, in this time of war, was needed by Israel. Let the contest be what it will, having God on your side you are safe. The Apostle has no overdrawn notion of Satan when he describes the forces which he brings to bombard the soul, as principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places, and yet he expected to triumph through the aid of God. That old saying, One with God is a majority, if it occurs not in Scripture, can nevertheless point to Gods Word for many illustrations of its truth. Elisha on the mount was alone, or nearly so, having only a frightened servant with him when the hosts of Samaria were about its base in thousands, and yet with Gods help he led them all captive at will. David and God struck more terror into the hearts of the Philistines in a minute than Israels army had been able to do in forty days. Jonathan with God could route a whole army and set them to flight, leaving their slain behind them; Daniel with God outwitted all the princes and presidents and governors of Babylon, and caused the lions to stand at bay. Spencer says, When Antigonus was ready to engage in a sea fight with Ptolemys Armada, and the pilot cried out, How many are they more than we? the courageous king replied, Tis true if you count their numbers they surpass us, but for how many do you value me? Let no man attempt to say how many can be reckoned as against God. The armies of the earth, the armies of hell, the armies of heaven, if all could combine, could be scattered and utterly destroyed with His single breath. Truly Beecher said, God is multitudinous above all the nations of the earth.
But we no more need His counsel in trying questions, or His help in the time of war, than we need His preservation in the day of peace. We sometimes flatter ourselves into the idea that our hours of peace are comparatively safe. It is difficult to entertain a more hurtful thought or to give place to a notion so sure to deceive into deeper consequences. Israels history illustrates this truth at least. They were safer, because more reliant upon God, in the days of war than in the times of peace. Their unlawful association with the heathen, their consequent laxity in religion and morals, their too great temptation to idolatry came upon them when all seemed most quiet and the world least dangerous. It is often so. Paul, in a storm at sea, with a vessel creaking at every joint, with no sight of the sun for fourteen days, with every prospect of a watery grave, went to God as you and I would have done, feeling doubtless that Jehovah was his only hope. In the midst of that storm he was perfectly safe, and an angel came to quiet his mind by telling him so. It is in the storms that we get angel visits because then we commune with Heaven. The shore is reached at last; Paul steps on dry land. No danger; shall not God be dismissed until we are in a storm again? Many reason so; but let Pauls experience teach us a lesson. When our footing seems firmest, and our safety best assured, forget not God, lest some viper, unseen, strike his venom into our veins. God with us is a motto as much needed in all hours as in any exceptional one. When Luther was pushing into the presence of Cajetan, somebody asked him where he should find shelter if the Elector of Saxony should desert him. Under the shield of Heaven, was his splendid reply.
The Children of Israel asked the Lord. So let us do! Pardon our sins, preserve our souls, save for Thyself and fit us for Heaven, in Jesus Name.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
THE BOOK OF JUDGES
Judges 1-21.
THE Book of Judges continues the Book of Joshua. There are some Books of the Bible, the proper location of which require careful study, but Judges follows Joshua in chronological order. The Book opens almost identically with the Book of Joshua. In the latter the reading is, Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua. In the Book of Judges, Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the Children of Israel asked thd Lord, saying Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up. God always has His man chosen and His ministry mapped out. We may worry about our successors and wonder whether we shall be worthily followed, but as a matter of fact that is a question beyond us and does not belong to us. It is not given to man to choose prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers. That prerogative belongs to the ascended Lord, and He is not derelict in His duty nor indifferent to the interests of Israel. Before one falls, He chooses another. The breach in time that bothers men is not a breach to Him at all. It is only an hour given to the people for the expression of bereavement. It is only a day in which to calm the public mind and call out public sympathy and centralize and cement public interest.
Men may choose their co-laborers as Judah chose Simeon; leaders may pick out their captains as Moses did, and as did Joshua; but God makes the first choice, and when men leave that choice to Him, He never makes a mistake.
Whenever a captain of the hosts of the Lord is unworthily succeeded, misguided men have forgotten God and made the choice on the basis of their own judgment.
People sometimes complain of some indifferent or false preacher, We cant see why God sent us such a pastor. He didnt! You called him yourself. You didnt sufficiently consult God. You didnt keep your ears open to the still, small voice. You didnt wait on bended knees until He said, Behold your leader; follow him!
When God appoints Judah, he also delivers the Canaanites and the Perizzites into his hands. Adoni-bezek, the brutal, will be humbled by him; the capital city will fall before him; the southland will succumb, also the north and the east and the west, and the mountains will capitulate before the Lord of Hosts.
But the Book of Judges doesnt present a series of victories. There is no Book in the Bible that so clearly typifies the successes and reverses, the ups and downs, the victories and defeats of the church, as the history of Israel here illustrates. It naturally divides itself under The Seven Apostasies, The Successive Judges, and The Civil War.
THE SEVEN APOSTASIES
The first chapter is not finished before failure finds expression. Of Judah it was said he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron (Jdg 1:19). Of the children of Benjamin it was said, They did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem (Jdg 1:21). Of Manasseh it was said, They did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-Shean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land (Jdg 1:27). Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, (Jdg 1:29); neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron (Jdg 1:30), nor the inhabitants of Mahalol. Neither did Asher (Jdg 1:31) drive out the inhabitants of Acho nor of Zidon; neither did Naphthali drive out the inhabitants of Beth-Shemesh (Jdg 1:33), and this failure to clear the field results in an aggressive attack before the first chapter finishes, and the Amorites force the children of Dan into the mountain (Jdg 1:34).
If one study these seven apostasies that follow one another in rapid succession, he will be impressed by two or three truths. They resulted from the failure to execute the command of the Lord. The command of the Lord to Joshua was that he should expel the people from before him and drive them from out of his sight, and possess their land (Jos 23:5). He was not to leave any among them nor to make mention of any of their gods (Jos 23:7). He was promised that one of his men should chase a thousand. He was even told that if any were left and marriage was made with them that they should know for a certainty that the Lord God would no more drive out any of these nations from before them; that they should be snares and traps and scourges and thorns, until Israel perished from off the good land that God had given them (Jos 23:13). How strangely the conduct of Israel, once in the land, comports with this counsel given them before they entered it; and there is a typology in all of this.
The Christian life has its enemiessocial enemies, domestic enemies, national enemies! Ones companionship will determine ones conduct; ones marriage relation will eventuate religiously or irreligiously. The character of ones nation is more or less influential upon life.
The ordinance of baptism, the initial rite into the church, looks to an absolute separation from the world, and is expressed by the Apostle Paul as a death unto sin, the clear intent being that no evil customs are to be kept, nor companions retained, nor entangling alliances maintained. The word now is as the word then, Come out from among them, and be ye separate (2Co 6:17).
They imperiled their souls by this forbidden social intercourse. It is very difficult to live with a people and not become like them. It is very difficult to dwell side by side with nations and not intermarry. Intermarriage between believers and unbelievers is almost certain to drag down the life of the former to the level of the latter. False worship, like other forms of sin, has its subtle appeal; and human nature being what it is, false gods rise easily to exalted place in corrupted affections.
If there is one thing God tried to do for ancient Israel, and one thing God tries to do for the new Israel, the Church, it was, and is, to get His people to disfellowship the world.
There are men who think God is a Moloch because He so severely punished Israels compromises. They cant forget that when Joshua went over Jordan and Israel lay encamped on the skirts of the mountains of Moab, her people visited a high place near the camp whereon a festival of Midian, idolatrous, licentious in the extreme, was in process, and they went after this putrid paganism and polluted their own souls with the idolatrous orgy. Then it was that Moses, speaking for the Lord, said, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, and while that hideous row of dead ones was still before their eyes, the plague fell on the camp and 24,000 of the transgressors perished! But severe as it was, Israel soon forgot, showing that it was not too severe, and raising the question as to whether it was severe enough to impress the truth concerning idolatry and all its infamous effects.
Solomon is commonly reputed to have been the wisest of men, and yet it was his love alliances with the strange women of Moab, Ammon, Zidon and the Hittites, these very people, that brought the Lords anger against him and compelled God to charge him with having turned from the Lord God of Israel and in consequence of which God said, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant (1Ki 11:11).
Again and again the kingdom has been lost after the same manner. The present peril of the church is at this point, and by its alliance with the world, the kingdom of our Lord is delayed, and Satan, the prince of this world, remains in power, and instead of 24,000 people perishing in judgment, tens of thousands and millions of people perish through this compromise, and swallowed up in sin, rush into hell.
But to follow the text further is to find their restoration to Gods favor rested with genuine repentance. There are recorded in Judges seven apostasies; they largely result from one sin. There are seven judgments, increasing in severity, revealing Gods determined purpose to correct and save; and there are seven recoveries, each of them in turn the result of repentance. God never looks upon a penitent man, a penitent people, a penitent church, a penitent nation, without compassion and without turning from His purposes of judgment. When the publican went up into the temple to pray, his was a leprous soul, but when he smote upon his breast and cried, God be merciful to me a sinner, his was the instant experience of mercy. When at Pentecost, 2500 sincere souls fell at the feet of Peter and the other Apostles, and cried, Men and brethren, what shall we do, the response was, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and the promise was, Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
When David, who was a child of God, guilty of murder and adultery combined, poured out his soul as expressed in the Fifty-first Psalm, God heard that prayer, pardoned those iniquities, restored him to the Divine favor, and showered him with proofs of the Divine love.
When Nineveh went down in humility, a city of 600,000 souls, every one of whom from Sardana-palus, the king on the throne, to the humblest peasant within the walls, proving his repentance by sitting in sackcloth and ashes, God turned at once from the evil He had thought to do unto them and He did it not, and Nineveh was saved.
The simple truth is, God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He never punishes from preference, but only for our profit; and, even then, like a father, He suffers more deeply than the children upon whom His strokes of judgment fall.
What a contrast to that statement of Scripture, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, is that other sentence, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. The reason is not far to seek. In the first case it is death indeed; death fearful, death eternal. In the second case, death is a birth, a release from the flesh that held to a larger, richer, fuller life. In that God takes pleasure.
There is then for the sinner no royal road to the recovery of Gods favor. It is the thorny path of repentance instead. It is through Bochim, the Vale of Tears; but it were just as well that the prodigal, returning home, should not travel by a flowery path. He will be the less tempted to go away again if his back-coming is with agony, and home itself will seem the more sweet when reached if there his weary feet find rest for the first time, and from their bleeding soles the thorns are picked; if there his nakedness is clothed, his hunger is fed and his sense of guilt is kissed away. Oh, the grace of God to wicked men the moment repentance makes possible their forgiveness!
The court in Minneapolis yesterday illustrated this very point. When a young man, who had been wayward indeed, who had turned highway-robber, saw his error, sobbed his way to Christ and voluntarily appeared in court and asked to have sentence passed, newspapers expressed surprise that the heart of the judge should have been so strangely moved, and that the sentence the law absolutely required to be passed upon him, should have been, by the judge, suspended, and the young man returned to his home and wife and babe. But our Judge, even God, is so compassionate that such conduct on His part excites no surprise. It is His custom! Were it not so, every soul of us would stand under sentence of death. The law which is just and holy and good has passed that sentence already, and it is by the grace of God we have our reprieve. Seven apostasies? Yes! Seven judgments? Yes! But seven salvations! Set that down to the honor and glory of our God! It is by grace we are saved!
THE SUCCESSIVE JUDGES
Evidently God has no special regard for some of our modern superstitions, for in this period of conquest He deliberately chooses thirteen judges and sets them over Israel in turn, beginning with Othniel, the son of Kenaz, and nephew of Caleb, and concluding with Samson, the son of Manoah.
They represented varied stations of Israelitish society. A careful review of their personal history brings a fresh illustration of the fact that God is no respector of persons; and it also illustrates the New Testament statement that Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. With few exceptions these judges had not been heard of until their appointment rendered necessary some slight personal history. That is the Divine method until this hour. How seldom the children of the great are themselves great. How often, when God needs a ruler in society, He seeks a log cabin and chooses an angular ladAbe Lincoln. The difference between the inspired Scriptures and yesterdays newspaper is in the circumstance that the Scriptures tell the truth about men and leave God to do the gilding and impart the glory, instead of trying to establish the same through some noble family tree. There is a story to the effect that a young artist, working under his master in the production of a memorial window that represented the greatest and best that art ever knew, picked up, at the close of the day, the fragments of glass flung aside, and finally wrought from them a window more glorious still. Whether this is historically correct or not, we know what God has done with the refuse of society again and again. Truly
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
That no flesh should glory in His presence * * * * He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (1Co 1:27-29; 1Co 1:31).
Out of these un-named ones some were made to be immortalGideon, Jephthae, Samson, Deborah.
Gideon, the son of Joash, became such because he dared to trust God. The average Captain of hosts wants men increased that the probabilities of victory may grow proportionately. At the word of the Lord Gideon has his hundreds of thousands and tens of thousands reduced to a handful. What are three hundred men against the multitude that compassed him about? And what are pitchers, with lights in them, against swords and spears and stones; and yet his faith failed not! He believed that, God with him, no man could be against him. When Paul comes to write his Epistle to the Hebrews and devotes a long chapter of forty verses to a list of names made forever notable through faith, Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthaethese all appear, and they are put there properly, reason confirming revelation. Barak had faced the hundreds of iron chariots of the enemy, and yet at the word of the Lord, had dared to brave and battle them. Samson, with no better equipment than the jaw-bone of an ass, had slain his heaps. Jephthae, when he had made a vow to the Lord, though it cost him that which was dearer than life, would keep it. Such characters are safe in history. Whatever changes may come over the face of the world, however notable may eventually be names; whatever changes may occur in the conceptions of men as to what makes for immortality, those who believe in God will abide, and childrens children will call their names blessed. Gideon will forever stand for a combination of faith and courage. Barak will forever represent the man who, at the word of the Lord, will go against great odds. Jephthae will forever be an encouragement to men who, having sincerely made vows, will solemnly keep the same; and Samson will forever represent, not his prowess, but the strength of the Lord, which, though it may express itself in the person of a man, knows no limitations so long as that man remains loyal to his vows, and the spirit of the Lord rests upon him.
Before passing from this study, however, permit me to call your attention to the fact that there was made a political exception in the matter of sex. We supposed that the putting of woman into mans place is altogether a modern invention. Not so; it is not only a fact in English language but in human history, that all rules have their exceptions. Gods rule for prophets is men, and yet the daughters of Philip were prophetesses. Gods rule for kings is men, and yet one of the greatest of rulers was Queen Victoria. Gods rule for judges is men, and yet Deborah was long since made an exception. Let it be understood that the exception to the rule is not intended to supplant the rule. The domestic circle is Gods choice for womankind, and her wisdom, tact and energy are not only needed there, but find there their finest employment. And yet there are times when through the indifference of men, or through their deadness to the exigencies of the day, God can do nothing else than raise up a Deborah, speak to a Joan of Arc, put on the throne a Victoria.
I noticed in a paper recently a discussion as to whether women prominent in politics proved good mothers, and one minister at least insisted that they did. We doubt it! The text speaks of Deborah as a mother in Israel, but we find no mention of her children. Our judgment is that had there been born to her a dozen of her own Israel might never have known her leadership. The unmarried woman, or the barren wife, may have time and opportunity for social and political concern; but the mother of children commonly finds her home sphere sufficient for all talents, and an opportunity to reach society, cleanse politics, aid the church, help the world, as large an office as ever came to man. However, let it be understood that all our fixed customs, all our standard opinions, give place when God speaks. If it is His will that a woman judge, then she is best fitted for that office; if He exalts her to lead armies, then victory will perch upon her banners; if He calls her to the place of power on the throne, then ruling wisdom is with her.
In the language of the Apostle Paul, And what shall I say more, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Samson and of Barak and of Jepkthae. They are all great characters and worthy extended discussion. It would equally fail me to rehearse the confusion, civil and religious, that follows from the seventeenth chapter of this Book to the end, but in chapters nineteen to twenty-one there is recorded an incident that cannot in justice to an outline study, be overlooked, for it results in
THE CIVIL WAR
Tracing that war to its source, we find it was the fruit of the adoption of false religions. We have already seen some of the evil effects of this intermingling with heathen faiths, but we need not expect an end of such effects so long as the compromise obtains. There is no peace in compromise; no peace with your enemies. A compromise is never satisfactory to either side. Heathen men do not want half of their polytheism combined with half of your monotheism. They are not content to give up a portion of their idolatry and take in its place praises to the one and only God. The folly of this thing was shown when a few years since the leaders of the International Sunday School Association attempted to temporarily affiliate Christianity with Buddhism. The native Christians in Japan, in proportion to their sincere belief in the Bible arid in Christ, rejected the suggestion as an insult to their new faith, and the followers of Buddha and the devotees of Shintoism would not be content with Christian conduct unless the Emperor was made an object of worship and Christian knees bowed before him. It must be said, to the shame of certain Sunday School leaders, that they advocated that policy and prostrated themselves in the presence of His Majesty to the utter disgust of their more uncompromising fellows. The consequence was, no Convention of the International Association has been so unsatisfactory and produced such poor spiritual results as Tokios.
Confusion is always the consequence of compromise, and discontent is the fruit of it, and fights and battles and wars are the common issue.
Idolatry is deadly; graven images cannot be harmonized with the true God. The first and second commandments cannot be ignored and the remainder of the Decalog kept. It is God or nothing! It is the Bible or nothing! It is the faith once delivered or infidelity!
The perfidy of Benjamin brought on the battle. We have already seen that men grow like those with whom they intimately associate. This behavior on the part of the Benjamites is just what you would have expected. The best of men still have to battle with the bad streak that belongs to the flesh incident to the fall; and, when by evil associations that streak is strengthened, no man can tell what may eventually occur. Had this conduct been recorded against the heathen, it would not have amazed us at all. We speedily forget that as between men there is no essential difference. Circumstances and Divine aidthese make a difference that is apparent indeed; but it is not so much because one is better than the other, but rather because one has been better situated, less tempted, more often strengthened; or else because he has found God and stands not in himself but in a Saviour.
Pick up your paper tomorrow morning and there will be a record of deeds as dark as could be recorded against the natives of Africa, or those of East India or China, Siberia or the South Sea Islands. The conduct of these men toward the concubine was little worse than that of one of our own citizens in a land of civilization and Christianity, who lately snatched a twelve-year-old girl and kept her for days as his captive, and when at last she eluded him, it was only to wander back to her home, despoiled and demented. Do you wonder that God is no respecter of persons? Do you wonder that the Bible teaches there is no difference? Do you doubt it is all of grace?
The issues of that war proved the presence and power of God. There are men who doubt if God is ever in battle; but history reveals the fact that few battles take place without His presence. The field of conflict is commonly the place of judgment, and justice is seldom or never omitted. We may be amazed to see Israel defeated twice, and over 40,000 of her people fall, when as a matter of fact she went up animated by the purpose of executing vengeance against an awful sin. Some would imagine that God would go with them and not a man would fall, and so He might have done had Israel, including Judah and all loyal tribes, been themselves guiltless. But such was not the truth! They had sins that demanded judgment as surely as Benjamins sin, and God would not show Himself partial to either side, but mete out judgment according to their deserts. That is why 40,000 of the Israelites had to fall. They were facing then their own faithlessness. They were paying the price of their own perfidy. They were getting unto themselves proofs that their fellowship with the heathen and their adoption of heathen customs was not acceptable with God.
Many people could not understand why England and France and Belgium and Canada and Australia and America should have lost so heavily in the late war, 19141918, believing as we did believe that their cause was absolutely just. Why should God have permitted them to so suffer in its defense? Millions upon millions of them dying, enormous wealth destroyed, women widowed, children orphaned, lands sacked, cities burned, cathedrals ruined, sanctuaries desecrated. The world around, there went up a universal cry, Why? And yet the answer is not far to seek. England was not guiltless; France was not guiltless; Belgium was not guiltless.
Poor Belgium! All the world has turned to her with pity and we are still planning aid for the Belgians and to preach to them and their children the Gospel of grace, and this we should do; but God had not forgotten that just a few years ago Belgium was blackening her soul by her conduct in the Belgian Congo. Natives by the score and hundreds were beaten brutally, their hands cut off because they did not carry to the Belgian king as much rubber and ivory as Belgian avarice demanded. American slavery, in its darkest hour, never knew anything akin to the oppression and persecution to which Belgium subjected the blacks in the Congo. Significant, indeed, is the circumstance that when the Germans came into Belgium, many Belgian hands were cut off; hapless and helpless children were found in this mangled state. Frightful as it was, it must have reminded Belgian authorities of their sins in Africa and of the certainty and exactitude of final judgment.
We have an illustration of this truth in the Book of Judges. When Judah went up against the Canaanites and the Lord delivered them into his hands, they slew in Bezek 10,000 men. They found Adoni-Bezek, the king, and fought against him, and caught him and cut off his thumbs and great toes. We cry Horror! and wonder that Gods own people could so behave; but, complete the sentence, and you begin to see justice, And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table. As I have done, so God hath requited me (Jdg 1:7).
Think of England in her infamous opium traffic, forcing it upon natives at the mouths of guns, enriching her own exchecquer at the cost of thousands and tens of thousands of hapless natives of East India and China!
Think of France, with her infidelity, having denied God, desecrated His sabbath, rejected His Son and given themselves over to absinthe and sensuality!
Think of the United States with her infamous liquor traffic, shipping barrels upon barrels to black men and yellow men, and cursing the whole world to fill her own coffers.
Tell me whether judgment was due the nations, and whether they had to see their sin in the lurid light of Belgian and French battlefields; but do not overlook the fact that when the war finally ends, Benjamin, the worst offender, the greater sinner, goes down in the greatest judgment, and one day Benjamins soldiers are almost wiped from the earth! Out of 26,700, 25,000 and more perish. Tell us now whether judgment falls where judgment belongs!
Take the late war. Again and again Germany was triumphant, but when the Allies had suffered sufficiently and had learned to lean not to themselves but upon the Lord; when, like Israel, they turned from hope in self and trusted in God, then God bared His arm in their behalf and Germany went down in defeat, a defeat that made their come-back impossible; a defeat that fastened upon them the tribute of years; a defeat that proved to them that, great as might have been the sins of the allied nations, greater still, in the sight of God, was their own sin; for final judgment is just judgment.
God is not only in history; God has to do with the making of history. If men without a king behave every one as is right in his own eyes, the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords, will do that which will eventually seem right in the eyes of all angels and of all good men. That is GOD!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
FAITHFULNESS AND UNFAITHFULNESS IN THE LORDS WAR
CRITICAL NOTES.
Jdg. 1:1. Now after the death of Joshua.] The Speakers Commentary says on these opening words: But from Jdg. 1:1 to Jdg. 2:9 is a consecutive narrative, ending with the death of Joshua. It is therefore impossible that it should begin with the death of Joshua. This is obviously incorrect. A consecutive narrative is precisely what these two chapters are not; they are a narrative containing two long parentheses (cf. Introduction.) It is not necessary to offer any remark on the suggestion of the Commentary that, under certain circumstances, the chapter might have begun, Now after the death of Moses, and that, If Moses is read instead of Joshua, all difficulty disappears at once. This, in the face of Jdg. 2:2; Jdg. 2:7, is unanswerable from its innocence.
Jdg. 1:2. Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites?] Heb. = Who shall go up for us to the Canaanites? the purpose of the going up being stated in the words, to fight against them. The reason why Judah was to commence the hostilities is not to be sought for in the fact that Judah was the most numerous of all the tribes, but rather in the fact that Judah had already been appointed by the blessing of Jacob (Gen. 49:8-10) to be the champion of his brethren. [Keil.]
Jdg. 1:3. Come up with me into my lot.] This invitation must have been given to Simeon while the tribe of Judah was located in its own lot, though not in full possession of it. It is unnatural to suppose with Professor Cassel that when Judah gave this invitation to Simeon both tribes were dwelling at Gilgal, near Jericho, and that the Canaanites were in full possession of the territory assigned to Judah and Simeon. This would be to conclude that Joshuas conquest of the south had almost entirely failed, and that during Joshuas own lifetime, and is altogether at variance with Jos. 15:13-19; Jos. 15:63; Jos. 18:1; Jos. 21:43-45; Jos. 22:4; Jos. 23:1; Jos. 24:28, and, indeed, to the whole of the latter half of that book. The request for Simeon to aid in conquering the Canaanites in the lot of Judah, made under the promise that Judah would similarly assist the tribe of Simeon in their lot, shows that the men of Judah were only appointed to recommence hostilities on their own account. Thus, the phrase, for us, in Jdg. 1:1, must not be taken to mean that the Judahites were to make war on behalf of all the tribes, but that, after the death of Joshua, they were to begin, in their own tribe, to fulfil the commands of the Lord, and thus set an example of faithfulness to all Israel.
Jdg. 1:4. The Perizzites.] The Canaanites and Perizzites are occasionally put for all the inhabitants of the land, and the latter are spoken of, not simply as dwellers in the South, as here, but in all parts of the land (Gen. 13:7; Gen. 34:30; Jos. 11:3; Jos. 17:15.) Dr. Kalisch says, The etymology of the word Perizzite proves that they were the inhabitants of open towns and villages ( przoth); it is clearly explained by Eze. 38:11 to denote the population of places without walls and bars and gates; and it is, in Est. 9:19, used for the unfenced cities, in contradistinction to the metropolis named in Jdg. 1:18. The two names of the Canaanites and Perizzites, if so coupled, designate, therefore, both the inhabitants of the walled towns and of the open country; and describe, with a certain emphasis, the two chief portions of the population. In Bezek.] According to the Onomast there were at that time two places very near together both named Bezek, seventeen Roman miles from Neapolis on the road to Scythopolis, i.e., about seven hours to the north of Nabulus on the road to Beisan. This description is perfectly reconcilable with 1Sa. 11:8. [Keil.]
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jdg. 1:1-4
DEAD LEADERS AND LIVING DUTIES
One generation passeth away and another followeth. The book of Joshua began with, Now after the death of Moses. This book opens with the similar words, Now after the death of Joshua. Human life is a succession of revolutions, beginning with a cradle and ending with a coffin. Generations and individuals have in them, in their relation to other generations and individuals, much of variety, but something also of monotony. We see in these opening verses
I. A great leader dead, and lifes duties as pressing as ever. Joshua had departed from Israel, but the necessity for conflict was still with them. Of that the people now made no question whatever. As Peter Martyr observes, They doubted not whether they should make war against the Canaanites, but their doubt was which tribe should fight before all the others. That the fighting must be done was sufficiently manifest to everybody. Possibly the death of Joshua at once made that more manifest than it had been for some time, the death of Israels mighty captain encouraging their enemies to bestir themselves.
1. Let who will and what will pass away, our own work only passes with our own life. Joshua himself had diligently laboured to the very last. After resting from war, he had divided the land; after dividing the land, he built his own city of Timnath-serah, and appointed the cities of refuge and those of the Levites; while the very close of life finds him twice gathering together and earnestly counselling the people of his charge. The night cometh when no man can work; till it come, no one should look to rest from what he has strength to perform. In Gods army there are no retired officers, and none on half-pay. He who is too old and stricken in years to fight as he fought when younger may still find some city to build, and some of his fellows who are less experienced than himself to whom he can offer holy encouragement and counsel. He who began by saying, Wist ye not that I must be about My Fathers business, never ceased to prosecute that business till He laid down His life upon the cross.
2. The advancement of Gods purpose is dependent on no life in particular. Though the great leader of Israel was no more, the conquest of the land must still go forward. Just as the advance of the people was not formerly stayed by the death of Moses, so they were not to be kept back now by the death of Joshua. Only God is necessary. There is no man who cannot be spared when Gods time comes for his removal.
3. Great lives are sometimes removed that other lives may better feel their responsibility and cultivate their strength. Children cannot always have their parents, without the penalty of always remaining children. He who is always led will never learn to lead. It had already been said of Jacob: As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He who fears he may fall is in a fair way to learn how to stand.
II. Human direction suddenly failing, and Divine guidance specially sought. After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked the Lord.
1. Prayer prompted by the removal of long familiar light. Joshua had been the Lords guide and helper for the people. A consciousness of increasing darkness around us, or within us, should ever prompt us to come as near as possible to Him who is the Light of the world.
2. Prayer over unfulfilled commandments. The charge to cast out the Canaanites, and to make no alliance with them, had been very solemnly given by God. As long as Joshua was alive, he was the responsible head of the people. When Joshua was removed, the commandment forthwith became so much direct obligation resting upon every Israelite. Thus burdened, the people drew near unto God for counsel. Corporate duties are a matter for individual concern and supplication. That which is a national obligation affects also every citizen. A commandment of God fulfilled in humble obedience, is as a field sown with good seed, which will presently yield a harvest of blessing; a commandment unfulfilled, is ever tending to bring forth fruit unto our discomfort, and sickness, and death. He who neglects the Divine precepts is in sore need of prayer.
3. Prayer provoked by gathering dangers. The death of Joshua was very probably the sign for increased activity among the Canaanites. Adoni-bezek had evidently gathered a large army, or he could not have lost in one battle ten thousand men.
4. Prayer for Gods appointment of our post in life. Who shall go up? An appeal to God to assign the post of honour to whom He would. With some, it may have been an appeal to God in the hope of not being chosen. He whom God exalts should wear his honours meekly. He whom God calls to battle should enter into conflict without fear.
5. The realism of prayer to every true-hearted suppliant. It was no light thing to ask this counsel of God, and then wait for a categorical and manifest answer. All true prayer wants real courage. When a man knows God will answer, it is no light thing to pray. The man may be sent to the battle-field. He may be deprived of a great honour, or be charged with an arduous duty. Many engage in what they call prayer, who would not dare to come before God if they believed that He would audibly or visibly impose His commands upon them. It is because they never expect any answer that myriads are bold to pray.
III. An eminently faithful past demanding a no less vigorous future. Judah shall go up. As the Jdg. 1:8-16 show, the Judahites had already played a conspicuous part in those more detached conflicts which, after the great national battles, had fallen to the separate tribes. They had taken the lower city of Jerusalem (cf. Jdg. 1:8 with Jdg. 1:21, and Jos. 12:10), and under the lead of Caleb and Othniel, Hebron and Kirjath-sepher had both fallen before their attack. He who has done well in the past is under perpetual obligation to do no less well in the future. God also chooses those for new duties who have best served in the past.
IV. God specially choosing some of His servants, but leaving them liberty to seek the help of others. And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot.
1. The benefits of co-operation. What one cannot do, two can. What one can only do with difficulty, two can do easily. No one should despise the assistance of his brethren. He who accepts assistance should be willing to assist others: I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. This mutual help one of another becomes strength and joy to both.
2. The limits of co-operation. Judah might only seek aid from his own brethren. He might ask help from Simeon, but not from idolaters. God allows us to unite with all who are our brethren in Him, but He will suffer no union with the ungodly. For nothing more sharply than for this were the Israelites rebuked in the time of the monarchy.
V. The Lords call to great duties followed by His rich blessing on those who seek faithfully to perform them. The Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand.
1. God calls and sends none of His servants in vain. To be set to work by Him, is to be set to work which will be presently fruitful of enlarged possessions and greater peace.
2. Gods blessing answers to His own promise of blessing. To the man who is faithful, the Divine promise is the shadow which the actual mercy, in its coming to us, casts before. Thus, the words of promise in Jdg. 1:2, herald the same words, as history, in Jdg. 1:4.
3. Gods blessing satisfies His peoples highest hopes. If this was so with Judah in his earthly possession, much more will it be true in relation to the inheritance above.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
THREATENED DANGER AND ANXIOUS PRAYER.Jdg. 1:1-2
It is thought that the Canaanites were, at this time, preparing to act on the offensive against the Israelites. From Jdg. 1:4-7, it would appear that large numbers of warriors had again ventured to mass themselves together. Probably Adoni-bezek was gathering his forces to attack the southern tribes of the recent conquerors of the land. Regarded in this light, the verses may be treated as follows:
I. The Lords enemies threatening the Lords people.
1. The Canaanites may have judged Israels strength by outward appearances. Joshua was now dead. The able soldier could act against them no more. But they forgot Joshuas God. Then, the Canaanites had long been allowed to rest in peace. Probably they learned to interpret this interval of peace as a sign of Israels weakness. Jehovah had not recently done many mighty works. They mistook the visible for the actual. Thousands do that every day that passes.
2. The Canaanites seem to have been tempted to renew the war by Israels apparent weakness. The time of the weakness of the Church is the time of the worlds boldness. But wicked men should remember the God of the Church: These things hast thou done and I kept silence, says Jehovah. He adds, But I will reprove thee. The silence of Jehovah is not any sign of His weakness.
II. The Lords people driven to prayer by danger. Israel asked of the Lord. The removal of Joshua, and the bold front of their enemies, made them ask counsel of God. His prayer has the following features:
1. It recognised the necessity of human effort. Who shall go up? Some one must go. God will not so work as to save us from conflict; He thinks it enough to turn our conflict into victory.
2. It was a simple and direct prayer. It had no redundancies and vain repetitions. Men in deep want seldom use superfluous sentences and phrases. The eloquence of prayer is in its sense of need, and in its directness.
3. This prayer was based on a known command. There was no inquiry as to the work being a duty, but only as to the manner in which the duty was to be done.
4. The prayer manifestly anticipates some answer. The words of the inquiry leave no impression that the suppliants so much as thought of a refusal. They had no idea that God would be silent. Their brief and urgent question is full of the faith pressed upon the Hebrews of a later generation: He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
III. The Lords gracious answer to His peoples earnest inquiry.
1. The answer was prompt. It seems to have been given at once.
2. The answer was clear. It left no one in doubt. Judah shall go up.
3. The answer was in excess of the prayer. The people did but ask, Who shall go? God both answered that, and gave them a gracious promise of success: Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.
4. The answer was sufficient. In the strength of Gods gracious words, Judah and Simeon went on to victory.
GOD, WHO GIVETH TO ALL MEN LIBERALLY.Jdg. 1:2
I. God gives to all who ask.
II. God promises more than we ask.
III. God gives fully as much as He promises.
IV. God both promises and gives according to our need.
ENTICEMENTS TO PRAYER
God gives more than is asked, or thought needful. The which dealing of His doth add yet greater heartening and encouraging of us to prayer. Joseph, whose feet were pinned in the stocks, prayed that he might be delivered out of prison; and God not only delivered him, but brought him out with great honour. Esther prayed against the spiteful attempt of Haman, that she and her people might be preserved from the deadly snare which he laid for their lives. But what did the Lord? He not only saved them, but utterly destroyed both Haman and all his seed. So, when the prodigal son, in his penury and misery, desired that he might be received but as a servant into his fathers house, he was taken in and entertained as a son, and nothing of the costliest apparel and daintiest food was thought too good for him. [Richard Rogers, 1615.]
THE MANIFOLD MEANING OF GODS ANSWER TO ISRAELS PRAYER
It asserts the sovereignty of God in disposing and ordering the work which His servants have to perform.
It reminds us that every one is not to attempt everything; for Judah is to fight the enemy, and the other tribes are to remain at home.
It promises victory, not to every ardent soldier who might volunteer to take the field, but to the tribe whom the Lord should order to the battle.
It disturbs all rule-of-three calculations of success in proportion to the number of agents men may induce to go to work; success is for those whom the Lord shall send.
It allows of no objection, no plea of incompetency, no deceitful humility, on the part of the called soldier; Judah shall go up: it is the word of a King.
It hides pride from man, by declaring that although Judah would conquer, it would be only through Divine ordination and help. [Luke H. Wiseman, M.A.]
BEGINNING AND CONTINUING
Israel is believing and obedient after the death of Joshua. Like a child after the death of its father, it has the best intentions. First love is full of flowing zeal. To begin well is never without a blessing. The best inheritance is to continue obedient towards God. [Dr. Cassel.]
The words, I have delivered the land, are meant prophetically; with God that which is certain in the future is as if it were present. [Lisco.]
The death of Joshua is the date of degeneracy. So in spiritual respects: as long as the true Joshua lives in the soul, there is health. St. Paul says, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. [Origen.]
PRAYER TO GOD, AND CO-OPERATION WITH MEN.Jdg. 1:3-4
I. Gods promises are not to provoke careless ease, but to stimulate us to holy caution and effort. Judah has received an unconditional and absolute promise, but seeks nevertheless the aid of Simeon. As Bachmann says, It is not incompatible with the obedience of faith that Judah makes use of the helps placed by God at his disposal. It would be incompatible with true faith not to use such helps.
II. Those who are workers together with God must not despise the aid even of their weaker brethren. When men are working for the Lord and with the Lord
(1) They must not seek aid from the Lords enemies;
(2) They have a claim on all who are brethren;
(3) The very weakest of their brethren may afford good help.
III. Such as seek help from their brethren should be very willing to render help in return. Come with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. Trapp says, The number two hath by the heathen been accounted accursed, because it was the first departure from unity. By the Christian, with a loftier outlook, that same number two might rather be blessed, because it is the first number at which true unity can begin. Real union is not in any one particle, or unit, but in the blending of many. The weakest may find some one he can helpmay help even the strong.
Let me not deem that I was made in vain,
Or that my being was an accident,
Which Fate, in working its sublime intent,
Not wished to be, to hinder would not deign.
Each drop uncounted in a storm of rain
Hath its own mission, and is duly sent
To its own leaf or blade, not idly spent
Mid myriad dimples on the shipless main.
The very shadow of an insects wing,
For which the violet cared not while it stayed,
Yet felt the lighter for its vanishing,
Proved that the sun was shining by its shade:
Then can a drop of the Eternal Spring,
Shadow of living lights, in vain be made?
HARTLEY COLERIDGE.
Thus, the weakest worker has his mission: there is some one to whom he may be of service; but he who receives aid from the weak should not refuse to help the weak.
IV. Those who help one another in love have reason to hope that God will graciously help them both. God helps us more willingly when we are found in the union of brotherhood, than in the isolation of selfishness. Judah might have triumphed without Simeon; what we should rather remember is thiswith Simeon, Judah did triumph. [Partly from Matt. Henry.]
UNION IN WORKS OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE
As by this specimen at the beginning of this book, showing what two tribes of Israel could do by faith and obedience against Adoni-bezek, who had subdued and enslaved seventy kings, God showed what the twelve tribes might have done, if they had believed and obeyed Him; and that all their subsequent miseries were due to defection from God. In like manner, also, the Christian Church, if men had followed the example of the Apostlesthe Judahs and Simeons of the first agesand gone forth in their spirit of faith and love against the powers of darkness, they might long since have evangelised the world. All the distresses of Christendom are ascribable to desertions from Christ, and not to any imperfection, as some have alleged, in Christianity. [Dr. Wordsworth.]
THE USE OF MEANS
All they are counted to tempt God, which trusting to Gods promises do neglect human help. Christ hath no otherwise confuted the devil, which counselled Him to cast Himself down headlong, under the pretence of Gods promise. David, in the latter book of Samuel, setteth himself forth unto us as an example, who being wonderfully adorned with the promises of God, used for all that in the insurrection of Absalom not only to flee away, but also the diligence of Hushai the Archite and of the priests. Yea, and Paul the Apostle, although his only confidence was in Christ, yet he appealed unto Csar, and made a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and testified that he was a citizen of Rome. It is evident, therefore, that we must use the help of nature and wisdom to obtain those things which God hath promised to give us. Wherefore the young men of our time are diligently to be admonished to attain unto languages, good arts and sciences, and that with great study; which they may, when opportunity serveth, use in preaching and defending the Gospel. For although God has promised that the preaching of His Word shall be fruitful through the benefit of His Spirit, yet must every man instruct himself in his vocation according to his ability. [Peter Martyr, 1560.]
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
General Introduction to the Period of Judges Jdg. 1:1 to Jdg. 2:5
Judah and Simeon Capture Adoni-bezek Jdg. 1:1-7
Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
2 And the Lord said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.
3 And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him.
4 And Judah went up; and the Lord delivered the Ca-naanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men.
5 And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
6 But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
7 And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
1.
What is the connection between Judges and ?Jos. 1:1
Opening with the phrase And it came to pass after the death of Joshua, the book of Judges makes it clear that it follows immediately after the book of Joshua. It was in this same manner that Joshua was related to the Pentateuch, by the statement Now it came to pass after the death of Moses (Jos. 1:1). Some of the events in Judges are recapitulations of the events in Joshua, e.g., Calebs taking Hebron (cf. Jos. 14:6-15; Jos. 15:13-19; Jdg. 1:11-15). Most of it, however, is a continuation of Israels history from the time of Joshua to the time of Samuel. The narrative begins with a flash-back to the time of Joshua and telescopes in with some of the era of Eli which immediately precedes the time of Samuel, the last of the judges.
2.
How did they ask the Lord? Jdg. 1:1 b
The high priest inquired of the Lord by using the URIM and the THUMMIM. Joshua was told to make this kind of inquiry through Eleazar the high priest (Num. 27:21). We may assume that Phinehas, Eleazars son, succeeded him as high priest and that Israels leaders made inquiry of the Lords will through him. If such were not the case, a tribe to lead might have been selected by casting the sacred lot (Jos. 7:13-18; cf. Jos. 17:1).
3.
Who went up first among the tribes? Jdg. 1:2
The tribes of Israel resolved to continue the war with the Canaanites after Joshua died. In order that they might exterminate them from the land altogether, they wanted to follow Gods leading; hence, they asked who should be first to go to battle. Judah was selected and he commenced the strife in conjunction with Simeon, They smote the king of Bezek, conquered Jerusalem, Hebron (although Caleb had earlier taken possession of the land), Debir, Zephath, and three of the chief cities of the Philistines. Judah possessed the hill country but was unable to drive out the inhabitants of the plain, just as the Benjaminites were not able to drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem.
4.
When did these events occur? Jdg. 1:3 ff
The conquest was made in the days of Joshua. Some of the events described in the first chapter of Judges occurred in the days of Joshua (for example, the conquest of Hebron by Caleb in Jdg. 1:10-15; cf. Jos. 14:6-15; Jos. 15:13-19). Others occurred at a later time. The whole chapter is a summary of the activity which was begun under Joshuas leadership and continued through the succeeding era, It forms a proper introduction to the time of the judges and provides a background against which their careers are outlined. The fact that some of the events happened much earlier than the time under most careful consideration is evidenced by such statements as that in Jdg. 1:8 : Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it. Later, in the same chapter, it is said, And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebu-sites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day (Jdg. 1:21). Under Joshua, this city had been overthrown (Joshua 10). Mention is made again in Jdg. 1:8 that the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it, setting the city on fire (Jdg. 1:8). At the same time, the statement made in Jdg. 1:21 is true. Such a resume of the general activity of the time leaves room for Jerusalem to have been attacked earlier by Joshua, attacked as Judah led in settling her assigned territory, and yet occupied by Canaanites who crept back into the city when it was not occupied by the Israelites. This is typical of the way in which the various accounts of military campaigns and early attempts at settlement were made prior to the time of the judges.
5.
Why is Simeon called Judahs brother? Jdg. 1:3
Simeon is called Judahs brother, not because Simeon and Judah were both sons of Jacob by the same mother, but because Simeons territory lay within the territory of Judah (Jos. 19:1 ff.). Simeon was more closely connected with Judah than any of the other tribes. Simeon was really absorbed by Judah and lost his identity. Such a condition was predicted by Jacob, who said of Simeon, I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel (Gen. 49:7).
6.
Why had Adoni-bezek not joined the southern coalition? Jdg. 1:5
The fact that Adoni-bezek had not joined Adoni-zedek and the other kings of the South to fight against Joshua when the Israelites first came into the land is an indication that this kings power had begun to decline at the time of the Israelite invasion. If he had conquered seventy kings in his time, he had overthrown more kings than Joshua did in all the land of Canaan. Bezek is a city whose location has not been positively ascertained; but a probable identification has been made with the modern Khirbet Bezka, near Gezer, at the edge of the Shephelah, just west of Jerusalem overlooking the Maritime Plain and the Road of the Kings.
7.
Why did they cut off his thumbs and great toes? Jdg. 1:6-7
A man maimed was not good for fighting. When his thumb was amputated, a man could not hold a spear or sword effectively. Neither could he handle a bow and arrow with dexterity. Likewise, without his large toes on his feet, he could not run swiftly, nor jump obstacles put in his way. Such treatment seems torturous by Christian standards, but the Israelites only treated him in the same way as he had handled the seventy kings who were dependent upon him for their sustenance, It was certainly less torturous than the treatment given conquered peoples by pagan kings.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Now.The now should rather be rendered And, as in Lev. 1:1, Num. 1:1, Jos. 1:1, 1Sa. 1:1, 2Sa. 1:1, 2Ki. 1:1. The word connects this book with the last, as a link in the chain of books which relate in unbroken connection the sacred history of the world from the Creation to the Exile (Bertheau).
Alter the death of Joshua.In these first words we are met by a difficulty, for there can be little reasonable doubt that most, at any rate, of the events narrated from this verse to Jdg. 2:5 took place before the death of Joshua, whose death and burial are accordingly mentioned in Jdg. 2:8-9. For (1) the whole passage (Jdg. 1:1 to Jdg. 2:5) evidently describes the first movements of the Israelites after their establishment on the western side of the Jordan. (See Jos. 18:1-3; Jos. 21:43; Jos. 22:32; Jos. 24:28.) (2) It is inconceivable that the Israelites should have remained inactive during the long life of Joshua, who attained the age of 110 years. (3) The events in Jdg. 1:10-36 are evidently identical with those in Jos. 12:9-24; Jos. 12:14; Jos. 12:19 (4) The angels message (Jdg. 2:1-5) and the subsequent notices (6-18) are closely parallel with, and sometimes verbally the same as, those in Jos. 24:24-33. That these should be records of different and yet most closely analogous series of circumstances is all but impossible. Various ways of accounting for the difficulty have been suggested. (1) Some suppose that many events narrated or touched upon in the Book of Joshua (especially Jdg. 15:14-19; Jdg. 15:16-17, &c.) are narrated by anticipation. (2) Clericus arbitrarily supplies the words, After the death of Joshua the Canaanites recovered strength, but in his lifetime the children of Israel. (3) Schmidt renders the verbs as pluperfects: It came to pass after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel had consulted Jehovah, &c. (4) A more recent conjecture is that the name Joshua has here crept in by an error of the scribes. If we read, After the death of Moses, all becomes clear and coherent; and if the book, in its original form, possibly began at Jdg. 3:7, with the words, And it came to pass, after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, &c., the clerical error may have been caused by the addition of prefatory matter to the book at the same time that the appendix (Judges 17-21) was added. It is in favour of the possibility of this suggestion that there are close resemblances between the style and the allusions of the preface, or perhaps we may say of the two prefaces (Jdg. 1:1 to Jdg. 2:10; Jdg. 2:11-23), and the style and allusions of the last five chapters: e.g., in the references to Judah, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem (Jdg. 1:1-21; Jdg. 1:19; Jdg. 20:18), Dan (Jdg. 1:34; Jdg. 18:1-31) and the Twelve Tribes (passim); the consultations of the Lord by Urim (Jdg. 1:1-2; Jdg. 20:26-28); the silence as to the existence of Judges; and the recurrence of various phrases, such as set on fire, and with the edge of the sword (Jdg. 1:8; Jdg. 20:48), unto this day (Jdg. 1:21; Jdg. 19:30), give his daughter to wife (Jdg. 1:12; Jdg. 21:1; Jdg. 21:14; Jdg. 21:18), &c. (5) On the other hand, the conjecture can only be regarded as possible, since it is not supported by a single MS. or suggested by any ancient commentator. It is perhaps simpler to suppose that the book originally began with the words, Now after the death of Joshua, and that this beginning was left unaltered as a general description of the book when the prefatory matter and appendix were attached to it.
The children of Israel.Mainly, it would seem, the western tribes.
Asked the Lord.The phrase is peculiar, meaning, literally, enquired in Jehovah (as we find it in the LXX.). The usual construction is Shaal eth-Jehovah (asked the Lord). This phrase (shaal be) is only found again in. Jdg. 20:23-27. Rabbi Tanchum (whose commentary on this book has been edited by Schnurrer and Haarbrcker) says that the phrase implies the consultation of Jehovah through the high priest by means of the Urim and Thummim. To ask of Elohim occurs in Jdg. 18:5; Jdg. 20:18. Similarly in Greek, to ask God (Xen. Mem. viii. 3) means to consult an oracle. If the narrative of this chapter be retrospective, the high priest must have been Eleazar, the son of Aaron (Jos. 14:1); if not, it must have been his son Phinehas (Jos. 24:33), as Josephus seems to imply (Jos. Antt. v. 2, 1). On this method of inquiring of God, in the absence of any authoritative declaration on the part of a prophet, see Num. 27:21, Jos. 9:14. On the Urim and Thummim, which was not the jewelled breastplate of judgment, but something which was put in it, see Exo. 28:30. It is probably useless to inquire as to the method by which the will of God was revealed by the Urim and Thummim. The words mean lights and perfections, or something closely resembling those conceptions. The Rabbis were themselves ignorant as to the exact nature of the Urim and Thummim, and the mode in which they were used. One favourite theory is that adopted by Milton, when he speaks of Aarons breastplate as having been ardent with gems oracular. It identifies the Urim with the twelve gems, and supposes that the answers of God were spelt out by a mystic light which gleamed over these gems. But not to dwell on the fact that the names of the tribes did not contain all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, this explanation is not consistent with the distinction made between the breastplate which was on the ephod, and the Urim and Thummim that were placed inside it (Exo. 28:30). Another theory supposes that the mind of the high priest was abstracted from earthly things by gazing on the gems until the will of God was revealed to him. A third regards the Urim and Thummim as cut and uncut gems, kept in the folds of the breastplate, and used almost like lots. These are but theories, and in all probability the exact truth, which has now been forgotten for thousands of years, will never be discovered.
Who shall go up for us . . .?At the solemn investiture of Joshua, as the successor of Moses, Moses is directed to set him before Eleazar the priest, who was to ask consent for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord: at his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in (Num. 27:18-21).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
PART FIRST.
INTRODUCTION. CHAPTERS Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 3:6.
THE LEADERSHIP, Jdg 1:1-2.
1. After the death of Joshua Probably not long after. Till Joshua died the affairs of the nation were closely associated with one great master mind, upon which came the chief responsibility of government. Moses and Joshua were to Israel like the chief generals of a great army, and the great body of the people had little sense of a national responsibility. But as soon as these great leaders are gone there comes a dawning sense of national unity and responsibility, and now not one man, but the whole people, the children of Israel, ask counsel of Jehovah. The children of Israel are here to be understood as the tribes west of the Jordan, represented by their elders.
Asked the Lord By means of the urim and thummim. See note on Jos 1:1. The people and the elders had not forgotten the last counsels of Joshua. Joshua 23-24.
Who shall go up Joshua died leaving no chosen successor. As he had himself been called of God to succeed Moses, (Jos 1:2,) so he trusted God to select his successor in office. The divine commission did not resound in the ear nor stir the heart of any man. Hence the nation resorts to prayer to God in this season of suspense. The expression go up is to be taken in a military sense, not as implying an actual ascent, but an aggressive warfare: who shall take the lead in battle with our Canaanitish foes? The enemy is conceived as occupying higher ground than the aggressors, though sometimes the march to battle may not have been a literal going up.
Against the Canaanites These enemies were not all exterminated in Joshua’s day, and when the great commander was dead the elders of Israel began to feel anxiety about the national safety. They feared their enemies might seize the moment when Israel was without a leader to recover their former possessions.
First Or, at the beginning. The thought is, Who shall make the beginning of aggressive warfare? This form of words seems to imply that a personal leader was not sought, but rather what the Greeks called the hegemony, the precedence among the tribes: which tribe shall make a beginning?
Bishop Hervey, in the “Speaker’s” or “Bible Commentary,” maintains that the events of this chapter and the first five verses of chapter 2 must have occurred before Joshua’s death, and he suggests that the reading in this first verse should be, Now after the death of MOSES. But this whole argument rests mainly upon two assumptions, both of which may be rejected as unnecessary. He assumes, (1) That a war with the Canaanites for the possession of tribe territory is incompatible with the conquest of Canaan and the settlement of the tribes under Joshua’s leadership, and (2) That the narrative commencing at Jdg 2:6, is a direct continuation of the verses preceding it. On this latter assumption see note at Jdg 2:6. The former has been sufficiently refuted in our notes on Jos 11:23; Jos 21:44. Joshua, indeed, subdued the Canaanites on all sides, and the tribes received their portions during his lifetime, but the Canaanites were by no means all exterminated, and after the death of Israel’s great chieftain they would naturally rally to recover, as far as possible, their lost possessions; and subsequent history shows how long-continued were their conflicts with the Canaanitish nations that remained in the land.
The exact chronology of various events recorded in these opening chapters is very uncertain, and in view of the Hebrew historians’ well-known lack of precision in such matters, and the absence of sufficient data to construct a definite chronology of these events, it is altogether needless to suppose or assume that they occurred before Joshua’s death. The passage in Jdg 1:10-15 is manifestly episodical, interrupting the direct narrative of the chapter, and therefore proves nothing in the case.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Success and Obedience of Judah and Simeon ( Jdg 1:1-20 ).
After the death of Joshua the children of Israel enquired of Yahweh which tribes should first go up against the remaining Canaanites. Judah was ordered to go up, and with Simeon had success against the Canaanites under Adonibezek, whom they brought captive to Jerusalem, and against the Canaanites in Hebron, Debir, Zephath, Hormah, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of ‘the valley’, the coastal plain.
The Benjaminites did not have as good success as Judah against the Jebusites in Jerusalem. Judges tells us little of their other activities apart from the subjection of a part around Jericho under the Moabites (Judges 3) and their disastrous disagreement with the tribal confederacy in Judges 20. Their lot was between Ephraim and Judah (Jos 18:11) and reached to the Jordan (Jos 18:20).
The house of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) captured Bethel and made the Amorites tributary.
The tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali were relatively successful but, in disobedience to God, did not drive out the Canaanites from several places which belonged to them, though many of them eventually became their tributaries. We must recognise that Canaanite life was attractive in its own way. They were far more sophisticated than the Israelites, with many of the finer things in life, and their religion was seen as directly helping in the fruitfulness of the fields as by ‘sympathetic magic’ it ensured rain, and the new birth and growth of plants. This was partly accomplished by overt sexual activity which was seen to stimulate nature into activity. Small images of Baal and Ashtaroth (Astarte) were commonplace in Israelite homes of the period.
The Amorites were too powerful for the tribe of Dan, who had therefore to live in the hill country.
Jdg 1:1
‘ Now after the death of Joshua it happened that the children of Israel asked Yahweh saying, “Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them ’
“Now after the death of Joshua.” Judges is seen as the continuation of the prophetic history in Joshua. Joshua had died and now the children of Israel must continue to go forward. For a time they were faithful to Yahweh (Jos 24:31) but gradually as they gained more territory they began to compromise with the inhabitants of the land and disobeyed Him by not driving them out.
“It happened that the children of Israel asked Yahweh.” At first all seemed well. The people came to Yahweh for His advice. This would mean that they gathered at the central sanctuary where the Tabernacle was, (now at Shiloh), and enquired through Urim and Thummim what they should do next. Now that they had no Joshua to look to they turned directly to Yahweh.
“Saying, “Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?” ” Much land had already been conquered, but now further strategy was required. They could not fight on all quarters at once. This is an indication that at this stage the tribes were still working together. They were taking the tribal confederacy seriously. They looked to Yahweh as their Great King. There had already been a beginning before the death of Joshua. Sections of the hill country had been occupied, and movement had taken place into other territories.
But although the land had been divided between them, much remained to be taken. Some would hold their present positions while others would go forward. The first strike after the death of Joshua was important. Its success could enthuse the people and strike terror into their enemies, its failure could dishearten the tribes. As always when a great leader died people were beginning to wonder what would happen next.
The lesson for us here is how important it is to seek God’s face before we make important decisions.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Continuing conquests by Israelite Tribes Jos 1:1-18 records Israel’s initial conquests after the death of Joshua. The children of Israel soon fell into apostasy and idolatry with the pagan gods of those Canaanites who remained in the land. The original purpose and intent of the conquest of the Promised Land was to establish righteousness in this land. Israel was to become a nation of righteousness, and God would spread this nation across the earth to testify to all nations of God’s standard of righteousness.
Jdg 1:1 Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
Jdg 1:1
[14] Douglas Stuart, Hosea-Jonah, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 31, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), “Introduction: Form/Structure/Setting.”
Jdg 1:1 “Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass” Comments – The book of Joshua begins with a similar opening statement, “Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass” (Jos 1:1)
Jdg 1:1 “that the children of Israel asked the LORD” Comments – The nation of Israel was established as a theocracy. God spoke through Moses, Joshua, and now through the high priests and gave the nation direction. In a similar way, the New Testament Church is a kingdom, with Jesus Christ reigning as King of Kings. God guides the Church through the five-fold ministry (Eph 4:11), and through the gifts of utterance, and He now speaks to every individual believer, since each one is a king and priest unto the Lord (Rev 1:6; Rev 5:10).
Eph 4:11, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;”
Rev 1:6, “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
Rev 5:10, “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”
Jdg 1:1 “saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them” – Word Study on “shall go up” Strong says the Hebrew word “go up” ( ) (H5927) is a primitive root that means, “to ascend, or to be high (intransitively) or to mount (actively).”
Comments The question in Jdg 1:1 does not describe an army going out into the plains or into a battlefield, which may be a defensive move. Rather, it described an offensive assault upon a fortified city that is set upon a hill. The children were intent upon continuing the campaign that Joshua began in taking every city of the land of Canaan. Joshua’s campaign began by taking the fortified cities of Jericho and Ai. It would have given Israel no military advantage if they had occupied the empty valleys. In order to control the region, Israel needed to take the fortified cities of the highlands.
Jdg 1:1 is a confession of faith, in that Israel believed God would give them the victory.
Jdg 1:2 And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.
Jdg 1:2
Comments – The name “Judah” has a number of references in the Old Testament. It refers to the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, as well as the tribe that descended from him, as well as the territory given to this tribe at the conquest of Canaan. The name Judah later became the title of the southern kingdom.
Leah gave her fourth child this name as an outward expression of praise to God for giving her so many sons (Gen 29:35). Her hope was to find the favor of her husband’s love and affection.
Gen 29:35, “And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.”
As we trace the history of this most prominent tribe of Israel, we discover the importance of praise in our personal lives, for it was through praise that men in the Old Testament found victories over their enemies.
Judah went before and led the clan of Jacob into Egypt to meet Joseph and into the good of the land of Egypt, the fat of the land (Gen 46:28).
Gen 46:28, “And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.”
It was the tribe of Judah that Jacob prophesied would be a conqueror.
Gen 49:8, “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.”
God set Bezaleel of the tribe of Judah over the work of building of the Tabernacle, (Exo 31:2; Exo 35:30) and gave him the spirit of God, with Aholiab of tribe of Dan (Exo 38:22).
Exo 31:2, “See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:”
Exo 35:30-31, “And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the LORD hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship;”
Exo 38:22-23, “And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses. And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen.”
Judah led the tribes through the wilderness as ark went before them all (Num 2:9; Num 10:14; Num 10:33).
Num 2:9, “All that were numbered in the camp of Judah were an hundred thousand and fourscore thousand and six thousand and four hundred, throughout their armies. These shall first set forth.”
Num 10:14, “In the first place went the standard of the camp of the children of Judah according to their armies: and over his host was Nahshon the son of Amminadab.”
Num 10:33, “And they departed from the mount of the LORD three days’ journey: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them.”
The tribe of Judah led in the offerings in the dedication of the altar (Num 7:12).
Num 7:12, “And he that offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah:”
Of the twelve spies sent out to Canaan, Caleb was of tribe of Judah (Num 13:6). He and Joshua alone came back with a good report.
Num 13:6, “Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.”
In the numbering of the people in the book of Numbers, the tribe of Judah was the most populous tribe in wilderness, even above Ephraim and Manasseh when they are added together.
Judah was the first to possess their inheritance on west side of Jordan (Jos 15:1-63).
In Jdg 1:1-4, Judah went up first to fight against the Canaanites. The Lord appointed the tribe of Judah to go into battle to bring the victory?
Jdg 1:2, “And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.”
When Israel fought Benjamin, God told them to send Judah first into battle (Jdg 20:18).
Jdg 20:18, “And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.”
Judah prevailed above his brethren although his was not the birthright (1Ch 5:1-2).
1Ch 5:1-2, “Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph’s:)”
Of all the people in the Holy Scriptures who learned to praise the Lord, David stood out as a man of praise. David was a man after God’s own heart (Act 13:22).
Act 13:22, “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart , which shall fulfil all my will.”
This is because David was a man who had learned the secret of praise. He praised God during easy times and this prepared David to worship Him during difficult times. David was called a man after God’s own heart because he worshipped his Heavenly Father and poured out his love to Him during the most difficult times in his life. This touches the heart of God more than any other act that man can perform and it moves God to deliver His children. For example, we see David’s cry for God to deliver him from his enemies throughout the Psalms. And as we read the history of David in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, we see how God was faithful to deliver him from all of those who opposed him.
Many of the Psalms reveal to us that David worshipped the Lord during the most difficult times in his life. Even when David sinned with Bathsheba and God judged the child so that it died, David worshipped the Lord. And as a result, the Lord gave David another son by Bathsheba.
2Sa 12:20, “Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.”
Such acts of worship that we see in the life of David move God to give to us anything and everything that our hearts desire. For God did not hold back any gift from the young shepherd boy who gave the Father so much love and attention (2Sa 12:8).
2Sa 12:8, “And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.”
As a result, David became the greatest conqueror in Holy Scripture. He subdued kingdoms and brought the nation of Israel into a place of rest. Other kings could have had the same victories that David had, if they had chosen the same path of praise. We see this in the victory of Jericho when Joshua lead the children of Israel in praise as they marched around the city. We also see this when Jehoshaphat led a worship team into battle against a host of nations encamped against Jerusalem. This is because praise always gives us victory. Prayer and supplication are good, but praise is the most effective weapon against the enemy.
In the history of Israel, the victories were never won on the battlefield, but in the prayer room. The battles may have been fought in the valleys, but the victories were won on the mountaintop. There is no situation too terrible that we cannot praise Him and thus, find the victory.
Was not Job’s captivity turned when he prayed and acknowledged God’s greatness (see Job 42:1-10)?
Joshua defeated the Amalekites in the valley while Moses held up the rod on the mountain (see Exo 17:8-16).
Did not the walls of Jericho fall down when the people shouted to the Lord?
Jos 6:16, “And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.”
Did not the Lord give David the victory when he encouraged himself in the Lord?
1Sa 30:6, “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”
Did not the Lord deliver Jonah from the belly of the whale when he began to praise and acknowledge the greatness of the Lord (see Jon 2:1-10)?
The Lord told king Jehoshaphat to march out into battle with worship leaders in front (2Ch 20:21-22).
2Ch 20:21-22, “And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.”
Does not Habakkuk tell us to praise Him in difficult times?
Hab 3:17-18, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
Were not Paul and Silas delivered from prison when they began to praise the Lord (Act 16:25-26)
Act 16:25-26, “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.”
All of these examples are given to us in Scripture to tell us that God will still our enemies when we begin to praise the Lord (Psa 8:2, Mat 21:15-16).
Psa 8:2, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.”
Mat 21:15-16, “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?”
Note these words from Frances J. Roberts:
“Man has contemplated the power of faith and of prayer, but only rarely have I revealed to men this far greater power of praise. For by prayer and faith doors are opened, but by praise and worship, great dynamos of power are set in motion, as when a switch is thrown and an electric power plant such as Niagra is thrown into operation. Praying for specifics is like requesting light for individual houses in various scattered places, while worshipping and praise flood the whole area with available current.” [15]
[15] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 118.
“Praise me, O My people, praise Me. Praise Me out of a heart full of love. Praise Me for every blessing and every victory. Yea, and praise Me when the most difficult thing to do is to praise. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith, and praise is the voice of faith. It is faith rejoicing for victories claimed in advance. The song of praise is made of the very fabric of things hoped for. It becomes an evidence of unseen things. It is the raw material in My hands from which I fashion your victories. Give it to Me. Give Me much, give to Me often. I dwell in the midst of the praises of My people. I dwell there because I am happiest there, and just as surely as ye make Me happy with your praising, ye shall make the enemy most unhappy. He has no power whatsoever over a praising Christian. He cannot stand against a praising Church. This is the most powerful weapon ye can use against him. So praise is like a two-edged sword, the one side bringing health to your own spirit and the other side cutting down the enemy.” [16]
[16] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 126-127.
Jdg 1:3 And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him.
Jdg 1:3
Jdg 1:17, “And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called Hormah.”
Jdg 1:10-15 Othniel’s Conquest of Hebron – Jdg 1:10-15 records the same story of Othniel’s conquest of Hebron that is found in Jos 15:13-20.
Jdg 1:10 And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron: (now the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba:) and they slew Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.
Jdg 1:10
Jdg 1:10 Word Study on “Kirjatharba” Strong says the Hebrew name “Kirjatharba” ( ) (H7153) means, “city of arba,” or “city of the four (giants).” It was perhaps the most challenging city of all of the Canaanites for Joshua to conquer, because the inhabitants were giants. The ten spies who were sent out by Moses were overwhelmed with fear at the thought of fighting this city (see Num 13:22; Num 13:33, Jos 15:13-14; Jos 21:11, Jdg 1:20).
Num 13:22, “And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak , were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)”
Num 13:33, “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak , which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
Jos 15:13-14, “And unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a part among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the LORD to Joshua, even the city of Arba the father of Anak , which city is Hebron. And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak.”
Jos 21:11, “And they gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it.”
Jdg 1:20, “And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak.”
Jdg 1:15 And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.
Jdg 1:15
Luk 11:13, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
Jdg 1:16 And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.
Jdg 1:16
Deu 34:3, “And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.”
Jdg 1:17 And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called Hormah.
Jdg 1:17
Jdg 1:30 Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributaries.
Jdg 1:30
[17] “Kitron,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Overthrow of Various Enemies
v. 1. Now, after the death of Joshua, v. 2. And the Lord said, Judah shall go up, v. 3. And Judah said unto Simeon, his brother, v. 4. And Judah went up, v. 5. And they found Adoni-bezek, v. 6. And Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and great toes, v. 7. And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table; v. 8. Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, v. 9. And afterward, v. 10. And Judah went against the canaanites that dwelt in Hebron, v. 11. And from thence he went against the inhabitants of Debir, v. 12. v. 13. v. 14. v. 15. And she said unto him, Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. v. 16. And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, v. 17. And Judah went with Simeon, his brother, v. 3. and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, v. 18. Also Judah, v. 19. And the Lord was with Judah, v. 20. And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Jdg 1:1
After the death of Joshua. The events narrated in Jos 1:1-18. and Jos 2:1-9 all occurred before the death of Joshua, as appears by Jdg 2:8, Jdg 2:9, and by a comparison of Jos 14:6-15 and Jos 15:13-20. The words, and it came to pass after the death of Joshua, must therefore be understood (if the text is incorrupt) as the heading of the whole book, just as the Book of Joshua has for its heading, “Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass.” Asked the Lord. The same phrase as Jdg 18:5; Jdg 20:18, where it is rendered asked counsel of. So also Num 27:21, where a special direction is given to Joshua to make such inquiries as that mentioned in this verse before Eleazar the priest, through the judgment of Urim and Thummim (cf. 1Sa 23:10, 1Sa 23:12). A still more common rendering of the Hebrew phrase in the A.V. is “to inquire of God” (see, e.g. Jdg 20:27, Jdg 20:28; 1Sa 22:13, 1Sa 22:15; 1Sa 23:2, 1Sa 23:4; 1Sa 28:6, and many other places). Such inquiries were made
(1) by Urim and Thummin,
(2) by the word of the Lord through a prophet (1Sa 9:9), or
(3) simply by prayer, (Gen 25:22), and improperly of false gods (2Ki 1:2, 2Ki 1:16), of teraphim, and semi-idolatrous priests (Jdg 18:5, Jdg 18:14).
Jdg 1:5
Bezek. The site of it is unknown; it is thought to be a different place from the Bezek of 1Sa 11:8. Adoni-bezek means the lord of Bezek. He was the conqueror of seventy petty kings.
Jdg 1:6
Cut off his thumbs, etc. These cruel mutilations, like the still more cruel one of putting out the eyes (Jdg 16:21; Num 16:14; 1Sa 11:2; 2Ki 25:7), were intended to cripple the warrior in his speed, and to incapacitate hint from the use of the bow, or sword, or spear, while yet sparing his life, either in mercy, or for the purpose of retaining his services for the conqueror.
HOMILETICS
Jdg 1:1-7
Inquiry of God.
Three lessons stand out from the above section which we shall do well to consider in the order in which they present themselves.
I. The first is, THAT BEFORE TAKING IN HAND ANY IMPORTANT BUSINESS WE OUGHT TO SEEK GOD‘S DIRECTION. Distrust of our own wisdom, misgivings as to our motives, and the feeling that the issues of all events are in the hands of God’s unerring providence, should always prompt us to look to God for guidance. Even when we do so no little care is needed to be sure that our interpretations of God’s will arc not biassed by our inclinations. We read in Jer 42:1-22. that the captains of the forces of the remnant of the Jews went to Jeremiah after the deportation of their countrymen to Babylon, and said to him, “Pray for us unto the Lord thy God, that he may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do,” and even bound themselves by a solemn oath to obey the voice of the Lord, and do whatsoever he should command them by the mouth of Jeremiah. But when, after ten days, God s answer came, bidding them abide in the land of Judah, and condemning in distinct terms the course on which their hearts were set, viz; to go down to Egypt, they boldly accused Jeremiah of falsehood, and went down to Egypt in spite of his prophetic message. And so it too often is. Men ask God’s direction, hoping that the answer will be in accordance with their own inclinations, and do their best to twist it into such accordance. But if this is impossible they act in bold defiance of it. In seeking God’s guidance, therefore, especial care should be taken so to mortify our self-will that we may be ready to act upon the answer of God, however contrary it may be to the dictates of our own hearts. This may be applied to cases where pecuniary loss, or sacrifice of worldly advantages or pleasures, or self-humiliation and self-denial, or mortification ‘of enmities, resentment, jealousy, pride, vanity, love of praise, and so on, are involved in an entire obedience to the dictates of the word and Spirit of God given in answer to prayer. As regards the ways in which a Christian now can “ask the Lord” concerning’ the course he ought to pursue on any particular occasion, we may say, following the analogy of the inquiries to which our text refers, that
1. He may inquire or ask counsel of Holy Scripture. He may seek light and truth from that word which is the expression of the mind and will of God. There is no state of darkness, or perplexity as to the true path of duty, to which Holy Scripture, wisely and prayerfully interrogated, will not bring satisfactory light; no question of morality or conduct on which it will not shed the ray of truth. The old superstition of the sortes Virgilianae applied to the Bible, so that the page opened at random should supply the answer required, had this much of truth in it, that the Bible has an answer for every question of an inquiring soul. But this answer must be sought in intelligent, prayerful study, and not as a matter of blind chance or in the presumptuous expectation of a miraculous answer. The answer may be obtained either from the example of some eminent saint under similar circumstances as of Abraham giving up his right in order to avoid strife with Lot (Gen 13:8, Gen 13:9), Elisha refusing Naaman’s gifts, Job blessing God in the extremity of his affliction and the numerous examples in Luk 6:3; Heb 11:1-40.; Jas 5:17, etc.; or by impregnating the mind with the teaching of the word of God, such as Deu 6:5, or the Sermon on the Mount, or the precepts in Rom 12:1-21; Rom 13:1-14; Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23; Eph 4:22, sqq; and 1 Peter throughout. And either way the answer will be sure if it is sought faithfully.
2. A Christian may inquire of the Lord by seeking the counsel of a wise and honest friend, who will give him impartial advice. The prophets were distinguished for their faithful boldness in speaking unwelcome truths as much as for their inspired knowledge. Nathan speaking to David, Isaiah counselling Hezekiah, Daniel reproving Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar, Jeremiah advising Zedekiah, are instances of such faithfulness. Let the Christian then who is in doubt or perplexity as to the course which he ought to take seek the counsel of a wise and faithful friend, whose mind will not be biassed by passion or prejudice, and let him act according to it.
3. God‘s guidance may be sought by simple prayer. Just as Hezekiah in his great perplexity and distress spread Sennacherib s letter before the Lord, and betook himself to earnest prayer, so may a Christian man spread out before God all the particular circumstances of his case, and all the doubts and difficulties by which he is harassed, and in simple-minded earnestness ask God to direct and guide him aright. And the answer will doubtless come, either by the Holy Spirit suggesting to his mind the considerations which ought chiefly to influence him, or strengthening feeble convictions, and confirming uncertain opinions and hesitating reasonings, or clearing away the clouds which obscured his path, or in some providential interference barring, as it were, the wrong course, and throwing open the gates of the right one for him to pass through. The opportune arrival of Rebekah at the well while Abraham’s servant was in the very act of prayer (Gen 24:15); the arrival of the messengers of Cornelius while Peter was in doubt what the vision which he had seen might mean (Act 10:17); the dream which Gideon heard the Midianite tell to his fellow, just when he was hesitating whether he ought to attack the Midianite host, are examples, to which many more might be added, how providential circumstances come in to give to the servant of God the guidance which he asks. It is obvious to add that these three modes of inquiry may be combined.
II. The second lesson is THE ADVANTAGE IN ALL IMPORTANT UNDERTAKINGS OF COOPERATION AND THE MUTUAL ASSISTANCE OF FRIENDS. The answer from God to the inquiry, Who shall go up first? had come. “Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.” Yet none the less did Judah say to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me, and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot.” It is not enough then even to have the help of God: the laws under which humanity is placed by God require that man have also the help of man. “As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man’s countenance his friend.” Our Lord sent out the seventy “two and two before his face.” “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them,” was the saying of the Holy Ghost. The strength of two is greater than the strength of one. The wisdom of two is better than the wisdom of one. In co-operation one can supply what the other lacks. One has courage, another has prudence. One has knowledge, another knows how to use it. One has wealth, the other has the wit to use wealth. One has wisdom, but is “slow of speech;” the other “can speak well,” but is foolish in counsel (Exo 32:1-35.). No man has all the qualities which go to make up perfect action, and therefore no man should think to do without the help of his fellow-man. It is a presumptuous state of mind which makes a man seem sufficient to himself, and an uncharitable state of mind which prompts him to withhold help from his fellow. A beautiful lesson may be learnt from the co-operation of the blind with the deaf and dumb in institutions where they are trained together. What the blind learn by the ear they communicate to the eye of the deaf, and what the deaf learn by the eye they communicate to the ear of the blind. And so it should be in everything. A man should seek help from his neighbour, and should be equally ready to give help to him in return. “Come up with me into my lot, and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot,” should be the law of human fellowship running through all the transactions of human life. But yet not so as to weaken individual responsibility, or to destroy just independence of character; but so as to give to each the full help towards the performance of duty which God has provided for him, and to nourish man’s care for his neighbour by listening to his neighbour’s calls for help.
III. The third lesson may be briefly stated. DIFFERENT PARTS ARE ASSIGNED TO DIFFERENT PERSONS: MORE SHOWY ONES TO SOME, MORE HUMBLE ONES TO OTHERS, But the humbler part may he as really useful and as acceptable to God as the more showy one. To some the lot is assigned of merely helping others to rise to their destined eminence, and then being forgotten. And yet they really have a share in all that is well done by those whom they helped to raise, and who could not have risen without their help. Thus Simeon helped Judah to take possession of his lot, and Judah ever after took the foremost place among the tribes of Israel; but Simeon almost disappears from view. In like manner Andrew first brought his brother Simon to Jesus; but it is Simon Peter to whom were given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and who occupies the first place among the twelve. Barnabas took Saul and brought him to the apostles, and again went to seek him at Tarsus, and brought him to Antioch; but the place filled by St. Paul in the Church of God as far transcends that of Barnabas as the place of Judah among the tribes transcends that of Simeon. This should give encouragement to those whose work is humble and out of sight. Let the servant of God do “what he can.” Let him not envy the talents, the brilliant gifts, the powers, the fame, the glory of others. But let him be content if by the grace of God he can in any way help forward the work of God’s Church on earth, although his name he not mentioned till he receives his reward before the judgment-seat of Christ.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jdg 1:1, Jdg 1:2
Transfer of authority.
Periods when supreme power passes from rulers to their descendants are always of critical importance. It is then that the greatest constitutional modifications take place. Partly from the differences of disposition and view, partly from the force of new circumstances, partly from the failure or creation of peculiar official sanctions and dignities, the legislative or executive function seldom remains wholly unchanged in passing from one holder to another. In this case, as the dignity and authority of Moses did not entirely pass to Joshua, so the office the latter filled must have greatly altered with its occupancy by the numerous body, “the sons of Israel,” or elders and tribesmen. More frequent deliberation, the consultation of competing interests, etc; had to precede any national action against the common enemy. The great Lawgiver had passed away, the Soldier-Dictator had also been gathered to his fathers, and now it devolved upon a simply appointed but sacredly authoritative constitutional assembly to carry into effect the purposes of their predecessors. Compare with this the rise of parliamentary influence in Europe, and especially in England.
I. THE MODIFICATION OF GOVERNMENT. Sometimes this is sudden, sometimes gradual. Here it does not affect the essential principle of the theocracy. There is something very pathetic in the spectacle of an orphaned nation appealing to the “God of their fathers.” It was not an extraordinary outburst of reverence and religious humility, but the beginning of a habitual and necessary practice. The voice of Jehovah through his authorised representatives was the supreme law for Israel.
1. It behoves all nations and individuals to ask God for wisdom and direction, especially at such times of transition. The altered conditions of life; the transfer of legislative authority; the attainment of mature years; a youth’s leaving ,home; the death of parents, guardians, rulers, etc; are reasons for a closer walk with God, and a more attentive heed to his word.
2. Responsibility is inevitably transferred with authority. A sacred war is the legacy of the fathers of Israel to the children. If they are disposed to lag in its carrying forward, untoward events prick them on, and discomfort and disorder increase the necessity for action. “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” The peasant envies the king, the child the parent, only to be in turn regarded with a greater envy by those they assume to be fortunate and happy. Authority tempers and chastens power. The assumption of the latter without regard to its obligations is a profane and wicked thing, and must in the end defeat itself. Responsibility is the moral and religious side of authority; duty of right. In no case has a ruler or government lightly to regard inherited responsibilities. Freedom is not the result of violent changes, but “broadens slowly down from precedent to precedent.” That one has had no part or choice in the making of an agreement or the inauguration of a policy is no reason by itself for repudiation. What is wrong must be put right, and false steps retraced; but the practicable policy of the present is generally a modification of the former and traditional one, rather than entire departure from it. The oneness of responsibility in past and present, ought to be carefully observed, and acknowledged even where changes are introduced. None of us makes his own circumstances. Most of them are inherited. Our duties are often born before ourselves, awaiting us in the appointed time.
3. The advantages and disadvantages of a plurality of rulers are here illustrated.
(1) Where there are several or many in power there is a representation of popular views and interests,
(2) the advantage of collective and deliberative wisdom, and
(3) mutual stimulus and emulation.
On the other hand,
(1) they are liable to jealousies and envies,
(2) it is difficult to preserve a good understanding,
(3) they are more subject to popular panics, and
(4) are unlikely to take a bold initiative.
II. UNCHANGEABLENESS OF THE SUPREME AUTHORITY. Under all circumstances the ideal government for Israel must ever be the theocracy. Moses, Joshua, the elders, the judges, the kingsthese are but the human representatives of the absolute and Divine; they are but the stewards of a heavenly mystery, holding authority from the Supreme, and liable at his bidding to restore it again. Paul (Rom 13:1-5) summarises the general aspects of this principle:”Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of. God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For he is the minister of God to thee for good Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.”
1. This must be recognised by human delegates. The elders immediately and publicly “asked Jehovah.” The force of the original expression is that no time was lost. Only as he led them could they be preserved from error.
2. To make men subject to the Supreme must ever be the goal of their efforts. Their whole policy will be, therefore, in a wide sense evan- gelical, viz; to bring men to God, to deepen their reverence for truth, righteousness, purity, and to encourage a personal attachment to Christ as the embodiment of these.M.
Jdg 1:1
Spiritual initiatives.
The one stern fact facing every Israelite is God’s command to uproot the Canaanite. There must be at least one land wholly consecrated to Jehovah and freed from idolatry. The warfare is an inheritance, even as the land is. There is a common obligation to fulfil this task; but it is not to be done severally, at haphazard. United action being difficult on account of the loss of the great captain, representative action is the next best. Now upon one tribe, and now upon another, will the honour devolve of carrying the war into the ranks of the enemy. It is a kind of conscription of the tribes, the honour of the burden being borne in turn by one for all. In this case no lot is cast. Jehovah is the disposer of the forces of his kingdom.
I. THE LEADERSHIP IS MADE KNOWN THROUGH PRAYER AND INQUIRY. As yet no tribe had premier rank amongst its fellows. God must decide who shall go up first. He is the fountain of honour, and he must be approached by the wonted avenues. Accordingly, the priest or the prophet is called upon to exercise his functions. There is something very beautiful and pathetic in this united asking of Jehovah by the tribes. Where God is acknowledged as the Supreme Arbiter, harmony is certain to prevail. It is well for Christians to submit all their anxieties to their Divine Father. So we find the early disciples praying after their Master’s ascension. And the Church at Antioch observed a like rule ere it sent its missionaries forth to the region beyond. Spiritual work must ever be prefaced by prayer; and although God may not declare the leaders of it by a special utterance, tokens will be given which will enable them to be discovered.
II. IT IS RENDERED OBLIGATORY BY A “CALL.” We are not informed as to the precise manner in which the will of God was made known. Probably the Urim and Thummim were consulted. Joshua is never mentioned as doing this; like Moses, he receives the word of God directly. The leaders of Israel receive the word of God from the priest, and the response is not oracular, but clear and definite. A twofold advantage pertained to this decision. It obtained for the chosen one the recognition of his brethren, and confirmed his own faith. An articulate supernatural “call” is not always required for undertaking God’s work, but we have a right to demand of those who assume the lead in spiritual things that they shall have clear and unmistakable proof of a vocation. And it stands to reason that one who feels a “necessity laid upon him” to do certain spiritual work shall be more likely to succeed in it.
III. THE DIVINE CHOICE IS JUSTIFIED BY THE CHARACTER AND PAST CAREER OF ITS SUBJECT, This is not to say that these furnish a reason for it. With regard to all Divine work it may well be asked, “Who is sufficient for these things?” But frequently human insight and experience justify Divine measures, so far as they go. It was Judah who delivered Joseph from the pit. He confessed his sins (Gen 38:26). Jacob intrusted Benjamin to his care, and blessed him in the words”Thy brethren praise thee; the sceptre shall not depart from Judah.” His tribe became the most numerous and warlike (Num 2:1-34.); and of the commissioners appointed to allot the land, the representative of Judah is first mentioned (Num 34:19). But above all, it was Judah and Ephraim alone who furnished the spies that gave a faithful account of the landCaleb and Joshua. The former still lived, chief of the tribe of Judah. Ephraim, the tribe of Joshua, being already settled, Judah’s turn crones next. We see therefore that although human merit cannot be said to determine Divine appointments, the latter will often be found to run in the same line.M.
Jdg 1:3
Alliances in the holy war.
The lots of Judah and Simeon were closely united. The former’s prerogative of leading off is therefore shared with the weaker tribe, which in all things is carefully considered by its “brother.” It was impossible completely to separate the interests of these two; the understanding was honourable to both sides.
I. IN SPIRITUAL UNDERTAKINGS THE GREATER SHOULD EVER CONSIDER THE LESS. It is in this way that our Saviour’s injunction, “Let him that would be chief among you be as him that serveth,” is often best interpreted. The onus of brotherly consideration and charitable construction is with the stronger because of the advantage they already possess. It is also the more to be admired in them because of the rarity of its exercise. On this occasion Judah lost nothing, and Simeon secured a powerful ally, and an opportunity of distinction. Besides this, the kindliest sentiments were encouraged on either side.
II. BY COMMENCING IN THIS SPIRIT IT IS THE MORE LIKELY THAT MORAL ELEVATION, MAGNANIMITY, AND BROTHERLY AFFECTION WILL BE PRESERVED ALL THROUGH. The waiving of personal precedence is not only graceful, it has a tendency to perpetuate itself. Our future work takes its character from the first step.
III. IT IS AN EXAMPLE TO OUR BRETHREN, AND A WITNESS BEFORE THE WORLD TO THE UNITY OF GOD‘S PEOPLE. Spiritual men above all others should not first ask, “What is our right?” but, “What is our obligation, and how can we best illustrate the spirit of the Master?” The tone was set to all the other tribes, and jealousy either at Judah or one another checked ere it appeared. True unity was the strength and safety of Israel. That the neighbouring nations were impressed with the spirit of brotherhood and unity in Israel there is abundant proof. They felt they were dealing not with a mere aggregate of numbers, but with a whole inspired by common sentiment and religious enthusiasm. It is this spirit which most perfectly realises the aim of Christ’s kingdom, and his prayer “that they all may be one;” “that they may be made perfect in one.”M.
Jdg 1:7
Correspondence of crime and requital.
The crime of Adoni-bezek was against not any special national law, but humanity. It was one calculated to create and foster the most cruel disposition, the moral sense being rendered callous by habituation to a spectacle of abjectness and suffering dishonouring to our common nature. Frequent amongst the heathen nations of the East, it was all the more necessary that it should be punished in an emphatic and exemplary manner. “Thumbs were cut off to incapacitate the hand from using the bow; great toes to render the gait uncertain.” The circumstance stands forth here as an ancient “instance” of an eternal law, which may be thus expressed:
I. THERE IS A CLOSE CONNECTION BETWEEN EVERY SIN AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This may be taken as a conviction more universal in its influence than religion itself. Yet it is not wholly reducible to experience. It is as truly rooted in faith as any other axiom of the spiritual life. In order to reinforce it we have
(1) what may be termed pictorial illustrations of it. The traditions and histories of the world are full of these. Neoptolemus murdered at the altar, and at the altar he was murdered (‘Pausanias,’ Jdg 4:17, Jdg 4:3); Phaleris roasted men in a brazen bull, and in like manner was he himself punished (‘Cesta Romans,’ 48.). Bajazet carried about by Tamerlane in an iron cage, as he intended to have done Tamerlane. Cardinal Beaton, upon whom Wishart’s sufferings were avenged in a violent death, etc; etc. This affects the popular imagination more powerfully than any direct proof; and hence the crowd of real or fancied instances that have been recorded. It is in the light of this conception probably that Exo 18:11 is to be interpreted.
(2) The principle reveals itself it, the history of nations and individuals. Ishmael is the grand type of this. The story of the mutineers of the Bounty is still fresh in memory. And how many family records would show the family likeness of sins and their Nemesis, and the natural connection and development of the one from the other! In Judas the betrayer it shines with tragic grandeur.
(3) The confessions of sinners themselves strengthen the belief.
II. THE JUSTICE OF GOD IS FAITHFUL AND EXACT. “When the Olympian,” says Homer, “does not speedily punish, he still does it later” (‘Iliad,’ 4:160). “The Almighty may not punish this week or next, my Lord Cardinal,” said Anne of Austria to Richelieu, “but at the last he punishes.” In the incidents of human life we seem to see links of an almost invisible chain connecting sin with judgment, as cause with effect. And if in the few cases we know the punishment is so finely, even dramatically, adjusted, are we not justified in believing that beneath the surface there is even a finer and more inevitable equivalency observed? It is here too we have another evidence of the superior moral influence of the doctrine of providence as compared with fate. Both are inevitable, but the former rationally and rectorially so.
III. BUT BY AWAKING REFLECTION AND REPENTANCE OUR PUNISHMENT MAY BECOME OUR SALVATION. There is a gleam of something more than fatalism in Adoni-bezek’s confession. It is just possible that it betrays an unfeigned repentance. The higher law of grace may step in to rescue us from the law of vengeance. Many a soul has drawn back before the hideous vision of “sin when it bringeth forth.”M.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Jdg 1:1, Jdg 1:2
The death of the great.
The circumstances which accompanied and followed the death of Joshua are suggestive of the common difficulties which arise on the death of great men, and the conduct of Israel is an example of the right spirit in which to face these difficulties.
I. THE MOST USEFUL MEN ARE OFTEN CALLED AWAY BEFORE THEIR WORK IS FINISHED. The measure of work which God requires of them may always be accomplished, for he sets no task for which he does not supply all needful talents and opportunities. But the work which a man aims at accomplishing, which he sees needing to be done, which men trust him to achieve for them, is commonly greater than his time and powers allow of perfect performance.
1. This fact should teach the most active workers
(1) diligence, since at the best they can never overtake their work, and
(2) humility, in the thought of the little that the ablest can accomplish compared with what he aims at.
2. This fact should lead all men
(1) not to lean too much on any one individual,
(2) to be ready to welcome new men,
(3) to train children to take the places of their parents.
II. THE DEATH OF GREAT MEN SHOULD INSPIRE US WITH A DESIRE TO CONTINUE THEIR UNFINISHED WORK.
1. It is foolish to be content with idle panegyrics, as though we could live for ever on the glory of the past. Life must not be spent in a dreamy contemplation of the sunset, however brilliant this may be. While we gaze the radiance fades; night will soon fall. We must be up and preparing for shelter under the darkness, and for work in a new day.
2. It is weak to sink into mere regrets and despondency. We do not honour the dead by wasting our lives in barren grief. When the great and good are gone the future may look blank and hopeless; but God is still with us, and he will still provide for us. Therefore we should do as Israel did. Not satisfied with the glory of Joshua’s victories, nor stunned by the blow of his death, the people look forward, seek for guidance for the future, and endeavour to continue his unfinished work. The richest legacy we can receive from the great is the unfinished task which drops from their dying hands. The noblest monument we can erect to their memory will be the completion of that task; the most honourable epitaph we can write for them will be the story of the good works for which their lives and examples have inspired their successors.
III. As POSTS OF RESPONSIBILITY BECOME VACANT, IT IS WISE TO SEEK THE GUIDANCE OF GOD IN THE CHOICE OF NEW MEN TO OCCUPY THEM. After the death of Joshua Israel consulted “the Eternal.” It is a blessing that the loss of our most trusted earthly friends should drive us to the refuge of the great heavenly Friend. In the present case new leaders do not now arise by selfish ambition, nor are they chosen by popular election. The selection of them is referred to God. Israel thus recognises its constitution as a theocracy. Every nation should consider itself under a supreme theocracy. Political leaders should be chosen by a Christian nation only after prayer for Divine guidance. Much more evident is it that the selection of men for service in spiritual things, as ministers, as missionaries, etc; should not be left to the mere inclination of the individual or the unaided human judgment of others, but determined after the most earnest prayer for Divine light (Act 1:24). Notesuch a method of election implies a willingness that the chosen leaders should be called to do God’s will, not merely to humour the popular caprice.
IV. WHEN GREAT MEN ARE TAKEN AWAY IT IS OFTEN THE CASE THAT NO MEN OF EQUAL ABILITY ARE FOUND TO SUCCEED THEM. Joshua was not equal to Moses, but he was still well able to take the staff of leadership from his master’s hand. But Joshua left no successor. Nothing but anarchy faced the nation “after the death of Joshua”it seemed as though there could be no ‘after.” There are advantages in the absence, of great men. The multitude may become indolent, trusting too much to the work of the few. When these are removed men are thrown back on their own resources; thus the courage and energy of the whole people is put on trial. Yet on the whole we must feel that it is better to have the great among us. The death of Joshua is the signal for the decadence of the nation from its ancient heroic glory. Therefore let us pray that God will continue the race of good and great men: and seek to educate and discover such among the young. Let us be thankful that our JoshuaChristwill never be taken from his people (Mat 28:20).A.
Jdg 1:3
Mutual help.
I. IN THE ABSENCE OF UNITY OF AUTHORITY WE SHOULD SEEK FOR UNION OF SYMPATHY. After the death of Joshua the loss of leadership endangers the national unity of Israel. In the text we see how two tribes, no longer united by a common government, draw together for mutual help. The union of free attraction is nobler than that of external compulsion. The highest unity of Christendom is to be found not in the Roman Catholic organisation of a central authority and uniformity of creed and worship, but in the spiritual conception of common sympathies and common aims.
II. BROTHERLY KINDNESS IS A PECULIARLY CHRISTIAN GRACE, Love of the brethren is a proof of regeneration (1Jn 3:14). The law of Christ as contrasted with the barren Levitical law of ordinances is characteristically summed up in the obligation to “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal 6:2).
1. This implies active help. Simeon and Judah went to battle for an inheritance. Mere feelings of sympathy are wasted sentiments unless they lead to active and fruitful service.
2. This implies sacrifice. The Simeonites and men of Judah risked their lives for the benefit of one another. Cheap charity is worthless charity.. Our brotherly kindness is of little value till it costs us somethinginvolves pare, loss, sacrifice. Christ is the great example of this. It is our mission to follow Christ here if we would be his true disciples (Php 2:4-8).
3. This implies mutual help. Judah helps Simeon; Simeon in turn helps Judah. Charity is often too one-sided. The poor and needy can often make more return than appears possible if invention is quickened by gratitude. A miserable penitent could wash the feet of Christ with her tears (Luk 7:38).
III. THE WORK OF LIFE IS BEST DONE BY UNION AND CO–OPERATION OF WORKERS. Judah and Simeon conquer their two possessions by union. Both might have failed had they acted singly. “Union is strength.” The advantage of mutual help is seen in trade, in manufactures, in education, in the advance of civilisation generally. The spirit of Cain is fatal to all progress (Gen 4:9). The same applies to Christian work. Therefore Christ founded the Church. Though Christianity is based on individualism, it works through social agencies. The society of Christians, the Christian family, find means of useful effort which private Christians could never attain, e.g. in the Sunday school, foreign and home missions, the work of Bible and tract societies. Simeon and Judah united to conquer their several lots successively. So it is sometimes wisest for us to unite and do together one work well at one time, rather than to spread our divided energies over a wide field of weak agencies. The river which runs out over a broad plain may be swallowed up in the sands of the desert, while that which flows in a narrow channel is strong and deep.A.
Jdg 1:6, Jdg 1:7
Retribution.
I. THERE IS A LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
1. The desire for retribution is instinctive. It is one of the elementary ideas of justice. To those who have no vision of a higher law, the execution of this is not a cruel crime of vengeance, but a righteous exercise of justice.
2. The fitness of retribution is not affected by the motive of those who accomplish it. It is possible that the Israelites were ignorant of the old crimes of Adoni-bezek, and may have been guilty of wanton cruelty in treating him as they did. If so, his wickedness was no excuse for their barbarity. But then their harsh intentions did not affect the justice of the king’s sufferings. God often uses the crime of one man as a means of punishing the crime of another. He does not originate or sanction the retributive crime, but he overrules it, and so turns the wrath of man to the praise of his righteous government. Thus Nebuchadnezzar was no better than an ambitious tyrant in his conquest of Jerusalem; yet he was the unconscious agent of a Divine decree of justice.
3. Sin will surely bring retribution.
(1) No rank will secure us against this. The sufferer in this case was a king.
(2) No time will wear out guilt. It is likely that Adoni-bezek had committed his crimes in bygone years, as he referred to them in a way which suggests that the memory of them was suddenly aroused by his own experience.
4. Retribution often bears a resemblance to the crimes it follows. The lex talionis seems to be mysteriously embedded in the very constitution of nature. The intemperate slave of bodily pleasures brings on himself bodily disease; cruelty provokes cruelty; suspicion arouses distrust. As a man sows so will be reap (Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8).
5. One of the most fearful elements of future retribution will be found in an evil memory. Men bury their old sins out of sight. They will be exhumed in all their corruption. The justice of the retribution will then increase the sting of it (Luk 16:25).
II. THE HIGHER CHRISTIAN LAW OF LOVE. Christianity does not abolish the terrible natural laws of retributive justice, but it reveals higher principles which can counteract the disastrous effects of ‘those stern laws, and a more excellent way than that of zealously advocating the execution of them.
1. The Christian is bound not to desire vengeance. He is called to forgive his enemies (Mat 5:38, Mat 5:39). If retribution must fall, let us leave it to the supreme Judge (Rom 12:19).
2. The highest purpose of punishment is seen to consist in the preservation and the restoration of righteousnessnot in the mere balancing of sin with pain. Punishment is not an end in itself. The vengeance which seeks satisfaction to outraged honour in the humiliation of its victim is as unworthy of the character of God as it is foreign to the principles of Christian duty. Punishment is a means to an end, and that end is not mere revenge, but the deterring of others from evil, and, where possible, the restoration of the fallen (Heb 12:5, Heb 12:6, Heb 12:11).
3. In the gospel forgiveness is offered for all sin. The law is not evaded; it is honoured in the sacrifice of Christ. Now he has borne the sin of the world he can also release the world from its fatal effects. Therefore, though the thunder-cloud of retribution may seem as dark as ever, if we only look high enough we shall see the rainbow of God’s mercy above it promising peace and forgiveness to all who repent and trust in his grace (Act 13:38, Act 13:39).A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jdg 1:1. Now, after the death of Joshua, it came to pass It is related in this chapter, in what state each of the tribes was after Joshua was dead; and some things, by the way, are resumed which had happened before, and which we have read in the Book of Joshua; as the taking of the cities of Hebron and Kirjath-sepher, &c. It is not possible to fix the exact date of the war here narrated. It is most probable, that the Israelites did not think of attacking the Canaanites till some years after the death of Joshua, when those nations which they had imprudently spared began to get the upper hand. We should be cautious, however, not to place the event too far back, since Othniel, the first judge of the Israelites after the death of Joshua, had been advantageously spoken of during the life of that general. By the children of Israel’s asking the Lord, is meant, the heads of the tribes applying to Phinehas, the high-priest, to consult the Lord by Urim and Thummim. See Lowman, ch. 2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Part First
Introductory Delineation of the Condition of Israel after the Death of Joshua; Sin, and the Judgments entailed by it, rendering the Judgeship necessary.
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FIRST SECTION
The Relations Of Israel Towards The Remaining Canaanites As Forming The Background Of The Ensuing History. Believing And Obedient Israel Enjoys Divine Direction And Favor, Is United Within And Victorious Without; But Faithlessness And Disobedience Lay The Foundations Of Apostasy And Servitude.
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Who shall first go up against the Canaanite?
Jdg 1:1-2
1Now [And] after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children [sons] of Israel asked the Lord [Jehovah],1 saying, Who shall go up for us2 against3 the Canaanites first to fight against them? 2And the Lord [Jehovah] said, Judah shall go up: behold,4 I have delivered the land into his hand.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Jdg 1:1.The author renders: the sons of Israel asked God; and by way of explanation adds the following note: Thus do we intend constantly to render , on the ground that it expresses the absolute idea of the true God in Israel. Since is also used in connection with heathen worship, it corresponds to our Godhead, Deity or the Gods. In this translation the word Jehovah will be inserted.Tr.]
[Jdg 1:1.. Dr. Cassel takes in a partitive sense, and translates, who of us shall go up. It is more properly regarded as dat. commodi; for, (1.) The partitive relation, though sometimes indicated by (apparently, however, only after numerals, cf. Ges. Lex. s. v. , 4 b), would be more properly expressed by or ; and (2.) If the writer had intended to connect with , he would not have placed the verb between them, cf. Isa 48:14; Jdg 21:8. As it stands, the expression is a perfect grammatical parallel with Isa 6:8 : Moreover, , in the sense of or , adds nothing which is not already implied in the words, , who shall first go up. On the other hand, taken in its natural sense, as indirect object after the verb, it expresses the thought that whoever goes first, makes a beginning, will do it for the advantage of all. What that advantage was, may be seen from our authors exposition of the inquiry.Tr.]
[Jdg 1:1., properly, towards. Dr. Cassel has gegen, which means both towards and against. The same preposition occurs in Jdg 1:10-11; and though translated against, is not to be taken in the sense of . The hostile intent in these passages is not expressed by , but appears from the context. In this verse, attention to the proper meaning of , does away with the appearance of tautology which in English the inquiry presents.Tr.]
[Jdg 1:2.Dr. Cassel: Wohlan! Up then! On this rendering of , cf. the foot-note on p. 26.Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Jdg 1:1. And after the death of Joshua it came to pass. This commencement corresponds entirely with that of Joshua, Jdg 1:1 and after the death of Moses, the servant of Jehovah, it came to pass. On account of this correspondence the usual addition, the son of Nun, but also the designation servant of Jehovah, elsewhere applied to Joshua (Jos 24:29; Jdg 2:8), is omitted. A similar correspondence exists between Jos 24:29, and Deu 34:5. Wherever Joshua is compared with Moses, care is taken to indicate at the same time the important difference between them. Joshua also is a servant of Jehovah, but not in the same high sense as his master. Joshua also died, but not like Moses through the mouth of Jehovah ( ). Moses was clothed with the authority of origination and establishment. He had been the Father (cf. Num 11:12), the Priest (Exo 24:8), the sole Regent (Num 16:13), and Judge (Exo 18:16), of his tribes. He transferred the priesthood from himself to Aaron (Exo 28:1); he selected those who assisted him in deciding minor lawsuits (Exo 18:21; Num 11:17). He took seventy men of the elders of the people, to bear with him the burden of governing the tribes (Num 11:16); he imparted of his own honor to Joshua, that the congregation of Israel might obey him (Num 27:20.) With the death of Moses the work of legislation is closed.
After him, Joshua exercises the authority of government and direction. By his deeds he gains for himself respect among the people, like that which Moses had (Jos 1:5; Jos 1:17; Jos 4:14; Jos 17:4; Jos 18:3); similar wonders arc wrought through him: but he executes only inherited commands; his task demands the energy of obedience. Moses had always been named before Aaron (Moses and Aaron);5 but when Joshua and the Priest were named together, Eleazar stood first. (Thus, Num 34:17; Jos 14:1; Jos 17:4; Jos 19:51; Jos 21:1). When Moses lived, the priesthood received their commands through him; after his death, Joshua received support and aid through the Priest (Num 27:21). In accordance with this, we must understand what is said, Jos 1:1, namely, that the Lord spake unto Joshua. For henceforth there arose not a prophet like unto Moses. That which Moses was, could not repeat itself in any other person. Joshua, therefore, was only the reflection of a part of the power of Moses; but as such he had conducted the first historical act of fulfillment demanded by the Mosaic law. The conquest of Canaan was the necessary presupposition of the Mosaic system. Israel, having been liberated, received a national homestead. When Joshua died, the division of the land among the tribes was completed. With the death of Moses the spirit revealed in the law enters upon its course through the history of the world. With the departure of Joshua, the national development of Israel in Canaan commences. The position of Moses was unique, and like that of a father, could not be refilled. When he dies, the heir assumes the house and its management. This heir was not Joshua, but the people itself. Joshua was only a temporary continuator of the Mosaic authority, specially charged with the seizure of the land. He was but the executive arm of Moses for the conquest (, minister, Jos 1:1). His personality is inseparable from that of Moses. As Elijahs spirit does not wholly depart from the nation until Elishas death, so the personal conduct and guidance of the people by Moses do not entirely cease until the death of Joshua. Joshuas activity is just as unique as that of his teacher. He is no lawgiver, but neither is he a king or judge, as were others who came after him. He is the servant of Jehovah, inasmuch as he is the minister of Moses. The correspondence between Jdg 1:1 and Jos 1:1, is therefore a very profound one. The death of the men, which these verses respectively record, gave rise to the occurrences that follow.
The sons of Israel asked Jehovah. Literally: And it came to pass .and the sons of Israel asked, etc. The first and () introduces the cause,6 the second the consequence. It is moreover intimated that the consequence is speedy in coming, follows its cause without any interval. The translation might have been: And it came to pass that the sons of Israel immediately asked; or, Scarcely had Joshua died, when the sons of Israel, etc. It lies in the nature of the Hebrew copula, that when it introduces a consequence, it also marks it as closely connected with its antecedent in point of time. The Greeks and Romans made similar use of and et. Cf. the line of Virgil (neid, iii. 9): Vix prima inceperat stas, et pater Anchises dare fatis vela jubebat. The Hebrew idiom has also passed over into the Greek of the New Testament, cf. Luk 2:21; . , etc.: and the child was eight days old, when forthwith it was named Jesus, where the Gothic version likewise retains the double yah, and. This brings out the more definite sense, both in the parallel passage, Jos 1:1, and here. Scarcely had Moses died, if the idea there, when God spake to Joshua. The government of Israel was not for a moment to be interrupted. Scarcely was Joshua dead, when the sons of Israel asked Jehovah. As Joshua succeeded Moses in the chief direction of affairs, so the congregation of the children of Israel succeeded Joshua. The representatives of this congregation, as appears from Jos 24:31 and Jdg 2:7, an the Elders (). Jewish tradition, accordingly, makes the spiritual doctrine pass from Moses to Joshua, and from Joshua to the Elders. These Elders are the seventy men chosen by Moses (Num 11:16) to assist him in bearing the burden of the people. The term Elder, it is true, is applied to every authority among the people, especially civil. Elders, as representatives of the people, are witnesses of the wonders of God in the desert (Exo 17:5). The Elders are Judges 7 (Deu 22:16); the civil authorities of each city are Elders (Deu 25:7). Seventy of the Elders, with Moses and the priests, behold the glory of God (Exo 24:1, seq.). The , shoterim, officers charged with executive and police duties, become Elders as soon as they execute the regulations of Moses among the people (Exo 12:21). The seventy Elders who assisted Moses in bearing the burden that pressed upon him must, therefore, be distinguished from the authorities of the several tribes and cities. They represent the whole nation. As such, they unite with Moses, at the close of his career, in commanding the people to keep the law, and after passing the Jordan to erect a memorial of great stones (Deu 27:1-2). During the regency of Joshua, the authorities and representatives of the people, beside the priests and Levites, consist of Elders, heads of tribes, judges, and magistrates (shoterim). Such is the enumeration after the conquest of Ai, and particularly in Jos 23:2, where, in order to give his last instructions to Israel, Joshua calls all the representatives of the people together. Again, in Jos 24:1, it is stated that Joshua called for the Elders of Israel, and for their heads, judges, and magistrates. If no distinction were intended here, it had been sufficient to say, elders and heads; for judges and magistrates were also elders. But he called together the national representatives and those of the several tribes, like two Houses or Chambers. The tribal representatives and authorities he dismisses; but the Elders, who belong to all the tribes in common, remain near him, as they had been near Moses. These, therefore are they who, when Joshua dies, step into his place. As on him, so on them, there had been put of the spirit that was on Moses (Num 11:17). They quickly and zealously undertake the government. They determine to begin at once where Joshua stopped, to make war on the nations who have not yet been conquered, though their lands have been assigned to the several tribes (Jos 23:4). Joshua is scarcely dead, before the Elders inquire of God.8
No father ever cared for his children as Moses, under divine direction, cared for his people. Who, then, when he is gone, shall determine what the people are or are not to undertake? The answer to this question is recorded Num 27:21 : After the death of Moses, Joshua is to stand before Eleazar the priest, inquire of him after the judgment of Urim from Jehovah, and according to his answer they shall go out and come in. That Joshua ever did this, the book which bears his name nowhere records. It is characteristic of his exceptional position, as bound by the word and directions of Moses, that the word of God comes directly to him, although he ranks after Eleazar the priest. But this is not the position of the congregation of Israel; and hence the provision made by Moses for Joshua now formally becomes of force. For the first time since Num 27:21, we find here the word with , in the signification to inquire of Jehovah; for the of that passage and the of this are equivalent expressions. Inquiries put to the Urim and Thummim were answered by none but God. In the sublime organism of the Mosaic law every internal thought, every spiritual truth, presents itself in the form of an external action, a visible symbol. Urim and Thummim (Light and Purity) lie in the breast-plate on the heart of the priest, when he enters into the sanctuary (Exo 28:30). They lie on the heart; but that which is inquired after, receives its solution from the Spirit of God in the heart of the priest. Consequently, although in the locus classicus (Num 27:21), the expression is, to inquire of the Urim, here and elsewhere in the Book of Judges it is always, and they inquired of Jehovah. The Greeks also used the expression for inquiring of the oracle, cf. Xenoph., Mem., viii. 3). The Urim also were an oracle, and a priest announced the word of God. The God of Israel, however, does not speak in riddles (Num 12:8), but in clear and definite responses. Israel asks:
Who of us9 shall first go up against the Canaanite to fight against him? The word go up is not to be taken altogether literally. The Hebrew , here and frequently answers in signification to the Greek , Latin aggredi. It means to advance to the attack, but conceives the defense as made from a higher level. The point and justification of the inquiry lies in the word first. The question is not whether aggressive measures shall or shall not be adopted, but which of the tribes shall initiate them. Hitherto, Moses, and after him, Joshua have directed the movements of the people. Under Joshua, moreover, all the tribes united in common warfare. All for one, each for all. The general war is at an end; the land is divided, the tribes have had their territories assigned them. Now each single tribe must engage the enemies still settled within its borders. This was another, very difficult task. It was a test of the strength and moral endurance of the several tribes. The general war of conquest under Joshua did not come into collision with the joy of possession and rest, for these had as yet no existence But after the dispersion of the tribes such a common war, under one leadership, was no longer practicable. It may also have appeared unwise that all the tribes should be engaged in general and simultaneous action within their several territories. Had one tribe been defeated, the others would not have been in a position to assist it. The question there fore concerned the honor and duty of the first attack. As yet no tribe held any definite priority of rank. For the sake of peace and right, it was left with God to determine who should first go up to fight against the inhabitants of the land, to grind them, as the word used expresses it, and thus deprive them of that power for evil which as nations they possessed. The signification to war of , is illustrated by the meaning to eat, which it also has. The terrible work of war is like the action of the teeth on bread, it tears and grinds its object. Hence the Greek , knife, belongs to , to fight, just as the Hebrew , knife, belongs to , to eat.
Jdg 1:2. And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up. Judah takes a prominent position among the sons of Jacob, even in the lifetime of their father The misdemeanors of his elder brethren favor this. It is he who saves Joseph from the pit in which the wrath of the others designed him to perish; and who, by suggesting his sale into Egypt, paves the way for the wonderful destinies which that land has in store for Israel. He is capable of confessing his sins (Gen 38:26). He pledges himself to Jacob for the safe return of Benjamin, and him the patriarch trusts. He, also, in the hour of peril, speaks the decisive word to the yet unrecognized Joseph (Gen 44:18); and, although he bows himself before Joseph, the blessing of Jacob nevertheless says of him (Gen 49:8 ff.): Thy brethren praise thee; the sceptre shall not depart from Judah. The tribe of Judah holds the same prominent position. It is the most numerous tribe. At the first census (Numbers 2), its military strength is greater than that of both the tribes of Joseph. In the desert, it leads the first of the four encampments,that, namely, which faces the east (Num 2:3).10 It began the decampment and advance (Num 10:14). Among those appointed by Moses to allot the land, the representative of Judah is named first (Num 34:19); and hence when the allotment was actually made under Joshua, the lot of Judah came out first (Jos 15:1).
But the tribe of Judah had yet other merits, by reason of which it took the initiative on the present occasion. When Moses sent twelve men to reconnoitre the land, one man from each tribe, the messengers of Judah and Ephraim alone, full of faith and courage, sought to awaken within the people a spirit pleasing to God. The messenger of Ephraim was Joshua, the son of Nun, the minister of Moses; the representative of Judah was Caleb. Both obtained great credit for their conduct. Joshua became the successor of Moses. When Joshua died, Caleb still lived. The great respect which he enjoyed, as head of the tribe of Judah, and on account of the approbation of Moses, may also be inferred from Jos 14:6.11
Up then! I have delivered the land into his hand. Up then, the address of encouragement: agite, macte!12 Judah may boldly attackvictory is certain. Caleb stands at the head of the tribe. He has already been assured of victory by Moses (Num 14:24; Jos 14:9). Josephus (Ant. v. 2, 1) calls the priest who officiates Phinehas. He infers this from Jos 24:33, where the death of Eleazar is recorded. According to Jewish tradition, Phinehas also wrote the conclusion of the Book of Joshua.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jdg 1:1. Israel is believing and obedient after the death of Joshua. Like a child after the death of its father, it has the best intentions. It is zealous to perform, with speed and vigor, the task imposed by Joshua. As directed by the law (Num 27:21), it inquires of God through His priest, the appointed medium for announcing His will. The recollection of benefits received from the departed hero, and the feelings of piety toward him, are still exerting their influence. So does many a child finish the period of instruction preparatory to confirmation, with a heart zealously resolved to be pious. Many a Christian comes away from an awakening sermon with resolutions of repentance. Principium fervet. First love is full of glowing zeal. To begin well is never without a blessing. The best inheritance is to continue obedient toward God.
Starke: God gives more than we seek from him.Gerlach: Not even the task which had been imposed on each individual tribe, will they take in hand, without having inquired of the Lord concerning it.
Jdg 1:2 God therefore vouchsafes direction and promise. Judah is to go before. When Israel is believing and obedient, Judah always goes before (Gen 49:10): in the desert, at the head of the host; after the time of the Judges, when David sits upon the throne of Israel; and finally, when the Lion of the tribe of Judah conquers the last enemy, which is death.
Starke: If we also desire to war against our spiritual Canaanites, the first attack must be made, and the war must be conducted, by Christ Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev 5:5).
Lisco: The words, I have delivered the land, are meant prophetically; with God that which is certain in the future is as if it were present.
[Bush (combining Scott and Henry): The precedency was given to Judah because it was the most numerous, powerful, and valiant of all the tribes, and that which the Lord designed should possess the preminence in all respects, as being the one from which the Messiah was to spring, and for that reason crowned with theexcellency of dignity above all its fellows. Judah therefore must lead in this perilous enterprise; for God not only appoints service according to the strength and ability He has given, but would also have the burden of honor and the burden of labor go together. Those who have the precedency in rank, reputation, or influence, should always be disposed to go before others in every good work, undismayed by danger, difficulty, or obloquy, that they may encourage others by their example.
Wordsworth: The death of Joshua is the date of degeneracy. So in spiritual respects, as long as the true Joshua lives in the soul, there is health. St. Paul says, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. The true Joshua lives in the souls of his saints; but if He dies in the soul, that death is theirs; the death of their souls (Origen).
Bachmann: As the Book of Joshua opens with the mention of Moses death, so the Book of Judges with that of Joshua. The servants of the Lord die one after the other; but the history of his kingdom goes on uninterruptedly.Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1][Jdg 1:1.The author renders: the sons of Israel asked God; and by way of explanation adds the following note: Thus do we intend constantly to render , on the ground that it expresses the absolute idea of the true God in Israel. Since is also used in connection with heathen worship, it corresponds to our Godhead, Deity or the Gods. In this translation the word Jehovah will be inserted.Tr.]
[2][Jdg 1:1.. Dr. Cassel takes in a partitive sense, and translates, who of us shall go up. It is more properly regarded as dat. commodi; for, (1.) The partitive relation, though sometimes indicated by (apparently, however, only after numerals, cf. Ges. Lex. s. v. , 4 b), would be more properly expressed by or ; and (2.) If the writer had intended to connect with , he would not have placed the verb between them, cf. Isa 48:14; Jdg 21:8. As it stands, the expression is a perfect grammatical parallel with Isa 6:8 : Moreover, , in the sense of or , adds nothing which is not already implied in the words, , who shall first go up. On the other hand, taken in its natural sense, as indirect object after the verb, it expresses the thought that whoever goes first, makes a beginning, will do it for the advantage of all. What that advantage was, may be seen from our authors exposition of the inquiry.Tr.]
[3][Jdg 1:1., properly, towards. Dr. Cassel has gegen, which means both towards and against. The same preposition occurs in Jdg 1:10-11; and though translated against, is not to be taken in the sense of . The hostile intent in these passages is not expressed by , but appears from the context. In this verse, attention to the proper meaning of , does away with the appearance of tautology which in English the inquiry presents.Tr.]
[4][Jdg 1:2.Dr. Cassel: Wohlan! Up then! On this rendering of , cf. the foot-note on p. 26.Tr.]
[5] If in Exo 6:20; Exo 6:26, the order is Aaron and Moses, it is only to indicate Aaron as the first-born; hence, Jdg 1:27 of the same chapter, as if by way of correction, says, these are that Moses and Aaron. For the same reason Num 3:1 reads: These are the generations of Aaron and Moses. As the order is everywhere Moses and Aaron, so it is naturally also Moses and Eleazar. This difference in the relations of Moses and Joshua respectively to the Priest, it is important to notice. For it is of itself sufficient to show the untenableness of Bertheaus assertion (Buch der Richter, p. 9), that Num 27:21 is to be so taken that Joshua is to ask, not before, but for, instead of, Eleazar, whether he shall go out; that is (as he thinks), in a manner just as valid as if the high-priest had inquired of Jehovah. To inquire of God by means of the Urim, the Priest alone could do, for he alone had it. Moses and the prophets received revelations immediately; but when the Urim is mentioned, the Priest is the only possible medium. The passages to which Bertheau refers, speak against his assertion. The LXX. are as plain as the Hebrew text. In 1Sa 22:10, it is the Priest who inquires of God for David. Josephus, Ant. iv. 7, 2, is an irrelevant passage, and therefore cannot be cited at all. Moreover, Josephus himself puts Eleazar before Joshua, when he speaks of both (iv. 7, 3). Nor is there any good ground for doubt as to the clearness of the passage in Numbers 27. If we find no mention anywhere of Joshuas having inquired by Urim, the foundation of this fact is deeply laid in his relations to Moses. He was called only to be the executor of the designs of Moses. His activity expends itself in continuing the work of Moses. It moves entirely within the lines prescribed by Moses, and is impelled by his inviolable authority. Joshuas deeds are but the historical outgrowth of the spirit of Moses. The Book of Joshua is but the narrative of Joshuas obedience to the word of Moses. Whatever Joshua ordains, is rendered sacred by an appeal to Moses. Even the division of the land is conducted according to this authority (Joshua 13-15). Every place have I given you, as I said unto Moses, is the language used (Jos 1:3). Remember what Moses commanded you, says Joshua to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (Jos 1:13). The fact is brought out with peculiar emphasis in the following passages: Be strong and very courageous to do according to all the laws which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or the left (Jos 1:7). There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel (Jos 8:35). As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses (Jos 11:15).
Wherever, therefore, Joshua simply executes the will of God as expressed in the commands of Moses, the necessity for inquiring by Urim does not arise. It is precisely in this execution of the Mosaic commands that God speaks to Joshua, as Jos 4:10 clearly teaches: until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua. The direct command of God to Moses operates on Joshua who executes it.
That Joshua is the executor of the commands of Moses, cannot consistently with the spirit of the book which relates his history, be overlooked. When, however, the decision by Urim is alluded to, and it is said, according to his mouth ( ), the reference is to the same (priestly) mouth which, Jos 19:50, assigns an inheritance to Joshua, according to the mouth of Jehovah ( ). This method of decision comes into play when Joshua has no instructions from Moses according to which to act. The peculiar position of Joshua, by whom, through the word of Moses, God still always speaks and acts as through Moses (Jos 3:7), and who nevertheless does not like Moses stand before, but after, the priest, becomes everywhere manifest. This position also is unique, and never again recurs. It is therefore at his death, and not till then, that the preponderance of the Priest as the sole possessor of the word of God, becomes fully manifest. The fact, therefore, that we now first hear of an asking of the Lord, so far from being obscure, is full of instruction on the historical position of affairs.
[6][Bertheau: , in conjunction with the words, after the death of Joshua, first connects itself with the closing narrative of the Book of Joshua (Jos 24:29-33), and secondly designates the Book of Judges as a link in the chain of books which relate, in unbroken connection, the [sacred] history of the world, from the creation to the exile of the inhabitants of the southern kingdom. The several books which contain this connected historical account are joined together by the connective .Tr.]
[7]Cf. Josephus, Ant. iv. 8, 14, who states on the authority of Jewish tradition that there were in every city seven judges, each with two Levitical assistants, corresponding to the seventy-two of the general senate.
[8][Bachmann: The sons of Israel here are not the whole nation, but only the tribes west of the Jordan, who are spoken of in the same way, and in express contradistinction from the tribes east of the Jordan, in Jos 22:12-13; Jos 22:32. According to Jos 13:23. the further conflict with the Canaanites was incumbent on the western, not on the eastern tribes. Hence, also, the following account treats only of the doings and omissions of the western Israel.Tr.]
[9][Cf. on this rendering the note under the text on p. 23.Tr.]
[10]Cf. Psa 114:2, and the Pesikta and Jalkut on the Book of Judges (Ed. Amsterd.) 37, p. 2, Judges 8.
[11]The history of Athens contains a similar instance. The council of war before the battle of Marathon was presided over by Callimachus, of the tribe Ajax. A preponderance of voices, exaggerating the danger, already inclined to avoid the Persian army, when Callimachus voted for the course urged by Miltiades, and turned the tide. In consequence of this, the tribe of Ajax was specially honored. Notwithstanding the use of the lot, the last place in the chorus was never assigned to this tribe (Plutarch, Qu. Symp., i. 10; cf. Bckh, Staatshaushalt der Athener, i. 743, note). It is said that Charlemagne, induced by the heroic deeds of Count Gerold, bestowed on the Swabians the right of forming the vanguard in every campaign of the empire.
[12][Occasionally may be properly rendered by Up! or Now then! cf. Psa 134:1, where it is followed by an imperative; but in situations like the present such a rendering is unnecessarily free. The word is designed to excite the attention and put it on the alert for what is coming. Of course, the assurance which here follows it, would animate and incite; but the agite! macte! are in the words to which calls attention, not in itself. Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The sacred historian prosecutes in this Chapter the subject of Israel’s contest with the remaining Canaanites, after the death of Joshua. The chapter opens in the enquiry of Israel of the Lord, who should go before them to the subjugation and destruction of their enemies. The Lord’s answer. The several tribes divide in their war, some are successful more than others. several of the tribes permit the Canaanites to remain with them, contrary to the command of the Lord.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
If the Reader regards the book of the Judges merely as an history, still he will discover in it sufficient to demonstrate the faithfulness of God to his promises. But, if he reads it also with a spiritual reference to the church of God shadowing forth beside the history some greater events connected with it, he will find this Sepher Shophtim (for so is it, in the original, very properly called, that is, the Book of Judges) not an uninteresting part of the sacred record. As Joshua was an eminent type of Jesus, do we not feel our minds led to the gospel history, and the case of the apostles, at the departure of Jesus? Well might the disciples enquire who shall go in and out before us, when the Lord is returned to his Father? See Joh 14:1-2 . We cannot be at a loss to assign the cause, wherefore Judah was chosen. The dying Patriarch looking forward to him who after the flesh was to spring from Judah, declared, that Judah was him whom his brethren should praise, whose hand should be in the neck of his enemies, and whose father ‘ s children should bow down before him. Gen 49:8 , etc. And when we behold him who is expressly called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, whom all nations shall praise, and whose victory over the neck of his enemies hath been so marked, we cannot but discover the striking affinity. Heb 7:14 ; Rev 5:5 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 1:1
‘Clarkson, in so far as that question regarded time, was the inaugurator of the great conflict’ against the slave-trade, as De Quincey observes. ‘That was his just claim. He broke the ground, and formed the earliest camp, in that field; and to men that should succeed, he left no possibility of ranking higher than his followers or imitators.’
The exploit in which no one will consent to go first remains unachieved. You wait until there are persons enough agreeing with you to form an effective party. And how many members constitute the innovating band an effective force?… No man can ever know whether his neighbours are ready for change or not. He has all the following certainties at least: That he himself is ready for the change; that he believes it would be a good and beneficent one; that unless some one begins the work of preparation, assuredly there will be no consummation; and that if he declines to take part in the matter, there can be no reason why every one else in turn should not decline in like manner, and so the work remain for ever unperformed.
John Morley.
We are afraid of responsibility, afraid of what people will say of us, afraid of being alone in doing right; in short, the courage which is allied to no passion Christian courage, as it may be called is in all ages and among all people one of the rarest possessions.
Sir Arthur Helps.
The initiation of all wise or noble things comes, and must always come, from individuals generally at first from some one individual. The honour and glory of the average man is that he is capable of following that initiation; that he can respond internally to wise and noble things.
J. S. Mill, Liberty.
Simplicity in Prayer
Jdg 1:1
I. ‘The children of Israel asked the Lord,’ whispered to Him, hailed Him, arrested His condescending attention by some sign of necessity. They whispered to the Lord, they told Him plainly the condition in which they were placed, and brought the whole need under His attention; they wanted leadership and captaincy and guidance, and they said, Who shall do this? If any man lack wisdom, let him ask. That is the old word, ‘ask,’ short but deep, easy to pronounce, impossible to measure. We have changed all that; we now are in danger of approaching the Lord as if He were an infinite Shah, and must needs be approached with long words and logical sequence.
II. ‘The children of Israel asked the Lord.’ That was the plain way, that was the simple way, that is the intensely rational way. We have got rid of some men by putting them into an atmosphere which is fatal to healthy thinking and to resonant and emphatic speaking. We have given them coronets that they may hold their tongues; we may have promoted them that we may get rid of them. It may be so in its spiritual significance with the Lord; we have polysyllabled Him and addressed Him in long formal speeches; we have lost the old way of asking Him, talking to Him, breathing upon Him, kissing His hand, and whispering to Him just what we want. Our hope, and the hope of the whole Church, is in simplicity. Such was the method of the text, such the method of Jesus Christ, and of Paul and of James and of all the great historic suppliants on whose girdle has hung the key of the upper sanctuary.
III. Asking God, talking to God, communing with God, elevates the mind.
Talking to God, asking God, laying the whole case before God, sometimes laying it before Him without words, sometimes simply looking into His face, sometimes letting our throbbing, aching misery look into the infinite peace of the Divine tranquillity, will lift a man to a new status and clothe him with a new influence and enrich him with an abiding benediction. Let your misery seek the face of the King.
IV. ‘The children of Israel asked the Lord.’ They did not dictate to Him. Prayer is not dictation; prayer is not always even suggestion, and when prayer is suggestion it is offered with halting breath and with a most reverent faith, lest a suggestion should be not only a sophism but an expression of selfishness. God does permit us to say what we would like; He is so condescendingly gentle that He sometimes asks us what we would like to have, and when we have told Him He has oftentimes said, No.
V. Observe, the people in question were ‘the children of Israel’. Character is implied; character is not only implied, it is recognized and held up as a lesson. They belong to a praying host, to a covenanted ancestry, they were involved in the baptism of an oath. Do not imagine that a man can leap out of atheism and begin to pray for some selfish purpose, and have his answer on the spot. Character determines prayer; the simple heart suggests the right petition; the sincere spirit, praying at the Cross and in the name of Christ, can alone pray with lasting and ennobling effect.
Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. I. p. 169.
Jdg 1:3
The spring of virtuous action is the social instinct, which is set to work by the practice of comradeship. The union of men in a common effort for a common object bandwork, if I may venture to translate cooperation into English this is and always has been the true school of character.
Prof. W. K. Clifford. A man, be the Heavens ever praised, is sufficient for himself; yet were ten men, united in Love, capable of being and of doing what ten thousand singly would fail in.
Carlyle.
Jdg 1:3
Boston, in his Memoirs, describes the friendship between himself and a Mr. Wilson as ‘having arrived at an uncommon height and strictness. Whatever odds there was in some respects betwixt him and me, there was still a certain cast of temper by which I found him to be my other self. He was extremely modest, but once touched with the weight of a matter, very forward and keen, fearing the face of no man: on the other hand I was slow and timorous. In the which mixture, whereby he served as a spur to me, and I as a bridle to him, I have often admired the wise conduct of Providence that matched us together.’
Reference. I. 6, 7. G. A. Sowter, From Heart to Heart, p. 20.
Jdg 1:7
Besides these evils, another springing out of the long-continued wars betwixt the French and English, added no small misery to this distracted kingdom. Numerous bodies of soldiers, collected into bands, under officers chosen by themselves, from among the bravest and most successful adventurers, had been formed in various parts of France out of the refuse of all other countries. These hireling combatants sold their swords for a time to the best bidder; and, when such service was not to be had, they made war upon their own account, seizing castles and towers, which they used as the places of their retreat making prisoners and ransoming them exacting tribute from the open villages, and the country around them, and acquiring, by every species of rapine, the appropriate epithets of Tondeurs and corcheurs, that is, Clippers and Flayers.
Scott, Quentin Durward (chap. 1.).
Jdg 1:7
In The French Revolution Carlyle describes how Foulon as ‘a man grown grey in treachery, in griping, projecting, intriguing and iniquity: who once when it was objected, to some finance-scheme of his, “What will the people do?” made answer, in the fire of discussion, “the people may eat grass”: hasty words, which fly abroad irrevocable and will send back tidings.’ When the Bastille fell, Foulon was one of the first victims of the popular vengeance. ‘Merciless boors of Vitry unearth him; pounce on him, like hell-hounds: Westward, old Infamy; to Paris, to be judged at the Htel-de-Ville! His old head, which seventy-four years have bleached, is bare; they have tied an emblematic bundle of grass on his back.’ Finally he is dragged to be hung, and his mouth, after death, ‘is filled with grass: amid sounds as of Tophet, from a grass-eating people. Surely if Revenge is a “kind of Justice,” it is a “wild” kind! They that would make grass be eaten, do now eat grass, in this manner? After long dumb-groaning generations, has the turn suddenly become thine?’
References. I. 12-15. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2312. I. 13-15 J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in a Religious House, vol. ii. p. 494. I. 19, 20. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii. No. 1690.
Jdg 1:25
The last virtue human beings will attain, I am inclined to think, is scrupulosity in promising and faithfulness in fulfilment.
George Eliot.
Jdg 1:28
If foolish pity be a more humane sin, yet it is no less dangerous than cruelty. Cruelty kills others, unjust pity kills ourselves.
Bishop Hall.
Jdg 1:29
With the French it was a settled thing that battles must not be decisive. They fought in a half-hearted way, not because they wanted courage, for braver men than Chadeau de la Clocheterie or D’Albert de Rions, or a hundred others, never walked a quarter-deck; not because they wanted skill in tactics, for more ingenious manoeuvrers than Act or Guichen or even Grasse, never hoisted a flag; but because they had always something other in view than the fighting of a battle. It was taken for granted with them that they must ‘fulfil their mission’. The phrase is incessantly turning up in their histories. What it meant was, that when an admiral was sent to take this island or relieve that town, he must avoid getting his fleet crippled in a yard-arm to yard-arm fight…. The wish to charge home was strong with our men, and the effort incessant, but until Rodney showed the way on April 12, 1782, it was never effectually done.
Mr. David Hannay, Rodney, p. 117.
References. I. 11. M. Dods, Israel’s Iron Age, p. 3. II. 1-5. R. Winterbotham, Sermons, p. 59. R. S. Candlish, Sermons, p. 155. II. 1-10. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Judges, p. 192.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“The children of Israel asked the Lord.” Jdg 1:1 .
Notice the simplicity of this. The conscious nearness of God. The very easiest form of worship. No enlargement of this form has been given even in Christianity, whose exhortation is, “Ask, and it shall be given you.” Speaking to God elevates the soul. Communion with God compels the spirit to search out acceptable words. Such asking is really part of spiritual education. The soul is called upon to recount its needs, and to set them in order before God. The impossibility of imposing upon the Omniscient. The suppliant must not do more than ask; that is to say, he must not make the answer a condition of his piety, or a standard by which he will judge the reality of the divine existence, and the goodness of the divine government. All we can do is to put our case before God, and to plead it, and then the answer must be absolutely left with him. We are to ask about everything. We shall undervalue the sacredness of life if we suppose that some things are not worth asking about. The life is equally sacred at all points when it is hidden in God. Nothing unimportant can ever arise in human life. Spiritual wisdom is shown in making every point of consequence and needing the direct intervention and blessing of God. The word “children,” as descriptive of Israel, comes suggestively before this act of asking. Are we not all the children of the living God? What have children to do but to ask? not to dictate or demand, but simply to state in terms of supplication. All such asking is to be done in the name of him who taught us how to pray. God is still approached through priesthood, only now the priesthood is not human, but divine. We should so cultivate communion with God that our prayer will be reduced to the simplicity of “asking.” The question is put as if from child to parent, or from friend to friend, or from scholar to teacher; all traces of formality, ceremony, servility are absent, and the communion is marked by frankness, directness, and childlike simplicity. This is the true genius of prayer.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Adoni-bezek
Jdg 1:7
THESE words were uttered by Adoni-bezek (king or Bezek). He had conquered seven of the little kingdoms in and around Palestine, and he showed their kings the rough hospitality of cutting off their thumbs and their great toes, and of allowing them to gather their meat under his table. In due time, however, Judah, who succeeded Joshua in the leadership, went up to do the Lord’s work and took with him Simeon that they might fight against the Canaanites. In Bezek they slew ten thousand men. There they found the king, and they fought against him, and when he fled they pursued after him and caught him and cut oft his thumbs and his great toes. “And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me.” This fact is an illustration of a severe yet most holy law. “The Lord God of recompenses shall surely requite.” Nor was this an ancient law only; it was repeated by Jesus Christ himself: “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” The same doctrine was laid down by the Apostles: “He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy.” Adoni-bezek shows his wisdom in making this comment upon his own suffering. Though he was a tyrant yet he was not a fool. The difficulty of the spiritual teacher is with heedless men; all other difficulties may be subdued or even turned to advantage, but heedlessness, inattentiveness, carelessness, who can overcome?
Set it down as a central and abiding truth that wrong-doers cannot escape divine judgment. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” A man may deny this; he may theoretically disregard it; but all history shows that he cannot escape it. At the heart of things is the spirit of judgment Life appears to be confused, but before the Almighty it has shape and plan and purpose. God overtakes a man at the last, and comes before him with such vividness of action as to constrain the man himself to admit that the punishment is divine and not human. There is an answering voice in the human heart. When a man is suffering from any amputation whatsoever, either physical or social, either ecclesiastical or commercial, let him profoundly reflect upon the whole case and scourge his memory so that nothing may be omitted from the review, and he will find that there is a marvellous law in life whose watchword is: “Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth”! “As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women.” Only the fool can be satisfied by tracing his punishments to ill-luck.
Seeing that there is this law of punishment or requital in constant operation, no man should take the law into his own hands. That is the most pitiful form of the attempted readjustment of things. When the reformation is worked out it must come from a greater distance and operate by an infinitely greater sweep. “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people.” “Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me.” “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Adoni-bezek acknowledged his punishment as a divine visitation. He did not look upon it as a petty resentment on the part of his enemies; he took a high moral view of his condition. Why have we suffered loss in business? May it not be that we have oppressed the poor and needy? Why are our schemes delayed and thwarted? Is it not because we have been obstinate and unfriendly towards the schemes of others? Why are we held in disesteem or neglect? Is it not because of the contempt with which we have treated our brethren? Let us look at the moral working of things, and see in the results which are forced upon us, not the petty anger of men something that might have been avoided but the inevitable judgment of God against which all resistance is vain.
This law does not operate in one direction only. The God who punishes also rewards. “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love.” “The liberal soul shall be made fat.” “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” This is the other side of a law which is full of awful suggestion. The way of the Lord is thus equal. Nothing that we do for him or for his cause goes without reward. Whosoever shall give a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, shall be surprised by the approbation of Heaven, and amazed at the degree in which every simple deed of duty or love is magnified by the Judge of the whole earth. But we must not work merely for the sake of a reward, for then all the process would end only in disappointment. It is possible to do good deeds with a selfish hand. If a man shall set himself to convert the whole world, simply in order that he may secure heaven at last, all his efforts will be thrown away and he himself will be cast into outer darkness. The reason is plain. There is no similarity between the motive and the action; they are not only not co-ordinate, they do not belong to the same universe; they can only be regarded as abortive and pitiful attempts to serve God and mammon. Where the motive is right the good deed is always its own reward. We realise heaven in the doing of it. No man ever yet relieved the necessities of poverty without himself being abundantly fed and satisfied by the very act of benevolence. A very curious law is this, yet that it is a law is proved by innumerable instances, and not a single instance to the contrary can be quoted in modification, much less in disproof. It would appear as if eyes were watching us from heaven, noting all the way that we take and all the deeds that we do, and that instantly some communication was set in motion by which our hearts were encouraged and refreshed immediately upon the accomplishment of every good deed, Hence come our holiest raptures, our sublimest ecstasies, the enthusiasms which lift us into the gladness of heaven: hence, too, comes that sweet content which never fails to crown the day’s labour done by the hands of the good man. If we would know how happy human life can be, how like God’s own life, peaceful with the very quiet of heaven, let us go about doing good, and thus imitate the Son of God.
Then coming back to the other side of the great truth, there stands before us the solemn fact that though justice be long delayed yet it will be eventually vindicated. Adoni-bezek had run a long course of wickedness: seventy kings had suffered under his cruel knife. It seemed as if all power had been given into his hands. As king after king entered within the shadow of his dominion all courage must have sunk and died Yet even Adoni-bezek came within the grip of the law and learned that the time of punishment is with the Lord and not with man. We are apt to suppose that after a certain time we have outwitted the law of retribution. When half a lifetime has been lived we say, Surely there can be no revival of the forgotten offence. We pass an act of oblivion regarding our own moral misdeeds. God’s hour is coming; a stormy and terrible hour. Adoni-bezek acknowledged his punishment to be just; he saw it to be God’s act; so at last every wicked man will own that hell is his proper place. Could there be any comfort in perdition, it would arise from the fact that the punishment there inflicted is just. Surely some such reflection as this alone can enable the criminal to bear the tremendous penalty of lifelong servitude. Innocence might enable him to bear it, because of the sureness of an ultimate vindication and reward; and consciousness that the punishment is deserved might mitigate the severity of the penalty, because the conscience would be saying all the while, “As I have done unto others, so hath the Lord requited me.” Let us then be solemnised and yet comforted. Life is not a haphazard movement as in some aspects it occasionally appears to be. Above it all is seated the ever-watching and incorruptible Judge. Let us give ourselves no uneasiness about the punishment of offenders; let us do our work honestly and straightforwardly whoever may oppose, and in the long run we shall see that there is a rod for the wicked, and a crown for those who do well. An awful message the pulpit must ever have to deliver to the wicked man: “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished;” “Be sure your sin will find you out” The judgment of the last day may therefore be the briefest of all exercises, forasmuch as every man will be a witness either for or against himself, and will answer the look of the Judge in a way which will signify beyond all misinterpretation either heaven or hell.
Prayer
Almighty God, we bless thee for the wonderful words of our Savior. We often cannot understand what he saith; yet from what we do understand, we know that the very mystery of his speech is itself a blessing. The noontide of revelation will come, the full light will shine upon all his words; then shall we see how beautiful they are, as flowers of summer, and how rich they are, as sheaves of harvest. Who can find out the Son of God unto perfection? Who can say, This is his meaning, and there is none other? Sooner can we lay a line upon the whole heaven, and measure the height thereof, than we can understand unto perfectness the wisdom of the Son of God. Never man spake like this Man. Verily he is no man only: there is a reach in his arm which is not found in human arms: he raises it to the stars, he lays his hand upon the throne of God, he searches all heaven. His words are full of love, full of mystery, full of grace. We wonder at the gracious words which proceed out of his mouth the words themselves so gracious and made doubly gracious by the tenderness and majesty of his tone. Give us at all times when Christ is the speaker, the hearing ear, the understanding heart, and the obedient will; then shall our hearing be a means of grace, and the sight of Christ by the vision of the soul shall be a ministry of transfiguration: then shall we be like him when we see him as he is. To gather round thy book is our chief delight; this is the very jubilee of time, the hour of joy and growth and liberty. May no man miss the sacredness of the opportunity: may every moment be begrudged that is not spent in eager attention, and may the one desire of every listener be to know what God the Lord hath spoken the invisible God in heaven, or the visible and human Christ on earth. Thou knowest all the burdens we carry, and with what little strength we bear them. Every perplexity of our life is known unto thee. We are baffled, disappointed, turned back, surprised by the proportion of our foes, and amazed by their uncalculated number; but God is with us, and when the Omnipotent One shall make bare his arm, behold all enemies shall be dispersed and all difficulties overcome. Help any men who are being crushed by their burdens. They dare not tell all the tale of distress; they hide it in their hearts, and grow old by the very concealment of the misery. The Lord look upon all men, read the secret of life, send salvation from the Cross, and help from the sanctuary. Amen
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVI
EVENTS PRECEDING THE JUDGES AND SOME SPECIAL DELIVERER
Jdg 1:1-3:31
We have had the introduction to the book of Judges and the analysis, and with that analysis before you, we shall now take up the book itself, covering the first three chapters. That takes in a brief account of three of the judges and brings us to the great discussion of Deborah and Barak, to which we must give an entire section, as we shall give a section to Gideon and one to Jephthah, one to Samson, and one to the migration of Dan and the tribe of Benjamin. So there will be five sections after this one on the book of Judges. According to the chronological analysis submitted, we take up in order the matters antecedent to Jehovah’s call of special deliverers called judges.
1. The first period is a brief period of fidelity to Jehovah after the death of Joshua, (Jdg 2:6-10 ). As in Exodus, a change towards Israel came when there arose a king that knew not Joseph, so here toward Jehovah Israel changed when a new generation arose who had not personally known the great exploits of Joshua, nor participated in the solemn covenant renewals.
The historical lesson is of great signification, that neither the experience nor the piety of the fathers can be educationally transmitted to their children. There cannot be a more decisive proof of the inherent depravity of the race, of the necessity of the spirit’s work in every generation. The wise man sadly said, “There is no remembrance of former things,” and the prophet with equal sadness enquired, “Our fathers! Where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?” There is no such thing as hereditary grace. The whole fight for salvation must be fought over from start to finish with each incoming soul and with each generation. Even the glories of the millennium are followed by an outbreak of Satan, the most formidable of all, with a new and unconverted generation.
2. The second period is the exploits of Judah alone before Joshua’s death, Jdg 1:8-15 . You are to understand that all the particulars of this section preceded the death of Joshua, Jdg 1:8-15 ; Jdg 1:20 . Tribal responsibility commenced when the land was allotted and the general or national army was dismissed, Jos 21:43-22:6 . The book of Judges in describing tribal responsibility goes back to this period and includes with matters transpiring after Joshua’s death tribal events preceding. Therefore, in time order the second paragraph precedes the first. The capture of Jerusalem, Jdg 1:8 , preceded the campaign against Adoni-bezek and was not a sequel to it as your Revised Version would indicate.
The King James Version is better here and at Gen 12:1 : “God had said to Abraham,” rightly using the “had fought” and “had said” instead of the past tense “said” and “fought” which accords with the facts and doesn’t violate the grammar of the language. In Hebrew there is no pluperfect tense and the context must always determine whether to put the past tense or the pluperfect tense, a fact which your Revised Version ignores more than once. Now, if you will put the word “had” there at the beginning of Jdg 1:8 and then include the paragraph in quotation marks, you will not get confused. It is an outright quotation from Joshua, and the use of the pluperfect “had” would save a great many perplexities of mind. More than once in the book of Judges this remark will apply. In other words you need quotation marks because the matter is quoted from Joshua and you need the word “had” instead of the imperfect. This explains the puzzle to most commentators, of the first sentence in the book, “And it came to pass after the death of Joshua,” and then seems to relate things that had happened in Joshua’s time.
A prominent lawyer said he would have to quit teaching Sunday school if he could not account for the apparent discrepancies (and they are only apparent) between Joshua and Judges and between this and another part of Judges. He sent me a letter, a remarkably well-written one, showing thoughtful study. He is evidently troubled with difficulties that he doesn’t know how to solve, and it illustrates the necessity of a theological seminary. It shows that the unaided, untrained mind of the average preacher with few books cannot grapple with some of the apparently most serious difficulties in the book. Now, it used to bother me no little and I determined to get at the end of it one way or another, but it is now plain sailing in my mind.
When I read the first chapter of Judges I read the first seven verses and at the next verse, which tells about the Jerusalem campaign, I stick up quotation marks and use the word “had” and carry that on to the end of Jdg 1:16 . Now, with that passage in parenthesis your first seven verses will harmonize with Jdg 1:17-19 . So that in considering the history of the tribal responsibility of Judah we commence with Jdg 1:8 , which describes matters in Joshua’s lifetime. In that you will notice, if you look carefully, that Judah alone fought the Jerusalem and Hebron campaign down to the end of Jdg 1:15 . In the preceding verses, (Jdg 1:1-7 ) and the following, (Jdg 1:17-19 ) it is Judah and Simeon who fought the campaign. Very distinct as to the object, very distinct as to the parties conducting it and very distinct in the time. The beautiful story of Caleb, Othniel, and Achsah, the daughter of the one and the wife of the other, belongs, therefore, to the earlier date. We have already considered this in the book of Joshua. Just now I wish to put only one library question. In what romance written by Sir Walter Scott is a maiden’s hand in marriage, as here in this story, offered for a prize, open to all contestants, to the hero who would perform a certain exploit? That is what Caleb does, offers his daughter’s hand to whoever would capture a certain town. There is an analogous story to that one in one of the Waverley novels. Answer that question and briefly outline the story. Note how the thrifty girl secures her dowry. I don’t blame her. She is disposed of in marriage very acceptably to herself, but she thinks that her father, out of his big possessions, should wish, himself, to help her. I have always admired this girl for making that request of her father.
The reference here and elsewhere to the capture of Jerusalem with the later reference to it as being yet in the hands of the Jebusites after it had been captured twice, gives trouble to some minds and calls for some explanation. It will be recalled that Joshua himself, with a united army, captured the country in a general way by defeating all organized armies and dissipating all open opposition. But the people did not occupy and settle the conquered provinces until years afterward. So the remnants of the defeated people would return and occupy their old territory. So with the tribal victories. That part of Jerusalem lying in Judah’s territory was captured, but as the fortified citadel in the upper town lay in Benjamin’s territory, it is expressly said they were not dispossessed by Benjamin and so would measurably control the whole city. Indeed they were not finally expelled from the upper town (Jerusalem) until David’s day. The line between Judah and Benjamin passed through the city.
In the same way Joshua disrupted the northern confederacy, centering at Hazor, and slew Jabin (Jabin being the name of a dynasty as Pharaoh, Caesar, or Abimelech), and inasmuch as the tribes to which this conquered territory belonged did not actually settle it till years afterwards, another Jabin is reoccupying the old territory and city. This applies to territory east of the Jordan. It is twice repeated that it was not the purpose of God to expel them utterly at once, but little by little to prevent the unoccupied land going to waste, and to prove the fidelity of the tribes when responsibility passed to them in their several capacities. All that God promised to accomplish through Joshua was literally fulfilled, and whether the tribes followed up his victories, dispossessing the remnants and actually settling the lands, depended upon themselves and was expressly so stated.
3. We now come to the history, after the death of Joshua, of the seven and a half tribes west of the Jordan, and in a very orderly way the book of Judges tells how each of these tribes succeeded or failed. And all of that is told in the following parts of the first chapter, Jdg 1:1-7 , then it skips to Jdg 1:17 and goes on to the end of the chapter. Now, we have not come to the judges yet, but we have come to the tribal responsibility after Joshua’s death. Now, this period opens with proof that the assembled tribes rightly appealed to Jehovah to designate which tribe should commence the campaign. This appeal was doubtless made at Shiloh, the central place of worship, and answered by the high priest through Urim and Thummirn, according to the Mosaic law and precedent. The answer assigned the initiative to Judah, who associated himself with Simeon since the territories were not only contiguous but co-mingled. We cannot but be impressed with the fidelity of the assembled tribes to Jehovah though now without any leader but Phinehas, the high priest. Without their great lawgiver, Moses, and the great general, Joshua, both extraordinary officers for special emergencies which passed, the nation is on trial through its regular officers. The high priest and Shiloh represent the national unity. The princes and elders represent the regular tribal authority. The high priest transmits Jehovah’s voice to them, tribe by tribe, in order. And the remnants of the first chapter tell the story of the experiment, tribe by tribe.
Judah and Simeon, leading off, conduct the campaign described in Jdg 1:1-7 ; Jdg 1:17-19 . That leaves the intervening paragraph that was quoted from Joshua of what Judah alone had previously done. The sum of this campaign is that they first capture Bezek, which is not very far from Jerusalem and Hebron, the three places forming the angles of a triangle. And they inflicted on Adonibezek the mutilation he had inflicted on seventy petty kings conquered by him. The tragedy in a few words is told by himself. The lex talionis found him. What is the lex talionis ? Moses gives it: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” In this case the lex talionis comes, “A thumb for a thumb, and a toe for a toe.” This man tells the tragedy of the story himself. It comes from God through man. It seems to me that his head ought to have been cut off, as he had been so cruel and made the chieftains take the place of dogs. His heels ought to have been cut off right back of his neck. The record says that they brought him to the Judah part of Jerusalem, gained in a campaign in Joshua’s time. The Judah and Simeon story is continued in Jdg 1:17-19 . They captured Zephath, Hormah and three of the five Philistine cities and captured the hill country throughout their territory. But they failed in these particulars:
(1) They did not conquer two of the five Philistine cities.
(2) They had not faith in Jehovah to face the war chariots in the plains and the chariots of the north.
(3) They did not settle up as they conquered. Now, the record disposes of Benjamin’s case in Jdg 1:21 , but there is a big appendix that we have to study and I cannot incorporate it here because it will have to be in a section by itself. Benjamin’s failing is the key to the whole territory west of the Jordan. The record says that he not only did not dispossess them but he made a treaty with them contrary to the law.
We pass on, then, to the word “Joseph.” When the word “Joseph” is used, it means both Ephraim and Manasseh. While they are together, they capture one city; somewhat questionable strategy, but they got it. Having discussed their success, he will discuss their failure. Jdg 1:27-29 will tell you wherein they failed and what places they did not take. He left them there and the verses following will tell you where each failed. You know when the land was divided that Joshua required Ephraim to go and take the woods. Well, Ephraim didn’t go up and take the woods in the mountains.
There is no need for me to take them up tribe by tribe. In a few words it is clearly shown. I will make a remark on the failure Dan made. He made the biggest failure of all. The enemies that he was to conquer almost ran him out of the country and that led to the migration of Dan to Laish, way up in the northern part of the territory, and we will find when we come to discuss the migration of Dan, only hinted at in the book of Joshua, the extent of Dan’s failure. It was a fearful failure; they captured the town of Laish and set up that image with Gershon, the grandson of Moses, as officiating priest. That is the failure of Dan. Tribe by tribe they failed. There is nothing said about the tribes east of the Jordan, but they failed also.
4. We now come to an exceedingly important event in the beginning of Jdg 2:1 “The angel of Jehovah came up from Gilgal to Bochim.” They all had broken the covenant and the angel announces to them that these enemies that they had spared should not be driven out before them; that they should remain as thorns in their sides. It looks like a very promising revival when the angel got through with his remonstrance. You see they all assembled there and they wept and offered sacrifices to Jehovah, and it looked as if a reformation had begun.
Now we take Jdg 6:1 : “The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah.” Now we are going to find out what evil. That beats any evil yet. Heretofore they had made treaties with them but now, “they did evil in the sight of Jehovah and served the Baalim and bowed down before them” Please notice the names of these deities. Baalim, that is the plural, as cherubim is the plural of cherub. “Baal, Baalim,” that means that Baal, the sun-god, in different places went by different names. I confess that if you have to worship anything like that, that the sun is a big, bright thing to worship, a most life-giving thing. If I were going to adopt idolatrous worship, I had rather take the sun than anything else. The ancient Peruvians and the ancient Persians worshiped the sun. Many nations have worshiped the sun. The other name, Ashtareth, is the female deity corresponding to the male deity, Baal. Literally it means the moon, called among the Greeks the Goddess Astarte, who drove the moon chariot, as they believed. There the female deity corresponds to the sun deity, but as there were many Baalim, so there was not only Ashtareth but Ashtoroth.
When we come to Jdg 3:7 , we find a new name to look at. The Revised Version reads this way: “The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah . . . served Baalim and Asheroth.” That is not “Asheroth” in the King James Version. There it reads “groves,” as where it says, “and Gideon cut down a grove.” That puzzled me at one time, but if you will follow that word, you will see that it does not mean trees; it is wooden images. Asheroth is a wooden image. Now, Baal is an image made out of stone, but when” ever you come to Asheroth images they were made out of wood and stood up in groups, and often they were cut down and burned. This was their culminating sin. The record then tells us when they got to that climax and withdrew from God, that they were not able to stand before their enemies. If they farmed, an enemy would come and eat up the crop. If they went to battle in one way they would flee in seven ways. With God against them they could do nothing.
5. Now, that brings us to what is called the period of the judges, and from Jdg 2:16-3:6 , gives a prospective review of Judges, the whole period. The author is not going into the details of the book of Judges, but the object of that paragraph is to give a prospective review; how, when they left Jehovah and he sent an oppressor, they would cry unto him for mercy. Then he would hear them and send them a deliverer. Then when that special deliverer left them they would be faithful for a time. So that paragraph is simply what you would call the heading of all the book of Judges. If it were put into one chapter, that would be the contents. It gives a review of the book without mentioning special names.
6. That brings us to the Judges proper, and the first judge is Othniel. It had probably been many years since he got that girl. He was a plucky fellow, of the tribe of Judah and the first judge. We are also informed who was the first oppressor. The first oppressor was Cushan-richathaim king of Mesopotamia. He was a son of Ham and occupied the territory between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, that great mother of nations. In all the subsequent history of those nations whenever a stream pours out from between the Tigris and Euphrates you are going to see trouble. That is where Abraham came from, but lower down. It is unnecessary to go into any details of this campaign. The record simply states that this king of Mesopotamia came from between the rivers and, of course, he conquered first the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan and then crossed the Jordan and struck the territory of the tribes of Judah. And he oppressed the land for years, then the Lord put into the heart of Othniel to lead Israel. The record states that he did it handsomely. He defeated this king and brought a long rest to the people.
Now, the next judge was Ehud, the left-handed fellow. And a blow from a left-handed fellow is the hardest to dodge. Jehovah uses various methods to accomplish his purpose; sometimes he uses the devil. Now here is Moab. You go back to Genesis and read that Abraham’s nephew, Lot, was called out of Sodom and Gomorrah and his daughters, thinking the world had come to an end and that they and their father were all that was left, made their father drunk and so became mothers of Moab and Ammon. Moab comes over and oppresses the people, following right in the track of Cushan. You notice the oppression so far is coming from the east, showing that the two and a half tribes were the first decadent tribes. The deliverer was Ehud, and I need not tell you he killed Eglon, the fat old king of Moab. The other thing is concerning Shamgar. There is only one verse about him and he fought only one fight. He fought that with an oxgoad, that is, a long, heavy pole sharp at one end and heavy at the other. It makes a formidable weapon. This finishes Jdg 3 .
QUESTIONS
1. What parallel between Exodus and Joshua?
2. What the historic lesson?
3. What the time of the events of this section?
4. What difficulty of translation here? Explain fully.
5. In what romance by Sir Walter Scott is a maiden’s hand in marriage as here in this story, offered as a prize to the man who would perform a certain exploit? Give brief outline of the story.
6. Explain the reference to Jerusalem’s being in the hands of the Jebusites. In like manner the reference to Jabin.
7. How did they determine which tribe should commence the campaign of subduing the remnants?
8. Which was to take the initiative?
9. What is the lex tationis and what example here?
10. In what did Judah and Simeon fail?
11. What advance did Benjamin make in violating the law?
12. What Joseph’s success and failure?
13. Give briefly Dan’s failure.
14. What the purpose and effect of his coming?
15. What advance did they make now in violating the law? Name their gods.
16. What the result of this culminating sin?
17. Explain in general terms this prospective review.
18. Who the first judge? The first oppressor?
19. Who the second judge? The second oppressor?
20. Who the third judge? The third oppressor (Jdg 3:31 )?
21. Whence came the first two oppressors and what does this show? Whence the third oppressor?
Jdg 1:1 Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
The Book of Judges, ] Who were God’s lieutenants, extraordinarily raised up, as occasion required: for himseff still held the iura regalia, the royal rights and royalties, till Saul’s reign: whence Josephus calleth the government of this people a theocracy, or God government. Whether Samuel wrote this book, as the Hebrews say he did, or some other holy prophet or prophets, it mattereth not. Regis epistolis acceptis, saith Gregory, when a king sendeth his letters to his subjects, it is ridiculous for them to inquire with what pen he wrote them. God is the author of this book; and the argument of it we have in the second chapter, as also in Psa 106:1-48 . And whereas Vopiscus a saith, Neminem historicorum non aliquid esse mentitum; that all heathen historians have taken some liberty to lie; of this, and the rest of the sacred writings, we may safely say, as Rev 22:6 , “These sayings are faithful and true”; they are also “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 2Ti 3:16
a In Vita Aureliani
Ver. 1. Now after the death of Joshua. ] The enemies haply might hope to hold their own, now that the lion was dead; as the loss of a valiant general is sometimes the ruin of a whole state; witness the Thebans, known by their calamities only, after the death of their renowned Epaminondas. But Israel, whilst they kept close to their covenant, might truly triumph and say, as in Isa 33:22 , “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.”
The children of Israel asked the Lord. 1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
Ver. 1. Jude the servant ] To distinguish him from Judas the traitor, lest he should suffer by mistake, as Nicholas the deacon is thought to do, as if he were the author of the sect of the Nicolaitans, which Christ hated. This Jude or Judas, was also surnamed Lebbaeus, that is, hearty; as Hooper the martyr was called hearty Hooper. He was indeed a hearty friend to the truth, earnestly contending for the faith once delivered unto the saints; and ( haereticorum malleus ) a hammer against heretics, whom he describeth here to the life, and opposeth them to his utmost.
To them that are sanctified ] Or to them that are beloved, as other copies have it.
Preserved ] “Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,” 1Pe 1:5 .
Now = And. Commencing with the same word as the preceding books; thus connecting them all together. The book of Joshua = the inheritance possessed: Judges = the inheritance despised. Records the failure of the People, and the faithfulness of Jehovah. The Epilogue (Jdg 21:25) gives the key to the whole book. See note on Jdg 17:6.
Joshua. Compare Jos 24:29.
children = sons.
asked = enquired: i.e. by Urim and Thummim, as in Jdg 18:5; Jdg 20:18. See note on Exo 28:30. Num 26:55.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Who . . . ? All had been commanded. Deu 20:17. Jos 10:40.
Through Moses, the children of Israel were let out of Egypt and God began to form a national kind of identity and began to forge the beginnings of a nation. At the death of Moses, Joshua, who was the servant of Moses, took over and continued to lead the people now into the land that God had promised to their father Abraham that should be theirs, that they should inhabit. And thus, God keeping his covenant and his word to Abraham.
Now the book of Judges takes up the next period in their history. There were some thirteen Judges over Israel. They became sort of quasi leaders of Israel. They would judge in the matters of the people. They were leaders but never fully empowered by the people as rulers. They were in an interim period between Joshua and the establishing of a monarchy at which time Saul became the first king over Israel.
So this book of Judges covers this period of time between the death of Joshua and the coming in of Samuel, who was the final judge over Israel and who anointed Saul to be the first king over Israel, where their form of government was changed from a theocracy, God ruling over to people, to a monarchy. Now the theocracy was not successful simply because the people would not submit to the rule of God.
In the book of Judges we find a pattern that emerges, a very tragic pattern, and that is during the time when they were blessed, at ease, without war. They would turn to other gods and begin to worship Baal and Ashtoreth and the various gods of the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Hittites and the Jebusites, the people in the land in which they were dwelling. And because of their apostasy God would give them over into the hand of their enemies and they would be oppressed by their enemies. And being oppressed by their enemies they would cry out unto the Lord and the Lord would raise up a judge to be a deliverer and they would be delivered from the oppression from their enemies. Then they would have a period of prosperity, the judge would die and back into the same old pattern of turning their backs on God and beginning again to worship Baal and the other gods and the groves and all. And it’s just a sad, tragic story of failure, the failure of consistency in the worship of God and in the honoring of God.
So, as we enter into the book of Judges we enter the scene at the death of Joshua there in verse one.
NOW after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? ( Jdg 1:1 )
You remember the book of Joshua closed where the people were in the land but there was yet much of the land that was not yet conquered. They had not completely driven out the enemies. They had not yet taken all of the territories that God had promised unto them. So when Joshua died they inquired and they said, “Who shall go up first to take the land that God has given?”
[And so] the LORD spoke and said, Judah shall go first ( Jdg 1:2 ):
Now you remember that Judah was given that land south of Jerusalem. And so Judah said to Simeon, whose lot was the extreme south, even south of Judah down towards Beersheba and all, said to Simeon, “You go out and help us take our portion and then we’ll help you to take your portion.” And so Judah began to attack the cities and take the cities and possess the cities that God had apportioned unto Judah.
And they came to Bezek: and there they killed ten thousand men of Bezek and took the city and Adonibezek ( Jdg 1:4-5 ):
Now Adoni means “lord” so he was the lord of Bezek or the king of Bezek. They captured him and they cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
And Adonibezek said, There have been sixty or seventy kings, that have gathered their meat under my table without their thumbs and toes: as I have done, so hath God requited me ( Jdg 1:7 ).
So it was a practice, I guess, of this particular king, the lord of Bezek when he would conquer a king to cut off his great toes and his thumbs and he would actually be there at the kings’ table. Seventy kings he had conquered this way. And he said, “As I have done, now God has requited unto me.”
There’s a very interesting scripture, it declares “as a man soweth, so shall he also reap.” And so many times a person can say, “As I have done, so has God requited unto me.”
“For in the same manner in which ye judge, ye shall be judged and whatever measure you meat, it shall be meated out to you. As I have done, so has God requited me.”
And they fought against Jerusalem and they had taken it; they’d smitten it with the edge of the sword. Then they went down to fight against the Canaanites that swelled in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley. And they went against the Canaanites in Hebron.
And there Caleb said, the one who takes Kirjathsepher, I will give him Achsah my daughter as a wife ( Jdg 1:12 ).
And so Otheniel who was the nephew of Caleb or the cousin of Achsah, went up and took the city and so Caleb gave her to him for a wife. So she then came to her dad and asked for springs. And the story is told there in chapter one of how he gave her the upper and the lower springs for that area. Then we have the tragic story in verse twenty-one.
The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem ( Jdg 1:21 );
But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
The house of Joseph, went up against Bethel: the LORD was with them ( Jdg 1:22 ).
They found a man and they said, “Tell us where the secret entrance to Bethel is and we will spare you. So the entrance to the city of Bethel, they went in and destroyed it, but they saved the man and his house alive who went out and established another city, named it after the original name of Bethel which is Luz.
But then Manasseh [in verse twenty-seven] did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethsean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, not the other cities ( Jdg 1:27 ),
Including-here is Megiddo. Any of you that have been in Israel have seen the ruins of Megiddo.
And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out. Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites,… Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron [and several cities]. Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, or Zidon ( Jdg 1:28-31 ),
And so the story is that of an incomplete victory. Now, God had told them “When you come into the land, you’re to utterly drive out the inhabitants thereof. You’re not to make any covenant of peace with them. You’re not to dwell together and try to coexist with them in peaceful terms.” Utterly drive them out was the command of God. But here is a failure on their part to obey the voice of God.
Now there was no doubt, a rational in their minds. They no doubt thought, “Well, if we allow these people to stay here-actually they want to be on friendly terms. They’ll be strengthened by us. We can be strengthened by them being here, and we ought to be able to live peaceably with them, coexist together and they can be our servants. They can cut our wood for us and gather, you know, our crops. And they can build our buildings. And we’ll just use them.” Whatever the rational is, it is wrong if it’s opposed to what God has ordered.
Now, many times in our own minds, what God has required or what God has commanded of us doesn’t seem to be for our best interest. It so often seems that we can figure out a better plan that what God did and we are often guilty, as were the children of Israel of not completely obeying the commandment of the Lord because we don’t understand why God commanded it. It doesn’t make sense to us, but God has a reason for everything that he commands. And whether it makes sense to me or not, it is important that I obey the commandment of God because you’ll always find out that God always knew what he was talking about and there was a reason behind the command.
Now, the command to utterly exterminate the people seems to be harsh, it seems to be cruel. To utterly drive them out from their land, that seems to be a very cruel command. And it may be that the people just felt, “Well, that’s too harsh, that’s too cruel. We don’t want to do that.” And thus in disobeying God it brought ultimate problems to their children, to their descendents. It became a perennial problem afterwards because they failed to completely obey the voice of the Lord.
“
The Book of Judges covers historically a period from the death of Joshua to the judgeship of Samuel and the introduction of the monarchy.
It opens with a description of the general condition of affairs at the close of the period of Joshua’s leadership. He had led the people into possession of the land but had left them with much to be done ere its final subjugation. Their fist act was to seek to know the will of God as to who should commence this final work of conquest. Judah, the kingly tribe, was appointed. Simeon’s inheritance lay within the borders of Judah and therefore Simeon acted together with Judah.
The story as here given reveals that whereas the work began in earnest, it gradually weakened. The Lord was with Judah and victories resulted. The Lord was with Joseph and Beth-el was taken. Manasseh and Ephraim and all the rest weakened in the work and Canaanites were left in possession. This false toleration or manifestation of cowardice resulted in their ultimate undoing. The confession of Adonibezek (verse 7) is remarkable as revealing the fact that one of their own number was conscious of the corruption which had overtaken the people of the land and of the consequent justice of the divine procedure.
Renewing the Conquest
Jdg 1:1-15
The land had been given. There could be no doubt about that. In the ancient covenant which Jehovah had made with Abram, He said: Unto thy seed have I given this land. See Gen 15:18. It had also been conquered and divided by lot, as we learn in Jos 14:1-5. The portion of Judah is specified in Jos 15:1-63. But notwithstanding all, each tribe had to possess its own, first by the sword, and ultimately by the plow and the spade.
It is not enough to be assured that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. We must possess our possessions. By faith, and patience, and daily use, we must appropriate the resources which are stored up in Christ Jesus. See Oba 1:17; Eph 1:3. Let us not be content with the nether springs of ordinary experience, but let us seek the upper springs that arise hard by the throne of God!
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by lifes unresting sea!
Judges 1 and 2
The character of Joshua is, like that of many soldiers, simple and easily understood. He was strong and of a good courage, a man, fit not only for battle, but for tedious campaigning; full of resources, and able to keep up the heart of a whole people by his hopeful bearing. It was one of the most difficult of tasks which was entrusted to Joshua. He was to lead the people through a series of the most brilliant and exciting military successes, and then to turn them to the most peaceful pursuits. It has been said of the Romans, that they conquered like savages and ruled like philosophic statesmen. The same transition had to be accomplished by Israel, and into the strong hand of Joshua was the delicate task committed.
I. But the work he did needs some justification. Many persons have been staggered by the slaughter of the Canaanites. No doubt the Canaanites were idolaters, but is this not to propagate religion by the sword? The key to this difficulty was given in the very first confirmation of the grant made to Abraham. When the land of Canaan was made over to him and his descendants, he was told that they could not at once enter on possession, “because the iniquity of the Amorites was not full” The transference of territory was thus from the first viewed and treated as a judicial transaction. Between this and many other outwardly similar conquests there was all the difference which there is between a righteous execution, which rejoices the hearts of all good men, and murder, which makes us ashamed of our nature.
II. The new leader of Israel received a name which, by identifying his leadership with God’s, gave constant promise of victory. Originally called Hoshea, or Salvation, this name was changed, when he led the spies, to Jehoshua, or the Lord is my Salvation. And it has never ceased to seem significant to the Christian that this name of Joshua should have been that by which our Lord was called. (1) We are, in the first place, reminded by this parallel that the help afforded to us in Christ is God’s help, and this in a fuller sense than was true in Israel’s case. The Angel of the Lord was one person, and Joshua another. But in the person of Jesus Christ these two are one-the human Leader and divine Saviour. (2) We are reminded by this parallel that as in the conquest of the land by Joshua, so in our salvation, there is a somewhat perplexing mixture of miracle and hard fighting. (3) We see in this conquest to which Israel was led by Joshua, in what sense and to what extent we should look for present victory over sin. Joshua did not deal only in promises, and no one who is in earnest about sin will be put off with mere expectations of deliverance. The Saviour I need is one who can help me to-day, one who counts my present enemies His enemies, and who can communicate to me such real strength as shall make the difference between my being defeated and my conquering them. If you fall into sin that makes you doubt whether Christ is a present Saviour, there is really nothing else to say than this: You must win back again the ground you have lost.
M. Dods, Israel’s Iron Age, p. 3.
Jdg 1:7
I. As I have done, so God hath requited me-then the life of man cannot escape the judgment of God. Man may deny it, may theoretically disregard it, but cannot escape it.
II. As I have done, so God hath requited me-then let no man take the law into his own hands. We are to look at the moral workings of things, and to see in the results which are forced upon us, not the petty anger of man, but the holy and righteous judgment of God.
III. As I have done, so God hath requited me every good deed will be honoured with appropriate reward. Remember: (1) Good deeds are their own reward. (2) Deeds done merely for the sake of reward cannot be good.
IV. As I have done, so God hath requited me-then though justice be long delayed, yet it will be vindicated eventually.
Parker, City Temple, vol. iii., p. 182 (see also Pulpit Notes, p. 133).
References: Jdg 1:7.-Parker, vol. vi., p. 162. Jdg 1:7.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 16. Jdg 1:19, Jdg 1:20.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1690. Jdg 1:27-36.-Parker, vol. v., p. 313. 1.-Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 51. 1, etc.-G. Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega, vol. ii., p. 179.
Jdg 2:1-5
This is clearly an incident to arrest our attention and to arouse our curiosity. Let us inquire: (1) Who this angel was? (2) What the meaning of “Gilgal” and “Bochim” is; and (3) What significancy may lie in that apparently meaningless ascent of the heavenly visitant from Gilgal to Bochim.
I. Most commentators recognise in this angel the uncreated angel of the covenant, even the second person of the Blessed Trinity. This “Angel” uses words which are emphatically the words of God Himself and of no lesser being.
II. Gilgal was the first camp of Israel after Jordan was actually crossed, it was at once a goal and a starting-point. To Christians it represents that position of vantage, that excellence of endowment whence they go forth in obedience and faith to subdue their spiritual foes. Bochim was the place of weepers-the place of mere feelings, emotions, idle fears, barren sorrow, unavailing regret.
III. The visit of the angel to reproach us should teach us to make a vigorous move, to break up from Bochim, and make Gilgal once more our headquarters. Sentimental regrets, self-bewailing tears, barren religious emotions, only divert attention from real remedies and practical duties.
R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 59.
I. The sin of Israel, here reproved, consisted in their not thoroughly driving out the inhabitants of the land and throwing down their altars. Christ bids His people mortify their members which are on the earth. Come out and be separate and touch not the unclean thing. For generally we have no definite plan of life at all. Hence vacillation, fitfulness, inconsistency, excess and deficiency, by turns. The opportunity of setting up a high standard and aim is lost, and soon, amid the snares of worldly conformity, we sigh for the day of our visitation, when we might have started from a higher platform and run a higher race than we can now hope ever to realise.
II. Consider the inexcusableness of the sin in question. Look back to the past and call to mind from what a state the Lord has rescued you, at what a price, by what a work of power. Look around on your present circumstances, see how the Lord has performed all that he swore to your fathers; the land is yours, and it is a goodly land. And if, in looking forward to the future, you have any misgivings, has He not said, “I will never break My covenant with you.” What can you ask more? A past redemption, a present possession, and a covenant never to be broken. Are these considerations not sufficient to bind you to the whole work and warfare of the high calling of God, and to make cowardice and compromise exceeding sinful.
III. Consider the dangerous and disastrous consequences of the sin in question. Hear the awful sentence of God: “They shall be as thorns in your sides,” etc. (Jdg 2:3), and then see how the children of Israel lift up their voice and weep. The golden opportunity is lost, their error is not to be retrieved, its bitter fruits are to be reaped from henceforth many days.
R. S. Candlish, Sermons, p 155.
References: Jdg 2:1-5.-J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 185.
Jdg 2:4
I. Observe, first, that the reprover of the people is termed “an angel.” “An angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal.” But the first utterance carries us to the thought of One higher than angel or archangel. The speaker describes Himself as the deliverer of Israel out of Egypt, and He finishes with the denunciation, “Ye have not obeyed My voice.” The coming up from Gilgal seems to connect at once the prophet of Bochim with Joshua’s vision of the Captain of the Lord’s host. In this place and in many others, we have a previous manifestation of the second person of the Trinity in the form of the manhood which in the latter days He was about to take into God. We here see the eternal Word in one of His three great offices, viz., that of prophet or teacher. The burden of His prophecy is worthy of the Divine speaker, for it is the simple enunciation of the fundamental truth of all religion-man in covenant with God, and bound to comply with the terms of that covenant.
II. Consider the result of the prophesying. The general result was but transitory. The people wept and sacrificed unto the Lord. But no amendment ensued. The whole effect was a momentary outburst of feeling and a hasty sacrifice. Most true picture of the reception of the word of God in after time. It is sensational or emotional religion against which Bochim is our warning. There are two principal elements of this fruitless sorrow. The first is want of depth of soul. The second is the “after revolt of the human mind against the supernatural.”
Godly sorrow issues in a repentance not to be repented of, in that thorough turning of the life to God’s service, from which, in the hottest fire of temptation, there is never a turning back to the way of evil again.
Bishop Woodford, Oxford Lent Sermons, 1870, p. 63.
References: Jdg 2:4, Jdg 2:5.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1680. Jdg 2:18.-Parker, vol. vi., p. 162. 2-Ibid., vol. v., p. 324. Jdg 3:4.-Ibid., vol. vi., p. 163. Jdg 3:9, Jdg 3:10.-Ibid., vol. v., p. 333. Jdg 3:15.-Ibid., vol. v., p. 339. Jdg 3:16.-S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 16. Jdg 3:20.-T. Guthrie, Sunday Magazine, 1873, p. 281; T. Cartwright, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 125. Jdg 3:31.-S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 47; Parker, vol. v., p. 344; T. Kelly, Pulpit Trees, p. 21. Jdg 4:1-24. -Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 279. Jdg 4:8.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after 2rinity, Part I., p. 64. Jdg 4:8, Jdg 4:9.-S. Leathes, Truth and Life, p. 99. Jdg 4:14.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvi., p. 273.
Analysis and Annotations
I. THE INTRODUCTION: ISRAELS FAILURE AND THE RESULTS
1. Israels Failure in mingling with the Canaanites
CHAPTER 1
1. The question and the answer (Jdg 1:1-4)
2. Adoni-Bezek (Jdg 1:5-7)
3. Jerusalem (Jdg 1:8)
4. Judahs victory and failure (Jdg 1:9-20)
5. The children of Benjamin and their failure (Jdg 1:21)
6. The failures of others (Jdg 1:22-36)
The book begins with an inquiry of the Lord. This was immediately after the death of Joshua. From chapter 2:7-10 we learn that the people served the Lord during the days of Joshua and the elders who had seen the great works of the Lord and who outlived their leader. Israel looked to the Lord for guidance. They feel their dependence upon Him. How different the history of His people would have been if they had maintained this dependence on the Lord, and acted always in subjection to Him! And the Lord answered the inquiry as He always delights to answer those who put their trust in Him. Judah is to go up to fight against the Canaanite, and the Lord promises victory. The first sign of weakness follows at once. Judah invites Simeon his brother to go with him to fight against the Canaanites, and he promises in return to help Simeon in conquering his lot. It showed that Judah had not full confidence in Jehovah. He put some dependence in his brother, as if he needed his help to gain the promised victory. How often His people have dishonored the Lord by trusting in something besides Himself. Judah going forward by divine command, yet asking the help of Simeon, gained victories, yet he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, for they had chariots of iron (verse 19). What is iron to omnipotence! Had Judah gone forth in utter dependence on Jehovah and in His promise, I have delivered the land into his hand, the chariots of iron would have not stopped him.
But there were great victories, the blessed assurance that Jehovah is with His people, if they go but forward. Adoni-Bezek is punished in the same manner as he in his wickedness had done to others. Infidels have often found fault with the extermination of the Canaanites. The confession of Adoni-Bezek answers these objections. As I have done, so God hath requited me. Their punishment was just and well deserved.
The eighth verse is of interest. In Jos 10:1 Jerusalem is mentioned for the first time in the Bible and that in connection with war. Here the city is smitten by the sword and burned with fire. This has been her history over and over again, and will be again in the future, till the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Then there is mentioned once more the most refreshing picture of Caleb, Othniel and Achsah. (See Jos 15:16-19.) Othniel, which means lion of God, is the center of it. God delights in whole-heartedness and the victories of His people.
The rest of this first chapter has failure stamped upon it. Benjamin, the warrior tribe permitted the Jebusites to dwell with them and did not drive them out. There is not even a reported attempt. The command of the Lord was wholly ignored by them. They were in the worst condition (chapters 20-21). Manasseh failed. Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer. Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali all failed to dislodge the enemies God had commanded them to destroy entirely. And Dan instead of conquering was conquered. The Amorites forced them into the hill country. Unbelief, lack of confidence in Jehovah, was the cause of it all. These enemies here are typical of the flesh and the fleshly lusts in the believer. And these lusts, the carnal nature, must be put and kept in the place of death. We are enabled to do this by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit, who is given to us of God. If we walk not in the Spirit, that is, in faith, we shall be overcome by these things; instead of conquering we will be conquered. The old nature not triumphed over will bring us into bondage as it is with so many of Gods children.
Now: Jos 24:29, Jos 24:30
asked: Jdg 20:18, Jdg 20:28, Exo 28:30, Num 27:21, 1Sa 22:9, 1Sa 22:10, 1Sa 23:9, 1Sa 23:10
Reciprocal: Gen 49:8 – thy hand Num 2:3 – the standard Deu 33:7 – and bring Jos 5:1 – Canaanites Jos 9:14 – asked not Jdg 10:18 – What man 1Sa 9:9 – inquire 1Sa 10:22 – inquired 1Sa 14:37 – Shall I go 1Sa 23:2 – inquired 2Sa 2:1 – inquired 1Ki 8:44 – whithersoever 1Ki 22:5 – Inquire 2Ch 6:34 – by the way Pro 20:18 – and
Jude’s Certain Men
The Book of Jude
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The statement, “Thy testimonies are wonderful” is nowhere more strikingly true than in the Book of Jude. No photographer ever made a better likeness and no scientist with his X-ray ever made a truer photograph than the Book of Jude makes concerning “Certain Men.”
Jude is in reality a preface to the Book of Revelation. Jude is apostate Christendom manifested; Revelation is apostate Christendom judged. Jude describes conditions preceding the Coming of the Lord for His saints; Revelation describes the curse which follows.
The Epistle as a whole is a needed warning concerning certain men who are false teachers, mockers, and who are to arise in the last days.
This is established beyond a doubt by comparing two passages in Jude with two passages in Second Peter.
1. Jude’s Certain Men are false teachers (Jdg 1:4).
In Jude we read: “Certain Men have crept in unawares * * denying the Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” In Second Peter we read: “There shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.” The identity is complete. The Certain Men are false teachers.
2. These Certain Men are to arise in the last days.
In Jude we read, “Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts” (Jdg 1:17-18).
In Second Peter we read: “That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His Coming?” (2Pe 3:2-4).
These Scriptures suffice, for they are conclusive.
3. The Certain Men are indeed false teachers, mockers, scoffers: The Certain Men are to arise in the last days.
In Jude, therefore, the trend and the end of twentieth century apostate teachers is given in detail.
If any should question the import of the words “last days,” let them remember that the expression refers to the days which close this age and immediately precede the Lord’s Coming.
The parallel passage in Second Peter tells of the judgment that the day of the Lord, when He comes “as a thief in the night,” will bring upon these mockers who deny His Coming. In Jude, not only is the same warning given, but the little epistle assures those who contend for the faith, that they shall be presented faultless “before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”
As the apostasy which began in the days of the Apostle Paul ripens into the last days, the Certain Men, of the Book of Jude become more and more plainly prominent.
Should one object to the strong and stirring statements which follow, let him remember that the Lord strenuously condemned the Scribes and Pharisees of His day-they were the ripened product of apostate Judaism. No marvel, then, that the most condemnatory language of the epistles is to be found in this little book, which announces God’s judgment against the ripened product of apostate Christianity.
Jude presents apostate teachers gone to their full length, and therefore, gives no uncertain sound either in description, in condemnation, or in the clarion call to contend earnestly for the faith.
I. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE “UNGODLY * * TURNING THE GRACE OF GOD INTO LASCIVIOUSNESS” (Jud 1:4)
The charge against them is not personal lasciviousness, but making the grace of God lasciviousness. God’s grace reaches down to the vilest and lifts him up through redemption into perfect legal whiteness-bloodwashed, he is ready for audience with God.
These men have turned from grace-men are not to be saved by the blood of the Cross, but by social regeneration and by “exerting their own manhood,” “cultivating their own better self,” “lifting themselves above themselves.”
The critic who seeks to relegate the divinely penned story of creation in Genesis, and to enforce his theory of evolution with its “origin and endless capabilities of the species” and its “unlimited time to make the variations produce new forms,” and its “inherited effects of use and disuse,” and its “natural selection,” is ungodly-turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
The evolutionist when he says that man “fell upward, not downward,” that man has evolved from a jelly-like protoplasm to the splendor of God, denies the grace of God which says:
“God created man in His own image.”
“By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.”
“So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” and “Christ died for our sins,” “the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”
The critic who denies God’s creative act, man’s fall, Christ’s substitutionary death, is ungodly-turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
The critic who denies the coming catastrophic judgment of this inhabited earth, and who proclaims instead the “up-ward progress” of the race; the critic who berates the severe denunciation of Almighty God concerning sin, and preaches instead the “essential goodness” of the race; the critic who rejects the righteousness which is by faith in Christ Jesus, and proclaims the final “supremacy of good” –that critic be he optimist, moralist, or esthetic, is ungodly, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
Those who deny the power of the Cross would make God welcome into His presence the unwashed, the unclean, the corrupt, and the guilty; they make the Holy God unholy; they make His grace lasciviousness.
II. THESE CERTAIN MEN “DENY THE ONLY LORD GOD, AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST” (Jud 1:4)
These Certain Men have fallen under Satan’s Edenic stroke, the dethronement of the sovereign Lord with the consequent enthronement of dependent man. With the sovereignty of God and the deity of Christ Jesus denied, every step of the apostasy, as set forth in Jude’s Epistle, is made easy. If Christ is God and Sovereign Lord, we are dependent servants-servants who seek truth, not shun it; servants who preach truth, not prevent it; servants who live the truth, not libel it.
These Certain Men would bring Christ down to man’s level, and exalt man to Christ’s level. If the one is divine, so is the other. If one is the Son of God, so is the other. Distinction lies in attainment, not in attributes. The divine in Christ merely reached a higher state of development than the divine in the average man. Christ was not deity.
These Certain Men make Christ no more than a perfect human. They say that Christ, in a moment of rapturous emotion, saw within Himself the divine nature and declared Himself to be the Son of God. In like manner, all men are sons of God, and should recognize in themselves the divine spark, fanning it until it glows with God-like splendor.
With the Lordship of Christ renounced and the Sonship of man recognized, the ascendancy of the apostasy Is assured, and the day of the apostate teachers has dawned.
Men who renounce the Lordship of Christ find it easy to repudiate the Book of Jonah although in doing so they make Christ, who accepted it, a liar.
Men who renounce the Lordship of Christ find no difficulty in refusing to believe Moses and the prophets, although the Lord Jesus, beginning with Moses and the prophets, expounded in them the things concerning Himself.
Men who renounce the Lordship of Christ can readily reject Moses and the prophets, and still accept the Pauline writings; although the Apostle Paul believed “all things written in the law and the prophets.”
The Pantheist who recognizes God as merely an “unknown force,” and the agnostic who professes to know nothing about God, are in no sense justified in joining the Certain Men contingency and sitting with them as critics on the Word of God-a God who is, to them, an ethereal nonentity.
The scholastic preacher, who professes to be neither pantheistic nor agnostic, but who avows faith in the triune God, and yet, denying Lordship, worships at the shrine of his own philosophical and scientific vagaries, is in no sense justified in joining the critical contingency and sitting in judgment on the Word of God.
Is the critic “ut Deus” that he should feel himself authorized to accept or reject portions of the Holy Scriptures, accordingly as they fit or tail to fit every twist and turn of his theological theories?
“Certain Men” who deny Lordship, and who speak of the Inspired Word as “insipidity and monotony” and as a mere “product of poetic imagination,” are obsessed with folly.
“Certain Men” who deny Lordship and vainly vaunt their specious speculations as infallible, while they proudly parade the infallible, unchangeable, and ever enduring Bible as fallible, are possessed with irrational madness.
“Certain Men” who deny Lordship will worship the premises and the conclusions of their human reasonings as unerring, and profane the Divine Word as no more than the erring collection of scattered writers, worthy of notice merely as a “conception of the customs and habits of early times,” such men are Satan-deceived and Satan-driven.
Let those, who are “servants of the Lord Jesus Christ,” “sanctified by God the Father,” “preserved in Jesus Christ and called,”-let those who are “looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life”; let those who worship “the only wise God, our Saviour,” beware of the subtleties of apostate teachers. “While they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, let us ascribe to Him “glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever, Amen.”
III. THESE CERTAIN MEN HAVE CREPT IN UNAWARES (Jud 1:4)
There have always been apostate teachers, but formerly the leaders were outside the churches.
One hundred years ago, Tom Payne, the infidel, (an avowed oppressor of the truth) taught outside the churches what the destructive critics of today (accepted apostles of the truth) are teaching within the churches. The supposedly new scientific, conclusions which the critics parade, are little more than a rehash of Payne, Huxley, Spencer, and others.
These “Certain Men” have the privilege of rejecting the Word of God, in part or in whole. But why should they creep in unawares? Why should wolves array themselves in sheep’s clothing?
These “Certain Men” have a right to liberty of conscience. But why should they seek fellowship with those who are “holding forth the Word of life”? Outside the camp, they are enemies; inside, they are traitors.
These “Certain Men,” outside the church, have a right to preach “another gospel which is not another,” but they have no right to bring their perversions inside the church as a substitution for the Gospel of Christ.
Their gospel is not God’s Gospel, themselves being witnesses.
The righteousness they seek to establish, based on the achievement of man is not the righteousness of God, based on the work of Christ, The peace they seek to inaugurate, through the prowess of man, is not the peace that God will inaugurate at the Coming of the Son of Man.
Their salvation is a “process of development,” humanly wrought out, and dependent upon environment. It is not a creative act of God, divinely wrought within and dependent upon grace.
Let men who are apostles, “not of men, neither by man, hut by Jesus Christ, and God the Father”: let men who preach a Gospel which is not after man but “by the revelation of Jesus Christ,” beware of these “Certain Men” who have crept in unawares. “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel * * let him be accursed.”
IV. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE SPOTS IN YOUR FEASTS OF CHARITY (Jud 1:12)
Literally “sunken rocks in your love feasts.”
Let the angels weep! “Reprobates concerning the faith,” sitting at feast with the faithful!
Let the heavens marvel! Those who “have departed from the faith” sitting at food with those “nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine.”
Let the saints tremble! Those who have “wandered away from the faith” sitting at table with those who “fight the good fight of faith.”
Shall we feast with them? Shall the “Wisdom that cometh down from above” feast with “the wisdom of this world”; the wisdom which crucified the Lord of Glory?
Shall those who believe that “without shedding of blood there is no remission” fellowship with the so-called “respectable intellect” that partakes of the Lord’s Supper, but denies the efficacy of the Cross?
Shall those who believe that “without shedding of blood there is no remission” fraternize with the “advanced thinker” of this world who keeps Easter, but denies the resurrection?
These men are “sunken rocks,” hidden rocks, danger points in our “feasts.” Rocks where hundreds “concerning faith have made shipwreck”; rocks where multitudes having “departed from the faith” have “turned aside unto Satan.”
Let “good ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine”; let those who “refuse profane and old wives’ fables”; let those who would avoid “profane and vain, babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so-called,” cease to feast, to fellowship and to fraternize with those who are “hidden rocks in their feasts of love.”
Welcome to your feasts of love the scholarship that sits at the feet of the Lord Jesus and learns of Him; but wisely avoid the scholarship that seeks to instruct the Almighty.
V. THESE CERTAIN MEN DESPISE DOMINION AND SPEAK EVIL OF DIGNITIES Jud 1:8-9)
Men who reject the Lordship of Christ will, of course despise dominion. They will acknowledge no God, other than their conscience. They will worship at no shrine other than their reason. They will accept no sovereignty other than their wills.
These men, having disposed of divine dominion, find it easy to “despise dignities.” To be sure, Michael, the archangel, durst not bring against the devil a railing accusation; but these men speak evil of things they know not: and as irrational animals they corrupt themselves. To such men, Satan is a myth, a mere figment of mythology.
Their “radical theology” cannot concede Satan as “a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour.”
Their “revolutionary theories” cannot imagine Satan as “the prince of the power of the air.” “energizing the sons of disobedience.”
Their researches and reasonings cannot permit that Satan is “blinding the minds of the unbelieving.”
These dreamers, who despise dominion and defame dignities, recognize no power to lift themselves up and no power to pull themselves down, existing outside of themselves. Their god is themselves, their, “possible man”; their devil is themselves, their “baser man.”
VI. THESE CERTAIN MEN HAVE “GONE IN THE WAY OF CAIN” (Jud 1:11)
They will pass compliments with God, but will not confess the need of a bleeding sacrifice.
They will meet God on common ground, parading their “wondrous works,” their “scientific achievements,” their vain “reasonings”; but they will not seek approach to God through the Christ of Calvary. The “way of Cain” is a better way to them than that of Abel.
The “new thought” is an improvement upon the “old theology.” The way of the Cross is no longer absolute, it is obsolete. The atonement is a bloody relic of past ages. The bleeding sacrifice is a story of the shambles. The “new way” has forgotten that Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth and the life.” It is builded upon advanced scientific knowledge; it bristles with ethical conceptions. It breaths forth the spirit of the twentieth century.
The “new religion” denies the old foundations. The Cross is a fabric of the faith doomed to fade. Philosophy needs no Cross. Modern science and the modern social-spirit would make Christ of no effect.
VII. THESE CERTAIN MEN HAVE “RUN GREEDILY AFTER THE ERROR OF BALAAM FOR REWARD” (Jud 1:11)
Balaam, who could not curse Israel, suggested to Balac conditions upon which God would curse her. The “error of Balaam” consisted in his failure to grasp the fact that God viewed Israel through, and dealt with Israel upon the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ.
Destructive critics, who have gone in the way of Cain, quickly run in the error of Balaam.
There is no place for the atonement in their theology. The message that proves a stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to the Gentile, is to the critic a rotten basis for redemption.
“Advanced thinkers” have forgotten that God, who dwells in the midst of the Cherubim, can look through the mercy seat where the blood was sprinkled, upon the holy, but broken law that lies within the ark of the covenant.
The rewards of a Cross-despising age have allured men to follow the way of Balaam. The new gospel appeals to the world. It fascinates the ungodly. The new gospel calls forth the praise and plaudits of men-it offers preferment.
Alas, alas, many have forsaken the blood-marked track and “have run greedily after the way of Balaam for reward.”
These Certain Men, unsatisfied with being present at our feasts of love, would seek to dominate them.
VIII. THESE CERTAIN MEN HAVE PERISHED IN THE GAINSAYING OF CORE (Jud 1:11)
Korah defied Moses and sought to press himself into the priesthood. Like Korah, the gainsaying of these “Certain Men” is amazing. To hear them talk, one would judge that wisdom liveth and dieth with them. They speak of the men who hold to the “old paths” as the “common herd,” “dolts, devoid of understanding,”
They imagine that all men of brains have given up the orthodox platform. That those who still hold the “old truths” are “obsessed with a decadent theology.”
These men are Jannes and Jambres all over again. They cannot endure preachers of sound doctrine, but withstand them as vigorously as they witness against the truth they preach.
They not only sneer at the seers of God, but they press themselves into the seership. They not only withstand a faithful ministry, but seek to direct it. They make themselves leaders.
Their voice must be the oracle that plans the policy, maps out the missionary activities, indites the doctrines, composes the creed, directs the discipline, and busies itself with the budget of the local church, and of the denomination.
These Certain Men seek to be oracles, although the masses of the churches and of the denominations they seek to dominate, stand, or are supposed to stand, for the old, old story of Christ crucified, risen and coming again.
IX. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE “MOCKERS” (Jud 1:18)
The advent of mockers during the last days is a definite prophecy of Scripture. False teachers, with Korah defiance, will ever mock the men who stand for the things of God, and the things for which they stand.
Debarring the fact that many of the world’s brainiest men, are men yielded to the Holy Spirit, and standing foursquare on the side of truth; yet, to these “Certain Men,” mockers that they are, a man is indeed a “little fellow,” “untutored,” and “untaught,” who dares to believe in the whole Bible.
Debarring the fact that the men who are bringing things to pass for God, spiritually, are the men standing foursquare for the truth, yet to these men, mockers that they are, all who accept the atonement are “back numbers,” “old fogies,” and “fossils.”
Debarring the fact that the men who are owned and blessed of God are the men who preach a full Gospel, yet, again, these “Certain Men,” mockers that they are, ridicule those who believe in a risen and ascended Lord, as past all hope of being restored to mental equilibrium.
These men mock at the verbal inspiration of the dear old Book-they juggle with the Word of God. These men mock at redemption by the Blood-they know nothing beyond the social uplift. These men mock at punishment for sin. Hell, to them, is a relic of the dark ages-a word too harsh for cultured ears, an offense to the ethical sense of the elite-they know nothing beyond the miseries of this life.
The mockery of these “Certain Men,” however, as it is revealed in Second Peter, reaches its height of infamy in denying the imminent Return of our Lord Jesus.
Not all postmillennialist are destructive critics, but all destructive critics are either postmillennialists, or nonmillennialists.
There is a twofold biblical mark given to mockers, deceivers, antichrists: They deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh; they also deny that Christ Jesus is coming in the flesh.
Jude is tremendously prophetic. A sure sign of the last days is the advent of these mockers. The mockers are here. Their blasphemy is the bane of the hour. The last days are here. Soon the Lord will judge apostate Christendom.
X. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE SENSUAL, HAVING NOT THE SPIRIT (Jud 1:19)
The Greek word is “psuchikoi” (soulish). They are men who are led of the mind, vain reasoners, possessing not the Holy Spirit.
These men. have forgotten that “the natural man receiveth not the things of God.”
These men have spurned the fact that “God has made foolish the wisdom of the world.”
These men have disdained the fact that “the Spirit searcheth the deep things of God”; and, “that no man knoweth the things of God save the Spirit of God.” Men who are soulish, having not the Spirit, are not fit guides in spiritual things. Men who are soulish, having the spirit of the world, cannot know “the things that are freely given to us of God.”
Men who are soulish, walking according to the spirit of their minds, cannot receive “the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto them, neither can they know them, for they are spiritually discerned.”
The wisdom of the world is, and will ever remain, the deadly foe of the things of God. The wisdom of this world dismisses the God of the Bible as no longer worthy of the credence of a cultured people.
Paul counted such wisdom as refuse. He was wise, graciously wise, but his wisdom was that which the Holy Ghost teacheth. His was the wisdom which “cometh down from above,”
Psychical men possess a wisdom of this world, a wisdom which rests in a restatement of truth, a wisdom which irrationally relies in the “religious consciousness of the twentieth century,” a wisdom which rejects every Biblical sentence which it cannot “adjust.”
XI. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE SELF-SHEPHERDIZERS-FEEDING THEMSELVES (Jud 1:12)
The whole trend of modern thought teachers is paralleled by the false shepherds of Israel:-
“They feed themselves and are fat * * but they feed not the flock.”
“They clothe themselves with the wool, and kill them that are fed.”
“They have not strengthened nor healed that which was sick.”
“That which was broken they have not bound up.”
“That which was driven away, they have not brought again.”
“That which was lost, they have not sought.”
Because these men are self-shepherdizers, feeding and clothing themselves, God’s “sheep have been scattered,” and “have become a prey to every beast of the field.”
These men, who make merchandise of the saints, must some day stand before God, the “Great Shepherd of the sheep.” Then He will require His flock at their hand.
XII. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE MURMURERS, COMPLAINERS, WALKING AFTER THEIR OWN COVETINGS (Jud 1:16)
They murmur at the divine teaching of God’s Word.
They complain at the divine justice of God’s dealings.
They walk after their own coveting.
What is there in the Book of books that these up-to-date murmurers and complainers have left to simple saints?
Some deny the Pentateuch.
Some denounce the Prophets.
Some defame the Poets.
The story of the creation is a myth.
The story of the Cross is a phantasma.
The story of the Coming is an illusion.
The historicity of the Word is doubted, The scientific accuracy of the Word is disputed.
The verbal Inspiration of the Word is done away.
Christ was not born of the Holy Ghost and Mary.
Christ was not in very fact the Son of God-deity.
Christ was not the eternal, unchangeable, omniscient God.
Job and Jonah were not actual characters.
The miraculous must be scientifically explained, or else expunged.
Prophecy and revelation express the poetical fancies of the writer.
Murmurers, complainers, walkers after their own desires. What have they left us?
Where is the God of Elijah?
Where is the Christ of Paul?
Where is the Holy Spirit of truth?
XIII. THESE CERTAIN MEN SPEAK GREAT SWELLING WORDS (Jud 1:16)
Who can measure the length and the breadth and the height and the depth of the vocabulary of these Christless thinkers?
They talk in a language that is unknown to the common man.
They Invent phraseology that is above the masses.
They fashion expressions that overreach the public.
They tell of “Calculated Archaism,” of “Essential Possibilities” and “The Laws of Life.” They delight in “The Coming Civilization of Brotherly Love” and in “The Ineradicable Social Nature of Man.” They sound the note of “The Ethical Sphere” and of the “Contagion of Good.” They speak of “The Ultimate Problem” and of “The Supremacy of Love.” They believe in the “Basic Qualities of Life,” and in the “Possibilities of Boundless Achievement.” They hold forth “The Forward Thought of the Church” and “The Problems of Socializing Property.”
They preach about their “J” and their “P” and their “E,” as the writers of the early chapters of Genesis. If it suits their caprice they find no difficulty in changing their fancied “J” or “Jehovist” writer to “J” the “Judak” writer; or their fancied “E” or “Elohist” writer to “E,” the “Ephraimitic” writer. They proclaim with marvelous assertiveness that the Bible story of the flood was written by some such men as “J” and “P” and “R,” who gathered fragments, written in at least twelve sections, and placed them into the Word of God.
They speak of “fabricated Scripture,” of “bundles, of tradition” of “stories derived from the best storytellers,” of “antiquated vagaries” prepared by unknown writers and “muddled together” by “J” and “E” and “P.” In fact these Certain Men offer “fine veins of ethical and religious reflections,” they present “‘Hypotheses of perplexities” and accept the “hypercritical and capricious” theories of an “erroneous analysis.”
Great swelling words to be sure.
Great swelling words that call for obeisance and demand obedience.
Men so gifted and so great must be heard.
Men who speak such words, such great words, such great swelling words must be worth while.
A Little Man who knows nothing save his Bible, who has no guide save the Holy Spirit must sit still and listen.
The Untutored Masses who have no time or desire to delve into the density of the debris of defective deductions, destitute of divine approval, and who are too weary to wade into the weird writings of worldly wisdom, and who have but one antiquated book, the Bible, must heed these teachers with great swelling words.
The University Student should never deign to think himself educated until, with cap and gown, he has become an adept in critical analysis and destructive research.
Not only do these Certain Men use “great swelling words” In disclosing the wisdom of their scientific researches, but they also use great swelling words as they discourse on the achievements of man.
This age, to these men, is worthy of their most brilliant oratory.
Man has wrought marvelous things and deserves highest commendation.
Their high sounding phrases, call this age:-The day of man, The day of enlightenment, The day of knowledge, The age of science, The age of advancement, The age of improvement.
They parade a falsely conceived optimism on. every occasion.
They glow in fervor as they speak of Social Regeneration and the betterment of the race.
They kindle their speech into fire as they tell, of the coming day of peace and righteousness, brought about by the evolution of man.
They stir up themselves as they set forth the Brotherhood of Man.
The world loves these swelling words of boastful approval and approbation.
The fact that the words are not true does not matter, they at least sound nice, and men love to be flattered.
XIV. THESE CERTAIN MEN “HOLD MEN’S PERSONS IN ADMIRATION” (Jud 1:16)
These “Certain Men” have forgotten the admonition: “Cease ye from man” and “glory not in man.”
They lean upon the arm of the flesh.
They look to the wisdom of man.
They long for the advantage to be obtained from man.
If there is a conflict between the conclusions of these men and the Word of God, their conclusions must stand. God is great; so is man. The Bible has its rights; so have men. If there is a clash between Genesis and geology, the voice of God In earth’s strata must outweigh the voice of God in the Book. After all, the real conflict is not between Genesis and geology. God’s voice in Genesis and God’s voice in geology is one voice. The conflict is between God and man. On the one hand, it is: “Thus saith the Lord”; and against that it is: “Thus saith the false conclusions of science.”
The same men who deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ, “hold men’s persons in admiration.” This is utterly a fault. Men seem never to ask, “What does God say?” But, “What do the critics say God means by what He says,-if He really said it?”
Preachers too frequently ignore a plain “thus saith the Lord, while even at the cost of honest conviction, they seek to know what “preachers higher up” will think and say. Churches seem to forget what the Spirit saith unto them, while they swing in line, with the plans, propaganda and preaching of other churches who hold “the balance of power” and who fashion the “policies of the denomination,”
XV. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE “CLOUDS WITHOUT WATER SWEPT ALONG BY WINDS” (Jud 1:12)
Critical teachers, advanced thinkers, new thought preachers, are clouds that promise rain but give none.
Such men never cause the people to “revive and grow as the corn.”
Such men never bring messages which are like “the snow and the rain which cometh down from heaven and causeth the earth to bring forth and bud.”
Such men are not living water, that causes the trees to bring forth fruit in their season.
These men are more than clouds without water, they are clouds carried about with winds.
Men who have never come into “the unity of the faith” are clouds “tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine.”
Men who have not “the full knowledge of the Son of God” are clouds carried about by the winds of “the cunning craftiness” of systematized error, by the “sleight of men,” “whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”
Men who speak not “the truth in love” and who have never grown up into Him In all things; men who walk in the vanity of their minds, having their understanding darkened; men who are alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts; such men are clouds swept along by Satan, the “prince of the power of the air.”
Men who denounce the Holy Scriptures, who displace the atonement, who decry punishment for sin, who depreciate the virgin birth of the Lord, are clouds without water, driven of the wind and tossed.
XVI. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE “AUTUMNAL TREES WITHOUT FRUIT” (Jud 1:12)
Trees of the autumn, trees with fading leaves-fruitless.
Those who follow “New Thought” theories, and preach a Crossless Christ, bring no converts to the faith. Waterless clouds produce fading and fruitless trees-chaff which the wind driveth away.
Instead of “building up saints in the most holy faith,” these “Certain Men” destroy the faith of saints.
Instead of “causing men to grow in grace,” they cause men to turn from grace.
“Higher Criticism” diminishes our converts, disrupts our churches and depletes our congregations.
“New Thought” breeds doubt, not faith; despair, not hope, malice, not love.
“Advanced Thinking” produces degeneration, not regeneration, apostates not apostles, worldliness and not worship.
Trees of Autumn, trees with fading leaves-fruitless.
Was D. L. Moody a mighty evangelist because he denounced the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures?
Was Chas. H. Spurgeon a mighty soldier of Jesus Christ because he denied the grace that is in Christ Jesus?
Was I. M. Haldeman a mighty teacher-preacher because he doubted the efficacy of the atonement?
No! The men and the only men who are “completely furnished unto every good work” are the men who believe that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”
No! The men and the only men who are good soldiers of Jesus Christ,” faithful to their trust, are the men who confess “the grace which is freely given us of God.”
No! The men and the only men who are constructive and not destructive are the men who are the friends and not “the enemies of the Cross of Christ.”
Instead of teaching men to “rightly divide the Word of Truth,” to “hold forth the Word of Life,” to give heed to “the more sure word of prophecy,” these blind guides teach men to turn aside to fables, to believe a lie and to give heed to the doctrines of demons.
College students who follow these “Certain Men” are never sent home on fire for the salvation of the lost,
Pew holders, who hear these “Certain Men” are never spiritually Quickened with the fire of the faith that follows the Lord fully.
Lost sinners, who listen to these “Certain Men,” know nothing of that fire of conviction of sin which cries out: “What must I do to be saved?”
XVII. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE WILD WAVES OF THE SEA (Jud 1:13)
Not merely clouds carried about by winds!
Not merely autumn trees, fruitless; twice-dead!
They are wild waves of the sea!
Wild waves, foaming out their shame!
Wild waves foaming, breaking, scattering wreckage!
Oh, that these men could see themselves as God sees them!
Oh, that they might behold their madness and acknowledge their folly!
Oh, that they might know the senselessness of their sense, the weakness of their wisdom, the sterility of their science!
The doctrines of these “Certain Men” are like the wild waves which never rest.
Their theories of today they reject tomorrow.
Their conclusions are never conclusive, their deductions are a maze of contradictions, uncertainties and impossible assumptions.
Their philosophies are devoid of the stability that marks the messages builded on the impregnable rock of the Holy Scriptures.
XVIII. THESE CERTAIN MEN ARE WANDERING STARS (Jud 1:14)
STARS-but not stars held in the right hand of Him who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands, STARS-but not stars keeping their orbits in true relationship to the great Morning Star, But STARS-Wandering stars.
But STARS-Unguided stars.
But STARS-Fallen stars.
Wandering in the gloom of doubt, unguided amid the shadows of denial, fallen into the night of despair.
Wandering unanchored.
Wandering unhelmed.
Wandering unsphered.
Wandering! Their minds darkened! Wandering on and on in the night! Wandering on and on into “the blackness of darkness” forever.
Their sentence of old lingereth not.
Enoch prophesied of these Certain Men, these ungodly men, these men who have ruled God out, Enoch prophesied judgment when the Lord comes-judgment for all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed-judgment for all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
Oh, that “lovers of truth” might have compassion and save from wrath, these men, these STARS, wandering from their orbit, wandering on and on into the gloom of darkness forever!
Subdivision 1. (Jdg 1:1-36; Jdg 2:1-5.)
Mingling with the Nations to be Dispossessed.
1. There are here five sections, in which the grading of the lessons is evident, and the commencing decline apparent even from the first. Judah, the leader in the wilderness, the leader, too, in the settlement of the land, the lion-tribe of Jacob’s prophecy, comes before us as the leader now, and that by divine appointment; and yet to illustrate this. At the same time, the sovereignty and sufficiency of God are illustrated also in the most striking way, that we may see there is no failure upon His part. With the people it begins, indeed, at the highest, -not, as we might suppose,with the lowest: and this is noteworthy, -a thing of which we have many examples in Scripture; for high and low are alike dependent upon divine grace, and in the littleness of humanity not far removed from one another.
(1) Israel are at first one; and in that subjection to God, which is true unity: “Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first,” they ask, “to fight against them?” And the Lord not only names the champion, but assures success: “Judah shall go up; behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.” We have before seen what is the reason, spiritually, of Judah being thus in the front; and that the spirit of “praise” is the spirit of power. Necessarily: for it puts God first, and implies devotedness to Him, -a joy in obedience which gives courage and enthusiasm. The cause is God’s, and it must prosper. If Judah be weak, Israel as a whole must languish.
But Judah is, in fact, weak already. The land is pledged to him by God, and to him alone. The word is precise, and none may add to it any more than diminish from it: to add to it is really to diminish from it. Yet Judah turns to Simeon, his brother, for help, as if the promise of God were not enough. “Come with me,” he says, “into my lot, and let us fight against the Canaanites; and I will go with thee into thy lot.”
A little thing this will seem even to most, in a day when men supplement God’s word after their own pleasure. But is it not, in fact, unbelief in God’s truth or power, that is at work in it? Simeon, Judah’s brother in a special way, may be for him the most suited of all companions, and God even has linked their inheritance, in a special way, together: but all this is no argument, if God’s word is to be followed, and be the perfect word that indeed it is. Simeon, “hearing,” stands, as we have seen, for communion, which all right “hearing” surely is; and communion, can it not aid worship against the Canaanites, -in the spiritual warfare to which God’s Israel is called? Yes, in its place, but not out of it; wherever the word of God is given its place also, for what communion can there be apart from this? And do we not need the reminder that communion and the authority of the Word must go together, and that what purports to be communion can never really be made to eke out a worship which has lost the simplicity of obedience which certifies it to be truly that. We shall find, accordingly, in due time, the loss of power which is the result.
Such things are not, however, always at once discovered. Judah and Simeon go together, and the Canaanites and Perizzites are delivered into their hand: they smite in Bezek a host ten thousand strong. In Bezek they find, also, Adoni-bezek, whom they pursue and maim, inflicting the judgment of God upon him for cruelties of this kind inflicted upon others. He himself owns it as this, -a remarkable witness to Israel of how and why God was against the Canaanites; and that He whose judgments they were executing was over all. His name goes with the lesson: Bezek* means “fettered,” and so were these hosts that they destroyed; Adonibezek, “lord of Bezek,” it being doubtless his chief city, but thus also and literally, “a lord in fetters.” So it is with the freest, when in opposition to God, and with the mightiest, in His hand.
{* Bezeq, literally “in a fetter.”}
He is brought to Jerusalem, only to die there; and the city itself is smitten with the sword and burnt; for the “foundation of peace” must be righteousness, and the Jebusite city is only an hypocrisy, though few may believe this now.
(2) Judah proceeds to other victories; and here we have the repetition of a story familiar to us, mostly in the words in which it has been given us before. The taking of Hebron and the destruction of the Anakim, which had been before ascribed to Caleb, are here ascribed to Judah, the tribe to which Caleb belongs; but Caleb himself appears in the next incident, in which Othniel and Achsah also are found as before. Scripture is not afraid of a repetition which emphasizes God’s delight in the achievements of His people, among which Achsah’s request for the water-springs figures alongside of Othniel’s capture of Debir. How little should we, perhaps, think of putting these things together! And, indeed, the spiritual interpretation must be found in order rightly to understand it. Then Othniel, the “lion of God,” is the type of the heroism of faith, which, like the son of Kenaz, finds strength in Another, and its helpmeet in that simplicity which claims and receives the fullness of the Spirit for making good its portion in the land. These two must come together in the Canaan-dweller even now; and where they are found, a “book of remembrance” will not be wanting. And still the rule is, “Conquer, and work the land”; but it must be said today, there are few Othniels, fewer Achsahs, fewest of all those in whom the two are united. The Lord increase their race!
Thus, as we have had in the first part of this section the sovereignty and sufficiency of God for His people, we have in the second part the relationships of faith in those who apprehend it. And let us remember that Caleb, Othniel, Achsah, are Judeans -worshipers. Worship has to do intimately with the things here spoken of, which test and manifest it. With Caleb, the “whole-hearted,” this is easily seen; but we have found, also, before, how Judah shines in the battlefield, and the quiet activity which Achsah implies Achsah, or “anklet,” she of the decorated foot? -is not less really intelligible. Altogether we have, on the whole, a bright picture to begin Judges with. Even in the next section, however, the clouds are gathering.
(3) We find here notice of the Kenite settling among the children of Judah in the South. They are the Midianite tribe out of which Moses’ wife had come, thus descendants of Abraham by Keturah, linked in this double way with Israel, and who, upon Moses’ invitation, had accompanied them into the land. But they never unite themselves with the people of God, though settling among them, and are viewed in Balaam’s prophecy as separate to the last. The play upon the name there -“thou puttest thy nest (ken) in the rock” -shows, evidently, the meaning of it. They are Midianites, men of the world, but not at strife with Israel, as others of their race. Nay, they make a nest for themselves among them, and it is for the nest they are there. They come now and dwell on the southern border of Judah in the wilderness, their natural home, south of Arad, the place of the “wild ass.” They keep their wilderness manners in the land, -are not at home there, though they may like the security it affords. All this describes but too well the condition of many who attach themselves, in every dispensation, to the people of God, yet are not of them. The victories of the children of Judah invite them and make way for them; but their presence is no strength, and no sign for good.
(4) Next we find Judah with Simeon in his lot. Hormah here had been so named before, being in the territory of Arad when the children of Israel overthrew its king and executed the ban upon his cities (Num 21:3). There we looked at it as the representation of the power of the world in Satan’s hand to hinder the progress of the people of God. In the time that had elapsed it had revived again, -how easily the world recovers power! -and now is called Zephath, overlaying.” This is what the world is, indeed, -an overlaying, bright and glittering enough, of what is devoted to destruction, a crust over the curse. It is the part of Simeon (communion) to take off the false show and reveal the evil, -to make Zephath Hormah, as it really is.
(5) Judah goes on to conquest; and now three of the Philistine cities fall, -Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron. Jehovah is with him: but then most strangely as it would seem, we hear of a limit to the power which he displays. “Jehovah was with Judah, and he obtained possession of the mountains, but the inhabitants of the valley were not to be driven out, because they had chariots of iron”! What a collocation that seems! Omnipotence was stopped, as it would seem, by chariots of iron; and so often it does seem, -nay, in a sense, even it is true; for the removal of difficulties is often conditioned upon the simplicity of a faith which (alas!) is so little simple. Had not God said that He had delivered the land into Judah’s hand? Yes; and Judah had turned round to Simeon, his brother, for help, as if no promise had been given. Judah has measured the might of Jehovah; and Jehovah measures the strength put forth for him. Thus the divine ways are equal; and Judah loses the fullness of a blessing he cannot grasp. May we give heed to this!
On the other hand, it is in contrast, yet in conformity with this, that we are here reminded of Caleb’s complete success against the terrible sons of Anak. Faith shall not suffer defeat, be men at large -be the people of God, even -unbelieving as they may.
2. Benjamin now follows Judah and Simeon, but has only one verse devoted to him here. And in it we find him -little as Judah may show us the ideal of faith -in contrast even with Judah. This is marked: for Judah has already taken Jerusalem and burned it with fire, as we have seen; while Benjamin, without an effort that we read of, permits the Jebusites to dwell there with themselves.* This, too, while Benjamin was the warrior tribe, as is plain in all the notices of it. The failure is thus mere indifference; and the breach of the Lord’s express command is as plain as can be.
{*Jerusalem lay on the border, between these two tribes, the main part of the city, with the citadel, lying in Benjamin. It may have been only what lay within their boundary that Judah burned. The citadel was strong, as we see, in David’s time.}
No need for many words about it: yet how important that it should be here -that we should see the true condition of things as we open the book. That this failure is in Benjamin also, when we realize the spiritual significance of Benjamin as Joshua has declared it to us, deepens the meaning. Benjamin is the apprehension of Christ, as having our place in Him -being identified with Him; the knowledge of the new man, as expressed in Colossians, “where there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” Benjamin in alliance with Canaanites is the utter contradiction and opposite of all this. The forgetfulness of our place in Christ is the core of all unfaithfulness to God, of refusal of His judgment upon the world, of toleration of what is evil in His sight, of false associations and inconsistency of walk. Thus the relation of this to the long tale of evil that follows in the book is unmistakably plain.
3. The third section seems to continue this assurance of Benjamin’s weakness. Bethel belongs to Benjamin, as we know; yet it is the house of Joseph that takes it out of the enemy’s hand. Lying upon Ephraim’s border, there is, of course, a reason for this: but the spiritual reason always underlies the natural. Bethel, we are reminded, was, in Canaanitish hands, Luz; and the capture of the city was, of course, its transformation. “Separation,” which Luz means, has many Canaanite forms. The selfishness of the natural heart makes necessarily for disintegration in the world; and while it may seek alliance for its own ends, this is in itself but a form of division. This is only the effect of being away from God: one must then, because without faith in Him, toil in self-service. But because the world is away from God, “separation” is necessary; “be not unequally yoked together” results from “touch not the unclean thing.” The line must be indeed drawn, but so drawn that God shall be owned and honored, and then Luz becomes Bethel, as we have elsewhere seen, the relationship of God’s house is capable of being realized (2Co 6:14-18). It is simple enough how Joseph may help Benjamin in this -Joseph, not simply Ephraim: Manasseh’s earnest pressing on is needed to give the full Joseph-character. Seeking to win Christ, all alien things drop off; and in that path we shall find none but those who seek Him. Bethel with all its blessedness is thus surely attained.
But there is another lesson in this place also. One Canaanite is spared out of the city; and there is no similarity here to Rahab’s case, no faith resembling hers. He does not take his place henceforth with Israel, but goes away into the land of the Hittites, and among these “sons of terror” a new Luz springs up. The tree, though cut down to the root, may revive from the root; and the old error, left as no longer formidable, may even go afar to sojourn, yet survive and have to be met once more. Indeed, with how many of these Canaanitish cities do we find it so!
4. What follows is a dismal story of failure. In part a repetition from the book of Joshua, it brings together the items of God’s bill of account against the people, as divided among the tribes, six of which are here named. It does not follow that the rest were guiltless, however; indeed, Benjamin has been already spoken of; nor does it follow that all the failure even of the tribes mentioned is reported here. That Tyre is not among the cities named as remaining in the hands of the Canaanites, seems a proof against this, hardly to be doubted; Endor is found also in Joshua (17: 11), and not here. Those enumerated are given as representative, and with a higher meaning running through all: and this we think can be established, although some of the names are difficult to interpret.
(1) Manasseh heads the tribes on this accusing list; significantly enough if we remember that Manasseh stands for progress, the forgetting what is behind and pressing on. Yet he has a record of five cities left to the Canaanite with depending villages, and that when he had the power also to drive them out. How could the loss of energy be more plainly shown?
The names are, of course, significant: first, Bethshean, “the house of quiet,” which as connected with Manasseh and with Issachar (Jos 17:11), would speak of that practical rest of heart which a right walk furnishes to the one who presses on. There is nothing to draw such an one back from the pursuit of what is before him: no entanglement with the world around, no alarm of conscience, or need of self-occupation. The loss of Bethshean is thus a most serious one; and yet how may, in fact, a failed Manasseh consent to such a loss, bribed by some dishonorable bargain with the Canaanite!
In the second place we have Taanach, “sandy soil,” whose import may be seen in its connection with Gath-rimmon among the Levitical cities (Jos 21:25). Taanach’s lesson, as that of the wilderness, is the weaning from other dependency than upon God alone -a thing again of first importance for a Manassite. But Taanach must be retained or Bethshean cannot be: dependence and rest are linked inseparably together.
We have next Dor, the most obvious meaning of which is “generation.” In its application it may naturally speak of that limiting of human life which it implies: “One generation goeth and another cometh.” The word means in its first significance a “circle,” and a collection of tents in a Bedouin encampment (generally circular) is called a dowar; from which Parkhurst supposes the application to contemporaries. Coming as it does, after a memorial of the wilderness, in which under the ban of God a whole Israelitish generation perished, it cannot but impress one the more, as intended to convey such meaning. And the brevity of human life may well impress deeply a Manassite: “So teach us to number our days,” says the Psalmist, “that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” The loss of Dor implies the slipping back into the world’s error, gross as it is, of ignoring what none can deny, and this is followed naturally by the loss of
Ibleam, “it consumes the people,” which in the fourth place and in connection with the last word, one cannot be at a loss to interpret. Sin is indeed the devourer of the people, mightier than the Balaam whose name here it bears, and alas, prevailing how much, against the people of God themselves. Can a child of Manasseh forget this also? Surely even too much. None of these cities were wholly gone from them, but a rabble of Canaanites had practical possession.
Megiddo is the last of these names, meaning, I believe, “the manifestation of it”: and this, under the number that speaks of responsibility and recompense, carries us on, of necessity, to the day of account and manifestation. The realization of this must be lost, if the things of which the last names remind us have been. Megiddo must go with Dor and Ibleam. Plainly these names, the whole of them, are a series in close relation with one another: a meaning runs through them which must have guided in some way the hand of the writer. Was the wisdom in himself, or beyond himself then? Can these simple histories be, after all, prophetic? The Jews in fact speak of them as “the former prophets;” and we have proof that in them “holy men that were of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Ephraim’s failure naturally follows Manasseh’s, inasmuch as in the order of attainment, as we have seen long since (Gen 48:1-22 n), Ephraim is dependent on Manasseh. Gad on the other side of Jordan stands in similar dependence upon Reuben, and indeed approaches Ephraim very nearly in this place. Ephraim loses but one place to the Canaanites, or at least there is but one loss recorded -that of Gezer. It is a most important place, however, being a Levitical city, and for what we have found it typify as that. Gezer means “isolation,” “a place cut off;” as belonging to the Canaanites it is but the expression of natural independence, as away from God. But as Israelite and Levitical it speaks of that land cut off” into which Christ has borne the sins of His people, and in which the independence of man is seen in its awful reality of isolation from God.* How the awful reality, if it be indeed entered into by the soul, will produce in it a horror of the liberty man loves away from God; and how this will turn to fruitfulness in joyful dependence upon Him who has brought us out of that darkness into His marvelous light, needs little telling. Alas for us, when the Canaanite hold upon Gezer has not been loosed! Ephraim’s one city lost is no light loss!
{*Will the reader note here a partial return to a former thought, disclaimed in the first line of the notes (Vol. i., page 342.), but which is not really inconsistent with the fact that atonement is not made or figured by the scapegoat. That it is not is plain from the passage in Leviticus; and yet it is not unsuitable, that where deliverance from the burden of sin is most fully proclaimed, there should be the tender and solemn reminder of the place in which this was borne and put away; -a thought which is needed to make the liberty derived from this a holy liberty, a deep and inward deliverance. Yet it Is not in fact “death” -this “land cut off” -but a deeper thought.}
(3) Zebulon loses two cities, Kitron and Nahalol; the first of which is nearly the same word as Keturoth, which in Eze 46:22 is rendered by the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, “small,” and thus taken to represent Kattath, which in Jos 19:15 stands immediately before Nahalol. Keturoth is, however, generally taken, as in our common version, to mean “joined”: which Hengstenberg (on Ezekiel) refuses again, for “fuming, smoking,” undoubtedly the common, if not exclusive, sense in scriptural Hebrew. In the Chaldee (Dan 5:6), however, the noun means “joints”; and the Talmudists use the verb in the same form as “joining.”
On the whole, the Hebrew certainly favors the meaning of “fuming,” either in the sense of perfuming or of using incense; above all, the latter. The identification with Kattath is very uncertain, and in the word of God every change in a name must have significance. In connection with Zebulon, where “dwelling in relationship” to God is plainly the thought, the lack of incense would have sad significance indeed -the lack of prayer and praise, along with that also of which Nahalol speaks -“pasture.” These things do indeed go largely together, are enjoyed or lost together.
(4) Asher, under the number of experience, follows with a long list of cities; and here we find, for the first time, an expression which reveals at once a still lower state of things. “The Asherites,” it is said, “dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land” -not simply, bad enough as that would be, the Canaanites among the Asherites. It is easy to understand it, inasmuch as the Phoenician sea-board was in the inheritance of Asher, and the prosperous, mercantile cities were never, even in the days of David and Solomon, brought into even modified subjection to Israel. They were then friends and allies, but not servants, although of the race of which it had been long before said, “A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”
Three of the seven names that are found here are absent from the list in Joshua, and this, with the doubt attaching to the meaning of two of these, makes the first three difficult of interpretation. Of these Accho, the first, is given by some from the Arabic as “hot sand,” or “sand heated by the sun;” but if taken as Hebrew, it would be, rather, “straitened.” Zidon means “taking the prey.” Ahlab is said to mean “fatness,” the meaning given also (and rightly) to Helbah. It might be a compound word and signify “brother in heart;” but of none of these can I speak with any assurance.
The last four are plainer, and connect more simply together, three of them occurring in similar connection in the list ill Joshua. Of these Achzib, “a flow indeed,” has been already taken as applying to the Spirit. With this Helbah, “fatness,” Aphik, “a channel,” and Rehob, “room,” are easily associated, and the last two have been already considered in this way (page 151). Together, the loss of these cities implies much spiritual loss to the failing Asherite: the experience (Achzib is in the fourth place) of the Spirit’s energy; the “fatness” which speaks of plenteous nourishment; the ability to convey to others the blessing we have received; and lastly, liberty and enlargement of heart. How necessary these things are to true Christian happiness needs little to be affirmed.
(5) Naphtali comes in the next place with two cities, Bethshemesh and Bethanath, names which are simple enough as “house of the sun” and “house of response.” They require not much interpretation either: for if still “there be many that say, Who will show us any good?” every believing soul will with the psalmist be able for himself to find it in the light of God’s countenance. This is alone our sun, and “a pleasant thing” indeed “it is to behold” it. Bethanath, the “house of response,” speaks of what surely goes with this, -the answer of God to the soul that seeks Him; the answer, too, again, of the soul to God: that sweet and tender intimacy of fellowship which is strength for all the way.
The “Beths” in both cases imply what is settled and abiding. The “house” is, as we say, the home, the place of relationship and of the interchange of affection.
The greater the blessing here, the greater the loss, of course. Naphtali, the struggler, needs this sanctuary home that he may be the overcomer that he is called to be. Alas, like the other tribes here, he is losing character; and the precious things which God has made his own are but witnesses of a glory which is now departed from him.
(6) Dan closes the tale of ruin with worse sorrow. He recedes from the seventh place in the Joshua list to the sixth in this; and the history shows the significance of the change. For the Danites are forced by the Amorites out of the valley, the low level so necessary for true spiritual judgment; and they dwelt, besides, in Mount Heres, the “mountain of the sun,” in Ajalon and in Shaalbim. The last two speak, as we have elsewhere seen, of the judgment of the world, in its apprehensiveness of God, and in its hollowness at heart; if Mount Heres be in the same line with these, it would naturally speak of the world’s self-glorification. The Danite would thus lose with these the ability for true judgment; and it is striking that it is to the Amorite (the “talker”?) that he loses them. The Amorite, we are told, had occupied all this land from its southern border.
5. And now we find the pronounced judgment of God upon this wide-spread departure from His plain command. The angel of Jehovah who had in Joshua’s day taken His place with them at Gilgal as Captain of the Lord’s host, now comes from Gilgal to Bochim (“weepers”) to announce to them His acceptance in righteous government of their own decision. They would not drive out the nations, and so He would not; and the consequences of this, again and again predicted, would come upon them. The people weep and sacrifice to Jehovah; but there is no real repentance: and this first step downward is soon followed by another in which the breach between them and Him is consummated.
JOSHUA TO SHAMGAR
JUDAHS INCOMPLETE VICTORY (Jdg 1:1-20)
After the death of Joshua the question of which tribe should lead in the subsequent campaign was answered by the Lord in the choice of Judah (Jdg 1:1-2) which was in accordance with the divine prophecy through Jacob (Gen 49:8). Doubtless the inquiry was made by Urim and Thummim on the breastplate of the high priest, to which reference was made in Exodus.
Judah invites the cooperation of Simeon because the territory of the latter was contiguous and intermixed with Judah (Jdg 1:3).
These tribes are guilty of barbarity in the case of Adonibezek (Jdg 1:5-7), but it is not to be supposed that God commended this action. It was, however, in accordance with the warfare in that day, and even the heathen king admitted the justification of the act in his case.
The defeat in verse 19 is explained not by the lack of power in the case of Judah, but by unbelief.
SIMILAR EXPERIENCES OF THE OTHER TRIBES (Jdg 1:21-36)
Judahs example of unbelief is followed by all the tribes named in the conclusion of this chapter, Benjamin, Ephraim (the house of Joseph), Manasseh, Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali. Note particularly verse 21 in comparison with verse 8. The border of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, seems to have run through Jerusalem, and while the first named expelled the heathen from their part of the city, the latter were unable to do so and, this city did not fully come into possession of Israel until Davids time.
DIVINE WARNING (Jdg 2:1-5)
The Revised Version indicates by the definite article before angel, in Jdg 2:1, that He who came from Gilgal to Bochim to warn Israel was the Angel of the Covenant, who appeared in human form as the Captain of the Lords host to Joshua. In other words, the Second Person of the Trinity. It was a serious indictment He laid against them and an awful penalty He announced (Jdg 2:1-3). No wonder the people wept, but would to God their sorrow had been to better purpose. The result shows how temporary it was and how little confidence may be put in tears for sin, which do not mean amendment of life.
THE SUMMARY OF THE BOOK (Jdg 2:6-23)
We called attention to these verses in the preceding lesson as giving an outline of the whole story of Judges. Jdg 2:6-10 are copied from Joshua 24, and inserted here to explain the warning preceding. The following verses should be read with care, because they give the key, not only to Judges, but to 1 Samuel and the whole of this period of Israel until the monarchy.
In explanation of Jdg 2:16 the Bible Commentary speaks of the judges as Gods viceregents in the government of Israel, He Himself being the supreme ruler. There was no regular unbroken succession of judges, but individuals prompted by the Spirit of God were from time to time aroused and empowered to achieve deliverance. They were without pomp or emolument, and had no power to make laws. In a special sense, however, they were executors of the law and avengers of crimes, especially that of idolatry.
OTHNIEL, THE FIRST JUDGE (Jdg 3:1-11)
After enumerating the nations left in the land unconquered, and the reason for permitting them to remain, the story takes up the first general apostasy of Israel and the rule of the first judge. Notice in Jdg 3:1-4 the interacting of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. We have seen the reason why these nations were not exterminated from the human point of view to
be a lack of faith, but from the divine point of view there was another reason. God permits these nations to remain, as a school for Israel in the art of war (Jdg 3:2), and, as an instrument for their discipline in divine things (Jdg 3:4).
From intermarrying with these nations the Israelites soon came to serve their gods (Jdg 3:6-7). When therefore they turned their back upon Jehovah, He, in a sense, turned His back upon them, so that they were compelled to serve the Mesopotamians eight years (Jdg 3:8). Distress followed sin and repentance resulted from distress. Whereupon God raised up a deliverer in Othniel, whose history has been spoken of before (Jdg 3:9-10). No details are given of this war, though it must have been a serious struggle. Othniel is victorious and rules Israel in peace for forty years (Jdg 3:11).
EHUD, THE SECOND JUDGE (Jdg 3:12-30)
When Israel again fell into sin, Gods scourge against them was the Moabites, who joined their earlier enemies, the Amorites and Amalekites, in a successful conquest for eighteen years (Jdg 3:14), when distress and repentance are again followed by deliverance.
It makes the blood run cold to read what Ehud did, but we must remember that he was not a murderer but a warrior, and the world has always made a distinction between these two. His act was not one of personal revenge, but patriotic and religious fervor. Moreover, while he was doing Gods service in the general sense of that term, his deed is nowhere approved in Scripture. This last remark suggests an important qualification, to which attention has been called before, and which should be applied in instances of a similar character in the Bible record. Further, a shadow seems to hang over the official career of this man, for his name is not praised in Israel, neither is it said anywhere that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, nor that he judged Israel. These omissions may be without significance, but are they not noticeable?
SHAMGAR, THE THIRD JUDGE (Jdg 3:31)
The notice of this judgeship is brief and limited to a conflict with the Philistines. The ox goad with which he slew six hundred men is as an implement eight feet long and about six inches in circumference. At one end it has a sharp prong for driving cattle, and at another a small iron paddle for removing the clay which encumbers the plow in working. Such an instrument wielded by a strong man would do great execution.
QUESTION
1. What tribe takes the lead after Joshuas death?
2. What heathen people inhabited Jerusalem?
3. Name a theophany in this lesson.
4. What illustration of divine sovereignty and human responsibility does it contain?
5. Do you know the location of Mesopotamia?
6. Is God necessarily responsible for the atrocities named in this lesson?
7. What can you say about the story of Shamgar?
On his first missionary journey, Paul went to Antioch in Pisidia and preached in the synagogue. He told of God’s care for his people in bringing them out of Egypt, then said, “And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land to them by allotment. After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet” ( Act 13:19-20 ). The book of Judges covers some of the events of that period, though Eli and Samuel would also be included according to Paul’s account. The events of Ruth occurred during the days of the judges as well ( Rth 1:1 ). Keil and Delitzsch describe judges as those “who procured justice or right for the people of Israel, not only by delivering them out of the power of their foes, but also by administering the laws and rights of the Lord ( Jdg 2:16-19 ).” They did more than judge matters of the law. In fact, they served more as a head of government under the direction of God. When the people asked for a king, God said they had not rejected the old judge and prophet Samuel but God as their ruler ( 1Sa 8:1-9 ).
The Bible does not tell us of an unbroken line of judges serving in Israel. Instead, God ruled through the law he had given Moses and the work of the heads of tribes and elders of the people. It seems God only raised up judges when the people cried out from their suffering under the hands of their enemies. Such suffering was the result of their rebellion against God as can be seen by three clear warnings issued by him in 2:1-4; 6:7-10; and 10:10-14. It appears the judges did not usually rule over all of Israel at one time but the tribe, or group of tribes, that was particularly being oppressed at the time.
Joshua had promised the children of Israel that faithfulness to God would yield great blessings. They would be able to drive out the rest of the enemy, with only one Israelite chasing a thousand of the enemy. He also warned of the danger of forming close relationships with other nations and failure to drive them out ( Jos 23:6-13 ). When Joshua died, Israel asked God who should go up before them to fight against the Canaanites ( Jdg 1:1 ; Num 27:21 ).
Jdg 1:1. After the death of Joshua Not long after it; for Othniel, the first judge, lived in Joshuas time. Asked the Lord Being assembled together at Shiloh, they inquired of the high-priest by the Urim and the Thummim. Against the Canaanites first Finding their people multiply exceedingly, and consequently the necessity of enlarging their quarters, they renew the war. They do not inquire who shall be captain-general to all the tribes; but what tribe shall first undertake the expedition, that, by their success, the other tribes might be encouraged to make the like attempts upon the Canaanites in their several lots.
Jdg 1:1. After the death of Joshua, whose death was to the Jews the commencement of new troubles; they asked counsel of the Lord, as directed, Num 27:21, by Phinehas the priest.
Jdg 1:3. Judah said to Simeon, come up with me, for their lots were adjacent, and therefore equally concerned. The Canaanites, it would seem, had returned to some of their former possessions.
Jdg 1:5. Adoni-bezek; the lord of Bezek. Jos 15:19.
Jdg 1:7. Having their thumbs and great toes cut off. We find many ancient restless foes treated in this way with the loss of their right thumb, to disable them from war, but nowhere, except here, an extention of the cruelty to the toes. It was time for these nations to be destroyed: the power of conscience confessed the equity of divine retribution.
Jdg 1:8. Jerusalem. This is more full than Joshua 10. They destroyed the Jebusites, and burnt the city, except those who took refuge in the fortress, where the temple was afterwards built. This strong place David took, but spared the people, as it would seem from Araunahs being left in possession of his estate. They had then embraced Judaism. See on Jos 18:28.
Jdg 1:16. The Kenites. These learned shepherds had followed Moses, and received their lot adjacent to Amalek. They preserved the learning of Moses and Jethro, 1Ch 2:55, and would drink no wine, nor build houses. Jeremiah 35. By this emigration they escaped the evils which Balaam had foretold would befal their country. They were wise and wary to come and enjoy the pastures when the war was over.
Jdg 1:18. Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof. This, as appears from chap. Jdg 3:3, must be wrong in the Hebrew copy, which the Septuagint rectifies thus: But Judah did not possess Gaza, nor the coasts thereof; nor Askelon, nor Ekron, nor Ashdod, nor the coasts thereof. See Josephus Jdg 5:2.
Jdg 1:24. Show us the entrance into the city: so he saved his own life by betraying his fellow-citizens. To him an awful subject of reflection for future years.
REFLECTIONS.
This chapter, as introductory to the presidency of the judges, resumes the history of the Israelites from the defeat of the allied kings by Joshua. Now it would be well for those who complain of cruelty in Joshua, to contemplate the character of Adoni-bezek, and say whether he, and the instruments of his cruelty were fit to live? Surely if the judgments which the Canaanites brought one upon another, had no effect in producing a reformation, it was high time for heaven to inflict its vengeance on a people guilty of every crime. Yet an infidel age talks as though some apology ought to be made for Moses, Joshua, and David, the purest ministers of divine vengeance, and distinguished by the greatest mercy. Indulge them but in this, and we must next make some apology for every other visitation of providence: but instead of making concessions which brand the tribunal of heaven with weakness, we are taught to reply as Christ did, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
The valour of Judah is here recorded at large. He set a fine example to the other tribes, notwithstanding his failure of the conquest of Philistia. Josephs stratagem and courage in storming Bethel, near to which Rachel his mother was interred, is mentioned with honour. But the six remaining tribes are all blamed for not driving out the heathen: and what is worse, they reduced them to tribute. This violated the law of God; for after receiving their money, they could not attack them without a breach of covenant; and God will never aid a people in the cause of perjury and wickedness. Whoever makes a covenant with his sins, grieves the Holy Spirit, and forfeits the aids of grace, by which alone he can mortify the deeds of the body.
The children of the Kenite, Moses father-in-law, having passed the Jordan with Israel, went up with Judah to fight. How happy, that Jethro, if yet alive, took second thoughts. When Moses first invited him to go with them to the promised land, he refused. Num 10:29-31. But seeing the Lord was with his people, his heart was afterwards moved, and the whole family followed the ark. These were the family of the Rechabites mentioned by Jeremiah; it appears that they led a pastoral, inoffensive, and sober life. And if our heart like Jethros have at first revolted against invitations to join in religious society, let us think again, that it is safest for us to be with Gods covenant people. Let us leave the world and sin, and claim our portion with the Lords people.
Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 2:5. The Conquests and Settlements of the Israelites in Western Palestine.From this introduction, which is one of the most valuable parts of early Hebrew history, we learn that the various tribes invaded the land either singly or in small groups; that they had failures as well as successes; that in many instances they did not destroy the older population, but settled peacefully among them; and that, in particular, the larger cities of Canaan, as well as the fertile valleys and the Maritime Plain, remained in the possession of the Canaanites. The conquests of Judah were separated from those of Joseph by a belt of walled cities with Jerusalem in its centre. Another line of strongholds, extending from Bethshan near the Jordan to Dor on the sea coast, shut up Ephraim and Manasseh in the central highlands, and separated them from the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, which settled in Galilee. The fortunes of Israel in the time of the Judges were largely determined by these facts.
INITIAL VICTORIES, YET IMPAIRED
(vv. 1-26)
Joshua having died, Israel does not subside into indifference, but realizes that there is territory that should be possessed. They therefore appeal to the Lord as to who should carry the attack against the Canaanites (v. 1). The answer is “Judah shall go up,” and the decisive promise of God is given that He has delivered the Canaanites into Judah’s hand (v. 2). Judah means “praise,” and the spirit of praise to God is surely that which rightly leads against whatever enemies, for it give God the honor for accomplishing the victory.
However, before proceeding to battle, Judah asks the help of his brother Simeon, promising that he too (Judah) would later help Simeon in his battles (v. 3). Of course we see human wisdom in this, but it was not God’s wisdom, for God had promised the victory to Judah. Would he not have gained the victory without other help? But this illustrates our own weakness which has so often been repeated in the Church of God. Instead of acting simply by faith in the clear Word of God, we seem to require some visible support to accompany this.
In the succeeding verses, it is Judah who gains the victories, and Simeon is mentioned only in verse 17 as accompanying Judah. The Lord delivered the Canaanites and Perizzites into Judah’s hand and 10,000 of them were killed in battle (v. 4). Bezek, meaning “lightning” seems a formidable foe, but the power of God is greater. They captured its king, Adoni-Bezek (“lord of Bezek”) as he was fleeing, but instead of putting him to death, as God had ordered, they compromised by cutting off his thumbs and big toes (vv. 5-6). His own words in verse 7 are his condemnation. He had done the same to 70 kings whom he had put under subjection to him, and now he says that God had repaid him in kind. We maybe sure he had no righteous reason for maiming those kings, though Israel had serious reason for killing him. God had decreed this because of the demon worship to which these Canaanites had given themselves up. That demon influence would not be stamped out by merely maiming the ungodly king. These things teach us that we are to show no mercy to sin, but to “putto death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).Yet Adoni-Bezek died, so God intervened to carry out the proper sentence against him.
Judah also fought against Jerusalem and captured it, setting the city on fire (v. 8). But this evidently was confined to the southern part of the city, for the city was on the border between Judah and Benjamin, and in verse 21 we read that Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem.
After this Judah went to the southern mountains and lowlands to fight against the Canaanites (v. 9), but nothing is said of any clear conquests there. However, verses 10-15 evidently refer to what had taken place before and recorded in Jos 15:13-19. This is worth repeating, for it emphasizes the faith of individuals who stand out as true witnesses for God. But first Hebron was attacked by Judah and three prominent men there killed (v. 10). Jos 14:14 tells us that Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb. His faithfulness was rewarded by his possessing the city which means “communion,” surely a most precious possession.
Caleb, a faithful warrior, was evidently leading Judah, and they continued to Debir (meaning “oracle”, but called Kirjath Sepher before, meaning “city of the book.” For if we lay hold of the truth of God in our souls, we shall have grace to speak “as the oracle of God.” Caleb then offers his daughter to the man who would conquer Kirjath Sepher. Caleb’s younger brother, Othniel, meaning “lion of God” accepted the challenge and conquered the city. His courage was consistent with his name. How lovely a picture is this of one who takes the Word of God as his own possession and greatly profits by it.
Othniel thereby gains a bride who manifests a faith similar to his, so that there seems no doubt they would be greatly blessed together. She urged Othniel to ask her father Caleb for a field, then followed this up by asking herself from her father springs of water. She was evidently a worker, for it would require work to water the field from the springs, so that fruit might be produced. May we too have such concern to bear fruit that will glorify our Lord. If we ask God in faith for such things, He surely delights to give, just as Caleb gladly gave his daughter the upper springs and the lower springs (v. 15). The upper springs remind us of truth of the higher, most exalted character, such as Ephesians gives in regard to our blessings and position in heavenly places in Christ, while the lower springs furnish refreshment for a consistent, devoted walk on earth. How good it is if we can be well balance din valuing both of these sides of the truth.
In verse 16 we read of the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, who was not of the demon worshipers of the land of Canaan, but had evidently accompanied Israel into the land. But they had not been accepted as true Israelites, though generally friendly to Israel, and they settled in the south of Judah. One of these, Heber, had separated himself from the Kenites (Jdg 4:11) and his wife Jael was highly commended for her killing Sisera when he fought against Israel (Jdg 4:21; Jdg 5:24-27). Yet the Kenites are included in the eventual judgments of which Balaam prophesies in Num 24:18-24, for as a nation they were always separate from Israel.
Together with Simeon, however, Judah attacked and utterly destroyed Zephath, so that it was called Hormah (“destruction”). At the time also Judah took Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron with their surrounding territory. These were three of the five Philistine cities that we find later under the control of the Philistines (1Sa 6:17-18), so that Judah did not maintain her authority after her victory. However, Judah did drive out the mountaineers, yet could not expel the inhabitants of the lowland because they had chariots of iron (v. 17). This was a poor excuse, for is God inferior to iron chariots? What Judah needed was the faith of a Caleb, and at this point we are again reminded that Caleb had (before) expelled the three giant sons of Anak from Hebron (v. 20).
But though Judah had clearly weakened, yet Benjamin was already weaker still. Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem, so they remained among Benjamin in the same city (v. 21). In fact, it appears evident that the Jebusites were in control there until eventually they were dispossessed by David and his men (2Sa 5:5-9) years later.
The house of Joseph is spoken of in verse 22, which may include both Ephraim and Manasseh, though Bethel was in Ephraim. They sent spies to spy out Bethel, the name of which was first Luz. They had not the boldness to attack the city, but when the spies saw a man coming from the city they offered to showhim mercy if he would show them the entrance to the city (v. 24). He did this, and the city was delivered into their hands. But they let the man and his family go. Actually this promise to the man was disobedience to God.
The spiritual significance of all this is striking. Luz, meaning “separation,” is changed to Bethel, meaning “the house of God.” Thus, true separation in the conduct of those faithful to God, is precious when conjoined with the positive truth concerning the house of God. However, the man who was let go went to the land of the Hittites and built another city he called Luz, the name of which was not changed. In other words, he engineered a “separation” that had nothing to do with the house of God. If Christ is not the Object of our separation, then that separation is totally sectarian.
In all of these things, up to the end of verse 26, whatever victories Israel was able to accomplish were accompanied by such compromise as to greatly weaken her testimony to the greatness of her Lord. This is a lesson for us today of the greatest importance. We naturally think it to be kind and considerate to show a spirit of compromise. In matters that concern only our own rights, this is perfectly alright. But when the truth of the Word of God is involved, we are badly wrong to compromise its message in the least degree. If we are decisive in standing for God’s truth, Satan will accuse us of being inconsiderate and cruel, but the believer is not to be deceived by such accusations, rather to depend simply on God to back up His Word.
ISRAEL’S GENERAL FAILURE
(vv. 27-36)
Before chapter 1 ends the picture becomes much more bleak. Manasseh did not expel the inhabitants of four major cities and their villages (v. 27). We are not told they could not do it, but only that they did not. Apparently they did not even try. Are we not often too much like them? We easily become apathetic and unconcerned about diligently obeying the Lord in taking possession of what is rightly ours. The Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. Their name means “traffickers,” standing for those who make merchandise of the things of God. When the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem, “He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business” (Joh 2:14). Did He compromise with them? Absolutely not! “When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and over turned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (v. 15). If unbelievers find material gain in being linked with Christianity, they will not easily give up this lucrative business. But such a spirit should be thoroughly judged by the child of God, as it was by the Lord Jesus.
When Israel became strong enough they put the Canaanites under tribute, thus making them pay for what gains they made, but did not drive them out (v. 28). This was compromise with the enemy, not obedience to God.
Ephraim failed to drive out the Canaanites from Gezer, so they were also exposed to the painful results of having an enemy within (v. 29). The same was true of Zebulon and two specific cities, though Zebulon compromised by putting the Canaanites under tribute also (v. 20). If we look beneath the surface, shall we not likely find that this spirit of making merchandise of the things of God is tolerated because of our own selfishness?
Seven cities are listed whose inhabitants Asher failed to drive out (v. 31), and in this case it is said, not that the Canaanites dwelt among Asher, but that the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites! Thus the Canaanites were predominant. This tells us that material gain was predominant over spiritual prosperity, a sad fact that has too often been repeated in Church history, and glaringly so in the boast of the Laodicean church, “I am rich, have become wealthy and have need of nothing(Rev 3:17)
It is similarly said of Naphtali that, failing to drive out the inhabitants of two cities, they dwelt among the Canaanites (v. 33). However, in this case, the inhabitants of those cities were put under tribute, showing that Naphtali did have the ascendancy. But this compromise again left them too closely identified with the enemy, the Canaanites. Thus, there are congregations today that do put spiritual things first, yet consider it necessary to make money matters a very important part of church life. This is clearly a compromise. In all of these cases, Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulon, Asher and Naphtali, it was the Canaanites who were left to trouble them. This enemy stands for the policy of using spiritual things for material gain, and Israel has been for centuries afflicted by this evil. The Church has sadly followed in the same course. May we more deeply take to heart the words of Col 3:2, “Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.”
The Amorites were a different enemy, and they forced the children of Dan into the mountains, allowing them no place in the valleys. Amorite means “a sayer,” reminding us of the Lord’s words in Mat 23:1-2, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not according to their works, for they say, and do not.” This is hypocrisy, which will force us virtually into the mountain, above the common level, leaving the impression that we are better than we are, for we can speak of high and lofty things, while not having the lowliness of heart to appreciate the valleys, where true fruitfulness may be produced. To merely talk about the truth of God without acting on it is putting ourselves in a high place, and not humbling ourselves to cultivate the valleys, the place where fruit is to be expected.
Though Dan was so weak, the house of Joseph (Manasseh and Ephraim) evidently had more energy, for when they became strong they put the Amorites under tribute (v. 35). This of course would be in the territory of Joseph. Putting the Amorites under tribute was again a compromise, just as we would publicly recognize that hypocrisy is bad, yet tolerate it in actual practice. To judge it thoroughly and fully requires the decision of true faith and self-judgment.Which of us is not guilty of hypocrisy in some way?
Dan later sought territory elsewhere, as Jdg 18:1-31 records, and settled in the north of the land (ch. 18:27-31), but that tribe was guilty of introducing idolatry into Israel.
1:1 Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel {a} asked the LORD, saying, {b} Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
(a) By the judgment of Urim; Read Exo 28:30, Num 27:21, 1Sa 28:6
(b) Who shall be our captain?
The leadership of Judah 1:1-21
I. THE REASONS FOR ISRAEL’S APOSTASY 1:1-3:6
The first major section in the book (Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 3:6) explains very clearly why the period of the judges was a dark chapter in Israel’s history. God revealed the reasons for Israel’s apostasy and consequent national problems in terms too clear to miss.
The years immediately following Joshua’s death saw a transition from success to failure. The events of this period set the scene for the amphictyony (rule by judges) and provide a background for the main part of the book (Jdg 3:7 to Jdg 16:31).
"The Book of Judges may be viewed as having a two-part introduction (Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 2:5 and Jdg 2:6 to Jdg 3:6) and a two-part epilogue (Jdg 17:1 to Jdg 18:31 and Jdg 19:1 to Jdg 21:25). Parallel ideas and motifs link the first introduction (Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 2:5) with the second epilogue (Jdg 19:1 to Jdg 21:25), and in like manner the second introduction (Jdg 2:6 to Jdg 3:6) with the first epilogue (Jdg 17:1 to Jdg 18:31)." [Note: J. Paul Tanner, "The Gideon Narrative as the Focal Point of Judges," Bibliotheca Sacra 149:594 (April-June 1992):149.]
A. Hostilities between the Israelites and the Canaanites following Joshua’s death 1:1-2:5
". . . archaeology shows that the superpowers (Babylonia, Assyria, the Hittites, and Egypt) were relatively weak during the days of the judges and the monarchy. Internal affairs kept them busy at home. This, humanly speaking, made possible the survival of the nation of Israel. The smaller, local enemies were trouble enough for her armies." [Note: Arthur H. Lewis, Judges and Ruth, p. 13.]
1. Initial successes and failures ch. 1
The attitude of the Israelites toward the Canaanites changed in the years following Joshua’s death.
The Book of Judges begins with a conjunction translated "now" or "and." God intended Judges to continue the narrative of Israel’s history where the Book of Joshua ended (cf. Jos 1:1). This verse provides a heading for the whole Book of Judges with the actual events following Joshua’s death not being narrated until after the record of his death in Jdg 2:8. Another view of the relationship of Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 2:5 to the death of Joshua is that all of Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 2:5 records events after Joshua’s death, and Jdg 2:6 gives a recapitulation of his death. A third view is that Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 2:5 begins after Joshua’s death, but what happens after Jdg 1:9 occurred before his death. [Note: See F. Duane Lindsey, "Judges," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p. 376.]
The Israelites wisely sought God’s strategy in proceeding against their foe. They may have done this with the high priest and his use of the Urim and Thummim (cf. Num 27:21). Each of the major divisions of Jdg 1:1 to Jdg 2:5 opens with a form of the verb ’alah (to go up; Jdg 1:4; Jdg 1:22; Jdg 2:1). This verb also appears in Jdg 1:1-3.
Judges 1:2
The Lord’s appointment of Judah as the first tribe to initiate hostility was in harmony with Jacob’s prophecy that Judah would be the leader of the tribes (Gen 49:8-12).
"The opening scene of the book offers so much promise. The theocratic system is still in place. Israel is sensitive to the will of God, and God responds to the overtures of his people. . . . By raising the reader’s expectations this way the narrator invites us to share the intensity of his own and God’s dis-appointment with his people in the period of settlement. Jdg 1:1-2 throw the remainder of the chapter and the book into sharpest relief." [Note: Block, Judges . . ., p. 87.]
Judges 1:3
Judah naturally and properly, I believe, invited Simeon to join in this battle. After all, the Simeonites lived within the territory of Judah and there-fore enjoyed an unusually close relationship with the people of Judah.
PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR
Jdg 1:1-11
IT was a new hour in the history of Israel. To a lengthened period of serfdom there had succeeded a time of sojourn in tents, when the camp of the tribes, half-military, half-pastoral, clustering about the Tabernacle of Witness, moved with it from point to point through the desert. Now the march was over; the nomads had to become settlers, a change not easy for them as they expected it to be, full of significance for the world. The Book of Judges, therefore, is a second Genesis or Chronicle of Beginnings so far as the Hebrew commonwealth is concerned. We see the birth-throes of national life, the experiments, struggles, errors, and disasters out of which the moral force of the people gradually rose, growing like a pine tree out of rocky soil.
If we begin our study of the book expecting to find clear evidence of an established Theocracy, a spiritual idea of the kingdom of God ever present to the mind, ever guiding the hope and effort of the tribes, we shall experience that bewilderment which has not seldom fallen upon students of Old Testament history. Divide the life of man into two parts, the sacred and the secular; regard the latter as of no real value compared to the other, as having no relation to that Divine purpose of which the Bible is the oracle; then the Book of Judges must appear out of place in the sacred canon, for unquestionably its main topics are secular from first to last. It preserves the traditions of an age when spiritual ideas and aims were frequently out of sight, when a nation was struggling for bare existence, or, at best, for a rude kind of unity and freedom. But human life, sacred and secular, is one. A single strain of moral urgency runs through the epochs of national development from barbarism to Christian civilisation. A single strain of urgency unites the boisterous vigour of the youth and the sagacious spiritual courage of the man. It is on the strength first, and then on the discipline and purification of the will, that everything depends. There must be energy, or there can be no adequate faith, no earnest religion. We trace in the Book of Judges the springing up and growth of a collective energy which gives power to each separate life. To our amazement we may discover that the Mosaic Law and Ordinances are neglected for a time; but there can be no doubt of Divine Providence, the activity of the redeeming Spirit. Great ends are being served, -a development is proceeding which will by and by make religious thought strong, obedience and worship zealous. It is not for us to say that spiritual evolution ought to proceed in this way or that. In the study of natural and supernatural fact our business is to observe with all possible care the goings forth of God and to find as far as we may their meaning and issue. Faith is a profound conviction that the facts of the world justify themselves and the wisdom and righteousness of the Eternal; it is the key that makes history articulate, no mere tale full of sound and fury signifying nothing. And the key of faith which here we are to use in the interpretation of Hebrew life has yet to be applied to all peoples and times. That this may be done we firmly believe: there is needed only the mind broad enough in wisdom and sympathy to gather the annals of the world into one great Bible or Book of God.
Opening the story of the Judges, we find ourselves in a keen atmosphere of warlike ardour softened by scarcely an air of spiritual grace. At once we are plunged into military preparations; councils of war meet and the clash of weapons is heard. Battle follows battle. Iron chariots hurtle along the valleys, the hillsides bristle with armed men. The songs are of strife and conquest; the great heroes are those who smite the uncircumcised hip and thigh. It is the story of Jehovahs people; but where is Jehovah the merciful? Does He reign among them, or sanction their enterprise? Where amid this turmoil and bloodshed is the movement towards the far off Messiah and the holy mountain where nothing shall hurt or destroy? Does Israel prepare for blessing all nations by crushing those that occupy the land he claims? Problems many meet us in Bible history; here surely is one of the gravest. And we cannot go with Judah in that first expedition; we must hold back in doubt till clearly we understand how these wars of conquest are necessary to the progress of the world. Then, even though the tribes are as yet unaware of their destiny and how it is to be fulfilled, we may go up with them against Adoni-bezek.
Canaan is to be colonised by the seed of Abraham, Canaan and no other land. It is not now, as it was in Abrahams time, a sparsely peopled country, with room enough for a new race. Canaanites, Hivites, Perizzites, Amorites cultivate the plain of Esdraelon and inhabit a hundred cities throughout the land. The Hittites are in considerable force, a strong people with a civilisation of their own. To the north Phoenicia is astir with a mercantile and vigorous race. The Philistines have settlements southward along the coast. Had Israel sought a region comparatively unoccupied, such might, perhaps, have been found on the northern coast of Africa. But Syria is the destined home of the tribes.
The old promise to Abraham has been kept before the minds of his descendants. The land to which they have moved through the desert is that of which he took earnest by the purchase of a grave. But the promise of God looks forward to the circumstances that are to accompany its fulfilment; and it is justified because the occupation of Canaan is the means to a great development of righteousness. For, mark the position which the Hebrew nation is to take. It is to be the central state of the world, in verity the Mountain of Gods House for the world. Then observe how the situation of Canaan fits it to be the seat of this new progressive power. Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, lie in a rude circle around it. From its seaboard the way is open to the west. Across the valley of Jordan goes the caravan route to the East. The Nile, the Orontes, the Aegean Sea are not far off. Canaan does not confine its inhabitants, scarcely separates them from other peoples. It is in the midst of the old world.
Is not this one reason why Israel must inhabit Palestine? Suppose the tribes settled in the highlands of Armenia or along the Persian Gulf; suppose them to have migrated westward from Egypt instead of eastward, and to have found a place of habitation on towards Libya: would the history in that case have had the same movement and power? Would the theatre of prophecy and the scene of the Messiahs work have set the gospel of the ages in the same relief, or the growing City of God on the same mountain height? Not only is Canaan accessible to the emigrants from Egypt, but it is by position and configuration suited to develop the genius of the race. Gennesaret and Asphaltitis; the tortuous Jordan and Kishon, that “river of battles”; the cliffs of Engedi, Gerizim and Ebal, Carmel and Tabor, Moriah and Olivet, – these are needed as the scene of the great Divine revelation. No other rivers, no other lakes nor mountains on the surface of the earth will do.
This, however, is but part of the problem which meets us in regard to the settlement in Canaan. There are the inhabitants of the land to be considered – these Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Hivites. How do we justify Israel in displacing them, slaying them, absorbing them? Here is a question first of evolution, then of the character of God.
Do we justify Saxons in their raid on Britain? History does. They become dominant, they rule, they slay, they assimilate; and there grows up British nationality strong and trusty, the citadel of freedom and religious life. The case is similar, yet there is a difference, strongly in favour of Israel as an invading people. For the Israelites have been tried by stern discipline: they are held together by a moral law, a religion divinely revealed, a faith vigorous though but in germ. The Saxons worshipping Thor, Frea, and Woden sweep religion before them in the first rush of conquest. They begin by destroying Roman civilisation and Christian culture in the land they ravage. They appear “dogs,” “wolves,” “whelps from the kennel of barbarism” to the Britons they overcome. But the Israelites have learned to fear Jehovah, and they bear with them the ark of His covenant.
As for the Canaanitish tribes, compare them now with what they were-when Abraham and Isaac fed their flocks in the plain of Mamre or about the springs of Beersheba. Abraham found in Canaan noble, courteous men. Aner, Eshcol and Mature, Amorites, were his trusted confederates; Ephron the Hittite matched his magnanimity; Abimelech of Gerar “feared the Lord.” In Salem reigned a king or royal priest, Melchizedek, unique in ancient history, a majestic unsullied figure, who enjoyed the respect and tribute of the Hebrew patriarch. Where are the successors of those men? Idolatry has corrupted Canaan. The old piety of simple races has died away before the hideous worship of Moloch and Ashtoreth. It is over degenerate peoples that Israel is to assert its dominance; they must learn the way of Jehovah or perish. This conquest is essential to the progress of the world. Here in the centre of empires a stronghold of pure ideas and commanding morality is to be established, an altar of witness for the true God.
So far we move without difficulty towards a justification of the Hebrew descent on Canaan. Still, however, when we survey the progress of conquest, the idea struggling for confirmation in our minds that God was King and Guide of this people, while at the same time we know that all nations could equally claim Him as their Origin, marking how on field after field thousands were left dying and dead, we have to find an answer to the question whether the slaughter and destruction even of idolatrous races for the sake of Israel can be explained in harmony with Divine justice. And this passes into still wider inquiries. Is there intrinsic value in human life? Have men a proper right of existence and self-development? Does not Divine Providence imply that the history of each people, the life of each person will have its separate end and vindication? There is surely a reason in the righteousness and love of God for every human experience, and Christian thought cannot explain the severity of Old Testament ordinances by assuming that the Supreme has made a new dispensation for Himself. The problem is difficult, but we dare not evade it nor doubt a full solution to be possible.
We pass here beyond mere “natural evolution.” It is not enough to say that there had to be a struggle for life among races and individuals. If natural forces are held to be the limit and equivalent of God, then “survival of the fittest” may become a religious doctrine, but assuredly it will introduce us to no God of pardon, no hope of redemption. We must discover a Divine end in the life of each person, a member it may be of some doomed race, dying on a field of battle in the holocaust of its valour and chivalry. Explanation is needed of all slaughtered and “waste” lives, untold myriads of lives that never tasted freedom or knew holiness.
The explanation we find is this: that for a human life in the present stage of existence the opportunity of struggle for moral ends-it may be ends of no great dignity, yet really moral, and, as the race advances, religious-this makes life worth living and brings to every one the means of true and lasting gain. “Where ignorant armies clash by night” there may be in the opposing ranks the most various notions of religion and of what is morally good. The histories of the nations that meet in shock of battle determine largely what hopes and aims guide individual lives. But to the thousands who do valiantly this conflict belongs to the vital struggle in which some idea of the morally good or of religious duty directs and animates the soul. For hearth and home, for wife and children, for chief and comrades, for Jehovah or Baal, men fight, and around these names there cluster thoughts the sacredest possible to the age, dignifying life and war and death. There are better kinds of struggle than that which is acted on the bloody field; yet struggle of one kind or other there must be. It is the law of existence for the barbarian, for the Hebrew, for the Christian. Ever there is a necessity for pressing towards the mark, striving to reach and enter the gate of higher life. No land flowing with milk and honey to be peaceably inherited and enjoyed rewards the generation which has fought its way through the desert. No placid possession of cities and vineyards rounds off the life of Canaanitish tribe. The gains of endurance are reaped, only to be sown again in labour and tears for a further harvest. Here on earth this is the plan of God for men; and when another life crowns the long effort of this world of change, may it not be with fresh calls to more glorious duty and achievement?
But the golden cord of Divine Providence has more than one strand; and while the conflicts of life are appointed for the discipline of men and nations in moral vigour and in fidelity to such religious ideas as they possess, the purer and stronger faith always giving more power to those who exercise it, there is also in the course of life, and especially in the suffering war entails, a reference to the sins of men. Warfare is a sad necessity. Itself often a crime, it issues the judgment of God against folly and crime. Now Israel, now the Canaanite becomes a hammer of Jehovah. One people has been true to its best, and by that faithfulness it gains the victory. Another has been false, cruel, treacherous, and the hands of the fighters grow weak, their swords lose edge, their chariot wheels roll heavily, they are swept away by the avenging tide. Or the sincere, the good are overcome; the weak who are in the right sink before the wicked who are strong. Yet the moral triumph is always gained. Even in defeat and death there is victory for the faithful.
In these wars of Israel we find many a story of judgment as well as a constant proving of the worth of mans religion and virtue. Neither was Israel always in the right, nor had those races which Israel overcame always a title to the power they held and the land they occupied. Jehovah was a stern arbiter among the combatants. When His own people failed in the courage and humility of faith, they were chastised. On the other hand, there were tyrants and tyrannous races, freebooters and banditti, pagan hordes steeped in uncleanness who had to be judged and punished. Where we cannot trace the reason of what appears mere waste of life or wanton cruelty, there lie behind, in the ken of the All-seeing, the need and perfect vindication of all He suffered to be done in the ebb and flow of battle, amid the riot of war.
Beginning now with the detailed narrative, we find first a case of retribution, in which the Israelites served the justice of God. As yet the Canaanite power was unbroken in the central region of Western Palestine, where Adoni-bezek ruled over the cities of seventy chiefs. It became a question who should lead the tribes against this petty despot, and recourse was had to the priests at Gilgal for Divine direction. The answer of the oracle was that Judah should head the campaign, the warlike vigour and numerical strength of that tribe fitting it to take the foremost place. Judah accepting the post of honour invited Simeon, closely related by common descent from Leah, to join the expedition; and thus began a confederacy of these southern tribes which had the effect of separating them from the others throughout the whole period of the judges. The locality of Bezek which the king of the Canaanites held as his chief fortress is not known. Probably it was near the Jordan valley, about halfway between the two greater lakes. From it the tyranny of Adoni-bezek extended northward and southward over the cities of the seventy, whose submission he had cruelly ensured by rendering them unfit for war. Here, in the first struggle, Judah was completely successful. The rout of the Canaanites and Perizzites was decisive, and the slaughter so great as to send a thrill of terror through the land. And now the rude judgment of men works out the decree of God. Adoni-bezek suffers the same mutilation as he had inflicted on the captive chiefs and in Oriental manner makes acknowledgment of a just fate. There is a certain religousness in his mind, and he sincerely bows himself under the judgment of a God against Whom he had tried issues in vain. Had these troops of Israel come in the name of Jehovah? Then Jehovah had been watching Adoni-bezek in his pride when, as he daily feasted in his hall, the crowd of victims grovelled at his feet like dogs.
Thus early did ideas of righteousness and of wide authority attach themselves in Canaan to the name of Israels God. It is remarkable how on the appearance of a new race the first collision with it on the battlefield will produce an impression of its capacity and spirit and of unseen powers fighting along with it. Joshuas dash through Canaan doubtless struck far and wide a belief that the new comers had a mighty God to support them; the belief is reinforced, and there is added a thought of Divine justice. The retribution of Jehovah meant Godhead far larger and more terrible, and at the same time more august, than the religion of Baal had ever presented to the mind. From this point the Israelites, if they had been true to their heavenly King, fired with the ardour of His name, would have occupied a moral vantage ground and proved invincible. The fear of Jehovah would have done more for them than their own valour and arms. Had the people of the land seen that a power was being established amongst them in the justice and benignity of which they could trust, had they learned not only to fear but to adore Jehovah, there would have been quick fulfilment of the promise which gladdened the large heart of Abraham. The realisation, however, had to wait for many a century.
It cannot be doubted that Israel had under Moses received such an impulse in the direction of faith in the one God, and such a conception of His character and will, as declared the spiritual mission of the tribes. The people were not all aware of their high destiny, not sufficiently instructed to have a competent sense of it; but the chiefs of the tribes, the Levites and the heads of households, should have well understood the part that fell to Israel among the nations of the world. The law in its main outlines was known, and it should have been revered as the charter of the commonwealth. Under the banner of Jehovah the nation ought to have striven not for its own position alone, the enjoyment of fruitful fields and fenced cities, but to raise the standard of human morality and enforce the truth of Divine religion. The gross idolatry of the peoples around should have been continually testified against; the principles of honesty, of domestic purity, of regard for human life, of neighbourliness and parental authority, as well as the more spiritual ideas expressed in the first table of the Decalogue, ought to have been guarded and dispensed as the special treasure of the nation. In this way Israel, as it enlarged its territory, would from the first have been clearing one space of earth for the good customs and holy observances that make for spiritual development. The greatest of all trusts is committed to a race when it is made capable of this; but here Israel often failed, and the reproaches of her prophets had to be poured out from age to age.
The ascendency which Israel secured in Canaan, or that which Britain has won in India, is not, to begin with, justified by superior strength, nor by higher intelligence, nor even because in practice the religion of the conquerors is better than that of the vanquished. It is justified because, with all faults and crimes that may for long attend the rule of the victorious race, there lie, unrealised at first, in conceptions of God and of duty, the promise and germ of a higher education of the world. Developed in the course of time, the spiritual genius of the conquerors vindicates their ambition and their success. The world is to become the heritage and domain of those who have the secret of large and ascending life.
Judah, moving southward from Bezek, took Jerusalem, not the stronghold on the hilltop, but the city, and smote it with the edge of the sword. Not yet did that citadel which has been the scene of so many conflicts become a rallying point for the tribes. The army, leaving Adoni-bezek dead in Jerusalem, with many who owned him as chief, swept southward still to Hebron and Debir. At Hebron the task was not unlike that which had been just accomplished. There reigned three chiefs, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, who are mentioned again and again in the annals as if their names had been deeply branded on the memory of the age. They were sons of Anak, bandit captains, whose rule was a terror to the countryside. Their power had to be assailed and overthrown, not only for the sake of Judah which was to inhabit their stronghold, but for the sake of humanity. The law of God was to replace the fierce unregulated sway of inhuman violence and cruelty. So the practical duty of the hour carried the tribes beyond the citadel where the best national centre would have been found to attack another where an evil power sat entrenched.
One moral lies on the surface here. We are naturally anxious to gain a good position in life for ourselves, and every consideration is apt to be set aside in favour of that. Now, in a sense, it is necessary, one of the first duties, that we gain each a citadel for himself. Our influence depends to a great extent on the standing we secure, on the courage and talent we show in making good our place. Our personality must enlarge itself, make itself visible by the conquest we effect and the extent of affairs we have a right to control. Effort on this line needs not be selfish or egoistic in a bad sense. The higher self or spirit of a good man finds in chosen ranges of activity and possession its true development and calling. One may not be a worldling by any means while he follows the bent of his genius and uses opportunity to become a successful merchant, a public administrator, a great artist or man of letters. All that he adds to his native inheritance of hand, brain and soul should be and often is the means of enriching the world. Against the false doctrine of self-suppression, still urged on a perplexed generation, stands this true doctrine, by which the generous helper of men guides his life so as to become a king and priest unto God. And when we turn from persons of highest character and talent to those of smaller capacity, we may not alter the principle of judgment. They, too, serve the world, in so far as they have good qualities, by conquering citadels and reigning where they are fit to reign. If a man is to live to any purpose, play must be given to his original vigour, however much or little there is of it.
Here, then, we find a necessity belonging to the spiritual no less than to the earthly life. But there lies close beside it the shadow of temptation and sin. Thousands of people put forth all their strength to gain a fortress for themselves, leaving others to fight the sons of Anak-the intemperance, the unchastity, the atheism of the time. Instead of triumphing over the earthly, they are ensnared and enslaved. The truth is, that a safe position for ourselves we cannot have while those sons of Anak ravage the country around. The Divine call therefore often requires of us that we leave a Jerusalem unconquered for ourselves, while we pass on with the hosts of God to do battle with the public enemy. Time after time Israel, though successful at Hebron, missed the secret and learnt in bitter sadness and loss how near is the shadow to the glory.
And for anyone today, what profits it to be a wealthy man, living in state with all the appliances of amusement and luxury, well knowing, but not choosing to share the great conflicts between religion and ungodliness, between purity and vice? If the ignorance and woe of our fellow creatures do not draw our hearts, if we seek our own things as loving our own, if the spiritual does not command us, we shall certainly lose all that makes life-enthusiasm, strength, eternal joy.
Give us men who fling themselves into the great struggle, doing what they can with Christ-born ardour, foot soldiers if nothing else in the army of the Lord of Righteousness.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary