Judges – Chapter 3

Proving Nations, vs. 1-4

The record proceeds to show how the Lord acted on His word relative to His altered dealing with the Israelites in Canaan. The Lord was dealing now with the younger generation who were unborn at the time of the departure from Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, and conquest of Canaan. In their childhood and youth they had not known war, for the Lord had given them peace throughout the lifetime of godly Joshua and the contemporary elders. The Lord would let them learn about war now, by leaving the heathen nations among them whom they had failed to drive out. The behavior of the younger Israelites in the trials which would come would prove whether they intended to serve the Lord or not, (1Jn 2:19).

Those left in the land by the Lord included five lords of the Philistines. These were in the cities of Gaza, Ekron, Askelon, Gath, and Ashdod. These cities had been conquered under Joshua, they were resubjugated by the tribe of Judah (Jdg 1:18), but in the end the Philistines were allowed to remain there. For many generations this neglect would cause much trouble for the people of Judah and Israel. Throughout the period of the judges and to the time of David there was constant warfare with Philistia.

The Canaanites left there also soon caused trouble by rising against the conquering Israelites. Though there was no war with the Sidonians, these Phoenician people held most of the cities and good areas in the tribal portion of Asher throughout their history. The Hivites of mount Lebanon exercised a bad influence of the Danites who migrated to that area. As one looks back on events of the time of God’s proving of Israel it must be concluded that they failed the test. How many church members fail this test today? (1Co 5:7)

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

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

GODS MEANS OF TESTING CHARACTER AND CHASTISING FOR SIN.Jdg. 3:1-4

CRITICAL NOTES.

Jdg. 3:1. Which the Lord left.] Allowed to remain, i.e., spared from doom; notdid not mark out for destruction. For all the Canaanites were doomed to be exterminated, including the Philistines, the Phnicians and Sidonians; also the Hivites, as far north as the Gate of Hamath, which was about one hundred miles farther north than the conquests of Joshua reached (Num. 34:7-9; Gen. 15:18). God Himself was to do the work; His people were to be the instruments employed (Deu. 7:2; Deu. 7:23-24; Deu. 11:23-24; Deu. 20:16-17). But His engagement to aid them was conditioned on their obedience and trust. When they failed in fidelity to Him, their conquests were arrested, and the tide began to flow the other way (Jos. 23:12-13). When from unbelief or indolence they held back from attacking the Canaanites, God spared those whom they spared. Hence, what is called breach of promiseapparent, not real (Num. 14:34). To prove Israel by them (Greek ). Some regard this phrase as having a different meaning here from what it has in Jdg. 3:4, and in Jdg. 2:22, where it is used of moral probation, or testing faith and obedience. Here, they say it means to exercise, or train for warto give them practice in fighting with the view of keeping up the warlike spirit among them. [Pulp. Com. and others.] This alteration in the interpretation of the word, in one and the same paragraph, is purely arbitrary, and could scarcely have been thought of but for the necessities of a certain theory, as we shall see under Jdg. 3:2. Here, it means to test character, as in Deu. 13:3; and the point to be tested is stated in Jdg. 3:4 to be, whether they had the spirit of true allegiance to their Covenant God. As many of Israel as] those who came to mans estate after the close of the wars of Canaan (Jdg. 2:10). The survivors of the wars of Canaan did not need this discipline. Had not known all the war of Canaan] i.e., by personal eyesight and experience. They had not passed through them, seen with their own eyes the formidable dangers, and met them boldly, through strong faith in the promise of their God.

Jdg. 3:2. Only that the generations, etc.] Here we have a statement of the moral purpose served by the wars. It was to prove what the younger generations would do when they had personal experience of those wars. Would they show the same fidelity and courage as the fathers, or not? The construction of this verse is peculiar, arising partly from a difference in the idiom of the languages. Bertheau makes Jehovah the subject of the verb to know, and makes Israel the objectthe sense being that He (Jehovah) might know Israel (by putting them to the proof) in teaching them war (giving them the opportunity of fighting against these nations in dependence on His promise). This gives a good sense, though it seems more natural to regard the generations of Israel as the proper subject of the verb. We prefer to render it thus: Only for the purpose ( ) that the generations of the children of Israel might have the knowledge () of war, through a personal experience of it () (not all the generations of Israel, but) those only () who before had not known it. The important question here is, what is meant by teaching them war. Many understand it to mean, knowledge of the art of warto cultivate in them a martial spirit, skill in handling their weapons, and true valour in the field. This, it is said, would be a check on effeminacy, and keep them up to the mark of being always able to defend their country when peril should arise. Trapp has it, that Israel might not rust through long rest them slay not lest my folk forget. Scipio, he says, persuaded the Romans not to ruin Carthage lest their youth should want exercise, and grow wanton with too much ease. If this be the correct view, it is singular that they should be required to fight with their enemies, in order to be able to fight with their enemies. But passing this, it is significant, that none of the many critics who adopt this meaning quote any parallel passages in its justification. There are no such passages. The whole teaching of Scripture is to the opposite effect, viz., that the people of the covenant must rely, in all conflicts with their enemies, solely on the promised help of their God. (Psa. 20:7-9; Psa. 44:3; Psa. 44:5-8; Hos. 14:1-3; Psa. 147:10-11.) The use of natural means had its place, but the people are never taught to rely at any time on that prop, for the defence of their country. On the contrary, the manner in which they acquired possession of the land, is ever represented as the rule according to which they might hope securely to occupy it, namely, by faithfully obeying the commandments of their God. To learn war after the manner of the wars of Canaan we understand to be, to look for victory, not through personal bravery, but through the omnipotent help of Jehovah, given in fulfilment of His promise, in answer to faith and prayer.

Jdg. 3:3. Five lords of the Philistines. Three of these lordships had been formerly subdued by Judah (Jdg. 1:18), but seem afterwards to have been lost through the sloth and unbelief of that tribe in failing to follow up their advantage. Where sin is not extirpated, it will, like a noxious weed, take root againlords, or satrapies (Sept.). The original sarnaim, or princes literally signifies axles. The chief is so called because the people and public affairs alike revolved around him as the parts of a wheel upon its axis. [Bush.] Jos. 13:3; Jdg. 16:5; Jdg. 16:8; 1Sa. 6:4; 1Sa. 6:12; 1Sa. 6:16, etc., 1Sa. 29:2; 1Sa. 29:6() lordships, or principalities. And all the Canaanites.] This list is not quite the same with that given in Jos. 13:3, etc. Changes had occurred; conquests had been won and defeats suffered. But the difference lies chiefly in the fact, that the paragraph in Joshua gives an account of the allotment to the different tribes of the land occupied by the nations, that are here said to be spared to serve as scourges for Israels sins. The phrase all the Canaanites does not refer to all the nations called by that name who originally occupied the country, for very many of these had been slain; but partly, it refers to those that were still found within the territory conquered by the tribes (both the uplands and valleys having towns that were either wholly or partially filled with Canaanites), and chiefly to that large and formidable nation of the Canaanites outside the conquered territory to the north-west, whom the Israelites had not yet met in armsthe Phnicians. This people, who are generally identified with the Sidonians, occupied a narrow strip of land of only two miles in breadth, but extending along the coast for a distance almost equal to the entire length of Palestine from Dan to Beersheba. In this strip were the cities of Tyre and Sidon; it was densely populated, and the people were among the most intelligent, enterprising, and powerful nations of ancient times. It began near the point where the territory occupied by the tribe terminated, and extended northward, shut in between the Lebanon range and the sea. It was all within the original limits of the land of promise, and ought to have been occupied by the Israelites, as part of their inheritance, though it never was really subdued by them. Sidon was the firstborn of Canaan, and his descendants were the very worst among races where all were so bad. Take Jezebel for an example (1Ki. 16:31; 1Ki. 21:25). The Canaanites who dwelt among the Israelites were most numerous in the northern tribes, and it was these especially that were snares and traps to them, scourges in their sides, and thorns in their eyes. The Philistines.] The plain of Philistia, with a breadth of about twenty miles, ran along the entire seaboard of the Mediterranean from the desert, in a line parallel with Judah, to a point near the middle of Palestine. In the central section of the coast, the plain becomes narrower, being only two miles in breadth, and is shut in by the mountains of Manasseh and Ephraim. This is called the plain of Sharon. And the Hivites that dwelt in Mount Lebanon.] The derivation of Hivites is interesting. First comes to live, and including the idea of roundness. ovum an egg (Sept.), which is both round and the source of life. Hence and came to signify encampment (2Sa. 23:11), and village (Num. 32:41), from the circular form in which camps and villages were disposed. The people called the Hivites are those who reside in round villages. Even down to the present day, the villages are so built that the conically-shaped houses form a circular street, enclosing an open space in the centre for the flocks and the herds. This habit of building distinguished the Hivites from the other nations. [Cassel.] Baalhermon.] from height, or highlands. Hermon is the loftiest peak in the Anti-Libanus range. It is the southern spur, and towers far above all its surroundings. This district and all northward among the hills and valleys of the Lebanon range, for a distance of nearly 100 miles beyond the point of Joshuas conquests, was occupied by the Hivites (Jos. 11:17; Jos. 12:7). Baal-gad is the same with Baal-hermon. All this district was originally marked out for inheritance by the tribes, but in fact was never subdued by them. The entering in of Hamath. The narrow pass which opens out on Hamaththe most northern point in the land of promise [Eadie.] This is the gate to Canaan on the north.

Note on the Wars of Canaan.These did not belong to the common category of human wars. They were specially made at Gods command for a high moral purposeto vindicate Jehovahs character in the punishment of flagrant transgressors. In doing this, solemn displays of the Divine Perfections were made, both before the heathen nations and before the chosen people. They were therefore sacred wars, and on sacred principles were they fought. As compared with other wars, the differentiating element in them was, that God Himself was the chief actor, who always determined the issue, and the principle on which He gave success or permitted defeat, was the possession, or the want of trust in His name, and fidelity in keeping His commandments. These wars were indeed both a test of spiritual obedience and also a discipline to correct and refine. To know them implied a great deal more than to know the art of fighting bravely as warriors. Brave as Joshua and his followers were, there was no proportion between their small resources and weak arms on the one side, and the chariots of iron, with the hosts numerous as the sand on the sea shore, which these nations mustered, on the other. It was a war of children against giantsof sheep against wolves. Never were armies more unequally matched, and never was faith of victory through Gods promised help more thoroughly tried. The fathers knew that the conquest of Canaan was not a thing of easy achievement. And now the children must be trained on the same lines, that they may learn how hard a thing it is, as a condition of their retaining possession of the inheritance, to be firm and loyal to their God in the actual presence of enemies, so superior in all the equipments of war, to themselves.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH

The genius of the history of Israel, as distinct from every other history, lies in the fact, that they were the people of the Messiah. They were His brethren, being, together with Him, Abrahams seed and members of one family circle. They were His ancestry, for of them Christ came who is God over all, etc. They were His people, and represented Him on earth till the times of His personal appearance. Being the people of the Messiah, the Messiahs God becomes their God. God unites them to Himself in the bonds of an everlasting covenant, engaging with great condescension to make Himself over to them as their God, and adopting them to Himself to become His people. In them and in their history, we see a practical embodiment of the blessings which the Messiah procures for men. In them we see an illustration of what God, for the Messiahs sake, can do in following sinful men through all their course of disobedience and rebellion, and not only preserve them from utter ruin, but lift them up at last, through faith and repentance, to the full enjoyment of everlasting life.

This is the picture which is set before us in this, and in all the historical books of the Old Testament. The Covenant is the backbone of all the Divine dealings with this people, as set forth in these books. We see there, in the position which God takes up, and from which he never withdrawsI will be your Godthe vast resources of love which may be drawn upon, in support of all the demands made on the patient forbearance and forgiving tender mercy of God, by the terrible depravity and highhanded rebellion of a perverse people. We see why it is they are not consumed in a momentwhy not utterly cast off at any time, not even under the Babylonish captivitywhy they are so often forgiven, and such astonishing proofs of the Divine favour are shown on their behalf. From the beginning, Jehovah became their God. That position once taken, their history throughout becomes the medium for a glorious display of all the Divine perfections, in pardoning and blessing men for the Messiahs sake.

Hence we uniformly find them greatly beloved of God. We see God in close contact with them every moment of their existence; they are never out of His sight, and no hand is allowed to touch them but His own. They are to Him a peculiar treasure, and He keeps them in the hollow of His hand (Deu. 33:3; Psalms 121). He takes the entire direction of their history, and all its issues are to him. This we shall now endeavour to trace.

TESTS AND CHASTISEMENT.Jdg. 3:1-4

I. The work to be done.The trial and chastisement of an unfaithful people.

1. Chastisement as well as trial. The people had already shown symptoms of apostasy, and there was more than reason to suspect their fidelity. The plague-spot had appeared, and there was need to cauterise. When symptoms of fretting leprosy show themselves, an examination must be made. The mere presence of such neighbours as these Canaanites, and the having to dwell among them, was itself a chastisement. The presence of bears and wolves in the family circle, even if they should be muzzled, would be a great affliction to the children, though the object might only be to ascertain whether they would put their trust under the parental wing. But it would be chastisement in terrible earnest, were the muzzle removed. So with Israel, when these wicked were first allowed to dwell among them, and when, afterwards, the reins were let loose, and they were permitted to exercise their savage passions at will.

2. A special mark is put on the reason for this course of dealing. God had already explained with great distinctness the ground of His procedure (Jdg. 2:20-23). Yet He now repeats it, to put emphasis on the necessity of such a course of dealing with a people who had been the recipients of unbounded mercy, and yet were beginning to show the extreme of ingratitude. He speaks once, yea, twice. He calls aloud that men may mark His jealousy for His own honour as a Holy God, while yet so full of compassion for His adopted people. Thus at the outset of this checkered history, He explainsline upon linethe ground of his procedure, that it may stand clear to every eye. On this trial and chastisement these things are to be noted:

I. It was Gods own thought to put them to the proof. The Lord left these nations. He kept the guidance of their history in His own hand. He directed it this way, not that way. He put the machinery in motion. It did not fall out in the ordinary course of events. Neither did the nations themselves entertain any such thought.

1. Far otherwise were the thoughts of the nations. Israel was a speckled bird among the nationsthe birds round about were against her. There was a something about that people which excited the hostility of the other nations. It was the old enmity between the womans seed and the serpents seed. This hatred was not due merely to the successful war which Israel had waged against their cities and armies, though that had its share of the reason. But it was due mainly to the character of Israels God and His ways. He was too holy and righteous in Himselftoo severe in His condemnation of mens sinsfor a world lying in wickedness to do other than hate His image wherever seen. Their thoughts were

(a) when Israel was strong, to seek alliance with themonly for their own advantage; to gain the profits of commerce, or obtain security against future possible exterminating wars. When true religion is in power, the world will be obsequious, and multiply honeyed words; but when the opportunity is given, it will stab to the heart, and not pity. So

(b) when Israel became weak, their thoughts were of conquest and revenge. They gnashed their teeth when they thought how terribly these upstarts among the nations had decimated their armies, destroyed their cities, and robbed them of their soil. Feelings of retaliation, or of self-interest, were their only motives. Depraved human nature, without the grace of God, cannot rise higher. The last thing they would have thought of would have been to serve any purpose of the God of Israel in the matter. But there be higher than they. While they thought they were serving only purposes of their own, He was overruling all that they did to accomplish His own holy and benignant ends.

2. The nations could do nothing without Gods permission. God sets a hedge round about His people that none may touch them till permission is granted. Even Satan admits this (Job. 1:10). The lapidary allows no one to cut or grind his jewels but himself, or if another comes in, it is by express appointment, and the work is done under his own direct supervision. Jehovah would not allow these nations to look Israel in the face, to tempt, chastise, or intermeddle with them, until they were needed as instruments to execute some gracious purpose of His own. Had he not judged it necessary to sift Israels character, and put it to the proof, we should not have read a line of the raids of Chushan-rishathaim, or of Eglon, and other marauders, whose tragic deeds constitute so large a part of the story of this book. These rough hammers would never have been employed on Gods precious stones, had he not seen good reason for it, and permitted it to happen. But as soon as the hammer has done its work, it is flung aside, and not another stroke is allowed. The nations did nothing till God gave them a charge; and when Israel became penitent, He applied the bridle to their wrath. Their wrath He made to praise Him, and the remainder He restrained.

3. This proving of character was done out of respect to His covenant. It was His own doing, and it was done according to a fixed rule of dealing.

(a) God acted by principle, and not by temporary impulse. He never acts otherwise. He is never in haste, and never under the influence of excitement as man is. Were it so, He would be weak like man. But He acts by fixed covenant arrangement. Covenant implies systema definitely arranged course for all time to come. It is beneath the majesty of the King Eternal to act by temporary impulse, or to make any real change in His rules to meet what mortals regard as peculiar contingencies. He comprehends from the first all that may happen, and provides against every emergency.

(b) He acted according to His established manner of dealing with His peoples sins. It was foreseen that sinits existence, its inveteracy, its continual breaking out among the people, notwithstanding all the precautions taken to prevent its prevalencewould constitute, to human wisdom, a perplexing, hopeless difficulty in the way of carrying out the provisions of the covenant. Gods character, as a consuming fire against the workers of iniquity, was not changed by His entering into covenant with this people. On the other hand, His people were bent to backsliding from Him, and there was an extreme necessity for vindicating the Divine character, in order to the righteous bestowment of covenant blessings.

(c) Provision made for this through the intervention of the coming Messiah, the real Mediator of the covenant. Of His appearance and work in the fulness of time, intimation was daily given by fresh victims evermore laid upon the altar, throughout their entire history as a people. Meanwhile some course must be taken to carry home to the hearts of the people a conviction of the flagrant character of their sin, in presuming to break their solemn pledge to the Most High, and to prefer the unhallowed service of heathen gods to the pure worship of Israels God. Afflictions serve this purpose. God will not break His promise, for it is an everlasting covenant. Neither can He look upon sin. But He will chastise. He will cast into the furnace to purely purge away their dross, and take away all their tin. So He leads them back to Himself, in the exercise of unwearying forbearance, for His mercy endureth for ever. (Psa. 89:31-34.)

4. God puts His people under discipline to serve wise and holy ends. If enemies are used, they are but the rod in His hand, employed to do a necessary work. They do nothing merely at their own discretion. Any commission given to an earthly power is limited by the charge, Thus far, but no farther.

(a) No real injury is ever intended. They are more sacred to Him than any other property. He watches over them as the mother bird fluttering over her young; and, as that mother placeth her own body between her young and the arrow that is aimed at their heart, so he who would smite a child of the covenant must first fight with Him that made it.

(b) Never is the rod without some gracious instruction. Hear ye the rod, and Him who appointeth it.All his works are done in truth and uprightness. (Psa. 25:10.) This gives confidence to the pious heart, and stills all apprehension as to the issue. How many Fear nots are in Scripture. Instances in Davids history. Before Shimei he accepts the punishment of his iniquity. Let him curse, for the Lord hath hidden him! God put him to the test, and he stood it. (See also Psa. 39:9; 2Sa. 24:14.

5. God Himself determines the time, manner, and severity of the trial.

(a) The timenot too soonlest He should seem to be suspicious of His people, and take pleasure in hastening to chastise. His language rather is, Surely they are My people, children that will not lie (Isa. 63:8.) Nor too longlest the malady should get too deeply-rooted, and require a far more severe operation to eradicate it at a future period. In the one case, the tendency would be to foster a spirit of bondage; in the other, to make light of sin, and presumptuously to cast off the fear of God.

(b) The mannerin such form as to instruct the mind in the evil nature of the sin which has brought down the chastisement. The bitter streams of which God causes them to drink, spring from the very sins on account of which God chastises them. Thine own wickedness correcteth thee, and thy backslidings reprove thee.

(c) The severitynot destructive, as if He found pleasure in taking vengeance. To crush under His feet the prisoners of the earth the Lord approveth not (Lam. 3:34; Lam. 3:36). I will not contend for ever, etc. (Isa. 57:16). A ruthless enemy may be employed as the instrument, yet he cannot go a step beyond the limit prescribed, nor durst he inflict a single pang to gratify malice or revenge, except in so far as that may be a means of carrying out the purpose of the real actor. I am jealous for Jerusalem with a great jealousy; I am very sore displeased with the heathen, for I was but a little displeased (with my people), and they helped forward the affliction (Zec. 1:14-15). Sometimes His hand is very heavy. He goes the length of barking our fig tree, and laying our vine waste (Joe. 1:7). That which is proverbially fruitful He makes conspicuously desolate. But He has always a bottle for the tears, and a balm for the wounds. He may use the scourge, but never the sword. He afflicts not willingly. He chastens for our profit.

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS

THE LORDS THOUGHTS ABOUT HIS PEOPLE.Jdg. 3:1-4

I. God has many thoughts about His people. Many are thy thoughts to us-ward; they cannot be reckoned up in order. He concerns Himself much with them and their history. I know the thoughts that I think toward youthoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. They are the children He has nourished and brought up. They are called by His sacred name. He has once taken them by the hand, and His love is unchangeable. He has removed mountains for them, and dried up seasrolled back rivers in their course, and made the hard rocks gush forth streams of water, and the heavens send down angels food. How should He not have many and loving thoughts about His people!

II. Gods thoughts about His people are often anxious thoughts. He has chosen them to show forth His praise; but how can a disobedient and rebellious people serve a purpose like this? He appoints them to illustrate the righteousness of His law, and the tenderness of His dealings; but how can they do this when they are daily sinning before Him, and there is no end of their murmurings? He has engaged to see them all safely through the dangers of the wilderness, and settled in the enjoyment of the spiritual inheritance above; but how can this be accomplished when there is so much unbelief and hardness of heart shown at every step of the Divine leadings? O, Judah, what shall I do unto thee? How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land and goodly heritage? Have I been a wilderness unto Israela land of darkness? Wherefore say my people, We will come no more unto thee?

III. Behind all His thoughts are gracious intentions. They all spring from love at bottom. Not one is dictated by enmity, or even indifference. They are all only different forms of loving-kindness and tender mercy, corresponding with the different or changing circumstances in which they are placed. How precious are Thy thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! Sitting on the throne of the Gospel, Gods thoughts to His people are only of pardon, reconciliation, peace, and the hope of eternal life. The Fathers will is that nothing of the bundle of life be lost, but raised up again at the last day. And even now His several chastisements are sent to serve the ends of love.

IV. Gods thoughts of what true love is are very different from ours. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts. He can forgive without difficulty to any extent, where there is true penitence, and trust in the blood. He abundantly pardons. But He often withholds that for which flesh and blood ardently crave. He applies crucial tests to bring out the whole heart, and covers us with shame and humiliation. In place of allowing us to sit down at ease, and enjoy the good things of this life without stint or annoyance, He makes us go through the briers and thorns, and learn to scorn delights and live laborious days. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten. The permanent rooting out of sin from the heart, though requiring sharp present suffering, is regarded as true love in the end in the estimation of our God.

THE CHASTENING OF THE LORD

God not only appoints all our chastisements, but they are under His special direction and management as to their nature, degree, continuance and effects. What a comforting reflection this! To have every circumstance of our distress in the management of such a hand! He is most intimately acquainted with our frame and feelings. He is possessed of unerring wisdom and infinite goodness, so that our affairs cannot miscarry in His hand. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His permission. So minute and tender is His care over us, that He makes all our bed in our sickness. [McLean.]

The raising of our troubles, the keeping them upon us, and the removing of them, is all of the Lord. It is His wise disposal, and not an ill chance (Amo. 3:2). Do not, therefore, rest in second causes, nor vex yourselves as if spurning against the Lord, but patiently bear them. Whoever may be the instrument, the Lord is the overruling cause.

When by Gods kindness and many comforts we cannot be brought to cleave to Him with all our hearts, He will take another course to bring us thereto. He will acquaint us with wants, trouble, and sorrow. And yet such is His love, that if they prevail with us, and work kindly upon us, to bring us to repent, He will return to us again graciously and continue His former bounty. Our first parents when they sinned began to know what good and evil meant. Children, while tenderly dealt with by their parents, have all things with ease provided for them; but when they grow up and are put to shifts, they come to know what hardness means, through the rough handling of strangers. [Rogers.]

Chastenings from the Lord oftenact as a touchstone of human character. They are an Ithuriels spear to reveal every man as he is. When Pliable and Christian came to the Slough of Despond, they both fell in and wallowed for a time in the mire. Pliable was instantly unmasked. He angrily asked his companion, Is this the happiness you have been telling me of all this while? After a desperate struggle he got out of the mire on that side which lay next his own house, and Christian saw him no more. But Christian got out on the side next the wicket gate.

But sharp tests while they sift, also strengthen religious characters. When the wind shakes a young tree, and bends it to the earth, it seems to be retarding its growth, yet it is really furthering it. It makes it strike its roots deeper into the soil, that its stem may rise higher and stronger, till it can struggle with tempests and spread its green leaves to a thousand summers. The winds and storms are the educators of the tree, no less than the sunbeams and the dew. In the intellectual world a strong mind thrives on difficulties. There is no falser method of education than to make all smooth and easy, and remove every stone before the foot touches it. God has ordained that where there is to be progression there must be struggle. Specially is this the case where the alloy of sin has entered, and needs to be smelted out by the hot furnace. [Ker].

The country of the Israelites was rich, and abounded in dainties of all sorts, so that they were in danger of sinking into the utmost degree of luxury and effeminacy. They must, therefore, sometimes wade in blood, and not always in milk and honey.

[Henry.]

GODS CHANGE OF DEALING

Here we have the first step taken in a new course of the Divine dealings. The change is very markedsimilar to that of the attitude of the Lord God towards our first parents in the garden of Eden, when man had sinned. At first his voice was heard in loving intercourse with man at the cool of the day; but soon came the frown, and He drove out the man. All the days of Joshua were as a bright morning in the history of the young nation whom the Lord had brought out of Egypt. He couched, he lay down as a lion; he did eat up the nations his enemies; he brake their bones, and pierced them through with his arrows. Prosperity flowed as the waves of the sea. These were the lights of Israels history; but alas! the shadows followed. In the first chapter of Judges, the atmosphere becomes electrical; in the second, specks begin to appear on the horizon, and the first mutterings of the approaching thunder are heard. Now in this chapter, we see the dark clouds getting settled in the sky, and the elements of destruction being prepared. What could have happened that that same God, who had given up these Canaanites to Israel to be trodden down as the mire, should now permit them to rise up and become Israels masters, and even sweep over the land as an over-running flood? The change is too marked to escape notice:

1. It is rendered necessary by sin. Israel had an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. This apostacy in the heart was now showing itself in the life. God who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with the sin of having any other god.

2. There is no real change in the Divine love. An altered conduct on the part of the people leads to an altered tone on the part of their God. When the child forsakes the father, that does not imply that the father forsakes the child. God did not depart from His purpose, but other means now became necessary to carry it out. If God now speaks in notes of thunder in place of whispers, it is still Love that speaks.

3. A change in the Divine attitude is required from the danger of leaving sin unchecked. When the stone has begun to roll down the hill, it must be stopped at once, if stopped at all, for soon, otherwise, it will become unmanageable. As soon as the heart shows that it has decided to have another god, true love will hasten to take measures to show the folly and ruin in which such a course must end.

4. Apathy in the worship of God led to this change. We note a strange silence in this book on the subject of the observance of Divine ordinances. We hear nothing of the solemn feasts, of the services of the priesthood, and the performance of duties in the sanctuary. The altars and their sacrifices, the sprinklings, washings, and ceremonial requirements of the law, are as if they were not. The few glimpses given of the religious life of the people, show how mournfully they fail in forming the most elementary conceptions of the meaning of the Divine ordinances. Micah had a superstitious parody of the Mosaic rites. The Danites followed his example. Gideon worshipped a visible god. Jephthah had but a slight knowledge of the law of vows. While Samson and his parents had but a very crude knowledge of the Mosaic institutions.

This is instructive. The mind must be filled. If it does not accept the true God, that which is no god, or the things of this world, must occupy His place. If it is not led by the Spirit of God, it must be under the dominion of ungodliness and worldly lusts. To walk in the Spirit is the appointed means of gaining the victory. (Gal. 5:16.) To neglect to do so leaves the door open, and the danger is imminent.

The very mention of these nations looks like the wolves prowling round the sheepfold. It is the appearance of a dark cloud, ominous of stormy times. It is the first visible frown on the countenance of Him, who bore His people through so many dangers for two generations as on eagles wings. There was a change in Gods attitude, but not in Gods purpose.

MAIN HOMILETICS.Jdg. 3:1-4

II. It was necessary to put Israel to the proof.
1. Their allegiance to their God must be ascertained. This was indispensable.

(1.) Gods jealousy required it. In this character He reveals Himself in the covenant. I the Lord thy God am a jealous Godthou shalt have no other gods before me. The smoke and the thunders of Sinai were a visible confirmation of that character of jealousy. Both the attitude of the Speaker, and what He said, showed that He was intently watchful of the measure of respect that was paid to His character, by those whom He addressed.

(2). Without allegiance the people were not in a fit state to receive Divine blessings. Every promise was conditioned on this. It was no secondary question. The good of the creature cannot be advanced by sacrificing the glory of the Creator. It would have been derogatory to Gods holy name, to have lavished His favours on a rebellious people. Those whom He shall bless must have a fitness of character to receive the blessing. If they are to be a mark toward which His love is to go out, He will see to it that they be worthy of His love. He loves all men with a love of compassion, but He regards those only with a love of complacency, who bear His image and keep His commandments. He taketh pleasure in them that fear Him.

(3.) Ways and means were easy where there was allegiance. A consistently religious character on the part of the people being given, all difficulty was at an end for bestowing any needed blessings upon them. As regards deliverance from dangers, however great, it was easy for God to drive asunder the nations, to make one man chase a thousand, or to make a mighty host melt away in absolute weakness, before a mere handful of men. Nay, even iron chariots, solid walls of masonry, and armies of giants, were as the small dust of the balance before Omnipotence. These things were small in Gods estimation; what was great wastrust in His character, and obedience to His voice. This trust was uniformly required ere He put forth an atom of his power. The refrain of every chapter seems to be, O that my people had hearkenedI would soon have subdued (Psa. 81:13-14). Mens sins block the way to the outgoings of Gods loving kindness (Isa. 59:1-2). Even the power of working miracles was a greatly smaller possession, than a good title for admission to the heavenly world. A similar principle in Mat. 12:50. Where Jesus found faith, He had no difficulty in working cures. In one short hour He could with ease heal the whole sick list, in any of the towns through which He passed. But when there was no faith He paused. He could there do no mighty works because of their unbelief.

2. Human protestations of obedience are little to be trusted. He that trusteth to his own heart is a fool. Every page of human life confirms the sentimentthe history of this people pre-eminently. Take two illustrations

(a) When they first received the law from their God. Awe-struck with the majesty of Him whose terrible voice was echoed by the thunders and the earthquake, and which made even Moses exceedingly fear and quake, never did people pledge themselves more solemnly to keep His law with all care, in all the duties of life (Exo. 24:7). Yet, behind the scene, what is the verdict of the Searcher of hearts? O that there were such an heart in them! etc. (Deu. 5:29). Within six weeks, this same people were gathered on the same spot to demand of Aaron, Up, make us gods to go before us, for as for this Moses we wot not what is become of him (Exo. 32:1).

(b) When they were newly settled in their promised home. The human heart was here tried under totally altered circumstances. Formerly, there was indeed the great deliverance from bondage as an accomplished fact before them, but as yet there was nothing possessed. All was wilderness around them. They were in complete destitution, and had nothing to look to but promise, while that seemed to be of impossible accomplishment. Now the thing promised has been accomplished in all its length and breadth. The people are assembled in their thousands to receive the farewell counsel of the venerable captain, who had led them to an unbroken series of victories over mighty armies all over the land, with scarcely the loss of a man. Their hearts within them swelling with gratitude for the great goodness of their God to the house of Israel, they are called upon to say, in sight of the thrilling history they had passed through, would they, in all candour and sincerity, resolve from this time and henceforth to fear Jehovah and serve Him as their God, or would they prefer to join with the Amorites around them in the worship of their gods? Instantly and vehemently, they protest against the possibility of their forsaking Jehovah and worshipping other gods (Jos. 24:16). They are warned against a loose decision in so important a matter, and solemnly asked to make it on a broad and well-considered basis. They feel hurt that their sincerity should be doubted for a momentNay! but we will serve the Lord. The decision was unanimous, unhesitating, firm. Alas! for human protestations! At that very moment there were already strange gods among them, though the welkin rang with the cry of undying allegiance to Jehovah, and not a single dissentient voice was raised throughout the vast multitude, that were assembled on that solemn day. Now the root of bitterness has begun to bear fruit.

CAUSES OF FAILURE IN FIDELITY TO THE COVENANT

(1.) Their avowal was made in self-confidence. They did not rely on the promised grace of God, as alone able to make them stand. They trusted to the present warm emotions of their own breasts, when their feelings were raised to flood-mark at the retrospect of their marvellous history, and they supposed they would always feel as they felt then. But good resolutions are not indigenous to the human heart. They do not grow all the year round, nor all the week through. They are not like the stone pillars on which the rough blasts beat in vain, and stand unshaken in all weathers. Rather, they are like the gourd which comes up in a night, and perishes in a night. Our safety lies not in the warmth of present feeling, but in offering up the prayer, Teach me the way of Thy commandments, and I shall keep it unto the end. Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies. (Psa. 17:5.) Peter was sincere, though not wise, in what he said, as the result showed. (Mat. 26:33; Mat. 26:35; Mat. 26:72; Mat. 26:74.) His real security lay in the fact, that he was in the hands of a mighty Advocate, who had beforehand prayed for him that his faith should not fail. Good moods, even high moods, may be occasionally reached, but they afford no security for to-morrow. If God withdraw His grace and leave us to ourselves, we are like a city without gates and wallsa prey to the first enemy that appears, however contemptible.

(2.) It was made in self-ignorance. Every man is disposed to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. This is the besetting sin of our fallen nature. Trying themselves by mans standard, many think themselves to be something before God when they are absolutely nothing, and so deceive their own hearts. The people that stood before Joshua thought, that the strength of their convictions was so great, they could stand any amount of temptation to turn them aside from their allegiance. The spectacle of all that God had done for them in the wilderness, and in the land of their inheritance, was now fresh before them, and they reckoned that it would always be thus vivid. But it is little that any man knows of the plague of his own heart. There is more latent wickedness in the hearts of even the best of men than is ever suspected to exist. It is only when the seemingly clear pool is stirred to the bottom, that a discovery is made of the large sediment of evil that is deposited in it. The heart is not a fountain whose goodness is in itself, and that has power to purify itself, but it is a springhead naturally impure, that has to import from without all its cleansing influence. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.

(3.) It was made in ignorance of the evil influences around them. Satan is ever desiring to have the Jobs, the Davids, and the Peters, to sift them as wheat. The wolf does not more thirst for the blood of the lamb, than does the Wicked One show himself ravenous for the ruin of souls. He goeth about as a roaring lion, etc. Woe to those that are off their watch, and are unprepared for the spring of the terrible enemy! He ever prowls around the fold of the Good Shepherd, hoping yet one day to be able to seize something out of His hands. Yet there is the precious assurance; I give unto my sheep eternal lifeand they shall never perish. The world too, both by its smiles and by its frowns, proves a formidable enemy. It has long been an enchanted ground to Zions pilgrims. Yet through faith we overcome the world.

(4.) It was made without counting the cost. Gods service ever has a cross of some kind, and every man who enters it must have some idea of the weight of that cross. If this is not done beforehand, he will soon come to take offence at that cross, for he will find that what he supposed to be a mere pleasure-walk, has turned out to be a steep, rugged, and dangerous course. The rule isCrucify the flesh with the affections and lustscut off a right hand when that is requiredhate father and mother rather than lose Christ. We must appreciate the strength of Christs claims upon us, and know beforehand the lions we shall have to fight with, if we are to enter His service, and so calculate whether we shall accept it with all its risks, or whether reckoning the cost to be too great, we shall go over and join the standard on the other side.

3. Their responsibility was now greatly increased. God had done great things for them, and the rule now appliedTo whom much is given, of them much shall be required. For upwards of eighty years they had had a remarkable history of privilege. No nation since the beginning of Time had seen such a sublime series of Divine interpositions on their behalf. It was a unique history, and now the climax was reached. They were in actual possession of the land flowing with milk and honey. God was now saying, What more could I have done for my vineyard? The time of a great expectation was come. The fruit of so much nurturing and caretaking, for two generations or more, was at last to be reaped. Settled in the land after so much cost, and with Jehovah himself as their God, it was a reasonable expectation that they should be a pattern of loyalty and allegiance to all the other nationsan oasis in the otherwise wide desert of heathenisma solitary garden bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, while all around rose up nothing save briers and thorns. No people were more sacredly bound by obligations, and if their devotedness were at all to correspond with the measure of their privilege, it must amount to a cleaving to the Lord with full purpose of heart.

4. Their temptations to indolence were increased. Flesh and blood love to be at ease. The wars of Canaan were practically over. They were sitting comfortably under their vine and their fig-tree. They had long been wanderers; now had reached home at last, and such a home!The glory of all lands!A land of brooks, etc. (Deu. 8:7-9). Their heads laid on the lap of ease, sweet odours filling the air, and a table of luxury daily spread before them, it was a hard battle to keep in subjection the cravings of sense, and live according to the dictates of a pure and spiritual faith. Some sharp stimulus was needed to prevent a people so situated from settling down on their lees. They must be emptied from vessel to vessel. By some suitable ordeal they must be prevented from indulging in the lust of the eye, and the lust of the flesh. It was wise, it was needful to set them on great searchings of heartto cultivate self-denial and watchfulness on the one hand, and on the other to institute such external tests in the course of Divine Providence, as would infallibly indicate how the needle of the heart was pointing from time to time.

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS.Jdg. 3:1

GOD OFTEN PROVES BUT NEVER TEMPTS

He never puts any object before the mind with the intention of drawing it into sin, but He oftentimes applies touchstones to a mans character to ascertain what he really is. When the magnet is presented, immediately it draws the steel filings to it; but if there were no affinity in these filings with the magnet, they would not be drawn. Were evil neighbours brought round a man, if there were nothing in him in common with the characters and ways of these neighbours, he would not be attracted by their society but rather repelled, and induced to make a resolute stand against their errors and wickedness. But if, with a profession of righteousness, he is yet really ungodly in heart, and has no true love to God, then the presence of the wicked around him is certain to disclose the fact, that he is an alien to God. When God tries a mans character, He only brings to light the character which already exists. He never puts any evil into him which he had not before, nor does He ever stir up a man to commit sin, merely for the sake of committing it.

Light might as soon become the cause of darkness, as holiness itself become the cause of unholiness. Tis a contradiction, that He who is the Fountain of good should become also the fountain of evil. Sweet waters and salt cannot come from the same spring. Men are said to be fitted to destruction, but it is not said that God fits them. [The Greek verb is in the middle voice; it therefore must be read self-fitted.] They by their sins fit themselves for ruin, and He by His long suffering keeps it from them for a while. God cannot excite to that, which, when it is done, He will be sure to condemn. Sin would deserve no reproof from Him, if He were in some sense the author of it. If God were the author of it, why should our own consciences accuse us of it? It is Gods deputy, and cannot accuse us of what the Sovereign Power itself inclines us to. Having laid down such severe laws to restrain men from sin, and having crucified His own Son, when acting as our sin-bearer, it cannot be, under any circumstances, that He should stir up or excite us to sin. A pure flame cannot engender cold, neither can darkness be the offspring of a sunbeam. [Charnock.]

God neither deceives any mans judgment, nor perverts his will, nor seduces his affections, nor does anything else that can subject him to the blame of mens sins. Temptation, in the bad sense, always proceeds from the malice of Satan working on the corruptions of our own hearts. God may, however, consistently with all His perfections, by His providence bring His creatures into circumstances of special probation, not for the purpose of His receiving information, but in order to manifest to themselves and others the prevailing dispositions of their hearts. In this sense of putting to the proofbringing to the testthe term is used in many other instances. In Deu. 13:3 it is said, The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love Him with all your heart and soul. Of Hezekiah it is said, In the business of the ambassadors, God left him to try him (le-nas-soth-o) that He might know all that was in his heart. Indeed, we find this kind of trial is sometimes made a subject of petition, on the part of good men, as if they regarded it as an act of special favour (Psa. 26:2). Examine me, O God, and prove me (nassani), try my reins and my heart. Also (in Psa. 139:23-24), Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Also (2Co. 13:5), Examine ()try yourselves whether ye be in the faithprove your own selves; know ye not your own selves, etc.

[Bush.]

MAIN HOMILETICS.Jdg. 3:1-4

III. This testing of character was made in love, not in anger. It was the doing of a wise and loving Father, not of an offended Lawgiver. For

(1.) All Gods dealings with His covenant-people are necessarily in love. This is the very spirit of His covenant: Your GodGod is for youalways on your side. This is His fixed attitude. His love may assume many different forms, corresponding with the different phases presented of their character and conduct, but it is always love. When He chastens them for their sins, even going the length of scourging, it is still love that leads Him so to act by them. (Heb. 12:6; invariable as in Jdg. 3:7.) His threatenings are the hoarse notes of His love. The hidings of His face in dark, providential dispensations are so, as in bereavement, adversity, or a sense of desolation, so that they cry out, All these things are against me! All tests of character, in like manner, are still but different forms which the covenant love assumes, working mysteriously, but not less sincerely or fervently. It is the love of an unchangeable God. He loves to the end. He rests in His love. The whole tone of His dealings is, I have loved with an everlasting love.

(2.) It was love to prevent a breach of the covenant. Though the covenant is everlasting, it is expressly on the condition that His law is observed and His name glorified. Most of the Divine promises are conditional; few of them absolute. Were no change of circumstances to take place from those under which they were made, they would remain without change. But where such an alteration of circumstance occurs, the very unchangeableness of the Divine character requires that there be some alteration in the promise itself, or that it be not carried out, for it was made only as applicable to certain circumstances, and where these no longer exist the promise cannot apply. God promised to bless His people with blessings, but it was only as a holy and obedient people that He could possibly do so, in consistency with His character as a holy God. On their ceasing to manifest this character, Gods blessings towards them would cease to flow, yet not because of any change in His desire to love them, or fulfil His promises, but simply from the want of the necessary condition. The same character, however, always continuing, the promise would also always continue. There never was a promise made to carry a disobedient people into the land marked out for inheritance. For only loyal subjects of the God of Israel was it intended from the beginning. When, therefore, God dealt sharply with the sins of His people, He was really taking the direct course to prevent a direct breach of the covenant, and so was acting in the purest love.

(3.) It was love to teach the heart the bitterness of sin. That, in the first instance, is learned from the bitterness of its fruits. The end of these things is death. The chain becomes heavier at every step, for the way of transgressors is hard.

(a) God hides His countenance when His people sin against Him. I will go and return to My place till they acknowledge their offence, etc. (Hos. 5:15.) That is usually the case when they prove stubborn, and will not frame their doings to turn unto their God. (Hos. 5:4.) Sin in any form is unspeakably abhorrent to His holy nature. Intercourse with Him, therefore, cannot be granted to His children till they come to view their sins as He does. He would impress on them, that it is an exceeding evil and bitter thing to forsake Him as their chief good, and cast off His fear from before their eyes. (Psa. 25:14; Mat. 5:8; Heb. 12:14.)

(b) An evil conscience troubles the soul. Conscience is either the best friend or the most terrible enemy the soul has. It is the echo of Gods voice in the inner man. The trouble which it can raise in the soul is like a spiritual earthquake, so profoundly are all things unsettled by it. The pleasures of sin are felt to have been purchased at a terrible price. Thou art the man! is rung in the ear with threatening emphasis, and the soul is glad at any price to buy back its former quietude. The sinner feels that his way is hedged up with thorns, while trouble and anguish make him afraid on every side. A dreadful sound is in his ears. He is scared with dreams and terrified with visions. He cries out in the bitterness of his soul

The fire that on my bosom preys
Is lone as some volcanic isle;
No torch is lighted at the blaze,
A funeral pile!

At last, feeling the hopelessness of carrying on a war with God, and remembering that His mercies are great, he thinks of confessing his sin and returning to Him from whom he has deeply revolted. He takes up the language of the penitent spouse, and says, I will go and return unto my first husband, for then it was better with me than now.

(c) The mere cherishing of sinful thoughts in the soul causes misery. They pollute and degrade. The feelings that necessarily accompany them are shame, dread, and self-reproach. The soul is conscious of being deeply dishonoured, as was Cain when banished from the presence of the Lord. Sin is felt to be a great humiliation. It is like a bird of paradise dropping to the ground from mid-heaven, and trailing its wings in the mire. It is felt to be something abnormal, as if the wheels of life were moving backward. It is something strangely unnatural for the creature to rise in rebellion against the author of its being; and when conscience is awake, the instinctive experience of the heart is a thrill of horror, or a feeling of disquiet that is prophetic of a danger we cannot measure. Sin means the giving over of mans nature to a vile use. It is the profanation of Gods holy image, and the rendering of the great gift of an immortal life not only practically worthless, but converting it into a boundless and intolerable misery. It implies the perversion of every faculty of our rational nature, and a total eclipse of its spiritual loveliness. It darkens the understanding, deflects the will, deadens the conscience, corrupts the affections, and subjects the reason and the moral instincts to the service of the appetites and the passions. Sin is in all respects the bane of the soul, of which it must absolutely get rid, if life and happinesss are to be enjoyed. Hence it is truest love to teach the bitterness of sin.

(4.) It is love to teach self-knowledge and humility.

(a) Self-knowledge. Gods people knew little of the real state of their own heartswhat a small foundation of goodness there was in them, and how even that was entirely owing to the grace of God. Hence the innumerable mistakes they were ever falling into when giving promises for the future. It was true love to discover the foundation of all these mistakes; and the proof that was made of Israel by the discipline to which it was subjected, was for the instruction of Israel itself, quite as much as for any other reason. To know ones self is indispensable to make every other kind of knowledge valuable. The knowlege of ourselves as we stand before God is necessary in order to realise our guilt, and need of an Advocateour vileness and need of cleansing. Heart-searching trials give this knowledge. Then our destitution of good, and natural corruption are made to appear. The man feels he must be speechless when the demand is made for a righteousness such as God can accept. A glance at that standard leads him to cry out, Woe is me! for I am undone!in me dwelleth no good thing. The Laodicean Church imagined itself rich, etc. until put to the test by the Searcher of hearts; then it was found to be wretched, etc. (Rev. 3:17).

(b) Humility goes with self-knowledge. God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, etc. (Deu. 8:2). It is humbling to feel that we are dependent for everything on the will of another. But it is crushing to our pride to be told, at the place of judgment, that, from the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in us, but all is wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores, etc. The natural mans natural plea should be, God be merciful to methe sinner! And when the natural man becomes the spiritual man, his natural language will be, By the grace of God I am what I am! Poverty of all native goodness, with alienation from God, and a tendency to evil thoughts and desires, will be found to be more or less the state of every heart when discovered to itself.

(5.) It is love where a false character exists to have the discovery of it made in good time. Gods Israel was now beginning to prove an empty vine bringing forth fruit only to himself. Had this been allowed to go on, justice must ere long have required that the tree be cut down as a cumberer of the ground. Faithfulness to his interests prompted to the use of such means, as would seriously awaken his attention to the fact. Hence the trials which were now brought upon Israel. It is kind to stony-ground hearers to impress them with the fact that they have no root to their religion while going forward to meet the day of trial. For those who are building on the sand, it is truest kindness to have it thundered in their ears, that they may not lose a moment in quitting their ground, and placing all that is precious on the solid rock. Tests of the very strictest will be applied when the day of reckoning comes. As travellers are searched for contraband goods on crossing the frontier, so when the soul passes the boundary line between time and eternity will it be searched, lest it should have about it such forbidden things as unbelief, deceit, pride, lusts and passions, covetousness, and the like. For they that cherish such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. It is true kindness to have all the chaff winnowed out of our character on this side of time, that we may enter the solemn world beyond with the true wheat alone. Trials put us through this preliminary winnowing process.

SUGGESTIONS AND COMMENTS.Jdg. 3:1-4

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING THE REAL CHARACTER REVEALED

I. Religious character is the most important thing about man before God. He is more important as a creature of intellect or imagination, of judgment or reasoning, than he is as an organism of flesh and blood. And in like manner he is greatly more important as an intelligence gifted with will, conscience, affections, and moral faculties, generally, than simply as a possessor of intellectual powers. Hence it is a spectacle of deeper interest to the Searcher of hearts, to behold the powers with which man worships and knows God, going out in proper exercise to their legitimate object, than to look on the exercise of the faculties which are either merely intellectual or physical.

God loves to see mans heart going out to Himself as its chief good, and its affections clinging to Him as the highest and best of all objects. He loves to see the will, amid all the oscillations in the stormy sea of life, always deciding according to Gods will, as the needle follows the direction of the pole. He loves to see the conscience in man responding in perfect harmony to the teachings of the Divine law. He delights to see the whole soul bowing habitually in reverence before him. To his Creator, this is the most pleasing aspect which a creature made after His image can present.

And since man has lost this excellent disposition of his faculties, what God now delights in is, to see his disordered nature beginning, through His grace, to get back somewhat of its original exquisite balance. Hence He loves to try them, especially His own children, that He may see whether the heart will come back to Him in new obedience.

II. The foundation of Gods dealings with men must be made clear. It seems singular that God should apply tests to bring out mens characters, though He already absolutely knows them. But in ruling over a world of men, God deals with things as they appear at mens point of view. For Himself, He knows what is in man, without any use of means. His eye reads character with equal clearness, as it exists in embryo in the heart, as when it comes to full developement in the life. It reads the first emotion, or purpose of the heart, with equal distinctness, as it does the lines of the countenance, or the doing of the hand. To him the darkness and the light are both alike.

But that God may be glorified in the estimation of man, it is necessary that the grounds of His proceedure be to some extent made known to him. That of which He approves or disapproves must be made visible that man may understand the meaning of His providential rule; also mens characters must appear in their actual conduct, that it may be known why He chastises on the one hand and blesses on the other. The grounds of His moral government with men, are either, what is brought out in their conduct, or what in their hearts they know themselves to be.

III. Men do not know even their own hearts till they are tried. Tests are often used to bring to light unsuspected evils. Peter little thought he was capable, when put under the pressure of a strong trial, of denying his Lord. David little supposed that, when left to himself, he could have gone so far in presumptuous sin, as he did in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Hezekiah, when he was sick, little dreamt that he could have acted so vainglorious a part, as he did in parading his wealth before the deputies of the king of Babylon. His friends never supposed that in the heart of so meek a man, vanity of so rank a growth should be found.

In like manner, the people who had been called by Jehovahs name, who had experienced numberless proofs of His fatherly care and love, and had had the most marvellous history the world ever saw, of Omnipotence itself interposing in their behalf, might have been expected to have been the most loyal of all people to their God, and the most unswerving in keeping His commandments. Yet at the very moment they were protesting fidelity, idolatry was appearing among them in the background, and ere long the mass of the people began to show an inveterate tendency to apostatize from the God of the covenant. It was fit that means should be used to bring out their real character, that they might know themselves.

THE DECEPTIVE CHARACTER OF SIN

Sin deceives with appearing to be so little before it is committed. It seems so shallow, that I might wade through it dry-shod from any guiltiness; but when committed, it seems so deep, that I cannot escape without drowning. Thus I am always in extremities. Either my sins are so small, that they need not my repentance, or so great that they cannot obtain thy pardon. [Thos. Fuller.]

Some children, when they first put on new shoes, are very careful to keep them clean. They will hardly touch the ground with their feet, lest they should dirty the soles of their shoes. Yet, perhaps, next day they will trample with the same shoes in the mire up to their ankles. Childrens play is our earnest. On the day of vowing we are overscrupulous in our professions, yet, soon after, we wade in sin up to the anklesnay; they go over our heads.

[Thos. Fuller.]

THE USES OF DISCIPLINE

The stones from the wall said, We come from the mountains far awayfrom the sides of the craggy hills. Fire and water worked on us for ages, but only made us crags. Human hands have made us into a dwelling, where the children of an immortal race are born, suffer, and rejoice; act their part during the morning of their existence, and perform the duties which belong to their earthly state of existence. But we have passed through much to fit us for this. Gunpowder has rent our very heart; pickaxes have cleaved and broken us; to us it seemed without meaning, as we lay misshapen stones in the quarry. Gradually we were cut into blocks, and some of us were chiselled with finer instruments to a sharper edge. But we are complete noware in our places, and are of service. You are in the quarry still, not complete, and much seems inexplicable. But you are destined for a higher building; and one day you will be put in it by hands not humana living stone in a living Temple. [Parables in Household Things.]

Self-searching is an imperative duty in the first instance, Examine yourselvesprove your own selves. Much unsuspected sin exists in the hearts of the best of men which trial brings to light. The pond is often clear on the surface, but when it is stirred much foul sediment is found to have been lying at the bottom.
Whose fan is in His hand. Well it fits Him, and He it. Could Satans clutches snatch the fan, what work he would make! He would winnow in a tempest and throw the best away. Had man the fan, out goes for chaff all that are opposed to the opinions of his party. But the fan is in a wise and faithful hand. Only He who knows the heart is fit to hold it. [Thos. Fuller.]

MAIN HOMILETICS.Jdg. 3:4

IV. Obedience is with God the all-important requirement.

To keep the commandments of the Lord was the peoples term in the sacred covenant. To bless was Gods term; to obey was reasonably that of the people. Fear God and keep His commandments; this is the whole duty of man. To find the fruits of righteousness in the life, was the revenue of glory, which the Creator looked for in bringing His creature into existence. Never was the duty of obedience to the laws and statutes of the great Jehovah, more solemnly and affectingly impressed on mens hearts and consciences, than in the illustration which we find in the book of Deuteronomy, from Judges 4 and onward. This, too, is the burden of every exhortation addressed by the servants of the Lord to the people. It is the natural condition laid down on which eternal life may be enjoyed. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

1. Obedience is the index which shows that the heart is right with God. Not more certainly do the movements of the hands on the dial-plate indicate that the machinery is working correctly within, than does a regular walking in the way of Gods commandments prove, that the heart is faithful in its allegiance to its God. As the exercise of walking calls into play all the parts and faculties of the body, so does obedience call into exercise all the faculties, feelings, and principles of the soul, so that it becomes the offering of the whole man to God. It is the complement and the crown of devotion, meditation, and experimental feeling, and is the forthcoming of inward principle and inward purpose.

2. Obedience springs naturally from the fear and the love of God. The fear of God implies reverence for His authority, and shows itself by keeping His commandments. These two are always conjoined together in Scripture, as root and flower. But love must go with fear, for fear without love would be cold; but love produces the enthusiasm of fear.

3. In the Gospel obedience must spring from love. There man is dealt with as guilty, and so as having lost the true fear of God. This can only be got back through love. Love in the form of love to Christ becomes the spring of new obedience. The great God, before whom man has fallen, restores him to obedience by leaving the throne of judgment, and coming down to him as a Friend and a Saviour. He descends, step by step, into closer relations of alliance, and binds men to Himself by personal ties until He reaches the lowest step, which is also the highest, for lowest condescension is highest love. He becomes one with men in all respects, especially in becoming sin that He might fully establish the claim of love, and so create obedience by attraction rather than command it by law. The Christian character of obedience is not built up like a cold and lifeless column, stone by stoneit grows like a tree from within, and its root is love to Christ. [Ker.]

4. Obedience in the Gospel is the obedience of children. Those who continue to live ungodly after being dealt with by gospel motives, are called sons of disobedience, while those who yield to the gospel call are regarded as obedient children (see Eph. 2:2 and 1Pe. 1:14). The love and the honour which are implied in making them sons of God, are mighty motives to inspire them with an obedience that runs in the way of Gods commandments. Of all children, the children of God are most obliged to obedience, for He is both the wisest, and the most loving of Fathers. The sum of all His commands is, that they endeavour to resemble Him (Mat. 5:48; Lev. 11:44). The imitation of this highest patternthis primitive goodnessis the top of excellency. It is well said, summa religionis est imitari quem colis. Children that resemble their fathers, as they grow in years grow the liker to them; so the children of God increase in resemblance, and are daily more and more renewed in His image. [Leighton.]

All obedient believers are of near kin to Jesus Christ. They wear His name, bear His image, have His nature, are of His family. He loves them, and converses with them as His relations. He bids them welcome to His table, takes care of them, provides for them, and sees that they want for nothing. When He died, He left them rich legacies; now that He is in heaven, He keeps up a correspondence with them, and will in nothing fail to do the kinsmans part.

[Henry.]

5. Obedience must be shown in the face of opposition. To show that it is not propped up merely, but has a root of its own. It must be of a robust, and not a sickly natureable to withstand the force of a thousand breezes, and be only all the more firmly rooted in the soil. Steadfastness of obedience is very gloryfying to God. Caleb had another spirit in him, and followed the Lord fully. He had no apprehensions when he looked at the dangers. He offered no objections and raised no difficulties. He had entire confidence in his God. The chariots of iron, the cities with walls up to heaven, the giant sons of Anakall were nothing. With the eye of faith, he saw the Lord of Hosts going forth to battle before him, and treading down all enemies under His feet. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, were his noble words. Consequences he left to omnipotence; his concern simply was to do his duty. Similarly did Nehemiah act. When all around him were giving way before the formidable dangers that were ever rising up, his uniform language was, So did not I, because of the fear of God. [Gisborne.]

THE KIND OF OBEDIENCE DUE TO GOD

1. It must have respect to the authority of God. It does this or that from the motive, Thus saith the Lord.

2. It ought to be the best, and the most exact. The best of the flock was laid on the altar. Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

3. It must be sincere, and inward.

4. It must be sole obedience (Mat. 4:10; Act. 4:18-19).

5. It must be universal.

6. It must be indisputable. Readiness in the subject is of the essence of true obedience. This the centurion had from his soldiers, and God ought to have from all His servants. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. Thus did Abraham (Gen. 22:3).

7. It ought to be joyful. Meat and drink to do the will of our Father in heaven. I delight to do thy will, O, my God.

8. It ought to be perpetual. As man is a subject as soon as he is a creature, so he is a subject as long as he is a creature. Gods sovereignty is of perpetual duration as long as He is God. And as God cannot part with His sovereignty, neither can man be exempted from his subjection. Obedience is continued in heaven.

[Charnock.]

It should also be:

1.

Childlike and implicit.

2.

Single-intentioned.

3.

Unconstrained.

4.

Eager and hearty.

5.

All round the circle of duty.

6.

Pure in motive and aim.

7.

Faithful and true.

8.

Unfaltering and firm.

MAIN HOMILETICS.Jdg. 3:1; Jdg. 3:3; Jdg. 3:5

II. Gods choice of instruments.

Scripture does not give us history from mans point of view. It sees God as King of all the earth, reigning over the heathen and them that know Him not. So here, when describing the pivot on which the whole history turns, we do not read that the Canaanites, having recovered from the prostration caused them by the desolating sweep of the sword of Joshua, gathered up their strength anew to expel the presumptuous invaders of their territories, or try to crush them with a grinding servitude. But what is brought before us is, what the hand of the Lord did, and the instruments whom He employed to do His work. We are taught:

1. God designates His own agency to do His work. The Lord left these nations to prove Israel, etc. It did not come about through the chances of war, through the turning of the wheel of fortune, or through the changes of time, which are always bringing up results that surprise us. The God who helped His people for the destruction of these nations for their sins, now, because of the apostasy of His people, strengthens these nations against them and employs them as fit instruments for doing His chastening work. He not only permits them to do what they did, but He gives them a Divine commission for doing it. As if He had said, Go and scourge my people because of their grievous sins. It is not any agencies at random that are so chosen, but certain specific nations whom the Divine wisdom selects. Besides the glory accruing to the Divine name from the doing of any work, there is the additional glory arising from the manner of doing it, God designates the instruments that He reckons the fittestthose, by whose doing it, most instruction will be conveyed. He puts His finger on the agencies He means to employ, and calls over their names at length in the hearing of all. He gives them in charge the particular work they have to do, and they are told off for the doing of it,though all the while they know Him not, and do the work in reality from quite other motives, than that of a desire to serve and honour Him. Yet He puts His mark upon them beforehand, that it may be known that they are in His employment, so that what is done by them, may be understood to be really done by Him through their agency.

2. God selects His instruments from the camp of His enemies equally with His friends. His enemies do not cease to be His subjects, and His creatures though they have become rebels. He has not lost His right to command, though they have lost their will to obey. They are equally at His disposal with any of the loyal races, that people His dominions. Nor does He need to put any constraint on their free wills, to make them serve His purposes. He is so superior to them in the conduct of His moral government, as to lead them, all unconsciously, to carry out special designs and purposes of His own, while they have no other thought than to gratify their malicious purposes and cruel intentions.

(1.) God makes use of the enemies of His people as a rod to chastise them. They had ends of their own to serve. They wished to have some severe retaliation inflicted on these intruders from the wilderness, for having the best part of their country, taken from them, also their corn, their wine and their oil, and indeed for a complete spoliation made of their whole stock-in-trade, so that they were left with only fragments of territory, now in their possession. These Moabites, Canaanites, Philistines, Midianites and others, thought they were only favoured with excellent opportunities of taking revenge. Yet God was merely for a timea time determined by His wisdom and lovedelivering over His people to chastisement for their backslidings, that He might ere long convince them of the wisdom and necessity of returning unto Himself.

(2.) God has a place in His plans for the wicked to praise Him. The Lord hath made all things for Himself, even the wicked for the day of evil. Even some of the plagues of Egypt, it is said, were inflicted by Gods sending evil angels among them. Balaam God made use of to bless His people, when Balak would have cursed them altogether. Satan was made use of as an instrument to bring out, by his wicked devices, the utter spotlessness of the Saviours character. The efforts made by principalities and powers against mans substitute, while they were allowed to do their worst as He hung on the cross, to get Him to mar His great work of silent uncomplaining suffering under the curseby murmuring against God for the bitterness of the cup He was called on to drink, or by throwing up the cause of guilty men on account of their extreme ingratitude and wickednessthese, from their entire failure to gain their purpose, were overruled by God to bring out the perfect character of the offering made, on which men might build their hopes for the eternal future. Not only was the redeeming work not stoppedtill the Sufferer could say, It is finishedbut the gloriously excellent character of the work is brought out by the very efforts that were made to stop it.

3. A sinning people often supply the means of their own correction. The whole of these Canaanites were marked out for destruction. Their cup was full, the sentence against them was gone forth, and the people of Israel were appointed to execute it. So long as the firm hand of Joshua was at the helm, all went well, but when that hand withered in death, there was no other to strike in, and finish what was so well begun. It became irksome to put to death every idolater, young and old. Forgetful of the sins, of these Canaanites, and forgetful of the sacred charge laid upon them by their God to exterminate them, the people gradually shrunk back from their fulfilment of the duty, partly through sloth, and still more through the risks they ran in measuring swords with these stalwart natives of the soil. They did their work by halves, and came to the best terms they could with these enemies of their God. They lived with them as neighbours, and did business with them as traders. The demand made was virtually, to cut off the right hand; they chose instead to disobey their God; and, in righteous wisdom, God made their sin become the means of their punishment.

Did they spare the Canaanites? He also spared them, and allowed them to increase, and become strong in the landthe result being, that they became enemies always lying in ambush, and waiting their opportunity for slaking their thirst for revenge. Too truly did they prove snares, traps, and scourges. Had they been entirely rooted out, how many halcyon days of peace and true happiness would Israel have enjoyed, in a land which seemed little less than Paradise regained! How differently would their story have run! But their own wickedness did correct them, their backslidings did reprove them. Had Lot not sat down among the Sodomites, though well aware of the danger of moral contact with them, he would never have had such a fiery trial to go through in the endwith property lost and himself saved only as by fire. If David had not put his trust in the Philistines, instead of going forward in the path of duty, with his confidence solely in his God, he would have escaped the dire experience of that miserable morning, when he came upon the smoking ruins of Ziklag, and suddenly found the world turned into a desert before him!

The sinners hands do make the snares
Wherewith themselves are caught.

4. God can turn the most unlikely persons into fit instruments for doing His work.

(1.) These nations were unlikely instruments for doing Gods work. What purpose can be served by brambles, or upas trees growing in the garden of the Lord? What benefit to Gods church could ever be rendered by a people, that had sold themselves to do evil, only evil, and that continually. and who were now regarded as reprobate? How could it ever consist with propriety, that animals of the wolf species should lie down in the same fold with Gods sheep? Infallibly the wolf nature must quickly show itself, and deadly mischief be done. Yet the circumstances being abnormal, God uses an abnormal method of meeting them, and a valuable end is gained.

(2.) They served as tests of Israels character. As it was of their own choosing, God left His people to live side by side with the Canaanite, looking daily at the spectacle of idolatrous practices set before their eyes, so that it might be seen whether they would be allured by the objects and the ways of sin, and whether the needle of the heart pointed to the pole of allegiance, or that of apostasy. Had they been decided to cleave to the Lord, they would have rejected all the overtures used to turn them aside, but if secretly inclined to idol worship, they must certainly show it by the manner of associating with their sinful neighbours. The presence of these ungodly transgressors had the same influence on the ungodly heart, as the magnet has on the steel filings. Israel cannot be passive. If so, they were certain to be carried down the stream; if conscientious in their opposition to every feature and form of the prevailing sin, they must rouse themselves from their apathy, and resolutely take their stand on the side of Jehovah. The presence of these idol-worshippers was a touch-stone of character for the professing people of God.

(3.) Such a presence was a loud call to the exercise of prayer and faith. The Israelites, as a rule, were but children in the hands of strong men before these giant races. It was not by sword or spear they could hope to succeed in war, but only by earnest wrestling prayer, and the pleading of Divine promises specially given. Thus only could they hope that omnipotence would interpose on their behalf, and faith must ever enter into prayer. Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Great faith in Gods word, and deep dependence on Him for hourly and daily protection, were specially called for. To believe that, in ways known only to Himself, He would deliver His people out of the hands of their enemies in due time, if they but proved true to Himnot to trust in human strength, skill, training, resources, or any thing of that kind, as the origin of the deliverance; but to trust that God Himself would be with them, and find the means of fighting their battles successfully in answer to believing prayer and righteous living before Himthat was to fight the wars of Canaan in the old spirit.

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS.Jdg. 3:1; Jdg. 3:3; Jdg. 3:5

GOD GLORIFIED BY THE INSTRUMENTALITY HE EMPLOYS TO EXECUTE HIS WILL

I. By the variety of instruments He employs. We seldom find that the same nation twice over is employed to oppress Israel. As a rule, in each new case it is a different nation, and different kind of nation from the last that is employed.

(1.) God would have transgressors to learn how full His quiver is of arrows, so that it is impossible to contend with him in battle. He could in a moment make all things become our enemies. It is as if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him, or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

(2.) He would show how many unsuspected instruments of death are all around the wicked, but for His preventing their action. How easily could all the nations have been turned against Israel together, instead of one at a time! and how many were there of them! But for Divine protection, they were in constant peril. The Egyptians never suspected it was such a terrible thing to contend with the God of the nation they held in captivity, till they found the vast variety and terrible character of the weapons which He could bring against themin turning their waters into blood, filling their houses with frogs, making the dust of the land become lice, filling the air with swarms of flies, and again with swarms of locusts, smiting down all herbs and trees of the land by destructive hail mingled with fire, sending a murrain on the beasts, and severe boils on the men and women, not to speak of the terrible doom of all the firstborn. Thou, even Thou, art to be feared, and who may stand in Thy sight, when once Thou art angry? He does not need to go to a distance for troops to fight His battles. He can raise them up at hand at a moments notice when the occasion requires. Happy are the people that are protected by the God of Jacob as their God.

(3.) It suggests the thought that the universe itself is but a vast armoury, full of instruments at the disposal of Jehovah, to carry out His will. (Psa. 103:19.) The armies that are in heaven are His armiesHis hosts, that do His pleasure. The place of supreme power is also the home of the good, and by all such His will is done. That world is a model of obedience. His will is done naturally, freely, implicitly, universally. It is done joyfully, swiftly, enthusiastically. There His servants do serve Him, resting not day nor night in His service. Their plume never droops, their fervour never sleeps. The swift-winged seraphim, with outstretched wing, stand ready, at a moments notice, to fly through the heavens, to execute the behests that issue from the throne before which they stand. In the kingdom of Providence, He who rules is attended by multitudes of spirits that are in the midst of the wheels, that are full of eyes, by whom the wheels are turned, and all of whom go straight forward. In fulfilling the instructions given them, these agents run and return like a flash of lightning, to show the extreme alacrity of their obedience. The very lightnings of heaven, when they hear His voice, report themselves and say, Here we are!

He has all the creatures at His beck, and can commission any of them to be a dreadful scourge. Strong winds and tempests fulfil His word. He can make an army of locusts become as mischievous as an army of lions; can forge the meanest creatures into swords and arrows, and commission the most despicable to be His executioners. He can never want weapons who is Sovereign over the thunders of heaven, and the stones of the earth, and can, by a single word, turn our comforts into curses. He calls the caterpillar and the palmer-worm His great army, that climb walls without opposition, and march without breaking their ranks. He can restrain men from carrying out evil designs against His people. He kept back Saul, who, like a hawk, was pursuing David as a partridge among the mountains, when a special message came, that the Philistines had invaded the land, so that the persecutor was obliged to go elsewhere. He also put a check on the wicked men, who had gone so far in their malice as to crucify the Lord of glory, so that at first they did not absolutely oppose the preaching of the cross by the apostles. He that restrained the roaring lion of hell himself, also restrained his whelps on earth. The lions out of the den, as well as those in the den, are bridled by Him in favour of His Daniels. [Charnock.]

II. By the liberty of action He allows to those who are held as instruments in His hands. God never restrains the free action of the human will. If He did so, it would destroy the foundation of human responsibility. That rests on the fact, that man is free to decide according to his pleasure. Were he not free so to decide, the decision would not be his, but that of another by whom his will was coerced. We say nothing at present about the depravity of the will, and of its constant inclination to evil. Every man is conscious that, notwithstanding his depravity of nature, his will is still free; he is not compelled either by God to do a good act, or by Satan to do an evil one. However much he may be influenced by others, he yet feels that every act which he does is his own act.

Mens freedom of action consistent with Gods control over them as instruments. When God employed any of these kings, such as Eglon or Chushanrishathaim, to test the character of Israel and to chastise them, He was not known to either of those kings, nor did He begin by making Himself known to them. Their hearts were already entirely in His hands, and He could turn them as he pleased, though He should remain entirely unknown to them. He has Himself laid down the laws by which the movements of every heart are regulated, and in all His dealings with men, He shows respect to the laws which He has laid down. He has made it a rule of our nature, that the will should be influenced by motives, and of these motives, however numerous they may be, He has such an absolute knowledgeboth of actual and possible motivesand also such an absolute control of these motives, in adjusting them in any manner he pleases, in the case of every individual heart, that he can foretell, and even fix beforehand with infallible exactness, what the decision of that will shall be, in regard to any one matter, without in the slightest degree interfering with its freedom of action.

Practical Illustration. The motives present to the minds of these two heathen kings, which induced them to go against Israel to oppress them, were as far as possible, away from any idea of causing Israel to pass through a salutary discipline, and this by the command of Israels God. They were altogether the reverse of what could be pleasing to that holy God. Yet He, of set design, allowed them to go forward with their own evil intentions in view, just in so far as it suited His own purpose, but not a moment longer. Then the current was changed, or was entirely stopped. Their motives were a desire for revenge, thirst for conquest, exaction of tribute, an extension of territory, and especially a boasting of the superiority of their gods. The incentives to their action were thus entirely wrong, but the action itself was exactly in the direction of the Divine purposes, and God was pleased to use them as His instruments accordingly. In acting from such motives, or with a view to such ends, they deeply incurred the wrath of Jehovah, more especially for these two thingstheir maltreatment of a nation that was now sacred in Gods estimation. He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye. Also, for their daring to slight the authority, and despise the name of Israels God. On these two accounts mainly, great wrath went forth from Jehovah against them, which ended in their destruction.

Assyria and Babylon were long employed as Gods instruments in punishing the nations for their sins. But to punish them for their sins against Jehovah, was not their meaning in doing what they did (Isa. 10:6-7). When therefore the work was done, the manner in which the rod had dared to shake itself against Him who wielded it came before God in judgment, and it was flung out of His hand as fuel into the fire (Isa. 10:12-15). Babylon also was wielded by the Ruler among the nations as His battle-axe and hammer, and a whole list of nations was marked out for him to destroy (Jeremiah 25), and another list was made out to be put in servitude (Jeremiah 27). But the executioner of Gods designs in these cases had wicked motives in his heart, and wicked aims before his eyes, and his time of reckoning also came. Babylon was rolled down from the rocks, and broken in pieces, because of all the evil it had done in Zion, and of the contempt with which it had treated the sacred name of Jehovah (Jeremiah 50, 51)

MAIN HOMILETICS.Jdg. 3:1-2; Jdg. 3:4

III. The tendency of the covenant people to apostatise from their God.

This is always the most visible thing in the page of Israels history. Other things may be traced only in faint and indistinct lines; but this is always broadly marked.

1. It is what might have been least expected. Situated as they were, they were the most favourable specimen of the human race to show the spirit of true allegiance. None were so highly privileged; none so well trained; none had such an excellent parentage; none had been the children of so many prayers; none were the heirs of so many promises; none had had set before them such force of motive in the noble obedience of a remarkably pious ancestry; none had had such striking patterns of fidelity to God set before them in the case of their national leaders; none had seen such a series of gracious interpositions of the hand of Omnipotence on their behalf;in short, nothing but the firmest attachment to the God of their fathers, might have been expected of these children of Abraham, Isaac, and JacobAbraham, the friend of God; Isaac, the man of devout meditation and readiness to sacrifice his life at the call of his God; Jacob, the man who, as a prince above other men, had power even with God in prayer, and prevailed. What a force of holy example did such men leave behind them for the good of their descendants! What specimens of faith, of self-denial, and true fear of God did they exhibit! Under what a hallowed roof-tree were their children cradled! Could a richer or fatter soil be found in which to plant the young shoots of a coming generation? Did ever richer dews or warmer breezes come from the Lord to foster any flowers that were put into His garden, than in the case of that generation which entered into the rest of the lion-hearted Joshua? And yet if anything is clear about them, it is that they showed a tendency to apostatise from their God!

2. The root-cause lies in the depravity of the human heart. There is within men an evil heart of unbelief departing from the living God. The character of the fountain is seen in the muddy nature of the stream. The disposition of the heart to go away from God, is not occasional or changeable, but it is in the very constitution, and is abiding. The carnal mind is enmity against God. The current flows uniformly in one and the same direction. Its tendency is fixed. After the miserable exhibition made by the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, what shall be said for the children of any other class of parents? We fear nothing can come out of it but the old conclusion, which we must write down once morethere is none that doeth good, no not one!

3. Remissness of parental training one of the immediate causes. The generation that formed the Israel of the day in this third chapter, were not those who had seen the Divine wonders of power and grace that distinguished the golden age of the immediate past, but those who followed after, and had only heard of such mighty acts. But no duty was more imperative on those who had seen and taken part in them, than to imprint the whole record diligently on the minds and memories of the rising generation. This was the fixed rule with regard to the whole history of this people from age to agethat one generation should instruct the one that followed it, and that again those that followed after, in regular succession. This was a binding duty (Psa. 78:3-8; Deu. 6:2; Deu. 6:7-9; Deu. 6:20-25).

Parental training had a very important place among Gods people, for, first
(a) God meant the lessons imparted to one age to be learned equally by all succeeding ages. He deals with all the generations of Israel as but one people. He appeals to any one generation by arguments drawn from what He had done to previous generations, or from obligations undertaken by these previous generations, as if they were identical with the generation immediately addressed. And this bond of intimate union of the different generations in one people, could only be sustained by a very full, faithful, and persevering course of instruction and pious example, such as is implied in the exercise of parental training.

(b) The children were taken into the covenant equally with the parents. Hence parental training became a sacred duty. The children are expressly mentioned as being present, along with their fathers and mothers, at the first great convocation, held when they were being devoted to the Lord as a whole people, in view of their being about to enter the land of their inheritance. (Deu. 29:10-13). The charge of obedience is laid on the children equally with the parents (Deu. 30:2).

(c) A special command for instructing the children in Gods law was given in perpetuity. Once every seven years was the great law of the covenant to be read aloud in the hearing of all Israel, and the children were then to be specially instructed (Deu. 31:9-13).

(d) The young people of the early ages of Israels history were specially dependant on parental training. In times when writing was rare, reading as an art must have been very imperfect. Thus the young received all their knowledge in the form of oral instruction from the old. Besides, this dependance was all the greater, that the instructions which the young Israelites received from their God, were so widely different from those required of the children whose parents worshipped other gods, and required much greater self-denial.

(e) Difficulties of parental training under the circumstances. This training was conducted with fewer facilities, and amid more discouraging circumstances, than it is with us, so that less good fruit might reasonably be looked for than we are accustomed to do. From the severity of the trial of character, to which the whole people were subjected in so strongly idolatrous an atmosphere, those who were false in profession would quickly become supine in the discharge of duties for which they had no heart, while among the steadfast few there would be many a David, who never said to his Adonijah, What doest thou? or many an Eli, who heard of his sons making themselves vile, through idolatrous practices, and he restrained them not. And there might be few Abrahams, of whom God said as to parental training, I know Abraham, that he will command his children, and household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord. Thus may we account, in considerable part, for the subsidence into idolatrous practices, which quickly became general over the land.

IV. Each new generation requires in some degree to be taught by an experience of its own.

Parental training is not enough. It seems strange that both a history, and a law, which were so repeatedly impressed on the minds of the whole people, first under Moses, and then under Joshua, should not have so penetrated into the very heart of the nation, as to have been engraven with an iron pen, to last for many generations, if not for ever. And yet those laws which were proclaimed literally in notes of thunder from heaven, and those facts of extraordinary strength, which make up the stirring history of Joshuas days, seem not to have got so deep into the minds of the Israelitish nation, but that in the very next generation, there was need for farther instruction in the same lessons. Those who had not actually seen the doing of the Lord, and witnessed the operations of His hand, required to be put through, on a small scale, the experience of the fathers. This teaches the following lessons:

1. The strange incapacity of the human heart for receiving Divine lessons.

(a) Scripturemakes it the cardinal error of our fallen race, that there is none that have understanding to seek after God. as the first thing a creature should do (Rom. 3:11). The people that were of all others the best instructed in the knowledge of God, who were taught it all their life, through precept on precept, line on line, are yet continually charged with being a nation void of counsel, neither having any understandingfools and blindeven sottish children, who have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, whose hearts have waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,who know less of their God in the spiritual world, than the stork in the heaven, the turtle, the crane, and the swallow know of the laws which affect them in the natural world. Even the knowledge of the ox, and the ass, for practical purposes, is said to be superior to that of Gods own people. Well may the account be wound up with the statement, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And they are suitably addressed in such lines as these:

Ye brutish people understand,
Fools! when wise will ye grow?

(b) Experience. As regards practical proof, we might say, it would take a less force to make water and oil mix together, than to induce the human heart to take an everlasting embrace of Gods holy truth.

(c) The names given to man in his natural state. Take one as a specimenthe name Fool, so often applied to those who know not God. This word not only indicates that man is ignorant, and without discretion, but also that he is unimprovable, under a spell, or infatuated. And the difficulty of teaching a fool any lesson of practical wisdom, is that he has no natural receptivity for it. Reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool. Yea, though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar, yet will not his foolishness depart from him (Pro. 17:10; Pro. 27:22). Those who cannot catch Gods meaning at once, by a slight indication, or a significant movement of the eye, must be treated like the dull horse or mule who understand nothing save the bridle, or the lash (Psa. 32:8-9). What stubbornness characterises the human heart in receiving Gods holy truth!

2. Personal experience is the most effective method of teaching. The persons now to be instructed are those, who had not known the wars of Canaan by personal experience. God was now to put them through some of the experience, which the fathers had to go through. No knowledge is so effectually gained, as that which comes in this manner. Teaching by testimony, or report, exercises but a slight influence, compared with that which is gained by personally passing through all the circumstances of any particular scene.

(a) A more vivid impression is made. It is when knowledge passes in direct, through the five gates of the senses, that it gets the best hearing from the understanding, and makes the deepest impression on the heart. Everything is distinctly realised, and felt to be an actual fact. All passes before the eye and is no dream. There is no comparison, as to vividness of impression made by things known through personal experience, and things known only by hearsay.

(b) Personal interests are more deeply touched. It was one thing for this people to believe it as a tale that was told them, that through the Divine promise given, it was possible to fight all the giants and subdue mighty armies, for that had now become matter of history. But to see the lions at hand, to witness with their own eyes the ferocious Canaanites mustering their forces to battle, with a weight of armour, strength of bone and muscle, and equipment for the field far superior to their own, while yet they were successful in the conflictthis was to give the knowledge of experience, and teach what mighty things prayer could do, when it had Divine promises to pleadwhat trust in the character of the covenant God could doand what good issue could arise from obedience to the Divine commandments in the practical duties of life.

Examples.It was said of the good Richard Cecil, when leaving a sick bed, where he had been confined for upwards of six weeks, a friend remarked to him he had lost much precious time lying on that couch. No, he replied, the time has not been lost. I have learned more within these curtains during these weeks, than I learned during all my academical course at the university. Joseph, too, learned the lessons which served him so well in after life, more effectually in the pit of Dothan, and the dungeons of Egypt, amid cruelty, injustice, and desertion of friends, than he ever could have done under the wing of parental indulgence in his natural home. Suffering is the most effective of teachers.

3. Each generation must have a character of its own, and answer for itself. The parent cannot believe for the child, neither can the child inherit the faith, the prayerful spirit, and the religious worth of the parent merely from the fact that he is a child. However valuable the inheritance of piety, of faith, and godliness, left by those who had gone before, it was still imperative on the young generations after Joshuas days, to know for themselves the sacred principles, by observing which they gained possession of their inheritance, and still retained it in possession. God dealt with each generation according to its own character, sending evil and dark days, or days of bright sunshine and prosperity, as their conduct was pleasing or displeasing to His Holy eye.

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS.Jdg. 3:1-2; Jdg. 3:4

THE DIFFICULTY OF GETTING DIVINE TRUTH INTO THE HEART

1. How much care and many arguments are used in vain. Why so much pains taken to instruct the coming generations. If the heart had been ordinarily willing to receive such precious truths, and to be taught such impressive lessons, no argument would have been necessary, and the only difficulty would have been to have rejected them. Yet arguments need to be employed for a whole lifetime, and kept up from generation to generation, to keep the people at the exercise of faith and obediencesad proof that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, etc.

2. The facility with which the heart lets slip the Divine teachings. It is like the morning cloud and the early dew. What earnest effort and intense anxiety are needed to retain truth which is already imparted! Give earnest heed to the things you have heard, lest you should drift away from them. (see Heb. 2:1, revised version). Take fast holdkeeplet not go (Pro. 4:13). As oil runs off water without uniting with its drops, so do Gods most impressive teachings pass off without mixing with the deep convictions of the heart. The young Israelites of the next generation, doubtless, heard a great deal about the glorious transactions of their national history, which made them the envy and the wonder of every land. The mere tale of such deeds should have sufficed, to rivet in their hearts for ever a sense of their obligations to the covenant God. Yet how faint the impression made! At the first rough blast of trial, it was found they had such a slender hold of religious principle that they gave up the services of Jehovah and accepted those of Baal.

3. When milder means do not suffice to educate men in religious duty, sterner measures are held in reserve. When these young Israelites would not listen to the quiet teachings of faithful parents, they had ere long to go forth and meet the Canaanite in the open field, and learn, in the stern work of actual war, those lessons which they were so slow to acquire around the domestic hearth. What an illustration of the inveterate tendency of the heart to reject and push aside spiritual appeals! It remains,

Though wood and awd,
A flagrant rebel still.

When the fathers kindly hand and the mothers soft touch had no effect, Gods people must be given up to the handling of the rugged nurseAdversity, that through her more rigorous discipline they might, by any means, come to learn practical wisdom.

PIOUS PARENTS MAY HAVE ERRING CHILDREN

1. Religious character does not depend on natural birth.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh. The corrupt nature which is common to our race is transmitted by natural law. Proofs of this are unfailingly given in every life. There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. The undoubtedly pious son of the God-fearing Jesse tells us, he did not get his piety from his parentage. He says, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And the Saviour affirms that every man, to be fit for His kingdom, must be born again. Thus, no generation, however pious, can give security that their children will be the same that they have been. The result is, that none are pious by birth. Grace does not run in the blood, as Eli, Aaron, Noah, David, and even Samuel (1Sa. 8:3; 1Sa. 8:5), knew to their cost.

2. Yet the children of godly parents are often pious. Though grace does not run in the blood, it does often run in the line. The line of Seth seems to have been the line of the godly, and it continued for centuries. The line of Eleazars priesthood appears to have gone on from the day that the people took possession of their inheritance, until the day when they were driven out of it into captivity, with only a few breaks (from Eli to the expulsion of Abiathar, 1Ki. 2:27)or more than a thousand yearsmost of whom, if not all, appear to have been men worthy of their office. The line of Abraham is also a strong case.

3. Special advantages belong to the seed of the godly. There is

(1). The standing special promise which God makes to all believing parents. I will be a God to thee and thy seed after thee. It is indeed conditional; but when the condition is fulfilled, or in the degree in which it is fulfilled, the promise is sure.

(2). They are usually the children of many prayers. Where parents neglect this duty it is cruelty to the children. Every parent should not only pray, but travail in birth again, till Christ is born in every child that God has given them. Look at the mothers of Augustine and John Newton.

(3). They have commonly the benefit of a good example set before them. This, though not alone sufficient, has in it all the teaching force which the silent presentation of religious realities can give. Example is often more effectual than precept.

(4). They are usually the subjects of a pious training. Parents who fear God themselves are required to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They also have the promise, Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

(5). For the most part they are in the company of the righteous. They are led in the footsteps of the flock. The natural principle of imitationso strong in the young mindis thus utilised to lead them to do as the righteous do.

4. Illustration of a degenerate seed springing from godly parents. The generation that entered Canaan under Joshua, are supposed to have been more pious than almost any other through the whole history of that people. Of this we have proof in the great outstanding fact, that by faith they Subdued kingdoms, over the whole length and breadth of the land (Joshua 2-11). Another proof of fidelity to principle we have in Joshua 22. Yet a large number of their children, and nearly all their grandchildren, became idolaters, and required dealing of the severest kind to bring them back to God.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Nations Left to Test Israel Jdg. 3:1-6

Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
2 Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;
3 Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon unto the entering in of Hamath.
4 And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
5 And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:
6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves.

1.

How was Israel to learn to make war? Jdg. 3:1

Learning war is equivalent to learning to make war upon the nations of Canaan. Joshua and the Israelites of his time had not overcome these nations by their own human power or by earthly weapons, but by the miraculous help of their God who had smitten and destroyed the Canaanites before the Israelites. The omnipotent help of the Lord, however, was only granted to Joshua and the whole nation, on condition that they adhered firmly to the law of God (Jos. 1:7) and faithfully observed the covenant of the Lord. The transgression of that covenant, even by Achan, caused the defeat of Israel before the Canaanites (Joshua 7). The generations that followed Joshua had forgotten this lesson, and consequently they did not understand how to make war. To impress this truth upon them, the Lord had left the Canaanites in the land. Necessity teaches a man to pray. The distress into which the Israelites were brought by the remaining Canaanites was a chastisement from God, through which the Lord desired to lead back the rebellious to Himself.

2.

What five lords of the Philistines oppressed Israel? Jdg. 3:3 These kings are rulers of the city-states of Gaza,

Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath; and they are named in Jos. 13:3. The five cities over which they ruled were known as the Philistine Pentapolis. They were important throughout the times of the judges and over into the time of David. If one were to pick any certain nation as an enemy of Israel, the Philistines would probably be the choice; and the rulers of these five cities were the leaders of the Philistines. They played a large role in the defeat of Samson, as they bribed Delilah to learn his secret (Jdg. 16:5; Jdg. 16:8).

3.

What divisions of the Canaanites are noticed? Jdg. 3:5

The Canaanites were all descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, but they were divided into many families. The Hittites were descendants of Heth. The Amorites were those who lived in cities, and may be traced back to Amor. The Perizzites were also villagers. The Hivites were a particular branch of the Canaanites who lived in the north near Mount Lebanon from Baal-hermon to Hamath (Jdg. 3:3). The Gibeonites were also called Hivites (Joshua 9). The Jebusites were a branch of the Canaanites who lived in Jebus, the location which later became known as Jerusalem. All of these were groups of Canaanites who lived in the land which had been promised to the Israelites.

4.

What were the groves? Jdg. 3:7

For groves, some texts read, Wooden Images. This word is translated Asheroth in the American Standard Version. Many of the images of pagan gods were set up in groves on high places. To these spots the Canaanites would gather; and undoubtedly they invited their Israelite neighbors and captors to worship with them. The fact that it is stated that Israel served the groves, suggests that the people were in spiritual bondage in this idolatrous worship.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(1) To prove Israel.The verb here used is the same as in Jdg. 2:22 and Jdg. 3:4, but, as R. Tanchum observes, it is used in a slightly different sense, meaning to train them. Symmachus renders it asksai.

As many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan.This expression clearly implies the generation after that of Joshua. The wars of Canaan are equivalent to the wars of the Lord, and refer to the struggles of the actual conquest.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

LIST OF THE NATIONS LEFT, Jdg 3:1-6.

1. Which the Lord left In Hebrew usage, God is often said to do what men alone are responsible for; as in the case of Pharaoh hardening his heart, which God is said to have done, though the hardening really resulted from his own perversity. God works through appointed agencies; but when his agencies fail to co-operate in the attainment of any end, he is said to fail. In this sense he left the Canaanites. Another peculiarity of the Hebrew idiom is the representation of results as if they were purposes. The grand purpose of Jehovah was the complete extermination of these pagan tribes, that there might be free scope for the development of the Hebrew commonwealth. Since this purpose was defeated by the defection of his human allies, Jehovah controls the consequences of their disobedience so that as little evil and as much good as possible shall result. In this case the intended good results were: 1st. The trial and proof of Israel. 2d. The beasts of prey are kept from overrunning the land. Deu 7:22.

3d. The cultivation of the art of war by habituating the people to the constant use of arms for their protection against foes near at hand, so that they might be prepared to defend themselves against a foreign foe.

Even as many as had not known all the wars of Canaan The generation which arose after the death of Joshua had little or no experience in the wars for the conquest of Canaan. “This younger generation,” says Cassel, “enjoyed the fruits of the conquest, but did not estimate aright the greatness of the dangers endured by the fathers, and therefore did not sufficiently value the help of God. It was no light thing to triumph over the warlike nations. They did not know what a war with Canaan signified.”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Chapter 3. Deliverers.

This chapter gives an account of the nations who remained in Canaan to prove Israel’s faithfulness, and who became a snare to them. It describes the servitude of Israel under a king of Mesopotamia because of their sins, a servitude from which they were delivered by Othniel. It speaks of their subjection to the Moabites, from which they were freed by Ehud, who privately assassinated the king of Moab, and then made his escape. And it briefly describes the destruction of a large number of Philistines by Shamgar, with an ox goad.

The Nations Who Remained To Test Israel’s Faithfulness ( Jdg 3:1-6 ).

Jdg 3:1

‘ Now these are the nations which Yahweh left to prove Israel by them, even as many as had not known all the wars of Canaan.’

The first wars were over and Israel were experiencing a time of relative peace and slow expansion. But because of their disobedience, and because they had allowed Canaanites to remain living among them, God was not planning to aid them in removing the remainder of the unconquered nations. Thus while they were at peace the presence of other nations was an ever constant threat.

Indeed a new and more powerful enemy had come among them. For the Sea Peoples from the Aegean had invaded the coast of Syria and some had spread down into Palestine. These were the fierce Philistines, and they were there to stay. They occupied the fertile coastal plain, their main cities being Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, and were ruled by five Tyrants, one in each main city, who worked in unison. They also later occupied Bethshean and Gerar and a number of other towns. They are mentioned in the annals of Raamses III (c 1185 BC) as a new threat for they had to be repelled from Egypt.

They wore head-dresses of feathers, and were armed with lances, round shields, long broadswords and triangular daggers. They would gradually incorporate iron into their lifestyles and weaponry, learned from the Hittites. They were a ruling class with native Canaanites , and at certain stages Israelites, under them.

Jdg 3:2

‘ Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at least such as beforehand knew nothing of it.’

The idea of the land of promise had been that it would be a land of peace and plenty. But, because of their continual disobedience and fraternising with the people of the land and its religions, Yahweh was now determined that they should learn their lesson by facing constant warfare.

“To teach them war” did not mainly refer to their learning how to fight, but to their learning because they had to fight. To teach them what war meant for men. By having to fight they would learn the bitter lessons they could learn in no other way. This again comes out later in the book.

They had begun to settle at peace but now they were to know bitter wars to teach them their lesson, that Yahweh must be obeyed. It would, of course, also eventually teach them how to fight, but that was secondary to the main lesson of the consequences of disobedience. Indeed their need to learn to fight came about for that precise reason. Yahweh no longer fought for them.

Once they turned back to Yahweh they did not need the art of war for He would deliver them through His power. He Himself directed their warfare. That is the lesson of Gideon and his three hundred. Again and again this lesson comes over. Egypt was defeated because Moses lifted his rod and they marched into the sea (Exodus 14). Israel triumphed because Moses’ hands were held high (Exo 17:11). The walls of Jericho fell because they marched round them (Joshua 6). Joshua defeated the Southern Alliance because hailstones fell from the heavens (Jos 10:11). Barak and Deborah triumphed because they attacked when Yahweh commanded and the rains and floods fought for them (Joshua 4 & Joshua 5). Gideon triumphed because Yahweh caused panic in the hearts of the enemy (Joshua 7).

Jdg 3:3

‘ Namely, the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Zidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon to the entering in of Hamath.’

For the five lords of the Philistines see what was said above. The word for ‘lord’ is a unique one used only of Philistine lords (seren). We will translate it as Tyrant although they were no more tyrranical than other powerful kings. ‘All the Canaanites’ covers all previous dwellers in the land. ‘The Zidonians’ were the Phoenician occupants of Zidon and its surrounding lands. It was a great seaport and the Phoenicians, were renowned sailors and merchant seamen. The Hivites mainly dwelt in the Lebanon hills and the Carmel range, thus in the northernmost part of Canaan. Compare for this Jos 13:2-6.

“From mount Baal-hermon to the entering in of Hamath.” Compare ‘from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon to the entering in of Hamath’ (Jos 13:5) where it is the northern boundary of Canaan. See also Num 34:8; 1Ki 8:65; 2Ch 7:8.

Jdg 3:4

‘ And they were in order to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would listen to the commandments of Yahweh, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.’

Israel were now decidedly on probation. These nations would test them out and prove how faithful they were willing to be to the covenant, the covenant which included the commandments given through Moses to their fathers, which had included the commandments to drive out the Canaanites, which they had disobeyed.

It also included the commandments concerning having only one God, concerning covenant brotherhood and love, concerning the central sanctuary, concerning the offerings and sacrifices unique to Yahweh and concerning the priesthood, and concerning His strict moral requirements.

Jdg 3:5

‘ And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites; the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.’

They should have driven them out, but now they lived among them and were indeed in danger of losing their identity to them. They were fast becoming assimilated with the Canaanites. Those they had conquered were conquering them by assimilation, as so often happened in history. Outwardly what was distinctive in their religion was in danger of being lost. Note here that the term Canaanite here included the others. This was only finally prevented because of the troubles that came on them.

Jdg 3:6

‘ And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.’

In direct disobedience to God’s covenant they intermarried with the Canaanites (Jos 23:12; Exo 34:15-16; Num 25:1-2; Deu 7:3). This was not a question of race but of culture. The Israelites were of widely mixed race, but they shared the covenant of Yahweh, and the high moral standards related to it. The Canaanites were idol worshippers following a debased religion with low moral standards. Now these were being intermingled with devastating effects on the morality and religious attitude of the Israelites. This is brought out by the fact that ‘they served their gods’.

We must not assume this was true of all. Otherwise they would have disappeared without trace. It was describing a tendency. Fortunately enough remained sufficiently loyal to Yahweh to ensure that the future lessons would enable their restoration.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jdg 3:8  Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years.

Jdg 3:8 Word Study on “Chushanrishathaim” Gesenius says the Hebrew name Cushan-Rishathaim ( ) (H3573) means, “most malicious (wicked),” or “Aethiopian?” Strong says it means, “Cushan of double wickedness.” BDB says it means, “twice wicked Cushan.”

Jdg 3:15  But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.

Jdg 3:15 Comments – Strong says the name of Benjamin (H1144) means, “son of (the) right hand.” It was Ehud’s lefthandedness that saved the children of Israel from Eglon, king of Moab. There were seven hundred Benjamites who were left-handed during Israel’s war against them (Jdg 20:15-16).

Jdg 20:15-16, “And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men. Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Nations Which Remained

v. 1. Now these are the nations which the Lord left to prove Israel by them, to test their faithfulness to Him, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan, the younger generation which enjoyed the fruits of conquest, but did not estimate aright the greatness of the dangers endured by the fathers, and therefore did not sufficiently value the help of God;

v. 2. only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, give them an idea, make them realize the great cost of the boon of freedom and material wealth which they were enjoying, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof, the final object being that they might learn humility and submission to the Law;

v. 3. namely, five lords of the Philistines, those of the five city-states Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, Jos 13:3, and all the Canaanites, chiefly along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and in the Jordan Valley, and the Sidonians, the Phenicians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon, in the southern Anti-Lebanon, west of Damascus, unto the entering in of Hamath, in the valley of the Orontes.

v. 4. And they, these heathen nations, were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord which He commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. By being oppressed by their enemies and thereupon delivered by the Lord through the medium of wars, Israel was both to be tested and strengthened in obedience to the Lord.

v. 5. And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites, all of whom they permitted to live in their midst, making no serious effort to drive them out.

v. 6. And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, thus entering into the most intimate social relationship with them, and served their gods, the natural consequence of breaking down the barriers which the Lord had erected by His prohibition, Exo 34:16-23; Deu 7:3-4. That is almost invariably the progress of apostasy: friendship with the world, marriages with infidels, rejection of the Lord.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Jdg 3:1

Now these are the nations, etc. We are now told in detail what was stated in general in Jdg 2:22, Jdg 2:23, after the common method of Hebrew narrative. To prove Israel. This word to prove is used here in a somewhat different sense from that which it bears in Jdg 2:4 and in Jdg 2:22. In those passages it is used of their moral probation, of proving or testing their faith and obedience; but here it is rather in the sense of “to exercise” or “to accustom them,” to train them to war. A considerable period of rest had followed Joshua’s conquest, during which the younger Israelites had no experience of war; but if they were to keep their hold of Canaan, it was needful that the warlike spirit should be kept up in their breasts.

Jdg 3:3

The five lords, etc. The title seren, here rendered “lord,” is one exclusively applied to the lords of the five Philistine cities enumerated in Jos 13:3; 1Sa 6:17, 1Sa 6:18, viz; Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. It occurs repeatedly in 1Sa 16:1-23.; 1Sa 5:1-12; 1Sa 6:1-21; 1Sa 29:1-11; etc. The word means an axle-tree. The entering in of Hamath. There are two theories in regard to Hamath. Some, as Professor Rawlinson in the ‘Dictionary of the Bible,’ identify it with Hamah, a large and important city on the Orontes in Upper Syria, and consider that the kingdom of Hamath, which was overthrown by the king of Assyria (2Ki 18:34; 2Ki 19:13), and of which Hamath was the capital, was for the most part an independent Hamitic or Canaanite kingdom (Gen 10:18), but occasionally, as in the days of Solomon and Jeroboam (1Ki 8:65; 2Ki 14:28; 2Ch 8:4), subject to Israel Others, however, justly considering the great improbability of the Israelite dominion having ever extended so far north as the valley of the Orontes, and observing how it is spoken of as an integral part of Israel (1Ki 8:65), look for Hamath much further south, in the neighbourhood of Beth-rehob (see Jdg 18:28, note). As regards the phrase “the entering in of Hamath,” the identical Hebrew words occur seven times, viz; Num 13:21; Num 34:8; Jos 13:5; in this passage; 1Ki 8:65; 2Ki 14:25; 2Ch 7:8, and are variously rendered in the A.V.: “as men come to Hamath;” “unto the entrance of Hamath;” “the entering into Hamath;” “the entering in of Hamath (three times); and the entering of Hamath.” The exact meaning of the phrase seems to be “the approach to Hamath,” some particular spot in the valley from whence the direct road to Hamath begins; very much like the railway term for certain stations which are the nearest to, though at some little distance from, the place from which they are named, as, e.g; Shapwick Road, Mildenhall Road, etc. The latter words of the verse describe the territory of the Hivites, which reached from Mount Baal-hermon in the Lebanon range as far as the point where the road leads to Hamath.

Jdg 3:5

The Canaanites, etc. The same enumeration of the tribes of the Canaanites as in Exo 34:11.

Jdg 3:6

They took their daughters, etc. Here is a further downward step in the disobedience of the Israelites. Intermarriage with the Canaanite nations had been expressly forbidden (Exo 34:15, Exo 34:16; Deu 7:3; Jos 23:12), and the reason of the prohibition clearly stated, and for some time after Joshua’s death no such marriages appear to have been contracted. But now the fatal step was taken, and the predicted consequence immediately ensued: “they served their gods;.; they forgat the Lord their God, and served the Baalim and the Asheroth.”

HOMILETICS

Jdg 3:1-6

Ungodly marriages.

The distinctive lesson of this section seems to be the fatal influence of an ungodly marriage. And this lesson is one of such daily importance to Christians in every station in life, that we shall do well to concentrate our attention upon it. On entering upon the history of that troublous and calamitous time for the tribes of Israel which intervened between the triumphant governments of Moses and Joshua and the glorious reigns of David and Solomon,the time of the Judges,we find it initiated By the intermarriage of the Israelites with the idolatrous Canaanites. No sooner was that shameful alliance contracted than the national apostasy followed instantly. “They forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim and Ashtaroth.” And the connection between this religious apostasy and the first servitude by which they lost their national independence was no less close. “The children of Israel served Chushan-rishathalm.” If then we read Scripture with a view to our own admonition, our attention must be arrested by this striking example of the danger of ungodly unions. And the example does not stand alone. The marriage of Esau with the daughters of Heth, in connection with the loss of his birthright and his blessing; the degradation and death of Samson in spite of his splendid gifts and powers; the tarnished fame of Solomon’s old age, and the break-up of his kingdom after his death; the dynastic ruin and destruction of Ahab and all his house from his marriage with Jezebel,these and many other examples in Holy Scripture convey a solemn warning against the peril of ungodly marriages. And it must be so in the nature of things. The marriage union is so close and intimate, it gives the opportunity for such constant influence, it makes continual resistance to that influence so irksome and tedious, it gives such advantage to the working of influence through the affections, that no man with a due regard for his own soul’s salvation would expose himself to such peril. Moreover, the true notion of the partnership of marriage is a fellowship in heart, in thought, in affection, in interest; an identity of aim and purpose in life, each helping the other, each contributing a portion to the common aim; a joint action in all that relates to God and man; united counsels in fulfilling the various duties of the home, of the human society, of the Church of God. How could the Israelite, seeking the glory of Jehovah, wrapped up in the triumphs of his own favoured race and pure creed, and hating the detestable abominations of heathenism, so insulting to God, and so injurious to man, have such fellowship with the daughter of an Amorite or Canaanite? And how can any true servant of the Lord Jesus Christ have such fellowship with one whose heart is wholly given up to the world, and has no concern for the kingdom of heaven. “Marriage is not to betaken in hand unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly by any Christian man or woman, but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God.” And it is the object of these remarks to induce young men and young women, in deciding upon marriage, to take into consideration the probable influence of their partner upon their moral and religious life, and the aid or the hindrance they are likely to have in the fulfilment of their Christian duties. The life-long loss of domestic happiness, the blighting of affections, and a heavy crop of trouble and vexation, the sure fruit of an ill-assorted union, is a heavy price to pay for the momentary gratification of a mere fancy; but the permanent loss of moral tone, and forfeiture of one’s place in the kingdom of God, is an unspeakably heavier one.

HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR

Jdg 3:1-4

The proving of Israel.

The general lesson of the Book of Judges is here repeated. There is shown to have been a Divine providence prevailing through and above the defections of Israel. God uses the consequences of their neglect as a means of grace. The nations that had not been rooted out became in turn their tempters and their tyrants; and thus they outlive their minority, and are prepared for the great place they have to take in the history of the kingdom of God.

I. IT WAS A RESULT OF PARENTAL NEGLECT. The fathers had left much of their task undone. A determined attitude on their part, and vigorous measures, would have rid the land of the nuisance. One generation may do much good or evil to its successors. We never reap all the results of our own misdoing; a great portion is left for the children of after generations. The neglect of the laws of health, of the canons of a moral life, of educational institutions, social and political progress, may entail grievous disadvantage upon those who come after us; as much that comes in this way, comes in this way alone, and cannot be produced suddenly. And so it is with the growth of theological truth, and the habits and usages of the spiritual life.

II. BUT THE CHILDREN TOO WERE TO BLAME. The oracle of God at Shiloh could have been consulted still. God’s will could easily have been ascertained. Thorough and absolute trust in Jehovah, and devotion to his service, would have rid them of their enemies. They were therefore the children of their fathers in this also, viz; that they were not wholly given to God’s service and the desire after righteousness. How much of human guilt consists in mere letting alone, or in supinely submitting to evils as if they were inevitable or incurable!

III. IT WAS AN INSTANCE OF EVIL DIVINELY UTILISED. A probation. To call forth the courage and faith of the new generation. To prevent them accepting the situation as a final one, or calmly submitting to and acquiescing in the wicked customs and idolatries of their neighbours. Some natures find the way of transgression harder than others. They are finer, more susceptible, have more deeply-set longings after goodness. They feel the inherent contradictions of evil more acutely; its penalties press more heavily upon them. This is not an injustice on the part of their Maker; it is a mark of his goodness and mercy. He would have them fenced in by the sanctions of righteousness; driven back into his fold. He has meant them for a better life. So it was with his elect people then. They and their heathen neighbours were upon a different footing. It was the destiny of Israel not to be let alone. A later experience in order to the comprehension of an earlier experience. One of the most valuable uses of experienceto throw light backward. It reveals the true value of an inheritance, and renders precious things more precious. Otherwise the younger Israelites who entered into the conquests of the first warriors would not have known the severity of their toils, or the mighty hand of God which wrought their deliverance. There are some lessons every man must learn for himself. A true appreciation of God’s saving grace is a personal and, for the most part, an incommunicable thing. “To teach them war, i.e. to inure them to it as a necessary discipline, and as the preliminary work that had to be done ere the kingdom of God could be brought in; and, as above, to show them how much spiritual privileges cost, and how difficult and yet how honourable it was to defend and secure them. Still it was

IV. AN INSTANCE OF A PROVISIONAL ALLOWANCE OF COMPARATIVE IMMORALITY. The world was not ripe for the morality of Jesus. The self-contradiction of a continual state of warfare was to be their schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. The state of peace is not of itself more moral than that of war. It is “the things that make for peace,” the spirit of brotherhood and Christian charity, that are the aim of the righteous mind. The world must first be righteous ere it can be peaceful.M.

Jdg 3:5-7

The forbidden covenant.

When Israel entered the land it was on the express condition that no terms of marriage or intercommunion should be entered into with the aboriginal tribes of Canaan (Deu 7:1-3). This seems either to have been forgotten or deliberately ignored. The consequences predicted came to pass, and the hearts of the people were led away from the worship of the true God.

I. THE LIMITS OF COMMUNION BETWEEN THE CHILDREN OF GOD AND THE WORLD, The law of extermination prescribed to Israel made the path of duty very clear. It was God’s purpose to disentangle the national and individual life of his people from the perversions, corruptions, and self-contradictions of idolatrous worship. He desired to separate them entirely to himself. Severe and uncharitable as this rule might at first appear, it was true mercy to the world as yet unborn, and to the future that was to be redeemed to God. Some comforts and conveniences, a few really valuable fruits of pseudo-civilisation and the contact with the currents of thought and life in the great world of men, had to be sacrificed, but the advantage was more than worth them all. The same problem presents itself to-day to the Christian. How far is it allowable for the life of a child of God and a child of this world to intermingle? What relations of this life are to be kept apart from the world, and to subsist only between Christians, and what relations may be shared with the world? The letter of the ancient prescript is of course obsolete, but the spirit must still be binding. Evidently, however, the relations of what are strictly religious communions can only be sustained between true Christians. And many of the higher relations of our natural life, as, for instance, marriage, can only be worthily sustained by Christians. The spirit of the old law was, immediately, severe, but, ultimately and more largely, merciful. So ought the disposition of the Christian to be. Of course the extent and direction in which we observe this law of heavenly prudence must be left to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. It ought to be remembered that often when it seems to act against others it is really for their good.

II. HOW INTIMATE ASSOCIATION WITH THE WORLD AFFECTS THE TONE AND QUALITY OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.

1. Habit blunts the conscience to unlawful customs.

2. Personal attachments and friendships lend attraction to social and religious observances which are really unrighteous.

3. The relations of civil life create entanglement and perplexity.

4. The peculiar, intimate, and profound relations of marriage add to the force of all influences that affect the religious nature and the spiritual life.M.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

CHAP. III.

An account of the nations which were left to prove Israel; by communion with whom they commit idolatry, and are punished. Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar, are raised up to deliver them.

Before Christ 1394.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Enumeration of the heathen nations left to prove Israel

Jdg 3:1-4

1Now these are the nations which the Lord [Jehovah] left [at rest], to prove Israel by them, (even as many of Israel as had not known [by experience] all the wars of Canaan; 2Only that the generations of the children [sons] of Israel might know to teach them 3war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;)1 Namely, five lords [principalities] of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt [dwell] in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon unto the entering in of 4[lit. unto the coming i.e. the road to] Hamath. And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord [Jehovah], which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[1 Jdg 3:2Dr. Cassel renders this verse freely: Only that to give experience to the generations of the sons of Israel, they might teach them war which they did not formerly learn to know. He supplies a second before (see the exposition below), and in a note (which we transfer from the foot of the page), remarks: Jdg 3:2 contains two subordinate clauses dependent on the subject of the principal sentence in Jdg 3:1, which is Jehovah. In the first of these clauses (each of which is introduced by ), the subject is Israel (fully, ); in the second, the nations. The first expresses the result of the second; that which Israel experiences is, that the nations teach it war. Keil (who follows Bertheau) explains as follows: only (, with no other view than) to know the subsequent generations (, the generations after Joshua and his contemporaries) of the sons of Israel, that He (Jehovah) might teach them war, only those who had not learned to know them (the wars of Canaan). But, 1, if were in the accus., the author could hardly have failed to remove all ambiguity by prefixing to it. 2. An infin. of design with , following one with , without to indicate cordination, can only be subordinate to the preceding. Thus in the English sentence: We eat in order to live to work, to work, would be at once interpreted as subordinate to to live. A second might indicate cordination even without the assistance of , cf. in English: We eat in order to live, in order to work; where we feel at once that to live and to work are cordinate so far as their relation to the principal verb is concerned. Hence, Dr. Cassel inserts a second ; but this is an expedient too much like cutting the Gordian knot to be satisfactory. Bachmann, who in the main agrees with our author, avoids this by treating as a gerundive adverbial phrase. As for it is not indeed impossible that, remembering what he said in Jdg 2:10 ( , etc.), and just now substantially repeated in Jdg 3:1 b, the writer of Judges uses it here absolutely, to indicate briefly the opposite of the condition there described, in which case Dr. Cassels rendering would be sufficiently justified. But since (Jdg 3:2 a) clearly represents the of Jdg 3:1 b, it seems obvious that the of Jdg 3:2 in like manner resumes the of Jdg 3:1. We may suppose, therefore, that the pronoun them is here, as frequently, omitted after , and translate, freely, thus: And these are the nations which Jehovah left to prove Israel by themall that Israel which did not know all the wars of Canaan, in order that the after generations of Israel (they also) might know (understand and appreciate) them (i.e. those wars), in that he (i.e. Jehovah, or they, the nations) taught them war, (not war in general, however, but) only the wars which (or, such wars as) they did not formerly know. The first , as Bachmann remarks, limits the design of Jehovah, the second the thing to be taught. As to the last clause of Jdg 3:2, if the accents be disregarded, the only difficulty in the way of the rendering here given is the plural suffix ; but this probably arises from the fact that the writers mind at once recurs to the wars of Canaan. The , of old, is used from the point of time occupied by the after generations, as was natural to a writer who lived so late as the period of kings, and not from that in which the of Jdg 3:1, and its design, took place. The masculine to represent a fem. plur. is not very unfrequent, cf. 2Sa 20:3; 2Ki 18:13. Dr. Bachmann connects the last clause with , respects the accents (which join with , not with ), and renders: that Israel might learn to know . war, namely, only those (wars) which were formerly, they did not know them = only the former wars which they did not know. The sense is not materially affected by this change.Tr.]

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

Jdg 3:1. All who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. These are they of whom it was said, Jdg 2:10, that they knew not the works of the Lord. This younger generation, after the death of Joshua and the elders, enjoyed the fruits of conquest, but did not estimate aright the greatness of the dangers endured by the fathers, and therefore did not sufficiently value the help of God. The horrors of war, to be known, must be experienced. As if the conquest of Canaan had been of easy achievement! It was no light thing to triumph over the warlike nations. Was not the tribe of Judah, although victorious, obliged nevertheless to abandon the valley to the iron chariots? But of that the rising generation no longer wished to know anything. They did not know what a war with Canaan signified.

Jdg 3:2. Only that to give experience to the generations of the sons of Israel they might teach them war, with which they did not before become acquainted. The construction of the sentence is difficult, and consequently has been frequently misunderstood (among others, by Bertheau). The book which the narrator is about to write, is a Book of Wars; and it is therefore incumbent upon him to state the moral causes in which these originated. God proves Israel for its own good. With this in view, He left the nations in peace, to prove Israel by them. How prove Israel? By depriving it of rest through them. They compel Israel to engage in conflict. In defeat the people learn to know the violence of Canaanitish oppression, and, when God sends them heroes, the preciousness of the boon of restored freedom. Only for this; the emphasis of the verse falls on only (), which is introduced twice. Between and a 2 is to be supplied. The Hebrew usus loquendi places both clauses ( and ), each beginning with alongside of each other without any connective, whereby one sets forth the ground of the other. God leaves the nations in peace, in order that they might teach the Israelites what war with Canaan signified,in order that those generations might know it who had not yet experienced it. It is not for technical instruction in military science that He leaves the heathen nations in the land, but that Israel may know what it is to wage war, that without God it can do nothing against Canaan, and that, having in the deeds of contemporary heroes a present counterpart of the experience of their fathers, who beheld the mighty works which God wrought for Israel through Moses and Joshua, it may learn humility and submission to the law. This reason why God did not cause the Canaanites to be driven out, does not, however, contradict that given in Jdg 2:22. Israel can apostatize from God, only when it has forgotten Him. The consequence is servitude. In this distress, God sends them Judges. These triumph, in glorious wars, over victorious Canaan. Grateful Israel, being now able to conceive, in their living reality, the wonders by which God formerly raised it to the dignity of nationality, has learned to know the hand of its God. Cf. Jdg 3:4.

Jdg 3:3. Five principalities of the Philistines. Jos 13:2, seq., enumerates the nations which were to remain, with still more distinctness. There, however, the reason, given in our passage, why God let them remain, is not stated. The principalities of the Philistines must be treated of elsewhere. The Canaanites and the Zidonians are the inhabitants of the Phnician coast. The importance of Zidon has already been pointed out in Jdg 1:31. The districts not under Zidonian supremacy, are referred to by the general term Canaanite. The Hivite, here mentioned as an inhabitant of Mount Lebanon, does not occur under that name in Jos 13:5. He is there spoken of under the terms, land of the Giblites (Byblus, etc.) and all Lebanon; here, a more general designation is employed. The name indicates and explains this in a manner highly interesting. The LXX. render by , as for , the mother of all the living, they give . The word , , to live, whence , includes the idea of roundness, circularity of form, So the , ovum, egg, is round, and at the same time the source of life. Consequently, and came to signify battle-array or encampment (cf. 2Sa 23:11) and village (Num 32:41), from the circular form in which camps and villages were disposed. The people called Hivite is the people that resides in round villages. Down to the present daymarvelous tenacity of national custom!the villages in Syria are so built that the conically-shaped houses form a circular street, inclosing an open space in the centre for the herds and flocks. Modern travellers have found this style of building still in use from the Orontes to the Euphrates (Ritter, xvii. 1698). It distinguished the Hivite from the other nations. And it is, in fact, found only beyond the boundary here indicated; on northern Lebanon, above Mount Hermon. This therefore also confirms the remarks made above (at Jdg 1:33), on the parallel passage, Jos 13:5, where we find the definition from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon, whereas here we read of a mount Baal Hermon. Baal Hermon, according to its signification, corresponds exactly with the present name Jebel esh-Sheikh, since on the one hand Sheikh may stand for Baal, while, on the other, Hermon derived its name from its peculiar form. is a dialectic equivalent of the Hebrew . is the height, the highlands: the prominent point, the commanding fortress. Hermon, as the southern foot of Anti-Libanus, is its loftiest peak. It towers grandly, like a giant (cf. Ritter, xvii. 151, 211), above all its surroundings,like a silver-roofed fortress of God. This is not the only instance in which Hermon is apparently the name of a mountain. It is probable indeed that to the Greeks the Herman Promontory ( , Polyb. I. xxxvi. 11; cf. Mannert, Geogr., x. ii. 512) suggested only some reference to Hermes. But the greater the difficulty of seeing why Hermes should give names to mountain peaks, the more readily do we recognize a , not only in this but also in the promontory of Lemnos, the Herman Rock ( ) mentioned by Greek poets (schyl. Agam., 283). It accords with this that Ptolemy specifies a Herman Promontory in Crete also. It is evident how appropriately Hermon, in its signification of Armon, a fortress-like, towering eminence, is used to denote a promontory. The Greek also has the twofold signification of fortress and promontory; and Mount Hermon itself may to a certain extent be considered to be both one and the other.

It is evident that when in Jos 13:5 the boundary of the hostile nations is defined as running from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon, and here as extending from Baal Hermon onward, the same sacred locality is meant in both passages, and that Baal Hermon is identified with Baal-gad. This is further confirmed by the following: The Talmud (Chulin, 40 a) speaks of the sinful worship which is rendered , the Goda of the mountain, i.e. as Raschi explains, the angel like unto Michael, who is placed over the mountains of the world. Moses ha-Cohen advances an equally ancient conception, current also among the Arabians, when he states (ap. Ibn Ezra, on Isa 65:11), that Baal-gad is the star Zedek, i.e. Zeus. For Zeus is in fact the Hellenic deity of all mountain-peaks,3 the Great Baal Hermon. Hence it was customary among the Hellenes also to prepare sacrificial tables in the service of Zeus; and with Isa 65:11 we may profitably compare Paus. ix. 40, where we learn that in Chronea, where the sceptre of Zeus was venerated as a palladium, a table with meat and pastry was daily prepared. At the birth of a son to her maid, Leah says (Gen 30:11): ; which the Chaldee translators already render by (Jerus. Targ.) and (Jonath.). (Cf. 2Ki 23:5), means, star; is the good star that appears,fortune, as the Septuaginta render . Two planets, Jupiter and Venus, were (Plutarch, De Is. et Os., cap. xlviii.), bearers of what is good,fortune-bringers. Hence, Gad, as Fortune, could be connected both with Astarte (cf. Movers, Phn., i. 636), and with Baal (Jupiter). is manifestly the same as the Persian (cf. and , and , etc.), Ghoda, which signifies god and lord, quite in the sense of (cf. Vullers, Lex. Pers. Lat., i. 660). If there be any connection between this term and the Zendic Khadhta, it is only that the latter was used to designate the constellations. In heathen views of life, fortune and good coincide. To enjoy the good things of life is to be fortunate. is the Hellenic for happiness. The Syriac and Chaldee versions almost uniformly render the terms and , blessed, which occur in the Old and New Testaments, by , good (cf. my work Irene, Erf. 1855, p. 9). In the ideas God and Fortune coxist as yet unresolved; subsequently, especially in the Christian age, they were separated in the Germanic dialects as God and Good. For there is no doubt that in Gad (God), the good (fortunate) god and constellation, we find the oldest form, and for that reason a serviceable explanation, of the name God, which, like Elohim, disengaging itself from heathen conceptions, became the sacred name of the Absolute Spirit. At the same time it affords us the philological advantage of perceiving, what has often been contested (cf. Dieffenbach, Goth. Lex. ii. 416; Grimm. Myth. pp. 12, 1199, etc.), that God and Good actually belong together. Baal-gad was the God of Fortune, which was held to be the highest good.4The meaning of has been indicated above (p. 46).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

[Compare the Homiletical Hints of the preceding section.Keil: In the wars of Canaan under Joshua, Israel had learned and experienced that the power which subdued its enemies consisted not in the multitude and valor of its warriors but in the might of its God, the putting forth of which however depended upon Israels continued faithfulness towards its Possessor. . Now, in order to impress them with this truth, on which the existence and prosperity of Israel, and the realization of the purpose for which they had been divinely called, depended; in other words, in order to show them by the practical lessons of experience that the People of Jehovah can fight and conquer only in the strength of their God, the Lord had suffered the Canaanites to be left in the land. Necessity teaches prayer. The distress into which Israel fell by means of the remaining Canaanites, was a divine discipline, by which the Lord would bring the faithless back to Himself, admonish them to follow his commands, and prepare them for the fulfillment of his covenant-engagements. Hence, the learning of war, i.e. the learning how the People of the Lord should fight against the enemies of God and his kingdom, was a means ordained by God of tempting or trying Israel, whether they would hearken to the commands of their God and walk in the ways of the Lord. When Israel learned so to war, it learned also to keep the divine commands. Both were necessary to the People of God. For as the realization by the people of the blessings promised in the covenant depended on their giving heed to the voice of the Lord, so also the conflict appointed for them was necessary, as well for their personal purification, as for the continued existence and growth of the kingdom of God on earth.Bertheau: The historian cannot sufficiently insist on the fact that the remaining of some of the former inhabitants of the land, after the wars of Joshua, is not a punishment but only a trial; a trial designed to afford occasion of showing to the Israelites who lived after Joshua benefits similar to those bestowed on his contemporaries. And it is his firm conviction that these benefits, consisting chiefly of efficient aid and wonderful deliverances in wars against the remaining inhabitants, would assuredly have accrued to the people, if they had followed the commands of Jehovah, especially that on which such stress is laid in the Pentateuch, to make no league with the heathen, but to make war on them as long as a man of them remains.

Henry: It was the will of God that Israel should be inured to war,1. Because their country was exceeding rich and fruitful, and abounded with dainties of all sorts, which if they were not sometimes made to know hardship, would be in danger of sinking them into the utmost degree of luxury and effeminacy,a state as destructive to everything good as it is to everything great, and therefore to be carefully watched against by all Gods Israel. 2. Because their country lay very much in the midst of enemies, by whom they must expect to be insulted; for Gods heritage was as a speckled bird; the birds round about were against her. . Israel was a figure of the church militant, that must fight its way to a triumphant state. The soldiers of Christ must endure hardness. Corruption is therefore left remaining in the hearts even of good Christians, that they may learn war, keep on the whole armor of God, and stand continually on their guard.

Wordsworth: To teach them war. So unbelief awakens faith, and teaches it war; it excites it to contend earnestly for the truth. The dissemination of false doctrines has led to clearer assertions of the truth. Heresies have produced the creeds. There must be heresies, says the Apostle, that they who are approved among you may be made manifest (1Co 11:19).Tr.]

Footnotes:

[1][Jdg 3:2Dr. Cassel renders this verse freely: Only that to give experience to the generations of the sons of Israel, they might teach them war which they did not formerly learn to know. He supplies a second before (see the exposition below), and in a note (which we transfer from the foot of the page), remarks: Jdg 3:2 contains two subordinate clauses dependent on the subject of the principal sentence in Jdg 3:1, which is Jehovah. In the first of these clauses (each of which is introduced by ), the subject is Israel (fully, ); in the second, the nations. The first expresses the result of the second; that which Israel experiences is, that the nations teach it war. Keil (who follows Bertheau) explains as follows: only (, with no other view than) to know the subsequent generations (, the generations after Joshua and his contemporaries) of the sons of Israel, that He (Jehovah) might teach them war, only those who had not learned to know them (the wars of Canaan). But, 1, if were in the accus., the author could hardly have failed to remove all ambiguity by prefixing to it. 2. An infin. of design with , following one with , without to indicate cordination, can only be subordinate to the preceding. Thus in the English sentence: We eat in order to live to work, to work, would be at once interpreted as subordinate to to live. A second might indicate cordination even without the assistance of , cf. in English: We eat in order to live, in order to work; where we feel at once that to live and to work are cordinate so far as their relation to the principal verb is concerned. Hence, Dr. Cassel inserts a second ; but this is an expedient too much like cutting the Gordian knot to be satisfactory. Bachmann, who in the main agrees with our author, avoids this by treating as a gerundive adverbial phrase. As for it is not indeed impossible that, remembering what he said in Jdg 2:10 ( , etc.), and just now substantially repeated in Jdg 3:1 b, the writer of Judges uses it here absolutely, to indicate briefly the opposite of the condition there described, in which case Dr. Cassels rendering would be sufficiently justified. But since (Jdg 3:2 a) clearly represents the of Jdg 3:1 b, it seems obvious that the of Jdg 3:2 in like manner resumes the of Jdg 3:1. We may suppose, therefore, that the pronoun them is here, as frequently, omitted after , and translate, freely, thus: And these are the nations which Jehovah left to prove Israel by themall that Israel which did not know all the wars of Canaan, in order that the after generations of Israel (they also) might know (understand and appreciate) them (i.e. those wars), in that he (i.e. Jehovah, or they, the nations) taught them war, (not war in general, however, but) only the wars which (or, such wars as) they did not formerly know. The first , as Bachmann remarks, limits the design of Jehovah, the second the thing to be taught. As to the last clause of Jdg 3:2, if the accents be disregarded, the only difficulty in the way of the rendering here given is the plural suffix ; but this probably arises from the fact that the writers mind at once recurs to the wars of Canaan. The , of old, is used from the point of time occupied by the after generations, as was natural to a writer who lived so late as the period of kings, and not from that in which the of Jdg 3:1, and its design, took place. The masculine to represent a fem. plur. is not very unfrequent, cf. 2Sa 20:3; 2Ki 18:13. Dr. Bachmann connects the last clause with , respects the accents (which join with , not with ), and renders: that Israel might learn to know . war, namely, only those (wars) which were formerly, they did not know them = only the former wars which they did not know. The sense is not materially affected by this change.Tr.]

[2]Cf. Jos 4:24. [Compare the note under Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]

[3]Cf. Preller, Gr. Mythol., i. 77. He is such as , , etc. That also has no other meaning, Preller shows elsewhere. Mountain temples, says Welcker (Mythologie, i. 170), were erected to other gods only exceptionally. As for the temple of Hermes on Mount Cellene (Paus. viii. 17, 1), it could perhaps be made probable that here also the name of the mountain suggested the worship of Hermes.

[4]Movers (Phn. ii. 2, 515) thinks that he can explain the name of the Numidian seaport Cirta from , which is doubtful. On the other hand, when the Etymolog Magnum, under , expresses the opinion that Gades in Spain was so named because , there is evidently no reference to , but to Gad in the sense of Fortune. For the stress is laid not on the small beginnings, but on the good for tune, which from a small city made it great. This on Movers, ii. 2, 621, not. 89 a.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The subject which opened in the preceding Chapter, of the backsliding of Israel; from the Lord, is prosecuted in this. Here are inserted the names of Israel ‘ s enemies, which acted as instruments in the divine hand, for Israel’s correction. Some account of their punishment, and of their humiliation in consequence thereof, is also given in this Chap ter. God’s gracious interposition in the deliverance of Israel, by Othniel, from the oppression of their foes, and by Ehud, and Shamgar, three of the first judges, is also related.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

This is an interesting chapter, and the first verse acts as a key to let us into the meaning of it. The Lord, we are told, left those nations to prove Israel. Hence we learn, that the trials of God’s people are of God’s appointment. I stay not to dwell much upon the historical part of it, for I think it quite enough to observe, that the five lords of the Philistines, which, in after ages of the days of the kings of Israel, made such a figure in history, were the lords of Ashdod, and Gaza, and Askelon, and Gath, and Ekron. 1Sa 6:17 . And all the Canaanites, included the idolatrous inhabitants from the extreme point of Israel’s territories. But I rather would call the Reader’s attention to the spiritual sense of the history. There is a passage in the Psalms that serves to show how the Lord raiseth up scourges for his people in their enemies, where it is said, that the Lord turned the hearts of the Egyptians to hate his people. Psa 105:25 . Hence in all the afflictions for sin, the Lord’s hand is in every appointment. And this, Reader, may serve to illustrate the whole of our eventful life. Love is at the bottom of all the Lord’s dispensations. He is ever pursuing one invariable plan of mercy. But if the followers of Jesus transgress, and are led away by their idolatrous neighbors, God will visit their offences with the rod, and their sins with the scourge. So the promise runs. Psa 89:30-32 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Jdg 3:1-2

Wherever temptation is, there is God also…. Nothing is at random, as if temptation were hurrying here and there like bullets in the air of a battlefield.

F. W. Faber.

Jdg 3:6

‘The conduct of the negotiations,’ between the Christian and Moslem powers in Palestine, ‘fell to the Templars, and between them and the Saracens there grew up some kind of acquaintance. Having their home in the East they got to know the Eastern character. It was alleged afterwards that in this way their faith became corrupted.’

Froude.

The Message of the Book of Judges

Jdg 3:9

The book of Judges is a book of deliverance, a deliverance from backsliding. It teaches us:

I. The danger of a faith which stands in the wisdom of man rather than in the power of God. Israel always relied too much on her leaders. The nation of Israel all along was like a nation of children they had to be kept in the right path by authority. What was then felt in Israel is a very grievous fault among ourselves. Christian people in our churches look far too much to their spiritual teachers, and far too little to God.

II. No past experience of blessing removes the liability to sin, or dispenses with the need of watchfulness against temptation. Israel had trusted God and found Him true. She had seen His power to save, and she was living in the Promised Land; yet that did not remove her liability to sin. No matter how wonderfully God deals with our souls, no matter how close the fellowship that He grants us, so long as we are in the flesh we are beset by temptation, and temptation is always dangerous because of our liability to give heed to it.

III. No position of honour or favour entitles one to sin with impunity. Israel thought that because she was the people of Jehovah He was bound to take care of her. And she had to be taught that Jehovah’s favour was conditional on her obedience. She had to learn that simply because she was the people of God, her sin would be punished more severely than the sin of others. No man can sin with impunity. The clearer the knowledge, the intenser the zeal, the more awful is the fall of him who, presuming on these things, dares to tamper with sin.

IV. For recovery from backsliding, however terrible, there is provision made in the mercy of God. The book of Judges shows not only that none of the Lord’s children may presume, but also that none of them might despair, it shows how God made provision to ensure their being kept faithful to Him. The Lord raised them up by judges by whom they were delivered from the hand of their enemies, and brought back to serve the Lord. For us, if we have backslidden there is the Saviour who is able to save to the uttermost because He ever liveth to make intercession for us.

G. H. C. Macgregor, Messages of the Old Testament, p. 87.

Jdg 3:11-12

A man that is at once eminent in place and goodness, is like a stake in a hedge; pull that up, and all the rest are but loose and rotten sticks easily removed; or like the pillars of a vaulted roof which either supports or ruins the building.

Bishop Hall.

‘Lucretius, like Naevius a century and a half before,’ says Mr. J. W. Mackail, ‘might have left the proud and pathetic lines on his tomb that, after he was dead, men forgot to speak Latin in Rome.’

References. III. 15, 16. Herbert Windross, The Life Victorious, p. 83. III. 16. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. i. p. 270.

Jdg 3:20

I cannot but wonder at the devout reverence of this heathen prince: he sat in his chair of state; the unwieldiness of his fat body was such, that he could not rise with readiness and ease: yet no sooner doth he hear news of a message from God, but he rises up from his throne, and reverently attends the tenor thereof. Though he had no superior to control him, yet he cannot abide to be unmannerly in the business of God.

This man was an idolater, a tyrant: yet what outward respect doth he give to the true God? External ceremonies of piety, and compliments of devotion, may well be found with falsehood in religion. They are a good shadow of truth when it is; but when it is not, they are the very body of hypocrisy. He that had risen up in arms against God’s people, and the true worship of God, now rises up in reverence to His name. God would have liked well to have had less of his courtesy, more of his obedience.

Bishop Hall.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Othniel

Jdg 3:9-11

A GREAT prayer marks a historical point in the life of any man or any people. We know when we have prayed. The people who ask questions in a controversial tone about prayer never prayed themselves, and so long as they are in that spirit they cannot pray. This exercise is not to be explained to outsiders; this is an inner mystery. The publican knew that he had prayed when he said, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” He needed not to ask any man whether a prayer had been offered, for he himself, the contrite suppliant, had the answer in his heart before the last word escaped his lips. We are dull indeed if we do not know when we have struck a full chord. Something in us says, That is right. We have uttered many words, and at the end we have said, That is not prayer; the words are devout, the phrases are devotional, they would read well in print, some good spirits might turn them into prayer, but we who uttered them did not pray. Why then debate about this matter, or talk about it as if it were subject for analysis and definition and formal treatment of any kind? We know when we have touched the hem of Christ’s garment by the healing that instantly takes place in the spirit. Answers in detail may require long time to work out, but the great answer is in the healed heart, the comforted soul, the quieted and resigned spirit. Other replies there may or may not be, all these must be left: the great answer to prayer is an answer to the soul which the soul only can hear and apply.

“When the children of Israel cried unto the Lord ” an energetic term is that “cried.” It was a piercing shout of the heart. The words did not come out of the mouth only; they were hardly in the mouth at all; they shot from the heart within the burning, lowly, broken heart. We know a cry when we hear it or when we utter it; there is fire in it, a touch of immortality, a strange ghostliness. Truly in such case the voice is the man, the tone is the prayer. There are calls to which we pay no heed. We say they are calls expressive of merriment or folly, or intended to play upon our credulity; we know them to be hollow and meaningless; but there are cries we must answer, or get somebody else to answer: they come so suddenly, they strike the very soul so truly, there is so much of real earnestness in them, that if we ourselves are frightened by their energy we tell the next person we meet where the trouble is, where sorrow cries for help, where weakness pleads for assistance. You cannot talk about prayer in cold blood. This is not a subject to be discussed in current conversation, passing along the thoroughfare, or upon some quiet occasion: you have dragged the subject to a base level; you are speaking about it as if you were masters of the situation: you can only speak about prayer whilst you are praying, and then you will never speak about it controversially but sympathetically and confirmingly; and when the heart has really cried that sharp cry which cuts the clouds you will know that the heart in its agony has touched God’s love. Turn away, then, from those who would make prayer a matter of controversy and inquiry and analysis and vivisection; it is not to be so treated; it is a secret masonry with a password all its own between the soul and the soul’s God.

The prayer was answered: “The Lord raised up a deliverer.” The answer came in a human form. That is a remarkable circumstance. The answer might have come otherwise; but God delights in incarnations. He aims at something in all these human leaderships; he is conducting a process of evolution. Many a man bearing the title of Leader has come before us, and each has, so far as he has been faithful to his vocation, been an incarnation of God’s thought and purpose and will. The matter cannot end here. All these are temporary incarnations, but charged with infinite suggestiveness, and always leading the mind to higher expectation subtler, deeper yearnings for some broader and brighter disclosure of the divine personality. But we must not anticipate. The Bible is given to us in pages, and every page must be read, and there must be no vain haste. This is still God’s method, to answer by incarnation. A friend is sent who has the key of the gate which you cannot open; a brother is met who speaks the word your poor heart most needed to hear; an occasion is created suddenly or unconsciously, and it shapes itself into a temple, becomes a holy sanctuary, a sphere of radiant revelation. This is what we mean by providence. Why has not every man an equal influence over us? Because every man is not sent to our life with a special message. There are men who can sing, there are men who can preach, there are men who can read the Bible and read it as it were into inspiration as to its influence upon the hearer, these Othniels are God’s creations; in a sense, God’s presence, divine incarnations.

“The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” There is no mistaking that Spirit. It was not an awakening of anything that was in the man himself, but a descent from heaven of the Supreme Influence. Othniel, a common man yesterday to all observation, is today an inspired man, “a little lower than God.” As a consequence the man was not vainglorious. No inspired man can be conceited. He does not know that he is great He knows that he is the instrument of God. The most inspired of men have said, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Inspiration means modesty; genius means retirement, self-obliviousness, disregard of circumstance or applause. The inspired life is the unconscious life. To us who look on, the inspired man is great, wonderful, we cannot understand the miracle; to himself he is but a child in God’s house, quite a little one, hardly able to walk, asking questions by his looks of wonder, praying himself into ever-deepening lowliness. The poet does not know that he is a poet in the sense which is applauded by those who understand not his spirit; he breathes his poetry. Paul breathed his Christianity; to him to live was Christ, to breathe was to pray, to look was to rejoice. We shall know when the Church is inspired by its lowliness. Find men who are fretful, peevish, always susceptible to offence, complaining men, “ill-used” men; and you will find men who know nothing about the Spirit of Christ: their money perish with them; their patronage would be a great shadow laid upon the Church. The Church must be healthy in her goodness, mighty in her inspiration. Othniel could not communicate his power. Inspiration is not an article of barter. Nor could Othniel keep his inspiration without conditions. Everything we have we hold upon certain understandings of an eternal kind: they need not be expressed; they are unwritten, but indelible; they cannot be seen with the eyes, nor can they be blotted out by the hand: they belong to the necessity of things, the fitness and harmony of the universe. Whatever we hold we hold upon our good behaviour. We are tenants at will. The greatest Othniel in the Church would be cast out of heaven if he allowed his purity to be spotted, his honour to be stained, his stewardship to be tampered with. Not one of us is essential to God. The first archangel holds his mighty wings on his good behaviour: let him lie, or touch the forbidden tree, and his great wings would fall powerless, his eye would be smitten with death. “Once inspired always inspired” is no doctrine of the Scriptures. We stand or fall by our spiritual relation to the divine. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;” and let the chief of the apostles keep himself in constant check lest when his mightiest discourse is ended he himself become a castaway. We live in character. Our immortality blissful, heavenly is in our relation to Christ. We have no independence, no charter entitling us to invent a morality of our own; we are measured by eternal standards, we are judged in the court of the Infinite Righteousness.

Othniel had a special work to do: he was raised up to deliver Israel, to destroy the power of the king of Mesopotamia; and having done that work he died. When shall we come to know that every man is called to one work, particularly if not exclusively?

Herein do we not judge one another harshly and unjustly? The work of Othniel was not a manifold work; he was not a multitudinous genius, able to see behind and before, on the right and on the left, and to be equally strong by day and by night; he was not so much a statesman as a deliverer; he was mighty in war, he might be but second in counsel. Each man, therefore, must find out his own faculty, and be just to it; if he fail in discovering it, then he will be unjust to his true self. If you are aiming to be some other self, you will fail and be unfaithful to God’s purpose. One man is sent to do business, to show how business ought to be done, to make commerce a religion. Another man is sent to sing, to make us glad, to show us by tones that there must be some other world to touch our highest sensibilities and move our noblest impulses, and comfort us in our distresses and make new stars for the darkness of the night; let him keep his singing robes on, rising high up in the sky so that everybody may hear him and answer him with electric joy: he has a great vocation, has that singing man; he helps even the commerce of the world. Another man is sent to pray. He must live upon his knees. He knows how to speak human want in human words. He never says one word too much, never one word too little; he knows the measure of the sorrow, he knows where the burden presses most heavily, he knows where the heart’s sore is most painful; and his is surely a holy vocation. Let him keep at the altar; never let him rise from his posture of prayer. He will do us good, and not evil. He, too, though seemingly so far away from the world’s real strife, is helping the world in its most prosaic servitude. When the Church acknowledges this doctrine, the Church will receive more from her leaders, teachers, and supporters. We must not live a divided life: “This one thing I do” must be the motto of every man. Nor must there be judgment of one another, saying, You should do this, or do that Let alone! Touch not the prerogative of God!

We, too, needed a deliverer. We had given up the idea of self-emancipation. Once we thought we could break our own manacles and fetters, and set ourselves free, and sing the songs of liberty. We tried, we tried often, we all tried, we failed, we all failed. When there was no eye to pity and no arm to save, God’s eye pitied and God’s arm wrought salvation. “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” It is the joy of the Christian Church to believe that there is only one Redeemer, one Lord, one Christ, one Advocate, one Paraclete. This is the gospel. This is the good news itself. When we preach it, we shatter all idols of a selfish kind; we say to Invention, to Genius, You are of no use here: you cannot break a link, you cannot shed a light upon this infinite gloom. Preaching Christ, we denounce all other helpers and deliverers, except in some secondary and related capacity. There is one Son of God; there is one Cross; there is one atonement; there is but one hope. We read history, and recognise deliverers, and are thankful when they appear, and we doubt not the reality of their deliverances: why should we in the presence of Jesus Christ forget to adore and forget to trust? They who have known most about Christ have most to say in his favour. Those who have not known Christ are not asked for their opinion about him. We do not ask the blind to pronounce upon colours, or seek from the deaf a criticism upon music: Christians alone can testify in this court, and their evidence is conclusive because it is sustained by character and can be tested and appreciated. Who is looking for a deliverer? let him turn his eyes to the Son of God. Who is saying in the bitterness of his soul, “O, that I might be saved from this horrible distress and delivered from this unfathomable abyss “? let him turn his eyes to the Son of God. Who is mourning sin, having felt its bitterness and seen its abominableness? let him turn his eyes to the Son of God. He came to deliver, to emancipate, to save: “this Man receiveth sinners.” He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Let us feel this, believe this, and commit our souls unto Christ as unto a faithful Creator.

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?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible