ISRAEL’S RELAPSE INTO SIN, AND THEIR OPPRESSION BY THE MIDIANITES. Judges 6:1-10
CRITICAL NOTES.— Judges 6:1. Did evil, etc.] Not continued to do evil, though that is implied (pp. 158, 186). Deborah and Barak were now dead, and their personal example, the influence of their names, and their warning voices were all buried with them. The shake given to the idolatry of the land by the signal manifestation made of Jehovah’s jealousy had now lost its effect, and a new generation had sprung up. That so long a period as 40 years should have been influenced by the shadow of the great event of the destruction of Sisera and his army shows that a mighty impression had been made of the character of Israel’s God, both on Israel themselves, and also on the nations around them. All seemed to feel that “great fear was due to the God of Israel,” for “there was no God that could deliver after this manner.” The hand of Midian—descendants of Abraham and Keturah (Genesis 25:2). Though not the same race, they appear to have been in close affinity with the Ishmaelites, or were included among that people as a part is included in the whole (Judges 8:22-24). With them, too, they appear to have been engaged in the carrying trade across the desert between the Euphrates and Egypt (see Genesis 37:25; Genesis 37:28). Some regard the word Midianites, as the plural of the old Egyptian Madi [Fausset]. They were a nomadic people and did not till the ground, but lived in tents. They occupied a belt of desert land, extending from Horeb in a line extending north-east, passing Moab on the east, and skirting the territory of Reuben. While Moses was at Horeb, he dwelt with his father-in-law, Jethro, who was the priest of Midian. Their territory, therefore, must have been, at one side, near by Horeb. But being unsettled in their residence, and predatory in their habits, there was probably no very strict delimitation of the boundary lines. Wiseman calls them “wandering corsairs” of the desert. The disposition to plunder had become to them almost a natural instinct, as it was with all the tribes of the desert. They had an old grudge against, Israel on account of the crushing blow that had been inflicted on them in the time of Moses by the express command of God, because of their having wickedly enticed Israel into sin on the plains of Moab (see Numbers 25:1; Numbers 25:6; Numbers 25:16-18; Numbers 31:7-12; Numbers 22:4-7). Quite 260 years had elapsed since that sweeping desolation had passed on them; and now they had recovered their strength, but cherished an undying hatred to their destroyers. They would be readily joined in their raid against Israel by the Amalekites (see p. 158), by the Ishmaelites (Psalms 83:6-7), by the Arabs and wandering hordes generally, along the south and south-east border of Palestine, who were always ready for any work of pillage. The initiative, however, was taken by Midian.
Cassel thinks that the two words Midian and the more modern Bedouin are really one and the same—the Hebrew spelling beginning with מ, while the Arabic language begins with כ. In this last case the word would spell Bidiun, or Bedouin. In the Semitic languages there is a constant interchange of these letters. The word comes from a root signifying the desert.
Judges 6:2. The hand of Midian prevailed.]—bore heavily upon them (p. 97). They had no power to remove it. They made them the dens which are in the mountains, etc.] Some (Keil) make the word סּנְהָרֹוח to signify “mountain ravines,” hollowed out by torrents; being thus found they were fitted up by men’s hands in such a manner, as to make suitable retreats from danger. Others (Cassel and Bertheau) understand by it, “Light holes.” i.e., holes with openings for the light, or grottoes. Wetzstein says, “At some elevated dry place, a shaft was sunk obliquely into the earth, and at a depth of twenty-five fathoms, streets were run off straight, from six to eight paces wide, in the sides of which the dwellings were excavated. At various points these streets were extended to double their ordinary width, and the roof was pierced with air-holes according to the size of the place. These were like windows. Hence the meaning is, caves, with air-holes like windows. Watchers were employed to give the alarm when the enemy approached. Then the plonghmen and herds hurried quickly into the earth and were secure. There was also a second place of exit, for the most part.” Similar must have been the rock dwellings of Petra. In the limestone mountains of Palestine, there are many natural “caves.” but these generally were more fully excavated, and fitted up artificially, when used as human dwellings. The remaining word (מְצָרוֹתַ) signifies fortresses, or (mountain) “strongholds.” These refuges were less used for purposes of personal safety, than as places of concealment for property and necessaries of life. For the propensity of the Bedouin always has been rather to pillage than to kill (1 Samuel 13:6; 1 Samuel 23:14; 1 Samuel 23:19; 1 Samuel 23:29; 1 Chronicles 11:7) These were memorials of the dark times, when the Bedouin host like an over-running flood swept over the land. Sin like a leprosy leaves its scars and its baldness behind it.
Judges 6:3. Children of the East.] This phrase seems to designate the various Arab tribes, not otherwise named, who roamed over the open country between the Red Sea and the Euphrates. We hear of “the men of the east” (Job 1:3); “the mountains of the east” (Numbers 23:7); “the east country” (Genesis 25:6); “the east” specifically (Genesis 29:1). (Isaiah 41:2; Matthew 2:1; Matthew 7:12; Matthew 8:10). These hordes seem to have had no design of conquering the country, nor yet of cutting off its inhabitants. Their object simply was plunder. “Their visits were like the incursions of the Picts and Scots into Southern Britain during the latter part of the Roman dominion (A.D. 1368); or the raids for lifting cattle. which were common from the Highlands of Scotland into the Lowlands at a much later period” (Lias). And he might have added, which visits were returned by the English into Scotland, with a like disregard of meum and tuum, when they could get a safe opportunity. This was but the fulfilment of prophecy upon Israel (Deuteronomy 28:31; Deuteronomy 28:33; Deuteronomy 28:43; Deuteronomy 28:48).
When Israel had sown they came up, etc.] i.e., They chose the time when the fruits of the earth were fast ripening, just before harvest (about March), and remained for weeks or months on the ground, till they had time to clutch the whole produce for the year; and when they had stripped it bare, they returned to their own country, leaving the poor Israelites to sow the land for a new crop in the following season, at which time they would return and repeat the work of rapine. Their route would be along the east bank of the Jordan, until they got as far as Bethshean (now Beisan), the principal ford of the river, when, crossing over, they would have before them to the north-east, the rich plain of Esdraelon and the fertile valley of Jezreel, forming together the very garden of Palestine, whose richness of soil was proverbial everywhere, and formed a most tempting prize to eyes accustomed to look on the sterility of the desert—luxuriant crops of corn, vineyards, olive trees, fig trees, pomegranates, milk and honey—all found in profuse abundance. Here they would revel until feasted to the full, when going along the course of the Kishon, and passing through the mountain gorges on the west. would then turn southward along the rich belt of land that skirted the sea, the southern part of which was occupied by the Philistines, their last city being Gaza. There the forces of the marauders necessarily took end, for there was nothing more in that direction to seize.[2]
[2] It has long been the practice (till recently stopped) of the marauding Turkomans of Central Asia, to rob the long caravans of camels, laden with the produce of the countries of the Far East, passing to the countries of the Far West (and vice versa), along the route through ancient Media [Has that word any connection with Midian?] which has the Caspian Gates to the north and Persia to the South. These tribes also have long been in the habit of making “alamans,” or raids on their weaker neighbours, their object being robbery and man-stealing, including woman and child-stealing. Their favourite hunting ground has been the eastern frontier of Persia. The people they caught were carried off to the inhospitable deserts of Central Asia, where escape was impossible. For prisoners of importance a heavy ransom was expected; the others were made to work in the fields, or were sold as chattels where a market could be found. These incursions were made sometimes up to the gates of Teheran, while so strangely imbecile or helpless were the governore of Persia, the country once ruled over by a Cyrus and an Ahasuerus, that little or no opposition was offered to the fierce barbarians who came plundering and murdering to within a few miles of the capital. No wonder that all the towns and villages are walled in with towers and gates which are shut at night. Even in many of the fields were towers, as refuges or the people at work, in case of sudden alarm, when there was no time to reach the village. The workers by squeezing themselves through a narrow opening in the bottom, which could be closed with a stone, might thus escape, and the Turkoman would lose his prize. To complete the picture, occasionally some of the governors on the frontier, who could have stopped their raids, allowed them to pass westwards in order to catch them on their return, laden with the spoil they had captured. This was profitable to the governor, who thus bagged everything. Happily Russia by her movement into Central Asia, during the eighth decade of this century, has laid a strong hand on this system, and it may now be said no longer to exist. That movement if it has had few other beneficial effects seems to be breaking up the fallow ground, in what has long been one of the wildest, and most intractable wastes, both of the moral and physical worlds.
Judges 6:4. They encamped against them]—ready to seize their plunder by force of arms, if they could not get it peaceably (Psalms 27:3; 2 Samuel 12:28). But such was the cowardice of the God-for-saken people, that they never once attempted to take the field against these insolent robbers, far less did they dream for a moment that they could be driven out of the country. The same course was taken by the Turks on a larger scale, when they first made their appearance in the east of Europe, and seized one territory after another, crushing all opposition. The increase of the earth]—the annual produce of the soil; such as wheat, barley and grass; wine, honey, milk and oil; all fruit trees’ produce, and such things as are alluded to in the following passages (Exodus 3:8; Deuteronomy 8:8; Deuteronomy 32:14; 2 Chronicles 2:10; 2 Chronicles 2:15; Ezekiel 27:17; Ezekiel 27:19; Isaiah 7:22-23; Micah 4:4). Till thou come to Gaza]—an idiomatic phrase in the Hebrew language (Genesis 10:19; Judges 11:33; Genesis 13:10; 1 Samuel 17:52; 1 Samuel 27:8). Left no sustenance for Israel, neither Sheep, etc.]—no means of support, whether the fruit of the soil, or the flocks and herds. Not only were the rich plains of Issachar devastated, but the uplands of Manasseh were not safe from the hands of these rapacious prowlers, as the case of Gideon illustrates. Their march was “like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food” (Proverbs 28:3). To drive off the cattle has been the practice of the Bedouins all along unto this day; and it is customary, in some parts of Western Asia to make a compromise with the invaders, engaging to pay them a heavy tribute on condition that they shall be left unmolested. Even powerful communities do this to avoid perpetual warfare. Besides the tribute, the chiefs look for substantial presents, and these being received as gifts in one year are exacted the next year as a matter of right. Ere long the pressure becomes intolerable, and they are obliged to leave the settlements altogether.—(Pict. Bible.) Not a solitary sheep, ox or ass which came in their way was left to the Israelites! So complete was the pillage. Their cattle comprising beeves, sheep, asses and camels, would eat up all the herbage and every green thing which they did not require for themselves. For they were most numerous (Numbers 31:32-39).
Judges 6:5. They came up, and their cattle and their tents, etc.]—they and their cattle is emphatic—their tents—those who lived in their tents. All their domestics, as well as fighting men. It was not a sudden assault followed by a hasty retreat; but they came to remain in the land, for a time at least, to fatten themselves on its rich produce. Came as grasshoppers.] Rather locusts—כְדֵי in like abundance to the locusts; also like to them in voracity, of which it is said in Joel 2:3, “the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them is a desolate wilderness.” It was a deluge of human robbers.[3]
[3] From p. 38 under Judges 6:5, they and their camels were without number]—rather, dromedaries (Isaiah 60:6) which are peculiar to the deserts of the South and East. Camels and asses take the place of horses and oxen in the West. Camels, indeed, were not unfrequently used for ploughing.
Judges 6:6. Greatly impoverished.]—יִדַּל is a strong word, implying more than that they suffered a great loss, or had much taken from them. It implies that they felt utterly desolate and helpless. What a spectacle was before them! Their beautiful country turned into a vast and hideous wreck; countless marauders roaming at will all over the land, devouring or trampling down ruthlessly the choicest fruit of their matchless soil, until scarcely a stalk of grain or a blade of grass was left in Jezreel itself. As far as the eye could reach, the human wolves had done their work with absolute completeness. It was one vast sea of wreckage. On every foot of the sacred land was inscribed “Ichabod.” The curse of heaven was everywhere marked. They were a people forsaken of their God. Hence they were thoroughly dispirited, and hung their heads in despair and shame, under the terrible conviction that on the one hand they had deserved it all, and on the other, that they were utterly powerless to effect a remedy for their condition.[4]
[4] Many think it was about this time that the great famine occurred in the land which led Elimelech and his family to remove to the land of Moab to sojourn there, and when Ruth through Naomi’s instrumentality became a convert to the faith of Israel’s God (Ruth 1).
But this conviction was not arrived at all at once. For the first three years these depredators, Josephus tells us, repeated each year their terrible visit, with such disastrous result, that a large part of the land was no longer sown, while the miserable inhabitants, with their numbers thinned, partly through famine, and partly through oppression, at last, in great numbers quitted their homes and sought to the retreats and fastnesses among the mountains referred to in Judges 6:2. For four years more did they survive the terrible humiliation of their country until they agreed by general consent to return to their allegiance to the God from whom they had apostatized (Hosea 5:15). Now they were virtually saying “come, let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn and He will heal, He hath smitten and He will bind up.”
Judges 6:7. They cried unto the Lord because of Midian.] (See p. 159). (Judges 3:9; Judges 3:15; Judges 4:3; Psalms 106:44-45; Psalms 107:6; Psalms 107:19; Psalms 107:28).
Judges 6:8. The Lord sent a prophet.] A man, a prophet; not an angel. An unnamed messenger (1 Kings 13:1-2; 1 Kings 20:13; 1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 9:1; 2 Kings 9:4). God would send a prophet before He sends a saviour. Before giving the blessing He first deals with that which keeps back the blessing. They were beginning to use the language of penitence; they must learn it more thoroughly. (Acts 2:37, yet the apostle adds Judges 6:38—carry your repentance farther). The message itself etc., is like that of 1 Samuel 10:18, or Joshua 24:17 and Judges 2:1.—I brought you up from Egypt, etc.] It was strange that they should so continually require to be reminded of one of the very first truths in their national history, the day which of all others had a white letter mark in their calendar. Then they for the first time rose up to be a nation. Then was laid the foundation of everlasting obligations to their God, to whom alone they owed their unparalleled history as a people.
10. But ye have not obeyed my voice.] These words contain the charge which their God brings against them. This short sentence would not be all that the prophet would say. It was rather the theme on which he would enlarge; in the same manner in which we have an account of Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. That sermon may have occupied more than an hour in delivery, and yet as given in the canon, it is so abridged as not to occupy a tenth part of that time in the reading. The line of thought followed by the speaker alone is given; so here—The gods of the Amorites.]—This name is put for the Canaanites, (as in Joshua 24:15; Joshua 24:18; and Genesis 15:16). “In the Egyptian monuments of Ramases 3, Palastine is called the land of the Amori. The prophet may have been addressing the dwellers in the mountains where the Amorites (the Highlanders) dwelt. (Genesis 48:22). The idolatries of that race were specially abominable (see 1 Kings 21:26; 2 Kings 21:11).” [Speaker’s Com.] It has well been remarked that “the existence of a class of men, whose duty it is to convict men of moral declension, is peculiar to revealed religion. Other religions had their priests; Judaism and Christianity alone had their prophets.” [Lias].
MAIN HOMILETICS.—Judges 6:1-10
GOD’S DEALINGS WITH THE UNTEACHABLE HUMAN HEART
Here again we have the same weary go-round. Fresh outbreaks of depravity; new chastisements of the Divine hand; the treacherous heart turning again to its God when it finds that it must; and God, with wonderful tenderness and slowness to anger (at every new stage becoming more wonderful), repenting Him of the evil and granting deliverance. We have—
I. The Picture of Sin Presented.
It is not a case of sinning for the first time, but a case of repeated sinning, and that accompanied with every possible aggravation.
1. The form of their sin was of a heinous character. Idol-worship was peculiarly offensive to their God. It was a direct rejection of Jehovah as their God, not-withstanding all His claims to be so acknowledged. No greater insult could be offered to His Majesty and His Holiness. It was to cast off His authority, to deny His sovereign rights, to refuse Him submission, to contemn His glorious perfections, to trample under foot His law, and to reject His Divine fellowship. It was to do all this in the most offensive manner, by preferring to worship in His place beasts and fourfooted things, or images of sinful objects, the work of their own hands. It was to go lower still—it was to set up the embodiments of sin in the place of God, and to give to these the devotion and the worship which are properly due to God. It was to give external form and embodiment to the worst ideals of wickedness which the human imagination could conceive, and yield up to these the homage which is due only to the Holy one of Israel! In this matter the “desperately-wicked heart” seems to have exceeded itself in its ordinary acting. And to complete the picture, it must take away the one foundation of all possible good (namely, the worship of the Good one), and to expose the heart to the incursion of all possible evils.
Idolatry, indeed, implies the creature striking out for itself in disregard of its Maker, as if its Maker were insufficient to it, and His presence were a burden rather than a pleasure. “Have I been a wilderness to Israel?—a land of darkness? Wherefore say, my people, We will come no more to thee? What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone from Me and have walked after vanity?” This reproach applies to all who put any other objects in place of God, and give to these the homage, the affection, the interest and the obedience which are due to Him alone. It may be riches, or fame, social distinction, the good opinions of our fellows, or any prize which the man who lives without God counts dear (see pp. 110, 111, 123).
2. They sinned against the clearest light. All the means of instruction which that age could furnish in the matter of their duty to their God were employed to press His claims on their attention. If they had no printed Bible, yet at the Red Sea, at Mount Horeb, all through the wilderness, at Jordan, and in every city of the Canaanites, as well as in many startling events of more than 200 years afterwards—they had all the facts and revelations of the Divine character and of human duty which go to make a Bible. And they had these as living facts—events passing before their eyes, coming with the freshness of personal experience—in which they themselves were principal factors. They had an illuminated Bible given them to read, in which the blindest among them could see a great meaning. It was a Bible which spoke with a plainness that the dullest could appreciate, and with a loudness that made the most stolid fall down and worship. But they had no eyes to read such a Bible; no ears to hear its remarkable sayings, for “they did shut their eyes that they might not see, and stop their ears that they might not hear.” They sinned against the clearest light as to the claims which Jehovah had on the allegiance and love of their hearts. “They would not come to the light lest their deeds should be reproved.” Hence they continued as “sottish children—a people of no understanding” (see Deuteronomy 32:5-6; Deuteronomy 32:28; Deuteronomy 4:5-8; Deuteronomy 4:32-36; Luke 12:48; Matthew 11:21-23; Numbers 15:30-31; John 9:41; Romans 2:12-16).
3. They sinned in abusing the highest privileges. They had the continual presence of God among them that they might enjoy His fellowship. A way of access was provided through the appointed sacrifices. The means whereby individual sins might be pardoned, and personal sanctification secured, were set every day before their eyes in the blood of sprinkling and the water of purification. God’s own glorious character as a God of truth and righteousness, of holiness and love, was exhibited very strikingly in the statutes, ordinances, and commandments which were given them as a law for their conduct. They had exceeding great and precious promises made to them from time to time as to their deliverance for the present, and the realisation of bright hopes for the future. They had very endearing and very honourable names given them by their God, and they had continually fresh proofs given that He was among them on all occasions, ever ready to do them such signal service by the events of His Providence as no other people on earth ever experienced. Yet all this was despised and put aside when they “forsook the Lord their God and worshipped Baalim and the groves.” This comes very near the case described in the terrible passage of Hebrews 6:4-6, or that other in Hebrews 10:26-29, making allowance for the difference of the dispensations (Isaiah 5:4; Matthew 21:35-43; Acts 7:51-53; 2 Kings 17:12-18; John 12:35-37; Luke 12.) (See pp. 120, 121).
4. They sinned in disregarding the most sacred obligations. Never were a people so sacredly bound by acts of kindness shown them, by great deliverances wrought, by honours conferred, and by hopes opened up. The whole Book of Deuteronomy is a record of the extent and the weight of the obligations laid on that people to love and serve Jehovah as their God. “He hath not dealt so with any nation—the children of Israel are a people near unto Him.” They were set forth as priests among the nations, to make “mention of the loving kindness of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed upon them, and the great goodness to the house of Israel, which He bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses.” And those who have set before them the rich discoveries contained in the pages of the New Testament truth; who find the Son of God standing before them in the capacity of the Son of Man; who hear from His own lips the free offer of eternal life, in all its immeasurable fulness, to those who are willing to be reconciled to God through His precious blood; and who have many precious promises made to them both for the present and the future life—these have obligations laid on them to love and live for God, which no scales can weigh, and no mind can appreciate. (see Hebrews 1:1-3; Hebrews 2:2-4; Hebrews 10:19-23; Matthew 12:41-42; Psalms 89:15-16; Proverbs 1:20-23, with 24–28; John 3:36, also 16–18; Revelation 3:15-18).
5. They sinned in breaking the most solemn engagements. They not only had many acts of kindness shown them, and great things done for them, but they had entered into a special covenant with Jehovah, and pledged themselves to be His people. They were formally set apart by the sprinkling of blood to be His. God Himself came down on Mount Sinai to enter into this covenant, and the whole proceedings were conducted in so solemn a manner as to be memorable to all future generations. To break this covenant (which was made for all their generations) was to perjure themselves, and increase their guilt to an incalculable degree. To break one’s solemn engagement made to a fellow man is reckoned a sin of deep dye, but how shall we characterise the violation of a solemn oath made to high Heaven? (see p. 121).
6. They sinned in the face of the most earnest teachings. Especially the teachings of Divine Providence. What did the fathers gain by serving other gods? Had not the experiment been made once and again, and on several occasions? Did not the history of two centuries and a half prove it to be a palpable folly, and a terrible evil to forsake the true and living God, the only fountain of living waters? Did not all the figures of Israel’s history since they entered into Canaan, each one in his place, condemn with a fearful emphasis the crime of forsaking Jehovah? What a long tale of sorrow and degradation was the history of the generation that went before the present one, when they were so grievously oppressed by the cruel Jabin! Surely twenty years’ pressure of that iron heel might have read a lesson sufficient to teach for a whole century the sin and danger of idolatry. And the mighty acts of Israel’s God, when He rose up from His place to take vengeance on the oppressors of His people, in the discomfiture and ruin of Sisera and his army, might have taught for generations to come that there was no god but Jehovah. Yet though having these and many other lessons of instruction and warning set before them, this generation fell again into the mire from which their fathers had at such cost been drawn. (See pp. 121, 122).
One general remark we must not omit to make as regards this melancholy picture of sin, that when men complain of the awful character of the punishment which God sometimes brings down even on His own professed people, the wonder ought to cease when we look candidly at the terrible character of their guilt. God is just when He smites, as well as when He smiles.
II. The state of heart which this picture indicates.
1. Its inveterate tendency to sin. The propensity must be strong to make its appearance in the face of such solemn remonstrances, and such weighty arguments as God employs to make men desist from it. Sin has a deep root in the heart. “The leprosy is deeper than the skin,” “the scall spreads in the skin”—“it is a fretting leprosy.” “In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” (Leviticus 13:3; Leviticus 13:36; Romans 7:18). Facts prove, account for it as we may, that the spirit or tendency of backsliding is incorrigible among God’s people. Indeed, in face of the facts that meet us on every page of this book, who can doubt the truth of God’s own testimony—“the carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Romans 8:7).” (Jeremiah 13:23; Jeremiah 2:22; Matthew 19:24; John 3:3; John 3:6-7; Romans 7:23-24; Romans 8:8; Ephesians 2:1; Psalms 51:5).
2. The hardness of the heart. This is the feature of character which shows itself in refusing to be impressed by any dealing which God may have with the heart. This was strikingly visible in Pharaoh’s case (Exodus 7-11). (Hebrews 3:8; Hebrews 3:15; Hebrews 4:7; Joshua 11:20; 1 Samuel 6:6; Jeremiah 7:26). It implies that the heart offers resistance to the motive by which God would impress it. It is not only callous—impassive, or utterly indifferent. It is actively opposing the influence by which God seeks to move it. But it includes the want of sensibility.
3. Its boldness in sin. There is a recklessness of consequences; a defiance, wild it may be, yet still a defiance of the Lawgiver, and a refusal to submit to His authority.
4. Its obstinacy in sin. The heart shows a pertinacity in clinging to its sins. It refuses to obey God’s voice (Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 78:10). It refuses to repent (Jeremiah 5:3; Jeremiah 8:5). It refuses to receive any proper knowledge of God and His ways (Jeremiah 9:6; Jeremiah 13:10). The stubbornness of the heart in refusing to receive any teaching from God’s judgments is strikingly brought out by the prophet Amos in Amos 4:6; Amos 4:8-11; Jeremiah 5:23.
5. Its depth of enmity against God. It is said to be “desperately wicked,” which implies wickedness in an unusual degree (Jeremiah 17:9). If the human heart does not constitutionally consist of enmity against God, it is magnetised with that enmity, and said to be alienated from God (Colossians 1:21; Ephesians 4:18; John 7:7; John 15:23-24; 1 John 2:15-16.
6. Its unteachableness. Notwithstanding all God’s dealing with the heart in this case, and for so long a time there was no reformation. Patience and long forbearance on the one side, to show how reluctant He was to chastise them; severe scourging employed when milder treatment had no effect, to show that God would keep to His word of threatening as well as His word of promise when necessary. Yet the old tendency shows itself so soon as the pressure of trouble is removed.
Forty years had elapsed during which the land had peace, with the invaluable privilege of a Deborah and a Barak at the helm of affairs. But long before that time was expired, the mass of the people had again begun to forsake Jehovah, and to follow after the worship of idols. No sooner are these zealous defenders of righteousness in their graves than the stream of evil, which had been stemmed for a time, flows on as before. Israel was but an example of the general rule. Even the awful catastrophe of the destruction of a world by a universal flood did not suffice to take away men’s depravity, root and branch. After the flood as before, the account still is, “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (See Genesis 6:5, with Judges 8:21.) In the days of David the account was similar (Psalms 14:3). In Solomon’s time the same (Proverbs 27:22). In the days of Isaiah matters seem worse rather than better (Isaiah 1:5-6). In Jeremiah’s age the report is as dark as ever (Jeremiah 17:9). After all the plagues, Pharaoh’s heart continued as hard as the nether mill-stone. The Sodomites and Canaanites though forewarned of the issue of their high-handed sins would not hearken, and so were destroyed. And these Israelites, after their settlement in the land promised to the fathers, though dealt with in the most solemn manner to lead them to give up their idolatrous practices, yet clung to them with extreme obstinacy during all the period of the Judges, and also the long reign of the kings, for nearly a thousand years, until the nation was ground to the very dust by the heavy calamities which such apostacy from the God of Israel at last brought on their heads. “My people are bent to back-sliding from Me.” They are “slidden back with a perpetual back-sliding” (Jeremiah 8:5; Hosea 11:7; Hosea 4:16-17; Jeremiah 2:32, also Jeremiah 10:11, Jeremiah 7:28). (See pp. 166, 186, 190.)
III. God cannot in any case tolerate sin.
As often as it is repeated, His anger must come down upon it. It might be said, it was already conclusively proved, that sin was so inwoven into the very nature of this people, that it was hopeless to get it extirpated; for so long as the stubborn propensity of their hearts to apostatise continued, there must be a continually fresh outbreak of sin, when these hearts were left to themselves. That might be a good argument for casting off such a people altogether, when it was fully proved, that they were incorrigibly treacherous to the covenant of their God, but it is no reason, why God should be forgetful of what is due to His own holy name. He cannot connive at sin, and be true to Himself. That He sometimes may seem to “wink” at sin has been inferred from such a passage as Acts 17:30. But it is one thing to “pass over” sin for a time—not to take it up, and give judgment upon it, until a fit period come round, and quite another thing, expressly to tolerate it, while dealing with it in the exercise of His Providential rule. While men sin, God’s anger ever burns against it, even though He should long suffer it to go on, and remain silent. Wisdom must come in to decide as to the proper manner, and the proper time, for showing His anger.
In the present case, this long forbearance with a people so wedded to sin, and the purpose not to cast them entirely off under any circumstances, strongly fits in with Messianic arrangements. The utter depravity of their nature shows the great need of adopting some method out of ordinary course, to cure men’s hearts of their tendency to depart from God. This is what the gospel specially provides (p. 191). Meantime proof must be given that no toleration is allowed to sin, that though ordinary punishment does not suffice to effect a cure (Isaiah 1:5-6), yet evidence must be given that sin is a thing which must be frowned upon under all circumstances. If the heart is ever turning aside like the deceitful bow, then it must ever be chastised anew (p. 170). For,
1. God’s nature is irreconcilably opposed to sin. Psalms 5:4-6. He not only hates sin, but He “cannot look upon it” (Habakkuk 1:13). He cannot let His eye rest upon it for a moment. As light cannot co-exist in the same apartment with darkness, so God cannot dwell in the same heart with sin. He is separated from it not only by distance, but by a strong antagonism of nature (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). All His perfections are against it. He is so holy, that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” The very “heavens are not clean in His sight.” He is so just and righteous that it is proverbial to say “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Psalms 11:7; Psalms 97:2). He is so true, that “heaven and earth may pass away, but His words shall not pass away” (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29). “His Yea is Yea, and His Nay is Nay”) Revelation 3:14). He is so unchangeable in the principles of His government, that He is said to be “without variableness or the shadow of turning” (Malachi 3:6; Job 23:13).
It is the greatest mystery of the universe that sin should ever have been allowed to enter it at all under the government of so holy a God; and the next greatest mystery is, that it should have been allowed to continue so long. For God is ever irreconcilably opposed to sin. On the other hand, neither can a nature under the dominion of sin ever be reconciled to holiness. How often are we told that, under all the chastisement which God sent upon this people, they refused to return to him. This whole book is the historical proof (Jeremiah 5:3; Jeremiah 9:3; 2 Chronicles 28:22; Revelation 16:9-11). It is invariable as the law by which water runs down a hill.
2. Sin carries its own punishment in its own bosom. The simple fact that sin means enmity to God involves a terrible penalty. God’s favour is lost, and the life of the creature becomes one of misery. How can a man bear to be at war with God? He has the whole universe against him. Sin is a debt he never can pay; a burden under which he must groan for ever; a leprosy for which in all nature there is no cure; a poison for which neither man nor angel can find an antidote; a serpent that shall without pity sting its victim for ever. There is no peace to the man who clings to his sin. It is a perpetual disturber. There is no rest in sin. It is an unresting trouble. “Many sorrows are to the wicked.” So many miseries accompany sin that all the pleasure it gives is but as a drop of honey in a sea of gall (South). Sin and punishment go together as substance and shadow. They grow together out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that ripens within the flower of the pleasure that conceals it (Emerson). “The genius of a heathen has taught a striking moral on this subject. He made the model of a serpent, and fixed it in the bottom of a goblet, coiled for the spring, a pair of gleaming eyes in its head, and in its open mouth fangs raised to strike. It lay beneath the ruby wine. Nor did he who raised the golden cup to quench his thirst, and quaff the delicious draught, suspect what lay below till, as he reached the dregs, that dreadful head rose up and glistened before his eyes. So when life’s cup is nearly emptied, and sin’s last pleasure quaffed, and unwilling lips are draining the bitter dregs, shall rise the ghastly terrors of remorse, death, and judgment on the despairing soul (Guthrie).
3. God’s word uniformly condemns it. God’s word is His written law—a compendium of the judgments He passes on men’s principles and actions. On every page sin in every form is condemned. The first act of disobedience, it threatens with death; the same tone is kept up throughout, and its closing statement shows the same unalterable attitude towards sin,—“let him that is unjust remain unjust still,” etc. In unequivocal language it declares that “the wages of sin is death,” that “God is angry with the wicked every day, and if he do not turn, He will whet His sword, and bend His bow,” etc. (Romans 6:23; Psalms 7:11-12). He will “set His face against” the wicked (Psalms 34:16; Leviticus 26:17; Leviticus 17:10; Leviticus 20:3; Leviticus 20:5-6, etc.) and in the day when He visits those who sin, He will visit their sin upon them (Exodus 32:34). “He will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:7). Their sin “shall surely find them out” (Numbers 32:23). Indeed all the threatenings of the Bible are a manifold condemnation of sin (Deuteronomy 28:45; Ephesians 5:6).
4. His Providence always works against it. He may not indeed visit the sinner with instant destruction. Men may be permitted to go on in sin for a time, while the thunders of justice sleep, yet sin does not pass unpunished. Where there is no repentance, sooner or later, He brings down the rod of chastisement, or the sword of destruction. At the proper time, “He will lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.” It is an old but true proverb, “the mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind to powder.” God came not to Adam till the evening, but He came. Though the deluge was delayed for 120 years, yet at the appointed time it came. God waited on the Canaanites for their repentance for 430 years, but as they continued impenitent, the sword of Joshua was commanded to do its work. Joseph’s brethren thought their wicked deed was forgotten, as year after year slipped away, and no whisper was ever made of it. But when the dungeons of Egypt closed around them, and they received unaccountably rough dealing from the strange man who was lord of the country, an accusing voice was awakened within them, memory called up the past, and the old sin rose up as a spectre before them in all its terribleness, as the cause of their accumulated troubles. Silently had that sin dogged their steps, while they slept and awoke from day to day, and much of life passed on. It lay forgotten, but not dead. At the fit moment God held it up before them, and they cried out with one voice, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul,” etc.
“Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet I know it shall be well only with them that fear the Lord.” etc. “These things thou hast done, and I kept silence.” The silence is ominous. “A dead silence goes before the earthquake. Nature seems hushed into an awful stillness, more dreadful than the storm would be. It is as if she were holding her breath at the thought of the coming disaster. The air hangs heavy; not a breath fans the leaves; the birds cease their music; the hum of the insects ceases; there is no ripple in the streams; and meanwhile houses, it may be cities, are on the brink of ruin. So it is with God’s silence over the wicked. It will be followed by the earthquake of His judgments. “When they shall say Peace and Safety, then sudden destruction,” etc.—(Goulburn).
5. The laws of a man’s own nature cry out against it. Sin is a kind of boomerang which goes off into space curiously, but turns again on its thrower, and with tenfold force strikes the hand, or the person that launched it, after describing singular curves. There is no such terrible punishment known on earth as an accusing conscience. It is like “Tophet of old,” “the pile of which is fire and much wood, and the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.” Wilful and aggravated sin is the fuel of that awful fire. Examples we have in Belshazzar, Cain, Herod, Pilate, Judas, and others. They prove that punishment is the recoil of sin, and that the strength of the backstroke is in proportion to the force of the original blow. Conscience is a clock that strikes loud and gives warning, in one man’s case; in another the hand points silently to the number but strikes not. Meantime the hours pass away, death hastens, and after death comes the judgment.
6. The cross of Christ shows that sin cannot, under any possible circumstances, go unpunished. This is incomparably the highest proof that can be given in the case. The Eternal Father spares not His only begotten Son, because He cannot spare sin! What depth of hatred to sin is here? How supreme the necessity for inflicting death, as the due desert of our sins when such a substitute as this cannot be exempted from bearing the full burden of Divine wrath! The sufferings of mere creatures are small indeed, and of very ordinary consequence, compared with the groans and agonies of Him who made the worlds, and who wrought all the mighty works of Divine power, which distinguished His life in this world. The whole human race are but as a grain of dust before the infinite Majesty of the Son of God, who yet called Himself “the Son of Man.” Yet “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him,” because He became responsible for our sins, and was “made a curse for us.”
Our conclusion is, that if God could not spare our sins, but was so strict to mark iniquity, we too must resolve unalterably, in the strength of God’s grace, not to spare them ourselves. We must wage ceaseless war against them, in all the Protean forms they may assume, saying, Thou shalt die—and thou—and thou! The whole brood must be cast out; while holy thoughts, devout affections, and heavenly longings must take their place. Let our motto be Delenda sunt peccata.
IV. Repeated sin brings heavier chastisement.
God warned His people, that if they would not listen to His first reproofs, but would obstinately repeat their offences afresh, He would not only chastise them again, but would “chastise them seven times more for their sins.” (Leviticus 26:18; Leviticus 26:21; Leviticus 26:24; Leviticus 26:28). He begins with whips, but by and bye proceeds to the use of scorpions. This was strikingly exemplified in the Midianitish invasion—the most overwhelming of all the judgments God had yet brought upon the land. As Bp. Hall remarks, “During the former tyranny, Deborah was permitted to judge Israel under a palm tree; under this, private habitations are not allowed. Then the seal of judgment was in the sight of the sun; now their very dwellings must be secret under the earth. They who had rejected the protection of God, now run to the mountains for shelter; and as they had savagely abused themselves, so they are fain to creep into the dens and caves of the rocks like the wild animals, for safeguard. God had sown spiritual seed among them, and they suffered their heathen neighbours to pull it up by the roots; and now no sooner can they sow their material seed, than Midianites seek to devour it.”
“Jabin mightily oppressed them for twenty years.” but now the distress occasioned by the Midianites was only for seven years. Was not that an alleviation rather than an aggravation? Only in appearance, for it is possible to suffer more in one year than in twenty. It depends on the treatment given; and it is generally admitted that this was the greatest scourge they ever had in the days of the Judges. What a frightful calamity to be robbed of the whole harvest produce of their fertile country, year by year, till seven years had passed over them! only a few scanty gleanings being left here and there in corners, or bleak spots, as sustenance for their vast population. All the miseries of famine were upon them. And the life they otherwise led was like that of brute beasts, that find their lairs by burrowing in the ground! To what a low ebb does sin reduce its votaries! (comp. p. 170).
V. The cowardice and weakness of guilt.
Henry says, “Sin dispirits men, and makes them sneak into dens and caves. The day will come, when chief captains and mighty men will call in vain to rocks and mountains to hide them.”
1. Their former condition. Here was a people who traversed the ground of the wilderness for forty years, during the greater part of which they were crossing and re-crossing part of the territory occupied by these marauders, and yet only once in all that period did these tribes dare to encounter them in the open field, and that not alone but in conjunction with Moab. (Numbers 22:4; Numbers 22:7). Again, when God sent twelve thousand Israelites to punish the Midianites for their sin, in having tempted Israel to sin, they trode them down with ease like the grass of the field, and Midian was by a single blow reduced to the point of ruin. Still, further as we go down the history, beyond the date referred to in the chapter, to the days of Saul, king of Israel, we are told that the transjordanic tribes (Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh) alone made war on the whole people of the Hagarenes, or Ishmaelites, or Midianites, and inflicted on them a signal defeat. They had long been harassed by raids made by these freebooters into their country, and they resolved, after asking counsel of their God, to take the strong step of rooting them entirely out of that part of the country, and colonising the whole region, as far as the Euphrates, themselves. This scheme was most successfully accomplished (see 1 Chronicles 5:9-10, also Judges 6:18-22; comp. 1 Chronicles 1:31, and Genesis 25:15-16).
2. Their present condition. But now Israel, being deserted by their God, had become so cowardly and weak, that all their tribes united dare not meet this outlandish and despicable people in the open field. They see “an undisciplined mob” come up in the most arrogant manner, and squat themselves down at pleasure amid the very fat of their land, and take all of the best they can find, while they, the degenerate descendants of a once conquering nation, not venturing once to meet them in the open country, are only too glad to skulk into corners, and make themselves cavities under ground for habitations! And the whole country is left at the mercy of the enemy! Not fifty years had yet elapsed, since, on this very plain of Jezreel, Sisera’s mighty army had been scattered as the chaff. Now the children of those who fought under Barak have become timid, terror-stricken fugitives. “These crouching slaves that timidly peep from behind the projecting rocks, or shiver in the damp darkness of the caverns, are they indeed the sons of the men who vanquished the hosts of Sihon and of Og, in whose sight the sun and moon stood still, and great hailstones were rolled down from heaven on the heads of their enemies? Where are now the old traditions of victory? Where is now the shout of a king in their camp? Whence has gone the national character—the energy of this once invincible race?”
3. Sin brings down. Sin degrades (p. 104). It terrible weakens (p. 107, 265, 266). The basis of all true courage of the highest type is a good conscience, which a man can only find in the ways of righteousness. But where there is conscious guilt, the foundations of all real strength are sapped. “The wicked flee even when none pursue.” God speaks to a man’s imagination, and it becomes to him the bearer of fearful tidings, wherever he turns. “He fears each bush an officer.” It is the same now as then. There is no mere chance in the matter. The evil comes expressly from the Lord. “He scares him with dreams, and terrifies him through visions; terrors make him afraid on every side.” Why is a man who has all the conditions of prosperity in his life yet a stranger to happiness, destitute of hope, and a prey to groundless fears? It is because he allows himself to be enslaved by sin, because he allows sinful thoughts to swarm and settle on his heart, and eat up all its strength; or because he is so craven in spirit as not to resist the approaches of evil, but gives way to all manner of temptation with which the wicked one, or the wicked world may surround him. O what need for Divine keeping for such hearts, in such a world, and exposed to such an enemy! “Ye are kept by the power of God” (1 Peter 1:5). “Those whom thou gavest me I have kept,” etc. (John 17:12). What need have the best of men to get themselves purged from the idols of the heart!
VI. All relief at God’s hand begins with earnest prayer.— Judges 6:7. (see pp. 198–200, 202, 224, 225).
We do not say that God never confers a blessing except in answer to prayer. He may sometimes see reason to bestow some spiritual good even where prayer has not been offered up. He gives indeed, “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,” in one sense. For we generally have a poor conception of the value of the blessings we pray for; but when He gives them, He puts far more meaning into them than we do. He also sometimes confers blessings which we do not ask at all, according as He sees it to be necessary or fit, just as the kind and watchful parent would give to the child what was needful, though not asked. But the main idea is, that we have no just ground to expect deliverance from trouble, or any other blessing from God till we have prayed for it. The direction given to us is, “ask, and ye shall receive;” “ye have not, because ye ask not.” Our warrant for expecting blessings to be given in answer to prayer is
(1.) such, is the rule laid down in God’s word.
(2.) Prayer itself is in many ways glorifying to God.
(3.) True prayer implies a spirit of penitence, without which the way is blocked against all blessing from the Divine hand. Israel’s cry seemed to be earnest and deep—“out of the depths.” God hears the prayer of the destitute, when penitent. (Psalms 34:4-6; Psalms 34:17; Psalms 102:17-18). (See p. 173).
VII.—God’s first answer is a call to thorough penitence.
1. He explains the meaning of His Providential dealing. In sending His prophet to the people, He leaves them in no doubt as to the meaning of this disastrous Providence. Disastrous it was, and very grievous, yet not mysterious. It was only what they had every reason to expect from what they had been told all along. If no calamity had befallen them, then they might have wondered; but, as it was, the natural expectation had been realised. These events did not happen by chance. They were specially sent by God to intimate His high displeasure with their sins. God had really gone against them, because they had abandoned His worship and dishonoured His name.
2. He specially reproves them for ingratitude and breach of vows. According to the excellence of the spirit of gratitude is the detestable character of ingratitude (pp. 259, 260, 263, with p. 122). No people had had the one-half done for them that Israel had, and more was justly expected of them than of others. Yet they had turned their backs on the kindest of Benefactors, and had wickedly put out of memory the sacred doings of His mighty hand. Their conduct was extremely offensive in daring to treat so slightingly His gracious deliverances of the past. And it was terribly intensified by their doing all this after solemnly engaging to belong to Jehovah and to serve Him from the land of Egypt. And they not only broke their covenant, but most wickedly went into the service of Amoritish idolatry, though so repeatedly warned against those heinous sins.
3. He insists on penitence before deliverance is granted. Far more stress is laid on penitence than on the means of deliverance. The latter was easy to be found if only the former were thoroughly gone through. Hence the prophet, with his reproof, comes before the angel, with his deliverance. The great difficulty was to find penitence among the people. God’s claims are set forth, and the people’s backslidings emphasised, that they may be duly repented of, and a speedy and general return to the God of their fathers might be made. Penitence was the first step in the process. That taken, all the rest will come right, as happened with their father Jacob when he wrestled with the angel and prevailed, and the conquest of Esau and flight of all his troubles followed. God could, indeed, have struck down the Midianites at one blow, and so saved all the tantalising and harrowing suspense of the circuitous course which He actually did take. But though none had such true sympathy with the deeply afflicted Church as He had, His love was far-seeing and wise. Therefore He delayed for a time until the most useful lessons, which the rod alone can effectually teach, were learned by His erring children. It was only under great sufferings, and by painful experience of the sad fruits of sin, that they could learn effectually true sorrow for sin, self-abasement, submission, faith, patience and entire consecration to God. To get the backsliding people to practise the passive virtues of the religious character, was a valuable purpose to be gained, but if the deliverance had been accomplished in a day, there would have been no opportunity afforded for gaining it.
This seems to be the Divine rule under all circumstances, to send first a “ministry of condemnation,” to produce conviction of sin, self-humiliation, and the casting away of transgressions; and when this has had its proper effect, then comes deliverance. Meantime the terrible character of the sin might be read in the terrible character of the punishment. In this case the prophet would likely travel from city to city, or to those places where he might find an audience, or any considerable number of people assembled all over the land. “It is a good sign when God chides us; His severe reproofs are ever gracious fore-runners of mercy; whereas His silent connivance at the wicked argues deep and secret displeasure. The prophet made way for the angel, reproof for deliverance, humiliation for comfort.”—(Hall).
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS.—Judges 6:1-10
I. BESETTING SINS
1. Every age has its own besetting sins.
The besetting sin of the ancient Israel undoubtedly was that of idol worship. The depraved heart, being in a state of alienation from God, does not like to retain God in its knowledge. But in departing from Him it cannot remain in a state of neutrality. For there is no such thing possible as a negation of good. The feeling that could reject God is itself a positive evil. Hence, in leaving God, it comes under the dominion of sin. Besides, being made for God, all its deepest instincts cry out for something to take His place. A god of some kind it must have, and hence it devises a god after its own liking. Thus from within do we account for idolatry; and not less powerful was the influence operating from without. The universal example of the other nations was always acting with the force of a mighty current in the same direction. It was like the confluence of several mighty streams bearing down with great force.
Idolatry continued as the sin to which the Israelites were most addicted for centuries. It seemed bred in the bone. Not till the frightful calamity of the captivity had befallen them when the nation came near the point of being annihilated, were they cured of it. Even then depravity was not extirpated but assumed a new form. From that time the besetting sin was Pharisaism, consisting of pride in religious profession, systematic hypocrisy in attending to externals, and cold formalism in the discharge of religious duty. In the earlier centuries the age was very much distinguished by the tyrannical and cruel oppression of the weak by the strong. In what is called “the Dark Ages” the characteristic feature was the torpor of spiritual slavery; and when the human mind began to shake itself free, the principal feature of the times was that of persecution for non-comformity of religious belief. In the seventeenth century, the pendulum swung from a rigid austerity of profession and life, to the extreme of laxity in manners and even to open profligacy and vice. In the eighteenth century the prevailing spirit was that of Deistical infidelity on the one hand, along with daring ridicule of Bible Christianity, and on the other nominal religious profession, and empty formality of worship.
And now in the nineteenth century, the most strikingly many-sided age in the history of the world, we have not one besetting sin, but many. There is avarice or the lust for money, in the commercial world, carrying many breaches of the eighth and ninth commandments in its track, the lust for power in the political world, especially as between nations; the lust for self-indulgence in many forms, though visibly curbed by the awakened power of Christianity; the spirit of liberty becoming a rage, and running into licence; the spirit of infidelity assuming Protean forms, and appearing sometimes as scepticism, or mere questioning of Christian truths, sometimes, though seldom, as Pyrrhonism, or absolute doubt; again as Spinozism, or Pantheism; again as Agnosticism; Atheism proper; Positivism and Naturalism; Spiritualism; and Rationalism.
2. Every individual man has his besetting sins.
Wherever the enemy enters, his desire is to have a fortress of evil in the heart, one or more, so that if other parts should come under the influence of good, he might still hold out in that fortress, and possibly from thence reconquer the whole. A besetting sin, or one to which the man is specially addicted, is such a fortress. Or, it might be regarded as that side of the defences of the heart, where some lurking traitor has got command of the keys, and at an opportune moment, he opens the gates to the enemy.
Trench describes it as “that sin which gets advantage over us more easily than others, to which we have a mournful proclivity, an especial predisposition; it may be through natural temperament, through faults in our education, or the circumstances in which we are placed, or it may be through our having given way to them in time past, and so broken down on that side the moral defences of the soul. The soul in such a case resembles paper, which, where it has been blotted once, however careful the erasure may have been, there do blots more easily run anew. A man should watch and pray against all sin, but he must set a double watch, and ‘pray with all prayer’ against an easily besetting sin.”
3. It is through easily-besetting sins that Satan gains most of his victories.
In the case of such a sin, there is usually some charm, or hallucinating influence exercised over the soul by which it is more easily persuaded to listen to the tempter. A man’s will as it were acts under the influence of an intoxication. He is allured into a kind of spiritual debauch. Though our first parents might be said to have a perfect panoply of defence, being entirely innocent, and without any seed of sin in their natures, yet their crafty adversary made the most dexterous use of the less strongly fortified points of the case. He attacked the weaker vessel first, he presented to the eye nothing gross or impure, but what appeared noble and most fit for a pure mind to attain, as the highest possible reach of knowledge, and especially he tried to over-reach an inferior nature with his superior intellect. It was practically assaulting our innocent humanity on its weak side. It has been so all along. He looks for the weak part of the embankment, where the great flood of waters is most ready to burst forth, and he tries to make a breach there.
Every man has a handle. This Satan soon finds out, and deftly uses to serve his own ends. He tempted Judas on the side of his covetousness, and in the same manner Ananias and Sapphira, Demas, Lot’s wife, Lot himself also, though he was saved yet so as by fire. He tempted the Jews on the side of their expecting a Messiah of great temporal glory; Pilate on the side of his fear lest he should be reported to Cæsar as allowing a rival to the throne of Judea to escape; Joseph’s brethren on the side of their fear lest the dreams of their envied younger brother should one day be realised; and guilty Herod the great on the side of his troubled conscience, that God would one day make use of the young child to wrest his kingdom from him because of his sins.
It is, indeed, almost always those points of a man’s character, where he is specially liable to fall into some sin, that Satan attacks. Hence Christians are directed to “watch and pray lest,” etc., and to “take the whole armour of God that they may be able to stand in the evil day,” i.e., the day of temptation. (See also 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 5:15; Romans 13:12-14; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; 1 Corinthians 16:13; Hebrews 3:12.) “Indeed Satan baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish.”—Adams. (pp. 168, 191.)
II. THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD
1. A man may sin and yet be a child of God.
This is only too easily proved. For “there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” All the good people of whom we have any account given in Scripture, have, every one of them, some spot or stain pointed out in his character. And there is scarcely one who makes reference to his state before God, but laments his sinfulness and pollution (Psalms 51; Isaiah 6:5; Job 40:4; Job 42:5-6; Ezra 9:6; Daniel 9:5; Daniel 9:7; Matthew 26:31-35; 1 John 1:8; 1 John 1:10). A good man in this world is really a bad man in the process of being made good. His heart resembles a muddy well, which has got a spring of clear, running water opened in the bottom of it. The purifying process is begun, but there is still much of the muddy element in the well, which requires time to clear it away. The process of sanctification is gradual. The “motions of sins which are by the law still work,” though they are languishing and destined to die. There is “the old man with his deeds.” But the fact that it is called “the old man” assumes that it is destined to die out. See the struggle described in Romans 7:15-25,
2. The sins of the good are specially heinous.
Sin, in place of coming nearer the point of toleration, when committed by a godly man, is only the more aggravated and offensive to God. The sins of these Israelites implied much greater guilt, than the same sins as committed by the heathen. There were many circumstances of aggravation. They were committed under much clearer light; they enjoyed privileges which the Canaanites never had; far more tender, more loving, and more sacred considerations did God use in dealing with their hearts than ever He did with the native idolaters of the land. Besides, they violated sacred vows, most solemnly entered into, and they forgot the most extraordinary acts of loving kindness ever done to any people in the history of time. The sacred position occupied by the people of God adds incalculably to the evil of their sins. Just as a sin committed in the Holy of Holies involves far greater guilt than a sin committed in one’s private dwelling. There theft, which is bad in itself, becomes sacrilege.
If the sins of God’s people are, notwithstanding this, freely forgiven when repented of, it is not because they are not exceedingly heinous, but because of two things:—
1. They have already accepted Christ as their sin-bearer, while He has engaged to be their Advocate; and
2. They have got “the heart of flesh,” and are ready to confess and forsake their sins.
3. These sins are specially dishonouring to God.
Because they represent God before the world. They are His children, and the Father’s likeness is expected to be seen in the child. Though sin in all cases is detestable, yet it is not so surprising to be seen in the wicked. We expect to see more or less of it there. But, when it comes glaringly out in the case of a child of God, we say it is scandalous, and “gives occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.” If the sun is eclipsed but one day it is more talked of than if it were to shine clearly for a whole year.
“It is terrible when a Christian becomes an argument against Christianity. To induce anyone to sin is for Satan a conquest, but in the case of a Christian it is a triumph.”—(South). God specially hates sin in His own people. It is in gardens that weeds are most noxious, for their appearance there shows that, after all the pains taken, the work is still marred. “When the Lord saw it, He abhorred them because of the provoking of His own sons and daughters.” (Deuteronomy 32:19).
4. Such sins are soon forsaken.
In the case of a wicked man, to sin is only in keeping with his nature. He acts in character. In the case of a child of God, it is quite the reverse. The wicked one for the moment has got an advantage over him, but he will speedily recover, as in the case of Peter (Luke 22:31, etc.).
“Whosoever is born of God sinneth not … and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9). “He that committeth sin is of the devil,” i.e., one whose nature it is so to do. It is not the nature of a man who is born of God to commit sin. The Spirit of God within him prompts him otherwise and he is now “led by that Spirit.” When he does sin, through the uprising of his native depravity, his better nature rebels against it, and he can give as the explanation, “it is no more that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:17). But still he mourns at the victory of sin over him, “O wretched man that I am,” etc. (Romans 7:24). A good watch may point wrong for a season, but if the owner has paid a heavy price for it, he will see to its being repaired without delay, when it will get into its natural position and point right as before.
III.—THE WORTHLESSNESS OF HUMAN CHARACTER BEFORE GOD
1. From this narrative, and, indeed, from the whole book of Judges, we learn with what a fatal facility the human heart can forget all its mercies, its sad experiences, its gracious deliverances, and all the tender dealings of its God (pp. 95–101)! How strange that God should accept of such a people, as those whose character is here depicted, to represent Him in the world, to be called by His name, and to hold up His standard before men on the earth! Most strikingly is the idea brought out, of the utter worthlessness of human character before God. The character of Israel in every age was a continual blot. The descendants of those holy men with whom God entered into covenant—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—in almost every generation, turned completely round from the attitude of allegiance which the fathers occupied, when God chose them and their seed to be a people to Him on the earth.
2. What a harrowing spectacle to the spiritual eye! As we turn over every page, it is to find some sickening tale of disobedience, treachery, apostasy, and everything that is bad—the very worst. We can hardly read a single paragraph without hanging our heads for very shame, to think that this is the people who are taken as a fair representation of the race to which we belong, and, that, as they were, so we are all judged to be in the roots of character, however different may be the soil in which we are planted, and however more genial the spiritual climate around us is. What a blackening of our human nature is here! Who “does not blush and hang his head to think himself a man?” The simple truth, without a stroke of emphasis, is a melancholy picture, fit only to be framed in black. It is an indelible disgrace to a creature made after the image of God. We dare only say, with trembling acquiescence in the Divine verdict, “Ichabod! Ichabod! The crown is fallen from our heads; woe unto us for we have sinned! We smite on our breasts and cry, God be merciful to us sinners!”
3. What a wonder of grace that God should not at once cast us off! The natural expectation is, that He would banish us from His presence, and consign us to endless darkness, raising up in our place, as He could do in a single moment, another race, all pure and spotless, of nobler rank, of more gifted capacity, and more faithful in their allegiance to the Eternal Throne. That could be done by a single word. But ere the old sinning race could be restored, the Son of God must die! The Eternal Light must be shrouded in darkness, and the Eternal Life must sink in death. How stedfast has the Divine love been to its first idea in the covenant made with Abraham! Man’s faithlessness, and God’s truthfulness appear in striking contrast.
4. The humiliating glimpse we here have of the falsity of human character in all ages.
This record is given intentionally as a specimen of human hearts in every age. What crowds came around Jesus, and yet all melted away before a single spiritual discourse (John 6)! How quickly did the warmest friends of the Saviour show treachery when exposed to temptation (Matthew 26:56)! How superficial all the professions of friendship made to the aged apostle when he was in real difficulty (2 Timothy 1:15-16)! What perjury has been committed by those who have solemnly engaged themselves to be the Lord’s people—these Israelites in almost every age, with good words, but perfidious hearts, all apostates, all lukewarm professors, all unworthy partakers of the Lord’s supper, all inconsistent Christians. These are camp followers only.
IV. THE UNSEEN DANGERS FROM WHICH GOD DELIVERS HIS PEOPLE
“He is the Preserver (not Saviour) of all men, especially of them who believe.” Believers have a special promise of protection from danger. “He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers, nor sleeps.” Of His vineyard, God says, “I the Lord do keep it … lest any hurt it; I will keep it night and day.” The whole 91st Psalm is a manifold promise of protection from unseen dangers. It is a most singular fact in the history of Israel, that though they were always surrounded by enemies, they were yet, on the whole, very seldom attacked. The fear of God was upon the nations, as in the case of their father Jacob. (Genesis 35:5).
By all the nations round about the people of God were hated. Why then did they not oftener combine to cut them off utterly, when at some moment they seemed specially weak? In place of Chushan-rish-a-thaim coming alone, Eglon alone, Jabin alone, and the Midianites in like manner, why did not they all come together, or such rulers of those kingdoms as were contemporaries—why did they come singly merely? And as to these Midianites, why do we not read of their coming to attack Israel long before this period, and how do we never hear of their return? And why should not the Philistines, the Moabites, and other nations have come forward now and crushed Israel to the very earth? There were a few occasions of this kind in the history of the people; but they were very few (see Psalms 83). “The Lord is a wall of fire round about His Church,” etc.
The missionaries to the Figi Islands, when threatened with destruction from the natives, had no means of defence except prayer. The savages heard them praying, were seized with trembling, and fled. They said afterwards, “We knew that your God was a strong God, and when we saw you crying to Him, we were afraid.” How often are praying people saved just in time from some terrible accident, or from some fatal epidemic, or from some evil purpose of wicked men! (Psalms 34:20; Psalms 34:22; 1 Samuel 2:9). Laban durst not carry out any evil design against Jacob (Genesis 31:24). Neither could Satan himself proceed further against Job, or Peter, than he was permitted (Job 2:6; Luke 22:31-32). God guards His people by putting a muzzle on the lions’ mouths. Sometimes, in punishment for their sins, he takes off the muzzle and they rise up, and fall upon them with the weight of an avalanche.
V. THE READINESS WITH WHICH THE WICKED UNITE TO ATTACK THE RIGHTEOUS
These various tribes of the desert, all had frequent quarrels with each other. But we seldom hear of two of them uniting together to crush a third. Yet when one of them is about to attack Israel, others are wonderfully disposed to join in the attack, as if they had special pleasure in doing so (p. 70). (Judges 3:13). This seems to be a special part of the reference in Psalms 83. Pilot and Herod had a bitter feud among themselves. But they could agree in pouring contempt on the Saviour (Luke 23:12). When Christ was crucified it was by a combination of enemies, who could all agree in that, though differing at a thousand points with each other. We see generally how they united in the days of the Judges, from Judges 10:11-12, also Judges 6:7. (Acts 4:27; John 15:19).