MAIN HOMILETICS.—Judges 7:15-25
I. The Hand of the Lord visible in this deliverance.
It is quite manifest that the overruling Providence of God was at work in all this to bring out the result. This is seen—
I. In the general effect produced. Victory was gained in a few minutes, and without striking a blow—Israel did not need to lift sword or spear. There was no battle—only a rout, disastrous and complete. Not a single man was lost of Gideon’s men—not a wound or scar was given. They did not need to fight, but to stand still and see the salvation of God. In place of swords we see trumpets, pitchers, and torches; and yet through the whole camp of Midian, such was the state of terror, that “none of the men of might did find their hands.” There is no such thing possible as fighting against the mighty God of Jacob. There must have been some remarkable influence at work to have produced such a result as this.
II. In the use of the particular means employed. It was by one special cause that the issue was brought about—the rousing of the fears of the enemy to such an extent, as to paralyse all regular or orderly action. This was done in the simplest but most effective manner.
(1.) Gideon was directed to form, a plan fitted to produce the result. In this and all other steps he seems to have been Divinely guided. At this moment, all his movements seem to have been taken in hand by his God, for he was the instrument in God’s hand employed to carry out His designs; and though he was left a free agent, as at other times, there was yet an overruling of the workings of his mind, while forming his plans and purposes. There is, indeed, nothing supernatural in the plan itself, however much skill and natural shrewdness it may indicate. There was no violation of natural law.
The time chosen was the dead of night, when all was dark around, and when the whole camp was sunk in slumber. The place occupied was the heights around the camp, especially at three different points. To produce a hideous noise all round the camp at a moment’s notice while profound silence reigned, and to keep up that noise with the blare of 300 trumpets, was not only fitted to startle the sleepers, but to strike them with terror. The effect of this too would be vastly increased by the tossing of 300 burning torches in the air, right in view of those who were newly-awaked from their slumbers. To make use of such a moment for a fierce attack on the enemy by a handful of resolute men, was certain to throw them into hopeless confusion.
(2.) Divine support was given in carrying out this plan. The best laid schemes often prove abortive from not being well executed. Nerve is required; precision must be observed; circumstances must be anticipated. Here everything went right. There was unity in Gideon’s camp. There was the most perfect discipline. All were zealous for the cause, as the cause of God. All acted on religious principle, and there was more than natural courage. Much of the same spirit that rested on Gideon also rested on his followers. It was the Lord’s battle they were fighting, and He “sends none a warfare on their own charges.” He gives grace according to the day (Deuteronomy 33:26). There was no timidity in the face of a great danger. Not one was feeble in all the ranks of that little brave army. The tone of true courage was everywhere marked, and the Leader could count on every man doing his duty when the moment for action arrived.
(3.) The enemy’s feeling of security remained undisturbed. There are so many possibilities of information leaking out before the time, that one great danger of the plan miscarrying lay in the fear, that some hint might be given to the hostile army, that a desperate attempt was to be made to surprise them during the night. But the God of Providence so overruled matters, that no intelligence was carried to the ears of the Midianites of any such design. They would indeed be slow to listen to any such tale, so profound was their contempt for the prowess of the people, whom they had seven times trampled down in the most reckless manner. They did not believe in their capability of showing a formidable front to their oppressors. In this they were more than confirmed, when they saw first, how many thousands flocked to Gideon’s standard, and yet, in a few days, the great bulk of them began to return to their homes with as much haste as they had left them.
So do the enemies of the Church often imagine that all is over with the Church of God, when they see her cut down to the very roots, and no means of restoration are at hand. Thus did Ahab and Jezebel feel, when the prophets of the Lord were persecuted out of the land (1 Kings 18:4; 1 Kings 19:10). Doubtless, too, the chief priests and Pharisees felt sure that they had heard the last of Jesus of Nazareth, and that His cause was for ever extinguished, when they made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. The Church of Rome felt secure from all that Protestantism could do, when the famous proclamation was made from the Lateran Church, that now at last heresy was everywhere subdued, and that there were none that did even mutter or peep against the power that reigned supreme in the Imperial city.
(4.) A foundation was laid for filling the enemy’s mind with fears. The mighty deeds which had been done by Israel’s God at different periods, since the remarkable deliverance from Egyptian bondage, had made a profound impression on all the heathen nations, and however much they hated that God, a salutary fear of His hand was cherished by them all. On the present occasion it got rumoured, that that God was again about to appear on behalf of His people, and the Midianites appear to have heard of it. This is clearly implied in the case of the dream and the interpretation given of it, which Gideon heard in the outermost part of the camp of Midian. But as yet they slept securely, because no danger was visible. They felt, however, that danger was in the air, so that they were prepared to be struck with panic, when that dreadful name Jehovah was proclaimed over their heads in the darkness of night. Just as Jehovah looked through the cloud and troubled Pharaoh’s host, and took off their chariot wheels, so now He was beginning to produce a ground swell in the Midianitish heart, by the terrible suspicion that He had marked them out as the victims of His strong anger. Hence the power of the motto—The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon! All this was evidently of God.
(5.) The sudden alarm produced distracting thoughts. No instrument sounds so loudly as the trumpet; and here were 300 such instruments blowing from three different sides, making a noise sufficient to startle the heaviest sleeper, and fill him with terror. At the same moment, 300 empty pitchers were broken with clattering noise among the rocks, a noise, coming as it did so unexpectedly, sufficient to shake the firmest nerves. The two noises coming together, making such a volume of sound, and rending the midnight air in the most unaccountable manner, could hardly fail to produce a terrible panic among the vast multitude, who had given themselves over to the quiet and security of sleep. It added greatly to this effect, that there were 300 ominous lights flashing in the dark back ground, in three crescents, on different sides of the camp. All this was fitted to produce not only alarm, but consternation among persons suddenly awakened out of the dead sleep of night.
Yet, but for the overruling Providence of God, it might have proved a complete failure. The enemy’s camp did not all consist of women and children. A very large number, probably the majority, were fighting men. We hear of the chamushim (Judges 7:11) men not only armed, but arrayed in divisions, or quinquiped men—marshalled as an army in five divisions, the centre, two wings, the front and rear guard. This is suggestive of order and even discipline. Why should an organised army, that occupied the part of the camp nearest to Gideon, become all at once so penetrated with terror? Did they not know that the many followers, who at first had flocked to Gideon, had become literally scattered among the valleys and caves as before? And they knew of no other army in the field all round. Was it not fairly possible, or even probable, that after the first startling noise, knowing the above fact, their leaders would have sent messengers to ascertain the strength of the army on the heights, for they were themselves an almost innumerable host, and well able to meet in the field any ordinary army. When they had such a contempt for the people who fled before them like sheep, and hid themselves in dens, and caves, and rocky strongholds, why should they all at once become frantic with terror, and run in mad haste to escape the swords of that same people? It does seem as if there were a Divine ordering of the means used to bring out so disastrous an issue.
He who has all hearts in His hand made use of the means which Gideon employed to suggest dreadful thoughts to the minds of the enemy.
(a.) They imagined that a great army was just upon them. How it had been raised they knew not, but their eyes and ears told them it was there. Such an army looked like a dreadful apparition, a thing from the spirit world, a legion of spectres and weird demons, mysteriously raised, mysteriously armed, and possessed of mysterious powers. The effect on superstitious imaginations must have been electric. They fled as men would flee from a company of unearthly forms issuing from the pit of darkness.
(b.) They were afraid of the God of Gideon. That terrible sentence which sounded in their ears—“The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon” filled them with dismay, as they reflected that so great a God was about to repeat His mighty acts of the past, in raising all the elements of nature, and of the spirit world as well, to overwhelm his enemies. As the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for Jehovah fighteth for them against us,” so did the leaders of that doomed army say to each other; and so they thought of nothing but flight. They believed they were to be a mark for the arrows of the God of Israel.
(c.) The suspicion of treachery rose among them. They were a mixed company, several armies joined in one, the only link of union being their common hatred and contempt for the people of Israel (Psalms 83:5-12)—Amalekites, Moabites, Midianites, and Arabs. As no one knew how it was possible that a large army could rise up against them in a moment, the thought must have flashed across the minds of many—“there is treachery in the camp.” Some one or two of the races must have laid a plot to massacre all the rest, to secure the whole booty for themselves. Distrust thus arose among them, and we are told, “the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow.” A frightful slaughter of each other began. This demoralisation became complete, when they feared also that the supposed large army on the heights was already among them. In the pitch dark, and amid the utter confusion, every man took his neighbour for an enemy, and so smote him down. All the while the panic urged them instinctively to flight. Large numbers would be trodden down, beause they impeded the progress of those who were flying for their lives. Thus thousands on thousands would perish of the mutual slaughter, before the swords of the Israelites were among them.
Who does not see that the hand of the Lord was in all this, stirring up terror in every heart, and leading to a ruinous flight?
(6.) Pursuers sprung up on all sides with the morning light. When God deals with His own people for their sins, it is in chastisement, and He corrects in measure. But when He deals with His enemies for their sins, it is for their destruction. Thus it was now. Means are taken for the utter overthrow of the whole host, that had dared for seven years in succession to come up as spoilers of God’s heritage. Besides the 300, the 9700 who had been disbanded, and large numbers of the Israelites, north, west, and south, gather in swift and simultaneous concert to smite the common enemy. And the remarkable fact appears, that, whether it was that their flight was terribly obstructed by their families, their dromedaries, their luggage, and possessions of various sorts, or whether special facilities were furnished to the pursuers for coming up with them, it happened that eight parts out of nine of this multitudinous host perished before they could cross the Jordan! It is expressly stated that 120,000 men out of 135,000, fell on that fatal morning, of those that drew sword (ch. Judges 8:10). How many men of a different class there may have been, those who were purveyors, servants, cattle-drivers, etc., as also how many women and children, we are not informed, but the number must have been much larger. Possibly the entire army of human locusts that settled down on the rich pastures of Israel was not much short of half a million of persons! And now they all perished! “The sword of the Lord was drunk with their blood” (Jeremiah 46:12). Wicked men should fear to offend the great Jehovah (Zechariah 2:13; Psalms 2:12; Psalms 10:13; Psalms 76:5-10; Job 21:30; Job 22:21; Psalms 33:8; Isaiah 3:10-11).
II. A Picture of the Church’s Experience in every Age.
At all periods the church has been a mark for the rage of earth and hell. It is natural that Satan should do his utmost against an institution, whose purpose is to overturn his throne and destroy his kingdom. And it is natural that worldly men should have bitter hatred to that which condemns all their evil desires and cherished lusts, and insists on the practice of self-denial as a leading virtue. The forms of attack may change, the weapons used in the warfare may be greatly different, and the conditions may become greatly modified in different ages, but the warfare itself always goes on, the rancour of the world is still kept up, and the same malicious treatment is given, or is tried to be given, to the church now as was given to it in the days of the Midianitish invasion. He and we live, but at different periods of the same great contest. He fought to keep up the cause of God on the earth then, as we are called on still to propagate and maintain that cause under the form of the gospel of Christ, but with very different weapons.
For what is the picture of the church’s experience in these times?
1. She is still surrounded by enemies numerous as the sand on the sea-shore. If, indeed, there is no actual army with sword and spear, as in Gideon’s days, there is yet, even in so-called Christian lands, a vast multitude of persons who are inveterately opposed to the essence and spirit of christianity, and whose opposition to it appears in a variety of ways. If carnal weapons are no longer used, and if instruments of torture are laid aside—if Geshem, the Arabian, no longer lives, nor Sanballat, the Horonite, there is yet bitter offence taken at the Cross of Christ, which shows itself either in the open forms of infidelity; in attacks made on the Book of God; in endeavours to secularise the day of God, and to abolish the worship of God, and in sneering at those who profess the truth of God; or which shows itself in the more covert, but still more dangerous, form of perverting and falsifying the truth of God, of inventing a substitute for the gospel of Christ, of mixing it up with the traditions or philosophy of men, and, as far as possible, passing it by altogether. Indeed, every human heart, until regenerated by the Holy Spirit, is characterised by a spirit of enmity against God, and, except in so far as bridled by powerful moral restraints, is disposed to show a bitter Midianitish opposition to the church of God. Except those who have given themselves up to the belief and the sway of Christian truth, all men are more or less natural enemies to the church of God, and its high spiritual purpose.
2. The enemies are a heterogeneous confederation. First comes Science, with her lofty air and many tongues. In a very dogmatic manner she attacks the dogmas of the sacred book, forgetting that science itself consists almost wholly of dogmas. Proud of her acquisitions in useful knowledge, she asserts more peremptorily than ever, that the laws of nature as now discovered, tell a different tale from that which we have in the historical statements of the Scriptures. And in their extreme haste, a host of savans already proclaim, that Christianity has been reasoned off the stage. But the old rock keeps its place amid the lashings of the waves. Next comes Philosophy, boasting that it is in the track of some great discoveries, by which the doctrines of Christianity may be dissipated, and the supernatural element taken out of them, so that they will soon come under the proper control of human reason, and therefore become suited to human liking. Next rises up Criticism, which tells us there are ever so many discrepancies between what is now known outside the Scriptures to be true, philological, archæological, antiquarian, and otherwise, and the affirmations of the old volume itself.
Closer at hand we have all the schools of our modern Areopagus clamouring in our ears more insolently, and we might add, more discordantly still, than the groups of learned men on that hill of wisdom in Athens—the schools of Atheism, of Agnosticism, of Positivism, of Deism, Theism, Pantheism, of Rationalism, Naturalism, and Spiritualism, of Broad-Churchism, and Formalism—all of which ardently aim at getting quit, not of the beauties of the Bible, nor its good morality, nor its just, pure and lofty sentiments so much, as first its element of the supernatural; for that is felt to be terribly humbling to man’s pride of understanding, and puts him down to the footstool, when he would fain climb to the throne. They wish to get quit too of its inspiration and oracular authority; for that binds man to believe what he is taught by testimony, and makes his reason a subject, not a sovereign. It also suggests the idea of a Lord of the conscience. They wish to get quit too of the doctrine of human responsibility; for that makes conscience a troubled sea in the soul, at the thought that man will be judged for all his thoughts, words, and actions. Especially they wish to get quit of such a doctrine as human depravity; for that is reproachful to man’s character as a moral being, and sinks him to shame and contempt in the estimation of the morally pure and holy. They wish above all to blot out from the page of history, and if they could, from the page of human thought, the doctrine of the death of the Son of God being the suffering of a substitute endured to atone for the sins of men; for that is to intensify inconceivably the evil of sin, reveals the alarming condition of man’s prospect for the future, and proves his utter powerlessness to help himself in the terrible emergency.
All these enemies of the Christian Church want, in one word, to get quit of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, as being most distasteful to man’s unspiritual nature, and most humbling to his imperial and stubborn will. They would refit the Bible, or reconstruct it so as to make it speak in quite another tone. Intead of being governed by it, they would govern it, and transform it into a Book that would suit the convenience, and establish the glory of man.
3. The attacks are persistently made. The language used against the Book which contains the doctrines of Christianity was never more bold, we might say, audacious, than it has been during the present century. Formerly, it may have been more coarse, and ribald, when such men as Voltaire, Paine, Rochester, and Hume, poured their vile abuse on the good Book. Yet in this age, far more liberty of opinion is claimed than in any past epoch. Never was public opinion stronger, and never did liberty run so far in the direction of laxity. It has indeed become a rage—a passion. The pendulum has swung from the point of over-strictness, to that of over looseness. The result is, that never has there been such boldness in casting aside old forms of belief, and even the beliefs themselves. After so many failures, the attacks on the old Rock are still kept up, and with renewed confidence, it is defiantly asserted, that not only must Christianity moult, and change its garb, but, in these advancing times, must change in its very substance. Old ships, it is said, do not weather tempestuous seas so well as those of fresher build. So, many have taken to imagining, that the old vessel of Christianity will not hold out much longer amid the tremendous seas that are now lashing over her, but that she must soon go to pieces and become a total wreck. Others, who do not take this extreme view, yet think the time has come when the ship must be laid up in the dock, and undergo much refitting and reconstruction to prepare her for future service.
These attacks have been most numerous, most formidable, and most envenomed. They have come in on every side, and been made with united force. Notwithstanding all the falsification of past predictions respecting the defeat of Christianity, the opposition to it is as persistent to-day as ever it was in any previous age. But one thing is always strangely forgotten, that He who constructed this vessel is the same with the builder of heaven and earth, who holds the waters of human strife in the hollow of his hand, and without whose permission not a single ripple can rise or fall. The raging sea of human opinions may run mountains high, yet the little skiff which carries the Church of God cannot be swallowed up by the threatening element, while the Lord of the Church walks on the crest of the waves, able in a moment to still them at their wildest fury.
4. Every possible advantage is on the side of the enemy. Here the Church fights her battle with 300 against 135,000 men, or one man against 450. In the case of Jonathan, it was two men against many thousands. In the case of Samson, it was one man against several thousands. In the case of Joshua and his followers, it was one nation against many nations, for the Canaanites were really a cluster of separate kingdoms. There is a special purpose to be served by this arrangement. The Church of God, representing the cause of religious truth in this world, is far too mighty for error to stand before her when opposed on equal terms. Error, in such a case, could no more maintain its ground, than darkness could cope with the rays of the noonday sun. There could indeed be no battle at all, and all the moral purposes served by the prolonged opposition of the one to the other would come to an end.
Error needs all possible resources to help her. The subtleties of logic, the splendours of eloquence, powers of reasoning, and charms of literary accomplishment; while plain, unadorned straightforward statement stand on the other side. Erudition, philosophy and science plead her cause, poetry weaves for her a many-coloured robe of beauty, while fame puts a crown of gold on her head, gives a sceptre into her hand, blows the trumpet before her, and calls on the multitude to bend the knee at her name. But truth must stand alone, in humble garb, and mean attire, and with unsophisticated speech must plead her own cause. The world’s dread laugh and proud supercilious scorn she meets with showing her native majesty of mien and purity of tone. The cause of truth too is often most injudiciously handled by her defenders, they often fall out among themselves, and do irreparable mischief by their dissensions. But the advocates of error have generally been men of great mental grasp and profound scholarship. Truth in one word is placed at its weakest to contend with error at its strongest, that so a far more illustrious triumph may be gained in the end, than if the advantages enjoyed on either side had borne some proportion of equality to each other.
But there is not only inequality of advantage. Truth has always been exposed to the grossest misrepresentation, while her character and claims are miserably misunderstood. We see Christian truth perverted, parodied, mystified, and falsely accused. The whole treatment of the cross has been measured out anew to the truth of the cross—she has been betrayed and stabbed in secret, and mocked and vilified in open day. A whole army of detractors, scoffers, and calumniators have kept continually dogging her steps, until she might well say in the language of Him whose name is “The Truth,”—“Reproach hath broken my heart!”
5. The inherent power of Bible truth makes victory certain in the end. The little finger of truth is thicker than the loins of error. With that little finger she has gained world-renowned victories. “With the jaw of an ass she has slain a thousand men.” With the blowing of rams’ horns she has made the fortified cities of the enemy fall down flat. With sling and stone, in the hands of a stripling, she has felled to the earth the proud Goliath in the camp of her opponents. With a shepherd’s crook used by a fugitive herdsman, from the backside of the desert, she has routed the proud Pharaoh who opposed her, and found a watery grave in the great ocean for his huge bannered host. When Christian truth went out into the world to fight her way to victory, she was without learning, without caste, without wealth, and without a particle of influence in society. I see Paul and Barnabas, on their first missionary tour, going across the mountains of Pisidia, without armies and without arms, having no fame or prestige, with nothing but a good conscience within, the word of God in their hands, and their exalted Master looking down on them from the throne in the heavens. It was weakness employed to conquer strength, folly to confound wisdom.
I look again, and see the advocate of christianity surrounded by the learning and culture of the world, and treated with derision and scorn. “What will this babbler say?” pitched the key-note of the obloquy which Mars Hill thought fit to pour on the doctrine of the cross! The wise of this world thought it too much honour to give it a hearing at all! Again I see him a prisoner, answering for himself before men who were strangers to pity, and but capriciously acquainted with justice, yet through the simple force of truth, he causes his judge to tremble on the seat of power, and constrains royalty itself to exclaim, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a christian!” Once more, I see him within the gloomy walls of the martyr’s dungeon, with life and all that men count dear behind, and with the dreary horrors of a barbarous death before him—alone, unbefriended, unsuccoured, he is yet the happiest man in Rome! Among the millions within her wide walls, not another heart is so buoyant with hope, so lifted up with joy. Nor need we wonder. His prospects at that moment were brighter than those of any other man on earth. That dark and cheerless cell was his last resting-place on earth. Soon his feet should stand within the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem. one of the loftiest seats around the throne should soon be his. one of the sweetest songs in the land of bliss should soon be raised by him. As he thought of this, his afflictions became light, and lighter still, until he felt them not at all. He would not, at that moment, have exchanged his position with that of him who sat on the throne of the world. Nero was wretched! Paul the prisoner was filled with joy unspeakable! Terrors reigned in the soul of the tyrant! A peace passing all understanding possessed the mind of his captive! He that stood on the summit of earthly greatness was afraid of all around him—afraid even of himself! His unprotected prisoner, awaiting a violent death, stood undaunted amid the rage of earth and of hell!
6. Hope for Christian Missions everywhere. This does not admit of doubt for a single moment, when the attitude of Christian Truth to Error is understood. The reason why universal success has not been attained long since, is not because the resources of that Truth are not equal to the occasion. But there has been a holding back of the real power which it possesses. Not the one-hundredth part of its resources has been called forth; and so, many fall into the mistake, that it may yet die out and be overcome. This mistake is all the more easily made, that opposing systems are usually so demonstrative of their apparent successes, and so pretentious and confident as to what they will be able to accomplish in the future. Hence it is inferred, that the two forces are not unequally matched, or that the one at least bears some proportion to the other; so that some doubt must be held to rest over the final result. In reality, Error, whatever form it may assume, has in itself no power at all to contend with Christian Truth, any more than dark clouds have power to prevent the rising of the sun, or than men have power to contend with the silent irresistible strength of a law of nature.
(1.) Christian Truth lays its hand on the supreme powers of a man’s nature—his conscience, that mysterious faculty whose volcanic force when awakened creates greater disturbance in the soul than all other causes combined; his will, that kingly faculty which decrees with the force of a Medes and Persians law what the man is to do; his desires and affections, which like a helm turn the soul in whatever direction they are pleased to take. All the secret springs of a man’s moral nature are touched by this Truth, and it is too mighty to be shaken off.
(2.) This truth is no product of earth. No soil, East or West, of this barren world could produce such a plant. The Everlasting Father Himself did plant it. Long before the cycles of Time began to revolve, this Mighty Truth was with God, and that which had its birth in Eternity cannot perish among the rocks and the wildernesses of Time.
(3.) This truth is a system of facts. It contains the history of persons that lived, and of events that occurred—“things seen and heard.” The theories of philosophers are nebulous; their schemes are fancies or day-dreams, and however beautiful, necessarily pass away. Their propositions are often mere abstractions which cannot be realised in every-day life. No entire system of truth, at once plain, full of substance, and adapted to man’s practical needs all round, has ever been presented to the world but Christianity. Hence its power to live. It has life in itself, and it has power to give life to others. Thus it can stand the tear and wear of time for many generations.
(4.) This truth is an instrument in the hand of the Supreme Ruler. This all-important fact must never be forgotten. The power of Christianity does not consist merely in its being what it is, but in its being wielded by Him who has all power in heaven and earth to accomplish the high purposes of His will. “It is mighty through God to the pulling down,” etc. (see John 17:2; Mark 16:20). He has but to “pour out His Spirit, and the wilderness should become as the fruitful field.” Every day would be as the day of Pentecost, until the whole world should spiritually bloom in every part like a second Eden.
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS.—Judges 7:15-25
I. The great men of the Bible are its good men.
Judged by his deeds, and the spirit in which he performed them, none will refuse to Gideon the epithet of great. Yet on analysing the elements of his character, we do not so much emphasize his great daring, his heroic spirit, his shrewdness and skill, nor even his disinterested devotion to his country. It is rather his zeal for the cause of his God, his sorrow that the Church of God should be trodden down by the unhallowed foot of the alien, and that the name of his God should be every day blasphemed, on the one hand, that form the noblest features of his character, while on the other hand, he holds himself ready at the Divine call to perform a humanly impossible task, at every risk to his own interests, to retrieve the dishonour done to the Divine name, and all on the basis of the trust he has in the God who made Himself over to Israel to be their God. It was by his faith that he became great (Hebrews 11:2; Hebrews 11:32, etc.), and that marks him out equally as a man of piety. But for his faith, he never had subdued so effectually the mighty army of the desert and annihilated their numerous hordes. It was not natural courage or skill in disposing his little army, or indomitable patriotism that gained him such signal success, though these were all in exercise, but his faith in his God—trusting in His character and relying on His promises, that earned him his high distinction.
But for the connection, into which true faith brings a man with his God, his deeds, and his very existence, are at the best an ephemeral phantom, an airy nothing, which soon evaporates, not to be heard of more in the ages to come. But the touch of Divinity creates around a man an immortal memory, and His name cannot drop into oblivion. Hence this book of Judges cannot be classed with other records, which relate the deeds of martial prowess performed by the heroes of olden times, for in these, we merely see the natural qualities which belong to the heroes themselves, and are entirely of an inferior category to that faith and love that zeal and self-denial, which link the soul to its God.
II. The great value of a single good man to the age in which he lives.
A single good man placed in the foreground gives a character to the whole generation to which he belongs. When the moon goes down, were all the stars of first magnitude abstracted from the sky of night, what a miserable appearance would that sky present when shorn of its brightest beauties! And how tame would this book read without the four or five names of its men of faith! These redeem it from being a dull heavy record, and throw a splendour over the page which makes it shine with lustre to latest ages. There is something of God about such men, for it is not their own glory that shines, as they freely confess by the fact that they live and do all by faith. It is truest philosophy this faith, as well as the purest piety. It is the unit confessing itself nothing before the Universal, the finite laying hold of the infinite, the drop losing itself in the ocean! It is the little child confessing its feebleness and its foolishness, in the presence of the Possessor of boundless power and unsearchable wisdom. It is the humble heart opening itself out before the fountain to receive promised blessings, with the view of returning these blessings again in songs of gratitude and praise. Thus it is always God that is really glorified, the creature confessing it has nothing but what it receives, and reflecting as a mirror all the glory that falls upon it from the infinite source.
The good man having God with him is ever invincible. The very heavens bend before the prayers of Elijah. He is felt to be a greater power in the land than Ahab and Jezebel. In that heyday of idolatry, a louder protest was uttered against the worship of false gods, through the instrumentality of that single man, than had been known for ages in the history of Israel. But for him, though standing alone, even Carmel would have been submerged by the rising tide of idolatry. Who does not see that but for Barak and Gideon in their respective periods, the whole history of Israel would have come to a miserable termination ere it had half run its expected course. Truly are they called the “saviours” of their people, as God’s instruments raised up by Him for this purpose (Nehemiah 9:27).
Over the whole of Old Testament times, if you subtract some twenty names the value of history sinks down by fifty per cent, Not that these were the only actors. But common men could not have taken their place, and these inspired common men with confidence in their power to lead, and their Divine commission to lead others, so that they formed rallying points for large numbers acting in unity. However much a man may excel his fellows in intellect, and fortitude, and general resources, he must always find it wise to have many co-workers with him in doing a great work, unless when specially directed and assisted by his God. The great Napoleon gave it as one of the principles of his tactics, “I have always tried to march so as to have a million of men in sympathy with me.” Often however the great men of the Bible were employed by God to do His work with but few followers, for He himself went with them, and His presence counted for a thousand armies.
III. God’s severity in the day of reckoning.
This in any barsh sense is more apparent than real. It was a frightful destruction of human life that took place when the whole of that huge host were slaughtered, leaving none, or only a few stragglers, to return to their country to tell the tale. It was very nearly the annihilation of a race from off the earth. Many hold up their hands and utter exclamations of horror at such terrible cruelties being perpetrated in the name of God. Yet they cannot account for it by setting it down to the barbarity of the times. For it was really done by God’s own direction. The truth is that, in judging of God’s doings, men forget the extremely offensive character of the sin which draws down the punishment, the length of time during which the sin has been going on, and the warnings and expostulations used by God with the wicked to forsake their ways. Were these men, who profess to be so humane and pitiful, while they look on so awful a destruction, to receive themselves one-tenth part of the offence which these heathen nations gave to the true God, they would, without doubt, smite down, and not spare, every man who should dare to act so wicked a part, and would wonder if any should cry out for mercy to their victims.
But the great Jehovah punishes not like man. He is indeed strict to mark iniquity and “every disobedience and transgression receives a due recompense of reward.” But it is not from uncontrollable feelings of what men call passion and revenge that He acts in any case. To such feelings the Divine bosom is an absolute stranger. God knows nothing as a Moral Governor but the calm and just administration of law. It is justice alone with which He is concerned when punishing the wicked, not the gratification of any vindictive feelings towards the transgressors. Anything vindictive is an impossibility to the nature of God. If such language is sometimes used in Scripture it is only as a figure of speech, when His acts have the appearance to men’s eyes of being vindictive. But nothing more is given to the vilest criminal than the due desert of his sin. Men, however, strangely underrate that desert, and there is all the mystery.
These Midianites had heard of the mighty God of Israel in the past. The deeds which He did on behalf of His people were before the eyes of all the nations, and they ought to have known it was a wicked and dangerous thing to tamper with such a people and their God. If they knew but little, they ought to have made themselves better acquainted with the great Jehovah, for God never rejected heathen inquirers. Yet, knowing the character of this God to be different and immeasurably superior to all gods, they dared to spoil His heritage and to blaspheme His name. Hence their punishments.
IV. God’s complete control over all the states and moods of men’s minds.
It was He that led these enemies of His people to imagine themselves to be surrounded in a moment with so many unexpected evils—a large army close at hand, the wrath of Jehovah gone out against them in some terrible manner, and treachery sprung up in the midst of their own camp. So true is it, that by the mere force of terrible thoughts, God can bring destructive judgments upon men.
How in a moment, suddenly,
To ruin brought are they!
With fearful terrors utterly,
They are consum’d away.
A similar calamity of terrible imaginations was the means of routing a large army of enemies in one of Israel’s evil days (2 Kings 7:6). God’s access to the world of a man’s thoughts is abundantly set forth in the 139th Psalm; for He who made the human mind must know it in the fullest manner, just as the maker of any machine must know intimately all its parts, and all its capabilities of movement.
Millions of thoughts pass through a man’s mind almost every day. Yet not one escapes the eye of God! Sometimes the mind feels oppressed with the number of its own thoughts, but cannot reduce the number. Yet there is an antidote. “In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.” These thoughts come often unbidden, rushing like a river through the soul.
“Thoughts on thoughts, a countless throng,
Rush, chasing countless thoughts along.”
These may be all pleasant and refreshing, filling the heart with joy, and spreading the bow of hope over the horizon of the future, as in the case of the two sweet singers in Psalms 73:23-26, and Psalms 139:17-18, also Psalms 104:34. Or these thoughts may be all gloomy and dreadful, full of foreboding fears and disastrous issues, so that a man may be reduced to the extremity of trouble and be led to cry out, “O save me from my thoughts! for thought kills me.” In the midst of peace and plenty God can sometimes make a wicked man feel the beginnings of future woes by causing “terrible thoughts take hold on him as waters,” and surround him on every side; as in the case of Nero, of Voltaire, of Paine, of the French Monarch, who ordered the St. Bartholomew massacre, and many others.
God has a mighty army to attack a man from within, as well as many forces to set in array against him from without. He can also give comfort against all grief on every side by the character of the thoughts which He makes to pass through the mind on any and every occasion.
V. God’s dealings always end with tender compassion for His own people.
They may have sinned long against much light, and in the face of much solemn warning and expostulation. Yet He cannot cast away His own. They are His blood-bought property—redeemed at a great price. They are sprinkled with the precious blood of atonement, and though He was angry with them, His anger is turned away, and He uses the language of peace and reconciliation; He forgives their iniquities, and their sins He remembers no more. This people, who had sinned so much, and were ever rebelling against Him, He could not forget were the same people whom He had brought out of Egypt with a high hand, and whom He had graciously been pleased to take into covenant with Himself, and to call Himself by the name of their God. Hence it was for the glory of His unchangeableness, that they should always be loved (Jeremiah 31:3.) He would show by their history, though it was of a character entirely offensive to His holy nature, that while he might chastise them severely for their manifold backslidings, the mountains were less firm in their places than His pledged love to those whom he had by a fixed agreement taken into tender relations with Himself (Isaiah 54:10.) Indeed, one great purpose he had in view, when electing this people to be for ever His own, was to show how far His love could go, and how tenderly it could manifest itself under the most testing circumstances. Through His dealings with this people, He takes every opportunity of revealing His glorious perfections, the riches of His mercy, the hidings of His power, the depths of His wisdom, the tenderness of His compassion, and the inviolability of His truth and faithfulness (Ezekiel 36:32; Isaiah 43:21.)