Tag Archives: Judges 4-6

March 21, 2024 Bible Study — Not All of Us Are Called to Be Gideon, Some of Us Are Called to Inspire Him to Act

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 4-6.

I was going to write about Deborah and Barak, but then I noticed something about the story of Gideon that we do not often pay any attention.  After the story of Deborah, Jael, and Barak, the writer tells us that the people of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and that they were oppressed by the Midianites for seven years.  As a result they called out to the Lord for help.  Then the writer goes into the account of Gideon, as he did for previous judges.  But before going into the account of Gideon the writer tells us that God sent a prophet who reminded the people about what God had done for their ancestors and about how they had failed to be faithful.

Now, why is that important?  Because, I believe, Gideon had heard that prophet and listening to him had led him to ask the questions he first asked when the angel came to him.  I imagine Gideon having the following conversation with a friend who also loved the Lord, or possibly even that prophet:
Gideon: “If the Lord is with us, why did this happen to us?  Where are the wonders that our ancestors told us about?”
Friend: “Because our people worship Baal, and other gods of our heathen neighbors.”
Gideon: “Well, I don’t and you don’t.  Why does God let us suffer?”
Friend: “Well what have you done about the idolatry?  Your own father has an altar to Baal!”
Gideon” “But my father thinks I’m just a boy, he won’t listen to me!”

I imagine that conversation going on regularly, interspersed with Gideon crying out to God, until God sent His messenger.  So, maybe we aren’t called to be Gideon, maybe we are called to be that prophet (or Gideon’s friend, who egged him on).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

March 21, 2023 Bible Study — If God Has Called You To Do A Task, You Will Be Able To Do That Task

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 4-6.

After the death of Ehud, while Deborah was the judge of final appeal over all of Israel, the Israelites once again turned away from God.  Which tells us that even with a leader over the people, they sometimes refused to hold one another accountable.  One might conjecture that this happened because Deborah was a woman, and thus not a strong enough leader.  However, the context of the passage does not support that conclusion.  When Deborah told Barak to gather men and attack Sisera, he agreed to do so only on the condition that she accompany him.  If she was a strong enough leader that Barak wanted her presence when he went to war, her “weakness” as a woman was not the reason for Israel falling away from God.  In fact, despite the writers of the books of the Old Testament which record the history of Israel focusing on the importance of the righteousness, or lack thereof, among Israel’s leaders, reading those books leads one to conclude that the presence of good leaders reflected the desire of the people to serve God rather than the other way around.  I would also like to note that Deborah’s response to Barak’s condition suggests that if Barak had been willing to do what Deborah told him without her going with him we would not know who Deborah was and Barak would be one of the judges recorded in this book.

The Song of Deborah which is recorded here as being the victory song which Deborah and Barak sang after the death of Sisera puts a somewhat different light on events than the account given before that.  The first thing I want to note is that the song mentions Shamgar, who was mentioned in passing at the end of Chapter 3 as someone who had saved Israel.  The song suggests that Deborah and Barak lived at about the same time as Shamgar.  Perhaps, the king of Hazor, to whom Sisera owed fealty, was oppressing the Israelites from the Northeast while the Philistines were doing so from the Southwest.  But I wanted to focus on from the song is the repeated references to the Israelites not being willing to defend themselves until Deborah arose.  Then comes the line which I want to highlight, “until I arose, a mother in Israel.”  Deborah was a mother who had had enough.  As I read this song, she shamed the men of Israel into standing up for their countryfolk.  Perhaps “shamed” is the wrong word, she motivated them to do so.  The point I want to make here is that although God usually calls a man to fill the leadership role when He calls His people back to Him, He will use a woman in that role when it suits His purposes.  Or to put it another way, just because God usually calls a certain type of person for a particular role does not mean that He has not called you for that role.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

March 21, 2022 Bible Study — Tearing Down The Altars To Other Gods

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 4-6.

A month or so back I had trouble reaching the “The Bible.net” website to get my passage for the day, so I started copying it from last year’s post.  Which means that I see the “headline” I gave the post and that influences my thinking about the passage.  I have yet to decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I love the story of Gideon because there is so much there.  As a result, we rarely pay attention to the beginning of his story.  Gideon’s story begins with the preaching of a prophet who is never named.  That prophet called the Israelites to put aside their idols and return to worship of the Lord.  The context of the story leads me to believe that it was this prophet who made Gideon open to the message from the angel.  Before I write my next thoughts I want to point out that the Hebrew word translated as “angel” means “messenger”.  So, I sometimes wonder if Gideon had felt called by that prophet and began talking about how if the Israelites would only turn back to God, God would perform mighty deeds for them.  Then, one time when he was going on one of his rants, a friend of his, presented here as a “messenger of God”, challenged him to act on what he claimed to believe.  Or maybe his friend was the one who was inspired by the prophet and went on rants, telling Gideon he should act.  Perhaps the “angel” was indeed a supernatural messenger as one would conclude with a casual reading of this passage.  I created that scenario because, while I believe that sometimes God sends supernatural messengers to deliver His messages, I know that sometimes God’s messengers are ordinary people (well, OK, not ordinary in that moment, but not supernatural, or necessarily someone who stands out as righteous).

That last paragraph concluded with an important point, but that’s not where I was going.  When Gideon felt God’s call, he started out local.  He did not start out by raising an army to drive the foreign oppressors out of the land.  He started out by calling his family, friends, and neighbors to stop worshiping Baal and return to worshiping God.  Gideon started in his backyard with the people who knew him best and called Israel to give up its idolatry and return to worshiping God.  It was only after they did so, that God called Gideon to drive out those oppressing the people.  Today people are crying out because of the terrible things going on.  The answer is not to mount a political movement to change our government, although that may come later.  Step one is to mount a spiritual movement by tearing down the altars at which we worship “gods” other than God.  For most of us those altars are in our hearts, not physical manifestations, but there are physical manifestations as well.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

March 21, 2021 Bible Study Comparing Gideon to Barak

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 4-6.

As I mentioned yesterday, early Israel was governed much the way in which libertarians imagine that government should work.  Today’s passage illustrates this.  For all intents and purposes, Deborah was the ruler over Israel at this time, but she did not command any troops.  She ruled by virtue of the fact that the people of Israel trusted her decisions and came to her to settle disputes among them.  She was someone blessed by God with the ability to make good decisions.  The passage does not tell us how she knew to do so, but in God’s name she ordered Barak to take men from Zebulun and Napthali and confront Sisera, who was commanding the army oppressing the Israelites at the time.  Barak was unwilling to do so unless she went with him.  Deborah’s response suggests that if Barak had not insisted on her going with him, he would have been on this list as one of the judges, instead of merely as a war commander.  This tells us two things.  First, that Deborah was probably not unique in being a woman who led the Israelites.  In the cases of the other women, there was either no major battle fought while they led the nation, or the war commander they called upon to act did so without asking them to go to war with them.  Second, if Barak had been willing to take Deborah’s instruction and go to war without her, he would likely have become the leader of Israel after the defeat of Sisera.

We often miss an important aspect of the story of Gideon.  The passage almost glosses over it, but before it introduces us to Gideon it tells us that a prophet arose among the Israelites.  The prophet called upon the people to repent of their sin and return to worshiping God.  Gideon did not act in a vacuum.  There was already a revival occurring in Israel when God spoke to Gideon.  If you look at the history of great changes in history, almost always there had been a revival before the point typically identified as the beginning of the change.  Perhaps the prophet mentioned here was to Gideon as Deborah was to Barak, except that Gideon was willing to lead without leaning on him as a crutch (it is worth noting that this prophet, who was almost certainly a man, appears to have had the role which Deborah would have had if Barak had been willing to go to war without her).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

March 21, 2020 Bible Study — We Do Not Always See the Important Contributions Women Make

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 4-6.

The story of Gideon in today’s passage contains a lot of things for us to learn from.  As a result, I generally write about that rather than about Deborah.  However, despite not containing as many inspirational points as the story of Gideon, the story of Deborah told here contains some very important things.  I love how the story of Deborah shows us that women can, and do, play just as critical of a role in God’s plans as men do.  In this story we have Jael.  Jael was called on to fill a critical role in this story because Barak was unwilling to lead the Israelite army against Sisera without Deborah there to hold his hand.  In fact, it seems likely that we may never have heard of either Jael or Deborah if Barak had been willing to assume a true leadership role when Deborah gave him God’s instructions.  That does not mean that Deborah would not have played an important role in that case.  What it means is that there are probably many other women who played a role similar to Deborah’s of whom we have never heard because the man she spoke to stepped up and fulfilled the leadership role for which God intended him.  I am sure there are also many men who filled a similar role to Deborah’s.  However, we are not as tempted to dismiss the role men play in important events.

May 21, 2019 Bible Study — Confirmation of God’s Calling And Starting At the Right Place

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 4-6.

We see today the theme of the Book of Judges:

  • “The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight.”
  • “So, the Lord handed them over to XXX.”
  • “Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.”
  • The Lord sent a judge to rescue them.

The wording is not always the same, but the theme repeats.  To a degree we see this same pattern occur throughout history.  One or more generations of a people live upright, moral lives.  They attain wealth, and perhaps power. Life is good for them and their children.  A succeeding generation abuses their wealth and power, does evil.  That generation and their children fall on hard times.   If those succeeding generations turn back to God, things become good once more.  If they do not, that people disappears from history.   The funny thing is how people who can see this pattern fail to learn from it.

I have always loved the story of Gideon.  He saw the situation his people were in.  He thought he knew what needed to be done and felt called by God to do it.  But he lacked confidence and asked God to provide him with confirmation of what he believed to be true.  I can relate to that about Gideon.  I struggle with having the confidence to do that to which I believe God is calling me.  This passage tells me that it is OK to ask God to give us confirmation of His calling.  We often overlook an important lesson in Gideon’s story.  Before he went to battle to relieve them from their enemies, he destroyed their idols and led them back to worshiping God.  The first step in overcoming our problems in life is twofold. Turn away from the false gods we worship, the sins we rely upon, and turn to God.  We cannot defeat our “enemies” until we faithfully serve God.

March 21, 2018 Bible Study — Step One: Destroy the Idols In Our Own Lives

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 4-6.

    Deborah is the only woman listed as one of the judges. However, I do not believe that means that she was the only woman judge during this time. As I read the Book of Judges, there were more judges than just those it mentions. Today as I was reading I thought about the fact that Barak must have been a military leader of some note. How else would he have been able to raise an army of 10,000 men? We are given no information about how he gained that reputation. IF Barak had been willing to take on Sisera without Deborah there to advise him, we might not even know her name. Some might think it is unfair that Barak does not get more credit for the defeat of Sisera. However, Sisera was a good general and if he had survived the day he would have rebuilt his army, and, having learned from his mistake, overcome the Israelite army on another occasion . If not for Jael, Sisera would have gotten away from Barak.

    I always love reading the story of Gideon because there are so many lessons for those who have been called to serve God (which is all of us). For the purpose of today’s blog entry I am going to pretend that the angel mentioned in this passage is purely an allegory because it is easier to see how Gideon’s thoughts apply to us that way, not because I believe that to be the case. It seems likely that Gideon had heard the prophet who said that the Children of Israel had not listened to God. Nevertheless he also believed that God was with them, as God had promised He would be to Gideon’s ancestors. If these two things were true, what did he, Gideon, need to do in order to not be one of those who had not listened to God? The answer was to destroy the place where his own family worshiped idols, desecrating it as a place for such worship while consecrating it to the worship of God. Gideon’s first act when he received his call from God was to destroy the idols which he himself, and his family, worshiped. Dedicating himself to worship God alone.

March 21, 2017 Bible Study — The Importance of Leadership

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 4-6.

    The Canaanite king Jabin was able to oppress the Israelites because of the military ability of his commander Sisera and the technological advantage of his chariots. Reading this story we see that there was one other factor which was key to their success, the lack of leadership among the Israelites. When God sent a message to Barak through Deborah to gather an army and fight against Sisera, Barak was unwilling to do so unless Deborah went with him to battle. We do not know why Barak insisted on Deborah accompanying him, but with her present to bolster his confidence and with God on their side the Israelites won an overwhelming victory. When we look at the battle, Sisera’s key force was his 900 chariots, Barak’s was 10,000 warriors. We do not have a record of how many more warriors Sisera had beside those on the chariots (although I suspect that he had two for each chariot, a driver and a fighter, and that was all he had). Barak maneuvered Sisera into a place where he was able to use his numerical advantage to neutralize the mobility which the chariots gave Sisera. This victory was one which the Israelites could have had at any time during the 20 years which Sisera helped his king oppress them. They just needed a leader to lead them.

    When God called Gideon to take leadership and rescue the Israelites the first thing He called Gideon to do was take spiritual leadership. The situation also illustrates the problem the Israelites had. They had not followed Joshua’s advice that they needed to choose a moral tradition to follow as a people. Some of the Israelites worshiped Baal and Asherah, some worshiped God. Gideon’s first step in leading the Israelites to freedom from their oppressors was to lead them to a renewed commitment to worshiping God. He did this by destroying those things which they were worshiping in place of God. Any of us called to lead God’s people are called to a similar mission. We must identify those things which God’s people are allowing to distract from doing God’s will and destroy them.

March 21, 2016 Bible Study — Deborah, Barak, and Gideon

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 4-6.

    This passage shows us that the Judges of Israel were not always military leaders. Deborah was a prophet and judge of Israel. When declared to her that it was time to overthrow the forces oppressing the Israelites, she sent word to Barak, a military leader of the people. It seems likely that if Barak had not been afraid to go into battle without the prophetess along that we would not have heard of Deborah (that, by the way, does not mean that her significance would have been any less). I would also like to point out that I am not suggesting that Barak was a coward. One thing that I want to make clear, Barak did not do anything wrong in this story. However, because he insisted on having Deborah with him when he went into battle, he did not get credit for the victory.

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    NExt we have the story of the call of Gideon. I am convinced that Gideon had been among those calling on the Lord for help. It strikes me that he was likely troubled by the way in which his fellow Israelites worshiped idols. As I have been reading the Bible more and more, I have become convinced that the average Israelite did not see a distinction between God and Baal. They believed that the people worshiping Baal were worshiping the same God as they were. They understood that the methods of worship were different and that some of the practices which were followed were different, but they believed they were all worshiping the same god. They even recognized that some of the practices which the Baal worshipers followed were wrong, but even then they believed them to be merely misguided, not serving a different god. From time to time, a leader would rise up who would call the Israelites to a purer worship of God. A leader who would show them the distinction between Baal and Yahweh. Gideon was one such leader. He did not start out as a military leader doing battle against the oppressors of Israel. He started out as a religious leader calling for a rejection of idolatry and faithful worship of God. This is an important reminder for us. Reclaiming our land for God starts with being more faithful in worshiping Him.