A Woman And A Nail
Judges 3-5
For 18 years the Israelites had served Eglon, the wicked king of Moab. Then Ehud, a man that the Lord had raised up to save the Children of Israel, killed Eglon.
Eglon is the only person in the Bible who is described as being “very fat.”
Ehud was the second judge of Israel, a Benjamite and a left handed man who wore a dagger on his right thigh.
After Ehud killed Eglon, the Land enjoyed peace for 80 years; however, “When Ehud was dead the Children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.”
And those were the days when everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Although, the Lord had delivered Israel on several occasions, they had gone back to doing evil.
They had gotten careless and sinful again;
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King Jabin’s commander in chief was General Sisera who led the Canaanite army of perhaps 100,000 soldiers. We do know that he had 900 chariots of Iron; instruments of war, which were manned by skilled soldiers.
Just at that time there was a woman judge in Israel. She was the 4th of the judges (or 5th if Gideon was a judge) her name was Deborah. God had raised her up to do His will. To be a spokeswoman to the Children of Israel; to relay top them the Word of God.
God sent a message by Deborah, to Barak, an Israelite man. Barak was to raise an army from among the Israelites and wage war against the Canaanites.
Even though God had promised to go with them and assured Barak of a victory, he was afraid to go, for he was certain there was no way that his army could defeat Sisera’s warriors, but Deborah reminded him that it was God’s will for him to go.
So, he told Deborah that he would go; only if she would go with him. Deborah agreed to go with him, but she told him that since he would not do God’s Will completely as He commanded, he would not receive the honor of defeating Sisera; that would go to a woman..
Barak raised an army of 10,000 men who marched toward Sisera’s army as The Lord instructed.
The Israelites soldiers were outnumbered and they had no means of withstanding Sisera’s 900 chariots of iron. They were really outnumbered. But God gave the victory.
However, Barak’s army, which was made up of Israelite men from
people and created the state of Israel. This was not accepted well by either group of people. The
Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did Hashem let us get defeat ? Let us bring the ark of Hasham covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us of our enemies.”
The theological message of Judges revolves around a faithful God and a rebellious people. God, in His faithfulness as Divine Judge, will judge His covenant people Israel after they disregard their covenant obligations and then offer them deliverance once they demonstrate repentance. In spite of her privileged position as God’s chosen people, Israel decided to
Nevertheless, God chose Gideon as a judge. An angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that God was with him (v. 11-12). Gideon, however, doubted this and said that God had forsaken the Israelites (v. 13). Despite his doubt, God told Gideon that he would be the one to deliver Israel (v. 14). He voiced his reservations because of his family’s poverty and status, but God reassured him that he would deliver Israel (v. 15-16). Gideon then wanted a sign that it was truly God promising this (v. 17-18). Gideon prepared some items and brought it back to the angel (v. 19). After pouring out the items on a rock, the angel touched it with his staff and a fire rose up from it (v. 20-21).
On the way from the Wilderness of Sin to Horeb, Joshua was given command of the army at Rephidim. The Amalekites were a desert tribe that attacked the Israelites and tried to drive them away. The battle was long and lasted until sunset. Their victory varied upon when Moses raised his arms or lowered them. Aaron and Hur supported Moses throughout the day. They won the battle and a curse and extermination was sentenced to Amalek.
First, the earlier form of government was the confederation of the Israelite tribes. The Israelites believe that they could what they believe was right and worship just Yahweh. “11Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Elohim and worshiped the Baals; 12and they abandoned the Elohim, the Yahweh of their ancestors, who brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the Elohim to anger. (Judges2:11- 12n)” When they acted in such a disobedience way, the following three things followed in a divine punishment, which led to repentance and finally deliverance . The Judge was involved in the process of deliverance.
- According to the historians the role of Yahweh in the judges was the cause of problems Israelites had because they has abandoned Yahweh to worship Baal. Faithfulness and loyalty to Yahweh was rewarded with success for the Israelites, and forgetfulness o Yahweh was punished with failure. Yahweh was looked at as a god of the fathers during the period of Judges. In the eyes of Yahweh the Israelites acted wickedly, abandoning him, which angered him. Yahweh seems to be a part of Deuteronomy cycle, where the Israelites turn away from Yahweh an enemy oppresses Israel so that Israel cries for help and Yahweh sends a judge to deliver Israel.
24-25). They returned to the tabernacle and wept, fasted, and offered sacrifices there (v. 26). With the Ark present during this time, Phinehas asked God what to do next. God replied that tomorrow, Benjamin would be delivered into their hand (v. 27-28). Israel proceeded to set up an ambush around Gibeah, and they drew out the Benjamites, killing twenty-five thousand one hundred of them (v. 29-35). The Israelites managed to achieve victory because of their ambush tactic (v. 36).
Joshua was excited and eager to show God his desire to complete the task of conquering the Promised Land. He sent some men to spy out the land of Ai. The commanders, full of enthusiasm over their battle at Jericho, recommended that they send only two or three thousand men. He agreed and the army left.
The strength of Sisera, which shown previously, “…for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years”(Judges 4:3), had gone, and furthermore, he fell into the scope of the woman’s power, which might be mother-like, “So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him”(Judges 4:19), but still powerful. By luring Sisera and giving sense of security, Jael fully utilized female strength to defeat the masculine power and get the confidence from Sisera. The narrative of Jael’s action is so detailed, “…took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple” (Judges 4:21). The narrative of killing has not finished there, even though her action is done, “…until it went down into the ground---he was lying fast asleep from weariness---and he died.” The
Deborah has a great yield of influence over the men in her story. Deborah is a judge and she is the only judge who performs judicial actions in the book of Judges. To begin with, Deborah already holds great power as she is a prophetess. But, when Barak comes to her to ask for help in the war, she declares that Barak, or no man, will attain glory for the victory, yet a woman. Her influence grows throughout the story after Barak asks her to come with him to battle, even though without her, there will be a favorable outcome.
Branson notes that “His Response was to all the Midianites to oppress them for seven years. ”(Branson, 90) The oppression of the Israelites at this time was so strong that it forced them to hide in caves and in fortified areas. The Midianites’ path of destruction was extensive and took the land by storm. They utilized the use of camels for transportation “providing them elements of surprise and shock and battle.”
He gave each man a ram’s horn in the right hand and a clay jar with a torch inside in the left hand. They split into three groups surrounding the camp and as soon as Gideon started to blow into the horn, the rest of the army did so as well. The Midianites in the camp woke up to the loud noise of the horns and they started running all around their camp. Gideon’s army they threw their jars causing the fire to spread and they were shouting “For the LORD and for Gideon” and “A sword for the LORD and Gideon”. With all of the confusion in the camp, the Midianites started to kill each other thinking that the other was the enemy.
Arad was a Canaanite King who attacked the children of Israel, when he heard that they were coming by the way of Atharim towards his land, when they journey from Egypt, he fought against Israel, and took some of them as prisoners. After these Canaanite king had some of God’s people captive, that Israel vowed a vow to the Lord, and said, if thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. The Lord hearkened to the voice of the Israel, and gave over King Arad and his Canaanite kingdom into the hand of Israel that they utterly destroyed them and their cities (Numbers 21:1-3).
The Book of Judges talks about ancient Israel, and how they extended their territory by acquiring lands from the non-Israelites. The book narrates how Israelites conquered and reclaimed their lost land from non-Israelites and how they used to turn from God whenever they are satisfied. But it is written in the Bible that, the guilty are by no means cleared, as Exodus (34:7) says this is the reason why the Lord used several Kings and Judges like Deborah to help the people of Israel find their way back to Him. As the book reveals, it is evident that most of the judges were men (as they were most of the times referred to as Judges). The book talks about a great woman Deborah, also referred to as the “bee”, as a key judge in the entire book. This book unveils the importance of women (through acts and strengths of Deborah (mainly) and other heroic female characters) and their power to the readers.