Judges 4-5. Shamgar, Deborah, and Barak.
Title: Judges 4-5. Shamgar, Deborah, and Barak.
Announcements / opening prayer:
3. The oppression of the Philistines and the deliverance by Shamgar.
Jdg 3:31 And after him came Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad; and he also saved Israel.
Shamgar - a Hurrian (Horite of Edom) name though a Jew. Anath is a Canaanite goddess. The names show the Canaanite influence upon Israel.
Although so little is mentioned of his life, Shamgar's name and his mother's name tell us a lot about the state of Canaanization of Israel. When you start naming your children after Canaanite fashion then you have to be fully enmeshed in their culture and ways. To name you daughter after a Canaanite goddess shows that you have completely left your roots in Jehovah.
600 Philistines: could be a lifetime total.
Oxgoad: 8 foot staff, pointed on one end and a chisel on the other for cleaning the plow - easily used as a spear.
It does not say that God raised him up. If may be that he was a patriot and a fierce warrior. One of David's mighty men killed 800 in one encounter.
Like Ehud, Shamgar is a moshia (savior) and not shophet (judge).
In chapter 4, Barak and Deborah are mentioned as coming after Ehud, so it is likely that Shamgar did his saving during the 80 years that Ehud judged Israel, if he judged Israel. Either way we can be almost certain that Shamgar and Ehud were contemporaries.
The heroic deed recorded of him may be regarded, as merely the result of a holy inspiration that suddenly burst forth within him, in which he seized upon the first weapon that came to his hand, and put to flight the enemy when scared by a terror for God, just as Samson did on a later occasion.
He does not seem to have secured for the Israelites any permanent victory over the Philistines. Moreover, he is not called judge, nor is the period of his labors taken into account, but in Jdg 4:1 the renewed apostasy of Israel from the Lord is dated from the death of Ehud.
4. Oppression by the Canaanitish king Jabin, (4:3), 20 yrs.
Deliverance by Deborah and Barak, and rest, (5:31), 40 yrs.
These events are accumulated from the account in chapter 4 and Deborah's triumphal song in chapter 5. We do not know the source that the author used for his material, but we rely on the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. We would assume that the great song of chapter five was written down. It could be that the song was recorded in the book of Jashar, which unfortunately has not survived.
Jos 10:12 Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
"O sun, stand still at Gibeon,
And O moon in the valley of Aijalon."
Jos 10:13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies.
Is it not written in the book of Jashar?
Jashar was probably a collection of historical poems and songs, which the historical writer would have drawn upon.
Jdg 4:1 Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died.
Jdg 4:2 And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; and the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.
As long as Ehud lived he somehow kept the people from undisguised, out-and-out idolatry. 80 years of peace would have brought economic, social, and military strength, but these were not used towards God's will.
The call to drive out the Canaanites still stands, but Israel will only enslave them when the opportunity affords itself. They face a long prosperity test. Nothing is said about the condition of their heart as a people, but since they do not destroy and drive out the Canaanite occupiers, we can assume that they were absorbed much more with their prosperity. They freely traded with the foreign peoples and became fat and rich and at ease. They intermarried, and although it seems that idolatry was not conspicuous, it would seem that they still harbored the desire in their hearts.
Eighty years of peace is a long prosperity test, which the next generation fails. Whether in adversity or prosperity, we must always be alert, 1Pe 5:8.
There certainly must have been other threats against Israel in their times of peace, but the judge, as is the case with Ehud, was able to defend the people from hostile oppression.
When Ehud dies, the Israelites find it easy to open their hearts to brazen idolatry yet again and they soon find themselves under the yoke of a kingdom that Joshua had soundly defeated roughly 100 years prior.
Jabin is a title and not a personal name.
Sisera is the king's top general, cruel and exacting.
Hazor is the capital of North Canaan, destroyed by Joshua but now rebuilt by the permissive will of God.
Hazor would not have been rebuilt if Israel had occupied the lands that they were called to. Because of their apostasy, God allows the kingdom to be rebuilt so that God can use them to oppress Israel as He allowed Mesopotamia, Moab, Midian, Ammon, and the Philistines.
Joshua had met this kingdom before and it is very probable that they were stronger then.
Jos 11:1 Then it came about, when Jabin king of Hazor heard of it [Joshua's successful southern campaign], that he sent to Jobab king of Madon and to the king of Shimron and to the king of Achshaph,
Jos 11:2 and to the kings who were of the north in the hill country, and in the Arabah — south of Chinneroth and in the lowland and on the heights of Dor on the west —
Jos 11:3 to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Jebusite in the hill country, and the Hivite at the foot of Hermon in the land of Mizpeh.
Jos 11:4 And they came out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.
Jos 11:5 So all of these kings having agreed to meet, came and encamped together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.
Jos 11:6 Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow at this time I will deliver all of them slain before Israel; you shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire."
Jos 11:7 So Joshua and all the people of war with him came upon them suddenly by the waters of Merom, and attacked them.
Jos 11:8 And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, so that they defeated them, and pursued them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephoth-maim and the valley of Mizpeh to the east; and they struck them until no survivor was left to them.
Jos 11:9 And Joshua did to them as the Lord had told him; he hamstrung their horses, and burned their chariots with fire.
Jos 11:10 Then Joshua turned back at that time, and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword; for Hazor formerly was the head of all these kingdoms.
Jos 11:11 And they struck every person who was in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was no one left who breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire.
Jos 11:12 And Joshua captured all the cities of these kings, and all their kings, and he struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed them; just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded.
Jos 11:13 However, Israel did not burn any cities that stood on their mounds, except Hazor alone, which Joshua burned.
Jos 11:14 And all the spoil of these cities and the cattle, the sons of Israel took as their plunder; but they struck every man with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They left no one who breathed.
Jos 11:15 Just as the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.
Now, some one-hundred years later, there is no battle. Israel doesn't take the field and fight in the name of Jehovah. Their apostasy has made them weak and passive. All they want is their sensuality fulfilled and they don't care how much it cost them.
A person addicted to sensuality will allow almost everything to be taken from him if he is promised his next fix. The Baal cult takes everything from Israel, everything that God gave them to enjoy and with which to serve him.
All drive to fight for anything good or anything other than the fulfillment of the flesh is removed and the person becomes a full time consumer of selfish things and gives nothing.
False religions promise fulfillment when they take everything and enslave a person. Only in Christ is a man truly free and in the dispensation of Israel, only in faith in the covenant of God and obeying the Mosaic law is the guarantee of freedom enjoyed.