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

Today’s passage begins with, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord,” a sentiment with which this book begins the account of each of the judges (with maybe one or two exceptions).  The lesson being that again and again we fall away from the Lord and suffer the consequences.  And time after time, God raises up leaders to bring us back to Him.  The song of Deborah and Barak contains some lines about what happens as people turn back to God.
“When the princes in Israel take the lead,
    when the people willingly offer themselves—
    praise the Lord!”
When I read that in the song, it seemed to me to be talking about when those who have been blessed with skills and resources which give them prominence using that prominence to lead people to do God’s will.  It follows that up by commending people in general following their lead and sacrificing their own self-interest to further God’s plans.  Then a little later in the song comes this line:
“When the princes in Israel take the lead,
    when the people willingly offer themselves—
    praise the Lord!”
I am reminded of what happened to bring peace in Northern Ireland, what will have to happen to bring peace between Israel and the Arabs.  Peace came in Northern Ireland when mothers tired of seeing their children die to advance the interests of selfish people who fanned the flames of hate rose up and said, “enough is enough.”  When the Arab mothers have had enough of their children dying to further the interests of selfish people, then there will be peace in the Middle East.  Of course, there is one other point I want to make.  The mothers in Northern Ireland came to the realization that their children were dying for no reason when they turned to God.  There is one more point from the Song of Deborah and Barak that I want to note.  People came from disparate parts of Israel to stand for God.  And those who failed to answer the call had to reflect on why they did not risk themselves for God.

Which brings me to the account of Gideon.  I know I have written about this before, but we often miss what may be the most important part of Gideon’s call.  When the Israelites cried out to God for rescue from the oppression by the Midianites, God sent them a prophet.  The prophet condemned the Israelites for worshiping the gods of the Amorites despite the fact that God had commanded them not to do so.  The prophet did not lead the Israelites against the Midianites.  In fact, there is no further mention of this prophet, but, when God called Gideon to save Israel out of Midian’s hand the first thing Gideon did (after making an offering to God and building an altar to Him) was to destroy his father’s altar to Baal and tear down the accompanying Asherah pole.  There are some interesting things to note in the aftermath.  Gideon was afraid of both how his family and his neighbors would react to him destroying his father’s altar to Baal.  However, even though it was his altar, Gideon’s father defended his actions while Gideon’s neighbors were angered by it.  All of this resulted from a prophet who called Israel to forsake idolatry.

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