The
defeat of Jabin and Sisera brought forty years of rest to the Israelites. Sadly,
somewhere along the forty years, they again “did evil in the sight of God.” So,
God allowed the Midianites to harass them for seven years. Who were the
Midianites? According to Genesis 25:1 we see that Abraham took another
wife. More exactly she was Abraham’s concubine. Her name was Keturah. Then
Genesis 25:2 tells us that she bore to him six sons and one of them was
Midian. Genesis 25: 6 said that Abraham sent them to the land in the east.
Since then they had been dessert people. In a way, the Midianites had some
relationship with the Israelites. Since they were related by blood because of
Abraham, the oppression that came from them would be a burdensome one. Each
year during harvest time, they would come with their allies, the Amalekites and
some others, and would intrude into the land of Israel. They would come like a
huge deluge of locust and cleaned up the possessions of the Israelites. These
oppressors would impound all the grain and carry them away leaving none.
They would even take away their sheep, ox, and donkeys. The Israelites were
left with nothing for sustenance. So, the people of God were driven to hide in
dens and caves which they made for themselves in the mountains to preserve
whatever precious little they could recoup.
The
annual intrusions of the Midianites and the allies were so discouraging to the
Israelites. So, they cried to the Lord. The rescue of the Lord did not come
immediately. Instead of sending a deliverer to them straight away, God sent
them a prophet. Why? God wanted them to understand what brought about their
problem. They need to know the cause of their problem. Often the solution to
our problem is not giving what we want but what we need. Understanding what
causes a problem is often more critical than having a solution. Knowing why we
are encountering a certain problem can help prevent us from making a similar
mistake in the future. Understanding the heart of God is more important
than having His intervention without knowing His anger.
Obviously,
the people of God had forgotten the goodness showered on them in the past. God
had been gracious to them and brought their forefathers out of their bondage in
Egypt. The Red Sea was a mighty deliverance no one but God had given to them.
Not only that but along the route they took, God also helped them to dispose of
the enemy forces that stood in their way into the promised land. The Lord
had given them the land of all their enemies. He also reminded them of the
covenant relationship He had initiated with them promising to be their God. The
Israelites had not kept their part of the bargain. They failed to obey Him
according to the terms of the covenant. They had gravitated to serve other
gods. They had worshipped the gods of the Amorites. Here, God gave them the
reason for their oppression by the Midianites. The purpose of the prophet was
obvious. He came to prepare the heart of the people and lead them to repentance
and get them ready for the coming deliverance. So, in these first ten verses of
Judges 6, God helps the people of Israel to realize the cause of their plight
before He would send them His solution. From what God did, we realize that the
first step to any lasting solution in any difficult situation we encounter is
to know why we are in a certain predicament. It behooves us to seek to
understand the cause of our problem and what led us to them so that with God
we can then adequately deal with that problem.
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