Judges 6:1-10 - Obedience to His Word

Judges 6:1-10

Midianites Oppress Israel

1 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, 2 and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. 3 So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. 6 So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.

7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites, 8 that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; 9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 Also I said to you, “I am the LORD your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’”

The men of Midian then ruled over Israel for seven years after God’s people again worked evil against the LORD.  They kept repeating this pattern of idolatry and immorality after times of rest when repentance sporadically followed under the leadership of judges appointed over them.  Here the Midianites had  been sent by God to lead the people to repentance and restoration in His mercy by grace yet again, just as we now in the church are to lead others to restoration in Christ through repentance under the leadership of elders in place of judges.  Israel suffered immensely in this iteration of corrective judgment, having their food supply continually destroyed as they fled into caves out of fear since they were not under the protection of God as before when they lived according to God’s word in monotheistic worship of Him and morality of lifestyles in adhering to the Law.  But when Israel could no longer take the suffering of their sin, they cried out to the LORD for mercy and deliverance.  God answered them with a prophet instead of a judge-prophetess as before in Deborah.  This messenger warned them by reminder of the deliverance from Egypt’s bondage with the sin and idolatry of that land where they were enslaved in hard labor for four-hundred years until He led them out in victory through the crashing waves of the Red Sea (a type of baptism as 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 says, baptized into Him as a foreshadowing of that in the final Deliverer and Judge, Jesus Christ), waves that were dropped on top of their pursuing adversary on their way out of bondage and towards the promised land.  The LORD had not only delivered them as promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:13-14, Acts 7:6-7), but also given victory over their enemies as they entered the land that had been promised as their inheritance.  This prophet’s reminder then exhorted them to not fear their enemies surrounding them presently, but remember that He is their sovereign Lord God and they brought this on themselves by not obeying His voice as it was written by  His hand (Deuteronomy 4:13, 9:10-11) for them to follow.  The warning of sin’s penalty and call to repentance was clear to them and is even more clear to us now after Christ our Judge and Deliverer, our Savior (2 Timothy 1:10, Titus 2:11, 3:4-5, Hebrews 9:26, 27-28), has appeared to set us free at last from sin’s penalty and provide mercy in grace to keep us until the day we enter into promised heavenly land by the same faith as Abraham (Galatians 3:6-7, 9, Hebrews 11:8) held onto.  May we learn from this example to heed His voice in the written word by the ears of the Spirit living in us and follow Him in spirit and in truth, seeking repentance as we sin and remembering the hope we have in Him to drive our willingness to obey His word and set the direction of our lives to forsake the sin which (2 Timothy 2:4, Hebrews 12:1) so easily entangles us.