PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: Judges and Ruth
Watson, Robert A. (Robert Alexander) · 126,355 words · 170 reading sections
Xii.
Produced by Colin Bell, Julia Neufeld and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all ca…
252 wordsSECTION 2_Problems Of Settlement And War._
"MIDIAN'S EVIL DAY" 178 JUDGES VII. 8-VIII. 21. GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC 195 JUDGES VIII. 22-28. ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM 209 JUDGES VIII. 29-IX. 57. GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF 224 JUDGES X. I-XI. 11. THE TERRIBLE VOW 239 JUDGES XI. 12-40. SHIBBOLETHS 254 JUDGES XII. 1-7. THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD 266 JUDGES. XIII. 1-18…
743 wordsSECTION 3_Problems Of Settlement And War._
* * * * * Opening the story of the Judges, we find ourselves in a keen atmosphere of warlike ardour softened by scarcely an air of spiritual grace. At once we are plunged into military preparations; councils of war meet and the clash of weapons is heard. Battle follows battle. Iron chariots hurtle along the valleys, t…
685 wordsSECTION 4_Problems Of Settlement And War._
This, however, is but part of the problem which meets us in regard to the settlement in Canaan. There are the inhabitants of the land to be considered--these Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Hivites. How do we justify Israel in displacing them, slaying them, absorbing them? Here is a question first of evolution, then of …
696 wordsSECTION 5_Problems Of Settlement And War._
The explanation we find is this: that for a human life in the present stage of existence the opportunity of struggle for moral ends--it may be ends of no great dignity, yet really moral, and, as the race advances, religious--this makes life worth living and brings to every one the means of true and lasting gain. "Where…
663 wordsSECTION 6_Problems Of Settlement And War._
* * * * * Beginning now with the detailed narrative, we find first a case of retribution, in which the Israelites served the justice of God. As yet the Canaanite power was unbroken in the central region of Western Palestine, where Adoni-bezek ruled over the cities of seventy chiefs. It became a question who should lea…
842 wordsSECTION 7_Problems Of Settlement And War._
The ascendency which Israel secured in Canaan, or that which Britain has won in India, is not, to begin with, justified by superior strength, nor by higher intelligence, nor even because in practice the religion of the conquerors is better than that of the vanquished. It is justified because, with all faults and crimes…
780 wordsSECTION 8_The Way Of The Sword._
And for any one to-day, what profits it to be a wealthy man, living in state with all the appliances of amusement and luxury, well knowing, but not choosing to share the great conflicts between religion and ungodliness, between purity and vice? If the ignorance and woe of our fellow-creatures do not draw our hearts, if…
676 wordsSECTION 9_The Way Of The Sword._
* * * * * Kiriath-sepher has to be taken. Its inhabitants, strongly entrenched, threaten the people who are settling about Hebron and must be subdued; and Caleb, who has come to his possession, adopts a common expedient for rousing the ambitious young men of the tribe. He has a daughter, and marriage with her shall re…
868 wordsSECTION 10_The Way Of The Sword._
There is another aspect of the picture, however, as it unfolds itself. The success of Othniel in his attack on Kiriath-sepher gave him at once a good place as a leader, and a wife who was ready to make his interests her own and help him to social position and wealth. Her first care was to acquire a piece of land suitab…
800 wordsSECTION 11_The Way Of The Sword._
* * * * * Zephath was the next fortress against which Judah and Simeon directed their arms. When the tribes were in the desert on their long and difficult march they attempted first to enter Canaan from the south, and actually reached the neighbourhood of this town. But, as we read in the Book of Numbers, Arad the kin…
842 wordsSECTION 12_The Way Of The Sword._
* * * * * A mark of the humanness and, shall we not also say, the divineness of this history is to be found in the frequent notices of other tribes than those of Israel. To the inspired writer it is not all the same whether Canaanites die or live, what becomes of Phoenicians or Philistines. Of this we have two example…
697 wordsSECTION 13_At Bochim; The First Prophet Voice._
One thought may link the various episodes we have considered. It is that of the end for which individuality exists. The home has its development of personality--for service. The peace and joy of religion nourish the soul--for service. Life may be conquered in various regions, and a man grow fit for ever greater victori…
778 wordsSECTION 14_At Bochim; The First Prophet Voice._
But the danger to Israel's fidelity came when there began to be intercourse with the people of Canaan, now sunk from the purer thought of early times. Everywhere in the land of the Hittites and Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites, there were altars and sacred trees, pillars and images used in idolatrous worship. The ark an…
974 wordsSECTION 15_At Bochim; The First Prophet Voice._
At Bochim, where the second note of religious feeling is struck, a deeper and clearer note, we find the prophet listened to. He revives the sense of duty, he kindles a Divine sorrow in the hearts of the people. The national assembly is conscience-stricken. Let us allow this quick contrition to be the result, in part, o…
709 wordsSECTION 16_At Bochim; The First Prophet Voice._
Nine centuries and a half appear a long time in the history of a nation. What has been gained during the period? Is the weeping at Jerusalem in Ezra's time, like the weeping at Bochim, a mark of no deeper feeling, no keener penitence? Has there been religious advance commensurate with the discipline of suffering, defea…
741 wordsSECTION 17_At Bochim; The First Prophet Voice._
We have spoken of Bochim as a symbol, and to us it may be the symbol of this, that the very thing which men put from them in horror and with tears, seeing the evil, the danger of it, does often insinuate itself into their lives. The messenger is heard, and while he speaks how near God is, how awful is the sense of His …
817 wordsSECTION 18_At Bochim; The First Prophet Voice._
* * * * * It would be a mistake to suppose that the scene at Bochim and the words which moved the assembly to tears had no lasting effect whatever. The history deals with outstanding facts of the national development. We hear chiefly of heroes and their deeds, but we shall not doubt that there were minds which kept th…
251 wordsSECTION 19_Among The Rocks Of Paganism._
JUDGES ii. 7-23. "And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash." So, long after the age of Joshua, the historian tells again how …
733 wordsSECTION 20_Among The Rocks Of Paganism._
[1] Ewald. The general survey or preface which we have before us gives but one account of the disasters that befell the Hebrew people--they "followed other gods, and provoked the Lord to anger." And the reason of this has to be considered. Taking a natural view of the circumstances we might pronounce it almost impossi…
1,032 wordsSECTION 21_Among The Rocks Of Paganism._
One passage in the history of the past must have been vividly before the minds of those who crossed the Jordan under Joshua, and should have stood a protest and warning against the idolatry into which families so easily lapsed throughout the land. Over at Shittim, when Israel lay encamped on the skirts of the mountains…
715 wordsSECTION 22_Among The Rocks Of Paganism._
[2] Maspero. The worship connected with this horde of fanciful beings is well known to have merited the strongest language of detestation applied to it by the Hebrew prophets. The ceremonies were a strange and degrading blend of the licentious and the cruel, notorious even in a time of gross and hideous rites. The Baa…
682 wordsSECTION 23_Among The Rocks Of Paganism._
* * * * * And why could not Israel rest in the debasement of idolatry? Why did not the Hebrews abandon their distinct mission as a nation and mingle with the races they came to convert or drive away? They could not rest; they could not mingle and forget. Is there ever peace in the soul of a man who falls from early im…
946 wordsSECTION 24_Among The Rocks Of Paganism._
The storm, the pestilence have a providential errand. They urge men to prudence and effort; they prevent communities from settling on their lees. But the hero has a higher range of usefulness. It is not mere prudence he represents, but the passion for justice. For right against might, for liberty against oppression he …
572 wordsSECTION 25_The Arm Of Aram And Of Othniel._
JUDGES iii. 1-11. We come now to a statement of no small importance, which may be the cause of some perplexity. It is emphatically affirmed that God fulfilled His design for Israel by leaving around it in Canaan a circle of vigorous tribes very unlike each other, but alike in this, that each presented to the Hebrews a…
1,042 wordsSECTION 26_The Arm Of Aram And Of Othniel._
Among the inland races with whom the Israelites are said to have dwelt, the Amorites, though mentioned along with Perizzites and Hivites, had very distinct characteristics. They were a mountain people like the Scottish Highlanders, even in physiognomy much resembling them, a tall, white-skinned, blue-eyed race. Warlike…
747 wordsSECTION 27_The Arm Of Aram And Of Othniel._
[3] "The Hittites," by A. H. Sayce, LL.D., p. 36. For the characteristics of the Hittites, whose appearance and dress constantly suggest a Mongolian origin, we can now consult their monuments. A vigorous people they must have been, capable of government, of extensive organization, concerned to perfect their arts as we…
685 wordsSECTION 28_The Arm Of Aram And Of Othniel._
Nothing yet found in the records of Babylon or Assyria throws any light on the invasion of Cushan-rishathaim, whose name, which seems to mean Cushan of the Two Evil Deeds, may be taken to represent his character as the Hebrews viewed it. He was a king one of whose predecessors a few centuries before had given a daughte…
749 wordsSECTION 29_The Arm Of Aram And Of Othniel._
And, in another aspect, how futile is the dream some indulge of getting rid of their history, passing beyond the memory or resurrection of what has been. Shall Divine forgiveness obliterate those deeds of which we have repented? Then the deeds being forgotten the forgiveness too would pass into oblivion and all the gai…
775 wordsSECTION 30_The Arm Of Aram And Of Othniel._
Judgment and then deliverance; judgment of the mistakes and sins men have committed, thereby bringing themselves into trouble; conviction of sin and righteousness; thereafter guidance and help that their feet may be set on a rock and their goings established--this is the right sequence. That God should help the proud, …
611 wordsSECTION 31_The Dagger And The Ox-Goad._
JUDGES iii. 12-31. The world is served by men of very diverse kinds, and we pass now to one who is in strong contrast to Israel's first deliverer. Othniel the judge without reproach is followed by Ehud the regicide. The long peace which the country enjoyed after the Mesopotamian army was driven out allowed a return of…
716 wordsSECTION 32_The Dagger And The Ox-Goad._
So the Hebrew tribes, partly by reason of an old strife not forgotten, partly because they have gone on vigorously adding to their territory, again suffer assault and are brought under oppression, and the coalition against them reminds us of confederacies that are in full force to-day. Ammon and Moab are united against…
925 wordsSECTION 33_The Dagger And The Ox-Goad._
We have been assuming the unfaithfulness of Israel to its duty and vocation. The people of God, instead of commending His faith by their neighbourliness and generosity, were, we fear, too often proud and selfish, seeking their own things not the well-being of others, sending no attractive light into the heathenism arou…
724 wordsSECTION 34_The Dagger And The Ox-Goad._
This too we see, that the great just providence of the Almighty is not impeached by such an act. No word in the narrative justifies assassination; but, being done, place is found for it as a thing overruled for good in the development of Israel's history. Man has no defence for his treachery and violence, yet in the pr…
817 wordsSECTION 35_The Dagger And The Ox-Goad._
Here is an example of what is possible to the obscure whose qualifications are not great, but who have spirit and firmness, who are not afraid of dangers and privations on the way to an end worth gaining, be it the deliverance of their country, the freedom or purity of their church, or the rousing of society against a …
684 wordsSECTION 36_The Dagger And The Ox-Goad._
Israel, then, appears in these stories of her iron age as the cradle of the manhood of the modern world; in Israel the true standard was lifted up for the people. It is liberty put to a noble use that is the mark of manhood, and in Israel's history the idea of responsibility to the one living and true God takes form an…
432 wordsSECTION 37_The Sibyl Of Mount Ephraim._
JUDGES iv. There arises now in Israel a prophetess, one of those rare women whose souls burn with enthusiasm and holy purpose when the hearts of men are abject and despondent; and to Deborah it is given to make a nation hear her call. Of prophetesses the world has seen but few; generally the woman has her work of teac…
803 wordsSECTION 38_The Sibyl Of Mount Ephraim._
There was not much prospect at such a time for a Hebrew maiden whose lot it seemed to be, while yet scarcely out of her childhood, to be married like the rest and sink into a household drudge, toiling for a husband who in his turn laboured for the oppressor. But there was a way then, as there is always a way for the hi…
724 wordsSECTION 39_The Sibyl Of Mount Ephraim._
Deborah's prophetical utterances are not to be tried by the standard of the Isaian age. So tested some of her judgments might fail, some of her visions lose their charm. She had no clear outlook to those great principles which the later prophets more or less fully proclaimed. Her education and circumstances and her int…
774 wordsSECTION 40_The Sibyl Of Mount Ephraim._
Amid difficulty and discouragement enough, with slender resources, the hope of Israel resting upon her, Deborah's heart did not fail nor her head for affairs. When the critical point was reached of requiring a general for the war she had already fixed upon the man. At Kadesh-Naphtali, almost in sight of Jabin's fortres…
964 wordsSECTION 41_The Sibyl Of Mount Ephraim._
Meanwhile Sisera, a coward at heart, more familiar with the parade ground than fit for the stern necessities of war, leaves his chariot and abandons his men to their fate, his own safety all his care. Seeking that, it is not to Harosheth he turns. He takes his way across Gilboa toward the very region which Barak has le…
698 wordsSECTION 42_The Sibyl Of Mount Ephraim._
Not here can the moral be found that the end justifies the means, or that we may do evil with good intent; which never was a Bible doctrine and never can be. On the contrary, we find it written clear that the end does not justify the means. Sisera must live on and do the worst he may rather than any soul should be soil…
612 wordsSECTION 43_Deborah'S Song: A Divine Vision._
JUDGES v. The song of Deborah and Barak is twofold, the first portion, ending with the eleventh verse, a chant of rising hope and pious encouragement during the time of preparation and revival, the other a song of battle and victory throbbing with eager patriotism and the hot breath of martial excitement. In the forme…
706 wordsSECTION 44_Deborah'S Song: A Divine Vision._
Common enough in our day is a profession of belief in God as the source of every good desire and right effort, as inspiring the charity of the generous, the affection of the loving, the fidelity of the true. But if our faith is deep and real it brings us much nearer than we usually feel ourselves to be to Him Who is th…
687 wordsSECTION 45_Deborah'S Song: A Divine Vision._
It has been well said that for the Israel of ancient times all natural phenomena--a storm, a hurricane or a flood--had more than ordinary import. "Forbidden to recognise and, as it were, grasp the God of heaven in any material form, or to adore even in the heavens themselves any constant symbols of His being and His po…
964 wordsSECTION 46_Deborah'S Song: A Divine Vision._
The battle between materialism and religious faith is not a battle in which facts are arrayed on one side and inferences and dreams on the other. The array is of facts against facts, as we have said, and with an immense difference of value. Is it an established sequence that when the electricity in the clouds is not in…
731 wordsSECTION 47_Deborah'S Song: A Divine Vision._
3. Let it be allowed that we find the latter canto of Deborah's song expressive of faith rather than of clear morality, pointing to a spiritual future rather than exhibiting actual knowledge of the Divine character. We hear of the righteous acts of the Lord, and the note is welcome, yet most likely the thought is of re…
947 wordsSECTION 48_Deborah'S Song: A Chant Of Patriotism._
JUDGES v. We have already considered the song of Deborah as a declaration of God's working more broad and spiritual than might be looked for in that age. We now regard it as exhibiting different relations of men to the Divine purpose. There is a religious spirit in the whole movement here described. It begins in a rev…
890 wordsSECTION 49_Deborah'S Song: A Chant Of Patriotism._
Church leaders are responsible for not a little which they themselves condemn. Differences do not quickly arise among disciples when the teachers are modest, honourable, and brotherly. Paul cries, "Is Christ divided? Were ye baptized into the name of Paul? What is Apollos? What is Paul? Ministers by whom ye believed." …
760 wordsSECTION 50_Deborah'S Song: A Chant Of Patriotism._
Yet Barak also, the Lightning Chief, has honourable part. When the men are collected, men new-born into life, he can lead them. They are Ironsides under him. He rushes down from Tabor and they at his feet with a vigour nothing can resist. If we have Deborah we shall also have Barak, his army and his victory. The promis…
861 wordsSECTION 51_Deborah'S Song: A Chant Of Patriotism._
The real army of faith is largely drawn from the ranks of the toilers and the heavy laden. Yet not entirely. We reckon many and fine exceptions. There are rich who are less worldly than those who have little. Many whose lot lies far from the shadow of tyranny in green and pleasant valleys are first to hear and quickest…
881 wordsSECTION 52_Deborah'S Song: A Chant Of Patriotism._
And the result is that where spiritual work waits to be done there are but few to do it. Examine the state of any Christian church, reckon up those who are deeply interested in its efficiency, who make sacrifices of time and means, and set against these the half-hearted, who ignobly accept the religious provision made …
740 wordsSECTION 53_Deborah'S Song: A Chant Of Patriotism._
3. Jael, a type of the unscrupulous helpers of a good cause. Long has the error prevailed that religion can be helped by using the world's weapons, by acting in the temper and spirit of the world. Of that mischievous falsehood have been born all the pride and vainglory, the rivalries and persecutions that darken the p…
323 wordsSECTION 54_The Desert Hordes; And The Man At Ophrah._
JUDGES vi. 1-14. Jabin king of Canaan defeated and his nine hundred chariots turned into ploughshares we might expect Israel to make at last a start in its true career. The tribes have had their third lesson and should know the peril of infidelity. Without God they are weak as water. Will they not bind themselves now …
736 wordsSECTION 55_The Desert Hordes; And The Man At Ophrah._
Israel losing sight of its mission and its destiny felt no need of faith and lost it; and with the loss of faith came loss of vigour and alertness as on other occasions. Having no sense of a common purpose great enough to demand their unity the Hebrews were again unable to resist enemies, and this time the Midianites a…
879 wordsSECTION 56_The Desert Hordes; And The Man At Ophrah._
"Israel was brought very low because of Midian." A traveller's picture of the present state of things on the eastern frontier of Bashan enables us to understand the misery to which the tribes were reduced by seven years of rapine. "Not only is the country--plain and hill-side alike--chequered with fenced fields, but gr…
748 wordsSECTION 57_The Desert Hordes; And The Man At Ophrah._
The first answer to the cry of Israel came in the message of a prophet, one who would have been despised by the nation in its self-sufficient mood but now obtained a hearing. His words brought instruction and made it possible for faith to move and work along a definite line. Through man's struggle God helps him; throug…
753 wordsSECTION 58_The Desert Hordes; And The Man At Ophrah._
In a pause of his work, as he glances across the valley with anxious eye, suddenly he sees under an oak a stranger sitting staff in hand, as if he had sought rest for a little in the shade. Gideon scans the visitor keenly, but finding no cause for alarm bends again to his labour. The next time he looks up the stranger …
718 wordsSECTION 59_The Desert Hordes; And The Man At Ophrah._
Now, why insist as some do on that which is not affirmed in the text? The form of the narrative must be interpreted: and it does not require us to suppose that Jehovah Himself, incarnate, speaking human words, is upon the scene. The call is from Him, and indeed Gideon has already a prepared heart, or he would not liste…
727 wordsSECTION 60_Gideon, Iconoclast And Reformer._
JUDGES vi. 15-32. "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour:"--so has the prophetic salutation come to the young man at the threshing-floor of Ophrah. It is a personal greeting and call--"with thee"--just what a man needs in the circumstances of Gideon. There is a nation to be saved, and a human leader must ac…
661 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.