A closer inspection, however, discloses a more interior, and therefore truer arrangement of this, the main part of the book, and one better calculated to bring out the theocratic government of God, which, as we have seen in the preceding article, was the cardinal idea of the of- fice known as that of " the Judges." Moses had been commissioned by the A ngel of the Covenant, who went be- fore the people in all their marches (Exod. iii, 1-G; xiii, 21 ; xiv, 19, etc.), and to fit him for his office Moses was filled with the Spirit of the Lord, which was given to him in a measure apparently not given to any mere man af- ter him. But the Spirit, which was communicated in a certain degree to men for various tasks in connection with the Church and people, was especially communi- cated from Closes, in v.-hom the fulness resided (fulness such as was possible under the Old-Testament dispensa- tion), to the seventy elders who assisted him in the ad- ministration, and to Joshua, who was called to be his successor (Numb, xi, 17, 25; xxvii, 16, 18, 20). Agree- ably to this, the true grouping of the events in the time of the judges must be looked for in connection with the cominf/ forth of the Anr/el of the Covenant, and the co?-- respondiuf) mission of the iSj,i?'it of the Lord into the hearts of his instruments. (No arguing is needed to establish the erroneousness of our translation, "an angel of the Lord" [ii, 1 ; vi, 11] ; "an angel of God" [xiii, 6, 9, 13]. The only possible rendering is, "the Angel of the Lord," "the Angel of God;" and this is amply con- firmed by the attributes of Godhead which appear in the narratives.) Yet, while we notice these epochs of special manifestation, we must remember that God was always present with his people, at the head of their govern- ment, and working in a more ordinary manner in calling out agents for preser\-ing and recovering the visible Church and holy nation. Besides, there was the stand- ing method of considting him by Urim and Thummim,
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through the hi<?li-priest, and there was his way of ex- traordiuarUy addressing the people by prophets; of both of these there are recorded instances m this book, al- though the prophetical agency is rare and feeble till the tinie^of Samuel (1 Sam. iii, 1, 19-21), with whom the succession of prophets began (Acts iii, 24).
Now the appearance of tlie Angel of the Lord and the mission of the Spirit in a special manner is four times noticed in the body of the history, and nowhere else, except in the poetical allusion in ch. v, 23. (1.) The Angel of Jehovah went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and reproached tJie people for neglecting his work of re- demption ; threatening to help them no more ; yet in reality, by the utterance of this threat, suggesting that his free grace would help them, as in fact they immedi- ately gained a victory over their own sinful selves (ii, 1- 6). The outward victory over oppressors was soon gain- ed by Othniel (iii, 10) when " the Spirit of the Lord came," literally was, " upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war." (2.) The Angel of the Lord came and gave a mission to Gideon to deliver Israel (vi, 11, etc.), and to fit him for it (ver. 34), " the Spirit of the Lord came upon," literally clothed, "Gideon, and he blew the trumpet." (3.) A passage (x, 10-16) is so sim- ilar to the account of the Angel at Bochim that we do not know how to avoid the impression that it is the An- gel himself who speaks in that immediate manner which is peculiar to this book ; certainly there is no hint of any prophet in the case, and a message like this from the Urim and Thummim is nowhere on record in Scrip- ture. The closing words that, after having refused to "save" them (not merely "deliver," as in our version) on the repentance of the people, " his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel," suggest the same interpreta- tion, in the light of the commentary (Isa. Ixiii, 8, 9) : " So he said. Surely they are my people, children that will not lie ; so he was their Saviour. In all their afllic- tion he was afflicted, and the Angel of his Presence saved them." Upon this, .Jephthah was called to lead the people ; and as on the two earlier occasions (xi, 29), "The Spirit of the Lord came," literally was, "upon Jephthah." (4.) The Angel of the Lord appeared to the parents of Samson, announcing the birth of their son, who was to begin to " deliver," or rather " save," Israel (xiii, 3-23). This occurs with the usual cor- respondence (ver. 24, 25), " The child grew, and the Lord blessed him ; and the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times;" while of him alone, as one peculiarly chosen liy the Lord and given to him from his birth, it is said repeatedly afterwards, that " the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him."
This arrangement suggests the four periods of historv noted in the table given below (§ ix). The appearance of the angel of the Lord and the mission of the Spirit, however, belong not to the very commencement of the l)criod, but rather to the continuance or close of a term of sin and disgrace. Perhaps in ( ;ideon and Jcphthah's cases the appearance of the angel and the mission of the Sjiirit were almost contemporaneous; but in the first case and in tlie last there must have been some distance of time between them, not now ascertainable, but possi- bly amounting to several years, and determined in each case by the i)articulars of the crisis which demanded these manifestations.