The Pulpit Commentary — Judges — Section 41

HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-22.-The vari,ety of God's instr·uments. Tlie weakn~s of God's instnt· m~ts. . Nothing is more remarkable in the history of God's _providential dealings with his people, whether under the Old or New Testament dispensations than the great ,-ariety of instruments by which he carries out bis designs. And ;midst this ,·ariety a marked feature often is the weakness in thems,ilves of those instruments by which the greatest results are accomplished. "GJd," says St. Paul to the Corinthians, " hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, . . . that no flesh should glory in his presence" (1 Cor. i. 27-29). 11 We have this treasure," he says ngain, "in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2 Cor. iv. 7). THESE TWO FEATURES OF V A~IETY IN THE CHOICE OF INSTRUlltENTS, AND OF THE WEAKNESS OFTTIMES OF •rHE INSTRUMENTS THEMSELVES, RUN THROUGH THE BIBLE. To look only at the deliverances in the Book of J udges,-Otbniel the Kenite, a stranger and a foreigner ; Ehud, the left-handed Benjamite ; Shamgar, the son of Anath, armed with an ox-goad ; Barak, the timid, hesitating N aphtalite; Gideon, one of the least of a poor family of Manasseh, threshing his wheat secretly for fear of the Midianites, and then rushing upon the Midianite camp with his 300 followers, armed with lamps and pitchers and trumpets; Jephthah, the wild outcast Gileadite; and Samson, the man of supernatural strength, with his impulsive actions and bis unrestrained passions,-what an infinite variety do they display of character, of circumstance, and of resource. And so the manna in the wilderness, the drying up of the waters of the Red Sea, the flight of quails, the falling of the walls of Jericho at the blast of the trumpet, the ministry of Samuel, the character and kingdom of David, the grand episode of Elijah the Tishbite, the deliverance of Hezekiah from the army of Sennacherib, the suc- cession of the prophets, the great figure of Daniel, and the countless other incidents and personages which stand out in the pages of Holy Scripture, bow largely do they exemplify the manifold resources of the power of God, working out his ends with unerring wisdom and unfailing certainty. The present chapter supplies another striking example. Here we see the Israelites in extreme distress: their independence gone; a great heathen power overshadowing and oppressing them by military violence; all means of resistance at an end ; their princes slaves; their warriors cowed; their leaders dispersed. But their time of deliverance was come. And who were they that should break that iron yoke, and let the oppressed go f_ree? wh? were they before whose might the heathen hosts should melt away, the iron chariots be burnt with fire, and the invincible chieftain be laid low in death ? Two women I One known only for her prophetic speech and her skill in civil. judgment; the other an alien belonging to a weak and broken tribe of foreigners. The one, filled with the spirit of' God, awakens the sleeping spirit of a captain and 10,000_ of her_country!11en, a.nd urges them to battle and to victory; the other, alone and unaided, with her s1r.gle hand slays the leader of unnumbered hosts. The people are set free from their oppressors, and have rest for forty yea~s. . The Jesso_n then whic~ this chapter }m• presses upon us, in addition to those winch 1t teaches 1~ com_mon with the prece~mg, is the variety and the strangeness of the methods of Gods deliverances, and especially THAT GOD'S STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN HUMAN WEAKNESS. He ordains strength in the hands of weak women as well as out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. "Fear not, thou worm Jac~b; I will help thee, seith the Lord," is an ~xhortatior, which under every possible circumstam:e is made easy to comply with by tho t"ecullectiun of these wonderful acts of God. on. 1v. 1-22.J THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 1L