6. God's judicial vengeance to be executed by Israel and on Israel- (1) Sin seen in its true light must inspire horror: (2) The people of God ought to be zealous in vindicating His honour: (3) The appeal of the Levite speaks to us: (4) Unity is strength: (5) Judgment on all may be averted by timely surrender of the guilty one: (6) God's holy controversy with both Israel and Benjamin accounts for Benjamin's infatuation in rejecting Israel's appeal: (7) Judgment must begin at the house of God: (8) Consultation of God, in order to obtain God's blessing, must 7. Typical aspects of the history-(1) Fatal effects of the non- recognition of the heavenly King: (2) Blessed changes wrought His righteousness go hand in hand (Isa. xlv. 8). Thus t were Judges of righteousness not only in, but for, Israel: accordingly Deborah and Barak, in their hymn of thanksgiv dwell upon the manifestation of the divine righteousness the deliverance just vouchsafed: "Speak ye that sit judgment-They that are delivered shall rehearse the right acts of Jehovah, even the righteous acts towards the inhabit of His villages in Israel" (Judg. v. 11). The Lord raised t up to save Israel, at intervals, as need required. They v the vicegerents of Him who was at one and the same time civil, as well as the spiritual, King of Israel. There were in all fifteen judges between Joshua and the K -Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah and Barak (counted as Gideon, Abimelech (an usurper), Tola, Jair, Jephthah Ib Elon, Abdon (probably the same as the Bedan in 1 Sam. xii. Samson, Eli, Samuel. But Eli and Samuel were of the pri order; and as such were officially judges. Eli was n Deliverer or Saviour, and Samuel inaugurated the Prop dispensations (1 Sam. iii. 19-21; Acts iii. 24), and deliv the Lord's people, not by the sword, but by the word an prayer (1 Sam. vii. 3-10); whereas the 'Judges,' speciall called, were not of the priestly family, but were extraordi ministers called forth by God to deliver Israel, and formin their rule a kind of distinct dispensation. The Lord r them up (ch. ii. 16), and qualified them for their ministr causing His Spirit to come upon them (ch. iii. 10, vi. 34 29, xiii. 25). Barak was called by a prophetess, Deborah. providence of God overruled the people's choice in Jepht case. Throughout the book God appears as maintaining own glory against the idols of the surrounding heathen not sparing even His own people whenever they aposta from Him, and conformed to the vanities of the world always hearing His people's cry and delivering them, they turned penitently to Him. Keil truly remarks, Israel's unfaithfulness punished b foe's oppression, and Jehovah's faithfulness in raisin was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves m than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, an bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doir nor from their stubborn way." The Psalmist (cvi. 34just before the close of the Babylonian captivity, embo the leading thoughts of this passage in his spirited clos Psalm of the Trilogy (civ., cv., cvi.), which rests the hope restoration upon Jehovah's everlasting covenant,' inasmuch it engages deliverance when Israel shall return to the Lord Causes of Israel's Apostasy.-The causes were manifold wh inclined the Israelites to add to the worship of Jehovah idolatries of heathendom;-for they had too cogent palpable proofs of the truth of the divine law to renounc wholly. Such causes were-intermarriages with their heart neighbours, Gentile associations, the beauty of the Canaa women, the pomp, gaiety, and voluptuousness of their the hope of learning the future by idolatrous divination, superstitious fears of the supposed gods of the localities w they settled. Severe chastisements of God executed by t very nations whose sin they copied, and the succeeding ru judges who were raised by God in answer to their cry, who saved them out of the hands of their oppressors, were the kind of discipline which they needed. Imperfection of the Judges.-The Judges themselves perfectly realised the divine ideal. The possession of ins gifts was not always accompanied by a right use of them: as the miraculous gifts at Corinth were abused (1 Cor. This is analogous to God's way of dealing in the bestow natural gifts. Being pleased to create men free agents lays upon them the responsibility of using aright, or other the faculties and opportunities which He bestows. introduced the golden ephod. Jephthah made a rash vow gratified his own violent spirit in taking vengeanc Ephraim. The history of Samson, the last Judge, illustra once the strength and the weakness of Israel, whose repr tative he was: strength in being separated to Jehovah, weakness, when the consecration became severed, as San locks, by lust. |