Earlier Judges
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Canaan sowed seed of evil that continued to bring forth bitter fruit for
many generations. The simple habits of the Hebrews had secured them
physical health; but association with the heathen led to the indulgence
of appetite and passion, which gradually lessened physical strength
and enfeebled the mental and moral powers. By their sins the Israelites
were separated from God; His strength was removed from them, and
they could no longer prevail against their enemies. Thus they were
brought into subjection to the very nations that through God they might
have subdued.
“They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them
out of the land of Egypt,” “and guided them in the wilderness like
a flock.” “They provoked Him to anger with their high places, and
moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.” Therefore the Lord
“forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among
them; and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the
enemy’s hand.”
Judges 2:12
;
Psalm 78:52, 58, 60, 61
. Yet He did
not utterly forsake His people. There was ever a remnant who were
true to Jehovah; and from time to time the Lord raised up faithful and
valiant men to put down idolatry and to deliver the Israelites from
their enemies. But when the deliverer was dead, and the people were
released from his authority, they would gradually return to their idols.
And thus the story of backsliding and chastisement, of confession and
deliverance, was repeated again and again.
The king of Mesopotamia, the king of Moab, and after them the
Philistines, and the Canaanites of Hazor, led by Sisera, in turn became
the oppressors of Israel. Othniel, Shamgar, and Ehud, Deborah and
Barak, were raised up as deliverers of their people. But again “the chil-
dren of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered
them into the hand of Midian.” Heretofore the hand of the oppressor
had fallen but lightly on the tribes dwelling east of the Jordan, but in
the present calamities they were the first sufferers.
The Amalekites on the south of Canaan, as well as the Midianites
on its eastern border, and in the deserts beyond, were still the unre-
lenting enemies of Israel. The latter nation had been nearly destroyed
by the Israelites in the days of Moses, but they had since increased
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greatly, and had become numerous and powerful. They had thirsted
for revenge; and now that the protecting hand of God was withdrawn
from Israel, the opportunity had come. Not alone the tribes east of