Anyway, Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan. The critics spend a lot of time on Moses parting the red sea, claiming it was a shallow place where strong winds blew at certain times of year, which cause a gap of dry land to appear seasonally, and thus the parting of the Red Sea was no big miracle at all. For some reason they don’t seem eager to jump on Joshua and the parting of the Jordan River, though. Joshua led the whole of the Israelite nation across the Jordan on dry ground. The critics can’t say it was a shallow place. It was high tide for the river coming doing the harvest season.
Oh well, you critics can’t win them all.
But Joshua did win at Jericho (God did actually) and the walls of the city tumbled down. Of course, archeologists think Jericho may have been the oldest city in the world, so maybe it was just so old it turned to dust when those trumpets blew.
Now Joshua died after he had divided the land between the tribes. And all the older generation, which had come out of Egypt with Moses and Joshua were passed away. A new, younger generation arose and they did evil in the sight of God. They served Baal and Ashtoreth, (pictured on right) because they had not done what God had ordered by totally wiping out those peoples of Canaan. Instead they intermarried and then they began to forsake God for the deities of these people, and these were evil.
Baal was a horrific god worshipped by those of the Levant. The countries considered part of Levant are Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey. The name ISIL (also known as Isis) stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Note that Israel was considered part of the Levant.
The gods these people, and whom Israel began adopting, were Baal and Ashtoreth sometimes called Asherah). Baal was believed to have power over wind, rain and fertility. It times of crisis, the Baal worshipers sacrificed children to the God, especially the first born. Consider Baal the god of abortion.
Ashtoreth was a fertility goddess often depicted nude with exaggerated genitals. She was not only the mother of Baal; she was also his mistress. Hows that for a twisted family? She was worshipped through the practice of sex and this led to religious prostitution. The people commonly engaged in obscene public sexual acts with these prostitutes.
Upon Joshua’s death God had raises up Judges, but the Israelites wouldn’t harken to the Judges, and when these initial Judges were dead, the people corrupted themselves even more. God was so angry he would no longer drive out their enemies. After a while he allowed Israel to fall into the hands of their enemies until finally the people cried out to him.
And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
And it came to pass, when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the Lord. (Judges 2:1-5) [Bochim means "weepers"]
Not only wouldn’t God go before the Israelites and drive out the others in the land, God was so angry with them for their unfaithfulness, he gave them over to the rule of the Mesopotamian King, Chushanrishathaim, who demanded their servitude for eight years. They were getting right back to where they were in Egypt.
Now the Israelites stopped ignoring God and cried out for his help, and then God raised up a new deliverer for them out of the tribe of Judah. This man was the son of Kenaz, who was the younger brother of Caleb.
Those Israelites slid right back to evil ways.
You must keep these things in mind. We think America is pretty strong militarily and we take some comfort in our might. We better consider where our faithfulness to God is instead. Remember God gave the Israelites over to Mesopotamia, then rescued them. Now God strengthened the King of Moab, named Eglon. God allowed Eglon to conquer the Israelites. We have a long history of God allowing countries to take over those who once looked to him and then slid away. The Israelites became the servants of Moab for the next 18 years, after which they cried again to God.
People may not be faithful, but God is, if the people turn back to him. This time God raised up the son on one Gera, a Benjamite.
This man was named Ehud. Ehud has become something of a popular name with modern Jews. In fact, two of Israel’s ministers were named Ehud: Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert. The true meaning of the name isn’t known, but it has been conjectured that it means either Unity or Glory. Either of these worked for this Ehud that God raised up.
Ehud was left-handed and this proved beneficial to him. The people prepared a present for Eglon, King of Moab, and choose Ehud to deliver it. After all, he was God’s new deliverer.
Ehud made himself a short sword, a dagger actually, one with two very sharp edges. It was a foot and a half long. Ehud strapped this weapon on his right thigh hidden beneath his clothes. He traveled to Eglon’s place and there the present was presented. Ehud told him he had a secret errand for the king, so Eglon sent every one else out of his parlor and locked the doors.
The doors were shut and these two men were alone. Ehud approached the King and said he had a message from God. He arose and came to Eglon while at the same time reaching with his left hand and drawing the dagger strapped to his right thigh. He plunged this 18 inch dagger into Eglon’s belly up to the hilt.
Eglon was a obesely overweight man; that is, he was fat. (Warning, this gets a bit gross here.) The whole dagger had sunk into his flesh and Ehud could not pull it out. It went in so deep that the content of his bowel’s leaked out.
This also proved beneficial for Ehud escape.
When Eglon’s guards came to reenter the chamber they found the doors locked. They also smelled the foul odor and deduced that the King must be in the closet relieving himself, or as they delicately put it: “Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber.”. They did not want to disrupt such a private moment and embarrass their king, so they waited. And they waited and waited until they felt foolish waiting and broke in. All they found was their king dead on the floor and Ehud gone.
Ehud escaped to his own territory and there blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim rallying his troops behind him. His people followed him down the mount as he shouted, “Follow after me: for the Lord hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand!” They went down and conquered Moab without the loss of a single Israelite and Ehud ruled over Israel for the next 80 years. (Judges 3:9-30)
Immediately after Ehud, God raised up Shamgar, the son of Anath. Anath is a curious name. Anath was something or someone set apart to God, so devoted to God that it could not be redeemed and so it also came to mean accursed, an anathema. There is also the Arab town of Anath, called Anathoth in Joshua 21:18, a Benjamite village named as a City of Refuge. This was also the home town of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1).
We are not given any introductory information in the Bible about Shamgar, where he was from or anything about how long he might have ruled, if indeed he did, only that he came after Ehud and that he delivered Israel as well by slaying 600 Philistines with an ox goad. (Judges 3:31) He is briefly mentioned again in Judges 5:6 as part o what is called the Song of Deborah.
You know, in fact, Shamgar, with his bid stick, known as an Ox Goad, may not even ruled over Israel at all. He may have just popped up on the scene when they needed a strong man to kill a lot of Philistines, because the next thing the Bible really tells us is the “Children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud was dead.” (Judges 4:1)
Yes, they did it again. It is like when the cat is away, the mice will play, or maybe in this case we should say cats. Every time God raises up a protective cat and the cat dies, the Israeli mice turn to evil. They just don’t learn.
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