DEPRAVITY WITHOUT GOD PART 5: Hewers or Drivers and Filler of Drawers

Pictured are a group of "Hewers or Drivers" standing on or by their work. These are members of my family. The man standing beneath the X is my great grandfather, William Townsley. He and his brother, Jim, owned the lumber business.

 Chapter 5 of Judges ends with these word in Verse 31 according to the English Standard Version: And the land had rest for forty years

In the NIV the is translated as: Then the land had peace for 40 years.

Rest and peace do not last.

Chapter 6: 1-2 begins with the old familiar reframe with the usual result: The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

See the map. Midian would have covered a large chunk of what is

now Saudi Arabia and Yemen, running north from the Gulf of Aqaga along the east shore of  the Red Sea. It was located in part of what was called the Levant, which we spoke of before in our studies. When you hear the name ISIL remember it stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. See, this stuff goes back to the beginnings. There is nothing new under the sun. 

The name Midian came from a son of Abraham, who had that name. He was the fourth son of Abraham and his wife Keturah. Yeah, you don’t hear much about this woman. We hear about Sarah, who bore Abraham’s promised son Isaac and we hear about Hagar, with whom he had Ishmael, but Keturah kind of gets lost in the shuffle. He married her after the death of Sarah. The name may mean incense. There are even some who claim Keturah was really Hagar come back reformed, but that is not a general belief. It is mostly based because in 1 Chronicles 1:32 Keturah is called Abraham’s concubine. Concubine was a subtle way of saying “kept woman”. But In Genesis 25: we are told Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. Again, her spousal status was challenged because in Genesis 25:5-6 we are told: Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country. The east country most likely would have been Midian. No further Scriptural references are made to Keturah. 

This is the 1630 “Venice Haggadah” illustration depicting Abraham and his wives and sons.  In the center are Abraham with Sarah and Isaac. To the left stand Hagar and Ishmael, while on the right is Keturah with her six sons. The fourth boy from the left with Keturah is Midian. (Haggadah means “telling” and are used to set the order of the seder at the Jewish Passover.) 

We have touched on Midian in other lessons. Midianites had come across Joseph and purchased him from his brothers, later selling him to Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. (Genesis 37: 28) Midian is where Moses fled after he killed the Egyptian and where he met his wife, Zipporah (Exodus 2:11-22). You may remember we talked about Moses father-in-law, Jethro, being a Midian Priest (Exodus 2:16). Jethro was also called Reuel and was a founder of the religion Druze.

Anyway there was along history between Israel and Midian and now God had given the Israelites over to the Midianites for seven years .The Midianites in turn destroyed everything Israel had, coming like a swarm of locust and the Israelites fled into the mountains, dwelling in caves. And of course,  they again turned to God and begged for relief.

God sent a prophet. He is the unknown prophet, probably raised up by God for this purpose. There are Jewish claims that this prophet was Phinehas, a grandson of Aaron. Phinehas is most noted for his fury at a Israelite man who brought a Midianite woman

home as his wife. Phinehas grabbed a spear, went to the man’s tent and ran both through as they were making love. (Numbers 25:1-18) But by the time of the Midianites oppression in Judges, Phinehus would have had to be over 200 years old, so it is unlikely this prophet was him. This prophet, whomever he was, declared:

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.”(Judges 6:8-10)

A new hero is about to be called to rescue the Israelites. Verse 11 of Chapter 6 states: Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

Who is the angel of the Lord? Throughout the Scriptures you will find references to “angels of the Lord”, “an angel of the Lord” and “the angel of the Lord.” The angel of the Lord is first used in Genesis 16:7, appearing before Hagar, “The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur;” and lastly in Zechariah 12:8, where Zechariah is giving a vision of the future, “On that day the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord, going before them.”

Whenever the definite article is used, “THE angel of the Lord”, it tells us this is a physical appearance of God who is seen or speaking. The angel of the Lord is a term never used in Scripture after the birth of Jesus. (Some Bible versions did use The angel of the Lord in Matthew 28:2, but most translations have corrected this to “An angel of the Lord.”)

So what we have here is God sitting under the terebinth, which is a tree in the cashew family and once a source of turpentine, in case you wanted to know.

Joash, the owner of the tree, has a son who is beating out wheat in the winepress at that moment. Now why is he beating out wheat in the winepress, you may ask. He is trying to hide the wheat from the Midians; otherwise, they will swoop down and take it like they have been taking everything else of the Israelites. The angel of the Lord called to this young man and said, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 

Th young man is Gideon, probably the second best known hero in

Judges. We will get to the first in a later lesson. People may be familiar with Gideon’s fleeces, but they probably  know him best from finding Bibles in hotel and motel rooms when they travel. A lot less such places do this now than years ago, but there are still a lot of hotels and motels that do; although these days you might find a Book of Mormon in the desk drawer along with the Gideon Bible. I am not certain why the Gideons choose his name for their organization. I don’t see anything related to this Bible distribution in his story. 

I do find Gideon something like myself, cynical, skeptical and cautious. Look at the cynicism in Gideon’s conversation with the angel of the Lord.

And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” Judges 6:11-13

A lot of terrible things are happening to Israel at that time. Those Midianites are swooping in and snatching up all the products Israel produces, leaving them with little. And Israel has been so terrified by these Midianites that they are fleeing into the mountains and living in caves. I think a lot of us might ask God the same question in our times. Maybe the answer would be we are basically engaged in the same thing, disobedience.

Take note, God doesn’t give Gideon any direct answer.

And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” Judges 6:14 

So Gideon asks the next logical question. Probably just what I would ask if God told me to go save the United States.

And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” Judges 6:15

Gideon gets the answer that Israel had forgotten since they crossed the Jordan River, the thing we need to remember ourselves when faced with difficulty. It is certainly something I often struggle with remembering.

And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

And [Gideon] said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.”

And [The Angel of the Lord] said, “I will stay till you return.” (Judges 6:16-18)

This is where the skepticism and caution comes in.

So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour, which is a little more than a bushel. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them.

And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. Judges 6:19-24

Ophrah is a city near Mount Moreh in the Valley of Jezreel, where Taybeh, a Palestinian city stands today. Abiezrite was a grandson of Manasseh and the son of Gilead. Joash and Gideon were of this clan.

When the Angel of the Lord vanished, Gideon realized who had been speaking to him. That night the Lord came back to him and said: Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due  order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. (Judges 6:25-27).

What can we gather from this passage?

Well, for one, despite the Lord calling Gideon mighty, he was more like mighty fearful. He is afraid of his family and he is afraid of the townspeople. He does what God told him, but he waits until night when he won’t be seen, except by his ten servants. 

It also tells us his father was like the other Israelites in having other gods before The Lord. He has his own alter to Baal and an Asterah Pole. Such poles were set up as religious locations to honor the mother-goddess Asherah. Jeremiah referred to Asherah as the Queen of Heaven (jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 44:17-25)  She was also known as Hera, Astarte and Isis. Modern Pagans consider  her the Great Goddess.

Modern Asherah Poles.

When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” Judges 6:28-30 

Ut oh! What is going to happen to our boy Gideon now. The mob has come with torches and pitchforks demanding his life?

As the movie serials use to say: To be continued…

DEPRAVITY WITHOUT GOD PART 4: WONDER WOMAN ARISES!

Now where was I?

Oh, yes Israels recurring theme:

Oops, I did it again

I played with your heart, got lost in the game

Oh baby, baby

Oops…

The people of Israel did it again, they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

This time God got so angry with the Israelites turning their backs on him again that “The Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, King of Canaan.” 

This may raise an eyebrow or two…perhaps. That name Jabin appeared before back in Joshua 11:1-14. This first occurrence happened just after the day that the Lord made the sun stand, as told in Joshua 10. Joshua was leading the invasion into the Promise Land after having destroyed Jericho and Ai. He now destroyed a collation of five king and took Southern Canaan.

In Joshua 11 we read that Jabin, King of Hazor, formed his own collision of kings when he heard what Joshua was doing and they went to battle against the Israelites. Here was the result:

And they came out with all their troops, a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. And all these kings joined their forces and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.

And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.” So Joshua and all his warriors came suddenly against them by the waters of Merom and fell upon them. And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel, who struck them and chased them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephoth-maim, and eastward as far as the Valley of Mizpeh. And they struck them until he left none remaining. And Joshua did to them just as the Lord said to him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.

And Joshua turned back at that time and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms. And they struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction; there was none left that breathed. (Joshua 11:4-11)

So wait a minute, if Joshua killed this guy Jabin and burnt down his city and killed his army, why are we speaking of Jabin again? Did he come back to life? 

No, as it turned out Jabin wasn’t the name of an individual, it was a title and it meant wise. Whether these men who got that title over time were really so wise is not for me to say. We know from archeological digs there were at least four men with the title of Jabin that ruled at times in Canaan. After the death of Ehud, when the Israelites turned to unfaithfulness again, God sold them to the latest Jabin.

This word “sold” in Hebrew literally means to sell, as sell into slavery. So once again the Israelites found themselves in slavery to some other nation, this time to the nation they were supposed to go into and totally destroy and take over and call Israel. This was the land God had promised to Abraham, but the weak-kneeded, weak-willed Israelites failed to take it. See what can happen when you disobey God. This is where depravity without God leads. Depravity is to be in slavery to sin and the wages of sin is death. And don’t think we aren’t recognizing ourselves in the behavior of the Israelites. We recognize this truth: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Now, the commander of this particular Jabin’s army was a man named Sisera and he had under him 900 iron chariots, a formidable force like Patton and his tanks. He cruelly suppressed the Israelites for 20 years.

At that time a woman was sitting as Judge over the Israelis. It wasn’t Britany Spears, whose song “Oops, I Did It Again” we quoted earlier. It was Deborah.

She was a prophetess. What exactly does that mean?

There are a couple of possibilities. The Hebrew word neveya, translated prophetess, indicates an inspired woman, probably a poetess. It also hints that a prophetess was the wife of a prophet. It is said Deborah was married to Lapidoth, so perhaps he was a prophet. We don’t know very much about this guy, other than he was married to Deborah. In fact, the word Lapidoth in Hebrew is a proper famine noun meaning torches. Strongs translates it as “the husband of Deborah in the time of the judges.” Therefore, maybe Lapidoth was not actually her husband’s name, just her husband. (Deborah, by the way, means Bee and she is about to do some stinging.)

There are two Deborahs in Scripture. You’ll find the first one in Genesis 36:8, when she dies. This Deborah was Rebecca’s nurse and she was greatly admired by Jacob and his family. To honor her she was buried under an oak tree and he called the site, Allon-bacuth, which means “the oak of weeping”. The Deborah we are about to talk about could be found alive beneath a tree as well. It was not a fig tree, just so you know.

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I am curious about something, but have not been able to find out why Deborah Hospital was named Deborah or which of these Deborahs it was named for, if either. I lean toward the first Deborah, only because this is a hospital and she was a nurse.

The Deborah we are concerned with dwelt under a palm tree on Mount Ephraim. You may recall it was to Mount Ephraim that Ehud fled after he killed Eglon back in Judges 3:27, and there he blew a trumpet that rallied the Israelites to defeat the Moabites. This of course was where the tribe of Ephraim settled. It is central mountain country in Israel that reaches from Bethel, were we just learned the first Deborah was buried, to the plain of Jezreel  where much of the Battle of Armageddon will take place. It is to a hill in Ephraim that people come to Deborah to receive judgements.

This was certainly not a good time for the Israelites. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, (remember him with his Ox Goal?) in the days of Jael (we’ll get to her in a bit), the highways were abandoned and travelers kept to the byways. (Judges 5:6)

At this time the Israelites again called on God for mercy. And God in turn tapped Deborah as their new savior.

The villagers ceased in Israel;they ceased to be until I arose; I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. (Judges 5:7 “The Song of Deborah”)

Deborah sent for a man named Barak. This is another person we do not know a great deal about. He appears mostly in Chapters 4 and 5 of Judges. He is mentioned in 1 Samuel 12:1, but it is a brief reference to the battle in Judges. In Hebrews 11:32, known as the “faith chapter” he receives a sort of honorable mention along with a few others that the Epistle Writer doesn’t feel he has time to really go into.

We do know that Barak’s father was named Abinoam, which means “My father is pleasantness” and he was a man of Kedesh-Naphtali, once a very large city. Barak’s mother was from the Tribe of Benjamin. 

Remember Lapidoth, the husband of Deborah? One point of interest perhaps is that Lapidoth means  “torches” and Barak means

“Lightening”. Recall that there is some question whether Laoidoth was actually a proper name when it says he was married to Deborah. This has led some to speculate that Lapidoth and Barak were the same man. Not a lot to go on, but we do see a close relationship between Deborah and Barak, so it is credible.. Nevertheless whatever may be, Deborah calls Barak to her and orders him to take ten thousand men of the Naphtali and Zebulum tribes toward Mount Tabor as commanded by God.

Mount Tabor is in lower Galilee in the eastern Jezreel Valley. This mount is where it is believed that Jesus’ Transfiguration took place. It is also considered to be part of the valley where Armageddon will occur.

Deborah tells Barak that God has promised he will deliver Sisera, the enemy commander, into his hands. Oddly, Barak bulks a little and puts a condition on his going forth to this battle. He will only fight if Deborah goes with him. This is curious for Deborah is a woman and Barak is a man, yet he is deferring to her in this battle. 

And she agrees to go, but warns Barak that if she does he will not receive the honor from the Lord for this victory. She says, “The Lord shall sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” This statement has caused controversy and been long debated, as we shall see.

Deborah arose and went with Barak and the army to Mount Tabor.

Sisera was told by a man named Heber that Barak was at Mount Tabor. I had a Uncle Heber. He wasn’t named for this particular Heber who squealed on where Barak was, for that man was something of a traitor to the Israelites. My Uncle was probably named for Heber, the great-grandson of Shem, Noah’s son (Genesis 11:15-16: he was also called Eber.). The name Hebrews came from his name. Allegedly, Heber and his family refused to help in the construction of the Tower of Babel and as a result they retained the original language of man, which was then called Hebrew.

Sisera led his chariots and warriors to Mount Tabor where he met

Barak and the Israelites. A very nosy battle ensued. By the end Barak chased down the Chariots and all this army fell before the Lord and were killed, except Sisera, who jumped from his chariot and fled on foot, deserting his army to their fate as he attempted to save his own skin.

He ran through a woods, ducking here and there until he came to the tent of that stool pigeon Heber, the Kenite.  Perhaps he felt Heber, because he was an ally of the King Jabin would protect him, but Heber was no where in sight, so Sisera loitered outside his tent.

He was found there by Jael who was Heber’s wife. She told Sisera to go into her dwelling and rest. He lay down and asked for a drink of water. She gave him a bottle of milk to drink instead and then covered him with with a mantle to keep him warm. Sisera tells her to stand guard at the door and send away anyone who enquires of him. Soon, Sisera falls asleep.

Obviously, Sisera is reasonably tired. He fought in a brutal battle and then ran some distance through a woods. Falling asleep does not sound out of line and probably the milk and mantle Jael gave him helped him ease into rest. In fact, according to Judges 5:25, she not only gave him the milk to drink, she also gave him a bowl of butter, which he ate. It says it was a royal bowl, so most likely it was a creamy butter sauce of some sort, which would have had sleepiness qualities.

Jewish tradition says Jael went further than this. According to ancient Jewish texts, Jael had sex with Sisera seven times in order to exhaust him and make him sleep.

After Jael observed Sisera was indeed slumbering, she took a tent

nail and a  hammer and crept beside him. She pounded the nail through his temples into the ground and Sisera died.

This is put this way in Judges 5:24-27, part of the “Song of Deborah”:

Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed.

He asked for water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl.

She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple.

Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.

Could not these stories have flickered across our TV screens on the evening news? The violence of the acts, the deaths. These are people just like us, but I know it is hard to put that human face on characters who existed thousands of years ago. We have no back story on Sisera and Jael. Why did he expect protection from this woman? Was it because Heber had told him where Barak was? Perhaps he knew where Heber lived and sought out his dwelling as a safe house. But what was his relationship to Jael and what were her feelings about what her husband had done in separating from their people? Was the Jewish tradition about Sisera and Jael true? Did she seduce him to tire him or was it rape? Whatever had happened between Sisera and Jael, she apparently held a great deal of pent up anger against him. Why this is like a modern day soap opera.

Now lets really put a human face on the death of Sisera. As Jael sat by the body of the man she had just killed, another woman sat and stared out a window:

The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?

Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,

Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?(Judges 5:28-30 KJV)

Even brutal warlords have a mother; and mothers and wives and love ones wait for their sons and husbands and fathers to return from battle. The mother of Sisera waits and wonders why it is taking so long to dispatch of the Israelites, and she fully expects that to be the outcome. She ponders, consoling herself that the delay is due to the division of spoils after the victory. She understands what spoils there will be. There will be Israeli women for the soldiers to have their way with, plus valuables to split among them. One such valuable would be the finely sewn silk material she believed Sisera would bring as a gift to her and her ladies. The best of this silk would go to those of rank and Sisera ranked the highest, so she could expect the best of colored silks.

We are left with that mother’s longings, but the woman’s son will not be returning to her. She will soon be wearing grieving blacks, not silks of color.

When Barak finally arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael met him outside and took him to the corpse. The summation is: Thus God subdued Jabin the King of Canaan and delivered Sisera into the Israelite’s hand. 

At the beginning, when Barak asked Deborah to go with him to the battle, Deborah had told Barak that the Lord would sell Sisera into the hands of a woman. The question has remained. Which was the woman, Deborah or Jael?

There may be a clue in Judges 5:24 Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

Deborah would remain as a prophetess and judge. Israel would have peace and rest for the next 40 years.

I wonder what happened within those 40 years?

Play the recurring theme, maestro.