And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
Judges 6 begins the story of Gideon. It opens with the cause of everything that follows: Israel's evil, and seven years under Midian. Two questions matter here. Whose hand was really the strongest? And how did the people who conquered the land end up hiding in it?
The verse names the cause before it names the oppressor.
First of all, we are reminded that the unfaithfulness of God's people is what puts power into any enemy's hand. No might of Midian could have prevailed if the Lord had not permitted it. And He would not have permitted it if Israel's condition had not made it necessary. Those who will not learn in communion with God, must do so in the hands of the enemy. "Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God." (Jer. 2:19.)
The raiders had no idea that God was using them. One writer sets them beside Assyria, which God called the rod of His anger.
The Midianites did not know that the LORD had delivered Israel into their hands. In reality they were only the rod with which it pleased Him to punish His people. As with the Assyrian (Isa. 10): "Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!" When He has finished with His rod, He can break it or burn it. "Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?" Satan himself is very often the rod used by God for the discipline of His children.
Set this chapter next to Israel's entrance into the land and the reversal is stark.
What a humiliating picture! What a reverse for the Israel of God! What a contrast to the conquering army that had crossed the Jordan and walked across the ruins of Jericho! How sad, how humbling, to think of Israel hiding in the dens and caves of the mountains, in terror of the Midianites!
The same writer names the evil and what it cost Israel.
Israel's power and glory consisted simply in having the presence of God with them. Without that, they were as water spilled on the ground… But they could not enjoy God's presence while they allowed evil among them. So when Israel forgot their Lord and wandered away from Him into the forbidden paths of idolatry, He had to bring them to their senses by stretching out His governmental rod.
This oppressor was not a stranger. He was family, and God had already told Israel to fight him.
Midian was a near relative of Israel. He descended from Abraham through Keturah, his second wife, and again and again the Midianites cross paths with the chosen people. In the wilderness the LORD spoke to Moses — who had married Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian — and said, "Harass the Midianites and strike them down, for they have harassed you with their wiles." (Num. 25:16-18; Num. 31:1-12.) But now they are in the land itself, though they had never followed the ark across the Jordan… How solemn the warning!
Commentators read the name as a picture of what the world does once it is let in among God's people.
Midian stands for the world, as its history has shown it. The name matches this: it means "strife." "The corruption that is in the world" is "because of sinful desire" (2 Peter 1:4). And "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" (James 4:1.)… These Midianites were Arab raiders. They wandered and plundered, devouring like locusts what they had no will to produce, as the story here shows. This is what the world is when the professing church lets it in: it has no shared interest with the church, but the reverse, and the effect is simply desolation.
Each oppression in this book has its own character. Under Midian, Israel loses its food.
Under Jabin, Israel had no weapons (Judges 5:8). Under the yoke of Midian he was starving. This is what our unfaithfulness costs us, and we always suffer it when we seek our portion with the world. It drags us down and takes away our weapons. Our strength leaves us, and we lose every means of resisting… We notice it by the barrenness that invades the soul when, in our folly, we leave the rich food of the house of God for harvests that are only a mirage of the desert.
- Cause — Israel's evil comes first in the verse, Midian second. No enemy holds power over God's people except what their own unfaithfulness hands him.
- Rod — Midian is a tool, not a master. God lifts the rod, and when He has finished with it He can break it.
- Kin — The oppressor descended from Abraham, and God had already marked him out as a danger. The trouble came from a relative, not a stranger.
- Strife — The name means strife. That is what the world brings once God's people let it in: raiding, not building, and desolation as the result.
- Famine — Seven years of Midian left Israel starving in caves. That is the opposite of the army that walked over the ruins of Jericho. Their one strength was God's presence, and that presence will not stay where evil is allowed.
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites the children of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.
Israel lives in the land God gave them, yet they are the ones hiding underground. The verse raises two questions: how could an enemy bring God's people this low, and what did they lose by hiding?
Israel's safety had never rested on their own numbers.
Israel's power and glory consisted simply in having the presence of God with them. Without that, they were like water spilled on the ground, like the autumn leaf before the wind. But they could not enjoy God's presence while they allowed evil among them. So when Israel forgot their Lord and wandered into the forbidden paths of idolatry, He had to bring them back to their senses. He stretched out His governmental rod and made them feel the crushing power of one or another of the nations around them.
The strength of Midian was never the real issue:
This was not because the Midianites were more powerful than the children of Israel. When God was among them and fighting for them, the size of the enemy did not matter. The battle was already decided... The reason for their condition was their own unfaithfulness. They disobeyed God's plain, clear word: have nothing to do with idolatry, and give Him the place in your affections.
Set the verse beside what this nation once was.
What a humiliating picture! What a contrast to the conquering army that had crossed the Jordan and walked across the ruins of Jericho! How sad to think of Israel crouching and hiding in the dens and caves of the mountains, in terror of the pagan Midianites!
One writer looks past Israel's shame to what the discipline cost God Himself:
They had never sunk so low. To live like wanderers and fugitives in the land of God, in their own land, was a burning disgrace to Israel... Gideon felt this, and he felt it all the more because he knew their slavery under Midian was the Lord's doing. Israel's moral state left Him no choice but to reduce His people to such a shameful condition. What must God have felt, to deal so with those He loved!
God put Israel in that land for a reason. People hiding in holes cannot serve it.
In short, they hid themselves in the earth. God had set them in that land to be a witness for Himself. If they had walked in His ways, their light would have kept shining, and other nations would have learnt how good it was to have Israel's God. But they were no witness for God while they hid in the dens and caves of the earth. It is the same today. God's people whose souls are under the power of earthly things shine no light for Him. Their light is hidden instead of set on the lampstand for all to see.
Commentators read Midian's name as "strife" in two directions. Some see worldliness starting a civil war inside a believer:
Midian means "strife," a fitting name for that spirit of the world which brings the strife of desires into the soul... Look at that happy young Christian: the things of God are his delight, and fellowship with the people of God his only pleasure. But he wanders in heart, and the world finds an entrance. It will not take some blatantly immoral form. He indulges some "harmless pleasure" or forms some "agreeable companionship". Mark the results. Strife with divine things follows.
Others read it of quarrelling among God's people, which leaves them with nothing to feed on:
The food set before the saints is strife and sorrow and backbiting and misrepresentation and cruelties of different kinds. No one can grow spiritually on this food. This was the condition Israel was in. There was no family life, the business life of the nation broke down, and food supply ran very low. In that condition the people were very distressed. It is a very good thing when people do get distressed and cry aloud to God.
The oppression itself taught a lesson about who is fit to rule.
Their enemies ruled over them for a complete period, because they had rebelled against the rule of God. So God teaches them, in the land of blessing and privilege, the contrast between His rule and the rule of man. We are always ruled by someone or something. If not by God, then by that power which is hostile to God and His people. We are often brought under that power so that we may learn how much better God's rule is. Under Him our passions are controlled; under the other our very nature is worn out and harassed. This is a discipline that all God's people can come under.
- Cause: Midian did not overpower Israel. Israel's own unfaithfulness handed them over, because their whole strength was God's presence.
- Cost: the nation that walked over the ruins of Jericho now crouched in caves, like fugitives in their own land. God felt that shame too.
- Concealment: hidden people make poor witnesses. A light in a cave tells the nations nothing about Israel's God.
- Character: Midian means "strife." Some read it as worldliness at war inside one soul, others as quarrelling that starves a whole company.
- Cure: God lets an enemy rule so His people learn how much better His rule is. The distress does its work when it makes them cry out to Him.
And it came to pass when Israel sowed, that Midian came up, and Amalek, and the children of the east, and came up against them.
This verse shows a routine, not a single raid: Israel plants, and three enemy peoples come up together. Why did a nation living in its own land end up farming for its enemies?
The verse ties the raids to the farming year: Midian let Israel sow, then came for what the sowing produced. The cause, though, lay inside Israel.
Those were very dark days in Israel. The land was suffering badly because of the evil of God's people. They sowed their grain, but reaped no harvest. The Midianites came up at harvest time with their cattle and tents, as many as grasshoppers, and destroyed the produce of the land.
Midian and Amalek appear often in Israel's story. "The people of the East" is vaguer, and one Bible dictionary traces the name back to Genesis.
One of the ancient peoples who held the land promised to Abraham, Genesis 15:19. Probably the same as bene-Kedem, "children of the east." Judges 6:3.
So who really beat Israel? One writer points away from Midian's strength.
"And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel." Nothing could have prevailed against them, had they been faithful to the Lord.
Commentators differ on what Midian pictures. Several start from the meaning of the name, and hear a warning about quarrelling among God's people.
The name Midian means "strife" or "contention"… How often we have seen normal conditions in assembly life disrupted among the people of God because of strife and contention. People seek their own way. Strong-willed people make demands about things that ought never to be considered among the people of God… There is very little worship of the Father and the Son. There is very little testimony to the Lord or to the unconverted. And there is precious little food supply.
Midian does not come alone. One writer treats the partners as a pattern.
When crops had been sown, the Midianites would come. Amalekites and others from the east came with them, destroying the produce of the earth (vv. 3-4). Amalek speaks of the lusts of the flesh, which we may always expect to accompany an attitude of strife (Midian). The result of such an attack will also always be to destroy all spiritual growth and prosperity.
Others read the raid as a picture of ordinary earthly things taking over a believer's life. On this reading the invaders are not gross wickedness at all.
Now the things of earth are not necessarily bad and grossly sinful. They are things which may be right and proper when kept in their right place, and they may include God's temporal mercies to us. But if they become our object in life they crowd out the things of Christ and heaven. As a result the sunshine leaves the life, the song leaves the lips, and soul prosperity is at an end.
Israel's land was rich, which made the loss bitter. One writer sees the same hunger in Christians who find nothing in their Bibles.
Midian devours or destroys all the fruits of the earth. Canaan was famous, as parts of it still are today, for its wonderful fertility. God could call it "the glory of all lands," and He promised them they should eat their bread without scarcity. How many of the Lord's people have to complain of their leanness. They find so little food, the Bible is a closed book to them, their souls are suffering a famine. The world has devoured the food. You cannot enjoy the world and enjoy Christ. It is impossible.
Sowing for others to reap is the dark background of a later promise. One writer sets this verse beside days of quiet peace for the same people.
How often had their fathers sown for others to reap! How often had the enemy invaded the land and carried off the produce of the soil! (Judges 6:3, 11.) Their affairs will prosper. God's blessing will be known in their families… "The Lord will bless you out of Zion. May you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you see your children's children, and peace upon Israel."
- Harvest stolen — Israel sowed, and Midian came at harvest. The work fed the enemy, not the workers.
- Harvest lost — the raiders were not too strong. Nothing could have beaten Israel while they stayed faithful to the Lord.
- Harvest attacked twice — Midian never came alone. Commentators read Amalek as the lusts of the flesh, the companion strife always brings.
- Harvest crowded out — others read the invaders as earthly things. They are right in their place, but ruinous once they become life's object.
- Harvest restored — God promises the same nation days when its own work feeds it, with blessing out of Zion.
And they encamped against them, and destroyed the produce of the land, until thou come to Gazah, and they left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
Raiders swept in each year and stripped Israel's fields bare, leaving nothing to eat and nothing to farm with. Two questions press: how did God's people starve in the land God gave them, and what famine does this picture?
The stripping of the land was not bad luck. Commenting on the whole passage, one writer fixes the blame before describing the damage.
"And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel." Nothing could have prevailed against them, had they been faithful to the Lord.
Midian was not a stranger. The nation descended from Abraham through his second wife Keturah, which makes their presence in Canaan all the more painful.
But now they are in the land itself, though they had never followed the ark across the Jordan; "and Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites." How solemn the warning!
The picture in the verse is of plunderers, not settlers. They had no interest in building anything up.
These Midianites — some think "Midian" is really connected with the modern word "Bedouin" — were Arab raiders, wandering pillagers, devouring like locusts what they had no will to produce, as the story here shows. This is what the world is when it is let into the professing church: it has no shared interest with it, but the opposite; the effect is simply desolation.
The verse marks how far the ruin reached. That place name may carry more weight than a map reference.
Notice, too, the connection with the Philistines, whose name we have seen means "wanderers"… "As far as Gaza" is no mere geographical limit. "In those days, as in later times, Gaza was the great market for stolen goods, brought there by the Bedouins from their raids." It would be natural for Philistines to join Israel's enemies.
One writer draws a straight line from the meaning of the name Midian to an empty table.
The name Midian means 'strife' or 'contention'… How often we have seen strife and contention disrupt normal life among God's people, with people seeking their own way… There is very little worship of the Father and the Son, very little testimony to the Lord or to the unconverted, and precious little food supply. What the saints are asked to feed on is strife and sorrow and backbiting and misrepresentation and cruelties of different kinds. No spiritual growth is possible on this food.
One writer turns "no sustenance" on the believer who goes looking for life in the world.
Under the yoke of Midian, Israel went hungry — the result of our unfaithfulness, which we always suffer from when we seek our portion with the world. It drags us down and takes away our weapons. Our strength leaves us, and we lose every means of standing firm. Even the sources of life are missing, for the world never feeds anyone. We see it in the barrenness that invades the soul. In our folly we leave the richness of the house of God for harvests that are only a mirage of the desert. This was Israel's experience; Midian "left no sustenance" for him (v. 4).
Canaan was rich land, which makes this emptiness sharper. Another writer finds the same emptiness in Christians who cannot explain their own leanness.
Canaan was known for its wonderful fertility, as parts of it still are today. God could call it "the most glorious of all lands," and He promised them they would eat their bread without scarcity. How many of the Lord's people have to complain of their leanness! They find so little food, the Bible is a closed book to them, their souls are suffering a famine. The world has devoured the food. You cannot enjoy the world and enjoy Christ. It is impossible.
Israel's hunger was not the end of the story. The same writer traces what their cry produced.
The people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD… First, the Lord sent a prophet to bring their sin home to their conscience, and then He sent an angel to raise up a deliverer. He finds Gideon threshing wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
- Cause — The harvest was not stolen by an unstoppable force. Faithfulness would have kept Midian out; unfaithfulness let the raiders in.
- Character — Midian devoured what it never planted. That is what the world does wherever the church lets it in: it gives nothing and leaves desolation.
- Cost — Strife empties the table. Where contention rules among God's people, worship, witness and food all dry up.
- Condition — "No sustenance" is the believer's own symptom: a closed Bible, a lean soul, a lost appetite. You cannot feed on the world and on Christ at once.
- Cure — The famine drove Israel to cry out, and God answered: a prophet for the conscience, then a deliverer. Emptiness is meant to end in that cry.
For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number; and they entered into the land to destroy it.
Judges 6:5 pictures an invasion as a locust swarm. Who were these raiders, why could God's own nation not stop them, and what does their stripping of the land still picture?
These invaders were not strangers. They came from the same family line as Israel.
Midian was a close relative of Israel, descended from Abraham through Keturah, his second wife. Again and again they come into contact with the chosen people. In the wilderness the Lord spoke to Moses. Moses had married Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian. The Lord said, "Harass the Midianites and strike them down, for they have harassed you with their wiles." (Num. 25:16-18; Num. 31:1-12.) But now they are in the land itself, though they had never followed the ark across the Jordan. "And Israel was brought very low because of Midian." How solemn the warning!
Even the name of these raiders carries a warning for God's people.
The name Midian means "strife" or "contention." How often we have seen normal conditions among God's people disrupted by strife and contention. People seek their own way. Strong-willed people make demands about things that ought never to be considered among God's people. There are personal or family animosities, parties forming, and strife among the saints of God. There is very little worship of the Father and the Son, very little testimony to the Lord or to the unconverted, and certainly precious little food supply.
So why could Israel not hold them off? The problem was not the size of the swarm.
"And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel." Nothing could have prevailed against them, had they been faithful to the Lord.
Verse 5 mentions tents and livestock — the equipment of settlers, not of a passing raid. The reach of the occupation is measured by the text itself.
Scripture describes the oppression in great detail. This helps us see clearly who these Midianites are spiritually. For fear of them the children of Israel are driven to dig dens and caves for shelter. They settled down on the land. With them came the Amalekites and a mixed crowd of eastern tribes. Like a plague of locusts, they destroyed all food and provision. Unlike the Moabites, they did not settle on the borders of the land at Jericho. They swept like a destructive plague over the whole territory, "as far as Gaza," the stronghold of the Philistines.
Locusts strip a field they never sowed. One writer carries that picture over into the church.
These Midianites were Arab raiders and wandering plunderers. Some think the name "Midian" is really connected with the modern word "Bedouin." Like locusts, they devoured what they had no will to produce, as the story here shows. This is what the world is when it is let into the professing church. It has no shared interest there, but the opposite. The effect is simply desolation.
These raiders never stayed still. That restless energy is the warning.
There is an energy in these hordes that marks an enemy constantly on the move. He is always looking for new points of attack. We hardly need reminding how active Satan is to bring people under the power of the world. Before we know it, some small opening has made a way, and the enemy has come in like a flood. Let us not think of the spirit of worldliness as something slow-moving. It is cunning and active, and its name is legion.
The same stripping still happens quietly. One writer names three losses that follow.
Oh, it is pitiful! This is the sad case of thousands of once-flourishing Christians. They have been overcome not by gross sinfulness, nor even by worldliness, but by the "things of earth"! "The family, the business, the things of this life must be attended to," they say. So they neglect the things of Christ, which are their true and proper portion as God's people. Note carefully the threefold result: (1) No fruit for God. (2) No light for others. (3) No provision for themselves.
- Kin. Midian came from Abraham through Keturah. The enemy was born inside the family — close enough to know Israel, hostile enough to strip it.
- Cause. Numbers did not defeat Israel; unfaithfulness did. Nothing could have prevailed against them had they stayed faithful to the Lord.
- Settlement. The tents and livestock show an occupation, not a raid. The swarm settled down and swept the land as far as Gaza.
- Appetite. Like locusts, they devoured what they had no will to produce. That is the world let into the church: it gives nothing and leaves desolation.
- Cost. The harvest is stripped before it feeds anyone. The same loss today: no fruit for God, no light for others, no provision for yourself.
And Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian. And the children of Israel cried to Jehovah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.