Ancient Israel was always in danger of invasion. Their western border was the long Mediterranean coast with the Philistine people living in the southern portion of the coastal region. They had been there since before Abraham’s time.

At the southern edge and up the eastern side of Canaan were the nations Israel defeated on their way into the Promised Land.

Lebanon occupied the region north of Canaan and seems to have maintained a mostly peaceful relationship with Israel.

Over the years the twelve tribes had to come together and fight these enemies many times. God often called unexpected leaders to lead Israel to victory.

Shamgar

Shamgar was a hero in southern Israel who killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad, a long, sturdy pole with an iron spike used to prod oxen. All we know about Shamgar is that God gave him supernatural strength and he saved Israel.

Deborah

About eighty years after Ehud killed the king of Moab and secured peace for Israel in Judges 3:12-30, the Israelites drifted toward idolatry again and the Lord sent Canaanites to punish them.

“Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord . . . so the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan who reigned in Hazor . . . he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron he oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.” Judges 4:2-3

The judge God raised up for this time was the prophet Deborah, wife of Lappidoth. She settled disputes among the Israelites at her court under the Palm of Deborah and she had the authority to summon General Barak and tell him to form an army of ten thousand men from the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.

King Jabin’s kingdom was inside the borders of Naphtali. This was one of the “thorns” that remained in Israel when they failed to drive out the Canaanites, and this “thorn” possessed nine hundred ironclad chariots.

Barak was understandably worried about going to war with Jabin. He refused to go unless Deborah came with him so Deborah went, but she had a word from the Lord for Barak: “Because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Judges 4:9

Women Win the Victory

Only God could have foreseen that Jael would take Sisera’s life. Sisera, the leader of a huge and powerful army that terrified Israel, died at the hands of a woman in the tent where she hid him.

There have been questions over time about why God used women to win this war. The only explanation is that he chose them.

And it wasn’t because the men were reluctant or afraid. God often used reluctant men like Moses or Gideon to accomplish his will. Deborah and Jael were simply faithful, obedient servants of God that he trusted to do great things in his name. He gave Deborah supernatural authority.

After this victory Israel was able to pressure King Jabin until his reign collapsed.

The Song of Deborah

In Judges 5:1-5 Deborah gave a prophet’s-eye-view of God arriving to defeat the Canaanite king. She saw the Lord coming up from the south like a storm, shaking the mountains like an earthquake. She beheld “the Lord, the One of Sinai, the Lord, the God of Israel.” Judges 5:5

Deborah glimpsed some of the glory Moses saw at Mount Sinai.

Among forty thousand men in Israel, not one would take up their sword until Deborah rallied them for war. Only the northern tribes sent volunteers to fight even then.

But when Israel fought, the stars joined in from the heavens, and the river Kishon swept the enemy away. The angel of the Lord cursed the town of Meroz whose men didn’t come to help in the fight. Israel had supernatural help.

But it’s Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite who received acclaim in the song. Deborah described Jael’s treachery toward Sisera, then she imagined what Sisera’s mother said and did while she waited in vain for her son to come home. God got the victory through the quick thinking of a woman.

“So may all your enemies perish, Lord! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.” Judges 5:31

Then the land had peace for forty years.

Raiders and Invaders

The punishment God sent got worse each time Israel returned to their sins. In Judges 6 the Lord gave them to the Midianites who joined with the Amalekites and other eastern people to overrun Israel repeatedly for seven years. When Israel planted crops their enemies swooped in and destroyed or stole everything from the fields and pastures. The Israelites fled to the hills and hid in caves to stay alive. They cried out to the Lord in their misery and poverty.

The people remembered God when they suffered and God responded to them. This time he sent an unnamed prophet to rebuke them.

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. I delivered you from the hand of all of your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.’” Judges 6:8-10

But God had not abandoned Israel.

Gideon

Gideon was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat when the Angel of the Lord came, sat down next to him and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” Judges 6:12

Gideon doubted that the Lord was really with him since he and his people were suffering so much. Besides that, his clan was the weakest one in his tribe, and he was the weakest person in his clan. Nevertheless, the Lord told him,

“Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you? . . . I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” Judges 6:14,16

The Lord Appears

God appeared to Deborah in an earthquake and storm, but he came quietly to Gideon. He appeared as an angel who sat under a tree and spoke to him. When Gideon responded negatively to God’s opening remarks, “The Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have.” Judges 6:14

The same Lord who gave Shamgar the strength to kill six hundred Philistines singlehandedly, was gently persuasive with Gideon. It worked. Gideon began to realize that he was talking with the God of Israel and his response was to worship him.

“Gideon replied, ‘If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.’” Judges 6:17

Gideon prepared a fellowship offering, but God turned it into a burnt offering.

“The angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And Gideon did so. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.” Judges 6:20

Gideon was frightened when he realized he had come face to face with the angel of the Lord. But God spoke gently to him again, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” Judges 6:23

“So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace.” Judges 6:24

Peace is what Gideon needed most. God found him hiding, brooding over his troubles, and believing he was nothing, but the Lord was gentle with him and drew him out. God won Gideon’s heart and he broke with the idolatry of his father’s household.

That night Gideon tore down his father’s altar to Baal and his Asherah pole. He built a proper altar in its place and sacrificed his father’s second bull as a burnt offering to God.

The next day the town’s people wanted to kill Gideon for destroying Baal’s altar, but Gideon’s father pointed out that if Baal was really a god he could defend himself. So the people gave Gideon a new name, Jerub-Baal, and left it to Baal to contend with him.

God came in different ways to different people in Judges. He gave supernatural strength to Shamgar, supernatural authority to Deborah, and supernatural intimacy to Gideon. God enjoys his people and he knows how to shape them to the work he has for them.