Training the Teacher

by A. F. Schauffler; Martin Grove Brumbaugh; Antoinette Abernethy Lamoreaux; Marion Lawrance

Joshua and the Judges

45. Joshua Becomes Leader.—At the death of Moses we see Israel on the east side of the Jordan, opposite Jericho. Joshua succeeds Moses as leader. To him comes God's command, "Moses, my servant, is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan." (Josh. 1:2.) Note here no sign of discouragement. Moses may be dead, but God still lives, and will work through Joshua as well as through Moses. Notice in the orders given by God to Joshua that no mention at all is made of sword, spear, or bow, but only of obedience. This is emphasized again and again and rightly, for in obedience to God's law lay Israel's hope (read Josh. 1:6-9).

46. Now follows the contest for the possession of the land. Jericho is taken, but at Ai defeat is experienced, on account of disobedience. So Israel learns a costly but salutary lesson. Then follows the conquest of the central part of Palestine, ending at Shechem. Next in turn came southern Palestine, and then the northern part of the land (Josh. 10:1 to 11). Yet at the close of Joshua's life, not all of the land had been taken possession of. Still the heathen tribes held on in various places; and, indeed, they were not thoroughly subdued until the time of David.

47. Reading the Laws of Moses.—Worthy of note was the great assemblage at Shechem, between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, in the very center of the land, where the law of Moses was read, with its blessings and curses, to all the people (Josh. 8:30-35). Noteworthy also is the final address of the aged Joshua to his people, at Shechem, beseeching them to obey the law of Moses, recorded in chapter 24.

48. The Period of the Judges.—After the death of Joshua, the people seem to have become more or less disorganized. The tribes ruled themselves—at times well, and at times ill. During the times of the Judges the general trend of their history was as follows: Israel would fall into sin, and then as a punishment God allowed their foes whom they had spared to rule over them. Then in due time Israel would "lament after the Lord," that is, repent and call on the God of their fathers for deliverance. Then God would allow them respite, and by the hand of some one of the judges, whom he raised up, would give them deliverance (see Judg. 2:11-18). The chronology of the book of Judges is not very clear, and it is most probable that there were times when the "oppression" was not felt over all the land, but was only sectional. Just the lines for a right chronology are uncertain.

49. Comparison of Periods of Oppression and Deliverance.—Now if we desire in a general way to judge as to the proportion of godliness as compared with idolatry, that prevailed in these times, we can do so by adding up the years of "oppression" and those of deliverance. This will afford us a rough criterion as to the way in which Israel obeyed and disobeyed their God. For remember that the "oppressions" were the result of disobedience, while the "deliverances" were the result of true repentance. Worked out in this way, we have the following statement, in which the name stands for the country to which the people were in temporary bondage:

Mesopotamia, bondage 8 years,—rest 32 years.
Moab, bondage 18 years,—rest 22 years.
Canaan, bondage 20 years,—rest 20 years.
Midian, bondage 7 years,—rest 32 years.
Philistia and Ammon, bondage 18 years,—rest 7, 10, and 8 years.
Philistia, bondage 40 years,—rest 20 years.

Adding all these up, we find that the people were in bondage in whole or in part for 111 years, while they had "rest" as the result of their repentance for 151 years. Without pressing this mathematical calculation too far, we must nevertheless conclude that for more than half the time the nation at large obeyed God fairly well.

50. Great Leaders among the Judges.—Deborah and Barak, who, by their combined forces drove out the oppressors of Canaan, under Jabin their king. This man had mightily oppressed the people, he having nine hundred chariots of iron, against which poor Israel could bring no corresponding force. Yet when the Lord's time came, he was able to overthrow the armies of Jabin, through the courage and combination of the two persons named. Then the land had rest for forty years. (For a wonderful setting of the song of triumph that Deborah and Barak sang, let the student turn to Professor Moulton's "Literary Study of the Bible," pp. 133-142.)

51. After this came the terrible oppression of the Midianites, who, with their camels, their flocks, and herds came on the land like grasshoppers, and ate up everything. Fortunately this oppression lasted only for seven years, otherwise there would have been nothing left. The deliverance from the hosts of Midian came through Gideon, whose three hundred men with torches and trumpets wrought havoc among the Midianite army. What the three hundred at Thermopylæ were to Greece, that this three hundred were to the people of Israel.

52. Another terrible experience of Israel was that which came to them in connection with their oldtime foes, the Philistines and the Ammonites. Study the story as told in Judges 10:6-18, together with the narrative of their deliverance under Jephthah. Here the student will see clearly set forth the cause of the "oppression," verses 6-9, and the cause of the deliverance, verses 10-18. Jephthah was a rude man of his times, but then we must realize that rude times call for violent men.

53. The only other case to which attention is called here that of the longest of all the periods of oppression,—the second under the Philistines, which lasted forty years. Here it was Samson who was to deliver the people from the iron hand of the Philistines, and it took the iron hand of a Samson to do the work.

54. Not a Time of National Unity.—During all these many years, the government of the people was largely that of the tribal leaders. There was not the national unity that we saw in the days of their two great leaders, Moses and Joshua. Nor was there the same unity of action that came later on under the kings. But none the less, the great need of the people during these years was not so much political as religious. Had they only obeyed the commands of God as given to Moses, and as reiterated by the angel of the Lord to Joshua, God would not have permitted them to be ground under the heel of their oppressors as they were. We fail to read the story aright unless we seize the truth that righteousness exalts a people, while sin is a reproach to any nation. This truth has its modern as well as its ancient application.