Study In Judges Presentation 005

Shamgar And Deborah Chapter 3v31-4v34 Presentation 005

Introduction Presentation 005 The judge-ship of Shamgar, occupies one solitary verse. A further reference is found in 5v6-8, from which we may gather something about the conditions of his time - highways unoccupied, because of infestation by the enemy Philistines, villages evacuated, with the people deprived of any weaponry with which to defend themselves. It was obviously a period of great turbulence and dislocation of normal life. In this context we are to understand Shamgar’s solitary exploit. The ox goad used to slay the Philistines may suggest he was a farmer although the significance of the reference may lie in the fact that there were no weapons of war available. cf the Home Guard in WWII undertook the defence of the realm with similar implements because rifles were not available.

Shamgar Presentation 005 The fact that nothing is said of Israel doing evil in the sight of the Lord and that there is no reference to the Philistines oppressing Israel at the time, lends force to the conjecture that Shamgar’s exploit took place during the judgeship of Ehud, and that he may not have been a judge after the usual pattern, but simply a daring patriot who triumphed over the enemy on one particular occasion. At all events, his valour is enshrined in scripture for all posterity to see, and it may be that no one would have been more surprised by this than Shamgar himself.

Setting The Scene Jerusalem Kedesh Hazor Tyre Moab Israel Presentation 004 We are told in v30 that after Ehud’s deliverance of Israel from the oppression of Moab the land had rest for 80 years. But it is clear that prosperity led Israel once again into careless and unrighteous living. The next 20 years – note the increase in the period of oppression - saw Israel become a beleaguered and sorely tried people. This time the oppressor was Jabin, king of Canaan. His capital, Hazor is in the far north of Canaan 10 miles north of the Sea of Galilee; Harosheth, the home of Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army lay at the foot of the Carmel mountain range. Barak was from Kedesh, in the land of Naphtali that lay south of Hazor, right in the heart of Jabin’s domain. Harosheth Ephraim Bethel Ramah Jezreel R.Kishon

Deborah Presentation 005 Deborah was from the south, in the land of Ephraim, between Ramah and Bethel some twenty miles from Jerusalem. The river Kishon flowed north westwards through Jezreel and Eshdraelon to the sea north of Carmel, at Acre. It was a seasonal river, little more than a stream in the dry season, but a raging torrent flooding the plains in the time of the rains, with the low-lying areas surrounding the river being completely swamped and waterlogged. Mt. Tabor towered some 1800 feet above the north-eastern side of the plain of Jezreel which slopes down to Bethshean overlooking the Jordan valley with Galilee to the north and Mt. Gilboa to the south Hazor Harosheth Jezreel Valley R.KishonMt Tabor Mediggo Mt Gilboa Bethshean

Deborah Presentation 005 A careful examination of a map of Canaan in the time of the Judges will show the strategic importance of this whole area as a battleground, and indeed the serious and critical nature of Jabin’s and Sisera’s threat to Israel. For not only were the entrances to the hill-country of Israel in the hands of the Canaanites, but also the northern tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali, were wholly cut off from those in the south. Also, with the Canaanite camp at Harosheth, the homebase of Sisera, the coastal tribes of Asher and Dan in the north were effectively isolated. The threat on this occasion was therefore far greater than the earlier menaces, for the national existence of Israel itself was in jeopardy. It was into this critical situation that Barak was thrust by a determined Deborah.

Deborah Presentation 005 The record of the battle with Sisera and his ignominious death, is given significant comment and interpretation in the next chapter in the song of Deborah and Barak. In the meantime, note the hesitation shown by Barak in face of the challenge thrust upon him by Deborah. Delitzsch discounts, as the reason for his hesitation, the suggestion that Barak distrusted the Divine promise given to him by Deborah, and maintains rather that; “his mistrust of his own strength was such that he felt too weak to carry out the command of God. He wanted divine enthusiasm for the conflict, and this the presence of the prophetess was to infuse into both Barak and the army that was to be gathered round him.”

Deborah Presentation 005 Deborah’s promise to go with Barak was accompanied by the announcement that, as the punishment for this lack of confidence in the success of his undertaking, the prize of victory - namely the destruction of the enemy General - would be taken out of his hands and given to a woman! Barak’s hesitation is, of course, paralleled elsewhere in Scripture: think of Jeremiah’s cry, “Ah Lord God, behold I cannot speak; for I am a child” Jer. 1v6), and Moses’ similar plea in Ex. 4v10 ff, “Oh Lord, I am not eloquent....”.

Deborah Presentation 005 The reference to Heber in v11 is important in relation to the final doom that befell Sisera at the hands of Jael v17 ff. Details of the victory are given in the next chapter; but even here, in v15, in the use of the word ‘routed’, there is an indication of the miraculous intervention of God on His people’s behalf. The same Hebrew word used in Ex. 14v24 and Josh 10v10 to denote the confounding and destruction of Pharaoh’s army, and of the Canaanites at Gibeon respectively. The rout was total and devastating for Israel’s enemies, and Sisera fled the field shattered and exhausted and found refuge in the tent of Jael, Heber’s wife, a vain refuge, as it turned out.

Deborah Presentation 005 The account of the slaying of Sisera by Jael given in these verses, and the circumstances of treachery and betrayal in which is took place makes grim reading. It raises once again the question discussed earlier in relation to Ehud’s ugly exploit in 3v16 ff. We are not obliged to justify the means used on either occasion to accomplish the ends in view, namely the breaking of the tyrant’s power and the bringing of deliverance to Israel. And here, as there, we need to think both of the long years of oppression which Israel had suffered, to give us some kind of perspective in which to view this ugly story.

Conclusion Presentation 005 It is, however, a solemn thought that even in the context of what we sometimes call ‘the just war’ it is hardly possible for victories to be gained without becoming implicated in further acts of evil. This is part and parcel of the tragedy of mankind in its fallen state. At all events, as the Tyndale commentary points out: “Israel’s persecutor met a treacherous but swift death at the hands of a woman, itself a disgrace in the view of that age [cf 9v54]...when Barak did arrive it was to find that the prophecy of Deborah had been fulfilled [cf v9] and that the principal honour, of slaying Sisera, was not to be his”.