Judges 7-8

1. Gideon Defeats the Midianites
In this passage, Gideon leads his forces against the Midianites, who are camped in the valley near the hill of Moreh.  The Lord then directs Gideon - twice - to reduce the size of his army.  With a remnant of 300 men, Gideon now faces an opposing force with camels that are more numerous than the grains of sand on a beach.  Yet the Lord enables Gideon to achieve a great victory, as the Midianites begin fighting each other; the Ephraimites join Gideon in pursuing the fleeing Midianites, and they kill Oreb and Zeeb - two Midianite leaders.

It is apparent that God engages in psychological warfare in this passage.  In verse 13, He causes one Midianite to have an ominous dream; in verse 14, He causes another Midianite to interpret that dream by linking it with His impending victory.  Not only this, but He throws the Midianite forces into a panic; possibly He causes them to believe that Gideon has more than 300 men at his disposal.  Indeed, the Lord Himself has numerous weapons at His disposal, including shock and fear.

2. Zebah and Zalmunna
In this passage, the men of Succoth refuse to support Gideon in his pursuit of Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.  The men of Peniel also rebuff Gideon, and so he vows revenge on Succoth and Peniel.  He then leads a successful ambush of Zebah and Zalmunna, routing their forces.  Next, he exacts his revenge on Succoth and Peniel.  The passage closes by noting that Gideon kills Zebah and Zalmunna, and he takes the ornaments that hang on their camels' necks.

This is a rather brutal and nasty passage that I had trouble reading.  In particular, I definitely did not envy the fate of the men of Succoth; getting beaten with whips made of desert thorns and briers sounds painful and reminds me of a certain Mel Gibson film.  Also, I definitely empathized with Jether, the son of Gideon, who he commanded to kill Zebah and Zalmunna.  If I had been in Jether's shoes, I would have lacked the strength to draw my sword and stab both of these kings to death.

3. Gideon's Ephod
In this passage, the Israelites encourage Gideon to be their king after his great victory over Midian.  Gideon refuses, though, and he states that the Lord will be their king.  Yet he then asks each of them to give him an earring from their plunder of Midian.  With these earrings he makes an ephod and places it in his hometown of Ophrah; the Israelites end up worshiping this ephod.

It is clear that Gideon, in spite of his victory over Midian, did not remove the inherent sinfulness that plagued the Israelites.  They looked to him - instead of God - as their leader, and they were so depraved that they even worshiped the (mere) ephod that he had made.

4. Gideon's Death

In this passage, it is noted that Israel enjoys peace for 40 years after Gideon's victory over Midian.  Gideon ends up having multiple wives who bear him 70 sons; he even has a concubine who bears him a son, Abimelech.  Gideon then dies - which precipitates Israel's return to the worship of false gods.  The passage closes by noting that after Gideon's death, Israel forgets his work in delivering them from Midian; thus, they fail to show kindness to his family.

It should be noted that Abimelech will play a starring role in the next chapter...

Judges 4-6

1. Deborah
In this passage, Israel again does evil in God's sight, and so He sells them into the hands of Jabin, a Canaanite king.  Israel then cries out to God for help; God speaks through the prophetess Deborah to Barak, commanding him to defeat Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army.  After some reluctance on the part of Barak, he and Deborah defeat Sisera's forces.  Sisera escapes the battlefield but is later killed by Jael; she uses a tent peg and a hammer to strike the fatal blow.

Barak's reluctance to lead the forces of Naphtali and Zebulun against Sisera and his troops showed how far Israel had slipped (spiritually) since the time of Shamgar.  Indeed, Israel was spiritually bankrupt, and so they had stopped focusing on God; instead, they focused on what they could see - Sisera and his 900 iron chariots, a fearsome force - and quaked in fear.

2. The Song of Deborah
In this passage, Deborah and Barak sing a song to commemorate the victory that God has given them over the Canaanites.  They praise God for achieving this great victory given Israel's sad state under the rule of Jabin.  They also chastise several tribes - including Reuben, Dan and Asher - for not joining them on the battlefield.  In addition, they praise Jael for her bravery, as she has killed Sisera in her own tent.  The passage closes by noting that Israel subsequently enjoyed a 40-year period of peace.

It is interesting to note that Deborah and Barak's song praises several tribes - including Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar and Naphtali - while other tribes are chastised as noted above.  Clearly, the Israelites - when left to their own devices - would adopt an "every man for himself" mentality.  Only God could truly unify the tribes and induce the Israelites to have empathy for each other.

3. Gideon
In this passage, Israel again does evil in God's sight, and so He gives them into the hands of the Midianites.  Israel then cries out to God for help; God commands Gideon to deliver Israel from the hands of Midian.  Now Gideon is reluctant to follow God's leading, and so He encourages him by 1) burning up a sacrifice that he offers, 2) making a wool fleece wet with dew while keeping the ground around it dry, and 3) keeping the fleece dry while making the ground around it wet with dew.  Between the first and second above-mentioned actions on the part of God, Gideon destroys some pagan altars that his father had built.

Verse 13 of this passage is rather telling, as Gideon asks God's angel, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us...but now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."  Gideon fails to acknowledge the inherent sinfulness of Israel that is the root cause of their being enslaved by the Midianites.  One must wonder what God thought when Gideon made this statement; clearly Gideon was spiritually deficient, yet God resolved that He would be glorified through him.