We continue on with our study of the 5th cycle of the Judges that begins with the chilling words “But the people did what was evil from the Lord’s perspective”.
What makes these words even more terrifying is the fact they’re coming AFTER Israel had been delivered from the oppression of an enemy.
An oppression caused by their own idolatry.
Boy I gotta tell ya that Judges Chapter 6 is just bursting at the seams with spiritual insight and lessons for us.
The Lord is pleading…almost begging His people to open their hearts and their ears to Him and not be like the stubborn hard soil that no amount of water can penetrate.
The worship of Ba’al had gotten hog wild outta control in Israel to the point where even the hero of this chapter, Gideon, also was tempted.
His family would later pay the price for his idolatrous behavior.
Let’s get our bearings here.
The first 10 verses of this chapter tell us that after a good 40 years of peace and quiet, Israel slipped right back into her idolatrous ways and began worshipping the pagan gods of the Canaanites.
God had no choice but to discipline them and responded by sending invading armies from both the east and the south to steal Israel’s food supply.
They did this for 7 years in a row, always showing up at the peak of the harvest season.
These invaders were an alliance of forces comprised of Midian, Amalek and one other unidentified group of robbers called “the children of the east”.
The Scripture refers to this unholy coalition as locusts which is a most appropriate metaphor.
Because what do locusts do?
They appear out of nowhere in huge numbers and then plunder everything in their path.
Which is exactly what the Midianite-led marauders did to the Hebrews in Canaan.
But actually, even worse than that.
They ended up even destroying what they weren’t able to consume or carry off themselves.
This was probably in retaliation for Israel attempting to conceal how much food supplies they really had.
This was a depressing time for God’s children who felt totally helpless to resist these barbarian Ishmaelites who came charging in on their huge camels.
What makes this situation all the more sad is that Israel waited until the very last minute before crying out to God for help.
Whether it’s pride or stubbornness, that seems to be the way of the human race – to wait until all possibilities have first been exhausted before finally crying out to God.
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