Here’s another proof that the Bible isn’t old fashioned—it’s timeless. The prophet speaks to us!
The victory won by Deborah, Barak, Jael, and the ragtag militia gathered at Mount Tabor was so effective that “the land had rest for forty years” (Jdg 5:31). But the first line of the next chapter explains that the victory wasn’t so much military as it was spiritual. Thus the diagnosis of Israel after that forty years: “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years” (6:1). The Midianites, living east of the Dead Sea, had conspired with Moab to lure Israelite men into sinning with their women. This had been devastating, and the Lord called Israel to send troops against them. The slaughter was extensive, but Midian had survived to fight again (Num 31:1-12). Their oppression of Israel was severe: “Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains” (Jdg 6:2). This time, Midian joined Amalek, making it their practice to “destroy the produce of the earth…and leave no sustenance for Israel” (v 4). But it wasn’t after one or two seasons that Israel cried to the Lord. Why wait so long to seek help? And why do we wait so long, allowing some invading sin, like “locusts” (v 5), to strip our lives of fruitfulness until at last we are “greatly impoverished” (v 6)? This time when they cried, the Lord at first didn’t send a deliverer but a prophet to break up the hard ground of their hearts. He gave them a history lesson. Jehovah brought you out and brought you in. Why would you find the gods thus defeated worth worshiping? Your predicament (and ours) can almost always be traced to one thing, says God: “you have not obeyed My voice” (v 10). The solution should be obvious.