Called From God to Rescue: The Book of Judges, A Structuralist Essay
...in the Lord’s sight, and the Lord handed them over to King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite king. The commander of the army of King Jabin was Sisera. Sisera, who had nine hundred iron chariots, ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. This oppression was the social need of the Israelites. Then, the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help. Deborah was the wife of Lappidoth. She was a prophet who had become a judge in Israel. Deborah was a highly unlikely source to become a judge because of the simple fact that she was a female. One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam. She said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel commands you: Assemble ten thousand warriors…I will lure Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, along with his chariots and warriors, to the Kishon River. There I will give you victory over him.” He agreed, but said he would only go if she went with him. Deborah told him that she would go, but that he would receive no honor. Barak gathered the ten thousand warriors and marched up with them to Mount Tabor, along with Deborah. When Sisera was told that Barak had gone up to Mount Tabor, he called for all nine hundred of his chariots and all of his warriors. Deborah told Barak to prepare for victory because the Lord was marching ahead of him. So Barak led the warriors down the slopes into battle, and when he attacked, the Lord threw Sisera and all his charioteers and warriors into panic. Not one single warrior was left alive. At this time, leapt down from his chariot and escaped on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite because Heber’s family was on friendly terms with King Jabin. Jael invited Sisera in and covered him with a blanket. He asked her for some water, and she gave him milk. He then asked her to stand guard at the tent door and deny his presence. When Sisera fell asleep from exhaustion, Jael quietly crept with a hammer and a tent peg. She then drove the peg through his temple and into the ground, and so he died. When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael showed him the man he was looking for. So on that day Israel saw God subdue Jabin, the Canaanite king. From that time on, Israel became stronger and stronger against King Jabin until they finally destroyed him. Deborah’s success was evident. There was peace in the land for forty years. Then, once again the Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. This was proof that Deborah failed to leave a lasting impression on the people of Israel. The Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. The social need of the Israelites was the cruelty of the Midianites. The Midianites were so harsh that the Israelites fled to the mountains, where they made hiding places for themselves in caves and dens. Whenever the Israelites would plant crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, camping in the land and destroying the crops. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, oxen, and donkeys. These enemy hordes would arrive in droves of camels too numerous to count, and they would stay until the land was bare, reducing Israel to starvation. When they cried out to the Lord because of Midian, the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, the son of Joash of the clan of Abiezer. God’s choice of Gideon was an unlikely one on account of his father. His father, Joash had become a proprietor of a cult place at Ophrah where there was an altar to Baal and an Asherah pole. Gideon was busy threshing wheat when the angel said to him, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” Gideon questioned the legitimacy of the angel and then realized that the angel truly was of the Lord. Gideon proceeded to offer a sacrifice to the Lord using his father’s altar of Baal and Asherah pole as firewood on an altar to the Lord that he built in their place. Gideon was unsure of God’s desire, and for two nights he used fleece to determine God’s will. Gideon assembled an army of thirty-two thousand and led them as far as Harod. God told Gideon that he had too many people, for if they all fought the Midianites, the Israelites would boast that they had saved themselves by their own strength. Timid and afraid warriors were told they could leave and twenty-two thousand did. With ten thousand warriors left, God told Gideon that he still had too many warriors. So they went down to spring, and God sorted them out. All who drank from cupped hands stayed with Gideon; all that drank knelt down with their mouths in the stream were sent home. Only three hundred drank from their hands. God told Gideon, during the night, to get up and go to the Midianite camp. God said that he had given victory over them. Gideon was told that he could travel with Purah, his servant, to the camp if he was afraid, and there, he would be encouraged. Gideon decided to travel with Purah. Upon arrival, he heard a man telling of a dream he had. The interpretation of the dream described Gideon in victory over all the armies united with Midian. Gideon quickly gathered his troops and went down to the Midian camp. Divided into three groups, they surrounded the camp. Then, all at once, they blew their rams’ horns and broke their jars of clay containing a torch. Each man stood his ground as they watched the Midianites panicked. Then, the Midianite warriors began fighting one another. Those who weren’t killed were chased by the Israelites until they met death. They captured Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite generals, and beheaded them. When Gideon asked for food from the leaders of Succoth to nourish his exhausted warriors, he was taunted because he had not caught Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. Gideon told them that once he caught them he would return and tear their flesh with thorns and briers of the wilderness. When Gideon went to Peniel, the same thing happened. He told the leaders of Peniel that he would return and tear down a tower. Gideon proceeded to capture both kings and the remaining 15,000 warriors (120,000 had already been killed). He returned to the places he was denied and did what he said he would do to each. When he killed Zebah and Zalmunna, the Israelites asked him to rule over them, but Gideon denied. He told them that the only ruler they would have is the Lord. However, he did collect an earring from each of them that they had gathered from the fallen enemies. Gideon made a sacred ephod from the gold and placed it in Ophrah, his hometown. Through God, Gideon had experienced great success. Throughout the rest of Gideon’s lifetime, about forty years, the land was at peace. He too, failed to make a lasting impression. The Israelites began to worship the ephod. As soon as Gideon was dead, they prostituted themselves by worshiping the images of Baal. Also, Abimelech, Gideon’s son from a sexual relationship out of marriage, fought to become king of the Israelites. Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped images of Baal and Ashtoreth, and the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia. Not only this, but they abandoned the Lord and no longer served him at all. Angry with the Israelites, God handed them over to the Philistines and the Ammonites, who began to oppress them and continued for eighteen years. This, once again, was the social need of Israel. The Israelites were in great distress. Finally, they cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you…punish us as you see fit, only rescue us f...