Judges 5.1-31 is a song of praise because of the victories over Jabin the king of Canaan, and teaches us that we should thank the Lord after our victories (Luke 7.36-50, 17.12-19). This chapter foreshadows Yeshua’s work and is a song of the future, like the song of Moses in Exo 15. Israel was in a miserable state until Deborah and Barak went out to defeat Sisera by God’s direction. Likewise, Israel will be in a miserable state before Yeshua comes. He will come from Mount Sinai, to Edom and Seir and the earth will move, as seen in Isa 63.1-6; Deut 33.2; Isa 42.10-13 and Hab 3.3-13. The False Messiah, like Sisera, will be defeated as Yeshua destroys his attempt to control Israel. After this battle, Israel was undisturbed for forty years.
v 1…Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day (not on that very day of victory, but but in remembrance of that day), saying,
v 2…”That the leaders (locks hung down; obedient like a Nazarite) led in Israel, that the people volunteered (to be God’s instruments). Bless the Lord!.
v 3…Hear, O kings (of the earth); give ear, O rulers (princes)! I-to the Lord, I will sing, I will sing praise to the Lord , the God of Israel.
v 4…Lord, when thou didst go out from Seir (out of the wilderness), when thou didst march from the field of Edom, the earth quaked, the heavens also dripped, even the clouds dripped with water (Yehovah aided Israel by coming to them in a storm cloud from Seir and Edom, and thunder shook the earth-Exo 19.16; Hab 3.10).
v 5…The mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord, this Sinai, at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel.
v 6…In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted, and the travelers went by roundabout ways (the public roads were dangerous).
v 7…The peasantry (inhabitants of the villages) ceased (not only the roads were dangerous, but robbers would go into defenseless unwalled villages), they eased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, a mother in Israel (until God raised her up and empowered her).
v 8…New gods were chosen (after the death of Joshua-Judges 2.11); then war was in the gates (when they entered into idolatry, God allowed the enemy to enter their gates); not a shield or a spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel (no weapons like in the days of Saul-1 Sam 13.22).
v 9…My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel (she inspired them with hope)the volunteers among the people (to go along with them to fight Sisera); BLess the Lord!
v 10…You who ride on white donkeys (merchants and noblemen), you who sit on rich carpets (like a saddle), and you who travel on the road (those who can travel and ride about in the country safely again)-sing!
v 11…They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the place of drawing water (shepherds who led their flocks to water were shot at by archers in an ambush), there they shall recount the righteous deeds of the Lord (coming to those places again they will remember how it wasn’t so safe), the righteous deeds of the leaders in Israel (no danger now). Then the people of the Lord went down to the gates (their courts for justice were now open again because they enemy has been broken).
v 12…Awake,awake, Deborah, awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, Barak, and take away your captives! O son of Abinoam (Rosh Ha Shannah idioms-Isa 51.9; Eph 4.8).
v 13…Then survivors came down to the nobles; the people of the Lord came down to me as warriors (to fight).
v 14…From Ephraim they came, those whose root was against Amalek came down, following you, Benjamin with your peoples; from Machir commanders came down, and from Zebulon those who wield the staff of the scribe,
v 15…and the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; as was Issachar (the tribe) so was Barak; into the valley they were sent at his heels; among divisions of Reuben there were great resolves of heart (to help).
v 16…Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, to hear the piping for the flocks (they did not help)? Among the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart (they talked, others fought-like today).
v 17…Gilead remained across the Jordan (Reuben and Gad used living across the Jordan as an excuse), and why did Dan stay in ships (letting his commercial interests override the needs of others)?
v 18…Zebulon was a people who despised their lives even to death, and Naphtali also, on the high places of the field (they willingly offered their lives in defense of their country).
v 19…The kings (leaders of Jabin’s army) came and fought; then fought the kings of Canaan at Taanach near the waters of Megiddo (gathering for the carnage they thought was coming); they took no plunder in silver (they did not get so much as a coin fighting God).
v 20…The stars fought from heaven, from their courses they fought against Sisera (God sent rain and confusion into their armies).
v 21…The torrent of the Kishon swept them away (as they tried to cross it), the ancient torrent (river), the torrent (river) Kishon. O my soul march on with strength (Deborah urges herself onward).
v 22…Then the horses hoofs beat from the dashing, the ashing of his valiant steeds (panic-stricken).
v 23…’Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord, ‘utterly curse its inhabitants; because they did not come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the warriors (members of the nation of Israel; they could have helped Barak in destroying the fleeing enemy).’
v 24…Most blessed of women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; most blessed is she of women in the tent (but a non-Jewish woman made use of the opportunity Godb gave her).
v 25…He asked for water and she gave him milk; in a magnificent bowl she brought him curds.
v 26…She reached out her hand (left hand) for the tent peg (a type of the Messiah-Isa 22.23; Ezra 9.8), and her right hand for the workmen’s hammer (another type of the Messiah-Jer 23.29), then she struck Sisera, she smashed his head (Gen 3.15); and she shattered and pierced his temple.
v 27… Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay; between her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell dead.
v 28…Out of the window she looked and lamented, the mother of Sisera through the lattice, ‘Why does his chariot delay in coming? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry?’
v 29…Her wise princesses would answer her, indeed she repeats her words to herself (fatal optimism),
v 30…’Are they not finding, are they not dividing the spoil? A maiden, two maidens for every warrior; to Sisera the spoil of dyed work, a spoil of dyed work embroidered; dyed work of double embroidery on the neck of the spoiler?’
v 31…Thus let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but those who love him be like the rising of the sun in its might.” And the land was undisturbed for forty years.
Judges 6.1-40 tells us about how Israel was in a distressed state because of the Midianites. So the Lord sends a prophet to deliver Israel out of their hands. Israel had fallen into sin and needed to be reproved. An angel appears to a man named Gideon (cutter down-Satan will be cut down-Isa 14.12) Gideon will be a picture of the Messiah.
v 1…Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian (strife) seven years.
v 2…And the power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.
v 3…For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites (people of lapping) and the sons of the east (Mesopotamia) and go against them.
v 4…So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox or donkey.
v 5…For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable, and they came into the land to devastate it.
v 6…So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.
v 7…Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian (strife),
v 8…that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the GOd of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out from the house of slavery.
v 9…And I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land,
v 10…and I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed me.” ‘ “
v 11…Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah (in Manasseh, not far from Asher, Naphtali and Zebulon); which belonged to Joash (fore of Yehovah) the Abiezrite (father of help) as his son was beating out wheat in the wine press (where grapes were pressed) in order to save it from the Midianites (bands of raiders who would come).
v 12…And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”
v 13…Then Gideon said to him, Oh my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian (Israel has been dishonored and and that was the only conclusion he could make of it all; but it was not true, Yehovah loved them).”
v 14…And the Lord looked at him (Yehovah appeared as the angel of the Lord of v 1; or some say this illustrates the concept of a “Shaliach” and not necessarily a “theophany”-see the Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion by Werblowsky and Wigoner by Adama books, the article called “Agent”) and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you (do I not send you?).”
v 15…And he said to him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh; and I am the youngest in my father’s house (he held no position of authority or influence).”
v 16…But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man (all before him as though it was only him).”
v 17…So Gideon said to him, “If now I have found favor in thy sight, then show me a sign that it is you who speaks with me.
v 18…Please do not depart from here, until I come back to you, and bring out my offering and lay it before you.” And he said, “I will remain until you return.”
v 19…Then Gideon went in and prepared a kid (type of Messiah) and unleavened bread (matzah) from an ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket (Messiah’s body) and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them.
v 20…And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock (like Golgotha), a; Messiah is our rock and foundation) and pour out the broth (Yeshua was poured out).” ANd he did so.
v 21…Then the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff (the word of God) that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock (under the impulse of the Spirit Yeshua offered himself-Heb 9.14) and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel vanished from his sight.
v 22…When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face (an idiom for Yom Kippur; he saw Yehovah like Moses).
v 23…And the Lord said to him, “Peace to you (we have peace through Yeshua), do not fear, you shall not die (for seeing God).”
v 24…Then Gideon built an altar to the Lord and named it , “The Lord is peace (Yehovah Shalom).” To this day it is still on Ophrah of the Abierites.”
v 25…Now the same night it came about that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull and a second bull deven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah (wooden tree or image with female imagery) that is beside it;
v 26…and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold (rock) in an orderly manner, and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
v 27…Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had spoken to him; and it came about because he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city (who were idolatrous) to do it by day, that he did it at night (he used discretion).
v 28…When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was torn down, and the Asherah which was beside it was cut down, and the second bull offered on the altar which he had built.
v 29…And they said to one another, “Who did this thing?” And they searched about and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash did this thing.”
v 30…Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has torn down the altar of Baal, and indeed, he has cut down the sherah which was beside it (tis is why the Torah said that there were to be no trees next to the altar of God).”
v 31…But Joash said to all who was against him, ‘Will you contend for Baal (Baal doesn’t need your help), or will you deliver him? Whoever will plead for him shall be put to death by morning (to give Baal time to settle the matter). If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has torn down his altar.”
v 32…Therefore on that day he (the father) named him Jeru-baal (may Baal defend), that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he has torn down his altar (in 2 Sam 11.21 he is called Jeru-boshet, or shame).
v 33…Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the sons of the east (a type of the kings of the east) assembled themselves, and they crossed over and camped in the valley of Jezreel.
v 34…So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; and he blew a trumpet, and the Abiezerites were called together to follow him.
v 35…And he sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they also were called together to follow him; and he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulon, and Naphtali and they came up to meet him.
v 36…Then Gideon said to God, if you will deliver Israel through me, as you have spoken,
v 37…behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If the there be dew (dew is a type of teaching-Deut 32.1-2) on the fleece only and it is dry on the ground (to the Jew first), then I will know (will confirm that God really spoke to him) that you will deliver Israel through me, as you have spoken (this is a sheep and it alludes to the Messiah or Israel).”
v 38…And it was so. When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he drained the dew from the fleece, about a bowl full of water.
v 39…Then GIdeon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me test once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on the ground.
v 40…And God did so that night; for it was dry only on the fleece and dew was on all the ground (Spiritually these signs allude to this. The fleece being wet speaks of life coming to Israel through the Lamb. In the second sign, the fleece was dry because Israel would neglect the water of the word of God in the Torah, but the ground, the earth or the world, had life and was wet, alluding to the living water coming to the non-Jews as the Basar is sent to them-Matt 28.-19-20).
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