knew not the Lord, and had not seen all the great works of His hand; and when they serve the gods of the people whom they had spared, God no longer protects them. Unfaithful within, the Israelites fall into the hands of the enemy without. Then, as we have said, in their affliction, the Lord, moved with compassion, raised up Judges, who, acknowledging His name, brought back the manifestation of His power in their midst.

God, knowing what the people were, and what was their condition, had left within the borders of their land that which put obedience to the proof; the Philistines, the Sidonians, etc., that they might learn war, and experience the ways and the government of the Lord. Thus, the wisdom and foreknowledge of God, who knows what is in man, turned the unfaithfulness of the people into blessing. Outward prosperity, without trial, would not have remedied unbelief, whilst it would have deprived them of those exercises and conflicts in which they might learn what God was, His ways and His relations to them, as well as what their own hearts were.

We go through the same experience and for the same

reasons.

I will now go over the principal subjects presented in the history of this book. Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar were in succession the instruments raised up by God to deliver His people.

In

We remark here the fall of the people, who begin to serve false gods; after that their servitude; and then in their distress they cry unto the Lord. This is always the way in which deliverance comes (iii. 9, 15, iv. 3). this last instance, the Lord departs from His usual ways. The nation had lost its strength and energy, even as to its internal affairs. This is the effect of repeated falls; the sense of God's power is lost. At the period of which we speak, a woman judged Israel. It was a sign of God's omnipotency, for she was a prophetess. But it was contrary to God's ordinary dealings, and a disgrace to men. Deborah calls Barak (for where the Spirit of God acts, He discerns and directs) she communicates to him the command of God. He obeys, but he lacks faith to proceed as one who has had direct instruction from God and

consequently needs no other. These direct communications give the consciousness of God's presence, and that He interposes on behalf of His people. Barak will not go without Deborah. But this want of faith is not to his credit. Men will keep the place which answers to the measure of their faith; and God will again be glorified through the instrumentality of a woman. Barak has faith enough to obey if he has some one near who can lean immediately on God; but not enough to do so himself. This is too often the case. God does not reject him, but He does not honour him. In fact, it is by no means the same faith in God. And it is by faith that God is honoured.

Here also we have, not the immediate destruction of the encmy, but the discipline of the people in war, in order to recover them from the state of moral weakness into which they had fallen. They began with small things. A woman was the instrument, for fear does not honour God, and God cannot allow His glory to rest on such a condition as this; but little by little "the hand of the children of Israel prevailed against Jabin until they had destroyed him."

The usual effect of such a work of the Holy Ghost as this, is to present the people as willingly offering themselves (v. 2). Nevertheless, the Spirit of God has shown us that unbelief amongst the people had caused many of them to stay behind; and thus they lost the manifestation and the experience of the power of God. The judgment of God amounts to a curse where there was an entire holding back, a refusing to be associated with the people in their weakness.

But again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and He delivered them into the hand of Midian. And the children of Israel cried again unto the Lord. God reveals the cause of their distress to the consciences of the people. This was indeed an answer; but, for the moment, He left them as they were. He did not act in their midst by delivering them at once; but He acted for them in the instrument whom He had chosen to effect their deliverance. God glorified himself in Gideon; but the concentration of this work in one man

proves the people to be in a lower condition than before. Nevertheless, in these humiliating circumstances, God chooses means which display His glory in every way. Where He works there is strength; and faith also, which acts according to that strength, in its own sphere.

It

We will examine a little into the history of Gideon, and the features of the Spirit's work in this deliverance, as well as in the faith of Him whom He raised up. is evident that many thoughts had occurred to Gideon, many serious reflections, before the angel spoke to him. But it was the angel's visit that caused him to give form and expression to the thoughts with which his heart was occupied. Gideon suffered with the rest from the oppres ́sion of God's enemies; but it led him to think of God, instead of making up his mind to endure the bondage as a necessary evil. The angel says to him "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour."

That which pre-occupied the mind of Gideon is now manifested. It was not his own position, but the relation between the Lord and Israel. "If the Lord," said he, "be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites." Faith, indeed, was the source of all these reasonings and exercises of mind. The Lord had wrought all these wonders. He had brought the people up from Egypt. If the Lord was with Israel, if such was His relation to His people, why were they in this sorrowful condition? (Oh how applicable would this reasoning be to the Church!) Gideon acknowledges too, that it is the Lord who delivered them into the hand of the Midianites. How the thought of God raises the soul above the sufferings one is enduring! While thinking of Him one recognises in these very sufferings the hand and the whole character of Him who sent them. It was that which lifted up this poor Israelite, labouring under the weight of oppression. "And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel." The visit and the command of the Lord imparted their form and their strength to that which before was only

heart-exercise. Nevertheless, it was this heart-exercise which gave him strength; for it was the inward link of faith with all that the Lord was for His oppressed people, in the consciousness of the relation existing between them. We will look now at the development of this faith, and see it employed for the deliverance of God's people. Gideon experiences at first the sense of his own littleness, whatever may have been the relation between the Lord and the people (vi. 15). The Lord's answer shews him the one simple means" Surely I will be with thee." Precious condescension! Sweet and powerful encouragement to the soul! Gideon's faith was weak. The present state of the people tended, by its duration, to blot out the remembrance of the wonders which the Lord had wrought when they came out of Egypt, and to weaken their consciousness of His presence. The angel of the Lord condescends to tarry with him in order to strengthen his faith. Gideon, who had addressed him with a secret consciousness that it was the Lord, now knows indeed that he has seen the angel of God face to face. It was a positive revelation, sufficient to annihilate him in himself, as was indeed the case; but also mightily to strengthen him in his walk amongst others, who had not known the Lord in the same way. Although not with similar visions, yet it is always thus when God raises up a special instrument for the deliverance of His people.

The Lord had made Himself known, and now he reassures Gideon; "Peace be unto thee; fear not thou shalt not die."

A man who is humbled by the presence of God, receives strength from God, if that presence is in blessing. Gideon recognises and lays hold of this for himself; the Lord is with him in peace and in blessing. The word (Shalom) translated "Peace be with thee," is the same as that used in the name of the altar.

When God acts powerfully on the heart, the first effect shows itself always in connection with Himself. Gideon's thoughts are occupied with the Lord, they were so before this manifestation. But being taken up with the Lord,

it is by worship that he expresses his feelings, a when he receives an answer from the Lord to all his thoughts.b He builds an altar to the God of peace. The relations of peace are thus established between God and His servant; but all this is between Gideon and the Lord. Now comes his public service, which is also fulfilled by reestablishing first of all in the bosom of his own family, and in his own city, the relations between God and His people. Israel must put away Baal, before God can drive out the Midianites. How could he do so, while the blessing might be ascribed to Baal?

a We observe a similar feeling in Eliezer (Gen. xxiv. 27). It is very interesting to notice the different circumstances in which altars have been built to the Lord. I will name a few passages, Gen. viii. 20, and xii. 7; compare xiii. 4; see xxi. 33; xxii. 9; xxvi. 25; xxxiii. 20; xxxv. 7. We may also remark, Exod. xxiv. 4 ; Jos. viii. 30. And here Judges vi. It appears even that Gideon built two altars; the one for himself in worship, and the other by command in testimony-1 Sam. vii. 17; xiv. 35; 1 Kings xviii. 32. We may add 2 Sam. xxiv. 25; Ezra iii. 2.

b It is instructive to observe here the difference between the exercises of heart which are the result of faith, and the answer of God to the wants and difficulties which are caused by those exercises; In ver. 13, we have the expression of these exercises in a soul under the weight of the same oppression as his brethren, but who feels it thus, because his faith in the Lord was real. Then we have the answer which produces peace, and with peace, worship. It is the same, when, after having suffered death, the risen Jesus reveals Himself to His disciples with the same words that God uses here, and lays the foundation of the church gathered together in worship. In Luke vii. we find the same experiences in the woman who was a sinner. She believed in the person of Jesus. His grace had made Him her all; but she did not know yet that one like her was pardoned and saved, and might go in peace. This assurance was the answer given to her faith. Now, this answer is what the Gospel proclaims to every believer. The Holy Ghost proclaims Jesus. This produces conviction of sin. The knowledge of God in Christ, and of ourselves, casts down (for sin is there, and we are in bondage, sold under sin); but it produces conflict, perhaps anguish. Often the soul struggles against sin, and cannot gain the mastery; it cannot get beyond a certain point (the greater number of the sermons from which it expects light, go no further); but the gospel proclaims God's own resources for bringing it out of this state. Peace be unto thee, thy sins are forgiven. Thy faith (for she has faith) hath saved thee. That was what she knew not yet (compare Acts ii. 37, 38).