Avoiding Dangerous New Normals- Judges 6:1-10

One of the labels that you hear a lot these days is “the new normal.” Many use this phraseology to speak of what life, relationships, jobs, sports, gatherings, etc. will be like following the pandemic. Though one might question what “normal” really ever meant anyway, the assumption is that many behaviors will be different following the many implications of COVID-19. Certainly, some changes might be good while others might prove annoying. Either way, life will suffer changes and require us all to adapt. Interestingly, this concept of a “new normal” finds its way into the passage that we are going to be looking at today in Judges 6:1-10. Israel endorses a pattern of disobedience (something of a norm in the days of the judges) and finds herself dealing with a troubling new normal. As a result, she cries out to the Lord for relief. Let us look at 5 events that successfully depict what was taking place in Israel’s own crisis and learn how to avoid dangerous new normals in our spiritual lives today.

a.  EVENT #1: Tribulation Strikes-6:1-2a

As we continue through our trek in the Book of Judges it should come as no surprise what is revealed as we begin the next cycle/story in Judges 6:1a-“…Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,…”. The pattern is unmistakable. Once a victory is given by God and celebrated by his people, it does not take long for the people of God to disappoint their Savior by proving idolatrous (following after other gods) and disobedient (disobeying the one true God’s commands).

As has become typical in these situations, the Lord disciplines his people by handing them over to oppressors. In this case, “The Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years,…” (6:1b). You might say, “seven years, that’s not too bad” and, compared to the eight, eighteen, and twenty-year periods of oppression the reader has already come across in the book, this is a relatively short time-frame. However, the nature of the oppression Israel experienced at the hands of Midian was more severe than any before.

The Midianites were a seminomadic people in the region and were distant relatives of the Israelites. In fact, this isn’t the first time Midian is mentioned in the Bible. It was the Midianites who were involved in the sale of Joseph to Egypt in Genesis 37 and the Midianites that provided safe haven for Moses when he fled from Pharaoh. In fact, Moses’ wife was the daughter of a Midianite priest (Exod. 2:15-22). Jethro, Moses’ Midianite father-in-law, even helped Moses organize the leadership of God’s people in Exodus 18. That said, what began as an overwhelmingly positive relationship with this people group quickly soured once God’s people left the Sinai region and entered the Promised Land. In Numbers 25:6-18 an anti-Midianite stance became official after many Midianites tried to lure God’s people into idolatry. This policy eventually was used to justify war again Midian in Numbers 31. From that point on, the two people groups were enemies (Background taken from Block, Judges and Ruth,  252).

The important take away is that Midian was the next in a long line of nations used by God to teach his people a lesson—a lesson of faithfulness and obedience to the one true God over and above all other false Gods. Here, it would be “the power of Midian” that “prevailed against Israel,” (6:2a). This prevailing power of Midian over Israel leads to what you might call a tragic new normal for God’s people that is described in verses 2-5.

b. EVENT #2: The New Normal Sets In-6:2b-5

The first element of the new normal described in the text involved where Israel was made to live during this period—“Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds,…” (6:2b). Historians and scholars have surmised that Israel’s only protection during this time was to hide out in the hills (probably those flanking the Valley of Jezreel on the southwest side) given their lack of fortified cities (Walton, Matthews, & Chavalas, IVPBBC, 252). This was no doubt an uncomfortable existence, especially when one learns what would routinely happen at various intervals of the year in verses 3-5.

The writer reports, “For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them…” 6:3. Every year the Midianites would join forces with Amalekites and lodge a programmed attack when the harvest was ripe for the picking. All the work that had gone into sowing the crop would prove to be for naught.

The added detail of the Midianites joining forces with the Amalekites bites with irony given than Moses had instructed Israel to annihilate the Amalekites because of the way they had treated God’s people may years prior (Deut. 25:17-19). Failure to be obedient to the task back then was now coming back to haunt God’s people in the present.

Exactly what would happen is described in verse 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 cattle,…”. Perhaps now the reader can catch a glimpse of how long these seven years really proved to be. The timing of the invaders is important. If harvest had already passed, the Israelites would have had time to hid away their produce and withstand the devastation more easily. However, if the oppressors attacked before the harvest could be brought in, the villages would be easily deprived of that year’s supply of things like grain. Just imagine, everything you had planted, tilled, and grown, taken away from you along with your livestock on a regular basis.

Added insights to the nature of this is given in verse 5 when it says, “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,…” (6:5). The verb for “devastate” is the same for “destroy” in verse 4 and can be translated “devoured.” This word repetition along with other context clues suggest that not only was the produce taken, but the field would be trampled, jeopardizing future seasons (Walton, Matthews, & Chavalas, IVPBBC, 253). Like a plague of locusts, the Midianites and Amalekites would “move in” enjoy the spoils of the harvest, and leave the area after the fact in terrible shape.

c. EVENT #3: The Cry is Voiced-6:6

This pattern that characterized the “new normal” for Israel during this period took its toll on God’s people—“So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord,…” (6:6). This verse distills the response of Israel to her desperate plight with a single word—“brought very low”—which translates also to “impoverished” or “became small.” The truth is, Israel was economically and emotionally paralyzed during this time and all they knew to do was to cry out to the Lord—the same Lord they were prone to leave—for help. This they did not out of contrition or repentance, but out of a desperate longing for relief.

d. EVENT #4: The Reminder is Given-6:7-9

Typically the accounts in Judges follow the same arc: 1) Israel “does even in the sight of the Lord” 2) God hands Israel over to oppressors 3) Oppressors oppress 4) Israel cries out for relief 5) a deliverer is called 6) and so on. However, in verses 7-9 this pattern is interrupted and where we would typically find the calling of a deliverer we have, instead, God sending a prophet to confront the nation with the reason for its troubles. This God does before announcing his intentions to deliver them—"Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian, that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them,…” (6:7-8a). Fun fact: this is the first unnamed prophet in the biblical text and while very little is known about his identity and background, the message his gives is unmistakably clear and ends up taking center stage.

“…’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. 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,…”’” (6:8b-9). What the prophet offers here is a reminder. Hey! Israel! Remember me? Remember when you were helpless and inexorably trapped in slavery for over 400 years and I raised up Moses to lead a program of plagues and other miraculous events that led to your freedom? Remember after that when under Joshua I did more cool stuff so that bigger and stronger people got out of your way and you could enter the much-anticipated Promised Land? These events that God draws the people’s attention to through the prophet are intended to remind Israel of the Lord’s faithfulness to the covenant that he made with them. Throughout this covenant, God was the unmistakably faithful party. It was Israel that continued to run off in spite of all that God had done to set Israel up for success (both in the Exodus and Conquest narratives).  The many signs and wonders recalled here were the evidence of God’s great love, devotion, and plan for his people, a plan that was repeatedly jeopardized because of Israel’s many failures.

e. EVENT #5: The Indictment is Read-6:10

The Prophet concludes his message by reading an indictment against Israel—“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’…” (6:10). So, not only had God’s people seen, time and time again I might add, mighty acts of God done in their favor; they also had received the explicit Word of God expressing his desires to see them remain faithful to him. Despite these things, Israel failed, landing them once again in a messy predicament—oppressed by pagans in their own land.

So What?

Ultimately, this presentation of the situation Israel faced in Judges 6 demonstrates that idolatry and disobedience before God cannot become a “new normal.” Time and time again, Israel was disciplined and placed under oppression when they reverted back to patterns of the world and a disregard for God’s Word. As a result, they were paralyzed and kept from fulfilling God’s wondrous will for their lives. While we can be critical of God’s people in the days of the judges, unfortunately, many suffer from similar patterns today. In our world of ever-changing seasons and tribulations, we cannot divert our worship of God nor show disregard for what he has said. If/when we do this, we too run the risk of being rendered useless and placed under spiritual and/or existential oppressions of all kinds. How do we combat these debilitating patterns? How do we prevent these dangerous new normal? Heed the words of the prophet in Judges 6 and remember God’s faithfulness in your life and the clear instructions he has given. You see, idolatry—i.e. treating something/someone other than God as ultimate (even it is yourself)—demonstrates a failure to remember that God is, has always been, and forever will be, more than enough. Remembering how God has come through for you in countless examples goes a long way in cultivating the trust that results in right worship (“Your  faithfulness endures to all generations;  you have established the earth, and it  stands fast”-Psalm 119:90). 

Likewise, disobedience ultimately betrays a disregard for God’s revealed Word. Reading, studying, and appreciating what God has revealed goes a long way in staving off disobedience that always results in the destruction of something/someone (“I have hidden God’s Word in my heart that I may not sin against God”-Psalm 119:11). As God’s people today, let us remember faithfulness of the Lord in all seasons and remain obedient to his commands. Let these behaviors be our norm so other dangerous new normal don’t set it. If faithfulness to God and obedience to his commands is foreign to you today, may these, in God’s grace offered through Jesus Christ, become a new normal for you.