Judges 6:1-10 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.… Thus God gets at men through various means. The Midianites came out and spoiled the fields of the Israelites. The camels of the Midianites were without number; they entered the land to destroy it. Wheresoever they laid their hand they crushed the hope of Israel. Has God a way into our life, then, through corn and grass? Has He a way to chastise us through the medium of our business? Can He turn a client away and send a customer in another direction, and blind a man whilst he is counting his money? and can He so arrange things that prosperity shall crumble into adversity and a dense darkness shall settle upon the brightness of prosperity? This is God's way of doing. He gets at men through their skin; He smites them with leprosy that they may learn to pray; He curses their bread that they may cry out about the better life; He drops poison into their water that they may learn that they have committed two evils — they have forsaken Him, the fountain of living water, and have hewn out unto themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. These things should bring us to study, to reflection, to inquiry. "Why has this adversity come upon me? why do men actually pine and die? Is there not a cause?" (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. |
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