Judges 3 – The nations the Lord
leaves to test his people are the following: the five lords of the Philistines,
the Canaanites, Sidonians, the Hivites
who lived on Mount Lebanon and the Jebusites in Jerusalem. Also the Hittites,
Amorites and Perizzites. They
intermarried and worshiped the gods they worshipped—the Baals and the Asherahs.
According to the Eerdman’s guide, Canaan was Ham, son of Noah. They were the sedentary inhabitants of
Palestine and southern Syria. Hebrew is
a dialect of the Canaanite language (Is 19:18), and Ugarit is related. The Hittites
were an Indo-European speaking people in Asia Minor. They controlled much of northern Syria in the
14th and 15th c. BC.
Their empire was destroyed by northern invaders about 1200 BC. After the destruction of their empire, some
of them migrated to northern Syria where they dominated Carchemish or
Cilicia. They were the ones who lived
during the monarchical period. Amorites
were inhabitants of the area east of the Dead Sea. Modern Amman is on the site of their chief
city, Rabbah. These lands were partly
occupied by the tribes of Reuben and Gad.
The Ammonites were incorporated into the Assyrian, Babylonian and
Persian Empires. They were independent
and a threat to the Israelites until Maccabean times when the capital was known
as Philadelphia (see 1 Macc 5:6)
The
first judge named here is Othniel (Eerdman’s suggests a time around 1200 for him), son
of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother (Caleb’s nephew). “The spirit of the Lord
came upon him, and he judged Israel” (3:10).
He helped defeat King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram and gave the land peace
for 40 years.
Then there was Ehud (a Benjaminite
and left-handed, around 1170) who helped Israel
gain independence from King Eglon of Moab after 18 years of servitude. Eglon
was very fat, and Ehud killed him and then led the Israelites into battle
against the Moabites, giving them “rest” for 80 years.
Then
there was Shamgar (1150). He killed 600 Philistine with an ox-goad
(3:31).
Origen (185-254 AD)
De Principiis (First
Principles)
Chapter VI – On the
End or Consummation
1 – Origen defines the
“end or consummation . . . an indication of the perfection and completion of
things.” He reminds us that if you are not used to plumbing into difficult and
challenging ideas, they may appear to be “vain and superfluous” or “if his mind
be full of preconceptions and prejudices . . . he may judge these [ideas] to be
heretical and opposed to the faith of the Church, yielding in so doing not so
much to the convictions of reason as to the dogmatism of prejudice.” Amazing to think that “thinkers” back in the 2nd
century ran into some of the same opposition when they departed from the norm
in examining “spiritual” matters. He admits that we are not speaking of
certainties here; we are just exploring deep notions.
As
it was understood back then, the “end of the world, then, and the final
consummation, will take place when every one shall be subjected to punishment
for his sins; a time which God alone knows, when He will bestow on each one
what he deserves. We think, indeed, that the goodness of God, through His
Christ, may recall all His creatures to one end, even His enemies being
conquered and subdued. Paul says, “’Christ must reign until He has put all
enemies under His feet.’” What does it mean though to be “put under His feet”?
“I am of [the] opinion that it is this very subjection by which we also wish to
be subject to Him, by which the apostles also were subject, and all the saints
who have been followers of Christ. For the name ‘subjection,’ by which we are
subject to Christ, indicates that the salvation which proceeds from Him belongs
to His subjects, agreeably to the declaration of David, ‘Shall not my soul be
subject unto God? From Him cometh my salvation.’”
2 – “Seeing, then, that
such is the end, when all enemies will be subdued to Christ, when death—the
last enemy—shall be destroyed, and when the kingdom what be delivered up by
Christ (to whom all things are subject) to God the Father, let us, I say, from
such an end as this, contemplate the beginnings of things. For the end is
always like the beginning: and, therefore, as there is one end to all things,
so ought we to understand that there was one beginning; and as there is one end
to many things, so there spring from one beginning many differences and
varieties, which again, through the goodness of God, and by subjection to Christ,
and through the unity of the Holy Spirit, are recalled to one end, which is
like unto the beginning.”
Only
in the Trinity “does goodness exist in virtue of essential being.” Others
“possess it as an accidental and perishable quality, and only then enjoy
blessedness, when they participate in holiness and wisdom, and in divinity
itself.” But if through laziness or thoughtlessness we turn away from this
goodness, then we see “the just judgment of the providence of God, that it
should happen to every one according to the diversity of his conduct.”
“Certain
of those, . . . who remained in that beginning which we have described as
resembling the end which is to come, obtained, in the ordering and arrangement
of the world, the rank of angels; others that of influences, others of
principalities, others of powers, that they may exercise power over those who
need to have power upon their head Others, again, received the rank of thrones,
having the office of judging or ruling those who require this; others dominion,
doubtless, over slaves; all of which are conferred by Divine Providence in just
and impartial judgment according to their merits, and to the progress which
they had made in the participation and imitation of God.”
Those
who fell from their “primal state of blessedness have not been removed
irrecoverably, but have been placed under the rule of those holy and blessed
orders which we have described”; they may recover themselves “and be restored
to their condition of happiness.”
