Judges 3:8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia… 1. This was the first servitude of the Israelites ever since they came out of their house of bondage in Egypt; for now such detestable apostasy was found in Israel as heaven and earth had caused to be ashamed of (Jeremiah 2:12, 13); therefore is he made a slave and servant (ver. 14). They that would not serve the Lord in the abundance of all things with gladness shall serve their enemies in the want of all things with sadness (Deuteronomy 28:47, 48); therefore God forsook them, that they might know the worth of His service by the want of it under woful miseries (2 Chronicles 12:8). 2. As this was the first oppression that Israel met with after their coming out of Egypt, so this king of Syria was their oppressor. This king had God's commission to oppress Israel, for God sold them into this king's hands, and yet was he but a lessee; his possession was by virtue of a lease, and that only a lease limited to eight years. It surely seemed very long for those "children of light" to walk in such a place of darkness for eight years together; if so, the time of their suffering bears a due proportion to the time of their sinning. 3. The marvellous proportion God observed in proportioning Israel's suffering to the proportion of their sinning. As Israel's sinning increased in magnitude so their suffering increased in multitude, every term of their slavery rising higher and higher. They served this Chushan eight years, and, because not bettered thereby, they served Eglon eighteen years (ver. 14) and afterwards Jabin twenty years (Judges 4:3, etc.). With the froward God will deal frowardly (Psalm 18:26). When lesser corrections could not restrain them from sin, God laid heavier punishments upon them, and punishes them seven times more; yea, and seven times more, and yet seven times more to that, as He had threatened (Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28). God will not give over punishing until men give over sinning. 4. The redeemer that the Lord raised up to redeem Israel out of their first slavery was Othniel (ver. 9), which God would not yet do for them until they humbled themselves, when God, they saw, would get the better of them. And this deliverer, whom God sent to redeem Israel, when sold into the hands of this terrible tyrant, was a type of our Redeemer the Lord Jesus, who was sent of God to redeem us, and thus all the other judges be types of Christ, though some more eminently than others. Here the Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel, gave him prudence, prowess, and magnanimity to make war against this tyrannical oppressor, and having vanquished him in battle, he restored rest to God's Israel, governing his people in peace and in the profession and practice of God's true religion according to His law. (C. Ness.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years. |
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