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Bible Book: Judges
Bible Book Code: 0700600101
Scene no: 1 of 13

Bible Reference & Cartoon Description

Judges 6:1-2 (NLT)
Gideon Becomes Israel’s Judge
1 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. So the Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. 2 The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

DRAWING NOTES:

TIME OF DAY:
Unspecified in Bible narrative. I have set this scene in the late morning.

LIGHTING NOTES:
The sun (unseen, high in the East (right)) illuminates this scene, casting shadows below and to the left of figures and objects.

CHARACTERS PRESENT:
On the right are some Israelites are hiding in a cave.
A vast horde of Midianites are camped out in the valley below.
In the foreground is Malpolon monspessulanus insignitus (aka the Montpellier snake), basking on a rock in the stream.

RESEARCH/ADDITIONAL NOTES:
This scene shows a group of fearful Israelites hiding in a cave in the hills. Below these frightened and hungry Israelites we can see a huge camp of Midianite raiders, who have come to steal the natural resources of the Hebrew people.

There is a waterfall tumbling down the hillside, surrounding the rock on which a snake is basking. The water allows vegetation to grow among the rocks, and would be vital for the survival of the cave-dwelling Israelites at this time.

Here’s the scene without the figures, horde or snake.

Background of Judges 06 – Gideon – Scene 01 – Hiding fro the Midianites

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Background of Judges 06 – Gideon – Scene 01 – Hiding from the Midianites

From the calling of Gideon by the Lord God, the second period of the Judges started, which lasted less than a century. After the other judges came along, events rapidly hurtled towards the final crisis in Israel’s apostacy. This moral decline could not be stopped by the Judges, who were perhaps the best representatives of righteousness and the desire to follow God.

Numbers 31:3-11 records the Hebrew people being sent to avenge themselves against the Midianite people. Two hundred years later, we arrive at Gideon (1191-1144 B.C.) as Judge. He was sent as a result of God’s judgement against the renewed idolatry of Israel, which came in the form of the Midianites, with whom the Amalekites and other “children of the east” seem to have combined into a vast, invading horde.

From the far east, these wild nomads swept across the Jordan river, and although they did not permanently occupy Israel, they nevertheless caused a continued desolation of the Israelite’s harvests, reducing the later to poverty and starvation. The hordes came rather like a plague of locusts, devouring everything & leaving nothing behind.

It took 7 years of this terrible invasion before the Israelites finally sought repentance & turned once again to Jehovah, the God of their fathers. But unlike previous occasions, the Lord God sent a prophet (just before Gideon was proclaimed Judge) to bring Israel to a knowledge of their guilt as the source of their own misery. Following that announcement, God granting the Israelite swift deliverance from it.

Malpolon monspessulanus (the Montpellier snake)
This is a species of mildly venomous rear-fanged snake, who’s specific name, monspessulanus, is a Latinized form of Montpellier, a city in southern France.

It is up to 8 feet (2.55 metres) long and may weigh up to 4 lb (2 kilograms). Males are significantly longer and heavier than females. This snake is active during the day and mainly feeds on lizards. The snake’s colour is highly variable, ranging from olive green, brownish-green, to greyish or blackish. . These snakes are known for a distinct “saddle-shaped” dark patch on the forward part of their back.

This snake is very common in Spain, Portugal and Northwest Africa; also present in the southern Mediterranean coast of France and the western regions of the Middle East.

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Bible Doctrine Notes
6:1 SIN, Covenant Breach (2.51B)
See note on 3:7 which says: A cycle of breaking the Old Testament covenant between God and the Hebrew people can be seen in the book of Judges. The Israelites broke the covenant by worshipping pagan gods, which caused Yahweh to send troubles against Israel. Once the Israelites cried out to the Lord, God sent a deliverer or Judge, and for a while the Israelites served God. But when the Judge died, the Israelites lapsed into idolatry once again, forgetting the Lord and worshipping instead the pagan gods around them. Repetition does not improve sin; God judges each person, society and generation no matter how often the sin has been repeated.