When it was time for God to deliver Israel in Judges 4, it wasn’t the tribe of Asher he called on.
And we find out why in Judges 5:17 – it’s because “Asher remained on the seacoast and stayed in his coves.” And that wasn’t good because for twenty years the Israelites had been “cruelly oppressed” by the Canaanite king Jabin and Sisera his army commander with his nine hundred iron chariots (4:2-3). And when God then sent Israel into battle against Jabin (4-6) to rescue them, the Asherites, to put it bluntly, “simply didn’t care.”
They stayed home instead, safe in their seacoast fortifications and rocky hideaways. It’s not surprising, then, that Deborah, the prophetess “leading Israel at that time” (4:4), was thoroughly put out by the Asherites callous lack of concern for their fellow Israelites – and she said so publicly in her victory speech in Chapter 5 (verse 17).
And it wasn’t because the Asherites didn’t have their share of fighting men ready for such an occasion too. At one point during the Israelites’ journey to Canaan they had 41,500 fighting men (Numbers 1:40-41), which must have increased in number considerably by Judges chapter 5.
But it illustrates the second thing that happens as to what pride can lead to. In the last blog pride caused the Asherites to forget that it was God who’d rescued them from Egypt and God who’d given them this paradise on the seacoast of Canaan with its immensely rich soils and abundant metals in the rocks (Deuteronomy 8:11-18).
Interesting, then, that as their love for God diminished so did their love for neighbour. The parallel with today is unnerving, as nations built on biblical values are going the same route, first of all in rejecting God and Christian values, which has created an elite bubble of rich people who simply don’t care what their fellow citizens’ concerns are.
But there’s hope, because In Judges 6:33, when “the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern people joined forces and crossed the Jordan” into Israel, Gideon “sent messengers throughout Manasseh calling them to arms and also into Asher,” and this time Asher did respond and did care (35). So “What made Asher repent?”….(next blog)
