THE ‘MAINTENANCE’ MEN – Judges 12:8-15

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on August 26, 2015 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group; August 26, 2015 from Judges 12:8-15

Theme: This passage tells us of three judges who kept the peace in Israel between periods of trouble.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Everyone loves an exciting story—one that’s filled with plenty of adventure and high drama. We love to hear the stories of heroism, and of sacrifice, and of great conquests, and of people who overcame great odds in order to reach a happy ending. We’re inspired by stories with characters who seem bigger than life; and that that encourage us to dream big dreams and to aspire to great things. And that’s probably why almost no one pays attention to this morning’s portion of Scripture.

The things this passage tells us seem rather ‘ordinary’. The three judges that it describes to us are the leaders of the people for the time that God had called them; and on the surface, that appears to be all there is to say about them They served Israel for their time, one after another; and during the time that they did so, nothing significant seems to have happened.

But perhaps that is exactly why the story of the three judges in this morning’s passage is so important. The Holy Spirit saw fit to raise them for service to God’s people in their day; and He saw fit to include their stories in the Scripture for our edification. And it may that we’re told about them precisely because nothing happened during their judgeships. If you’ll look at what had happened just before their story, you’ll read of the troubled times of Jephthah and the conflict that he had with the Ammonites. We read at the beginning of his story that “Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him”(Judges 10:6). Terrible times ensued; and God allowed the Ammonites to afflict His people because of their unfaithfulness. And if you’ll look at what happened at the end of these three judges’ stories, you find, “Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years” (13:1). God raised Samson at that time; and his times were sad and troublesome times indeed. This all seems to suggest that, for the duration of these three judges’ ministries—twenty-five years in total—the people had NOT wandered from the Lord, and did NOT have to suffer the affliction of their enemies.

And if that’s the case, then that actually makes these three judges outstanding. They were “maintenance” men who served their people well—judges who protected the peace that had been entrusted to them, and kept the times in order. Let’s look at their stories and see if we can detect some of the qualities that helped them maintain their times.

I. IBZAN—A MAN WHOSE CIRCLE OF PEACE WAS SPREAD WIDE (vv. 8-10).

A. The first of these three judges is Ibzan. He strands out as someone who had a total of sixty children. By Old Testament standards, he was wealthy and blessed. We’re told that “After him [that is, after Jephthah], Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. He had thirty sons. And he gave away thirty daughters in marriage, and brought in thirty daughters from elsewhere for his sons” (vv. 8-9a). To appreciate this, it’s important to remember the sad story of the judge that came before him. We’re told that his predecessor Jephthah came from a family that had rejected him (11:1-2); and who himself had just one daughter as his only child (12:34)—who, as we have argued earlier in our study, he had to keep as a virgin in order to fulfill an oath to God (12:30-31, 34-40). Ibzan’s large family was quite a contrast to that of Jephthah’s! Jephthah’s lineage came to an end; but Ibzan’s family circle spread wide.

B. We note that Ibzan is from “Bethlehem”; but this is probably not the Bethlehem of Judah. His hometown was most likely the Bethlehem of the tribe of Zebulun. We’re told that he gave away his thirty daughters in marriage; and also brought in thirty daughters “from elsewhere” for his sons. This involved a great deal of ‘matchmaking’; and it probably required a careful selection of prospective step-children from carefully selected locations. This was done at a time when there was a certain amount of hostility and disunity among tribes. It may have been that Ibzan conducted the marriages of his children in such a way as to secure good relations with the people of the various tribes around him. We’re told, “He judged Israel seven years. Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem” (vv. 9b-10). C. Being a peace-maker among one’s own people usually doesn’t get noticed as “high adventure” or “thrilling drama”. Often it doesn’t get noticed at all. But the results are surely felt. This is especially so in a church. Those who labor to bring peace and unity in God’s household are a hidden blessing.

II. ELON—A MAN WHO WAS PROUD TO BE IDENTIFIED WITH HIS TRIBE (vv. 11-12).

A. The details about Ibzan’s life are frustratingly brief. But this is even more the case with the next man, Elon. We’re told nothing at all of his family. But we are given a suggestion of what may have motivated him. He, like Ibzan, was a man of Zebulun; but he is so identified with his tribe that he is twice—in very few words—called by the name of his tribe. He was buried in a city of Zebulun; and so, in just two very short verses, his tribe is mentioned three times. “After him [that is, after Ibzan], Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel. He judged Israel ten years. And Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the country of Zebulun” (vv. 11-12).

B. Can we speculate from this three-fold mention of Zebulun that Elon loved his tribe?—and perhaps also that the people of his tribe loved him? No children are mentioned as coming from him—even though the judges on either side of his story had many children. It may have been that there were no children for him; and his tribe was his family. It may be that he even benefited from the good will of the people of Zebulun toward his predecessor, who had done much to secure peace with the surrounding tribes. One of the ways that Elon showed himself to be a good judge to his people is that he made his people feel good about who they were.

C. Psalm 16:6 says, “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance.” Elon would be a man who felt that the lines of his inheritance in his tribe had fallen to him well; and he was thankful. What a sense of esteem that must have given to his people as they recovered from hard times! This is needed in churches too. A sense of ‘church-esteem’ is a good thing; and any church is truly rich that is blessed with people in it who make everyone else feel good about being there!

III. ABDON—A MAN WHO WAS A MAKER OF MEN (vv. 13-15).

A. We’re told, “After him [that is, after Elon], Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel” (v. 13). Pirathon was a city of Ephraim; and that means that this man Abdon was of the tribe that had suffered great losses some twenty-three years earlier when they had sought to attack Jephthah and the Gileadites (see 12:1-7). But if ‘numbers’ truly have symbolic meaning in Scripture—and if the number 70 would have the meaning of restoration and recovery (as in the 70 people of Jacob who were preserved in Egypt, or the restoration of the people of Judah after 70 years captivity in Babylon)—then there may be ‘restorational’ significance to the numbers of sons and grandsons that Abdon could boast. We’re told, “He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy young donkeys” (v. 14a).

B. Riding on donkeys doesn’t impress anyone today; but in Abdon’s day, was a significant symbol of nobility and authority (see Jair’s story in 10:3-5; or see the poetic description in 5:10). And all of his sons and grandsons rode them; suggesting that they were all significant men of influence. We’re told, “He judged Israel eight years” (v. 14b); and perhaps much of that leadership was done through his sons and grandsons. A suggestion of how much he may have maintained significant leadership in his day is given in verse 15; “Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mountains of the Amalekites.” Not only did he have a place in Ephaim; but also in the place that was once under the control of Israel’s enemies—the Amaliakites.

C. Abdon, it seems, maintained good peach in Israel by supplying it with good leadership. The same thing happens in a church when it has good godly leadership overseeing it. Someone has said that the character of a church is always the shadow of its leaders cast long. May God provide His church the peace and prosperity that comes from godly leaders.

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Ibzan—a peacemaker who threw his family circle wide; Elon—a man who raised his tribe’s sense of worth; Abdon—a man made his many sons into leaders . . . Is there any wonder that ‘nothing much happened’? May it be that God would raise more of such ‘maintenance’ men in His own household!