Israel had done evil in the sight of the Lord, and He had delivered them into the hand of enemy peoples. While Midian is the main enemy here, we note that they are joined by Amalekites and the people of the East. Satan has many arrows in his quiver, as it were, and seldom uses only one of them against believers.

Notice too how thorough their attack was. They came from east of the Jordan River, even east of the land given to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. They passed through the entire land to Gaza, a Philistine city on the Mediterranean Sea still well-known today as the main city in the Gaza Strip.

What did these enemies do? They destroyed the produce of the earth leaving no sustenance for Israel. They entered the land to destroy it, greatly impoverishing Israel. God does not present these enemies as enjoying or even using Israel’s food supply for themselves, but rather as deliberately destroying it.

This is still the enemy’s tactic today: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (Jn. 10:10). He robs the Christian of the God-given food for his soul—Christ! He does not appreciate, enjoy, or want for himself what God gives the Christian for his daily food. How can he appreciate Christ? How can he appreciate the Bible which speaks of Christ in His loveliness and worth? Impossible! The forces of Satan will ever seek to deprive Christians of that which will strengthen them.