Here Comes the Judge (The book of Judges)
The violence is depressing. The unfaithfulness of Israel is disheartening. The cycle of rebellion, slavery and rescue -- repeat -- is discouraging.
Why is this book in the Bible? In part, it provides a chronological bridge between Joshua’s conquest and Israel's monarchy in 1 Samuel. In addition, it shows how desperately the people of God need the Ultimate Deliverer who will bring final salvation.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Judges is a dark book. As much as we’d like to cheer for Left-handed Ehud, Daring Deborah, Mighty Gideon, or Strongman Samson, their victories do little to lighten the heart. In fact, many of the judges are scarcely better than the people they war against.
We almost find ourselves longing for the days when they were wandering in hope of the Promised Land. The prescient warnings of Moses (in Deuteronomy) and Joshua (in Joshua 23-24) certainly hit their mark: Once safely in their inheritance, the people began to adopt the ways of the culture around them, rather than to stand firm as God’s people under God’s rule in God’s place.
This ultimately is the message and warning of Judges. Ever since our first parents decided to do what was right in their own eyes (Genesis 3:1-7), humanity has stubbornly believed we know better than God how to run our lives.
Whether Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, the patriarchs (Abraham, etc.,), or the people of Israel in Egypt, at Sinai, in the Desert — or even in the Promised Land — humanity is convinced that Father does not know best.
Alas, if we are honest with ourselves, we find that same tension in our own hearts. We should keep that in mind as we read this sordid story. For just as the people of Israel were prone to adapt to the culture around them, we American Christians are prone to make the same mistake. With that in mind, let us take a quick overview of this book....
From beginning (2:10-12) to end (21:25), the writer of Judges wants us to see that nothing has changed for Israel. As soon as Joshua’s generation died off, the people rapidly forgot both their identity as God’s people, and their responsibility to live under Gods’ rule.
The tragedy of Judges (despite its heroic stories) is that the people of God were desperately close to being assimilated up by the culture around them. They’d practically lost their identity entirelyy. By the time of Samson’s adventures, they had resigned themselves to Philistine domination (15:9-11). They didn’t even want his help!
It only gets worse from there. The horrific stories which close out Judges reveal a people almost entirely swallowed up by the violence, sensuality, and anarchy of the culture around them. Had it not been for Samuel, the last of the judges (whose story begins in 1 Samuel), the people of Israel would have likely ceased to exist as a nation.
But God, as always, was faithful. Samuel brought stability of leadership and victory over their current oppressors, the Philistines. He inaugurated a monarchy which, though it faltered at first under Saul, thrived under David, whose godly devotion and able leadership united the warring tribes into one nation. At last, they were learning to become God’s people under God’s rule in God’s place.
The tragedy of Judges (despite its heroic stories) is that the people of God were desperately close to being assimilated up by the culture around them. They’d practically lost their identity entirelyy. By the time of Samson’s adventures, they had resigned themselves to Philistine domination (15:9-11). They didn’t even want his help!
It only gets worse from there. The horrific stories which close out Judges reveal a people almost entirely swallowed up by the violence, sensuality, and anarchy of the culture around them. Had it not been for Samuel, the last of the judges (whose story begins in 1 Samuel), the people of Israel would have likely ceased to exist as a nation.
But God, as always, was faithful. Samuel brought stability of leadership and victory over their current oppressors, the Philistines. He inaugurated a monarchy which, though it faltered at first under Saul, thrived under David, whose godly devotion and able leadership united the warring tribes into one nation. At last, they were learning to become God’s people under God’s rule in God’s place.
Speaking of David, we dare not overlook the lovely story of his great grandmother Ruth. She lived during this dark time; her life is recounted in the book which follows Judges and bears her name. Despite the mayhem all around them, she and her family chose to honor God and the entire nation of Israel was changed for the better.
But that is a story for another day. For now, let us take seriously the implicit warning of Judges, whose last words read like a sad epitaph: "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). Instead, let us (like Ruth), choose to honor God no matter what kind of chaos we see raging around us. Who knows but what our own grandchildren might be the beneficiaries of our simple, faithful devotion to God?
