INTRODUCING..... JUDGES The Pilgrim's Guide to the Bible No 21

‘Then the Lord raised up Judges….’ (Judges 2:16)

The Book of Judges is a sorry tale. After all the effort of escaping from Egypt and spending forty years wandering through the wilderness, God’s people are home! They have conquered the Promised Land, divided out the land equitably between the tribes, and are becoming a settled nation. But sadly, this is not a ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ conclusion. The years of the Judges seem to be a spiritual and moral low point in the story of God’s people.

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. (Judges 2:10-13)

Judges is an account of a series of cycles of continuous failure. It contains stories of idolatrous worship, murder by tent peg, cowardice, betrayal, serial adultery, fratricide…. We may well wonder, what ever can we gain from reading it?

We tend to be selective in our study of the Book of Judges. Most people can name Gideon and Samson, and perhaps Deborah, but what is this book all about? There is much here that sits uncomfortably with our Christian understanding of how we should live our lives. Judges certainly does contain some very graphic and bloodthirsty stories. So how do we make sense of it?

The message of Judges appears to be that God will use people, and carry forward His plans, despite the obvious sin and inadequacy of the people who are available to do His work. It appears to be stories about a series of Jewish ‘folk heroes’, who are raised up to save the day in adverse circumstances. Some individuals are granted several chapters of space, whilst others are dismissed in a mere sentence. So is this book merely filling in the historical gap between the days of Joshua and the birth of Samuel or is there more to it?

Who wrote the book of Judges?

The Book of Judges does not specifically name its author. The tradition is that the Prophet Samuel was the author. Internal evidence indicates that the author lived shortly after the period of the Judges. Samuel certainly fits this timeframe. The refrain ‘there was no king at the time’, implies that it was written after the introduction of the monarchy. The Book was probably written between 1045 and 1000 B.C.

Why was Judges written?

The Book of Judges stands in stark contrast to Joshua. In Joshua, an obedient people conquered the land through trust in the power of God. In Judges, a disobedient and idolatrous people are defeated time and time again because of their rebellion against God. The book ends with the telling statement, ‘everyone did as he saw fit’ (21:25).

It can be divided into two sections:

Chapters 1-16 give an account of the wars of deliverance against Israel’s enemies, beginning with the Israelite defeat of the Canaanites and ending with the defeat of the Philistines and the death of Samson. Judges are raised up by God at various times and in various locations, to lead their tribe for a specific purpose. The period of office of some of the judges overlaps, and they do not all rule the entire land. Israel at this time was very much a federation of twelve tribes.

Chapters 17-21 is rather like an appendix to the book and does not relate to the previous chapters. These chapters are noted as a time ‘when there was no king in Israel’ (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). They tell a horrendous story of idolatry, immorality, and civil war. These are some of the least edifying chapters of the entire Bible. (See Pilgrims Guide 22 for a comment on these five chapters.)

Key Verses: Judges 2:16-19, "Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD's commands. Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways."

The book begins with a significant statement: ‘another generation grew up who neither knew the Lord nor what He has done for Israel’.

Judges depicts a recurring cycle of events:

• The people sin. They turn away from God.

• They are punished for their sin by surrounding enemies.

• They cry out to God who has compassion on them.

• The Lord raises up a judge who saves the people.

• The judge dies. They fail to remember his message. They sin.

• The cycle begins again.

Chapter 2 describes this recurring cycle and provides a template for the rest of the book.

Introducing the Judges

The Hebrew word Shophetim, means judges, rulers, delivers or saviours. The word carries the idea of maintaining justice and settling disputes, but it can also mean liberating or redeeming. So the Judges had a two-fold function: they were called to deliver the people, and they also had the task of ruling and administering justice.

The Book of Judges is an account of how God was taken for granted by His people year after year, century after century. Yet, God has never failed to open His arms in love to His chosen people whenever they repented from their wicked ways and called upon His name. Through the Judges of Israel, God honoured His promise to Abraham to protect and bless His offspring (Genesis 12:2-3).

After the death of Joshua, the Israelites relapsed into idolatrous worship of Baal and the Ashtoreths (2:13). God, seeing this, allowed the Israelites to be controlled by those whom they worshipped. It was then that the people would cry out to Yahweh for help. God then sent Judges to lead and inspire His children and to bring them back to righteous living.

Time after time they would turn their back on God and return to lives of wickedness. However, keeping His part of the covenant that He made with Abraham, God would continue to save His people from their oppressors throughout the period.

Perhaps the most notable and well-known Judge was Samson, who rose to power to lead the Israelites after forty years of oppression under the ruthless Philistines (Judges 13:1).

Within the accounts of the individual judges, there are some graphic stories. They vary in length and detail. But to understand the message of the book, we must avoid getting carried away by stories of various ‘folk heroes’ and look at the underlying message of the book.

Who were the Judges?

To begin, let’s establish precisely who these Judges are.

Othniel (Judges 3:7-11): a younger brother of Caleb. He went to war against the king of Aram Naharaim and brought peace for 40 years.

Ehud (Judges 3:12-30): a left-handed leader and a Benjaminite. He concealed his sword by strapping it to his right leg. He was thus able to take his weapon into a private meeting with the King of Moab and ‘plunged it in to the king’s belly’. His sword was lost in the folds of fat on the king’s belly! Ehud defeated the Moabites in battle and brought 80 years of peace.

Shamgar (Judges 3:31): just a one verse, walk on appearance, but he killed 600 Philistines with an ox-goad.

Deborah and Barak (Judges 4:1 – 5:31): Deborah was a prophetess who inspired Barak to go to war against the Canaanites. But because Barak refused to go without Deborah to accompany him, she prophesied that the enemies’ general, Sisera, would fall to the hand of a woman, not to him. So it proved, when Sisera took refuge, after defeat in battle in the tent of Heber, one of his allies, but was killed by Jael, Heber’s wife, who hammered a tent peg through his head. The Canaanites were routed, and there was peace for 40 years.

Gideon (Judges 6:1 – 8:35): Gideon, from the tribe of Manasseh, was a most unwilling leader of his people, at a time when the Midianites were threatening his people. He had to learn the lesson of trusting in God. He is well-known as the man who lay down his ‘fleece’ before God, as a way of seeking confirmation that God was speaking to him (and consequently, has led to centuries of debate as to the efficacy of seeking guidance from God by the laying down of a ‘fleece’ before Him). Gideon then proceeded to whittle his army down from 32,000 men to 300, thus demonstrating the importance of trusting in God, not in human resources. His victory over the Midianites brought 40 years of peace, but the story concludes with the sad information that as soon as Gideon died, the Israelites ‘prostituted’ themselves to the Baals.

Abimelech (Judges 9:1 – 57): a son of Gideon, and a bad leader, Abimelech asked the people whether they preferred his sole leadership to that of all 70 of his brothers. After his installation, he promptly murdered his brothers. Things got worse as his thirst for power demonstrates that he has little interest in the people. He was killed in battle.

Tola (Judges 10:1-2): he led the people for 23 years, but we have no information about him.

Jair (Judges 10:3-5): he led Israel for 22 years, had 30 sons who rode 30 donkeys and controlled 30 towns! That’s all we know.

Jephthah (Judges 10:1 – 12:7): Jephthah, the son of a prostitute, came to prominence after a period of extreme apostacy by the Israelites. He is described as a ‘great warrior’ who defeated the Ammonites but made a rash vow: ‘whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering’. In consequence, he ended up having to sacrifice his only daughter.

Ibzan (Judges 12:8-9): from Bethlehem. He has 30 daughters and 30 sons who all married outside the clan of Judah. He led Israel for 7 years.

Elon (Judges 12: 11-12): led Israel for 10 years.

Abdon (Judges 12: 13-15): he had 40 sons, 30 grandsons and 70 donkeys! He led Israel for 8 years.

Samson (Judges 13:1 – 16:31): Samson was brought up as a Nazarene (meaning that he was dedicated to God from birth and set apart for service to God – nothing to do with the town of Nazareth). The Nazarene vow involved never cutting his hair, which was the source of his supernatural strength. He had a somewhat chequered career, and love life! His marriage broke up before the honeymoon. He moved on to a nameless prostitute, and then to Delilah, a Philistine beauty. Delilah proved to be his undoing. Urged by the Philistine leaders, she managed to trick him into giving her the secret of his strength. Whilst he slept, she gave him a haircut, and so was able to deliver him to the Philistines. The sadness of Samson’s story is that he had immense physical strength, but weak morals. He accomplished many feats of strength, but then the Spirit of the Lord left him. He was blinded by Philistines and put to work on a treadmill. He regained his strength as his hair re-grew, and his story reaches a grand conclusion, when he brought down the pillars of a Philistine temple, killing all who were inside, including himself.

So much for the stories of these Judges – what lessons can we learn from them?

Summary of the Book: the Three ‘D’s’

Deterioration (1:1 – 3:4) We see how the nation rapidly deteriorated after the death of Joshua, and its repeated failure to drive out its enemies. Reasons for the failure include a lack of faith in God and lack of obedience to Him. Compromise leads to conflict.

Deliverances (3:5 – 16:31) We see seven cycles of apostasy, followed by seven stories of deliverance. The story is one of a descending spiral of sin.

Depravity (17:1 – 21:25). Here we have examples of religious apostasy and social and moral depravity.

What can we learn from the book of Judges?

Much of what we read in Judges does not fit comfortably with our 21st century sense of morality. We must remember that we are reading an account of a nation living in the second millennium BC. It does not conform to the moral understanding of the New Covenant and does not offer us a template for how we, as Christians, should be living today! Despite this, there are spiritual principles within the story that we can apply.

Human weakness: The Bible is honest about human failings. No book in the Bible better illustrates what Paul will write to the Romans centuries later: ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). The ‘heroes’ in this book display a number of flaws:

• Barak was not manly;

• Gideon was fearful;

• Jephthah had a dubious origin and made rash promises;

• Samson was a serial adulterer;

None of these people offer good role-models, yet God uses them.

Divine Strength: The judges were filled with the Holy Spirit. We see divine strength working through weak people. The anointing of the Spirit is essential for doing God’s work. God is the hero of this book. Success is achieved when human leaders co-operate with Him.

These stories remind us of the love that God has for His people. Follow Him, and we can break the cycle of despair, and know real direction as we follow His purposes.

Warning

We must beware of the spiritual anarchy that we can so easily fall into:

• How often do we do what ‘feels right’ to us, rather than listening too and obeying the word of God?

• How often do we look to human leadership, rather than recognising that Christ is our King?

• We need theocratic rule (the rule of God in our lives), not oligarchy, autocracy, or even democracy.

• We are challenged be aware of the needs of the next generation, and the importance of instructing them in the ways of the Lord. Each generation must discover faith for itself.

Application

The life of a believer is not intended to be a life of failures, judgments, and restorations. We must acknowledge that we do all fail. We need the restoration and renewal that only God grants to us. The bad examples in the Book of Judges should not be a description of our daily walk with Christ.

The sad conclusion of Judges is that ’each man did as he saw fit’. There was no sense of purpose or direction, and no attempt to discern God’s will. Our calling, by contrast, is to faithfully obey God, looking to Him for guidance, and seeking to work together to be his people.