September 2008

A word
on the Word

A monthly series on the Bible by Carrie Boren, Missioner for Evangelism

Judges

he opening words of Judges, “Who will be the first to … fight for us against the Canaanites?” (1:1) provide a stark contrast to those of Joshua, where God had anointed a clear leader who followed Moses’ example and maintained a focused allegiance to God. As the Israelites relied on God under Joshua’s leadership, the land became theirs.

Judges, on the other hand, paints a radically different picture with a lack of leadership, paucity of obedience to God, and impending anarchy. From the settlement of Canaan under Joshua to the establishment of the Israelite monarchy, the book shows increasing apostasy among the Israelites and highlights judges whom God chose to mediate those problems.

Judges has three major sections. The first (1:1-3:6) provides a vivid description of the anarchic climate of the day. The second (3:7-16:31) tells the stories of the various judges — Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and Samson (major judges are in bold text). The third (chs. 17-21) tells two stories that depict the tragic results of Israel’s behavior when “there was no king in Israel [and] everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25).

Chapter One
At the opening of Judges, the Israelites gathered to ask God how they should complete Canaan’s conquest. God chose the tribe of Judah to lead them, promising, “Indeed I have delivered the land into [Judah’s] hand” (1:2). However, what began as an earnest desire to seek God’s will soon devolved into chaos and disobedience. Instead of ridding the land of Canaan’s gods, Israel worshiped them and allowed the Canaanites’ gross immorality to corrupt them.

One by one, each tribe failed to follow God’s lead. “But Manasseh did not drive out the people … nor did Ephraim … nor did Zebulun … nor did Asher … neither did Naphtali … The Amorites forced … the tribe of Dan into the hill country” (1:27-36).

Chapter Two
A representative (angel) of the Lord spoke to the people, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. … Now therefore … I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you” (2:1-3). The Israelites wept bitterly and offered sacrifices to God. Then, Joshua dismissed them, and each tribe took possession of the land God had appointed to it.

When Joshua died, a new generation rose up who did not know the Lord and worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth. This provoked the Lord’s anger and He “sold them to their enemies” (2:14). Nevertheless, in His mercy, God raised up judges to provide leadership and respite from enemy attack. But, as soon as each judge died, “the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers” (2:19).

Chapters 3-16 — The Story of the Judges
3:7-11. Othniel was Israel’s first judge. His story (chs. 3-16) unveils an oppression/deliverance cycle that repeats throughout the book — Israel worshiped Baal; God allowed Israel’s enemies to oppress them; Israel cried out for help; God sent a judge, to deliver them; the people returned to worshipping the Lord until the judge died. Without a judge, they returned to disobedience.

3:12-30. Because of Israel’s continued disobedience, God allowed Eglon, king of Moab, to subject Israel so cruelly for 18 years that the people were forced to live in the hills. Then God sent a judge, Ehud, to release the Israelites from oppression. Ehud successfully assassinated Eglon and ensured peace in Israel for 80 years.

3:31. God used Shamgar, a minor judge, to defeat an entire Philistine army.

4:1-5:31. However, because Israel had returned to apostasy after Ehud’s death, God sold them into the hands of Jabin, a Canaanite king. Jabin and his general, Sisera (who had an army with 900 iron chariots) oppressed the Israelites for 20 years. However, under the brave leadership of Deborah, a prophetess who was judging Israel at that time, a band of peasants overthrew Sisera’s army, and a woman named Jael killed Sisera with a tent peg.

6:1-8:35. Israel returned to evil for seven years; so, the Midianites oppressed the people and forced them to live in mountain caves. “Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites … ruined [them] all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys” (6:3-4). When the people cried out, God called Gideon to help them. Gideon protested that he was the least in a family of the weakest clan; nevertheless, he obeyed God. He called together an army of 32,000 men to attack the Midianites, but God asked him to reduce their force to 300 men so that all would know He was Israel’s deliverer and not the army. Peace followed for 40 years, but as soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel reverted to Baal worship.

9:1-36. Abimelech, one of Gideon’s sons, persuaded the citizens of Shechem to make him their king — after he slaughtered all 70 of his own brothers, except Jotham. During one of Abimelech’s many battles, a woman cracked his skull with a millstone that she dropped from atop a tower. Hurriedly, Abimelech asked his armor-bearer to run him through with a sword so that no one could claim a woman had killed him.

10:1-5. Two minor judges, Tola and Jair, judged Israel a total of 45 years.

10:6-11:40. The cycle of Israel’s apostasy continued, and as a result, God sold Israel into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites for 18 years. The people cried out to God, but He told them, “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!” (10:14). Nevertheless, God sent them an unlikely deliverer — Jephthah, a prostitute’s son whom the elders of Gilead had expelled. These same elders pleaded with Jephthah to captain Israel’s army against the Ammonites because Jephthah possessed great fighting skills and successful negotiating techniques. When the Ammonites refused to settle with Jephthah, he went to war against them. However, in spite of Jephthah’s awareness that the Spirit of the Lord had come upon him, thus assuring him victory, he made a foolish vow to the Lord. “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph … I will sacrifice … as a burnt offering” (11:30-31). After Israel’s victory over the Ammonites, Jephthah returned home to see his daughter — his only child — come out to meet him, dancing to the sound of tambourines. In tears, Jephthah told his daughter what he had vowed. At her request, he allowed her to roam the hills and weep with her friends for two months before “he did to her as he had vowed” (11:39).

12:8-1. After Jephthah, Ibzan judged Israel seven years, Elon for 10 years, and Abdon for eight years.

13:1-15:20. As the people continued to do evil in God’s eyes, He delivered them to the Philistines for 40 years. The birth of Samson, Israel’s last judge and deliverer from the Philistines, had been a miracle that an angel had promised to his childless parents — with the provision that they set him apart as a Nazarite from his birth. As a child, “[Samson] grew and the Lord blessed him “ (13:24). Unfortunately, as a young adult, he had problems with self-discipline and women. He demanded that his father secure for him a Philistine wife, but during his marriage, he lost a wager (14:1-20) and his wife to another man (15:1-7). Later, fellow Israelites attempted to hand him over to the Philistines, but Samson broke the ropes with which they had bound him and killed 1,000 Philistines with a jawbone. (15: 8-20).

16:1-21:25. Whatever positive impact Samson had did not last as he spiraled into self-destruction through his lust for women. When he spent the night with a prostitute, the people of Gaza tried to kill him, and his fabled liaison with Delilah led to his humiliation and death.

Chapters 17-21 — Everyone did what was right in his own eyes: two stories.
The final chapters of Judges depict continuing chaos in the land. The author wrote repeatedly, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25) — from Micah’s creation for himself of an idol that the Danites stole and worshiped for many years, to the gang rape and murder of a Levite woman that led to civil war between the Benjamites and the rest of Israel.