Praise God, I thank the Lord for all of you who have persisted and are still reading the Bible with us. We are now dealing with the seventh Book of the Bible and this hasn’t been an easy Journey but by God’s grace plus our will and intention here we are. I would like now to give this approach to the new Book we are reading and am praying that it will be useful to all of us as we journey through the book of Judges.
TITLE, OUTLINE AND OTHER IMPLICATIONS
In our English Bibles, the book is known as ‘JUDGES’, which serves as a translation of the Hebrew title Shophetim. For a 21st century reader, Judges has legal and court-room implications. However, as for this context, the semantic range meaning of the term Shophetim extends as far as one who Delivers people from affliction and oppression.
The best English rendering of Shophetim then wouldn’t be JUDGES but DELIVERERS. However, characteristically the office of the Judge had a job description of one raised up to bring by war or law the life of the people into acceptable order. So both terms (JUDGES and DELIVERERS) apply and it doesn’t matter which one you prefer.
According to Judges 2:16 though, not all of them ritually, these deliverers were Nazarites (I will teach more about this in future). But the Judges in Israelite communities were a faithful nucleus who were concerned with the spiritual life and sobriety of the people of God.
Those who have been reading the Bible with us do understand that we are still following the history of Israel and God. They are now in Canaan, they were warned about Canaan by Moses and they were warned by Joshua too about the risk of the comfort in Canaan. Both of these leaders are now dead and Israel now depends on the wisdom of these regional judges. These judges were regional, political, militant and seasonal leaders whom the spirit of the Lord raised to deliver the People of Israel every time they were oppressed.
The period of Israel under Judges was 300yrs (11:26) and these Judges were more than those we have in the Biblical narrative, those mentioned in the scriptures are significantly presented to us the readers purposely for our edification and the events surrounding their lives holistically have a theological significance to the past books we have covered and those we are about to. Nevertheless, even those mentioned are not given the same attention; the space allotted to each Judge is in proportion to what he managed to do, good or bad.
The first two chapters of the book are concerned with what I call the: ISRAELITE-GOD RELATIONSHIP CYCLE. Because these Israelites never listened to Moses and Joshua about the total elimination of Canaanites and all Canaanites established institutions, but opted to co-existence in the disguise apparent subjugation, Israel fell into compromise and eventually was oppressed. So in Canaan, the lifestyle was: SINNING then BE OPPRESSED by heathen forces, then REPENT, after the cry and repentance God sends a DELIVERER/JUDGE, then have PEACE and after a long peaceful time, the cycle kicks off again. This is what the Book of Judges presents to us.
From chapter 3 to 16, there is nothing but the life, success, achievements, failures and mistakes of Israel and its Judges. In chapter 3 we have two significant Judges Othniel and Ehud, then a female Judge Deborah in chapter 4-5. Gideon (Jerubbaal) 6-9, Jephthah 10-12 and finally Samson hit the stage in chapters 13-16.
By now we all know that in Israel for one to be a priest had to come from the Levitical order, and for one to be a national leader, at least he had to have been close to Moses as Joshua was and that individual had to be a man, in this books we saw these restrictions of gender, family and tribe removed when Deborah hits the stage, people like Jephthah (Gileadite), and Samson a Danite being used by God himself.
Failure to drive out the Canaanites influenced a three-fold Israel Compromise:
- Morally (2:19),
- Spiritually (2:20; 3:5-6), and,
- Politically (3:1-4).
We have the Judges dealing with a mix of the three in their tenure.
The last four chapters (18-21) address the issue of the lack of unity of all the twelve tribes that materializes into a cold war that finally launches a tribal civil war. The reason for this is stated as due to the absence of _one common national leader_. However, Israel does not seek a leader like Moses or Joshua but rather a KING.
The recurrent theme in these chapters upon which all action hangs is: IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS NO KING IN ISRAEL (18:1, 19:1). Whether this agenda is achieved after the war or long after this civil war, the Israelites have already launched a transition from a THEOCRACY to MONARCHISM.
The book of Judges tells the story of Israel’s total failure and God’s patience, mercy and active intention to deliver sinners like Israelites and me.
God bless you, I invoke Truth, Reason and Faith.
Pr WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 