Judges: Introduction & Background

Introduction

Today we start a new study of the book of Judges. There’s no hiding it: this is one of the darkest and grimmest books of the entire Bible. In fact, some might read it and think, “What could a book like this even have to teach us?” The answer: a lot!

What can we learn from Judges?

When reading Judges, it is easy to take this book and hold it up as a mirror to the world. “See how terrible you are without God!”

But the scary reality is, this isn’t a book about Canaan, it’s a book about Israel, therefore it isn’t for the world, but for us.

Sin, evil, and wickedness is to be expected from Canaan/the World. Judges shows what happens when Christians let it seep into our lives/church.

The Israelites found themselves living among “the world”, but as Christians do now. But instead of being “in the world, not of it”, they slowly became both during this time.

They experienced pluralism - having a variety of belief choices.

They experience syncretism - mixing those choices to form something new.

Christians face the same reality today: we live in a society filled with different faiths, gods, philosophies, and beliefs. Unfortunately, some Christians allow these different idols to blend with their faith....to devastating effect.

Judges also teaches us about God’s place in society - both the Church and the world. And it does so both from our perspective AND His.

Judges teaches us how to cultivate personal faith and faithfulness in the midst of chaos. It also teaches us wisdom.

Despite it’s checkered list of characters, no less than 4 Judges are mentioned by the author of Hebrews in his “Hall of Faith” (Hebrews 11).

This is astounding once you read their stories...and tells us there may be hope for us yet.

Background to Judges

The author is unknown, but tradition says it was Samuel.

Chronologically, Judges takes place after the Exodus, after the people wandered for 40 years, and after Moses and Joshua have both died.

Joshua shows how the people entered Canaan and started to conquer/settle in it. Judges tells us that it didn’t last long.

The author focuses a lot on how the people couldn’t keep their end of the Covenant, but he also makes it a point (especially at the beginning) to show that the people failed in their taking of the land...and both seem to be connected.

During this time, Canaan was filled with many different people groups, and they were all competing for limited resources.

Because the Hebrews aren’t completely successful with taking the land, Judges shows them wrestling with God’s role and their role in that failure.

Ultimately, Judges places the responsibility of failure on the people’s shoulders.

This book is often described as the Israelite Dark Ages. The reality is, it wasn’t just the dark ages for them.

Judges takes place during the end of the Bronze Age (1200-1100 BC). During this time period all civilization in the Ancient Near East, and around the Mediterranean collapsed.

And nobody knows why. Seriously! More than 50 major urban power centers mysteriously collapsed within a 50 year span.

This is wildly contrasted with the fact that the previous 300-400 years were incredibly successful.

International trade, amazing human achievements, military technological leaps, colossal building projects, luxury for the upper class and thriving for everyone else, ect.

Theologically speaking, it is interesting that the Exodus and subsequent entering to Canaan happened during this period - had it happened at any other time, major world powers would have crushed the Israelites. But at that particular moment, there was nobody who could.

Because of these “dark ages”, nobody, not even the Israelites, are really able to take full control of Canaan, and so it’s controlled by various people groups.

This is why the book of Judges tells story all over the land, and describes the people as being fragmented.

A major emphasis of Judges is that “during those days there was no king”.

Rather than being fully united, the twelve tribes are a loose familial confederation, occasionally uniting.

Lots of other peoples and influences still lingered in the land, making the religious climate polytheistic and wicked.

There were many pagan gods in the land, several of whom will show up in the book of Judges.

Purpose and Themes of Judges

Although it appears to be telling history on its surface, the purpose of this book is primarily theological.

It explains how disobedience is the root cause of their (and our) troubles.

Reveals God’s mercy in spite of that disobedience.

Demonstrates the need for righteous leadership

That last part is punctuated by the repeated reminder that “There was no king in the land..”

The book is structured to support the later monarchy. Essentially the author is reminding his audience how terrible things were before there was a king.

It’s not just a because they don’t have a human king: it’s because they don’t let the Lord be their King.

This is very prophetic and foreshadows Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. Without Him, our lives and our churches are a dangerous mess.

And of course we see this in a world that rejects Christ as well, but that is to be expected.

So what happens when there is no king?

The Israelites find themselves in a seemingly never ending cycle.

The people sin

God punishes them with servitude

The people cry out

God saves them (usually through a Judge).

But it gets worse...as the cycle continues it becomes more of a death spiral. By the end of the book, there is just pure anarchy.

Side note: in world that has largely done away with monarchy and embraced democracy, I think there is something very interesting about a book that warns against “not having a king”.

Throughout the book of Judges, the Lord raises up...well Judges, to save the people.

This title incorporated all functions of government: executive as well as judicial.

The Judges are:

Military leaders

Civil administrators

Those operating beyond their normal clan-based authority.

What to expect in Judges

Events from the perspective of humans and the Lord (and they often differ!)

Lots of creative stories that might leaving you scratching your head or puzzled.

The author loves to use wordplay (harder to see in English)

Also ambiguous - what exactly is going on here? Does God approve of this?

Inversion, or flipping the (expected) script. We see this most prominently with the amount of women (many of whom are leaders) mentioned in Judges.

Lots and lots of irony.

Geography

Fans of hard to pronounce names rejoice.

All of the locations mentioned in Judges were real places

They determine interactions among people groups.

Significant role in battles.

Overall, Judges is a complex books that often forces us to ask tough questions.

We can’t simply take a “moral of the story” because the morals are usually horrendous!

We have to ask ourselves

How do we square this with the rest of Scripture, and especially the New Covenant.

How does this book and its stories ultimately point to Christ?

Chapter 1: Setting up the story

The book picks up immediately where Joshua left off - his death!

Having had both Moses and Joshua, the people are now in a position to see if they can “do the right thing” without such steady hands as their leaders. And at first, it seems that way!

Judges 1:1 “After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?””

When you aren’t sure what to do, inquiring of the Lord is smart bet! And the Lord does indeed tell them what to do: Judah is up to bat to go take his part of the land.

Remember, Judges is a defense of the monarchy...and the monarchy ultimately comes from Judah. So this tribe is a “power player” in the book.

But already things get off to a questionable start: Judah asks Simeon to go help him. Kind of strange since the Lord has just said, “I have given the land into [Judah’s] hand.”

The Lord seems to overlook this and allows victory anyway. And this leads to the first "strange story” in Judges: the defeat of Adoni-bezek.

The Israelites do a very odd thing to this king: they cut off his thumbs and big toes!

This seems kind of barbaric...and that’s because it is. Mutilation wasn’t really an Israelite punishment. There is only one place in the entire Law where maiming is prescribed (Deuteronomy 25:11–12 ““When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.”

So then why did the Israelites do this to Adoni-bezek?

Here we get the first hint that Canaanite culture was starting to bleed into Israel. This wasn’t a legal punishment, but a cultural one. We know this because Adoni-bezek himself admits to have done the same thing to 70 other kings!

But this tit-for-tat type of punishment actually does have some basis in the Law: an eye for an eye.

The whole point of “an eye for an eye” was to limit revenge, and emphasize equal justice.

So very early on in Judges we are seeing that “syncretism”. The Israelites took something from the culture around them and combined it with their own Law/culture. This is a danger for Christians, too!

From this story, we also see some kind of theology of justice start to develop - again from the tortured king himself. “As I have done, so God has repaid me.”

Justice is a good thing, and it is something that all humans inherently long for.

But Scripture clearly teaches us that justice is ultimately the Lord’s prerogative. He is impartial, and we are not.

Justice is messy, and humans often mess it up because we usually want revenge more than justice.

It takes a lot of humility and recognition of our sin (and the forgiveness that has been extend to us through the cross), to be able to “release” others from their sin.

Scriptures to remember

Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

Romans 12:19 “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.””

1 Peter 3:9 “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”

Psalm 103:10 “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”

Conclusion

Judges is a dark and complicated book. It holds a mirror up to us and says, “Look, this is what you are/were/could be...if you don’t have a king.” As Christians, we do have a king - the King of Kings - to lead us. But when we live our lives (or run our churches) as if we don’t, then life goes to hell very quickly. As we study Judges, I hope that we will learn from the past and embrace these warnings for ourselves.