2005 Bible Reading

Judges

This page is not a commentary, nor an outline. It is something to bear in mind in this kind of reading. These materials I learnt from two books by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart (How to Read the Bible for All Its worth; How to Read the Bible Book By Book). You could consult these books if you are interested.

(Pastor Raymond)

No other book in the entire Bible has a stronger sense of déjà vu than Judges. Also, no other book takes the readers to a downward spiral quite like Judges. But precisely because of these features, Judges perhaps is the easiest book for readers to grasp despite of all the names of people and places. The picture of a people who “did evil in the eyes of the LORD” because they “did what was right in their own eyes” emerges so clearly that it even prosecutes our present culture. The people never consulted the LORD even though “all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.” This Tent of Meeting that Joshua set up in Shiloh played no part in the history of the judges until it reappeared in 1 Samuel. No wonder God’s people spiraled downward.

How did a people led successively by great leaders like Moses (Exodus to Deuteronomy) and Joshua (Book of Joshua) end up in such a spiritual mess? The Book of Judges flat out presents its way of viewing this part of the Israelite history. From the beginning chapters, the Book of Judges identifies Israel’s failures in the south and in the north to drive out the Canaanites as “disobedience,” leading to the Canaanites becoming “a snare” to the people. The cyclical narratives of roughly 12 judges repeat the pattern of disobedience, subjugation by enemies, deliverance by God-appointed judges, and lapses into disobedience. The end of the Book of Judges is capped by a gruesome story that illustrates how low the faith and morality of God’s people have reached. This darkness awaits the ray of hope in a King who is after God’s heart, to be anointed in the next book (1 Samuel is the next book in the Hebrew Bible).

The suffering of the Israelites under their enemies could be interpreted as God breaking His covenant and failed to protect the people He brought out from Egypt. But the Book of Judges makes it clear that such was not the case. It was the people who broke the covenant when they did not drive out the Canaanites. In stead of serving the LORD wholeheartedly, the Israelites served also Baal of the Canaanites who lived among them. God gave them over to the enemies until the people cried out to God in their distress. God then appointed a judge to rescue them but as soon as that judge passed away, the people broke the covenant again. The cycle started all over.

There are three things about the way Judges was written that ought to be kept in mind so as not to get the wrong impression. First, the term “judges,” whilst carrying the judicial notion of “judges” of our day, referred primarily to military leaders or chiefs of clans. Second, the 12 tribes of Israel were hardly united at all even though the wordings sometimes say “led Israel.” Sometimes some of the tribes simply refused to help the other tribes in distress. The ironic tragedy is that the only time they were united is in a case of intertribal warfare at the end. Third, the main concern of the author was to describe the flow and direction of history. For example, note the deterioration from sporadic attacks by Moabites in the East in the beginning to the widespread oppression by the Philistines at the end, and also the degeneration from reasonable judges to those of lesser character.