Category: Judges

When the text says that the Israelites inquired of the Lord, they were probably using the Urim and Thummim, which scholars believe were something like die that they used for the purpose of  receiving a judgment from the Lord (ref. Numbers 27:21). This was a method given to them by God for getting an answer from Him. How does that method of communicating with His people, given at a time when He was speaking face-to-face with Moses on a regular basis, impact your ideas of how you might seek an answer from God when you ask for His guidance?

God could doubtless be in the outcome of the roll of the Urim and Thummim, just as He could direct the results of a lottery; however, it was presumptuous of the people to think that He would give them an answer just because they asked for one. They didn’t know God or His word enough to understand that as long as they were hostile to Him, He would be hostile to them (Leviticus 26:23-24). The only way they could change that would be to confess their sins humbly and submit to God. It’s a reasonable guess that the sin throughout Israel had become so great that the wickedness in Gibeah was no greater than the sin of the entire nation. That would have made the aggression of these tribes in the name of “removing this wickedness from Israel” hypocritical. What made them think that God was in favor of their attacking their fellow Israelites? Doubtless, what had happened to the Levite and his wife in Gibeah was horrible, but hypocritical outrage was not the response God desired. Check out Leviticus 26:40-42 to see what a more appropriate response would have been in God’s eyes. What do you think would be a proper Christian response to the sin of our nation today?

Or perhaps God was willing to answer them, and He was using their attacks to judge the wickedness of the entire nation as well as Benjamin’s.

Again we see man’s flawed ways making a mess of justice. What a contrast man’s flawed ways are to God’s good ways. And yet those good ways don’t seem good enough to please God’s Old Testament people. Are His New Testament people any different?

A theme of the book of Judges is in the final verse of the book: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” As if the problem with their behavior was lack of a king instead of sin and their failure to serve and know God. Their not having a king was a lame excuse that kept them from having to admit what the real problem was and address it. It was also justification for their wanting what God didn’t want them to have. If they weren’t careful, God would give them what they were wanting, and they would find out that it wasn’t what they were expecting it to be.

Thus we finish reading Judges – doesn’t if seem like we’re moving quickly? We’ll soon be reading about how God gave Israel their desired king, and then the people settled down contentedly in the Promised Land and fulfilled God’s purpose for them of knowing Him and enjoying intimate fellowship with Him under the servant leadership of their God-honoring king…. Or not. Actually, we will see more proof of man’s need for a Savior.

Samson was chosen by God before his life began, to “begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” Presumably his parents followed the instructions they had been given and raised him as a Nazirite from birth. He had advantages over other judges, chosen and prepared from birth, empowered by the Spirit of God, and yet his service looked so dreadful. This theocratic form of government, with God being Israel’s king, wasn’t working, because the leaders weren’t truly led by Him.

Samson’s story is filled with confusing contradictions. His demand that his parents arrange for him to marry a Philistine wife, when God had forbidden His people to marry the foreigners in their midst was part of God’s plan?! The Sprit of the Lord came upon him spontaneously and mightily so that he could kill the lion, when as a Nazirite he wasn’t supposed to be in the presence of a carcass? He was filled with God’s Spirit and yet had such an unworthy character. He did not seem to possess a character or judgment or even self-control worthy of a leader, yet he was chosen by God to judge Israel for twenty years. The only insight I can offer as to why God allowed this to happen is that if this was the best He had to work with, He worked with it. But my guess is that He wanted to do more for His people, if only He had a more willing and faithful servant to provide leadership. The Philistines continued to be a problem for the Israelites until a more fitting servant arose to finish them off. That would be David.

That all of Samson’s experience was apparently God’s plan, again shows us that we cannot comprehend His higher ways and thoughts. It also shows us that He will work through people who are not fully surrendered to Him, or even surrendered to Him at all. Our poor choices will not necessarily prevent Him from working at all, but may hinder the full realization of His purpose.

Samson’s example challenges us with the quality of our fitness for service, and thus the quality of our service. What kind of fitness have your choices achieved for you?

Israel’s crying out to God in their misery and confessing their sin of forsaking God in favor of serving the Baals wasn’t enough to rouse God’s compassion to rescue them. It was when they forsook the Baals and other gods and served Him that God exercised compassion and gave them victory over their enemy. As has been asked before, how does God get His people’s attention when they have forsaken Him? Suffering seems to be the only thing that prompts unfaithful people to turn to God. Therefore, God would be foolish to relieve the suffering in response to a mere crying out to Him or even to a confession of sin. It is when the suffering has achieved its desired result, that of returning His people to Him, that He relents. Let us keep in mind that if we New Testament folk are in an unfaithful state, God will impose suffering on us as encouragement to return to Him. He will not be moved until we move; simply crying out to Him or even confessing our unfaithfulness is not turning. Remember that God is neither unfaithful nor foolish.

Jephthah did not seem to be God’s choice of leader, but the people’s; nevertheless, God helped rescue Israel from Ammon by sending His spirit upon Jephthah for the mission of defeating their enemy. When can we ever have God or His ways figured out?

Jephthah made a rash vow needlessly, which demonstrated his ignorance of God. Even though human sacrifice is detestable to God, Jephthah had to keep his vow to God. Such is the importance to God of faithfulness to one’s word. That conflicts with our culture’s value of keeping one’s word, which devalues everyone’s word by teaching us to do what is most convenient for us. Whose standard will you accept and live by? God’s standard is a livable one if we are careful in the commitments we make.

Those Ephraimites were troublemakers, complaining after the battle was over that they didn’t get to participate. Who was in the right here? No one! God used such confrontations to judge His people for their sin. Sin creates chaos, drama and confusion. Let us remember that it is never attractive; if it seems so, it is because our enemy has deceived us. Don’t be deceived into thinking that sin is ever anything but what is represented here, and uglier.

The significance of the many sons and daughters some of these judges had, and their riding on donkeys, was that the judge described was king-like. The description was meant to convey how impressive they would have been to the people of that day. Only through many wives did a man get that many children, and only a wealthy man could afford that many wives. That he was able to provide a means of personal transportation for each one of his many children spoke of even greater wealth; this large family was not simply getting by. After years of judgment – remember what that would have looked like, according to Moses? – , they could only have accrued that much wealth by collecting it from their people, imposing taxes or tribute. Recalling that God, and not a king, was to be the leader of His people, you may realize that these leaders who were impressive to the people of their day are not in truth impressive at all. How disappointing this Old Covenant plan turned out for God and for His people!

Was God in error to devise the plan that deteriorated so quickly into such a hopeless spiral of sin and chaos? As the all-knowing being that Scripture teaches God is, He wasn’t surprised by this. So why did He give them this doomed plan? Why didn’t He give them a king like they obviously wanted? The kingdom plan was not as good as His plan – Scripture will teach us that. As I have contemplated all of this, it seems to me that God had a good reason for giving them the Law and designing their government as He did, for the outcome teaches us to long for something better – for Messiah. It teaches us the uselessness and hopelessness of man’s ways and thoughts, and points us to God’s higher ways and thoughts. Hopefully we’ll see that more and more as the story continues to unfold.

Gideon’s actions aren’t easy for us to understand because of the vast cultural differences from our own, but we should understand that they reveal a divided heart. Let’s try to evaluate them for a better understanding of Gideon’s story.

Gideon was humble enough to respond diplomatically to Ephraim’s anger about not being called into battle when he won that great victory for Israel. In his reply he wasn’t discounting the amazing work God had done through him, because no one could miss how great it was, but he didn’t need to brag about it to raise the ire of his brothers. How lovely his humility was!

He was not taking vengeance in His actions against the towns of Succoth and Penuel, but destroying them as acts of war. That was a good thing, for God said that vengeance was His to take.

Declining the people’s offer to be made king seems like a good thing, but his actions seem to deny his words. He asked for their tribute, he kept for himself the spoils from the kings they had defeated, and he had many wives, which would be king-like. So while he refused to be crowned king, he behaved like a king. That was not God’s idea of what the leaders of his people should look like, but it was consistent with the people’s idea of what a king looked like. We all know that actions speak louder than words.

Whatever the ephod was, it was an article that people worshiped. Perhaps it was intended to be a memorial of the great victory God had given Israel through Gideon’s leadership, and we have seen how God valued memorials. But recall that when God instructed his people to set up memorials, it was always something basic and humble, such as a pile of stones, something that would never pose the danger of being worshiped. Gideon ended up worshiping this ephod himself, and it became a snare to his household and all of Israel. Gideon’s action led his family and the entire nation astray, which left them only slightly better off than when he took leadership of the nation under Midian’s oppression.

Gideon’s arrogant actions and divided heart also left to the nation Abimelech to follow in his footsteps, whose actions brought the ugliness of injustice, deceit and wickedness on the nation. He was not a God-given leader, but a power-grabber, leading only to serve his own interests. His leadership was not a blessing to the nation in any way.

So while Gideon led the nation in a great victory over Midian and in so doing gave us some great lessons to treasure and an example to follow, he also led his people into defeat and wickedness. In all, perhaps the most significant lesson of his life is that even a hero of the faith can blow it if he is not careful and diligent in maintaining and growing his devotion to God.

We have read for one quarter of the year! Celebrate your milestone as you celebrate our Savior’s victory over death and all that it means for us! Happy Easter!

Deborah’s poem brings to mind a point about Hebrew poetry. Recall that they valued repetition of a concept, and the good poet would find different ways of restating the same idea. In waxing poetic about other nations, they would use different names by which to refer to them. They might use the name of the people, in this case, Edom; or they might call them by the name of their land, in this poem, Seir. They might also call them by a leader’s name, or the name of one of their gods. That might be confusing to us, but this practice conveyed a great deal to the people of the day. For example, think about the word “Appalachia”: it conveys more than just a region, but some general characteristics of the people to whom it refers. The references to leaders would also be an image full of meaning: think about the perception contemporary people all over the world have of a nation based on their leader. Or an understanding of their values and beliefs based on whom they worship. These synonymous references not only gave variety to a poet’s parallelism, but also conveyed more meaning than we can appreciate unless we know something about those lands or leaders or gods, which we mostly will not know. Hopefully we can follow whom the poet is speaking of and appreciate his or her impressive parallelism even though we may not be able to comprehend all that he or she is saying about the people.

Suffering under Midian’s persecution, the Israelites were forced to live in caves and suffer  starvation. Compare those conditions to those in which they lived in the Wilderness! The Promised Land was not a good place when the people weren’t enjoying God’s blessing.

Gideon was looking for a miracle from God. He believed God could do miracles, and he was asking Him to do the same kind of miracles He did in bringing his forefathers out of Egypt. But when God answered by sending Gideon himself, he didn’t believe in a miracle that big. Knowing Gideon’s story, we are amazed at his unbelief. Do we do the same? Do we think that God’s miracles are all in the past, and disbelieve that He might want to use us to do things that we can’t imagine ourselves doing? Ephesians 3:20 says that He “can do abundantly above all we ask or think, according to His power that is at work within us.” We can do what He wants us to do if we allow Him to use us as His instruments, seeking His resources and allowing ourselves to be vessels of those resources by pouring ourselves out for others. Is unbelief holding you back from doing something that God wants you to do? Let Gideon’s story inspire you!

God’s patience with Gideon’s fleeces offers some great lessons about prayer. Some people think that laying out a “fleece” is irreverent, but it is a way to get an answer from a God who doesn’t communicate with us audibly. God wants His people to get the answers they need from Him. Using Gideon’s example, we can specify the “fleece” and the condition that make the most sense to us. If God doesn’t meet the conditions, we have our answer. It is a sensible way to pray. The alternative is a frustrating lack of response when we ask only generally for guidance. God doesn’t want us to be frustrated in our asking guidance from Him!

God gave Gideon’s tiny army a miraculous victory through ridiculous tactics. He instilled fear in the enemy that caused them to respond in the most unsoldierly fashion to the battle cry, so that the Israelites were able to destroy a huge army with few resources and relatively little effort. But the victory wouldn’t have been won if they hadn’t shown up for battle. Are you faced with an intimidating enemy while possessing few resources? Your eyes need to be on the God who can fight for you, as you present yourself for battle. Be obedient to His orders, and see what miraculous things He can do through you!

The story about Micah and his idol and the Danites – what can I say? Why would God include such a messed-up story in His word? It showed the lack of rule of law among the Israelites and demonstrated a total lack of relationship with God. It gives us a feel for what turning their backs on God does to God’s people. It’s not a pretty picture, is it? The way of life was dismal, and the people were wretched. It is a powerful reminder of what a blessing God’s presence in our lives is.

By the way, recall that Dan had received their inheritance, but had been run out of it by the previous inhabitants whom they had failed to confront. Isn’t it interesting that they saw the situation as their having not been given an inheritance?

The cycle of forsaking God, suffering His judgment, crying out to Him from the depths of misery, being rescued by a God-given leader, enjoying momentary prosperity, and forsaking God again to start the cycle over makes for sad reading. Let us understand from this example that everyone doing as he or she sees fit is not a desirable situation. This is where Messiah shows up in the book of Judges – by this depressing cycle’s demonstration of man’s desperate need for transformation.

Judges demonstrates the difference one person can make. God expects each of His New Testament people to make a difference in his or her corner of the world. How can you seek to be Jesus’ hands and feet so that you can be a light in a dark world, or refreshment in the midst of the oppression of the curse of sin?

The first chapters of Judges overlap the book of Joshua and repeat what some believe are inconsistencies in Scripture. Recall that the more reasonable way to look at those accounts is to understand that the Israelites failed to kill those inhabitants as God commanded, and they came back after being defeated. Within a single generation of the conquest, “the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals, and they forsook the Lord… and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them.” (2:11-12) God wasn’t kidding when He warned them that if they didn’t destroy these people, they would be thorns in their sides, and their gods snares to the Israelites.

It’s not clear from the account whether some of the tribes even attempted to engage the enemy, and they lived in the midst of them. In time they were subject to the peoples around them instead of those people being subject to them. Those people plundered them. The tribe of Dan was even pushed out of their territory by the people they failed to remove. God had given them the land, but they failed to possess it. Let’s not miss the object lesson for us New Covenant folk: God gives us many great promises by which we can live: again, one of my favorites is “everything we need for life and godliness.” But we can fail to take possession of these promises if we don’t exercise the faith it takes to put them into practice in our lives. The result is defeat for us, just as it was for the people living under God’s Old Covenant.

The source of the problem wasn’t just that these pagan peoples were living among them and influencing them, but also that the generation of the conquest failed to teach their children to know God. Verse 2:10 says that after that generation died, “there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.” It is incredible that that meant so little to them that they failed to teach their children. No wonder remembrance was so important to God in the holy days He established for His people! This is a sobering reminder to parents of the need to teach our children.

The Israelites may have failed to teach their children to love and follow God, but the cultures around them didn’t fail to teach them other values, and their pagan parents didn’t fail to teach them to serve other gods. Yes, they intermarried with the pagan peoples just as God had warned them not to do. We need to accept that God knows the influence our culture is on us: it will impact our values and our thinking. Because its very impact prevents us from perceiving the damage to our devotion to God, we need to take His warnings seriously. That is part of the training we must give our children.

Isn’t it interesting that when they cried out to God in their distress, He gave them a leader? As long as that leader lived, they followed him (or even her, in one case), but then after that leader died they strayed and invoked God’s anger again. What a blessing a leader is! As a democratic society and as Christians valuing the personal relationship with God, we tend to take our leaders for granted. They make a lot more difference than we think. Understanding the importance of a leader, we must recognize that Satan potentially has much to gain by attacking our leaders. We need to pray for them and encourage them regularly. How can you best encourage your leader(s) today?

Their sin entrapped them in a cycle of defeat. Notice that each time they turned back to their sin, they “acted more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them.” That is the nature of sin – it grows more and more foul. Let’s consider this and appreciate sin for the foul and dangerous thing that it is. May we hate it as much as God does! Only He can give us the transformed mind that hates sin as He does; will you seek that from Him?

Judges can be challenging to read because it doesn’t comment on the action. We can bet, though, that each one doing as he saw fit was not a good thing. Although we have likely been conditioned by our postmodern culture to value as a good thing each one doing as he sees fit, in reality fallen human nature makes that an ugly prospect. We see it in Judges, and we see it in our own culture. Since you have recently finished reading the law, see if you can determine what is wrong with the actions of the family in chapter 17.