- Judges Outline
- Introduction 1:1-3:6
- Failure to complete the conquest 1:1-2:5
- Setting: Joshua dead
- Inquire of the Lord, Who will go up first to fight the Canaanites - continuing conquest
- Judah goes first
- Book starts with Judah in a relatively good light and ends with Benjamin in a relatively bad light
- David from Judah, Saul from Benjamin
- succeeds - but does not complete herem
- treats Adoni-Bezek as Canaanite kings do, not herem v. 6-7
- Othniel Introduced in connection with Caleb
- 1:9-15 cf. Josh. 15:13-19
- Converted foreigners included in the inheritance of Judah v. 16
- The Lord was with Judah v. 19
- Other tribes
- Benjamites failed to take Jerusalem
- Joseph's tribes
- Conquered Luz
- failed to complete the conquest
allowed some Canaanites to live, though not converted -
Canaanite kicked out of the land v. 26
- Ephraim failed to drive them out
Canaanites lived among Israel v. 29
- Zebulun and Asher failed to drive them out
Israel lived among the Canaanites v. 32
- Naphtali failed to drive them out
- Israel lived among the Canaanites v. 33
- Danites failed completely to even enter the land
Israel kept out of the land v. 34
- Angel of the Lord went up and spoke
- I brought you from Egypt to the Land
- I will never break my covenant
- You shall not make a covenant with these people
- You shall break down their altars
- You have disobeyed (broken covenant)
- I will not fight for you
- They will be thorns and snares to you
- Unfaithful to the covenant by serving false gods 2:6-3:6
- Connection to Joshua
- People enjoyed inheritance
- People served the Lord through Joshua's lifetime - cf. Josh. 24:31
- Joshua died
- Next generation
- did not know the Lord or what He had done - tragic
- how could this happen?
- look at our times
- attack from the outside
- alternate worldviews in attractive packages
- raising doubts turns to outright denials
- from unacceptable, to tolerated, to celebrated, to mainstream, to normal
- keep saying it loud enough, eventually people will believe
- failure from inside
- assuming the Gospel
- first generation celebrates the Gospel and reaps the benefits
- next generation assumes the Gospel and celebrates the benefits
- third generation denies the Gospel and assumes the benefits
- Always keep the Gospel of Christ Crucified front and center
- Not being intentional in raising godly children
- letting the TV raise them
- Not teaching them to think for themselves
- Using rules and rote tradition without helping them to see the underlying reality
- Not living what we speak
- Not being zealous for the Lord
- Waltke stresses that the breakdown comes from the failure of the Levites to instruct and lead the people in the worship of the One True God
- the Levites will be featured in the last two sections where Israel is at its worse
- That is now as well as then, the blame is ultimately with the spiritual leaders who did not do their job like they should have
- The cycle
- They sin by forsaking God
- They did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served false gods
- They forsook God who rescued them from Egypt
- They worshipped false gods of the people around them
- They provoked the Lord to anger
- God handed them over to oppressors
- God gave them over, the enemy did not conquer
- Israel was no longer able to resist because God was no longer fighting for them
- Israel was in great distress
- (They cried out) -
- not mentioned in this introductory outline section, but mentioned in many of the specific narratives
- Waltke suggests two reasons
- the cry was bogus, not real repentance, but selfish
- emphasize that God raised up the judges, not human petition
- The Lord raised up judges
- not primarily legal, but military leaders
- The judges rescues Israel (b/c God was with them)
- They quickly turned away from God again
- they did not listen to the judges
- They prostituted themselves to other gods
- They quickly turned away
- God was with the judge as long as he lived to save Israel
- because of His compassion on their groaning
- cf. their groaning in Egypt - they are back to slavery
- when the judge died the people became even more corrupt than they were before
- they refused to give up their evil practices
- God's Response
- God refuses to drive out the nations
- God will use the nations to test Israel
- see if they will be faithful
- provoke them to faithfulness
- God's reason
- These nations were left (gradual conquest) for a reason
- to test the Israelites
- to teach them warfare
- test the Israelites - if they would obey
- The result
- they lived among the Canaanites - compromise
- They intermarried with the Canaanites - more compromise
- They served Canaanite gods
- Cycle of Judges 3:7-16:31
- Early Judges 3:7-31
- Othniel 3:7-11
- Sin 7
- Israel did evil
- forgot the Lord
- served false gods
- Oppression 8
- Anger of the Lord burned against them
- He gave them to oppressors
- Crying Out 9a
When they cried out,
- Rescue 9b-11
He raised up a deliverer - Othniel
- Othniel saved them
- The Spirit of the Lord came upon him so that he became Israel's judge/leader and went to war
- God gave the enemy to his hands
- key phrase in Judges
- Victory is God's gift, no room for boast
- yet it is still necessary for God's people to fight
- The land had peace until Othniel died
- Ehud 3:12-30
- Sin 12a
- did evil in the eyes of the Lord
- this was not evil in their eyes or they wouldn't have done it
- problem is that they had allowed their standards of right and wrong to deviate from God's
- point out the difference between what we believe and confess to be right and wrong with our mind and mouth with what we truly think to be right and wrong with our heart affections and actions
- Oppression 12b-14
- God oppressed them with Eglon king of Moab
- clearly said to be the Lord's doing
- not just secular history (no such thing)
- enemy took possession of Jericho - noteworthy in comparison to Joshua
- oppressed for 18 years
- Crying out 15a
- not elaborated, but simply stated
- cried out because of the oppression
- did they take 18 years to cry out, or did it take 18 years for God to answer? not stated, God is not obligated to answer and act by our timetable
- Rescue 15b-30
- God gave them a deliverer 15b
- clearly said that this is the Lord's doing -not secular history (no such thing)
- yet we are not told that Ehud was given specific instructions
- apparently took his own initiative becasue he already knew God's commands to finish the conquest
- already knew what God wanted
- Why do we think we need specific personal instructions/invitations to fulfill the great commission or love our neighbor etc.?
- deliverer - from Heb. word for salvation, He saved, savior, saver
- Ehud took tribute to Eglon 15c-18
- Israel paying taxes to foreign oppressor
- notice all the foreshadowing
- Ehud is left-handed
- Ehud hid a weapon in a place that would be undetected
- Eglon was very fat
- Ehud assassinated Eglon via stealth 19-23
- turned back from Gilgal - staging area for conquest in Joshua
- said has a "message" for the king
- double meaning
- second time, it is a "message from God for you"
- the message is death/cherem
- Gross detail about leaving the sword in the body and the fat closing around it
- Ehud leaves and shuts the door
- Dead Eglon is found 24-25
- humorous section
- the servants are delayed from discovering the body so that Ehud can get away
- Ehud rallied Israel to war 26-27
- Blew the trumpet for war in Ephraim
- The Israelites went to war
- Israel defeats Moab under Ehud's leadership 28-30a
- Follow me - for the Lord has given your enemy into your hands. - cf. Josh 10:19 same proclamation that God is fighting for them
- Captured a strategic location for travel
- Struck down 10,000 enemies, all vigorous and strong, none escaped
- Tables turned, Moab now subject to Israel
- The Land has peace for 80 years 30b
- Shamgar 3:31
- struck down 600 Philistines with a sharp stick
- He saved Israel - not judged or led, but saved
- Barak (Deborah) 4:1-5:31
- Prose Story
- Sin 1
- did evil in the yes of the Lord
- AGAIN!
- Oppression 2-3a
- Jabin a Canaanite king
- Sisera, his army commander
- had 900 iron chariots - height of military technology
- very effective weapon
- not until Alexander the Great - 6-700 years later did anyone figure out how to defeat chariots
- oppressed Israel for 20 years
- Crying Out 3b
- cried for help
- no mention of repentance - just sayin'
- Rescue 4-24
- God commands Barak to war via Deborah 4-7
- background info. re: Deborah's ministry
- Message from God
- Go with 10000 men from 2 tribes
- I will lure the enemy to battle
- "I will give him into your hands"
- cf. 3:28, Josh 10:19
- Barak lacks faith and therefore loses honor 8-9a
- notice how judges are having less and less initiative and faith to complete the conquest
- Waltke - "The contrast between Deborah and Barak suggests God raised up a woman to lead Israel because the Israelite men were cowards and declined leadership."
- this will get worse with Gideon and even worse with Samson
- lit. "on the road that you are walking"
- poss. (cf. NIV) "the way you are going about this" with reference to needing Deborah to supplement his faith
- therefore, Barak won't get the hnonor, but this will go to a woman
- ambiguous
- may think this refers to Deborah, in context
- only later we find that it doesn't, but rather to Jael
- Went and summoned Israel
- Zebulun and Naphtali mentioned here
- other tribes mentioned in ch. 5 as helping
- some tribes singled out in ch. 5 as refusing to help/go to war
- a minor theme of judges is the individual tribes' failure to help one another - not a unified nation, needed a king to unite them
- 10,000 men with Him (repeated information) and Deborah
- background on Heber the Kenite - foreshadowing
- The Lord routed the enemy
- Sisera (enemy commander) heard the army was coming and went to the Kishon river (a location advantageous to his chariots)
Deborah to Barak -
"Go, for the Lord has given Sisera into your hands"
- "The Lord has gone ahead of you"
- Barak went
- When Barak went, the Lord routed Sisera - clearly stated it was the Lord's doing, not secular history (no such thing)
- in ch. 5 it is implied that the rain and rising river made the place that was normally advantageous to Sisera to be his downfall
- Sisera fled on foot
- All the other Canaanites were pursued and killed
- Not one of them was left
- Sisera is killed by Jael
- Sisera fled on foot to a place where he thought there was allies
- Jael welcomed him as an ally
- hid him
- gave him milk to drink
- when he was asleep, she drove a tent peg through his head
- Barak finds Sisera, but he is already dead
- Summary
- God subdued Jabin, Canaanite King on that day
- Israel had the advantage over the Canaanites - tables turned
- Poetic Song
- Exalting the Lord
- Celebrating the Israelite leaders
- Celebrating the Israelite tribes that helped in the battle
- Shaming the Israelite tribes that didn't help in the battle
- Blessing Jael for her part
- Taunting God's enemies for their defeat
- Punch line v. 31
- So may all YOUR enemies perish, O Lord
- But may they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength
- Gideon 6:1-8:32
- Sin 1a
- did evil in the eyes of the Lord
- AGAIN!
- Oppression 1b-5
- Midianites oppressed for 7 years
- more elaborate description of oppression
- Israelites fled and hid in wilderness and mountain strongholds
- Enemies ruined and/or stole all crops
- Enemies were beyond counting
- Crying out 6-7a
- Israelites so impoverished, they cried out to God
- cried out in response to hunger of poverty, not in response of repentance for sin - just sayin'
- Rescue 6:7b-8:32
- prophet to rebuke them for sin 8-10
- Context
- Gideon and Abimelech are usually (rightly) seen as the center of Judges
- They both deal with the sin of the Israelites, they both look forward (in different ways) to the monarchy
- It is telling that in the center, highlighted section, the cycle is broken up with a message from God challenging their sin and idolatry - reminiscent of ch. 2:1-5
- Review of History
- I brought you out of Egypt - the land of slavery
- I delivered you from Egypt and from all your oppressors
- I drove them out and gave you their land
- Recital of the Covenant
- I Am the Lord your God
- Do not worship other gods of the land where you live
- Rebuke
- but you have not listened to me
- i.e. you did not hear that I Am your God, and did not hear the prohibition of idolatry
- that is, you heard, but did not heed, did not obey - hearers of the word, but not doers of the word
- judge to rescue them from oppression 6:11-8:21
- The Call of Gideon 11-24
- Angel appeared to Gideon and spoke to him
- Angel of the Lord went to Gideon
- Gideon was hiding in a winepress to make his food
- Angel spoke to Gideon
- fairly ironic greeting
- The Lord is with you, mighty warrior
- Gideon doubts and complains
- IF the Lord is with us, why are we oppressed?
- irony - prophet has just told exactly why they are oppressed
- where are all the wonders that we heard about from our fathers?
- the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian
- The Lord responds
- Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand
- I am sending you
- somewhat ambiguous
- could be ironic - contrast with Gideon's strength on his own
- but more likely, encouragement - God is with you, God is sending you, therefore you have all the strength you need
- judges is quite negative in some ways, but there is always hope even in the darkest times
- be pessimistic about humanity, be optimistic about God
- Gideon still doubts
- How can I do it?
- My clan is the weakest, and I am the weakest
- doesn't understand "strength that you have" to be God's strength
- God Answers
- I will be with you
- you will strike down all the Midianites
- Gideon still doubts and asks for a sign
- If I have found grace in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you
- apparently thinks he is talking to a prophet
- testing to see if true prophet or false prophet
- but in context, shown to be lack of faith, not just cautious discernment
- if God is telling us something He has already shown to be true, we don't need to ask for ID, if 'prophet' tells us something that is contrary or strange to already revealed word, we should ask for ID
- Don't go away until I bring an offering
- God reveals Himself through the offering
- The Lord allows Gideon's request
- Gideon makes a sacrifice
- God miraculously sets fire to the sacrifice
- the Angel of the Lord disappeared
- Gideon realizes it was the Angel of the Lord
- Gideon is afraid of God (more than the Midianites)
- God reassures him that he will not die - "peace, do not be afraid"
- Gideon builds a memorial - Yahweh is peace
- God's war against idolatry via Gideon 25-32
- notice God combats the idolatry before He combats the oppressors
- God tells Gideon to destroy towns idolatry
- in conjunction with second offering to the One True God Yahweh
- take second bull
- tear down altar to baal
- cut down asherah pole - to false goddess asherah
- build proper altar to God on the same spot
- use the wood to offer the bull on the newly built altar
- Gideon does it, but does it in secret
- took ten servants and does what the Lord told him
- he was afraid of his family and the people of the town
- did it at night, instead of the day
- The town investigates
- they saw baal's altar and the asherah pole destroyed and the bull sacrificed on the new altar
- they asked and investigated who did it
- they found out Gideon did it
- Gideon's father stands against idolatry
- the town demanded Gideon's father give them Gideon to die because he defiled the worship of false gods
- note the irony
- the idolaters should have died
- but they wanted to do the same for one who stood for the One True God
- Gideon's father challenged them
- are you defending Baal?
- are you going to save him?
- whoever takes Baal's side will be put to death
- If Baal is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar - looking forward to Elijah's challenge centuries later
- Gideon's gets a nickname
- Jerub-Baal - meaning Baal sues him
- because he broke down Baal's altar and his father challenged Baal to do something about it
- God's war against the oppressors via Gideon 6:33-8:21
- Gideon gathers an army 33-35
- v. 34 "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon"
- Gideon tests the Lord 36-40
- NOT a good idea to be emulated in decision making
- NOT normative for decision making
- rather lack of faith and refusing to believe what God had already promised
- v. 36 "IF you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised" - Should there be any question whether God will keep His promises?
- v. 37 "...then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said" - shouldn't he have known that from the fact that God had already said it.
- but God is faithful even when His people are stupid and faithless
- God thins out the army 7:1-8a
- esp. v. 2 "you have too many men for me to deliver Midian... in order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her"
- God saved them with 300 men
- Gideon finds courage on a spy mission 8b-15a
- totally a God thing
- v. 9 "go down against the camp because I am going to give it into your hands"
- v. 10 "if you are afraid, go down and listen"
- he was afraid, he went down to listen
- v. 14 from the Mouth of Midianite - "this can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite, God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands"
- Gideon has more trust in the dream of a pagan enemy than the clear word of the Angel of the Lord! (the enemy only says what God had already been saying)!
- when Gideon heard this he worshipped God and then found courage for action
- Gideon routs the Midianites 15b-21
- Gideon's strategy, but totally a God thing
- v. 15 "Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands"
- v. 18 "blow the trumpet and shout "for Yahweh and for Gideon""
- all the Midianites run away
- The rest of the tribes are called out to help the pursuit 22-25
- captured much of the Midianite army
- The other tribes complain against Gideon 8:1-3
- The people of Succoth and Peniel refuse to help Gideon 4-9
- v. 7 "When the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand"
- Gideon defeats Zebah and Zalmunah 10-12
- Gideon's doing, but totally a God thing
- total of almost 150,000 enemies defeated in the whole story
- Gideon pays back the cities that defied him 13-17
- they refused to fight God's battles, even hindered those who did
- possibly personal revenge
- against fellow Israelites
- God is not mentioned in these battles
- Gideon finishes off the enemies 18-21
- repays them for their treatment of Israel
- Gideon's son would not kill the kings "because he was afraid"
- "As is the man, so is his strength" - even at the last of the story, Gideon's cowardice is highlighted
- Postscript 8:22-32
- Gideon ambiguously passes the test on kingship, fails the test on idolatry 8:22-27
- Kingship 22-23
invitation -
"rule over us, you, your son and your grandson"
- not normal word for king, but word more often used of pagan rulers in Josh/Jdgs
- "socially sanctioned ruling authority"
- "because you saved us from the Midianites"
- response -
- "I will not rule over you"
- "The Lord will rule over you"
- clear rejection of rejection of theocracy for monarchy
- but Gideon took some of the privileges of kingship (plunder, see below) but did nothing further to benefit the nation or serve God
- idolatry 24-27
- request
- gift of a small amount of gold from each person's share of the plunder
- ended up to be a lot of gold total
- result
- Gideon made an "ephod" from the gold
- cultic object
- possibly an image/idol
- more likely a means of divination
- All Israel prostituted themselves by worshipping it
- It became a snare to Gideon and his family
- same word in Exodus, Dt. and Joshua for foreign gods and foreign people being a snare for Israel away from the One True God
- The Israelite leaders themselves now becoming/creating snare for people, not foreigners
- Waltke - "Gideon is both hero and antihero, both a man of faith and a man of fear."
- Rest and Gideon's death 8:28-32
- Midian completely subdued for Gideon's lifetime
- The land enjoyed peace
- Gideon rested
- Gideon had seventy sons from many wives
- One son, from a concubine, is mentioned (Abimelech) - foreshadowing
- Gideon dies and is buried
- Abimelech 8:33-9:57
- Sin 8:33-35
- People prostituted themselves to the baals
- People did not remember the Lord their God
- People act unrighteously, without gratitude to Gideon
- Oppression 9:1-6
- Abimelech campaigned to become king
- unrighteously murdered rivals
- (oppressor came from within Israel)
- one rival (Jotham) escapes
- Crying out (Jotham's Fable) 9:7-21
- Jotham's fable
- the trees wanted a king
- the upright valuable trees rejected being king for something better (their calling and nature)
- Spurgeon - "If a man is called to preach the Gospel, he should not lower himself to become king"
- the lowest plant accepted kingship with a warning that the people would get the kind of king they asked for
- the king would be a blessing to them or a curse - depending on the character of the king - foreshadowing
- punch-line of the parable
- If you & Abimelech have done good in the way he has become king, you will be a blessing to one another
- if you & Abimelech have done evil in the way he has become king, you will be a curse to one another
- Rescue 9:22-57
- God brings a bad spirit between Abimelech and Shechem
- raises up rivals who try to do to Abimelech what he did to Gideon's sons, conspiring and campaigning to take leadership
- God is fighting against Israel, not for
- War that destroys both Shechem and Abimelech
- Abimelech killed in a humiliating way
- Moral of the story
- v. 56-57 "Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech has done...The curse of Jotham came on them"
- example of bad kind of kingship that would bring curse to the people
- Judges not against the monarchy, but against certain kinds of monarchy (like the surrounding nations)
- hinting at the NT idea of servant leadership
- pointing forward to God's kind of leaders - first David and then Christ
- Tola & Jair 10:1-5
- Tola 10:1-2
- "rose to save Israel"
- "Led Israel 23 years"
- little else is said
- God is still active in many ways not narrated in detail
- Jair 10:3-5
- "led Israel 22 years"
- details suggest great wealth and great influence
- little else is said
- Jephthah 10:6-12:7
- sin 10:6
- did evil in the eyes of the Lord
- served false gods
- forsook the Lord and no longer served Him
- oppression 10:7-9
- Lord was angry with them
- into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites - same people whose gods they served in v. 6
- were shattered and crushed
- were oppressed for 18 years
- were in great distress
- Crying out 10:10
- cried out
- this time in repentance, acknowledging that they have sinned against God by forsaking Him and serving false gods
- Rebuke 10:11-16
- I saved you from other nations when you cried for help
- you have forsaken me and served other gods
- so I will no longer save you
- cry out to the other gods that you have chosen
- let them save you when you are in trouble
- The Israelites respond
- confess they have sinned
- submitted to God's will and asked Him to save them
- they actually got rid of foreign gods and served the Lord
- God could not bear their misery any longer
- Rescue 10:17-11:33
- Search for a leader 10:17-11:11
- The Ammonites attack 10:17
- They ask "Who will lead the Israelites?" 10:18
- They turn to an outcast they had previously rejected 11:1-11
- contrast Abimelech - rejected because not family
- v. 8 "we are turning to you now...you will be our head" - contrast turning to God as their head
- Jephthah answers - v.9 "If the Lord gives them to me - will I really be your head?"
- God acknowledged as victor
- skeptical about their willingness to treat him as more than just a tool of expedience
- They swore before Yahweh to do so
- Jephthah ratified it at Mizpah
- place where Jacob and Laban made a covenant before God to keep their vows to one another
- Jephthah's home town
- Place where Israel assembled in ch. 20
- Negotiation/Challenge with the enemy 11:12-28
- Jephthah's message to the Ammonite king "Why are you attacking?" 11:12
- Ammonite Response - "The Israelites took our land during the Exodus/Conquest, give it back" 13
- Jephthah's Response - 14-27
- Israel did not take your land
- Israel was not the aggressor, Ammon was
- The Lord defeated Ammon and gave their land to Israel
- You take what your god gives you, we will possess what the Lord our God has given us
- You had plenty of chance (300 years) to take that land back, why didn't you?
- We have not wronged you, you are wronging us
- Let the Lord decide between us
- Ammonite Response - ignore the message, press the attack
- The Battle 11:29-33
- Jephthah mobilizes for attack
- v. 29 "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah
- He advanced against the Ammonites
- Jephthah's rash vow
- v. 30 "IF you give the Ammonites into my hands"
- cf. Gideon, doubting, trying to hedge his bet by bribing God
- God is not bribable
- Some scholars think that Jephthah was aware of the possibility that this would involve human sacrifice, others think he assumed animal - cf. Howard
- The Battle
- v. 32 "The Lord gave them into his hands"
- devastated 20 towns
- Israel subdued Ammon
- Postscript 11:34-12:7
- Jephthah's daughter 11:34-40
- His only child met him when he returned home (the first thing to meet him was to be sacrificed)
- He was distraught because (v. 35) "I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break"
- Should he have broken the vow or sacrificed his daughter?
- v. 36 "Do to me as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged YOU on YOUR enemies"
- she mourned for two months
- he did what he had vowed
- she is memorialized in a custom
- Jephthah did something that the pagan kings did! Has Israel repented?!
- Jephthah versus Ephraim 12:1-6
- cf. Gideon's diplomacy
- The Ephraimites threatened Jephthah for not including them in the fight
- He responds that he did invite them and they did not come and the Lord gave victory
- Jephthah started civil war among Israel because of a personal insult
- 42,000 Ephraimites were killed
- Rest 7
- Led Israel 6 years
- Jephthah died
- Later Judges 12:8-15
- Ibzan 12:8-10
- very little said
- he led Israel
- Elon 12:11-12
- very little said
- led Israel
- Abdon 12:13-15
- very little said
- he led Israel
- Large family with some wealth
- Samson 13:1-16:31
- Sin and Oppression 13:1
- Birth of Samson 13:2-24
- Miraculous announcement of birth
- language echoed in the birth announcements of John the Baptist and Jesus in Lk ch. 1
- Nazirite from birth cf. Numbers ch. 6
- Father doubts, asks for confirmation - cf. Gideon
- Offers sacrifice with unrecognized Angel of the Lord - cf. Gideon
- Recognized with fear at the offering - cf. Gideon
- Spirit of the Lord stirred him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol
- Samson wages war with Philistines 14:1-16:30
- Wife at Timnah the occasion for battling the Philistines 14:1-15:8
- God is picking a fight 14:1-7
- The riddle at the wedding feast 14:8-20
- Revenge for his wife and her family 15:1-8
- Judah betrays Samson to the Philistines 15:8-20
- They bind him and turn him over 8-13
- The Spirit of the Lord comes on him and he slaughters them with a jawbone 14-17
- He calls to the Lord to save him from thirst 18-20
- Prostitute in Gaza the occasion for battling the Philistines 16:1-3
- Delilah the occasion for battling the Philistines 16:4-21
- Philistine idolatry the occasion for greatest triumph over the Philistines 16:22-30
- Rest 16:31
- Total Apostasy 17:1-21:25
- Micah and the Danites commit idolatry 17:1-18:31
- Micah makes and idol and installs polluted, idolatrous worship ch. 17
- Micah does right out of fear of his mother's curse
- She consecrates her silver to the Lord to make a carved image and a cast idol
- Confusion and contradiction
- direct contradiction to the 2nd commandment
- if she was making an image and idol, it was not consecrated to Yahweh who forbade idols
- He made the idol and set up worship contrary to God's instructions
- made an ephod and idols
- made one of his sons a priest - not a descendant of Aaron!
- v. 6 "In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit"
- this narrative insertion is highly appropriate right at this point
- each person determining worship based on their won preferences leads to polluted worship!
- be cautious about the current push for creativity in worship
- faithfulness in worship should be more of a priority than creativity in worship
- Recruited a Levite to bring some legitimacy to his idolatrous worship
- v. 13 "Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest"
- attempting to manipulate God, rather than serving God
- the appearance of legitimate worship does not always mean that worship is truly legitimate
- The Danites steal the idol and priest 18:1-26
- again v.1 "In those days Israel had no king"
- The Danites are giving up on the inheritance given by God
- men spy out the land 2-10
- They are taking matters into their own hands - being unruly bandits/oppressors like the foreigners earlier in Judges, not as fighting the Lord's battles of conquest/cherem
- vv.1-2 reminiscent of Joshua, but also vastly different
- Meet the Levite at Micah's house
- ask him to inquire of "God" (not Yahweh) for them about the success of their journey
- Priest says "Your journey has Yahweh's approval" - is this legitimate? ambiguous.
- found and spied out Laish - unsuspecting and unprotected
- They returned with the report
- They steal the idol and priest on the way 12-26
- many times repeat the terms "carved image and cast idol" OT words clearly associated with idolatry - in describing the desirability of Micah's household.
HUGE irony
v. 18- "There are idols, etc. here, you know what to do"
- what they should have known to do is to put them under cherem by destroying idolatry
- what they did in fact "know what to do" it to covet the idolatry, steal the idols and embrace the idolatry - upside down!
- v. 24 "You took the gods I made"
- if you made them, they weren't gods and you are better off without them
- bully Micah by force
- They capture a city from a "peaceful and unsuspecting people" in territory not assigned to them by Joshua
- the way the story is told seems to cast the Danites and the bad guys and the people of Laish as the innocent victims
- They name the city Dan
- They set up the idolatry in Dan
- v. 31 - this idolatry is contrasted with the true tabernacle in Shiloh
- The Levite's concubine and the near destruction of Benjamin 19:1-21:25
- Inclusio 19:1 & 21:25 "Israel had no king"
- places of this story Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Gibeah have significance in Samuel
- Levite's Concubine killed by the Gibeonites 19:1-29
- Travels to Bethlehem to get her back 1-3
- Delayed from leaving so had to stop at unknown place at bad time 4-15
- Irony v. 12 "No. We won't go to an alien city, whose people are not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah"
- expected morality and hospitality among God's people, didn't get it
- treated like the Sodomites treated the messengers in Genesis (ch. 19) 16-28
- God's people had become as bad as Sodom! proverbial for wickedness
- worse than the Canaanites
- Concubine killed
- The Levite butchers her and sends her body parts to all parts of Israel
- v. 30 "Such a thing has never been done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Think about it! Consider it! Tell us what to do!"
- The unthinkable has become a reality among God's people
- notice how the people of God have become worse than the pagans in a few generations at most. They compromised on the command to stay separate and destroy other gods, and so they ended up serving the foreign gods and taking on their character - learn to think about tolerance in a Biblical way, not in our culture's secular way
- The Israelites destroy (cherem) the tribe of Benjamin, almost to extinction 20:1-48
- All Israel unites to fight Benjamin v. 1
- vv. 9-11 language of conquest in Joshua
- vv. 12-17 Benjamin is given a chance to join the righteous fight against Gibeah (a Benjamite town) but they side with their tribe over against righteousness
- v. 18 cf. Judges 1:1-2 complete the conquest by cherem against unfaithful Israel
- vv. 23, 26-29 language of Joshua warfare
- vv. 29ff. cf Ai conquest
- v. 35 The Lord defeated Benjamin
- v. 37 Jericho conquest
- vv. 46-48 Cherem - completely destroying Benjamin, only 600 men escaped
- notice how the good guys have become the bad guys in a few generations at most. Those who were given the task of conquest/cherem have become the victims of conquest/cherem
- Destruction of an Israelite city and Benjamin is spared extinction 21:1-25
- another rash oath 1
- mourning for Benjamin 2-3
- worship 4
- mission of cherem, destroys an Israelite city because of a rash oath, not because of the command of the Lord 5-12
- Wives for the Benjamites 13-24
- unrighteous way to fulfil the "righteousness" of a rash oath
- the tribe of Benjamin survives and the book ends with relative calm and peace?
- Israel had no king, everyone did what was right in their own eyes 21:25
Theological Themes
- 1. Cyclical Pattern
- a. Sin of Idolatry
- b. oppression as punishment for idolatry
- c. crying out to God
- d. raising up a judge to deliver them
- e. victory over the enemies/rest
- f. new sin
- the pattern spirals down worse each time
- Deuteronomistic Theology - just punishment for sin
- Flee idolatry/syncretism
- 2. God's faithful rescue
- God does it, not the judges
- By God's initiative and direction
- some judges take more initiative than others, some resist
- God is faithful even when His people are unfaithful
- There is hope in the midst of punishment - what the people cannot do, God can do
- God keeps His promises
- 3. Complete the conquest
- problem stems from them ceasing to fight God's battles and compromise with God's enemies
- Flee idolatry and syncrenism
- Fight to finish the conquest - this will look different in our day than in the days of the judges
- 4. Israel needs a King
- Unity militarily and politically - yes, but that can actually be trouble/stumbling block - see Dt. 17
- But more necessary, to lead in purity of worship and covenant keeping to the Lord
- The kind of King that God wants vs. a king like all the other nations
- Godly, servant leader submitted to God's revelation vs. selfish tyrant doing right in his own eyes