An Overview of Judges

Judges
Written By David Gooding

by David Gooding

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The biblical authors used the literary conventions of their day to convey their message. These included structures and patterns less obvious to us in our modern age. David Gooding brought his expertise in ancient literature to the biblical text, and these study notes represent his thinking about the structure, patterns and thought-flow of Judges.

When speaking to groups of Bible students, he often said, ‘When it comes to Bible study, there is structure, pattern and thought-flow, and the greatest of these is thought-flow. Here are the thoughts of God expressed. Our job is to follow the thought-flow’. He taught that the most important thing to grasp in biblical interpretation is the way the author develops his message, and that discerning structure and patterns within the text should always be directed towards that end.

David Gooding developed these study notes over many years and distributed them at public and private talks. The study notes are not meant to be the last word on the book, and may not cover it entirely. The Myrtlefield Trust offers them to Bible students, preachers and teachers in order to stimulate further thinking about the book, so that its message may be better understood.

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Study Notes

The Weapons of our Warfare As Described in the New Testament

Belt: Truth.

Breastplate: Righteousness.

Shoes: Preparation of the gospel of peace.

Shield: Faith.

Helmet: Hope of salvation.

Sword: The word of God.

To be used with all prayer and supplication.

(Ephesians 6:13–20)

'We do not war according to the flesh: for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of strongholds' (2 Corinthians 10:3–5).

The Various Uses of the Book of Judges

For Israel

  1. Lessons from history for subsequent generations:
    • God's redemptive ways in past history.
    • How we got here.
    • Their debt to past saviours, deliverers, heroes, judges, men and women of faith.
    • Warning examples of the consequences of departure from God's word.
    • Encouraging examples of God's salvation and restoration (cf. Ps 83:9–18).
  2. Prototypes of the great prophetic restoration. 'And the Lord of hosts shall stir up against him [the Assyrian] a scourge, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb' (Isa 10:26).
  3. A manual of military warfare and tactics. See Joab's recall of Abimelech's false move in the attack on Thebez (Judg 9:50–55 and 2 Sam 11:18–22).
  4. Encouragement to learn to fight (Judg 3:1–2).

For Us

  1. Part of the cloud of witnesses stimulating faith (Heb 11:32).
  2. Practical warnings against idolatry and departure from God's word (compare 1 Cor 10:11, 'written for our admonition').
  3. Lessons in spiritual warfare:
    • Discernment of the causes of captivity.
    • Preparation and qualification of deliverers.
    • Reconnoitring the various enemies.
    • Strategies and tactics in overcoming the foe ('that by them you may wage the good warfare', 1 Tim 1:18).
  4. Encouragement to fight the good fight (1 Tim 6:12).

Table of Contents

The Two Introductions

  1. 'And it came to pass after the death of Joshua ...' (Judg 1:1).

  2. 'Now when Joshua had sent the people away ... another [third] generation ... which knew not the Lord, and the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord ...' (Judg 2:6)

The Main Deliverers

  1. 'And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord' (Judg 3:7).
    • Deliverer: Othniel.
  2. 'And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord' (Judg 3:12).
    • Deliverer: Ehud.
    • After Ehud: Shamgar.
  3. 'And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord' (Judg 4:1).
    • Deliverers: Deborah, Barak, Jael.
  4. 'And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord' (Judg 6:1).
    • Deliverer: Gideon.
  5. 'And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again and went a whoring after the Baalim ...' (Judg 8:33)
    • Abimelech: king.
    • Deliverer: a woman of Thebez.
    • After Abimelech: Tola, Jair.
  6. 'And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord' (Judg 10:6)
    • Deliverer: Jephthah.
    • After Jephthah: Ibzan, Elon, Abdon.
  7. 'And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord' (Judg 13:1).
    • Deliverer: Samson.

The Two Epilogues

  1. Micah—a Levite—the Danites—and their idolatry (Judg 17:1).
  2. The all-tribal-assembly and its mishandling of a case of gross immorality (Judg 19:1).

The Major Captivities and Deliverers

Judges 1:1–3:6; 17:1–21:25

Two Introductions Two Epilogues
1. After the Death of Joshua Who shall go up first against the Canaanites? Covenant, Bochim, weeping 4. Gideon Enemy: Midian Tactic: Light in earthen vessels 2. Benjamin’s Immortality Who shall go up first against Benjamin? Bethel, weeping, ark of covenant
↓ ↓ ↓ ­↑
2. When Joshua had Sent the People Away Intermittent idolatry 3. Deborah, Barak, Jael Enemy: Canaanites Tactic: Skull pierced with tent peg 5. Woman of Thebez Enemy: Abimelech Tactic: Skull crushed with millstone 1. Micah’s Idolatry Institutionalised idolatry
↓ ­↑ ↓ ­↑
2. Ehud Enemy: Moabites Tactic: Killing the enemy at the fords 6. Jephthah Enemy: Ammonites Tactic: Killing one’s brethren at the fords
­↑ ↓
1. Othniel Enemy: Mesopotamians Secret of success: his wife 7. Samson Enemy: Philistines Secret of failure: his wives

The Two Introductions and the Two Epilogues

The Introductions

Judges 1:1–2:5: After the death of Joshua: the all-tribal assembly and the second phase of the conquest. 'Who shall go up first against the Canaanites?—and the Lord said, Judah' (Judg 1:1–2).

Judges 2:6–3:6: The third generation after Joshua: Israel's recurrent lapses into, and rescues from, idolatry.

The Epilogues

Judges 17:1–18:31: The grandson of Moses and his posterity become priests in the Danites' system of institutionalized idolatry (Judg 18:30).

Judges 19:1–21:25: The all-tribal assembly and the botched discipline of Benjamin. 'Who shall go up for us first to battle against the Benjamites?—and the Lord said, Judah' (Judg 20:18).

The Function of the First Introduction

It Sets the Context of the Era of the Judges: The Second Phase of the Conquest of Canaan

First Phase

Joshua and the united armies of all the tribes broke the back of all opposition. Israel was now in the land and possessed it. In that sense Israel had rest.

Second Phase

Each tribe had now to peel off from the united army and to enter into their own particular inheritance, drive out any remaining Canaanites, and then settle and develop their allotted territory. That involved faith, courage, fighting and persistence.

The Varied Success of the Individual Tribes

  1. Some, like Judah, drove out the Canaanites (Judg 1:1–17).

  2. Some, like Benjamin, did not drive out the Canaanites (Judg 1:21).

  3. Some did not drive out the Canaanites, but put them to task-work (Judg 1:28).

  4. Some could not drive the Canaanites out of parts of their possessions e.g. Judah (Judg 1:19).

  5. Some did not e.g. Ephraim. (Judg 1:29).

The Four Incidents

  1. Adoni-bezek. Principle: you reap what you sow (Judg 1:4–7).

  2. Othniel and Achsah. Principle: with what measure you mete, it shall be meted to you; to him that has shall be given (Judg 1:12–15).

  3. Cale* Principle: past faith brings eventual reward (Judg 1:20).

  4. House of Joseph. Principle: the price of compromise is that you perpetuate the evil elsewhere (Judg 1:22–26).

God's Rebuke at Bochim

For his people's lack of faith in his covenant and oath, which led them to make covenants with the Canaanites, instead of persisting in their efforts to drive them out (Judg 2:1–5).

The Function of the Second Introduction

To Outline God\'s Response to Israel\'s Failure and Compromise (Judg 2:6–3:6)

A Basic Cause of (But Not Excuse for) Their Forsaking the Lord

The weakness of the third generation. 'They did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel' (Judg 2:10).

God's Anger (Judg 2:14–15)

He taught and disciplined them by allowing them to experience, and suffer under, the consequences of their sin: spoiled, oppressed, weakened, distressed by their enemies, as the Lord had spoken, and as the Lord had sworn unto them (Judg 2:15; cf. 1 Cor 11:28–32).

God's Mercy (Judg 2:16–18)

He raised up judges to be their saviours:

  1. To teach them and judge their sin.

  2. To bring them to repentance.

  3. To lead them to deliverance from their enemies.

God's Providential Turning of Evil to Good (Judg 2:19–3:6)

  1. By not driving out all the nations at once, but leaving them in order to prove Israel, whether they were genuine in faith and obedience (Judg 2:21–23).

  2. By leaving the nations in Canaan so that the younger generations of Israelites might learn to fight (Judg 3:1–2).

Denials of First Principles

1. Israel: brought into the land by God according to his oath and never-to-be broken covenant, they enter covenants with Canaanites and go after their gods (Judg 2:2–5).

2. First captivity: to the king of the country from which Abraham came out (upper Mesopotamia).

3. Second captivity: Moab takes Jericho, the city which Israel destroyed, in order to enter Canaan.

4. Third captivity: Jabin, king of the Canaanites, mightily oppresses Israel just as Pharaoh had done.

5. Fourth captivity: Israel are in the land of milk and honey, but Midian nearly starves them out.

6. Abimelech: should have been a judge and deliverer, but he acts the tyrant and Israel have to be saved from their saviour.

7. Jephthah: treats his brother Israelites as though they were enemies and slaughters them.

8. Samson: the Philistines were uncircumcised; i.e. they were not members of the covenant between God and Abraham's see* Samson marries an unconverted Philistine wife and blurs the distinction.

9. Danites: destroy the Canaanite city of Laish, rebuild it as Dan, and install therein idolatry.

10. The all-tribal-assembly: in attempting to discipline Benjamin for breaking the sanctities of hospitality and sex, itself breaks the sanctities of oath and innocent blood, which was its responsibility to protect.

The First Captivity: To the King of Mesopotamia

Reconnoitring the Enemy

  1. Cushan-rishathaim: Cushan of double wickedness!
  2. Haran: the place from which Abraham had been called out.
  3. What brought Abraham out of Chaldaea and Haran?
    • Vision of the God of glory.
    • Promise of inheritance (Acts 7:2–4).

Cause of Israel's Downfall

False-loves, false gods, misdirected desires and energies (Judg 3:6–7).

Othniel's Fitness to be a Deliverer

A true-love, Achsah, who was his incentive (Judg 1:12–15):

  1. To go for the full enjoyment of his inheritance.
  2. To develop and enlarge his inheritance.

New Testament

  1. John's advice: 'love not the world ...' (1 John 2:15–17).
  2. The connection between our inheritance and our desires (1 Pet 1:3–4; 1:13–23).
  3. 'He called us by his own glory and virtue' (2 Pet 1:3).

The Moabite Captivity

Reconnoitring the Enemy

Moab in Scripture

In the Old Testament

  1. Moab was the son of Lot by his daughter (Gen 19:30–38).
  2. Balaam teaches the king of Moab to tempt Israel into eating things sacrificed to idols and into committing fornication (Num 25).
  3. 'Moab has been at ease from his youth' (Jer 48:11): his pride, arrogance, haughtiness, wrath (Jer 48:29).
  4. The king of Moab (Judg 3):
    • A very fat man.
    • Killed through his belly.

New Testament Warnings Against Moabitism

  1. A warning against both moral and spiritual and fornication (1 Cor 10:8, 21–23).
  2. 'You have some that hold the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication' (Rev 2:14).

The Turning Point in Ehud's Campaign

The Right and Wrong Use of the Knife

  1. Carved images: The knife used to make religion attractive to the flesh (Judg 3:19).
  2. Gilgal: The place where Israel made knives and circumcised themselves (Judg 5).

A Comparison of Judges 3 and Philippians 3

Judges 3 Philippians 3
1. Ehud: a Benjamite 1. Paul: a Benjamite
2. Moab: the fleshly man 2. Confidence in the flesh
3. The right and wrong use of the knife 3. Concision versus circumcision
4. Israel’s crossing of the Jordan: Moab–the fords 4. Conformed to death and resurrection of Christ
5. Moab re-takes and lives in Jericho: city of the curse 5. They mind earthly things . . . our citizenship is in heaven
6. A message from God to you 6. Even this shall God reveal unto you
7. Ehud took the sword . . . and thrust it into his belly 7. Whose god is the belly, whose glory is in their shame
8. So Moab was subdued on that day 8. The saviour . . . is able even to subdue all things to himself

The Canaanite Oppression

Reconnoitring the Enemy

  1. Joshua 11: At Israel's entry, led by the living God (see Judg 5:4), Jabin I led a great confederacy of kings against Joshua, to thwart the purpose of God to establish Israel in the lan* Joshua defeated them.

  2. Judges 4–5: A revival of Canaanite power. Jabin II mightily oppresses Israel, nation of Israel fragmented, little intercourse (Judg 5:6); people leaderless and unarmed, few shields for defence or spears for attack (Judg 5:8).

Features of the Enemy

  1. Jabin: Name = he perceives.
  2. Technology: nine hundred chariots of iron.
  3. Canaanites: so famous as merchants that the word 'Canaanite' comes to mean 'merchant' (cf. Zec 14:21).
  4. Sisera killed through the brain.
  5. Sisera lived in Harosheth 'of the Gentiles'.

Some Biblical Descriptions

  1. The sinners, the Amalekites.
  2. The uncircumcised Philistines.
  3. Galilee of the gentiles:
    • Its geographical significance.
    • Its moral and spiritual significance.

Effect of the Captivity

He mightily oppressed the Israelites (Judg 4:3).

Believers Are Not To

  1. Pray like Gentiles (Matt 6:7).
  2. Have the same objectives as Gentiles (Matt 6:32).
  3. Have the same mind-set as Gentiles or the same behaviour-patterns (Eph 4:17).

Strategies and Tactics in the Conflict

    • Deborah's insight into the purposes of God in history and the battles of the Lord (Judg 5:4–5).
    • Cf. the confederation of the kings against God's Christ (Acts 4:23–29).
    • Christ's victory over the principalities and powers.
  2. Barak's tactics:
    • Up Mount Tabor (Judg 4:6, 12).
    • Going down Mount Tabor with the Lord before him (Judg 4:14).
    • Taking captivity captive (Judg 5:12; see Ps 68:8, 17–18; Eph 4:7–16).
  3. Jael and her tent-peg (Judg 4:17–24).

The Midianite Captivity (1)

Gideon: His Success

Reconnoitring the Enemy (Judg 6:1–6)

  1. Midianites: were Ishmaelites: 'A wild donkey among men: his hand against every man ... and every man's hand against him' (cf. Gen 16:12).
  2. Nomads: destroyed crops like a plague of locusts.
  3. Result: left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
  4. No longer a land flowing with milk and honey.

Cause of Israel's plight—God's assessment

'I brought you up ... I delivered you ... I drove them out ... I gave you their land ... I said ... I am the Lord your God ... but you have not listened to my voice' (Judg 6:7–10).

Israel's Defeatist Reaction (Judg 6:2)

Made dens, caves and strongholds in the mountains.

Gideon's Fundamental Strategy (Judg 6:11)

  1. Maintained the food-supply: Gideon—a victorious cake (cf. Judg 7:13–14).
  2. Maintained enough provision to entertain the angel of the Lord in worship.
  3. An experience of Jehovah-Shalom: the God of peace and plenty (Judg 6:24).
  4. Reasoning and interceding with God (Judg 6:12–16).

Striving Against Baal: The Positive Approach (Judg 6:25–32)

Must build an altar to the Lord—so the altar of Baal must go.

Gideon's Tactics (Judg 7:1–25)

  1. Seeking the Lord's guidance: controlling the dew (cf. Ps 133:3). 'And God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth, plenty of corn and wine' (cf. Gen 27:28).
  2. Learning not to put faith in numbers (Judg 7:1–8).
  3. Learning in advance that the enemy has already been defeated—by Gideon's food-supply-tactics (Judg 7:9–14).
  4. The victory gained by standing behind the light and proclaiming: 'The sword of the Lord and of Gideon' (Judg 7:15–25).
  5. The necessary process: the breaking of the earthen vessel so that the light could shine out (cf. 2 Cor 4:4–15).
  6. Calling all Israel to join in the victory (Judg 7:24–25).

The Midianite Captivity (2)

Gideon: His Decline

Turning Away the Unreasonable Anger and Criticisms of His Brethren (Judg 8:1–3)

The approach of true humility.

His Destructive Approach to Those Who Refused to Cooperate (Judg 8:4–21)

  1. Cruel discipline (Judg 8:16).
  2. Breaking down their only defence (Judg 8:17).

The Lure of the Spoils of Victory (Judg 8:22–28)

  1. Tested by flattery: 'each one resembled the sons of a king' (Judg 8:18).\ Gideon: they were my brothers (Judg 8:19–21).
  2. Nobly refused to be king (Judg 8:22–23).
  3. Requested the ornaments and robes of the Midianite kings; made an ephod of them; it became:
    • An idolatrous object of reverence to the Israelites.
    • A snare to Gideon and his house (Judg 8:24–27).

One of His Sons Called Abimelech (Judg 8:29–32)

= My father is king.

The Abimelech Tyranny (Judges 9)

Abimelech

The self-promoted king—an ancient Diotrophes: spiritual ancestor of many ecclesiastical tyrants.

Abimelech's False Alternative

  1. Is it better for you that all the seventy sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you? (Judg 9:2). Answer: neither; cf. Gideon: 'the Lord shall rule over you' (Judg 8:23).
  2. Remember that I am your bone and your flesh: the appeal to family connections and pride (Judg 9:2).
  3. He slays his brethren so as to become king himself (Judg 9:3–6).

Jotham's Fable (Judg 9:7–21)

The ugly, barren and destructive desire to be king just for the sake of exercising power over others (cf. Christ's warning: 'The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them ... but you shall not be so; but he that is the greater among you let him become as the younger; and he that is chief, as one who serves' (Luke 22:25–26)).

Gaal's Falsely Motivated Attempt to Eliminate Abimelech (Judg 9:26–45)

Who is Abimelech? ... 'Would that this people were under my hand!' (Judg 9:28–29).

Zebul said: 'Where is your mouth now?' (Judg 9:38).

The Victory of Common Sense Care for the People of God (Judg 9:50–57)

An unknown woman used her millstone and broke Abimelech's skull.

The Ammonite Conflict

Reconnoitring the Enemy

Ammonites in Scripture

  1. Ammon—the son of Lot by his daughter (Gen 19:38).
  2. Nahash the Ammonite proposes a covenant with men of Jabesh on condition that their right eyes shall be put out; 'and I will lay it for a reproach on all Israel' (1 Sam 11:2).
  3. Hanun the Ammonite shaves David's servants and 'cuts off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks ... and ... the men were greatly ashamed' (1 Chr 19:4–5).
  4. 'Ammon ... they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border' (Amos 1:13).
  5. 'I have heard the insults of Moab and the taunts of the Ammonites, who insulted my people and made threats against their land' (Zeph 2:8).
  6. 'But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah ... the Ammonite ... heard it, they laughed us to scorn and despised us ... Now Tobiah ... said, even ... if a fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall ... An Ammonite ... should not enter into the assembly of God' (Neh 2:19; 4:3; 13:1, 4–6) But Nehemiah finds him installed in a great chamber in the courts of the house of God.
  7. Ammon claims the right to Israel's territory (Judg 11).

God's Remonstrance with Israel (Judg 10:10–16)

  1. The danger: thinking that forsaking the Lord does not really matter, because, if it results in trouble, God will always save us from the consequences of our idolatry and start a new revival, like he has always done.
  2. 'You cried unto me and I saved you ... yet you have forsaken me and served other gods: wherefore I will save you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress' (Judg 10:14).
  3. The need for fundamental repentance: 'We have sinned: do unto us whatever seems good to you: only deliver us this day' (Judg 10:15–16).

Jephthah's Distinguishing Tactic (Judg 11:12–28)

  1. Diplomacy: arguing the historical facts of redemptive history. 'Will you not possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever the Lord our God has dispossessed from before us, them we will possess' (Judg 11:24).
  2. Cf. Paul's argument from 'church history' (Gal 1:11–2:21).
  3. Our need to know church history, so as not to be 'disinherited' by those who would impose on us unscriptural institutions and tyrannies and reduce our God-given inheritance.

Jephthah's Weakness

  1. He was an illegitimate child, and suffered the resultant pain of rejection (Judg 11:1–3).
  2. His reaction: the urge to be recognised as 'head' (Judg 11:9–11).
  3. He regards his fellow-nationals who criticise him as enemies and slaughters them (Judg 12:1–6).
  4. Question: how to explain what happens to his daughter? (Judg 11:34–40).
  5. A possible explanation: his desire to be head; a desire to found a dynasty? Cf. the sons of Ibzan and Abdon (Judg 12:8–9; 13–14).
    • Shall I be head? 'They made him head ... and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah' (Judg 11:9–11).
    • Jephthah vowed a vow to the Lord: 'if you will deliver the children of Ammon into my hands ... whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me ... it shall be the Lord's' (Judg 11:30–33). The Lord delivered them.
    • God's providential answer: his daughter; she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter (Judg 11:34–40).
    • The result: there never was a reigning house of Jephthah.

The Philistine Captivity

Reconnoitring the Enemy

  1. They gave their name to the land of Palestine.
  2. They were uncircumcised: i.e. not members of God's covenant with Abraham and Abraham's seed, and not heirs of the inheritance.
  3. Their god Dagon fell over and had to be set up again by human intelligence and power (see 1 Sam 5).
  4. Their finest specimen: the super-man, Goliath (1 Sam 17).

Samson

  1. His preparation: owed to his parents; a Nazirite from birth.
  2. A man empowered by the supernatural power of the Spirit of God.
  3. A man of faith (Heb 11:32–33).
  4. But he married 'unconverted' Philistine women.
  5. He broke the rules of his Naziriteship.
  6. He vexed the Philistines, but never finally delivered Israel from them.
  7. He died in captivity himself.

Samson's Story (Judges 13–16)

The Preparation (Judg 13:1–25)

  1. The 'incomprehensible name'—the man who is God.
  2. The ascension and acceptance.
  3. We have seen god.

Seeking a Philistine Wife (Judg 14:1–20)

  1. The riddle of the lion and the honey.
  2. The riddle betrayed.

Re-Seeking Philistine Wife (Judg 15:1–20)

  1. Revenge over Philistines.
  2. Victory in spite of brethren: the jaw-bone of an ass.

The Harlot of Gaza (Judg 16:1–3)

A trap–but escape.

Delilah (Judg 16:4–21)

  1. A trap–and no escape.
  2. The secret betrayed.

Final Victory (Judg 16:22–31)

  1. Avenged for his eyes.
  2. The acceptance that victory comes through death.

Gideon: The Turning Point in the Book

1. Othniel

Fought Mesopotamians.

Secret of his success: his wife.

2. Ehud

Fought Moabites, Ammonites and Amalek.

Brought a 'message' to the enemy: took fords of Jordan and killed the enemy.

3. Deborah, Barak, Jael

Fought Canaanites.

A woman kills army-commander through his skull.

4. Gideon

Fought Midianite.

  • Stands against idolatry.
  • Fights the enemy.
  • Fights fellow Israelites.
  • Lapses into idolatry.

5. Abimelech

Fought Israelites.

A woman kills him by breaking his skull.

6. Jephthah

Fought Ammonites.

Sent 'messengers' to enemy; took fords of Jordan and killed Israelites.

7. Samson

Irritated Philistines.

Secret of downfall: his 'wives'.

The First Epilogue (Judges 17–18): The Institutionalising of Idolatry

Resulting from a complete loss of knowledge of God and disregard of his word.

The Ordinary People—Example: Micah (Judg 17:1–6)

  1. His name: who is like Jehovah? = Declaration of the uniqueness of God.
  2. Yet he and his mother cultivate idolatry without any bad conscience about it.
  3. Seemingly unaware of first and second commandments, Micah had a 'house of gods' (Judg 17:5).

The Levite (Judg 17:7–13)

  1. Hires himself out for money.
  2. But how can you hire a Levite when by redemption they belong to God? They could be supported by tithes; but not hired.
  3. Micah: 'Now I know the Lord will do me good, seeing that I have a Levite as my priest'—in complete ignorance of Exodus/Leviticus (Judg 17:13).

The Danites Seek Their Inheritance (Judg 18:1–31)

  1. Looks good:
    • Spies.
    • Enquire of God.
    • Destroy Canaanites.
    • Build their own city.
  2. But all false:
    • Should have enquired of the high priest.
    • The Levite gave a 'smooth' answer.
  3. The expedition:
    • They take the Levite from Micah by offering him a better 'living'.
    • They take the gods by force: morality not in it; ultimate sanction: force and violence.
    • Micah's wail:
      • 'You have taken away my gods which I have made' (Judg 18:24).
      • He has no concept of the living God; no salvation; no freedom.
  4. The Destruction of Laish (Judg 18:27–31).
    • Executing the judgment of God?
    • They conquer the people of Laish, destroy their city, and set up–idolatry.
  5. The Priests, grandson of Moses and his sons, officiate in this idolatrous shrine (Judg 18:30).

Compare the History of Christendom

The Second Epilogue: The Appalling Failure of Godly Discipline in Israel (Isa 19–21)

The Function of the All-Tribal-Assembly

  1. Concerned, among other things, with inter-tribal travel and commerce, in order to guard the sanctities of hospitality, sex, marriage and oaths.
  2. Cf. Zeus Xenios among the Greeks.

The Trouble (Judg 19:10–30)

  1. The Benjamites of Gibeah commit a worse moral outrage than even the Gentiles of Jebus would have done (cf. 1 Cor 5).
  2. The pathetic appeal of the woman: appealing for protection, with her hands on the threshol* Just a body; the person gone (Judg 19:27).
  3. The Levite's challenge to all Israel for discipline (Judg 19:24–20:11).

The Problem (Judg 20:12–28)

  1. All the other Benjamites side with those of Gibeah. 2 All the other tribes enquire of the Lord:
    • Who shall go up first against Benjamin?
    • Answer: Judah.
  2. But disastrous defeats by Benjamin on the first two occasions.
  3. Leads to confession and weeping and enquiring before the ark of the Lord.

The Excessive Discipline (Judg 20:30–21:6)

  1. Practically all the tribe of Benjamin destroyed—only six hundred escape.
  2. Left with no wives.
  3. Cf. Deut 25, which commands respect for brother even under discipline.
  4. Cf. 2 Corinthians 2: concern for offender's recovery.
  5. All tribes had sworn an oath not to give their daughters as wives to the Benjamites: now they lament it.

The Problem (Judg 21:7–25)

  1. How to get out of their oath?
  2. Answer: slaughter the men of Jabesh-Gilead for not joining in earlier discipline!
  3. Then seize their virgins and give them to the surviving Benjamite men.
  4. Even so—not enough wives.
  5. So deliberately arrange a dance for the girls of Shiloh, so that the rest of the Benjamite men can come and seize them.
  6. And so the all-tribal-assembly salve their consciences and try to believe that they have not broken their oath, because they did not actually give these girls to the Benjamites.
  7. Thus the assembly undermined the very sanctities it was meant to uphold in the very process of trying to uphold them; and in the course of chastising one act of inter-tribal injustice, commits two others itself.

General Lesson for the Church

  1. Godly church discipline is necessary and commanded (cf. 1 Cor 5).
  2. But beware of carnal attitudes that, in the course of disciplining others, commits grievous acts of compassionless cruelty and casuistically justifies its own trespasses against the law of Christ.

The Breakdown in Theory and Practice of Faith in Direct Theocracy

  1. Cf. Samuel's commentary on the days of the Judges: 'And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me: No, but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king' (1 Sam 12:12).
    • 'The men of Israel said to Gideon, rule over us, both you and your son and your son's son ... And Gideon said ... I will not rule over you neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you' (Judg 8:22–23).
    • 'And his [Gideon's] concubine ... in Shechem ... bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech' = my father is king (Judg 8:31).
  3. 'And all the men of Shechem ... made Abimelech king' (Judg 9:6).
  4. Jotham's fable: the olive tree, the fig tree and the vine all refuse to be made king; the bramble accepts kingship (Judg 9:7–21).
  5. Jephthah: 'if the Lord delivers them [the Ammonites] before me, shall I be your head?' (Judg 11:9)
  6. 'In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes' (Judg 21:25). But why? Did they do so in Moses' and Joshua's day?

Conclusion: Witnesses to the Failure of the Institutions

The Book of Judges

  1. Judgeship cf. Samson.
  2. The Levites (Judg 17:7–13).
  3. The priests, Moses' grandson and his sons (Judg 18:30).
  4. The all-tribal-assembly (Judg 20).

The Book of First Samuel

  1. The worsening corruption of the priesthood: Eli's sons (1 Sam 1–4).
  2. The complete breakdown of the judges: Samuel's sons (1 Sam 8:1–5).
  3. Appointment of a king, Saul: a failure.
  4. The appointment of David, the king after God's own heart.

The Books of First and Second Kings

  1. The eventual failure of the monarchy.

The Solution

The Christ, judge, priest, king, saviour: the one and only son.

 
David Gooding
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