Judges Introduction and Chapter 1

Welcome to our new study which will be based out of the book of Judges. We are following the course of the history of Israel, landing us in a time of the judges following the command of Joshua. Judges were these ruler/savior characters that God raised up to both protect his chosen people and also redirect them towards himself. I pray that as we begin this new study that each of us can read with open hearts. There will be many moments in this study that may confuse you or disgust you. May we all remain open in a posture of humility knowing that God is able to teach us from even the most difficult of passages. May we learn from the breaking down of a chosen people, and may we experience the grace the Lord has shared not only for Israel but for the whole Earth. 

Let us begin our study by discussing what we know about the book of Judges and it’s creation. Honestly, most everything about the background of the book is heavily debated by scholarship. There is no firm answer to the question of who wrote the book. Many debate about what time it was written as well. It’s material that is actually presented places the book chronologically following Joshua and before the time of Kings in the middle of the Deuteronomic history. But, scholars argue that the stories presented are often done so in different styles; showing evidence of multiple authors, multiple orated traditions, and/or later editing. Scholars also often say that the prologue and epilogue were most likely written after the stories included in the middle of the book due to themes repeated in the beginning and the end, not the middle. 

What does any of that mean to us, the everyday Bible reader? Not much. God’s Word is still true, still inspired. Scholars have a great time babbling on about the legitimacy of the book because of the way it was written. Most agree that the contents of the book may not be 100% historically accurate in the details which are described. When was the Bible every claiming it was a history textbook? Rather, we should read Judges like it is true story made to live and breath to our present context because of the form it came to us in. It is art. The stories in the Deuteronomic history (Deuteronomy-Kings) were compiled from a long oral history in order to point towards the glory of God and a hope for a future promise that would be fulfilled by Christ! History textbooks are supposed to detail multiple perspectives and yet the Bible only presents one: God’s direct and loving interaction with his creation. If that is true, then God allowed the stories and structure of Judges to be done so in a way that is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness that we who believe may be perfected. 

With that in mind, let us actually look into the text of chapter 1. Judges and the authors behind it provide a seamless transition from the book of Joshua into the book of Judges, sharing many of the same themes from the second half of Joshua into the foundation of the book of Judges. We will look more in depth of these comparisons within chapter 2. Chapter 1 begins with the death of Joshua, begging the question of what will the Israelites do with the rest of the inhabitants of the land whom God declared ought to be destroyed? God declares that it will be Judah who will lead the charge and begin pushing the ungodly inhabitants out of the Promised Land. 

But the success will not last long. Soon Judah faces a test that they fail to defeat due to the people of the plains having chariots of iron.  One after another the tribes of Israel gave up the command to drive out the evil that resided in the land. As we know, this will ultimately lead to the demise of Israel and is the beginning of a vicious cycle of sin-crying out-God saving-the people repenting, and then all over again. 

So is it God who fails the Israelites by not doing more to drive out the evil in the land? Simply stated: no. In the first 5 verses of chapter 2 we get a glimpse of the heart of Israel at the moment in history. God had been with them and had promised the people victory, just as he had promised Joshua and Moses before them. The people failed not because God was on lunch break, rather because the people were becoming a distant and disobedient people. We can assume that the people saw the iron chariots and wanted nothing to do with them. Their war-mongering leader had died and the desire to wage war on evil had vanished. Without the strong leadership of a Joshua or a Moses, the people’s faith slowly diminished to the point in which they allowed immorality and idolatry to enter their camps. 

There are several ways in which one could take this passage. First, from the perspective of a pastor, I never want a church to be so dependent on the energies of a human leader that they lose sight of Christ when that person is gone. It is true, God brings certain leaders into certain situations that he may be glorified by the communities efforts. But, as the Holy Spirit dwells in every man, we all ought to be priests. We all should be leading, pastors in our own right by our own gifting. Not everyone is to be a pastor up front, but we all are to lead a walk towards Christ. In that walk to Christ leads me to my second point: do not grow weary of the spiritual battle for the soul. This point cannot be stated enough. Picking up the cross daily was never meant to be easy. Some days, we simply do not have the desire to do so. In the difficult moments, we must all the more lean into the knowledge that the Lord is going before us and has granted the victory. Chariots of iron, then, are ancient matchbox cars in comparison to our God.