Judges

The book of Judges begins at Joshua's death. It is a book that follows the story of Israel once it has conquered the majority of the inhabitants of the "promised land" known as Canaan. These geographical borders becomes their national borders of Israel. Primary function of the judges found within Judges was to lead the people to freedom from oppressors and lead them during times of peace. More than half of this period is lead by six judges for approximately one generation for each judge. Joshua, Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah & Barak, and, finally, Gideon all lead the Israelites for 40 years or more at a time. Their rule is characterized by beginning with conquering an enemy. They then lead the people during a time of relative peace for the remainder of their life.

However, the people are consistently plagued by their own unfaithfulness that is accelerated by the remaining presence of local peoples that they were supposed to have wiped out during the initial conquering of Canaan. As they drift away from their love and fear of God, and they are seduced to pursue the other gods of the local people and their practices, they are consistently given over to new oppressors by God to teach them the consequence of unfaithfulness to Him. This destructive cycle seems to get worse after about 200 years of living in the conquered land, and the judges rule begins to osciallate to a range of 3-23 years instead of the 40 year cycle that existed early on in their history. This exponential downward spiral is highlighted in a couple of ways besides the straightforward recorded history itself.

There is also a structure within Judges that seems purposefully designed to illustrate the consistent AND worsening unfaithfulness of the people and the consequences that follow. The majority of Judges is chronological, but the last few chapters are stories that are highlighted within this time period. They seem to be chosen more for their importance and ability to demonstrate how bad things got during this period of Israel's history known as the time of the Judges. First, there is the story of the corruption of the entire tribe of Dan as they steal and appoint their own priest to a graven image as they march off to claim their inheritance. Secondly, there is a gruesome story that is very reminiscent of the account given of Sodom and Gomorrah from Genesis. It, however, involves the tribe of Benjamin within the nation of Israel. The book of Judges begins on a high note with two brothers(tribes) going up together to help conquer the judged inhabitants in obedience, and it ends on a tragic note of all the tribes coming together to wipe out the majority of their youngest brother(tribe) in judgment of the thorough corruption that has been found to permeate it.

Something to consider during this time is the fact that the judges were only one of a few primary means of leadership and governance within Israel during this time. The priests also had a major role and carried God given authority in discerning and making judgments in many areas. Also, there were "lesser" or lower level judges below those explicitly mentioned in the book of Judges. These were elders and respected peoples within various families, clans, and tribes.(Exodus 18:24-26) The judges, both the lower level ones and those mentioned by name in Judges, arose from within all the various tribes. The priests, however, were explicitly restricted to those who were from the tribe of Levi. As we will soon see in I Samuel, this structure of God raising up leaders from within all the various communities is rejected by the people of Israel because they insisted on trying to solve their nation's problems by structuring themselves after their surrounding neighbors who were led by an institutional King that flows from an existing family line.