Judges 1:1-36; Judges 2:1-3:11

So... something happened to these posts.  I'm not sure what.  They were supposed to have published, but they seemed to have either not appeared or have disappeared from the blog.  I don't know what happened.  I'm sure they're floating out there in the netherlands of the internet, somewhere...

Judges is one of those books I am fascinated with.  Like the bloody original versions of familiar fairy tales, you don't expect to see some of these things in the Bible.  As a piece of literature, Judges is an epic tale of the affects of sin and dissolution on a nation.  As Holy Scripture, it has something to tell us.

In those first chapters, the pattern of Judges is established, and it will be repeated over and over again throughout the book.  Because the Israelites did not obey God in driving out the idolatrous nations, He revoked His blessing from them that they would always be successful in battle.  This is very important, as it is key to the cycle.  When things are good, Israel begins to be unfaithful to God, chasing after the false gods of their neighbors.  Because of their sin, God allows oppressors to rise over Israel; if they'd had His blessing still, they would have been able to beat back these oppressors.  But in truth, they needed them: because of their misery and oppression, they turned back to God and cried out to Him.  He took pity on them sent them judges: mostly men, one woman, who stood for the Lord, drove away the oppressors, and led the people in worshiping the true God.  As long as the Judge was alive, the people were faithful.  But when the judge died, the people turned to sin and idolatry, until the Lord began to discipline them again through raiders and plunderers.  Notice, God used these pagan nations to bring His holy nation back to Him each time.  And it worked; for a time.

It seems as long as the Israelites had a strong leader, they would follow that strong leader.  We'll see that when they gain a king: the good kings lead the people toward God; the bad kings led them astray.  Perhaps this is why Samuel was such an amazing character in the Bible: though not king, he was High Priest and led the people towards faithfulness all his days.  But that is in the future from now.

Next Reading: 3:11-4:24