Judges
Author
Unknown. Some traditions say the book was compiled by Samuel.
Date
Unknown. Most of the book was probably written and compiled shortly after the death of Samson, who was the final judge. This would have been around 1050B.C.
Audience and Purpose
The book serves as a historical record to God’s people of the time between Joshua’s death and Samuel’s arrival as a prophet. It record’s God’s continual leadership to a people who had no desire to be led.
Major Themes
- Godly Leadership. The book begins by asking who would take leadership after Joshua (1:1) and ends with the lack of leadership in the land “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25). Throughout every trial of Israel, God raised a leader among the people to act as a deliverer and judge. These leaders themselves are continually tested in keeping their own faithfulness to God above their self-serving desires.
- One other point to note on leadership is that in the Book of Judges, God does not limit this governing authority to men. Deborah, a woman and a wife, is a prophetess and the fourth Judge of Israel (see Judges 4:4).
- Idolatry and Culture. Throughout the book of Judges, the people of God are continually pulled into the worship of the pagan gods of the nations, and reject the Lord and His commands.
- The Need for a Savior. Every story in the book of Judges points to the fact that humanity cannot overcome our sinful nature, and need a Savior to save us.
Key Scriptures
- Judges 3:1,4-6 — “Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them… They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.”
- Judges 21:25 — “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Outline
- Judges 1:1-3:6 — The Roots of Unfaithfulness
- Judges 3:7-16:31 — The Spread of Unfaithfulness
- Judges 17:1-21:25 — The Depths of Unfaithfulness
Gospel Summary
The book of Judges shows Israel’s weakness in remaining faithful to God and His law. Their failure to drive out all of the pagan nations, has now introduced them to a compromised life, where the culture of those nations overtakes the commands of God. A lack of leadership, as the nation previously had in Moses and Joshua, leads to a cycle of faithfulness, laxity, compromise, and sin, until God raises someone to judge the nation and restore righteousness once again. This progression is broken when the people finally reject God as the ultimate judge and King, and demand a king over them, like the other nations (in 1 Samuel 8).
The ESV Gospel Transformation Bible states, in it’s introduction to Joshua, “The failure of both people and judges are so signifiant that they urge us to long for the hero who will never fail… Israel in Judges is in bad shape, but a new day is dawning when God will provide, from the line of David, King Jesus, the King of His choosing.”
© Anthony Scott Ingram 2020. All Rights Reserved.
Photo by Carolyn V on Unsplash
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
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