Judges (Bible #7), ESV

Apparently, I have never read the majority of the book of Judges before in my life, because aside from learning the two stories of Gideon and Sampson in Sunday School at church, this whole book was brand new to me. 

With so many different stories taking place over so many years in the 12 tribes of Israel, there is a LOT to unpack in this book. And I noticed how easy it was to get focused on an individual story and look up to the sky like, “Um, God, I'm confused, whyyyyy is this story here?” But, at the end of the book, I remembered the beginning, 

“And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.” (Judges 2:7) “And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.” (Judges 2:10-11)

This “prologue” to the book of Judges, I believe, is the key to understanding the really abstract, and sometimes utterly barbaric, stories in Judges. The book of Judges is an illustration of all the ways Israel disobeyed God, almost immediately after Joshua died. The stories are here to serve as a reminder that even though God chose Israel as His people, they continually failed to uphold His righteousness. But even in their disobedience, God still shows up to rescue them when they call out to Him and repent. So, even as we read stories upon stories of Israel's unfaithfulness, these same stories reveal God's faithfulness in keeping His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by being with His people and rescuing them from their own consequences when they call out to Him.

I think another important takeaway is that even though God “rose up Judges to judge Israel”, that their stories are included with all of their failures and sins as a reminder to us that 1. they were not meant to be seen as the Messiah, and 2. that God uses regular people who screw-up constantly for His will. I think it's easy to fall for the idea that God “approved” of these peoples' behavior because they were called His righteous “judges” to bring Israel back to Him, but I think this is a misconception of why these stories were included. Despite each person's sin, God used them. Or in some cases, this person was used by God, and they still sinned after-the-fact because of human's sin nature.

So, Judges was a very intense, slightly terrifying, book to read, but I feel like I walked away with some better insight on the world's need of a Savior. And I think I would like to do a very deep study into Judges at some point in the future as well.