Everett Fox, a Jewish Bible translator, describes the Book of Judges as “the Bible’s version of the American Wild West, for it presents a scenario of instability and violence in which civil society is threatened by both internal and external forces.” Throughout this book, the Israelites look for a way to complete the conquest of their new home while also facing a constant internal struggle as they fall prey to idolatry and begin to worship the gods of the people they have been called to drive from their land. When we look at this book, we should note that its timeline can seem haphazard as it jumps between events.
Judges opens with two accounts of Joshua’s death. One of them tells of the opening exploits of the tribes of Israel into the Promise Land, marked primarily by successes. In other instances, they were not successful. In the second account, we learn that after the generation who lived under Joshua, the Israelites forgot the work of God and began to do evil by turning to the worship of other gods. God responds to their disobedience with both punishment in the form of invasion and with grace as He calls forth judges who would lead the people during this time. Israel begins a cycle of obedience and disobedience when they first follow a judge and then turn away from the Lord upon that judge’s death.
- God first called Othniel as a judge, who successfully defeated invaders from Aram Naharaim in the northwest part of the Tigris-Euphrates valley before ruling peacefully for forty years.
- After the Israelites turned from God again, the Moabites subjected them before the Lord raised Ehud as their deliverer. Ehud’s main distinguishing feature was that he was left-handed, which enabled him to conceal the sword he used to kill the king of Moab.
- Following Ehud, Shamgar defeated a Philistine army not with traditional weapons but with an oxgoad.
- When the Canaanites conquered Israel, the prophetess Deborah was called as a judge. She then chose Barak to lead the Israelites against their oppressors. Upon learning of the gathering of Israelite warriors, the Canaanite general Sisera brought Israel to battle. But Sisera’s army was defeated, and he fled. Sisera eventually arrived at the tent of Jael, the wife of a man allied to the Canaanite king, where he thought he would be welcomed. While the general slept in her tent, Jael executed him by driving a tent peg into his skull. Upon learning of Sisera’s death, Deborah and Barak sang a song of praise to God for leading His people against their oppressors.
The Psalm this week is probably the best known of all the Psalms. In it we can see God’s faithful love for us as our Lord leads us just as a shepherd does his flock, seeking to bring us into a day when we will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”