If you’ve read the “Old Testament Connection” you might remember the part of the story where the Israelites move into the land but do not drive out the inhabitants as they were told to do. The part of the story up through Moses bringing them to the border of the promised land is in the first five “books” of the Old Testament, Genesis through Deuteronomy. Theses five books are called the Pentateuch. Sometimes they are called “The Law”. Traditions says they were written by Moses. Jesus called the whole Old Testament the “Law and Prophets” several times (Matthew 5:17; 7:12; 11:3; 22:40 to list a few).
The Jews divided the Old Testament into the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. They further divided the Prophets into the Former Prophets and the Later Prophets. the Former Prophets include the “books” of Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel (combined as one “book” in Jewish scriptures) and 1&2 Kings (also combined into one “book” by the Jews). In our English Bibles the books are arranged in five groups. The Law, History, Poetry and Writings, Major Prophets (longer “books”) and Minor Prophets (shorter “books”). In our English Bibles the Former Prophets are included in the History section.
Joshua continues the history after Moses’ death with Joshua being the new leader. After Joshua died there was no central human leader, of course God was the ultimate leader for Moses and Joshua and the people, but now there was no main representative for God in Israel. The English division of the Old Testament is correct in listing Judges as History, sort of. Judges continues telling the history of Israel but remember it is a specific history detailing the plan of God to provide salvation to men from every tribe, tongue and nation. When most of us think of prophecy we think of telling the future, and prophets in the Bible do do this, but the main job of a prophet in the Bible is to bring important messages from God that fit what is going on at the time. In a way the whole Bible is prophecy since we need to hear the whole story. Judges tells us an important part of that story. As I said in the “Old Testament Connection” in this time between Joshua and the first king, Saul, Israel went through several cycles of rebellion and repentance (turning back). That is the time of the Judges (about 1370-1050 BC) The repentance does not come without help though.
The book of Judges contains 7 cycles of rebellion and repentance but the cycles actually have five parts. First the people disobey God, sin. Then God allows the people who live around the Jews to conquer them, servitude. The Jewish people then cry out to God for help, suplication. God brings a leader on the scene who sets the people free, salvation. Then there is a period of peace, silence. The cycle is listed seven times in the book but it is a downward spiral. The peoples actions get further and further from God. The book ends with three stories of the Israelites divided, following their own ways spiritually, fighting, and committing ugly crimes.
The book gives hope however. Throughout the book several times we are reminded that there was no king in Israel. Some scholars think that this points to the fact that the book was written as a defense for what happens next in 1&2 Samuel, the people get kings. But in reality the people were never without a king, God is their provider, and protector. And that is the hope we can get from the book of Judges. Even after many cycles in our own lives God will take us back, if we turn around, repent. But there is a danger too, we may spiral down out of control in our relationship with God, and sin always has consequences, for ourselves and those around us.
Judges was not written to point out the need for a king it was written as a warning not to compromise with God. In chapter one just a little compromise starts the whole trouble in motion. Judges is truly a prophetic book. Who it was originally written to we do not know. Traditionally it was believed to have been written by Samuel during the time of Saul or David (Around 1050 BC). It may have been written much later like in the time of Manasseh (about 650 BC), an evil king of the southern kingdom, as a reminder of the consequences of not following God. As with other parts of Scripture the stories would have been passed on orally before they were written. But be sure, ultimately the author is God and the story is His. It is a story of the extreme patience of God while carrying out His plan for history. And it’s just what we need. So as you read Judges, listen to the words of the prophet and avoid the spiral. Spirals may be fun on a roller coaster but they can be devastating in life.
A couple of other notes. The Hebrew word that is translated judge has a much bigger meaning than our word “judge”. In other ancient languages that are related to Hebrew it is synonymous with king. Now clearly it does not mean king in Judges because several times the book makes the point that there was no king in Israel at that time. Second the judges are not perfect people, sometimes they are pretty evil. God used imperfect people to accomplish His goals. Third the different stories overlap in time. Remember that the people were divided and somewhat tribal, they were not existing as “one nation under God” to borrow a phrase. Sometimes the judge was pretty national others times he was more local.