Book of Judges Review Part One (Chapters 1-2)

Introduction
The transition from Moses and Joshua to the time of the Judges
During the time of Joshua and Moses, there was a strong central leadership, and a common government which had God as their king, and the priesthood as His earthly messengers. However, after the death of Joshua and his immediate successors, this system broke down. The high standards and ideals demanded by God and demonstrated by Moses and Joshua were not emulated or admired by most Israelites. In general, they had more important practical matters to contend with such as raising families, growing crops, tending their vineyards and shepherding flocks. Additionally, one of Joshua's last acts was to have a covenant renewal ceremony during which he pleaded with the people to get rid of their false gods and idols. None of this settled well with the people.

Next, Joshua failed to lead Israel to a total and complete conquest of Israel. Joshua's proclivity to make treaties with the various Canaanite tribes instead of driving them out of the land or destroying them (as God had commanded) was going to be Israel's Achille's heel. In short, Israel quickly adapted to the idea of having Canaanites as their neighbors, and they tried to find ways to live among them in peace. This lead to compromise and tolerance of Canaanite ways. Israel lost any enthusiasm they had to finish what they started and complete the conquest of Canaan. The result of that decision is the root of the troubles we witness in the Middle East today.

As a result of this lax attitude, mixed marriages between the Israelites and Canaanites became a normal and accepted practice in a very short time. As with any mixing of cultures, there must be a compromise over whose god would be the preeminent in the blended family. Would it be God or one of the Baal gods? The result lead to syncretism.

Syncretism
Syncretism comes from the word synchronize. We generally understand that to synchronize something means to make two or more things operate simultaneously or in a coordinated way. So syncretism is an attempt to reconcile two different moral or religious systems and mold them into something new. The new system created retains elements of both former ways and is thus accepted by both parties.


Israel's leadership
During the time of the Judges, the godly leadership of Joshua and his immediate successors all but disappeared. The Torah-based standards were soon set aside for the self-serving and pragmatic behaviors we are all familiar with in our modern politics.

This condition was not only reserved for the godless, back-slidden leaders of Israel. It was prevalent in every shophet (Judge) the LORD called upon. Every shophet had significant moral and ethical character flaws. Scripture makes no attempt at hiding them. None of the shophetim (Judges) of the Book of Judges could compare to the leadership skills and ethics of Joshua and Moses.

As we go through each of the seven stories of deliverance, each by a different judge, we will find a dark side and equally preferred sense of morality inherent in each of them. Nothing in Scripture is whitewashed; it shows its heroes to be simply what they are--flawed humans.

While this dark and pessimistic summation of Israel's condition is quite bleak, to be balanced, it must be said that on the positive side, they did well to maintain their tribal structure. When left alone, the tribes were generally harmonious. It was when outside forces were exerted that one tribe would buckle under the pressure. This would sometimes lead to inter-tribal warfare. However, even then, there was no serious attempt to erase the existence of a tribe by means of full and complete genocide.


Chapter 1
It takes only about 10-15 years after the death of Joshua before the Israelites begin losing their way.

One small thing we need to keep in mind during this time in Israel's history is that very few copies of the Torah were created especially between the times of Joshua and King Josiah, who ruled from 640-609 B.C. The few copies which were in existence did not find themselves in the hands of ordinary citizens. In fact, it appears that by the time King David was on the throne (about 300-400 years after the death of Joshua), the Torah was all but lost and well on its way to being completely forgotten.

Once the tribes dispersed around the land of Canaan and started taking a firm hold in their allotted territories, the priesthood struggled to exist. The roles of the priests and the Levite tabernacle workers blurred. Only a few of the 48 cities that the Levites were promised within the tribal territories were ever actually handed over. The funding the Israelites were supposed give to the Levites rarely sufficed to maintain the Levites and their families.

We find a phrase repeated a number of times in the Book of Judges: "In those days, there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes." This all but sums up the entire Book of Judges.


Israel's need for a king
There is an important purpose to the Book of Judges which is almost universally missed. God demonstrates in the Book of Judges Israel's need for a king. Many, including myself not so long ago, have reflexively said that with Samuel's anointing of King Saul, the Lord gave Israel something He did not want to give them, a king. However, an honest reading of the Book of Judges shows us something different.

In reality, the Lord was showing Israel that they could not function without a king. They could not follow God's laws and commands without a king. Joshua was not officially a king, but in many ways that was his role. Joshua was God's definition of king which is directly opposed to man's definition of a king. Joshua was the example of ideal leadership for the nation of Israel, one they failed to follow.

Man's definition of a king is a man of privileged royalty who is served by his subjects, who usually have no choice in the matter. God's definition of a king is a shepherd who is a kind of servant to those who have chosen to follow him by their own free will. Man's kings use human shields consisting of thousands of men who would lay down their lives for the benefit of a king. God's king would lay down his own life for the benefit of the people. The problem with Israel is that they wanted their definition of a king to rule over them. So, the Lord gave them their desire. It was the TYPE of king and not the idea of being lead by a king which would be the issue between God and His people.


(Judges 1:3-7) Judah (with the tribe of Simeon) defeats Bezek and their king
They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek: This battle was against Adoni-bezek. Adoni-bezek is not a person's name. Rather, it is a title which means "Lord of Bezek". Bezek was probably the family name of a long established dynasty. When authority was passed from one ruler to the next, each successive ruler would have been called Adoni-bezek. The title would be similar to the "King of England". We do not know the actual name of this individual, and the location of Bezek has been lost to history.

Cut off his thumbs and big toes: Why cut off the thumbs and big toes? By doing so, a man became useless in battle. Without thumbs, he could not hold a sword, he could not shoot a bow, he could not be effective in hand to hand combat and he could not even drive a chariot. Without big toes, he lost his mobility. He would walk with a cane; however, he could not run. Therefore, he could not flee from danger. Even if this captured king eventually escaped, his lack of thumbs and big toes meant his days as a leader were over.

Caleb: We are introduced to Caleb and the retelling the story told in Joshua chapter 15 about a clan leader of Judah named Caleb (the same person who was one of the 12 spies who scouted out Canaan for Moses and came back with a good report). It is interesting to understand that Caleb (and Othniel, his brother) actually came from Edomite heritage. (Remember, Edomites were descendants of Jacob's brother Esau). Somehow, Caleb's ancestors became part of the tribe of Judah and even became the most powerful tribe within Judah. This is something we should not easily forget. It demonstrates how early the Israelites became a diverse and genealogically mixed people.

In return for taking the city of Debir, Caleb gave his daughter Achsah to Othniel. Othniel was Achsah's relative. As part of her dowry, she received land and then later rights to water wells, which was an important affair in an area of the Negev--a place with great soil but precious little water available.

Rest of Chapter 1: We are given details of tribe after tribe of Israel failing to successfully take the land they were supposed to conquer. As each tribe allows the natives to remain in the land (this was in direct defiance to God’s order to utterly eradicate the land of its inhabitants), it gives inspiration to the other tribes to also leave their enemies in the land.

It is important to understand that the land was divided up based NOT on what was actually conquered, or on merit. Rather, it was divided up based on how God had assigned the territory through lots at the time of Moses. That allotment put the various tribes in general regions of the Promised Land--the north, south, near the Jordan River, near the Mediterranean Sea, etc. Joshua fine-tuned this arrangement with another ceremony whereby the relative SIZE of each territory was adjusted to account for the population difference among the tribes, i.e., the bigger the tribe, the bigger the territory. Moreover, these land assignments were meant to be a responsibility to each tribe to finish up the job of conquering their own particular land holding, but the tribes failed to do so.

Chapter 2
There arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD: We are told there is a new generation who arose after Joshua, one that did not know the LORD or know the work He had done on Israel's behalf. We are only talking about the passing of ONE generation after Joshua died. ONE GENERATION!!! In only a couple decades the mixing with the Canaanites had so perverted the Israelites that they were quite familiar with Baal and Ashtoreth, but they know almost nothing about God. To say that they did not know of what God had done for them does not mean they were ignorant and uninformed. It means that they rendered it as irrelevant to their lives. They had no gratitude to those who came before them and fought to give them the life they now took for granted. Syncretism had made the God of Israel barely a second thought for them.

(Judges 2:14-15) God's wrath upon their sin of idolatry
He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them: The purpose of this was to turn Israel's heart back to the LORD. God's goal was not punishment in itself but repentance. Therefore, we should see this as a manifestation of God's love for Israel instead of God's hate. The worst judgment God can bring on a person is to leave them alone and to stop trying to bring them to repentance.

(Judges 2:16-19) The cyclical pattern of bondage and deliverance in the days of the Judges
 In verse 16, the first explanation of the protocol of the Judges is discussed which includes the correlation between the spiritual role and the human role of the Judge. The LORD Himself would raise up a judge, and the judge would be a savior who would rescue some tribe from whoever was oppressing them. But even then, Israel would quickly return to those false gods of their neighbors after the judge/savior had completed his mission. The thing to understand is that for as long as a judge whom the LORD established ruled, Israel was kept secure.

(Judges 2:20-23) God gives them over to their sinful compromise
I will also no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them: God says that He is leaving those Canaanite nations there for the tribes of Israel to contend with as a test or trial. This does not mean trial as in the sense of trials and tribulations. It does not indicate being put into a bad situation whereby the bad situation is of itself the punishment. Rather, in Hebrew the word is nassa, and it refers to a judicial kind of trial. This means that God is going to put the tribes of Israel on trial in His courtroom. They are the accused, and He is the judge. Whether they are convicted and merit further punishment, or whether they are found to be innocent and merit mercy, will all depend on if Israel proves itself to have learned its lesson and becomes Torah observant as their immediate ancestors were. The alternative is that Israel will reject God's discipline (in the form of the Canaanites nations being divinely allowed to create problems for Israel's society), and God reacts with further and more sever punishments on His people.