Judges 1 - 3 and Psalm 78
In summary:
We begin the book of Judges with a review of some of the successes and limits of the conquest and an explanation of the declining spiral of spirituality in the generations after Joshua. Afterwards we read biographies of the first three judges.
We begin the book of Judges with a review of some of the successes and limits of the conquest and an explanation of the declining spiral of spirituality in the generations after Joshua. Afterwards we read biographies of the first three judges.
In more detail:
When we begin reading the book of Judges, we realize that we are in familiar territory – it sounds like the Israelites’ obedience to Yahweh and glorious victories that we just read in the book of Joshua: “After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the LORD, ‘Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against
them?’ (Judges 1:1) Yahweh sends the tribe of Judah first in agreement with their position in the front line of their marches in the desert:“Then Judah went up and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek” (Judges 1:4).
And so the narrative continues… but some details arise that should concern us. The story of Adoni-bezec in one sense sounds like an excellent example of retributive justice: “Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. And Adoni-bezec said, ‘Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me” (Judges 1:6-7). But in another sense, Yahweh did not send the Israelites to execute retributive justice upon the Canaanites but to destroy them. If we have read ahead in the Bible and have seen the consequences of Saul’s disobedience for not executing Agag, the Amalekite king in 1 Samuel 15 or the consequences Ahab suffers for not killing Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, in 1 Kings 20, we cannot help but read the account of Adoni-bezec and feel significant discomfort: the tribe of Judah has not followed Yahweh’s commands completely.
Our discomfort grows as we read the next verse: “And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire” (Judges 1:8). But there is no mention of the reconstruction or resettlement of the city that centuries later will be their glorious capitol, the seat of their royal government and residence of Yahweh Himself. Instead, the Canaanites reoccupy the ruins as soon as the Israelites leave, because later we read in the same chapter, “But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day” (Judges 1:21). The most successful Israelites are still a long way from gaining all of the benefits that Yahweh granted them with the Promised Land.
Returning to the first verses of Judges 1 we read a story of hope and promise – Othniel son of Kenaz wins the daughter of his great uncle Caleb to be his wife. She requests and receives springs of water to settle their inheritance in the Negeb permanently (Judges 1:12-15). Moses’ in-laws realize the security and opportunity in the same area and settle there, too (Judges 1:16). But we also see the limits of the conquest: “Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory” (Judges 1:18). Those who have read ahead in the Bible will recognize these cities as three Philistine strongholds. That is, the tribe of Judah has defeated but not dominated them; soon they will return to the hands of the Philistines who will govern them and use them as bases to afflict Israel for many more centuries.
Other evidences of the limits of the conquest appear: “The LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron” (Judges 1:19). The Canaanite who reveals the entrance to Bethel receives his life in return… and he goes off to build another city to replace it (Judges 1:22-26). The list of Manasseh is one of defeats, not victories (Judges 1:27), and Israel is satisfied not to drive out the Canaanites but to relegate them to forced labor (Judges 1:28). It reaches the point where there even exists a Canaanite “nation” within the borders of the Promised Land (Judges 1:36).
Although the Israelites would have complained of their limited technology that could not compete with iron chariots or lauded the supposed benefits of Canaanite servitude to enrich local economies, Yahweh did not see it that way: “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?” (Judges 2:1-2) To Yahweh, it is pure disobedience. Instead of seeing themselves as a holy nation, chosen to exercise Yahweh’s just dominion over the Promised Land, the Israelites have decided to conform to the economics, culture and above all, the religion of the people they should have exterminated. Therefore the angel of Yahweh announces that the time of the conquest has run out: “So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall
become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you” (Judges 2:3). This news can only be mourned, and the Israelites do exactly that, even naming the place Bochim which means: Weepers (Judges 2:1, 4-5).
After announcing the end of the conquest, the narrator begins a description of the differences between the Generation of Faith that Joshua led and the one that followed: “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” (Judges 2:10). And in their ignorance of Yahweh, their attraction toward the religion of their neighbors whom they did not expel from the land grew: “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger” (Judges 2:11-12). The next verse summarizes the gravity of their sin, something almost
inconceivable during our reading of the details of the law and their daily walk with Yahweh in the desert: “They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the
Ashtaroth” (Judges 2:13).
When someone enters a covenant with Yahweh, there is no exit; there is no better option than a daily, living relationship with Him! Therefore, Yahweh’s reaction to the new generation is not a sad farewell, with Yahweh consoling Himself in the golden memories of their relationship while Israel happily walks hand in hand with Baal and Ashtaroth toward the setting sun. In His righteous passion for the people of His covenant, Yahweh
disciplines the new generation: “So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel” (Judges 2:14). God ardently loves His people and will not allow their hearts to be deceived by false gods.
The first step of His discipline is taking away the joy of their sin: “He gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress” (Judges 2:14-15). Notice that this discipline is not some novelty that occurred to Yahweh on the spur of the moment. This is the fulfillment the covenant at Mount Sinai. Among the curses that would befall them for not following the covenant, He told them, “If you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my
covenant… I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you” (Leviticus 26:14-15, 17). “I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant” (Leviticus 26:25). “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before
them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth” (Deuteronomy 28:25).
“A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually” (Deuteronomy 28:33). “The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall
come down lower and lower” (Deuteronomy 28:43). All of this will be fulfilled in the
foreign oppression that Yahweh sends to discipline His people in the book of Judges.
But notice that the motive of this pain is never bitterness or cruelty but restoration – forcing the Israelites let go of their joy in unrighteousness to seek true joy in submission to Yahweh’s dominion. Therefore the second phase of their discipline includes the provision for their rescue or redemption: “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them… Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them” (Judges 2:16, 18). Yahweh always disciplines His people in love. He does not take joy in making them weep but applies bad-tasting medicine and pain with the desire that they will be restored at the end.
In the third step of their discipline, the Israelites should respond in repentance and restoration. Unfortunately, they respond to discipline by hardening themselves further
in their sin: “They did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them… Whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to
them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways” (Judges 2:17, 19). Instead of growing through restorative discipline, the people slipped into a cycle of spiritual decline. (You can find another description of this spiritual decline as a key
point in the book of Judges, the sixth unit of the Bible, by clicking here.)
Therefore the period of the conquest ends, and Israel enters a time of testing: “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not. So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua”
(Judges 2:20-23). Will Israel really fight against them out of love for Yahweh, or will they be assimilated to their idolatry and filth? (Judges 3:1-2) This will be a main question not only in the book of Judges but in all the historical books and prophets of the Old Testament. For now, notice the reaction of this generation (and the standard reaction of the Israelites throughout the history of the Old Testament): “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 3:5-6).
Today also read of the judges Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar when Yahweh put the discipline of Judges 2:14– 3:6 in motion. We will see them in more detail in the explanation of the next reading together with Deborah and Barak because there are many similarities among them. Meanwhile, ask Yahweh to show us the ways in which we have allowed influences from the world to pull us away from our covenant with Him, allowing ourselves to be assimilated into priorities and concerns which are ignorant of Him and have no desire to know Him. Ask Him to show us how to wage war decisively against these corrupt influences and to direct ourselves once more to our holy and incomparable God. May we learn from the examples in Judges 1 – 3 and avoid the discipline that Yahweh exercises on those who neglect the great love of His covenant.
When we begin reading the book of Judges, we realize that we are in familiar territory – it sounds like the Israelites’ obedience to Yahweh and glorious victories that we just read in the book of Joshua: “After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the LORD, ‘Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against
them?’ (Judges 1:1) Yahweh sends the tribe of Judah first in agreement with their position in the front line of their marches in the desert:“Then Judah went up and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek” (Judges 1:4).
And so the narrative continues… but some details arise that should concern us. The story of Adoni-bezec in one sense sounds like an excellent example of retributive justice: “Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. And Adoni-bezec said, ‘Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me” (Judges 1:6-7). But in another sense, Yahweh did not send the Israelites to execute retributive justice upon the Canaanites but to destroy them. If we have read ahead in the Bible and have seen the consequences of Saul’s disobedience for not executing Agag, the Amalekite king in 1 Samuel 15 or the consequences Ahab suffers for not killing Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, in 1 Kings 20, we cannot help but read the account of Adoni-bezec and feel significant discomfort: the tribe of Judah has not followed Yahweh’s commands completely.
Our discomfort grows as we read the next verse: “And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire” (Judges 1:8). But there is no mention of the reconstruction or resettlement of the city that centuries later will be their glorious capitol, the seat of their royal government and residence of Yahweh Himself. Instead, the Canaanites reoccupy the ruins as soon as the Israelites leave, because later we read in the same chapter, “But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day” (Judges 1:21). The most successful Israelites are still a long way from gaining all of the benefits that Yahweh granted them with the Promised Land.
Returning to the first verses of Judges 1 we read a story of hope and promise – Othniel son of Kenaz wins the daughter of his great uncle Caleb to be his wife. She requests and receives springs of water to settle their inheritance in the Negeb permanently (Judges 1:12-15). Moses’ in-laws realize the security and opportunity in the same area and settle there, too (Judges 1:16). But we also see the limits of the conquest: “Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory” (Judges 1:18). Those who have read ahead in the Bible will recognize these cities as three Philistine strongholds. That is, the tribe of Judah has defeated but not dominated them; soon they will return to the hands of the Philistines who will govern them and use them as bases to afflict Israel for many more centuries.
Other evidences of the limits of the conquest appear: “The LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron” (Judges 1:19). The Canaanite who reveals the entrance to Bethel receives his life in return… and he goes off to build another city to replace it (Judges 1:22-26). The list of Manasseh is one of defeats, not victories (Judges 1:27), and Israel is satisfied not to drive out the Canaanites but to relegate them to forced labor (Judges 1:28). It reaches the point where there even exists a Canaanite “nation” within the borders of the Promised Land (Judges 1:36).
Although the Israelites would have complained of their limited technology that could not compete with iron chariots or lauded the supposed benefits of Canaanite servitude to enrich local economies, Yahweh did not see it that way: “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?” (Judges 2:1-2) To Yahweh, it is pure disobedience. Instead of seeing themselves as a holy nation, chosen to exercise Yahweh’s just dominion over the Promised Land, the Israelites have decided to conform to the economics, culture and above all, the religion of the people they should have exterminated. Therefore the angel of Yahweh announces that the time of the conquest has run out: “So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall
become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you” (Judges 2:3). This news can only be mourned, and the Israelites do exactly that, even naming the place Bochim which means: Weepers (Judges 2:1, 4-5).
After announcing the end of the conquest, the narrator begins a description of the differences between the Generation of Faith that Joshua led and the one that followed: “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” (Judges 2:10). And in their ignorance of Yahweh, their attraction toward the religion of their neighbors whom they did not expel from the land grew: “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger” (Judges 2:11-12). The next verse summarizes the gravity of their sin, something almost
inconceivable during our reading of the details of the law and their daily walk with Yahweh in the desert: “They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the
Ashtaroth” (Judges 2:13).
When someone enters a covenant with Yahweh, there is no exit; there is no better option than a daily, living relationship with Him! Therefore, Yahweh’s reaction to the new generation is not a sad farewell, with Yahweh consoling Himself in the golden memories of their relationship while Israel happily walks hand in hand with Baal and Ashtaroth toward the setting sun. In His righteous passion for the people of His covenant, Yahweh
disciplines the new generation: “So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel” (Judges 2:14). God ardently loves His people and will not allow their hearts to be deceived by false gods.
The first step of His discipline is taking away the joy of their sin: “He gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress” (Judges 2:14-15). Notice that this discipline is not some novelty that occurred to Yahweh on the spur of the moment. This is the fulfillment the covenant at Mount Sinai. Among the curses that would befall them for not following the covenant, He told them, “If you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my
covenant… I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you” (Leviticus 26:14-15, 17). “I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant” (Leviticus 26:25). “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before
them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth” (Deuteronomy 28:25).
“A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually” (Deuteronomy 28:33). “The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall
come down lower and lower” (Deuteronomy 28:43). All of this will be fulfilled in the
foreign oppression that Yahweh sends to discipline His people in the book of Judges.
But notice that the motive of this pain is never bitterness or cruelty but restoration – forcing the Israelites let go of their joy in unrighteousness to seek true joy in submission to Yahweh’s dominion. Therefore the second phase of their discipline includes the provision for their rescue or redemption: “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them… Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them” (Judges 2:16, 18). Yahweh always disciplines His people in love. He does not take joy in making them weep but applies bad-tasting medicine and pain with the desire that they will be restored at the end.
In the third step of their discipline, the Israelites should respond in repentance and restoration. Unfortunately, they respond to discipline by hardening themselves further
in their sin: “They did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them… Whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to
them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways” (Judges 2:17, 19). Instead of growing through restorative discipline, the people slipped into a cycle of spiritual decline. (You can find another description of this spiritual decline as a key
point in the book of Judges, the sixth unit of the Bible, by clicking here.)
Therefore the period of the conquest ends, and Israel enters a time of testing: “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not. So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua”
(Judges 2:20-23). Will Israel really fight against them out of love for Yahweh, or will they be assimilated to their idolatry and filth? (Judges 3:1-2) This will be a main question not only in the book of Judges but in all the historical books and prophets of the Old Testament. For now, notice the reaction of this generation (and the standard reaction of the Israelites throughout the history of the Old Testament): “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 3:5-6).
Today also read of the judges Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar when Yahweh put the discipline of Judges 2:14– 3:6 in motion. We will see them in more detail in the explanation of the next reading together with Deborah and Barak because there are many similarities among them. Meanwhile, ask Yahweh to show us the ways in which we have allowed influences from the world to pull us away from our covenant with Him, allowing ourselves to be assimilated into priorities and concerns which are ignorant of Him and have no desire to know Him. Ask Him to show us how to wage war decisively against these corrupt influences and to direct ourselves once more to our holy and incomparable God. May we learn from the examples in Judges 1 – 3 and avoid the discipline that Yahweh exercises on those who neglect the great love of His covenant.
