Well, what can I say? Judges is a doozy. Welcome to a wild ride. We're going to have a wild ride.
There is a lot of drama and violence and all kinds of stuff in this book. It's insane. I'm really, really glad to do this Bible study, and that you're listening here, learning it because it's one of those books that's just so crazy that a lot of people struggle and how could this be considered the inspired word of God? I mean, look at the depravity, look at the Civil War, look at the dismemberment and gang rape, and how in the world are all these judges supposed to be some sort of role model, right?
For the people of Israel, and how can you consider them to be a role model? And quite honestly, a lot of people struggle with their faith, and they're like, this can't be considered scripture, or I can't worship the God that condones this, and does God condone this? It's a crazy book. So what I want to do in this first lesson, this is entitled, A General Introduction to Judges, I want to go through and address a lot of those issues in an introductory way.
Sure, we're going to go look at the title, the structure, the dating, the authorship, the historical chronological and canonical context. I think diving into the main themes, that golden thread, the main undercurrents that are going throughout this whole book to really make sense of this very dark book, and a dark period of salvation history. So that's the goal that we're going to do in this first lesson. And then starting with lesson two through lesson five, and we're going to go through, of course, all the texts.
All right, so let's begin with the title. Now, surprise, surprise. Spoiler, it's called Judges. All right, it's been called Judges in the ancient texts as well, Hebrew, Shavatim, Greek, Kritai, and then Latin is the Liebe, or the book of the Yudikum, the Judges here.
So it's called Judges because it's named after the Judges that led Israel during this time. All right, that's all good and well, but I'd like you to understand that when we think of the word judges, we think of somebody sitting there with a little gabbel and then they're like, bang, bang, bang, bang, you're guilty, or you're innocent. You must serve 30 years of pay this fine or a judge. Here's cases from the people to determine who's innocent, who's guilty, all this stuff.
That's kind of what we think in terms of judges. So there's some of that in this title and in these stories, but really think of Judges, these ancient words with a teen, Kritai, Yudikum, in the sense of like deliverers and liberators, because that's kind of what's going on here. They're deliverers, liberators of Israel, or certain territories, regions, tribes of Israel at a particular time because of their shenanigans and their naughtiness and their sinfulness, okay? So we've got to 12 of them.
And really what you have is a good connection of segue with the book of Joshua, because Joshua was one of those books that had clear leadership, right? Joshua was the leader. He was the successor of Moses, and he took the people across the Jordan River to really enable the people to inherit the promised land due to God's graciousness. And as I entitled the Bible, so then Joshua God's promise fulfilled.
Well, here we don't have that. So here's a little quote for you. It says, unlike the era of Joshua, no one individual is dominant enough to cast a shadow over the entire book. Despite the fact that there's 12 judges, like no one of them is able to cast a shadow over the book.
The quote goes on saying, in fact, what does cast a shadow over judges is the absence of such a leader. And then that's really the segue from Joshua in a contrast with Joshua. Joshua did not leave a successor when he died. That was the big cliffhanger.
Because there's still a lot of work that I'm gonna touch upon this later on as well. There's still a lot more work to be done in the conquest of the land. It didn't all happen during Joshua's lifespan. Couple of decades there of what was going on.
So naturally, there's gonna be more work to be done. And it's very important work because you're trying to drive out paganism, idolatry, sexual morality, all the other sinfulness that the nations were committing. You gotta drive out. That's not gonna happen overnight, even within a couple decades.
And so Joshua does not have a leader. He doesn't have a successor. So judges, that's the cliffhanger, and judges opens up. And there is no leader.
There's no single individual going on there. That's pretty crazy, right? And then so there really is the concept that well, who is supposed to lead is real during this time. And really there's no individual and really have to look to two tribes.
You have to look to Judah, kind of the secular arm as well as Levi, which is supposed to be the religious spiritual leader. Levi is the tribe of the priests. If you remember, right? Aaron's a high priest and his sons are the priests.
One of his sons carries the line of high priesthood and all the rest of the Levites like basically deacons. And there's the sensual worship of Yahwehweh, the tabernacle and they're really supposed to be the force. That unites and guides and leads all of Israel. So we're gonna see there's problems with that.
So in any case, back to the judges' individual leaders, notes, real one of them rises to the front. There are some good ones and bad ones we'll talk about all that in a moment, but there are 12 total judges. You've got major judges and minor judges that has nothing to do really with the judges itself, really has to do with the airtime. Like how much time is dedicated to their story?
The major judges have more, so they're listed here in your notes. You find them in almost every commentary. You can read them through the Bible itself. You have Offenail, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jefa and Samson, six major judges.
And the minor ones basically just get a verse or just a couple of verses. I mean, it's very, very short here. So you've got Shandar, Tola, Jair, Ibsen, Elan and Abban. Okay.
So, it's not for you. And the very last page of the notes here is I've completely reproduced from one of your sources, one of the main sources that I use for studies on the Old Testament, a cabin introduction to the Bible, the Old Testament. I've reproduced a great chart that Berg's my patriev, put in that book. You can find charts in a lot of other commentaries as well, but I like that one.
And it's one of your suggested readings and resources for this Bible study and others. On the very last page of this lesson one note, you can see the chart of the judges, major and minor, where they come from, who they're fighting and how many years of quote-unquote peace that they bring. So you can always reference that as we're going through these Bible studies there. Okay.
So, the judges, major, have air time, minor, do not have much air time there. And it's really kind of interesting because certainly they're meant to be leaders of Israel. They're supposed to help call Israel back to God, if not in a religious way, certainly in a political secular way. There's kind of an interesting parallel with the 12 minor prophets.
So when you study prophetic literature in the canon, you've got four major prophets and you've got 12 minor prophets and you kind of have the same mission of generally calling Israel back to God. They are committing all kinds of sins of covenant infidelity, breaking the covenant with God, turning after other gods, and they're falling into a bondage of different types, certainly spiritual bondage, and the prophets are calling them back to God. It's kind of what that's the theme of what's going on here in judges, so I kind of like that connection now. All right, well, you got 12 judges.
Don't think that the 12 judges neatly and nicely correspond to the 12 tribes. They do symbolize the 12 tribes, the fullness of Israel, but you don't have that nice, neat one-for-one comparison, one judge from each tribe during the story. There are some tribes like Ruben, Simeon, and Levi, they don't pop up. The majority of the tribes are represented, but not all of them, so you don't have that one-for-one comparison there.
So 12 judges representing the 12 tribes of Israel, trying to help deliver Israel from their bondage. And then ultimately, they're all going to be compared to God, the true just judge. And you find that in chapter 11 verse 27, God is called the capital J judge, and that makes total sense. He's the perfect righteous judge.
Nothing escapes him. He judges perfectly and really these other judges, and by the way, he liberates and delivers perfectly as well. So all the meanings are the word judge, deliver, liberator, judge himself. That's all perfectly fulfilled in God.
And so just as God will say in the Pentateuch, he must be perfect, he must be holy, he must be holy, he must be holy. Well, the judges must be good, deliver his liberator judges as God is. So God is the model for Israel's judges, and you really see that in the comparison, how much they fail, their failures, their immoralities, their weaknesses and flaws, as I'm going to explain later, they're not really set as models, but you can see them in that spiritual battle. Okay, so related to that, as we make a contrast to the nature of who these liberators and deliverers are, you contrast that with their failures, their motor failures and their flaws, you're going to see very clearly, and this is very important, when readers of scripture approach this very dark book, very depressing book, you kind of want to be drinking, drinking some wine or some whiskey or something like that, you're like, oh my goodness, all right.
In order to understand this, you have to understand the book and the themes that are going throughout it. You must know that judges, these judges, and then, and Debra woman, they're flawed individuals, and they move throughout the book from least flawed to most flawed, and so you have to see them primarily as civil and military leaders first and foremost, rather than moral or spiritual ones. Their flaws are very, very clear, some more than other, I mean, Jeff the, spoiler alert here, Jeff the sacrifice is his daughter. Now how in the world is that supposed to be a good sign or a good lesson, all right?
Well, there is a lesson in it that I'm going to share that with you and get there, but you have to see them, they're not moral or spiritual leaders, they're primarily civil military leaders, the deliverers, the liberators, like I've been saying to you, okay. So here is a quote from your Catholic intervention field Testament, it says, there are six major and six minor judges described with a reign of an anti-judge, a bimaleck, played roughly in the middle, and again, you can check out that chart that they provide. The judges are widely distributed among the tribes in regions of Israel, and their opponents likewise, are representative of their nearby traditional enemies. Intriguingly, some scholars have also noted that the account of the major judges, so that would hoo that be Othanyel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jeff, and Samson, so the account of the major judges move in the geographical direction of south to north.
Why is that important? Well, south is Judah, and north you got tribes like F. In the northern territory is there, okay. So it says it moves from the geographical direction of south to north, linking, it goes on, linking the gradually increasing corruption with the movement from positive southern judges, such as Othanyel, who's the first major judge, and who comes from Judah, by the way, so you can move from Othanyel, Ehud, and also Deborah, to tragic and morally questionable northern judges like Samson and Jeff, in quotes.
So this is one of the main themes that we're going to see is really cool because what you find here is you got a literary structure, a literary style with a very strong theological point. As you move from south, which is Judah, north like F. Barignin, the northern tribe's Dan, you're moving from good to bad. This is a very not so subtle argument that you got a stick with the tribe of Judah, and specifically later on, the kingdom of David, which originates in Judah, you got a stick with the kingdom of David, which is the same thing as the kingdom of God.
We'll talk about the book to Samuel later on. God makes a covenant with David, and the covenant with his kingship, that the kingdom of David would become the kingdom of God. So if you move away from that towards the north, I remember the northern kingdom splits away, that's very, very bad. So it's a very interesting literary style.
So as you move from Judah to the northern tribes, it becomes bad, that's reflected in the judges themselves. So Othanyel is good, Ehud is good, Deborah is good, and then you start having some problems, Gideon is not so good, Jeff does awful, then Samson. I'm telling you right now, if you don't know this, I'm telling you right now. Samson is not the Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dwayne the Rock Johnson kind of figure, figure, character figure that we have in our children's Bibles, and we think he's just so awesome.
Samson's a very troubled soul, a very troubled soul. Okay, so the difference between Othanyel the first, and Samson the last, is a very, very stark and sobering. Okay, so that's I think really important to keep in mind. They're not moral and spiritual leaders.
They're like political, military, deliverers and liberators. So when you see their flaws, the under arching theme is, as you move away from Judah, you're becoming more and more flawed. Okay, that's gonna really help us understand the transition from the period of the judges to the period of the kingship, and specifically the kingdom of David. All right, so hopefully that's illuminating for you.
Now another thing about these judges, is that you have what's called the inversion of norms, or contrary to norms, contrary to what you would expect, or think, these judges are individuals who would be considered least likely to fit the role, right? Least likely to be a noble ruler, a noble leader, a deliverer of the people. Okay, and there's a number of examples that commentaries will give, such as like, Ehud is it left-handed? And you're like, what does the Bible have against left-handed people?
Nothing, if you're left-handed, it's okay, right? If the Bible is nothing against left-handed figures, but in the ancient world, I mean, even today, left-handed people are in the minority, the great minority, and so they kind of saw that as something sinister, in fact, it's the same root word in Latin, sinister, and there's like meaning the word sinister, but also it's left-handed. Anyways, we come a long way giving, in civil rights for left-handed people, things be to God, right? But in any case, it's an inversion of norms, which God is going to use, I'll explain that next lesson.
Shandar, he's a minor judge, he uses what you would not expect to be a great tool or weapon, he uses a farming tool to deliver his people, and you're like, well, I wouldn't expect that, a farming tool. Same thing is true with Deborah, she's a woman, and she's also a prophetess and a judge, and that's actually a positive thing because people may say, this scripture is in poo-poo, this scripture is in be like, oh, there are anti-women, and while yes, this is a predominantly, it is a male dominant world, that is totally true, and so we're describing the events of the ancient, nourished world, which is male dominant, that's all true, but you see that God is still using women all the time for his purposes. So the Bible, God, is not anti-woman, even though the culture may be abusive to women at times. So Deborah is one of those examples where God, she's amazing, he's a great judge, and a great prophetess as well.
We'll study her. Gideon is repeatedly cowardly. I don't know why the Gideon Bible is named after him, I mean, it's because he does have faith in moments, but he is repeatedly cowardly, that's not someone you would expect to be a leader. Jetha was born of a prostitute, the whole prostitute theme is really, really important, and the Old Testament as well.
We'll talk about that. Samson is, like I was joking before, he's not like the Arnold or the Dwayne of the Old Testament leaders, well all ripped and strong and buff, delivering Israel from the Philistines, he's actually a deeply flawed person, he's unfaithful to his vows and unfaithful to God. Yet nevertheless, God uses all these people. Now, even the Levites, the Levites, now I said earlier, the Levites are the custodians of the Tabernacle, you've got the high priest is descended from Aaron, and Eleas are infinious, and they're supposed to really spiritually guide the people, called the people to worship of God, and they don't, they fail.
You can read some scandalous stories that are involving Levites towards the end of this book, they really fail in their role of spiritual leadership, they're like, what's up with that? What's up with the scandal and the priesthood? That's a question that we're asking nowadays a lot and really throughout the whole history of Israel and the church. Oftentimes, the clergy, the leaders, the priests can become very, very scandalous, we should not be shocked by that.
Jesus himself said there's gonna be weeds in wheat in the kingdom. And so when we see the scandal, we see the biblical narrative, we're like, okay, well, we know this was gonna come, we gotta do something about it. So in using these individuals, like in version of norms, like who are these people that should be, that are being called to be leaders, and then the Levites themselves and their failures are like, okay, all right, there's something deeply, deeply wrong with all of this, right? Well, again, that shows us God's power.
He uses individuals who you would not expect to be leaders, or leaders who fail in their role to bring about mercy, to bring about his will. Got a great quote for you here, this time from your Caledic Lady Bible says, it seems that highlighting the failings of Israel's tribal heroes was meant to throw the goodness of Israel's God into greater relief. That's a really true of the contrast. Well, let me finish the quote.
It says, it shows that the Lord's desire to bless his people is not limited by the imperfections of the men and women he raises up to participate in his work. End quote. I like that very much. It reminds me of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, when God is speaking to Paul and says, my power is made perfect through your weakness, right?
We are weak. We can do Jesus says in John 15, apart from me, you can do nothing. So every little good thought or word or deed is empowered by God's grace. And so God uses men and women who are imperfect, who have flaws, who are struggling the best that they can and their circumstances and situation.
He can use those people to demonstrate his goodness and his glory, his power, his omnipotence, and omniscience, everything, okay? So I think when you study these judges, and you're like, I don't think that's a good role model. Oftentimes they're not, I'll talk more about that soon. You really need to focus on how God is the one who is behind all of this.
God is the one guiding all of this. And he's using imperfect people to do it. So they are instruments. They are God's instruments.
They're imperfect instruments, flawed instruments. They do have and do demonstrate faith and obedience. And in fact, if you go to Hebrews chapter 11 and Syriac chapter 46, it describes how they are men and women of faith. So let me read for you actually Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32, flip ahead here.
Hebrews 11, 32 says, what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell Gideon and Barak and Samson, Jeff, that David standing on the prophets goes on, who through faith conquered kingdoms and forced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, et cetera, et cetera. So it's really interesting how you're reading, like Jeff, Jeff, that next to David, I can't see how that's the case. Well, God is working with these flawed individuals.
There's a lot of good. There's a lot of bad as well, but they did have faith. They did cooperate with God the best that they could. The same concept is being described in Syriac, in Syriac chapter 46, I'm gonna flip there as well.
46, verse 11, it says this. The judge is also with the respective names. Those whose hearts did not fall into idolatry who did not turn away from the Lord, may their memory be blessed. May their bones revive from where they lie, and may the name of those who have been honored live again in their sons.
Now, it doesn't mention any names. I think this is actually really interesting. It doesn't mention anyone in particular, but just those whose hearts did not fall into idolatry. All right, I think that would be some of the good ones.
In any case, they are instruments. Their flawed God uses them for his good will, his good mercy. And actually, that raises a question. I'll talk about this in later lessons for you, but I wanna touch upon the expression it says, you're reading judges, and it comes up that the spirit of the Lord came upon so and so and so and so delivered Israel.
And then so people are like, well, how can the spirit of the Lord come upon so and so who's clearly flawed? That doesn't make sense to me, right? Well, here's what I want you to understand. All right, so to use modern theological terms and understanding grace, you've got a distinction between what's called actual graces and what we call sanctifying graces.
Excuse me, sanctifying grace. So actual graces are what those, their particular momentary graces that God gives to us, whether we're believers or unbelievers, we're saints or we're sinners or we're pagans or Christians or whatever, God gives everybody actual, particular, momentary graces to do good and avoid evil. For every thought and word indeed, we need grace to do what's good and avoid evil. Okay?
So how could a nonbeliever repent and believe in Christ without grace? God gives them momentary acts of grace in order to help them overcome? That's not the same thing as what we call sanctifying grace, which is through the sacrament of baptism, a soul moves from the state of unrighteousness to righteousness. They become, they were not a child of God and then they are reborn to become a child of God.
And the life of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the very life of God is infused into that soul and they're in a state of righteousness. That's called sanctifying grace. All right, that's not given to any of these judges. The judges are given moments of actual graces in order to accomplish the task at hand.
And that's the way to understand this. It's not a contradiction. It's not anything scandalous on how God can work through Jeff or Samson or faithless Gideon or whatever it might be, or at least a cowardly Gideon. He's giving the moments of grace to overcome.
And I think that's the point. Bledged by themselves, these characters would be even worse. But God gives them graces. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon them and gives them particular graces to accomplish that task.
It's not to be identified with sanctifying grace that only comes through the ministry of the church after the Paschal Ministries. Mysteries of Jesus, Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension in the Heaven. That is gonna be a very key, I hope, I know, helpful term or rather helpful discussion to make sense of what seems to be a contradiction of these characters having the Spirit of the Lord upon them. The Spirit of the Lord can come upon us and then we can rebel, right?
We could do something good one day than the very next day, turn away from God. All right, so I hope that's helpful. So moving on then, that, all of that is to kind of explain who these judges are, all right? So there's the 12 of the judges, the major, the minor, who they are as military civil, and liberators, and then contrasting some of their characters, character's laws and how God is gonna use them.
All right, great. So closing that topic, let's move on to some other general introductory points.