Bible 101: Lesson 8

Judges

The most shocking book of the Bible, Judges records the ignoble history of a people who have no earthly authority to keep them in line, and not enough relationship with God. In other words, they are in a state of spiritual confusion. It is a story of sex and violence, rape and massacre, brutality and deceit. It shows us that there have indeed been times as bad or worse than the one in which we find ourselves. Twice in Judges (17:6 and 21:25) we read the phrase, “At that time there was no King in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing.” Once again, we get a graphic picture of the inherently sinful nature of humanity, and of what we do when left to ourselves.

We also see the mercy of God, who, despite the utter degradation of Israel, raised up heroic leaders, both male and female, to rescue them from the consequences of their sin. “Hero” (or heroine) is really a better translation for the original Hebrew word than “Judge”, from which the book gets its name.

Overall this book is a bleak picture of a very dark age in Israel. Over and over they forgot who the true God was. Each tribe was mostly isolated from the other tribes. They had lost their sense of national unity under God. They adopted Baal worship*(see note), the local religion, which God had expressly commanded them to avoid. They were surrounded by hostile nations who wanted the land which the Israelites had taken, the land God had promised to them as an inheritance. They were an easy prey for enemy invasion. In all, it’s a perfect metaphoric picture of the soul fallen into sin and surrounded by other sinners.

The book covers about 350 years of history, bouncing around between stories that are not laid out chronologically. There seems to be about seven apostasies (falling away from God), seven bondages, and seven deliverances. The book begins with compromise and ends with anarchy. The author is unknown, and there are no prophecies of the coming Messiah.

* Baal worship apparently had its origin in the belief that
every tract of ground owed its productivity to a supernatural being, or baal,
that dwelt there. The farmers probably thought that from the Baalim, or
fertility gods, of various regions came the increase of crops, fruit and cattle
... The worship of Baal was accompanied with sexual rites (1 Kings 14:24),
the sacrifice of children in the fire by parents (Jer.19:5), and kissing the
image (1 Kings 19:18; Hos 13:2). Baal was often associated with the goddess
Astoreth (Judg.2:13), and in the vicinity of his altar there was often an
Asherah. (Judg.6:30; 1 Kings 16:32-33,R.V.) Astoreth was the goddess of sexual
love, maternity and fertility. Prostitution as a religious rite in the service
of this goddess under various names is widely attested. An Asherah was a wooden
pole erected by the altar of Baal – basically a giant phallic symbol.

Contains no messianic prophecies.