The book of Judges is a provocative and puzzling book of the Bible. Containing numerous stories of Israel’s repeated rebellion and redemption it can leave you scratching your head as you read the final verse of the book: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” + Judges 21v25<\/p>\n
The nation of Israel was a repeat-offender of God’s holy commands. They were continually spitting in God’s face, turning to false idols, and being taken captive by their enemies. Yet Israel was continually being saved and turning back to the Lord. It was a ravenous cycle of insanity.<\/p>\n
From the book of Judges we get several Sunday School “R rated” lessons that we tend to filter down to “G rated” stories of heroism – such as Gideon, Sampson, and Deborah. However the book of Judges is not “G rated”; it is indeed filled with things we would never let our children watch or read, were it not in the Bible – such as rape, murder of women and children, and prostitution. And if read a bit more closely, it’s clear that those we deem heroes (a la Sampson, Gideon, and Deborah), are in fact far from heroic.<\/p>\n
Judges screams of a broken system with broken leaders leading a broken people.<\/p>\n
Much too regularly we look at the book of Judges and point our self-righteous fingers at Israel and wonder how they could be so stupid to continually rebel against God despite his faithfulness to them. We tend to look at the seesaw of Israel and are glad we are not like them.<\/p>\n
Similarly, we have an inclination to mold the judges (Sampson, Gideon, and Deborah) into heroes and lift them up to a place they were never meant to be lifted. We then major in gleaning principles from these so called heroes – such as “be strong in the Lord like Sampson.” This is, and leads to bad biblical interpretation.<\/p>\n
This is not the gospel. Yet the book of Judges sounds off about the gospel more loudly than the trumpets of all Gideon’s men.<\/p>\n
There are two things I would like to draw from this, and that I’ve drawn from the book of Judges.<\/p>\n
First, if we look at Israel’s continued failed obedience to God and do not see a reflection of ourselves, we’re looking at Judges with our eyes closed. Everyday, a fatal tug-of-war is waged inside of the believer for the allegiance of his soul. While the believer’s union with Christ ensures the final victory in war, when left to our own devices, we are continually pulled into the deadly mud of sin and rebellion toward God in our everyday battling. We are constantly putting up lifeless idols in our hearts in the place of the living triune God. On our own, we are as despicable as the nation of Israel.<\/p>\n
Second, the biblical characters in Judges that we have declared heroes, shake their heads at us and point to The Real Hero. The temporal judges point to the Eternal Judge. Sampson, Deborah, Gideon, and the like, were judges raised up by God to judge and judge for Israel. Being fallen humans, they were crooked and unjust in many ways. Their imperfect justice points to the need for a perfectly righteous judge. It is none other than the God-man from the seed of Israel, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He is just and judges justly. He will set right all that is wrong. He will declare perfect judgment on the evilness of sin and sinners because he was perfectly judged by God for the sins of his elect on the cross. He rules in righteousness. He is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3v26).<\/p>\n
In one sense, Gideon and the judges served as temporal saviors for Israel. That was until at the right time, while we were weak, Christ died for the ungodly to be an eternal savior for his people (Romans 5v6). Through the living and dying, and at the raising of Christ (Romans 4v25), “justified!” was declared for those who would put their faith in the Son of God.<\/p>\n
Our rebellion and idol worship has been put on Christ, judged by God, and destroyed forever by his just judgments.<\/p>\n
Jesus is\u00a0the\u00a0<\/em>Judge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The book of Judges is a provocative and puzzling book of the Bible. Containing numerous stories of Israel’s repeated rebellion and redemption it can leave you scratching your head as you read the final verse of the book: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":685,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[205,356,474,544,557,679,706,708,1085],"class_list":{"0":"post-490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-gospel","7":"tag-bible","8":"tag-deborah","9":"tag-faith","10":"tag-gideon","11":"tag-god","12":"tag-jesus","13":"tag-judges","14":"tag-justice","15":"tag-sampson","16":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3718,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/shamgar-and-his-oxgoad-judges-331\/","url_meta":{"origin":490,"position":0},"title":"Shamgar and His Oxgoad: Judges 3:31","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"February 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 31\u00a0After him was\u00a0Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines\u00a0with an oxgoad, and he also\u00a0saved Israel. - Judges 3:31 Context and Setting After Moses leads the people of Israel throughout the wilderness, the Israelites move into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. As they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/commentary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/02\/shamgars-oxgoad-e1442244798855.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/02\/shamgars-oxgoad-e1442244798855.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/02\/shamgars-oxgoad-e1442244798855.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":470,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/book-review-onward-by-russell-moore\/","url_meta":{"origin":490,"position":1},"title":"Book Review: Onward by Russell Moore","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"November 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Bible Belt is teetering toward collapse, and I say let it fall.\" You cannot even escape the introduction to Russell Moore's,\u00a0Onward\u00a0without hearing canon blasts of gospel truth. This book takes on the nature of the gospel in the sense that the gospel is both offensive and life giving.\u00a0Onward\u00a0is chalked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"book\"","block_context":{"text":"book","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/tag\/book\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/onward-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":465,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/book-review-the-story-of-everything-by-jared-c-wilson\/","url_meta":{"origin":490,"position":2},"title":"Book Review: The Story of Everything by Jared C. Wilson","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"November 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently listened to a lecture where the professor noted that only 9% of professing Christians live their lives according to a biblical worldview. While I am not sure on the complete accuracy of the statistic, I am sure that it is not far off. This is an epidemic. Too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Review"","block_context":{"text":"Book Review","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/11\/storyofeverything.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5729,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/an-eye-for-an-eye\/","url_meta":{"origin":490,"position":3},"title":"An Eye for an Eye","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"May 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Click HERE for sermon audio \u201cWhen men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and\u00a0he shall pay as the\u00a0judges determine.\u00a023\u00a0But if there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/ce75c5fb4b7edc906a0f6297bdf5aadc.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5480,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/jethros-advice\/","url_meta":{"origin":490,"position":4},"title":"Jethro’s Advice","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"January 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Click HERE for sermon audio The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening.\u00a014\u00a0When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, \u201cWhat is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/01\/MOSHED-2023-1-23-22-41-58.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/01\/MOSHED-2023-1-23-22-41-58.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/01\/MOSHED-2023-1-23-22-41-58.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/01\/MOSHED-2023-1-23-22-41-58.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3826,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/he-must-increase-john-322-30\/","url_meta":{"origin":490,"position":5},"title":"He Must Increase; John 3:22-30","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"August 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 22\u00a0After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and\u00a0was baptizing.\u00a023\u00a0John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized\u00a024\u00a0(for\u00a0John had not yet been put in prison). 25\u00a0Now a discussion arose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/commentary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/08\/john_the_baptist.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}