History of Israel: Judges...Part 1

After the conquest of the Promised Land, Israel moves into the time of Judges. The book begins with the aftermath of Joshua's death and we see the people fall into a cycle of falling away from God, being subject to another nation, crying out to God for deliverance, a judge being raised, and then peace for a period of time before the cycle starts again. A word of warning: Judges can be a violent and often disturbing book. It is an example of how people act when they try to live apart from God and it is not pretty.

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Transcript

Ezer limped up to the tomb. Even though he knew this day was coming, he was numb with grief. This spot, this small cave, was to be the final resting place of the man who had led Israel in conquering the Promised Land.

Had it really been 30 years since they crossed the Jordan and faced Jericho? It felt like it was just yesterday. Ezer thought back to all the battles and campaigns they’d fought. He especially remembered when he received the wound that gave him his limp. Joshua had been right...he always seemed to be right. The wound healed, but was never the same.

After that, Ezer worked with Joshua on logistics, something he seemed to excel. They had worked closely together on that northern campaign. It went so well that they were able to move 30,000 men and equipment without the enemy ever knowing. Through the remaining battles, he and Joshua worked side by side and became good friends.

With the major battles done and the land divided among the tribes, it was time to settle down. Ezer’s land was not far from Joshua, so they saw quite a bit of each other. Although the conquest was over, Joshua never stopped helping advise the people and he would often listen to cases that needed to be decided.

A month prior, Ezer had gone to visit Joshua. He found him seated looking over his fields and vineyards. It was a good plot of land, facing the setting sun. Joshua looked up and motioned for Ezer to sit next to him, which always took him a moment.

 “I’m glad you’re here, Ezer. I feel my time here is coming to an end.”

Ezer looked him over. He still looked like he could lead a charge into a Canaanite army.

 “I hardly think so. Jacob lived to 120. As did Moses. You could certainly live that long.”

 “No my friend. I feel it in my bones. The work I was called to do is done and the people have settled. A new generation will need to lead the people. I tell you this not to make you sad, but to prepare you. You’re a good man, Ezer, and you need to be ready to help the people through some trying times.”

 “Well this is depressing talk” Ezer replied. “Do you have any happier subjects we could discuss?”

 “Certainly. How are your grapes doing?” And it was all talk of growing and harvest after that.

Even in this, Joshua was right. He knew he was going to die soon and tried to get Ezer ready, but it didn’t matter. There was no amount of preparation that could be done.

Movement caught his eye and he saw the funeral bier with Joshua’s body being carried by 6 men. One of them was Caleb...the last of the old guard. Ezer would have been one of the carriers, but his leg prevented it. He could only watch as the bier with his friend and mentor, wrapped in linen strips, was brought into the cave. Spices were laid on top of the body and, in a note of finality, a stone was rolled in front.

Ezer turned to look at the crowd and saw the same question on everyone’s face that he was asking himself: Who would lead Israel now?

Hello again everyone and welcome to another episode of Bible Backdrop. Today we continue our history of Israel series by moving into the book of Judges.

The word “judges” is actually a bit of a misnomer. The Hebrew word here is shofet and it refers more to a military leader, deliverer or governor than a legal arbitrator. These leaders may also have been a court of last appeal, similar to Moses’ role during the Exodus. So why were these leaders needed?

To answer that, let’s take a look at what the government of Israel was supposed to be like. Israel was set up very differently than the other nations around them. Most nations as large as Israel were usually ruled by an earthly king who controlled the people either through justice or fear. In Israel’s case, they were set up as a thearchy. This simply means that God was their king. In Exodus, he delivered the laws to them that they had to live under and also set up the judicial process with local tribal leaders adjudicating cases. The tribes were bound together not only by ancient bloodlines but by common religious practices. Remember the tribe of Levi? They did not receive a landed inheritance as the Lord is their inheritance. They were spread throughout the tribes to ensure the religious laws were being kept and to remind the people that they were under the authority of Yahweh. They also performed functions as described in Leviticus and may also have adjudicated religious cases. If there was a case or question too difficult to be answered, the people could always go to the high priest who could inquire of the Lord using the urim and thummim. These were lots that could give yes or no answers to questions. Remember when Achan was found out after the battle of Jericho? The book says they cast lots to determine tribe, clan, family and then person. In this case, they would have used the urim and thummim.

So the basic idea was that each tribe would be autonomous with tribe and clan leaders using the law to exercise judicial authority. The Levites and the high priest would administer the religious practices and laws. The traveling festivals...Passover, Booths and Pentecost...would bring the people together at times of celebration and remembrance about what the Lord had done for them. While not a utopia, it provided legal and cultural bounds for the people to live under that would help them thrive.

Unfortunately, we’ve already seen what Israel can do with too much freedom and weak leadership.

Judges takes place over 300-350 years and the cycle is as follows: the Israelites follow God for a while, usually a generation, then the next generation comes up and falls into apostasy worshiping other gods; God then sends a nation or people to oppress the Israelites for a time; the Israelites eventually repent and ask for deliverance; God then sends a judge or shofet to deliver Israel from their bondage; once complete, the judge helps maintain the peace and keep the Israelites focused for a period of time; the judge eventually dies and the Israelites go right back into apostasy and the cycle continues.

One thing to note about Judges is that it’s not necessarily written in chronological order. It’s more a gathering of stories from all different eras in that timeframe. For instance, the last story (which may be the most difficult to read) takes place when Phineas, the grandson of Aaron, is high priest so it would be relatively soon after the death of Joshua. We’ll dive into that story later.

Before moving ahead, a word of warning: Judges is a very violent and, in some ways, disturbing book. It sheds a light on humanity when they depart from God’s ideal and the consequences aren’t pretty.

The book starts out with a story that I believe is an example of how things are supposed to go. After Joshua’s death, Israel inquires of the Lord as to which tribe should go first in the fight against the Canaanites. The Lord answers that Judah should go first. Judah, in turn, tells the neighboring tribe of Simeon that if they will help them in these battles for their land that they will in turn help Simeon fight their battles. Simeon accepts and together they conquer and rout the Canaanites and Perizzites from the land. They capture a king, Adoni-Bezek, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. What is the significance of this? Cutting off these appendages would render him useless in battle as he could no longer carry a sword and running would be difficult. Adoni-Bezek says that he treated 70 kings this way so he believes that he is being paid back by God for his deeds.

So now we have an example of how things are supposed to work in this time of Judges. But then the book immediately starts running down the tribes and talking about how they failed in driving out the people in their land. We can only assume that this is due to a lack of faith; looking at the circumstances instead of what God has done for them. So each tribe has some Canaanite city that they leave in place because they feel they are too strong to drive out. Eventually, Israel becomes stronger and makes these people into forced laborers, but they become a snare to the people.

Chapter 2 shows the result of this. The Lord appears and tells the people that they’ve disobeyed by not driving out the Canaanites. Again, this is all due to a lack of faith on their part. Now the people will be snares for them to follow after other gods. The people respond in wailing and repentance while offering sacrifices and they name the place Bokim which means weeping.

After this, we enter into the cycle of apostasy, repentance and rise of a judge I described earlier. Israel is oppressed by a king named Cushan-Rishathaim and he is a king of Aram Naharaim, which is a land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Cushan means he is likely a Kushite and Rishathaim means “double wickedness” which likely refers to how terrible his reign was. After years of oppression, the Israelites cry out to God and he sends Othniel, the nephew and son-in-law of Caleb to deliver them. He does so and the land has peace for forty years.

The cycle starts again and this time Israel is oppressed by the Moabites, Ammonites and Amalekites. We’ve seen these tribes before. The Amalekites were descendants of Amalek, the grandson of Esau. They became the lifelong enemies of Israel after attacking them during the Exodus. The Moabites and Ammonites were cousins as they were descendants of Lot when he had children with his daughters. As we continue through the history, we’re going to see all of these tribes again. During this story, the king of Moab, who goes by the name Eglon, convinces the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him in attacking Israel and he oppresses them for 18 years. The Israelites cry out to God and he sends them Ehud, a left handed man from the tribe of Benjamin. Being left handed is unusual in this society, but here it helps this new judge. He joins the group of people bringing tribute to the king and he straps a double edged sword to his right leg. While he was almost certainly searched when he arrived, the people probably assumed he was right handed and would look for a sword or knife on the opposite, or left, side of his body. Finding none, they let him in to see the king with the tribute. After delivering, he tells the king he has a secret message for him. The king, believing them to have been searched and is perfectly safe, tells his courtiers to leave believing he is about to get some great intelligence. Instead, Ehud tells him that he has a message from God and then pulls out the sword and stabs Eglon in the stomach. Apparently, Eglon was so fat that the sword went all the way in and the fat closed around it while also spilling his entrails. Ehud left and locked the door behind him. The kings courtiers find the door locked and, probably smelling the results of the stabbing, believe the king is relieving himself in the room. So they wait...and wait...and wait. Finally, they determine something is wrong and open the door to find the dead king.

Ehud uses this time to get away and pulls together an army from Ephraim and they attack the Moabites by cutting off their retreat back into their own land. After this, Moab paid tribute to Israel and they had peace for 80 years.

Next, the Bible tells us about a judge named Shamgar. He may have been another judge on the western side of Israel. He attacked the Philistines and killed 600 of them with an oxgoad. What’s an oxgoad? It’s a long wooden staff, between 8 to 10 feet long and has either an iron or fire hardened point. It was normally used to move oxen along while plowing fields, but does make a good weapon in a pinch.

After Ehud dies, Israel falls into apostasy and are then oppressed by Jabin, king of Hazor. If we remember from the previous episode, Jabin was a title for the king of Hazor and not a proper name. It’s been at least 120 years since Hazor was burned in the northern conquest so it has probably been rebuilt. We also learn that the king’s commander, Sisera, is in a fortified city called Harosheth Haggoyim. Where this location is exactly is unknown, but likely it is in the northern part of the country. Sisera, besides being the army commander, is likely also a governor managing the lands for Jabin. The Bible speaks of his cruelty so they may have exacted harsh tribute. The people cry out to God and this time there are two judges.

The first one the Bible talks about is Deborah in chapter 4. She’s called a prophet and she held court in Ephraim between Ramah and Bethel. This would be in the southern part of the country and may have been far enough away from Sisera so that they were left alone. She calls upon Barak from the tribe of Naphtali and tells him that God commands him to take 10,000 men from Naphtali and Zebulun to Mount Tabor. This will convince Sisera to lead his army out where Barak, with divine assistance, will defeat the army. Unfortunately, it seems Barak’s faith is not as good as Deborah’s. He states that he’ll only go if Deborah also goes as she seems to have a better relationship with God. She agrees but tells him that, due to his lack of faith, the glory for winning the battle will not go to him but to a woman. Barak apparently agrees to this and gathers 10,000 men at Mount Tabor. Sisera, seeing an opportunity, believes he can march his army out and trap Barak on the mountain. If Barak decides to come down, he’ll have to deal with Sisera’s iron chariots. These were a great technological advantage over Barak who had mostly foot soldiers. As the army approaches, Deborah encourages Barak to attack as God has given Sisera’s army into his hands. This must have taken some remarkable courage on Barak’s part because those chariots could easily wipe out his army. He descends to attack and God does indeed give them the victory. How this happened is up for debate. Josephus, writing many years later, states that Sisera’s army was decimated by a giant hail storm. However it happened, Barak’s army is victorious and Sisera has to get away on foot.

This is where the story takes a very strange turn. Sisera comes to the tent of Heber the Kenite. The Kenites were not Israelites but were descendants of Abraham and his concubine, Keturah. Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, was a Kenite and a priest of Midian. These ties led the Kenites to be on mostly friendly terms with the Israelites. At this time, the Kenites are friendly with Jabin. When Sisera comes to Heber’s tent, his wife Jael offers him sanctuary in her tent. In ancient times, nomadic couples often had separate tents for men and women. Sisera believes that nobody will search a woman’s tent for a man because it was a breach of etiquette and social law for a man to be in the tent of another man’s wife. He pleads with Jael to keep people out, takes a drink of milk and passes out absolutely exhausted. Jael, seeing her chance, takes a tent peg and drives it through the skull of Sisera, pinning him to the ground and killing him instantly. Jael must have had much practice at this as the women were responsible for putting up the tents and the tent pegs were about 12 inches long; more than enough to do the job.

Jael’s actions here are not without controversy. While we can see it as an act of divine judgment, the rules of hospitality in that era was very strict. If someone came to your tent, you offered them food, drink and safety. To kill them is an act of treachery; especially since her husband had made peace with Jabin and, by extension, with Sisera. The Bible offers no commentary here and, similar to Ehud’s actions, allows the reader to form their own thoughts and lessons.

Barak shows up and Jael shows him the body of Sisera still pinned to the ground, thus fulfilling the prophecy Deborah spoke before the battle. The war continued until Jabin was destroyed. This was not a one and done battle, but a war to relieve the Israelites of a cruel and menacing king. Chapter 5 then goes on to record a song that Deborah writes in honor of the great victory.

On that note, I think we’ll end it here for now. We’ll wrap up the book of Judges in the next episode when we talk about Gideon, Samson and several others. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please subscribe and leave a 5 star rating and review. If you want to get in touch with the show, you can e-mail me at BibleBackdrop@gmail.com. Word of mouth is still the best way for this show to get around, so tell a friend and have them subscribe. You can find Bible Backdrop on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere podcasts are found. Thank you again for listening and have a great week!