Hello!
If you're a member of Christ Church - Lutheran then you know that we've just begun a new summer sermon series on the book of Judges! The series will run for the month of June.
Judges is a fascinating book, filled with intense, violent, disturbing stories. The human protagonists of the book - Judges (I prefer "deliverers") - are complicated, often morally ambiguous characters.
This past Sunday I preached on the first chapter of Judges, and I tried to set up a basic framework for understanding the trajectory of the story. In case you missed it, here's a recap:
Judges picks up with the death of Joshua, the central figure of leadership over the nation of Israel. In this way, Judges mirrors the beginning of the book of Joshua, which began with the death of Moses and the beginning of Joshua's leadership.
One major difference in Judges, though, is that there is no central leader appointed over the people. No Moses or Joshua-esque figure, and the generation of Israel that had experienced the Exodus, the wandering, and the initial foray into the Holy Land are all beginning to "go the way of all the earth."
"to go the way of all the earth" = die |
As the story of the Judges unfolds, you can see further and further degradation in the hearts of the people as the generations pass. As Judges 2:10 puts it, "...and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel."
So now, we enter into this new age in the life of Israel where the tribes operate with unprecedented independence. Yet, the command from all the way back in Deuteronomy 7 remains: Go into the land. Take it. Conquer it. Destroy the people in the land and destroy their gods.
We don't even get 22 verse into Judges 1 before it becomes quite clear that the people of Israel will not obey YHWH's command to expel/destroy the inhabitants and their gods. They become complacent and cohabitate the land with the natives.
Verses 22-36 hammer this point home.
And the warning from Joshua at the end of the book of Joshua should begin to play in the mind of the reader...
For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you. - Joshua 23:12-13
Which directly ties us into the opening verses of Judges 2.
Chapter 2:1-5
The Angel of YHWH - מַלְאַךְ־יְהוָ֛ה - appears before the people and delivers a message, "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? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns sin your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you."
The "malak YHWH" (מַלְאַךְ־יְהוָ֛ה) has appeared numerous times in the OT to this point, first appearing to Abraham. He's described in a number of terms. He is the messenger or "angel" of YHWH. He's the Commander of the Armies of YHWH in Joshua 5. In Exodus 23:21, it is said of Him that YHWH's very name is in Him. All of this to say, this malak YHWH is a very, very important figure in the story so far. |
In my opinion, we are dealing with the Pre-Incarnate second Person of the Trinity (Jesus).
The people lift up their voices and weep, for they realize they've royally messed things up. So, they name the place where this message was delivered "Bochim", which in Hebrew means, "weepers". [My understanding is that "Bochim" is just a colloquial nickname for Bethel. ]
And you would think that this would be a pivotal moment for the people! You'd think they'd have learned a lesson from all this trouble they've brought upon themselves... but they don't.
Jump to verses 11-15.
The people fall into gross idolatry, worshipping the Baals (primary deity in Canaanite culture - the god of the sky and thunder) and the Ashtaroth (fertility goddess in this culture - the consort of Baal). As a result, YHWH was not simply apathetic to His people. He was actively against them "for harm" (verse 15) because they had broken their Covenant with YHWH and there were direct consequences/curses associated with infidelity.
Some examples of those curse include: curses on their cities and fields (Deut. 28:16), curses on their food (Deut. 28:17), infertility for themselves and their livestock (Deut. 28:18), amongst others which will unfortunately be enacted later on in the Old Testament.
Verses 16-23. We're introduced to the concept of the biblical Judges.
These Judges will be men and women, directly raised up by YHWH, to save His people from "out of the hand" of their enemies (otherwise known as the consequences of their own actions). Why? Verse 18, "For YHWH was moved to pity by their groaning," which is to say, He just can't help but love these people, despite their best efforts to be completely unlovable!
Chapter 3:1-6
"Now these are the nations that YHWH left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. It was only in order that the generations of people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before."
What the heck does that mean?
Very simply, it means that Israel is going to be taught dependence again. They will be thrust into war against these pagan nations, to see if they will return to YHWH. This is part of their testing. Verse 5-6... They fail the test.
Verses 7-11. YHWH will raise up Othniel (who we were introduced to in chapter 1 - the son-in-law/nephew of Caleb), as the first Judge/Deliverer for the people of Israel, after 8 years under the oppression of a Mesopotamian king. The text says that the Spirit of YHWH was upon Othniel. There's only one Spirit of YHWH, which we know as the Holy Spirit. [Interesting to note that we've had appearances by both the 2nd and 3rd Person of the Trinity in the first 3 chapters of Judges.]
Othniel will make war with this Mesopotamian king and prevail over him, resulting in 40 years of rest in the promised land. Then he dies and the cycle begins again.
Mesopotamia meaning the land "between rivers", those rivers being the Tigris and Euphrates. Essentially, this is a king that has come from the region of modern-day Iraq. |
Verses 12-30. The second Judge of Israel, Ehud.
The people do evil in the eyes of YHWH. YHWH punishes His people, by empowering Eglon of Moab to oppress Israel. This goes on for 18 years. The people cry out. YHWH has compassion on them and raises up Ehud, "the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man."
Fun fact: "Ben" = son, "yamin" = right hand/side. So "Benjamin" means "son of the right hand".
Meet Ehud, the left-handed-son-of-the-right-hand. Judge #2. And he is going to kill a very large Moabite king (Eglon). Eglon is so large, in fact, that when Ehud stabs him with his secretive blade, Eglon's fat "closes over the blade"... there are some other graphic details included in this fun story that I won't get into.
At any rate, Eglon dies. Ehud rallies the troops, and the men of Israel defeat ~10k Moabite men that day. As a result, the land has rest for 80 years.
Verse 31.
Shamgar, the third Judge of Israel. His story is brief but awesome.
"After him (Ehud) was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel."
600 Philistines vs. 1 dude with an 8-foot long pole with a spike at the end of it, like a cattle prod. That's all it tells us, and honestly, that's all we need to know. The number of Philistines killed - 600 - should probably be considered figurative and not literal (there are other examples of this same number being used in Judges to represent large groups of men). And whether or not the number is or is not literal, the point is that Shamgar was pretty deadly with an oxgoad.
What's interesting textually about the story of Shamgar is that we are never told that he was a Judge over Israel. Nor are we told that he was raised up by YHWH, or that his activity brought rest to the land. We just get this one verse.
In some of the older manuscripts we have of Judges, the story of Shamgar actually appears after the story of Samson, which I think narratively works better than here at the end of chapter 3. And as we'll see in the next verse, the narrative picks up in chapter 4 after the death of Ehud (not Shamgar).
There's also some scholarly debate about whether or not this Shamgar fellow was an Israelite! The argument seems to be that the name Shamgar is Hurrian (a Bronze Age people group that migrated out of Mesopotamia into Canaan.
Regarding Shamgar's origins, a supporting piece of evidence that he was not an Israelite comes from the title/name "son of Anath".
Anath or "Anat" was an ancient Canaanite goddess, along with Baal and Asherah. She's not mentioned in Scripture, but she was a part of the stories of Baal.
None of this is meant to suggest that Shamgar was a pagan, but his ethnic orgin is a little bit of a mystery. However, this would not be the first time YHWH had used someone with a non-Israelite background to do His will in the OT. |
Chapter 4:1-3
One quick note before starting chapter 4. Chapter 4-5 function differently than many of the other chapters in the Book of Judges. These two chapters are Hebrew poetry (2 separate poems, to be clear).
"And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD after Ehud died. And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years."
Hazor is a really interesting, and this isn't the first time we've seen it mentioned in the story. Joshua 11 mentions Hazor as being "the head" of a number of kingdoms in Northern Canaan, which puts us near/around the Sea of Galilee. This was a prominent city in the land of Canaan, for a very long time, and it fell on a prominent trade route which connected Egypt to Iraq (Babylon).
Today there is a huge archeological site dedicated to Hazor.
In the same chapter of Joshua, there's a mention of "Jabin" who is described as "king of Hazor". Here in Judges, though, Jabin is called "king of Canaan". Are these the same characters? If yes, how is that possible? In Joshua 11, the king of Hazor, along with a number of other kings are "struck with the sword".
It would seem that Jabin is a royal name or title that was passed down in the successive kings of Hazor. He's really not a prominent part of this story.
We are also introduced to Sisera, the main antagonist of the story, who lives in Harosheth-hagoyim (we don't really know where this is , but it seems like it would be in the Valley of Jezreel) and has a formidable army for his time. The cycle of Judges has begun again: The people do evil, YHWH gives them over to a pagan king, the king oppresses the people, the people cry out, and YHWH will raise up a deliverer.
Verse 4-7. We are introduced to Deborah. Deborah is a prophetess and our first female judge! Interestingly, Deborah is said to have already been serving as Judge over Israel for some time before the beginning of this story.
What does "prophetess" mean? The other prophetess I can think of is Miriam. What does a prophetess do? I would guess the same thing a prophet does, which is to deliver messages from YHWH, messages of judgment and salvation. But we don't get a lot of background on Deborah!
"She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgement." So, they come to Deborah to discern what YHWH would have them do.
"She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, 'Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, 'Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand'?"
Deborah calls Barak (whose name means 'lightning'). She gives Barak YHWH's message. Gather an army, meet by the river, and YHWH will give Sisera and his army into your hand. Make sure you notice the scene that is being set up. More on this later.
Verse 8, "Barak said to her, 'If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.' And she said, 'I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.' Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him."
This is a fun little part in the text. It seems like the story is being set up for Deborah to fell Sisera in some epic battle, but that's a misdirection!
Verse 11, "Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh." Seemingly weird aside, but we'll get the pay-off in a few verses.
Verses 12-16. I won't include the full text here. I'll just summarize: The plan works. Sisera takes his chariots to Mount Tabor to meet Barak. Barak and his men (at the direction of Deborah) route the army of Sisera and kill every single man...
Except Sisera.
Verses 17-22. "Sisera fled away to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, 'Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid.' So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. And he said to her, 'Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.' So she opened a skin of milk and give him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, 'Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say, 'No.'' But Jael the wife of Heber TOOK A TENT PEG, AND TOOK A HAMMER IN HER HAND. THEN SHE WENT SOFTLY TO HIM AND DROVE THE PEG INTO HIS TEMPLE UNTIL IT WENT DOWN INTO THE GROUND WHILE HE WAS LYING ASLEEP FROM WEARINESS. So he died. And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, 'Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.' So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple."
Woah.
YHWH hands Sisera over to Jael, the wife of a Kenite (who was in cahoots with Jabin), who lures Sisera to his death by feigning loyalty and affection, waits til he falls asleep, and then she murders him with a tent peg and a hammer in cold-blood! The methodology Jael uses reminds me of Ehud's story.
Some have speculated that the milk Jael gave Sisera was curdled or soured milk, which was not uncommon in that time. Soured milk is fermented, so it would make sense that such drink would put an already battle-worn Sisera to sleep... which would make hammering through a skull a little bit easier.
Not a pretty story!
Verse 23.
"So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel. And the hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan."
So to recap: YHWH delivers His people from an oppressive ruler and his army, near a body of water... and then in the next chapter Deborah and Barak break out into song.
This story from Judges is kind of a like a miniature replaying of the Red Sea Crossing in Exodus 14, which is followed by songs from Moses and Miriam (A PROPHETESS) in Exodus 15.
If you've made it this far:
God bless you.
Thanks for reading! I will post chapters 6-11 next week!