Table of Contents
Judges
Judges opens the morning after Joshua’s funeral and runs downhill. The conquest is left half-finished, the next generation “knew not the LORD,” and the book settles into a grim rhythm: Israel turns to idols, an enemy oppresses them, they cry out, God raises a rescuer — Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson — and when the rescuer dies it all starts again, a little worse each time.
It is the bleakest stretch of the Old Testament, and its refrain is “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” But the other refrain is grace: God keeps sending help to a people who keep not deserving it. These studies go through Judges in order, the same way the rest of the Bible section does.
List Of Articles
They Could Not Drive Them Out
the conquest left half-finished tribe by tribe — chariots of iron, Canaanites put to tribute instead of driven out, and a compromise that would cost everything
Judges 1There Arose Another Generation
an angel weeping at Bochim, the death of Joshua’s generation, and a grandchild people who “knew not the LORD” — the whole sad cycle of the book laid out in advance
Judges 2The LORD Raised Up A Deliverer
the pattern begins — sin, servitude, a cry, a rescuer: Othniel, Ehud with a two-edged dagger and a message from God, and Shamgar with an ox goad
Judges 3The Stars In Their Courses Fought
a prophetess judging under a palm tree, a general who would not go without her, a tent peg through a temple, and the oldest victory song in the Bible
Judges 4-5Thou Mighty Man Of Valour
Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it, greeted as a hero he does not feel like; the altar of Baal pulled down by night; and a fleece asked twice
Judges 6The Sword Of The LORD, And Of Gideon
an army cut from thirty-two thousand to three hundred by fear and a drink of water, so no one could say “mine own hand hath saved me” — trumpets, pitchers and torches
Judges 7The LORD Shall Rule Over You
the pursuit east of Jordan, Succoth and Penuel repaid, a crown refused with the right words — and a golden ephod that became a snare to the man who made it
Judges 8Come Thou, And Reign Over Us
seventy brothers murdered on one stone, a parable of trees that could find no king but a bramble, and a millstone dropped from a tower
Judges 9I Cannot Go Back
an outcast son called home to fight, a bargain struck with words before a battle, and a vow he would have given anything to unsay
Judges 10-11Say Now Shibboleth
a quarrel among brothers turned deadly at the fords of Jordan, decided by how a man pronounced one word
Judges 12A Nazarite Unto God From The Womb
an angel twice to a barren woman, a name too wonderful to tell, and a child set apart before birth — no razor, no wine, and the Spirit beginning to move
Judges 13Out Of The Eater Came Forth Meat
a wedding at Timnath, a lion torn like a kid, honey in the carcase, a riddle wagered on thirty changes of clothes, and a marriage that was never going to hold
Judges 14With The Jawbone Of An Ass
three hundred foxes and firebrands in the standing corn, three thousand men of Judah come to hand him over, and a thousand Philistines dead by a fresh jawbone
Judges 15Let Me Die With The Philistines
the gates of Gaza carried up a hill, a secret worn down by nagging, hair cut in his sleep, eyes put out, a mill to grind — and one last prayer between two pillars
Judges 16I Have A Levite To My Priest
a homemade shrine paid for with stolen silver, a wandering Levite hired as a private chaplain, and a whole tribe that stole the idols and the priest together
Judges 17-18Every Man Did That Which Was Right In His Own Eyes
a night in Gibeah as bad as Sodom, a nation gone to war against one of its own tribes, and the book’s last word on a people with no king and no restraint
Judges 19-21