What I learned from reading Judges

I really enjoyed reading Judges. Often I would sit down to read a big chunk of it (like 8-10 chapters), but I couldn't because I was getting so much out of it, that I wanted to think about it and blog.

Judges shows how the nation of Israel went through a common pattern:

Often when I read about the history of Israel, I get really shocked at how dumb they could be to keep leaving God for the idols of Baal. But then I think about how commonly we in the post-incarnation period leave God for our own idols.

Israel would leave God for years upon years, and then God would send a Judge to help bring them back. For us, we make small decisions daily that either move us closer, or further from God. And this must have been how it was for Israel. Slowly over time they must have made decisions that lead them to Baal, such that one day the tent of God was gone, and the idols were everywhere. I am sure that did not happen overnight.

And so when I get judgemental about Israels unfaithfulness, I should look at myself. Everyday I choose things besides God, and it is only by his grace that I have not strayed far enough to the point that I would be serving other gods.

So I have learned that God is faithful: to Israel then, and now to us as the church. We don't deserve his grace any more than they did. We have all departed from him, and it is only him that keeps us.

As the famous hymn says:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

What I learned from reading about Gideon

The life of Gideon (Judges 6:11-8:35, Hebrews 11:32)

• God calls Gideon a mighty man of valor
• Gideon complains that God isn’t acting in the same way for Israel now, as he has done in the past
• Gideon gives God excuses
• God promises to be with Him
• Gideon demands a sign
• Gideon gets a sign
• God tells Gideon to destroy the altar of Baal in his fathers house
• Gideon does it, but does so at night because he is afraid of what family and others will think
• Gideon demands another sign from God (the famous fleece)
• God gives the sign
• Gideon demands God do it again
• God gives the sign again
• God wants to prove the victory in Battle is His, so he pares down the army of Israel from 32,000 to 300. (see below - Great Story 1)
• The 300 men defeat the army of Midian
• God gives Gideon further victories over Succoth, Penuel. (Great Story 2) 
• Isreal wants Gideon to rule over them, but he says that only the LORD will rule over Israel
• Shortly after that he asks for some gold from the people of Israel, and he uses it to make an ephod. It says that all Israel whored after it, and it became a snare to Gideon. 
• Gideon dies
• Israel returns to worshiping Baal.

The story of Gideon ends in Hebrews 11 when he is listed with the other great heroes of the faith. It is interesting to note that Gideon was not perfect. He demanded sign after sign from God. At the end of his life he creates this golden ephod which becomes an idol for God's people. He also did many great things. And in the end he is listed as a man of faith.

Two quick observations:

1. God called Gideon a mighty man of valor before Gideon had done anything. God sees in us our potential, and uses us before we are ready. He then causes us to succeed despite our shortcomings. God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called.
2. Even the heroes in the Bible are not perfect. God uses imperfect people to accomplish his goal of declaring his glory among the nations. The only perfect one is Jesus, and we should see him high above anyone else. Jesus is a greater Gideon, who perfectly leads his people into battle, and is our perfect Judge!

Great Story 1

In one of the great scenes of the Bible, God chooses the men for battle by how they drink water from the water. The ones who lap up the water like a dog are now the army, and the ones who kneel down to drink go home

Great Story 2

Gideon and his guys are tired and hungry from battle and ask for bread. The officials in Succoth wouldn’t give Gideon bread, so Gideon says that when he gets back from his current battle he will, “flail their flesh with the thorns of the wilderness, and with briers”. After all was said and done, he came back to Succoth and did it! He is a man of his word!

Looking back to redemption

Today in my time in the Word I was reading Judges 6. In verses 7-9 it reads:

When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. (Judges 6:7-9 ESV)

What came to my mind when reading this, was that when Israel cried out to God, God reminds them of when he redeemed them from Egypt. He points them back to the time that he saved them so that they would remember God's saving power.

Now, in the post-incarnation era, when we are in trouble and need to cry out to God, we should always look back to God's saving power at the cross. It was at the cross that Jesus redeemed us from our sin.

God has always been about saving his people. For Israel, it was from Egypt, and they were to look back and take solace in that saving power. For us, we are to look back to Jesus, and his saving power.

The whole Bible is about Jesus...

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27 ESV)

Shamgar !!!

Judges 3:31

After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel.

Shamgar with his Oxgoad!

He slays 600 Philistines!

Almost looks like a Jedi!

One interesting note about Shamgar is that he was a Judge of Israel, but most likely not even an Israelite. According the notes in the ESV Study Bible, "Shamgar's name is apparently Hurrian, not Israelite, and his designation as “son of Anath” probably refers to the Canaanite warrior goddess Anath. If so, it is ironic that God used a non-Israelite warrior to deliver Israel from its enemies."

I think this guy is just about as cool as Ehud. And with these two dudes combined, Judges 3 could be the best chapter in the OT.