Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 1-3.
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As I begin reading the Book of Judges, I see two possible interpretations of what is written here. First, it could be that the writer of this book intended to take up where the Book of Joshua left off, after the death of Joshua. However, as he began to write, he realized that he needed to lay the groundwork for what he wanted to write with things that happened while Joshua was still alive (and that his readers would be familiar enough with the Book of Joshua to recognize that he was doing so). So, that’s one way to understand the beginning of the Book of Judges. Another way to look at it is that the writer wanted to present two introductions to his work. Perhaps because what he wrote down started as oral tradition and there were two separate ways in which those telling it introduced the story. The longer introduction went from the beginning to verse five in chapter two. The shorter introduction began in verse six of chapter two, takes up with the end of the Book of Joshua, and concluded in verse fifteen. The actual story then began in verse sixteen of chapter two. No matter which interpretation one takes, or even if one has another way of understanding why the writer began this way, there is no conflict between the two “starts” to the Book of Judges.
The writer tells us that the tribes were not initially able to drive out all of the people living in the land, and then later, when they did become strong enough to do so, they subjected them to forced labor rather than driving them out. (As an aside, it seems to suggest here that initially the Amorites living in the territory allotted to the tribe of Dan forced them back out of much of it, and later, the tribe of Ephraim, along with half of the tribe of Manasseh, were able to subjugate them, which suggests that Dan lost its territory to the Amorites and later the tribe of Ephraim took control of that territory.) The writer then makes it clear that Israel’s failure to follow God’s command to fully drive the peoples out of the land resulted in exactly what God had warned them about. The Israelites began to follow the gods of the people who had inhabited the lands before them. The end result being that they were weakened by their lack of unity and lack of faithfulness to God.
We face the same problem today. If we make deals with those who do not share our faith we will begin to adopt their idolatry. I will use an example from a congregation with which I am familiar. There is a person who attends most of its functions and Bible studies who does not believe that Jesus is God, but believes that the Bible is true (although he also appears to believe that some other writings are also Scripture). For years no one in the congregation was willing to confront him for his beliefs which ran counter to the teachings of Jesus. They thought that it would be unloving to pursue his takes on Bible verses which ran counter to sound doctrine. So, they never realized the extent to which he disagreed with Christian orthodoxy. They also thought that digging into these areas of disagreement would produce division in the Church. Instead, what happened was that the congregation also did not dig into other areas of disagreement, in the name of unity. However, instead of fostering unity by not debating the areas where they disagreed, all in the name of loving those who they perceived as being the outcast of society, the congregation just split further and further. Additionally, some of the weaker members were encouraged by the lack of Church discipline to follow their own thinking rather than what God teaches. Fortunately, God called a pastor to this congregation who functioned sort of like the judges of this passage. The new pastor called the congregation to follow God more faithfully and exerted his authority to show the man I started this illustration with that he was not in communion with the Assembly of Believers. By doing this, the new pastor was able to direct the attention of the self-absorbed members to God.
I really drifted away from the message of the passage with that, but I do think that the basic idea is correct. I do however think the point is valid. The Israelites went along to get along with the people among whom they lived and thus fell away from being faithful to God. In the same way, we too often go long to get along with the society around us and thus fall away from being faithful to God. But, even if we do, God will send us leaders to call us back to Him, just as He sent judges to the Israelites.
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.
