When it comes to the Book of Judges, one often thinks of a courtroom scene of a judge donned in black robes and a wig, arbitrating between a defendant and a plaintiff. Not so with the judges in this book, these judges were deliverers. God had anointed these individuals to rescue His people from the hands of their enemies and to prevail over them in battle. Though these individuals were not a judge in the legal sense, their deeds represented God’s judgment over His people and the surrounding nations. The feat of the judges reflected God as the One who reigns as the Judge over all nations. Both subjugation and deliverance are God’s judgment over His people. Throughout the Torah and the rest of the Scriptures, the sinful, rebellious nature of humankind is clearly shown. The Israelites, the people of God ended up in the hands of their enemies because of their sins, because they forsook God. These happened exactly as forewarned through Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy.
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;
In that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
Deuteronomy 30: 15-18
Soon after entering the Promised Land, the Israelites were tried by the remaining Canaanites. Israel had to fend off their enemies for they did not hold fast to God. Hence, the remaining Canaanites invaded to recapture their land.
I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you, and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed Me; what is this you have done? Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they will become as thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.’
Judges 2:1-3
The Canaanites remained in the land as God has spoken formerly through Moses to test the Israelites (Exodus 23:29-30, Judges 3:1). Still, each time the Israelites cried out to God, God raised a savior, one called a ‘judge’ to deliver them from the hands of their enemies. (Judges 2:11-13) God is always at work, full of grace and a righteous judge. The cycle of subjugation and deliverance repeats itself all throughout the book. As the Israelites repeated sins again and again, it shows how they were playing with God. Yet in the same measure, it shows how God was very much in control and sovereign. The conclusion bears much semblance to our own times.
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 21:25
The time of the Judges was an intermediary period between the leadership of Mloses and Joshua, and the kingship of Saul and David. In those days there was no king in Israel, neither is there one today. Be it political parties, secular activists, or religious lobbies, these collective individuals are like a drop in the sea and are against God in their agenda. Here in Israel today, everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes, each according to his own understanding, just like the days of the judges. God desires to show us what has been happening since the beginning, that we may receive His promises. In comparison to the generations before us, we are a blessed generation.
Now in our times, the Scripture has been revealed in a clear and mighty way to the Jewish disciples here in Israel, as well as the Body of the Messiah across the nations. Despite the increasing access to knowledge, Yeshua (Jesus) is still not revealed to the Jewish people (unbelievers) here in Israel. Today, even though they have heard and have read of the prophecies, they still do not know Yeshua personally. Even the devil knows who Yeshua is yet he neither submits nor repents. From civil unrest to terrorist attacks in the region, God is showing what is going in the world, everything just as He foretold (Isaiah 19:2).
Today, Israel keeps the land and their autonomy despite the people still not walking in His ways. God keeps His promises to the patriarchs and the generations before us. What was revealed through the Scriptures spiritually through the eyes of faith to generations before us is now revealed to us physically. But now in our time, we have seen the time of Yeshua the Messiah, the time of the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment of a number of prophecies regarding the End Times. I believe we are living in the End Times, we are immensely blessed. Looking at the generations before for examples, we need to stand firm in our faith, just as the writer of Hebrews exhorts us:
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouth of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Hebrews 11:30-34
The examples of these deliverers in the Book of Judges, each despite their due weaknesses, were used by God. Of the judges listed here, we see a contrasting pair – Gideon and Samson. One called from weakness, from fear to strength to overcome. The other, called from strength and powerful anointing but to an end of diminishing weakness, blindness and slavery in the hands of the enemy. Only by the grace of God, God releases Samson according to his request at the end. Samson’s story exemplifies God’s grace to those who have been so weak and blind all their life. Gideon was a man like us, ordinary people that God uses. Be it Gideon or Samson, that fact is that they were sinners, for there are no others that God can use. God calls us and uses us, that is all that there is. It may be strange in the eyes of man but it is nothing strange at all for God. In the same way, we are the Gideons of our times. We are the same ordinary people whom God uses, but even mightier for we are in the End Times. We as believers today are tested in a like fashion as the generations before. Through the Book of Judges, we see how God uses ordinary individuals such as Gideon. As God calls the individual, we see how their lives were transformed and refined by His grace. At the same time, we see also the principalities and spiritual forces at work (Eph 6:12), and how God wages war against them and prevails over them. The Bible, as God’s Word that is living and active still speaks to us through the Book of Judges despite the historical distance.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
Those circumstances then still speak to us today and we can learn from the lessons in the book and posture ourselves spiritually to avail ourselves to His will.