No King in Israel (5)

The phrase “the children of Israel did evil” (in some modern translations, “people”) appears exactly seven times throughout the book of Judges, once in the introductory summary and once at the beginning of each of six of its twelve historical sections. In order, these are: Othniel (oppressing nation: Mesopotamia, period of national servitude: 8 years); Ehud (Moab, 18 years); Deborah (Canaan, 20 years); Gideon (Midian, 7 years); Jephthah (Ammon, 18 years); and Samson (Philistines, 40 years).

So then, six notable periods of extended oppression from six different nations, totaling 111 of the 300-plus years the judges judged Israel.

No King in Israel (4)

Verse 7 of Judges 3 will bring us to the next section of Judges, telling twelve stories of the judges God raised up to deliver Israel over the next fourteen chapters. But before we get to these tales, each with their own lessons, the writer or writers of Judges present us with a historical overview of the entire period, along with a preview of some of the enemies Israel will encounter in subsequent chapters as a result of its sins.

Running like a red thread through this era of spiritual decline is the mercy of God …

No King in Israel (3)

A public appearance by the angel of the Lord in front of large numbers of people is quite exceptional. Indeed, for God to mete out justice personally to sinners during their lifetimes is also a comparatively rare event. A formal, exhaustive accounting for all the evil men have done awaits them at the end of their lives, as the book of Hebrews tells us. Under normal circumstances, that is where God judges sin.

All the same, throughout human history, God has necessarily overlooked much evil, or else all our lives would be very short ones. The divine standard is not to be applied to men until after death.

No King in Israel (2)

The word šāpāṭ, frequently translated “judge”, appears 21 times in the Hebrew version of the book of Judges, beginning with the second chapter. It’s far from the first time the word occurs in scripture, also being present at least 30 times in the first six books of the Bible. The vast majority of this content almost surely dates earlier than Judges, establishing the meaning of the word for us as its initial readers understood it.

No King in Israel (1)

All over the world and all through history, wherever you have kings, dynasties invariably follow — at least until some nasty person ends them prematurely. I suppose over the course of the last several millennia, there may have been one or two gentle fellows who ruled a nation for thirty years and then thought, “Say, I’m not going to live forever, am I? Maybe the throne should go to the man who will do the best for my kingdom.”

Well, there may have been. I have no evidence of it. What happened instead was that — good, bad or indifferent — son replaced father if someone didn’t kill dad first.