Recently I reread Judges. It is one of the darkest Biblical books, yet one that speaks to me about the Lordship of Christ – in my life and in the lives of those to whom we will be ministering.
Judges is a narrative that both hints and screams that people need a King. Historically, it records what happened in Israel after the death of Joshua and before the coming of Samuel (and subsequently the kings). Prophetically, Judges, along with all Biblical books, not only tells us what happened, but also why and so what. I like 1 Cor 10:11 on this point, that these things happened to them (i.e. the events are historical) and were written down as examples to us (i.e. they are also prophetic).
Three repeated phrases from the book tell its story in a nutshell:
- the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.” (2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6, 13:1)
- “there was no king in Israel” (17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25)
- “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (17:6, 21:25 – the last verse in the book!)
Whenever I read Judges, especially the dark and confusing chapters 17-25, I am always struck with questions like ”who are the good guys in this story, anyway? and “were they allowed to do that?” If you read this section, you’ll know what I mean. The judges and priests in the book do some of the worst things in the Bible. Of course, God is still working through them and using them, but it can get pretty hairy at times.
I imagine an orchestra tuning up. You know how one violin starts tuning, then a trumpet starts blaring out a scale, then the percussionist starts ringing the triangle, and pretty soon, the hall is full of grating noise. Now just imagine a symphony that starts ok, but immediately unravels as the orchestra stops following the conductors’ direction. It quickly degenerates into chaotic noise. That’s what Judges sounds like to me – a people becoming increasingly chaotic, violent and disturbing as their king-lessness (their doing what was right in their own eyes but evil in the eyes of the Lord) increases. In some ways, their depravity would have been checked had they merely followed their Conductor.
At the end of the book, you sort of sit there, your senses overwhelmed with the evil you have just witnessed, almost feeling dirty for even having read it. But then the phrase, “there was no king” makes you realize that we do have a king, and you start imagining what the book of Judges would have looked like if they had followed God their King all along. What peacefuness and joy and life they would have had.
I hope you’ll read Judges and let God speak to you from this book. For me, it reminds me that I do have a King. I need to continue listening to my King, Jesus, trusting Him to bring order and peace and life as He reigns over me. As we head over to Japan, a nation largely without God and desperately King-less, I pray that the Japanese would see their need for Christ as King and Lord and would bend their knees to Him. May Jesus be King in your life and mine today.
TJ
PS - Thank you Vern Steiner and Miqra (of Lincoln NE) for first pointing out these themes to me years ago.
Posted by drinkdeeply 
