I guess it's not good to say you have a particular favorite book of the Bible. Perhaps we should comment about them as we do our children. That is, we love all of them; just in different ways.
Well, I suppose I do love Judges differently than I love, say, Luke or James or Ruth. But I really do love Judges a lot.
It has some of the most engrossing stories in the whole Bible. Probably everyone is familiar with the stories of Samson, especially the "Samson, Delilah, and the Fateful Haircut" story. If you've been in Bible study classes for a while, you may know about Gideon and his incredible conquest of the Midianites.
If you have kind of a feminist proclivity, you may know about Deborah, who was not only a prophetess, but also a pretty effective judge, military leader, and poet. Or her co-heroine Jael who wielded a tent peg and hammer to the gory demise of an enemy general.
One of my favorite stories is about Ehud who pretty much eviscerated Eglon, king of the Moabites, who was "a very fat man."
I have had the good fortune to be able to teach the book of Judges three or four times, and it's always fun and exhilarating. I was also extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to study Judges in a Hebrew class at Dallas Seminary as well as in an Old Testament history class. Those seminary classes helped me see stuff in Judges that I think it's easy to miss if you're just breezing through the book.
Namely, the story of Judges is a chilling, horrifying look at the downward spiral of the moral character of the Israelites following the death of Joshua. There are a couple of places where the author of Judges clearly lays out what happened. "Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals [that is, foreign gods]. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers who had brought them out of Egypt....In His anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them...Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as He had sworn to them. They were in great distress. Then the LORD raised up judges who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them....They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways" (Judges 2:11-12, 15-17, 19).
So the book is a carefully crafted narrative, not necessarily in chronological order, designed to illustrate the increasing corruption. A closer examination of some of the more prominent judges, Gideon and Samson, reveals that they were hugely flawed characters, just barely loyal to Yahweh. Nevertheless, God used them to rescue His people. It says much more about Yahweh's compassion and faithfulness than it does about the "heroism" of those judges.
Then there's Jephthah, who was filled with the Spirit to allow him to fight the Ammonites. But he ended up sacrificing his only daughter to fulfill a rash and unnecessary bargain he'd made with God.
Even worse, there's Micah from the hill country who paid to have his own pet priest. Worst of all is the Levite who let his concubine be gang-raped--and probably but not definitely murdered--then chopped up her body and sent the parts to other Israelite clans as a call to arms. The final section is about a civil war that nearly wiped out the whole tribe of Benjamin. Only by kidnapping girls to be wives to the remaining Benjamites were they able to prevent the tribe's demise. Charming.
The stories are colorful and compelling. I also just love the way the book is constructed. It's supposedly part of that Deuteronomistic History that seems to build the case of why Israel was eventually sent into Exile. Also, it sets the stage beautifully for the stories about Saul, David, and the following kings of Israel. In fact, the last line of Judges is "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit" (Judges 21:22).
Frankly, Judges is not for the faint-hearted. There's a lot of activity in it that's violent and offensive. If you're going to read it, and as you might guess, I really recommend that you do, try to find a great study Bible or commentary. Take the time to understand what's going on and ask the questions of "Why would this person act this way?" It's often not a very flattering answer.
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