Judges E-Book

Miles V. Van Pelt

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Knowing the Bible
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 118

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

The book of Judges describes a time in the life of the nation of Israel between the prophetic leadership of Moses and Joshua and the establishment of the monarchy. During that time, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6). The most shocking feature in the book of Judges, however, is not the horror of Israel's sin, but the glory of salvation from that sin. The darkness of Israel's sin is overcome only by the wonder of God's salvation worked through a series of memorable judges, who ultimately point us to Jesus Christ. Part of the Knowing the Bible series.

Leseprobe

JUDGES

A 12-WEEK STUDY

Miles V. Van Pelt

Knowing the Bible: Judges, A 12-Week Study

Copyright © 2018 by Crossway

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Some content used in this study guide has been adapted from the ESV Study Bible, copyright © 2008 by Crossway, pages 433–474. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design: Simplicated Studio

First printing 2018

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-5729-3EPub ISBN: 978-1-4335-5732-3 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-5730-9 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-5731-6

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

TABLEOF CONTENTS

Cover PageNewsletter Sign UpEndorsementsKnowing the Bible SeriesTitle PageCopyrightContentsSeries Preface: J. I. Packer and Lane T. DennisWeek 1:     OverviewWeek 2:     Introducing the Judges, Twice! (1:1–3:6)Week 3:     Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar (3:7–31)Week 4:     Deborah and Barak—Double Trouble (4:1–5:31)Week 5:     Gideon’s Call and Commission (6:1–40)Week 6:     Gideon’s Victory and Defeat (7:1–8:28)Week 7:     Abimelech, the Anti-Judge (8:29–9:57)Week 8:     Jephthah and His Only Begotten (10:1–12:15)Week 9:     Samson in Timnah (13:1–15:20)Week 10:   Samson in Gaza (16:1–31)Week 11:   Everyone Did What Was Right in His Own Eyes (17:1–21:25)Week 12:   Summary and ConclusionKnowing the Bible Study Guide Series

SERIES PREFACE

KNOWING THE BIBLE, as the series title indicates, was created to help readers know and understand the meaning, the message, and the God of the Bible. Each volume in the series consists of 12 units that progressively take the reader through a clear, concise study of one or more books of the Bible. In this way, any given volume can fruitfully be used in a 12-week format either in group study, such as in a church-based context, or in individual study. Of course, these 12 studies could be completed in fewer or more than 12 weeks, as convenient, depending on the context in which they are used.

Each study unit gives an overview of the text at hand before digging into it with a series of questions for reflection or discussion. The unit then concludes by highlighting the gospel of grace in each passage (“Gospel Glimpses”), identifying whole-Bible themes that occur in the passage (“Whole-Bible Connections”), and pinpointing Christian doctrines that are affirmed in the passage (“Theological Soundings”).

The final component to each unit is a section for reflecting on personal and practical implications from the passage at hand. The layout provides space for recording responses to the questions proposed, and we think readers need to do this to get the full benefit of the exercise. The series also includes definitions of key words. These definitions are indicated by a note number in the text and are found at the end of each chapter.

Lastly, to help understand the Bible in this deeper way, we urge readers to use the ESV Bible and the ESV Study Bible, which are available in various print and digital formats, including online editions at esv.org. The Knowing the Bible series is also available online.

May the Lord greatly bless your study as you seek to know him through knowing his Word.

J. I. PackerLane T. Dennis

WEEK 1: OVERVIEW

Getting Acquainted

Why would Christians study a book like Judges, a book that would easily be rated R for its content if produced for the modern screen? Death and slaughter, human sacrifice and betrayal, illicit sex and scandal saturate the pages of this book. Ehud murders Eglon and leaves him to rot in his own fecal matter. Jephthah sacrifices his only daughter as a burnt offering because of a vow he has made to the Lord. Samson spends a night with a prostitute. A Levite cuts up his concubine, who has been brutally raped to death, and sends her dismembered body throughout Israel in order to incite war. In the book of Judges, we observe clearly that life is messy and foul and complicated, and that it is the cycle of our own sin that creates these problems.

Because of the startling nature of these narratives, it might seem like the book of Judges lacks a content filter, but this is not true. In John 5:39, we are taught that Jesus is the filter through which we must read the book of Judges. Christ states, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they [the Old Testament Scriptures] that bear witness about me.” The narratives contained in the book of Judges were written to “bear witness” or “testify” to the person and work of Jesus and the great salvation he has achieved for his people.

The most shocking feature in the book of Judges, therefore, is not the horror of the people’s sin depicted in these narratives but the glory of salvation from that sin, accomplished by the God of patience, mercy, compassion, steadfast love, and faithfulness (Ex. 34:6). The terror of sin is outshone only by the glory of God’s salvation worked through these judges, who then point us to Jesus Christ. This is just how the book of Hebrews teaches us to read the book of Judges:

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. (Heb. 11:32–34)

These judges were “commended through their faith” (Heb. 11:39) and are now part of that “great . . . cloud of witnesses” that calls us to “[look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:1–2). And so, we are moved to study this often-neglected book of the Bible because it teaches us about God’s great salvation in Christ for his people from our incessant inclination to forget him, his promises, and all of the good blessings encountered in covenant life.

Placing Judges in the Larger Story

The book of Judges describes a period in the life of the nation of Israel between the prophetic leadership of Moses and Joshua and the establishment of the monarchy. The nature of this time period is described on four different occasions in the book: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 17:6; compare 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). This brief summary statement teaches us two important facts about the period of the judges in Israel: (1) there was a crisis of leadership; and (2) there was, consequently, a crisis in Israel’s faithfulness to their covenant with the Lord.

The wilderness generation of Moses and the generation of conquest under Joshua had been eyewitnesses of God’s great signs and wonders to save and deliver. But then “there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel” (Judg. 2:10). In the generations between Joshua and the kings, Israel did “what was evil in the sight of the LORD” (v. 11). The evil described in the book of Judges should be understood as Israel’s progressive decline into idolatry. The nation of Israel was originally called by God to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6), but by the end of the book of Judges, Israel has become like all the other nations around them and, even worse, like Sodom and Gomorrah (see Judges 19; compare Genesis 19).

By the end of the book, like the author himself we find ourselves looking for the king who will be able finally to deliver God’s people from sin and corruption, who will give rest to God’s people, and who will establish their inheritance in the land forever. The judges in the book of Judges, like the kings after them, cause us to look forward to the coming of the King of kings. Together, we look for that king who does not do what is “right in his own eyes” but who delights to do the will of his Father in heaven (John 6:38–40).

Major themes we will encounter in the book of Judges include:

•  The important connection between Israel’s obedience to the covenant and her possession (or forfeiture) of the land of inheritance.

•  The importance of biblical leadership to promote faithfulness to God’s law and to establish the land’s rest from foreign oppression.

•  The unending grace and mercy of God, demonstrated by the raising up of faithful judges through whom he rescues and saves his people.

•  The trap of idolatry that promises freedom but results in oppression and subjugation.

•  The corruption of idolatry that twists us into what we falsely worship.

•  The power of God to rescue his people from the worst types of sin, idolatry, and oppression.

Key Verses

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judg. 17:6; compare 18:1; 19:1; 21:25)

Date and Historical Background

The book of Judges occupies the time between the death of Joshua (Judg. 1:1; 2:8) and Samuel’s ministry of establishing the monarchy in Israel (1 Samuel 8)—approximately 1360 to 1084 BC. These are dark days in the life of Israel, characterized by sin, idolatry, foreign oppression, and national corruption. But it is against this dark backdrop that the glory of God’s faithfulness shines as he continues to save and deliver his people from their sin.

In this book we encounter a host of nations that surround and subsequently oppress Israel: the Philistines, Midianites, Moabites, Ammonites, Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Jebusites, and others. Some of these nations are even related to Israel through Abraham (e.g., the Moabites), adding insult to injury.

For most of the judges, the duration of their service and the tribe in Israel from which they originate is described in the text. However, the accounts of the judges likely do not appear in chronological order, nor are they necessarily arranged geographically. It seems, rather, that the accounts are arranged to portray Israel’s progressive spiral downward into idolatry as they increasingly become like the Canaanites they had been called to exterminate from the land.

Outline

The book of Judges includes two introductions, two conclusions, 12 judges (six major judges and six minor judges), and one anti-judge, Abimelech. The judges are presented in two parts, according to the six major judges. The first of the major judges are Othniel, Ehud, and Deborah/Barak, and then Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. In general, the accounts of the judges become progressively longer as the sin of Israel becomes progressively worse. As we traverse the accounts, we will also observe how the cost of deliverance for the judge increases as Israel’s sin worsens.

    I.    Introduction to the Judges (1:1–3:6)

A.  The Crisis of Israel’s Inheritance (Land) (1:1–36)

B.  The Crisis of Israel’s Faith (Idolatry) (2:1–3:6)

   II.   The Judges (3:7–16:31)

A.  The First Three Major Judges (3:7–5:31)

1. Othniel (Major) (3:7–11)

2. Ehud (Major) (3:12–30)

3. Shamgar (Minor) (3:31)

4. Deborah/Barak (Major) (4:1–5:31)

B.  The Second Three Major Judges (6:1–16:31)

1. Gideon (Major) (6:1–8:35)

2. Abimelech (Anti-Judge) (9:1–57)

3. Tola (Minor) (10:1–2)

4. Jair (Minor) (10:3–5)

5. Jephthah (Major) (10:6–12:7)

6. Ibzan (Minor) (12:8–10)

7. Elon (Minor) (12:11–12)

8. Abdon (Minor) (12:13–15)

9. Samson (Major) (13:1–16:31)

  III.   Conclusion to the Judges (17:1–21:25)

A. The Crisis of Israel’s Faith (Idolatry) (17:1–19:30)

B. The Crisis of Israel’s Inheritance (Tribe) (20:1–21:25)

As You Get Started

According to the book of Hebrews (Heb. 11:32–12:3), the book of Judges is not merely a morality play about good and bad decision making in life and what we can learn from the judges’ deeds. It is an account of God’s faithfulness to his people in spite of their constant faithlessness, as he sends deliverers, one after the other, to rescue his people from the calamities of their sin. How have you thought about these judges and the book of Judges in the past?

What are some of the major obstacles in your own thinking that keep you from understanding the judges as types (examples) of Christ and his saving work, over against thinking of them only as types (examples) of us as sinners in need of grace?

What do you hope to discover or learn as you study the book of Judges over the course of the next 12 weeks?

As You Finish This Unit . . .

Take a few minutes to ask for God’s help to grasp the historical account and the significance of the book of Judges for the Christian life. Ask that you might understand how these narratives “bear witness” or “testify” to the person and work of Jesus Christ (John 5:39; Luke 24:27, 44). Prepare to encounter a God who is fierce to save his people from their sins as we consider the gospel “promised beforehand” (Rom. 1:2) in the book of Judges.