Judges
Key Learnings from Sunday School
July - October 2023
- A disappointing history
• Israel embraces a foreign culture even with successful conquests
• Cultural tolerance foreshadows the worship of foreign gods
- Formable opponents
• King Aboni-bezek, conquer of 70 kings - defeated
• Sons of Anak; Shesai, Ahiman, Talmai - defeated
• • Giants descended from Nephilim
• • Genesis 6:1-4; Numbers 13:22; Numbers 13:28; Numbers 13:33; Deuteronomy 9:2; Deuteronomy 9:2; Joshua 14:15; Joshua 15:13; Joshua 21:11
- There arose a generation who did not know the LORD. (Judges 2:10)
- “Hard times create strong faithful men. Strong Faithful men create good times. Good times create weak faithless men. And, weak faithless men create hard times.”
- Monolatry - many gods (pantheon), but the worship of only one of them
- Monotheism - the existence of only one God
- Polytheism - many gods (pantheon)
- Baal: god of weather and fertility
- Ashtoreth: goddess of war and sex
- Forgetting the LORD is willful rebellion
- “The Spirit of the LORD was upon him” - Anointed for purpose or task
- Will of God: Holy, Word, Faith, Live
A pattern of spiraling out of control - Rebellion, Repression, Repentance,Reprieve/release, and Restoration/rest.
Absurd details in Ehud’s account
- Left handed deliverer from the son of the right hand (Benjamin) Judges 3:15
- Cubit length sword concealed (a short sword not a dagger) (Judges 3:16)
- Hidden agenda with tribute (Judges 3:18-19)
- Very fat man (Judges 3:17)
• Girth greater than the length of a short sword (Judges 3:22)
• Fat closes over the hilt of that sword (Judges 3:22)
- Killed while on the toilet (Judges 3:24)
• Dung came out (Judges 3:22)
• Discovered after reaching “the point of embarrassment" (Judges 3:25)
Shamgar guides Israel with a stick.
Key Learnings from 1Corinthians 11:1-16 (2021); 1Corinthians 14:26-40 (2022)
• Men are to reflect the image of God to women
• Women are to help men to reflect the image of God
• Women are not to replace men
• We are a codependent
Deborah
- Prophetess/Judge (Miriam Exodus 15:20; Hulda 2Kings 22:14)
- Reminds Barak of his divine commission (Judges 4:6)
Barak
- Commissioned by God to oppose King Jabin of Canaan after 20 year of oppression
- Needs Deborah to accompany him
Sisera
- Leader of the Canaan army who oppressed Israel
- Hid in the tent of Jael after defeat by Barak
Jael
- Descendant of Moses’ Father-in-law (Hobab/Jethro)
- Kills Sisera with a tent peg
Sisera’s Mother (Judges 5:28-30)
- Highlights God as the source of salvation
- Warnings:
• False confidence in human ingenuity
• Don’t dehumanize people
Gideons International - Established in 1899 began furnishing hotel bibles in 1907
Gideon - Never have so few defeated so many
• Manasseh - “weakest” of the 12 tribes (Judges 6:15)
• Himself least in his father’s house (Judges 6:15, 29)
Angel of the LORD = pre-incarnated Christ
Syncretism - the blending of religious beliefs into a new system
Aggressive syncretism obfuscated the truth (1Thessalonians 5:21), necessitating signs to Gideon
• Visitation revealed (Judges 6:21-22)
• Wool Fleece (Judges 6:36-40)
Midianites - Descendants of Abraham (Genesis 25:2), Mose’s father-in-law’s people (Exodus 2:16-21)
Gideon’s Army much to large at 32,000 (Judges 7:3) vs Midianite Army of 120,000 +
• 22,000 dismissed after taking deferment from service
• 9,700 dismissed after drinking like “a dog” (Judges 7:5)
• 300 remain
The enemy encampment dreams of defeat by a loaf of barley.
Gideon’s 300 are given torches, pots, and trumpets as weapons of war. They emerge victorious (Judges 7:21)
Jerubbaal - Gideon’s title: To grapple against Baal
As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god (Judges 8:33)
Up to now persecution has come from outside. This time its, from within.
Abimelech
- Gideon’s illegitimate Son
- Kills his brothers (70) “on one stone” like a sacrifice
- Crowns himself King of Israel
- Done in by a millstone dropped on his head by a women
Jotham
- A son of Gideon that escapes Abimelech
- Parable of the trees
• Condemnation of unfaithfulness
• The bramble kills the other trees
Shechem
- A rich and interesting history from Abraham’s promise, Dinah’s rape, Joseph enslavement, Joseph burred, Joshua’s farewell
- Abimelech’s hometown
- Helped in the murder of Gideon’s sons
- Razed by Abimelech
Gaal
- Rebels agains Abimelech with Shechem
- Is betrayed by Shechem
- Worshiped a foreign god (Judges 9:27)
Jephthah - Your pedigree does not determine how God can use you.
• Son of a prostitute
• Giledite, son of Gilead
• Cohorts “worthless fellows” (Judges 11:3)
• Commissioned by God (Judges 11:29)
• Jephthah is praised for his faith (Hebrews 11:32)
Jephthah’s daughter killed as a sacrifice? - Do not make foolish vows or oaths but only ones that do not violate God’s Word
• No:
• • God is against human sacrifices ( Deuteronomy 12:31-32, 18:10-12, Jeremiah 7:31; 19:35 32:35)
• • His daughter morned for her virginity not her life (Judges 11:37)
• • (Unsupported) God might have intervened like he did for Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22:12)
• • (Unsupported) He gave his daughter to the tabernacle to serve as a “nun”
• Yes
• • “did with her according to his vow that he had made” Judges 11:39
Joseph’s Sons (Genesis 48:5-6) adopted by Jacob (Israel)
• Manasseh - “his younger brother shall be greater” (Genesis 48:19)
• Ephraim
A divided Israel
• No appeals to God
• Ephraim rebels against Jephthah (Manasseh)
• Regional Pronunciations used as identification
• Judgeship on the verge of turning into kingship
- See Jacob’s Blessings of his sons (Genesis 49)
- Judges so far
• Othniel (Judah) oppressor: Edomites
• Ehud (Benjamin) oppressor: Moabites
• Shamgar (Judah) oppressor: Philistines
• Deborah (Ephraim) oppressor: Canaanites
• Barak (Naphtali) oppressor :Canaanites
• Gideon (Manasseh) oppressor: Midianites
• Tola (Manasseh) oppressor: Midianites
• Jair (Issachar) oppressor: Midianites
• Jephthah (Manasseh) oppressor: Ammorites
• Ibzan (Judah) oppressor: Ammorites
• Elon (Zebulun) oppressor: Ammorites
• Abdon (Ephraim) oppressor: Ammorites
Angel of God (ELOHEEM) = Angle of the LORD (YHWH)
• Pre-incarnated Christ
• Angle of the LORD appeared to the woman.(Judges 13:2)
• I was visited by the angle of God (Judges 13:6)
Nazirite Vow (Numbers 6:1-23)
- 3 Parts
• Abstain from all grape products
• Abstain from cutting hair
• Avoid dead bodies.
Samson parallels
- Nazrite Vow
• Samson (Judges 13:1-5)
• Samuel (1Samuel 2:8-28)
• John the Baptist (Luke 1:13-17)
- Mother’s were barren
• Samson (Judges 13:3)
• Samuel (1Samuel 1:5-6)
• John the Baptist (Luke 1:18)
Samson is life is a riddle unto itself
• Hebrews names Samson as a hero of faith (Hebrews 11:32)
Details
• Demands a foreign wife (Deuteronomy 7:3; Exodus 34:16)
• Tore a lion to pieces -with his hands
• Eats honey from a lion carcass (Numbers 6:8)
• Wagers on a riddle and loses (Exodus 20:15; Proverbs 28:22)
• Storms off to fulfill his wager by “striking down” 30 men in Ashkelon (Numbers 6:9)
• He has no wife to return too she’s been given to another
Alternate view: Samson does not break his Nazirite vow
• The Philistines are not on the prohibited list for wives
• Diversion to vineyard results in eating hunny not grapes
• Samson did not come upon the lion carcass, it was an animal he dispatched
Details
- Bride given to the best man
- Samson uses 150 pairs of foxes lashed together to torch granaries
• Maybe not released (or captured) all at once
• Maybe the sound of two foxes (jackals) tied together was psych ops
- Philistines murder his bride and her father with a house fire
- Judahans captures Samson for the Philistines
- New robes bind Samson but melt off his hands like flax
• Flax - a plant used to make linen cloth
- Jawbone of a donkey used to kill 1,000 Philistines
- God has water come forth to clinch Samson’s thirst
- Samson judges Israel twenty years.
Details
- Visits prostitute in Gaza
- Takes off with city gates before ambush
• Philistine gates taken to Judah (38 miles) was a statement (Judges 15:10)
- Falls in love with Delilah
- Delilah offered $1,100 X 5 to betray Samson
• 7 bowstrings (probably animal gut)
• New ropes (That was tired in Judges 15:13)
• Hair woven into cloth (a tedious endeavour without using Samson's hair)
• Hair is cut
- Captured and eyes gouged out
- Grounds at the mill in prison
- Philistine banquet in honour of Dagon
- Samson calls out to God and brings the house down
- Samson had no talisman that give him strength
• Samson himself may not have known and thought he was telling another tail when he mentions the hair cut
• Loss of strength may instead be connected to his relationship with Delilah (Judges 16:18)
- Micah, the Levite, and the tribe of Dan: taking Heresy, Blasphemy, & Syncretism to whole other level.
• God desires faith not adherence to rituals
- City of Dan used to define the northern limit of Israel
- Concubine: Inheritance rights different from wife
- “Without God all [evil] things are permitted.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Details - unavoidable comparisons with Sodom
• Levite’s wife is unfaithful to him (Judges 19:2)
• Levite pursues his “wife” to her family to get her back (Judges 19:3)
• Avoid pagan towns for “safety” (Judges 19:12)
• Gibeah so terrible that an outsider took them in for their safety (Judges 19:20)
• Sends the girl out for her safety (Judges 19:25)???
• In the morning she is found dead at the doorstep (Judges 19:27)
- The Levite cuts her into pieces (Judges 19:29)???