We've got some pretty interesting stories as we head into our first chapters of the book of Judges: Othniel the brother of Caleb (which means he was a Canaanite who delivered the people of Israel!), as well as Ehud the Left-Handed Assassin. The deliverers in the book of Judges are an array of unusual characters who would not typically be seen as deliverers, and that is the point--that God saved not because Israel had great leaders, but because he uses whatever people and means that he wants to in order to bring about his purposes.
(A) How the book of Judges is about Jesus. In the book of Judges we see an increasingly bleak, repeated cycle of corruption, which will eventually be summarized with this longing for God's Promised Deliverer: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). The following book, Ruth, will answer that yearning, as the narrative's attention will be paid to a specific offspring of Judah for the first time since the book of Genesis.
(B) God chose Judah in Judges 1:1-2. While Judges is a very dark book, it is here that God continues to highlight the promise that will come through the line of Judah. When Joshua died, God chose Judah to lead the other tribes into battle to conquer the promised land.
(C) Bible difficulty about Jerusalem in Judges 1:8. This verse says that Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it, but 2 Samuel 5:6-9 says that David conquered the city a long time afterwards. There is no difficulty here: it's clear from Judges 1:21 that the Jebusites resettled the city after the initial conquest.
(D) The Angel of the LORD in Judges 2:1-5. This is a figure that we encountered repeatedly in Genesis, and we also met here and there throughout Israel's time in the wilderness. This figure, called the Angel of the LORD, is distinct from God and yet speaks in first person as God. He is with God, and in some strange way, he is God. As we've already seen in Genesis and Exodus, and will see again in Judges 13, either the text or people within the narrative who see him, identify him as God. Many Bible commentators have identified this figure as an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ. For more about this figure, I would recommend this very thorough book.
RESPOND | WHAT IS OUR PART?
How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? In our worship, we can either see our lives in isolation from God's purpose for the world, or we can see how our lives lead up to and are fulfilled by Jesus. Just as Jesus is the fulfillment of every longing that came out of the brokenness of the time of the Judges in Israel, so also Jesus is the fulfillment of every longing that we have. We long for freedom from shame and brokenness, and Jesus died so that we might have that. We long for a world that is at peace, and one day Jesus will bring that to pass. We lament the power of death, which someday Jesus will break and put away. We look at the world around us and see cycles of decay not unlike the ones that were present in the book of Judges, and Jesus promises to come to put an end to that cycle as king. All things lead up to Jesus. He is the hope of every longing heart. He is the King in whom we find peace. He is worthy of worship, and glory, and honor, and power. And he extends his hand out to us to invite us, so that we might come to him.
PRAY | HOW DOES THIS LEAD US TO CONNECT WITH GOD?
Here is a suggested prayer prompt: "Jesus, lead me into your presence. Reveal to me your goodness. Cause me to see the glory of God in your face. Give me rest as I place my hopes in you."
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