Day 7 – Wednesday-- The Book of Judges

Day 7 – Wednesday

The Book of Judges

A book about judges? Well, not really. The people called “judges” were not magistrates or judicial figures. They were leaders. The setting is a time when Israel has conquered the Promised Land (though it isn’t complete). Israel has evolved into a federation of twelve tribes (sort of like the Thirteen Colonies). There seems to be a desire for a more centralized government for practical reasons.

We meet a female “judge” and prophet named Deborah (4.4). The Song of Deborah in chapter five is one of the oldest pieces of writing in the Bible.

Jephthat makes a vow and ends up killing his daughter because he believes keeping a vow is more important than the life of his daughter (Ch. 11). This is a screwed up ethical or moral belief.

And we all know the story of another judge named Samson and his girlfriend Delilah. (Of course before he met Delilah he was already married to Timnah and had just had sex with a prostitute in Gaza.) Samson is a kind of Jewish Hercules; his feats are amazing. He dies like a suicide bomber; except instead of using a bomb he pulls down a building (a temple) with his bare hands in order to kill his enemies. In the Letter to the Hebrews (chapter 11), Samson is named as a member of the “Hall of Faith.”

And of course we all know about Dodo’s grandson in chapter 10.

Have you stayed in a motel lately? Was there a Bible in the drawer? If so, it had the name of another “judge” on it: Gideon. The first Gideon Bible was placed in the Superior Hotel in Iron Mountain, Michigan in November, 1908. Three men got together in 1899 and decided to put Bibles in hotels. One of them, Will J. Knights, suggested they call their new organization the Gideons, and they agreed. Knights chose Gideon’s name because the Biblical character was a courageous and faith-filled man who just wanted to do God’s will. (They ignored the fact that Gideon slave [cf. 8.29-31; 9.18].) The Beatles promoted the Gideons in their song “Rocky Racoon”: Rocky Raccoon checked into his room // Only to find Gideon's bible // Rocky had come equipped with a gun // To shoot off the legs of his rival… And in a later verse: And now Rocky Raccoon he fell back in his room // Only to find Gideon's bible // Gideon checked out and he left it no doubt // To help with good Rocky's revival…

The Book of Judges is a messy part of Israel’s history. Each of us has gone through times in our lives when we were trying to put things together and figure out who we were and how to move forward. The psychiatrist Carl Jung taught that the major task in life is “individuation.” By that he meant that our goal is to put all the pieces of our lives together; to become whole persons. The God of Israel is the one true God, and the God who is the One. As we work on becoming unified selves we become more one with God.

Finish this: What I need to do to become more whole is…