Judges

People who think that the Bible is a bland or boring book have clearly never read Judges. Me? I finished that thing and then had to go for a run to work off the angst. Wickedness all over, bright spots on rare occasion, drama throughout. Some impressions:

1. Judges takes us on a journey to the heart of human depravity. People get raped in Judges. People get killed. There is deception, corruption and complete disregard for any and all things Yahweh. It's almost as if Judges 2:11-15 is the thesis and the rest of the story is a proof. Bottom line: Judges is a sobering close-up of the worst of human nature. Reader beware!

2. There is a cycle to sin and redemption. This feels like the main point of the book of the Judges to me. I'll use the story of Othniel, the first judge, and a pretty decent fellow, especially in the context of the rest of the lot, to illustrate:
a. Israel transgresses against the Lord (3:7)
b. The Lord punishes by giving them over to some other nation who rules over them (3:8)
c. After some time (8 years in Othniel's story), the people cry out for deliverance (3:9)
d. The Lord hears their cries and raises up a judge/deliverer (3:9)
e. With the Lord's help, the judge leads the nation to freedom (3:10)
f. There is peace in the land as long as the judge lives (3:11)
This is a helpful break-down of the internal process that we all experience with the Lord in our lives. Right? I mean, I can relate to this; heck, I went through it yesterday when I yelled at Joshua out of my anger! In the meta-narrative of the Bible, I think the message of Judges is that there is a process for going from sin to redemption in our lives. Thank the Lord for His mercy in this!

3. Details, details, details. A couple times during Judges, I'd find myself saying, "dude, Amy, you gotta hear this." Because there are some crazy, particular details in the stories of Judges. Take the Ehud story in chapter 3 as one example. We're told one thing about Eglon king of Moab: he's chubby. So chubby, in fact, that when Ehud stabs him, the entire sword disappears into his flab (v. 22). What?!? The thing about details is that the more unique, random or unexpected, the more memorable the story. So I'm wondering if the writer of Judges includes these kinds of details to help people, maybe the next generation, remember. Seems key, particularly in an oral tradition kind of culture.

4. Evidently being left-handed is a good thing. Rejoice Mom! Two random lefty references in Judges: the second judge Ehud is a lefty and then there's a line in 20:16 about the lefty fighting men who could not miss a hair with a stone. Not sure, maybe this would be a good omen for Phil Mickelson this week ahead at the US Open at Pebble?!?

5. Who needs a piece of wood when you can tie up 300 foxes and use them as a torch?!? In a bizarre book in general, how crazy in particular is this story! I gotta try that next time I'm camping...

6. What a cast of characters! Judges gives us better known folks like Gideon, Samson, Delilah and Deborah. It also gives us less well known folks such as Othniel, Jephthah, Abimilech and that hot mess of a Levite from chapter 19. I'm telling you, Hollywood can't come up with better (or worse) characters than these!

Honestly, I'm happy to have Judges behind me. That's a rough read right there, probably the toughest yet in terms of the intensity of the subject matter. Now, on to Ruth!