Judges - Chapters 13-21

In the final chapters of Judges, the Israelites continue their downward cycle of sin and oppression. Samson, a Nazarite dedicated to the Lord, is chosen as a judge. Despite his strength, Samson's weakness for Philistine women leads to his downfall. The tribe of Dan also strays from God and hires Micah's unauthorized priest. Syncretism and idol worship become prevalent. The darkest stories in Judges involve the religious leadership's moral decline. A concubine is brutally abused and killed, leading to civil war. Most of the Benjamites are wiped out. The book ends with the reminder that Israel had no king, and everyone did as they pleased. This book serves as a warning about the consequences of ungodly leadership and the importance of following the Lord faithfully. I am Julie Callio, your host, and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If by chance you want to contact me, you can do that at vab.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we are finishing up Judges with chapters 13 through 21. Now last year I covered this section in two lessons on March 1st and 2nd, the story of Samson, and then everyone did what was right in their own eyes. I went into much more detail about those stories, so this year I am doing a much more condensed version and want to point out just a few things. As a reminder, about Judges, we see a downward cycle throughout the book. The cycle begins when the Israelites fall into sin of idolatry and serve other gods of the land. This is also called apostasy. Their sin brings them into oppression by non-Jewish people living in the land. As a reminder, the Jews were supposed to have removed those people in Joshua's day, but they did not. Once the oppression got so bad, they cried out to their God who heard them, and he raised up a judge to fight for them, and while the judge was alive, the land had peace. But once the judge died, the cycle started all over again. What we noticed in yesterday's lesson was that with each cycle, the era of the Jews became a dark age due to their sin of both the people and of the leaders. This cycle continues downward in these last chapters. Chapter 13 begins, again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. With the story of Samson, it did not start with Samson, but with his parents. Zorah and his mom was unnamed to us, but named to God. They were from the tribe of Dan, which originally was centrally allocated on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, but as Joshua chapter 19 verse 47 says, the Danites had a hard time taking their allotted land, so they ended up heading to the most north part of Israel and settled there and named it Dan. Samson's parents were childless because the wife was sterile, but then the Lord intervened and told them they would have a son, and he was to be dedicated to the Lord as a Nazarite. He would be set apart for the Lord. Chapter 13 verses 24 and 25a say, the woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him and the spirit of the Lord began to stir him. One of the emphasis found in Judges is the role of the spirit of the Lord. We see God's sovereign hand on these situations, both good and bad. What we find in Samson is that he has an eye for the ladies and not for Jewish ladies, but for Philistine women. He saw the one he wanted and even though his parents tried to encourage him to marry an Israelite woman, he insisted. And chapter 14 verse 4 reads, his parents did not know that this was from the Lord who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines, for at that time they were ruling over Israel. Let's just say that this marriage was not based on trust and love, so it did not have a happy ending. But through this time the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson three times. Chapter 14 verse 6, chapter 14 verse 19 and chapter 15 verse 14, which brought disaster on the Philistines. Chapter 15 verse 20 tells us Samson led Israel for 20 years in the days of the Philistines. Then the end of Samson is surrounded by another Philistine woman named Delilah. She learned the secret to Samson's strength, which came from his Nazarite vow of not cutting his hair. So they cut it and Samson was able to be captured. They also plucked out his eyes. The rulers of the Philistines assembled to celebrate their god Dagon for capturing Samson. They put Samson on display before the assembly, but what they did not realize was that Samson's hair had begun growing back. He asked the servant to place him between two pillars and then Samson prayed to the Lord. Oh sovereign Lord, remember me, oh God, please strengthen me just once more and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes. Chapter 16 verse 28, the Lord answered his request and with his amazing strength he pushed the two pillars and everyone died. Verse 30b explained, thus he killed many more when he died than when he lived. Verse 31 tells us his brothers and his father's whole family came to get him and bury him. It seems that Samson's parents were allowed to have other children after they had obeyed the Lord with Samson. Chapters 17 and 18 deal with a man named Micah from Ephraim. His story started with how he stole money from his own mother, but then he fessed up to it. She took the silver he stole and made an idol. Micah made an ephod and other idols and he made his son a priest. Now keep in mind he was not a Levite and neither was his son. Starting in chapter 17 verse 6 we find a phrase that is repeated in these last chapters of Judges which gives us a picture of what is in the plans for Israel. It says in those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit. When the phrase said everyone that even includes the priests and other tribal leaders. Micah met a Levite that had left his home in Bethlehem looking for a place to stay. If you remember the Levites were not given land but cities to live in with surrounding pasture land throughout all Israel. Yet the priest is leaving his God given town and was looking for something better. He became Micah's priest. In chapter 18 verse 1 we are reminded in those days Israel had no king. This also gives us an idea that the book was written after Israel did have a king. We then learn that the tribe of Dan also went searching for other land to dwell because they were never able to take the land allotted to them. So they found land on the north of the land of Israel. They met Micah's priest and they decided to hire Micah's priest for themselves. They said to him, isn't it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priests rather than just one man's household? Then the priest was glad. Chapter 18 verses 19b and 20a. The Danites also took Micah's idols. In chapter 18 verse 31 says they continued to use the idols Micah had made all the time the house of God was in Shiloh. Worship was to be held at the tabernacle but now that the people were all spread out they made their own altars and places of worship throughout the land. We also see that many times the Jews worshipped God but they also worshipped the other gods of the land. The word for this is syncretism or a combination of religions. Chapters 19-21 are the darkest stories of Judges and one of the reasons for that is we continue to see the downfall of even the religious leadership in the land. Chapter 19 begins, In those days Israel had no king. We find a Levite from Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. She was unfaithful and ran back to her father's house. He came and got her. Her dad entertained him there for days but when they finally left they could not make it the whole way back. So instead of staying in a Jebusite community thinking it was unsafe because they were not Jews the Levites went farther to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin a Jewish city which should be safe but it wasn't. It was like Sodom and Gomorrah. The men of the town wanted to gang rape the Levite but instead he sent out his concubine. The next morning she was dead on the doorway of the house. He took her body and when he arrived home he cut it up in twelve pieces and sent a piece to all twelve tribes of Israel. Verse 30 of chapter 19 Everyone who saw it said such a thing has never been seen or done nor since the day the Israelites came out of Egypt. Think about it, consider it, tell us what to do. Chapter 20 tells us that all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba which is now the northern tip to the southern tip came out as one and assembled before the Lord in Mizpah. They joined forces against the city. They asked for the men who had done this evil deed but the Benjamites would not listen so civil war occurred and most of the Benjamites were wiped out except for 600 men who had fled into the desert and stayed in Iraq for four months. Chapter 20 verse 47 The Israelites wept for the loss of a tribe. They found that no one from Jabesh Gilead came and fought so they took wives from that tribe to be wives for the Benjamites but that was not enough so they encouraged the men to lay in wait at the annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh and when the women came out to dance they were to grab those women to be their wives. After that everyone went back to their own tribes, clans and inheritance. Judges ends chapter 21 verse 25 In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit. We see in this book the power of charismatic leadership and if that leadership is not submitted to the Lord things can get pretty bad. It is also a warning of whom we should follow as leaders. Do they exhibit godly characteristics? Do they seek the Lord and desire to follow his ways? Do we? Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla said in his commentary therefore this book is relevant for all God's children teaching us all how to lead in the spheres he has placed us faithfully uncompromisingly steadfastly the consequences of ungodly leadership are amply demonstrated in Judges. Page 305 of his commentary I have mentioned many times about the hall of faith found in Hebrews 11 and that the writer included Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah as men of faith and yet the writer of Judges shows the good the bad and the ugly. We see that God used them to bring about his justice and his grace. No one is perfect in the Bible except for Jesus. May we also grow in justice and in grace. If you have heard his voice today please don't harden your heart and do what you want to do. Instead let us hear and obey the Lord so that we can be the godly influence we need to be in this dark world. Until next time and thank you so very much for listening.