BRIEF REVIEW OF THE SAGA OF ISRAEL IN THE HISTORICAL BOOKS.
The Historic Books extend from
• Joshua’s entry into the Promised Land;
• Israel’s exile into Babylonian captivity; and
• The Jews final, but gradual return to Jerusalem, staged under Medo-Persian imperial decrees.
The salient and memorable periods in the time span covered by these twelve books are as follows:-
1) Israel ceases its forty years of desert wanderings and enters Canaan;
2) Canaan is conquered by Joshua, but not fully possessed. The Canaanites were not always expelled;
3) Wayward Israel loses sight of God’s deliverance; forgets its purpose & faith.
4) In the endemic cycle of godlessness, wickedness and lawlessness:
a. Israel goes astray and succumbs to Baal’s religion;
b. it receives divine punishment from foreign tyranny;
c. it prays to Jehovah for a deliverer to rescue it in its plight;
d. God answers by raising up a god-fearing, judge, seer, prophet or prophetess;
e. Once relief is experienced Israel quickly becomes wayward again;
f. It reverts to its cycle of backsliding and the pattern repeats itself.
g. Despite notable judges, seers, and deliverers Israel stays apostate.
5) The prophet Samuel and his ministry to Israel’s first two kings: Saul and David.
6) David’s son Solomon reigns: the tabernacle tent is superseded by Solomon’s temple.
7) The success and failures of the aforesaid two kings.
8) Solomon’s kingdom of Israel divided:
a. The tribe of Judah in the south with its temple worship of Jehovah
b. Ten rebel tribes in Samaria with their golden calf worship in Dan & Bethel.
9) The rebel kingdom of Israel ended by Assyrian captivity & forced migration after the siege of Samaria,
10) The ongoing concurrent southern kingdom of Judah under King Ahaz lasts a farther hundred and twenty years.
11) Judah goes into Chaldean captivity under Nebuchadnezzar who razes Jerusalem to the ground.
12) King Darius, acting for Cyrus, releases captives from Babylon, who return to Jerusalem in stages.
13) The captivity period belongs to the three historic books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
As a sequel to the exciting adventures and conquests of Joshua we now come to the grand anticlimax in the Book of Judges where every man did was what right in his own eyes. When there are no moral absolutes and Judeo-Christian ethics are superseded by situational ethics lawlessness will ensue. This progressive propensity of the diseased human heart certainly becomes manifestly obvious in this second of the twelve books of Jewish history.
But the apostle said that these were written for our ensamples that we might be warned of such dangers. The self-righteousness with which we all exonerate ourselves from guilt often prevents the reader from gaining the benefit of the lesson given in this book. We are in a habit of categorizing exhortative examples of waywardness into ‘them’ and ‘us’. This protects the reader from any conviction, lest he is condemned for his/her own sins. Jeremiah the prophet described this guile as the ‘deceitful and wicked heart unable to fathom its true state’. From a New Testament perspective, this is the very reason the Law was called ‘as schoolmaster unto Christ’. In other words, without the penetrating work of the Spirit using the proclaimed Word of God we remain in our sins and the process of self-justification. Many resort to religion and even Christian church adherence to help this process of artificially veneering our true selves lest we or others discover the truth.
Whilst many disavow the human depravity of the heart espoused by the Reformation when denied we are the poorer in grasping the truths of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Apostles and of Christ himself the Apostle of our faith.
CHAPTER HEADINGS & DIVISIONS IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
JUDGES: 1.
The legacy of Joshua continues on apace.
The exploits of Caleb, Othniel, and Achsah
Hebron, Bethel, and Gaza captured.
Israel’s early tolerance of idolatrous tribes marked for expulsion.
JUDGES: 2.
Angelic chiding of Israel for its disobedience.
Remembering Joshua’s life & death.
The next generation of godless Jews.
God’s anger allows the defeat of Israel before its enemies.
Idolatry’s cycle: affliction-repentance-deliverance-apostasy.
JUDGES: 3.
Hostile Canaanites test Israel’s mettle;
Exploits of Caleb’s son Othniel as Judge and Deliverer;
Judge Ehud saves the Hebrew nation from Moab.
Shamgar successfully resists Philistine occupation.
JUDGES: 4.
Prophetess Deborah & Captain Barak defeat the Canaanites.
Jael assassinates Sisera behind enemy lines with milk & a tent peg.
JUDGES: 5.
Deborah & Barak laud the Lord in songs of praise.
JUDGES: 6
God chooses Gideon to be Judge and saviour from Midian oppression.
Gideon seeks God’s confirmation by signs.
JUDGES: 7
Gideon & his 300 warriors’ route the Midianite army.
JUDGES: 8
Gideon’s success leads him astray with a golden priestly ephod.
JUDGES: 9
Abimelech massacres Gideon’s seventy sons, then is wounded & suicides in battle.
JUDGES: 10
Judges Tola and Jair lead Israel which afterward waywardly worship Baal.
JUDGES: 11
Jephthah judges the nation; in battle, he bargains with God vowing to give his daughter to celibacy.
JUDGES: 12
Israel’s civil war; anarchy;
Judges Elon & Abdon rule the Hebrew nation.
JUDGES: 13
God appears to Samson’s parents; his birth; his Nazarite vow.
The birth of Samson the Judge.
JUDGES: 14
Samson’s disobeys his parents espousing a Philistine: Israel’s enemy.
Samson slays a lion and presents a riddle of its carcass to wedding guests.
Samson’s wife divulges the answer of the riddle to thirty Philistine guests.
Samson slays 30 Philistines for 30 guests’ garments & loses his wife
JUDGES: 15
Retaliating, Samson burns the Philistine fields of corn with captive foxes.
His wife and parents murdered; Samson’s fury.
The Jews of Judah betray their judge & deliverer for fear.
In his second slaughter, Samson kills one thousand men jawbone of an ass.
JUDGES: 16.
Samson goes to Gaza; he’s surrounded; he escapes.
Samson tells his secret; she betrays him to Philistines.
Samson’s regains strength; his greatest victory in death.
JUDGES: 17. Micah misuses the Levite office of a priest for private gain.
JUDGES: 18. The godless anarchy of irreligious Israel with no king, judge, or theocracy.
JUDGES: 19. Tribe of Benjamin descend into moral insanity
JUDGES: 20. Civil war: Israel fights Benjamin in retaliation.
JUDGES: 21. Israel restores its tribe of Benjamin for posterity.
