Catching up with Judges
Good morning, Bible Challengers,
A brief catch-up from post-Easter break...
Phew. We made it through Judges... I imagine you noticed the "Judges Cycle," the pattern that runs through Judges: The people do evil in the sight of the Lord, the Lord hands them over to foreign Bad Guys who oppress them, the people cry out to the Lord, who raises up a Judge to liberate them.... the people do evil in the sight of the Lord..."
It is accurate to say that Judges is like Deuteronomistic History on Steroids... the theology of the Deuteronomistic Historians being, namely, that God will be good to Israel if they obey the Covenant, and that destruction will come upon them if they don't.
And so it's good to remember, when reading Joshua-2 Kings, that what we are reading is the work of the Deuteronomistic Historians, (rather than single authors) who have a particular theological lens through which they are interpreting their stories and histories. It's all about the Covenant-- what happens when the people keep the Covenant, and what happens when they break it.
Much of what we read in Judges was aetiological, explaining why things are the way they are. For example, the Tower of Babel story from Genesis is an aetiological story explaining why there are so many languages. In Judges we've been hearing aetiological stories of why certain people are doing the forced labor, why certain tribes live where they live. The whole of the Deuteronomistic History can be understood as an aetiological story of why the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, carried off the Davidic Monarch in chains, and "decaptiated" the leadership of Jerusalem and Judah by exiling the leadership in Babylon-- when God had promised that a Davidic Monarch would be on the throne forever... Why did it happen-- "they were unfaithful." This destruction and Exile is their punishment...
I realize this asks us to leap ahead in the story, by several hundred years and nearly as many pages: we haven't even "read" the Davidic Covenant yet... not to mention the Exile, (though we got a taste of the destruction in Psalm 74 and again to day in Psalm 79...) but it's important to understand that what we are reading is much later material, looking back, in light of the destruction and Exile.
There are some great stories in Judges, and some amazing characters, such as Deborah, and Gideon. There are also some infuriating characters like Samson... Was anyone else shouting, "Samson, you idiot! How many times does she have to set you up before you get a clue???"
The Judges Cycle is a downward spiral. The people get worse and worse, the treatment and portrayal of women gets worse and worse, and it's a relief to turn to today's reading of Ruth... more on Ruth in my next email.
Thank you for being on this journey!
