Ruth 1 - A Foundation for All

Back in 2011 while reading the Book of Numbers, I learned that because of an exemption in the law, Levites did not have to marry within their tribe.  This bit of seemingly uneventful information actually proves to be quite profound when applied to the lineage of Jesus Christ.  For, according to the flesh, Jesus was born into a line of both priests and kings (Mary being of David's kingly line and Elizabeth her cousin being of Aaron's priestly line).  Jesus is both Priest and King to all mankind and this genealogical connection illustrates just that.  But as if that connection weren't enough, we have in the Book of Ruth another amazing (and almost certainly divinely orchestrated) consanguinity.  Elimelech and his wife Noemi leave their home in Judah because of a famine and move to Moab, where their sons each marry a gentile woman, Ruth being one of these women.  Ruth eventually goes back to Judah with Noemi and marries Boaz (after the death of her first husband).  This gentile-Israelite union will produce Obed, Jesse, and eventually the great king David.  Therefore, Jesus Christ, of both priestly and kingly lines, is priest and king to all men, the gentile and the Jew, for through David's great-grandmother Ruth, He is descended from both gentile and Jew!  These connections are amazing on so many levels.  Every shift, every move, seems to be laying a foundation, or preparing a way.  We know that Jesus Christ is a savior to every man of every nation, but in addition to Christ's words and actions telling us this, His very Person illustrates His mission, His universality!  The Book of Ruth may be small, but it holds a vaulted place in Scripture for this very reason.

There is also the matter of Ruth's faith and loyalty.  Though a gentile, and very much a pagan, she found the true faith through her marriage to Noemi's son.  Once he dies, she doesn't just go back to her old ways in Moab; she clings to Noemi and travels with her into Judah because she has found the truth and wants to remain in it.  Ruth at the outset is established as an admirable figure indeed.  In fact her decision to go with Noemi to Judah is almost like a precursor to Mary's agreeing to be the Mother of Christ, for had Ruth not gone, there'd be no David, and no kingly line for Jesus to be born into. 

Concluding Thoughts on Judges

Anarchy.  It's the prevalent theme of the Book of Judges if I were to have to choose one.  Of course it's not all anarchy all the time, but it seems more times than not the people of Israel are spiritually wayward.  It's a stark contrast coming after the Book of Josue in which we see the valiant and saintly Joshua wielding great power over and respect from all the Israelites.  But Joshua does not name an heir, so after his death each tribe must figure things out for itself.  We see in Judges how much things fall apart subsequently -- from within and from without.  Prevalent throughout Judges is the theme of outside encroachment.  Whether it's with the Amorites or the Philistines or any other hostile neighbor, it seems the Israelites are constantly in skirmishes.  Joshua was able to orchestrate monumental victories against all the peoples of Canaan, and to establish the boundaries that delineate the twelve tribes.  But what Judges makes clear to us is that there is no such thing as peace on earth.  We may have periods of peace -- some eras are clearly more peaceful than others -- but the corruption inherent in the human character always finds a way to creep in.  It takes figures such as Joshua, practically heaven-sent and able to do miraculous things, to straighten out the sinfulness of the people.  In Judges we read about a series of such people.  But even such remarkable figures as Deborah, Gideon, and Samson can't keep the Israelites on the Lord's path forever.  As soon as each Judge's reign ends, the people go right back to their disordered ways.  And by the end of the book it seems things are worse than they were at the beginning.  Thus we can't exactly say the era of the judges was a success.  But maybe it wasn't ever meant to be.  On the one hand, Judges serves as a reminder that humanity is and always has been prone to sin and error, and always will be.  On the other hand all those exemplary judges we read about weren't failures at all.  Back then as well as now, they serve as examples of piety and loyalty to God and His commandments and laws.  Even though as humans we know we'll fall over and over, we have the judges to look up to as examples of human heroism so that we may get back up each time we fall.  The stories in Judges are all quite powerful and memorable, but probably chief among these is Samson's.  And Samson is actually one of the more flawed judges, but his heroic acts of strength, most especially his toppling of the pillars that leads to his own death and that of all his enemies, are supreme examples of what we, even as flawed creatures, can accomplish with God's help.  The spiritual strength of grace and faith enable even death to be used against evil, as Christ of course illustrated on the highest level.  Samson's act of self-sacrifice is like the centerpiece of the Book of Judges.  It's the image that sticks most in my mind from this book.  No matter how bad things get on earth, no matter how much we as a people fall away from God, no matter how much power evil wields, in the end good will prevail, for even death is powerless against it.  The Philistines are laughing and partying and reveling and thinking they've got these God-fearing people beat when the walls literally fall down upon them.  The Book of Judges, even if on the surface it seems like a depressing account of man's waywardness, is actually a book full of uplifting examples and images of hope and faith.  Next up is Ruth, and then the era of the kings.  Again, though I know I'm about to encounter more examples of the failures of man, I hope to find also acts of mercy and heroism and faith that will help me and inspire me on my own journey through this life. 

Judges 21 - A Tangled Web

Judges is finished.  I began the Book of Judges almost exactly two years ago.  I got through it "faster" than the Book of Josue, but not at the pace I had hoped for.  During those two years my wife and I adopted a third child, Isabelle Mackenzie.  Just as I observed after taking so long with Josue, life just seems to get busier and crazier.  It's a challenge no doubt to sit down with Scripture, but it's one I don't want to walk away from with resignation.  I've been able to find some time this summer to commit to finishing Judges and I hope this momentum continues.  (This was never meant to be a hasty endeavor anyway).  So here are my thoughts on the final chapter of the Book of Judges.

Things just continue to get more and more morally convoluted.  As if the civil war among the Israelites weren't bad enough, afterwards we have the strange decision to slaughter the people of Jabesh-Gilead, leaving only the virgins, so that the 600 surviving Benjamites could have wives and continue their tribe.  It's interesting to note that even though they consult God on this matter, they receive no reply.  God is silent, as if giving an unspoken disapproval.  But they've sworn an oath that they wouldn't give their own daughters to the Benjamites, yet they are filled with remorse that they've nearly obliterated one of their own tribes.  The Israelites find themselves entangled in a web of their own making, consisting of unnecessary oaths and vows.  It shows how they've begun to value the letter more than the spirit, a problem that will only get worse with time.  In the last verse of Judges, we see once again an utterance that has appeared twice already:  "In those days there was no king in Israel: but every one did that which seemed right to himself" (Judges 21:24).  As if to stamp a final reminder onto the entire book, we see just how much a lack of authority has wreaked havoc upon the nations.  With a strong judge things were good, but those appear to have been only very temporary situations.  With a strong king perhaps things will be better.  But even this thought, the idea of bringing a kingship into Israel, is a morally ambiguous notion.  Is it what God truly desires?  Is it perhaps simply an unfortunate necessity?  Looks like I'll soon get to explore these questions, as the books of Samuel and Kings are just around the corner, after I first take a brief sojourn through the Book of Ruth.

Judges 20 - Humility Served

Judges 20 erupts in all-out civil war.  It's the tribe of Benjamin versus everyone else.  It's a long chapter full of battles, defeats, stratagems, and lots of bloodshed.  But what can we glean from such an episode?  The first thing I can't help but think is how morally ambiguous all of these latter chapters of Judges are.  From the quasi-religion of Micah to the Levite's questionable actions vis-a-vis his wife's rape and murder to the brutal war fought by all sides, it seems that no one at this time is in the right.  Everyone's motives are self-serving.  There are occasional glimpses of faith and piety, but they are quite rare, and, as in the case of Judges 20, they come only after a hard lesson is learned.  So let's take a closer look.  It seems quite remarkable that a war so lopsided in favor of the united tribes of Israel would be so disastrously won.  The first two battles are won easily by the Benjamites.  It seems that the rest of the Israelites have such an advantage both tactically and spiritually.  But a closer look shows a lot of pride and arrogance on the Israelites' part.  When they first consult the Lord prior to the battle, it's not to see if they should be fighting to begin with, but simply who should be their leader.  They are simply seeking revenge to satisfy their own rage, and they arrogantly believe they are unbeatable.  God teaches them a lesson when they are resoundingly defeated.  They are then defeated a second time and finally they change their attitude:  "Wherefore all the children of Israel came to the house of God, and sat and wept before the Lord: and they fasted that day till the evening, and offered to him holocausts, and victims of peace-offerings" (Judges 20:26).  We finally see humility coming from the Israelites, and they then win the third battle.  The entire chapter is a lesson on the dangers of pride and the importance of humility.  It wasn't that the Benjamites were justified and were being protected by God.  They had theirs coming, and they get it in the end in quite dramatic fashion (in fact, their tribe is almost wiped out completely, just as Sodom and Gomorrah were, and for much the same reason).  But the Israelites had many sins of their own, including what we just saw in the previous chapters with Micah's idol and the tribe of Dan stealing it and making it their own.  It wasn't a black-and-white war, it was a war very much in the gray area.  But in the end the Israelites repent whereas we never see this from the Benjamites.  The situation is a very tense and uneasy one as we approach the end of Judges.  The tribes have lost their way so much so that they've now resorted to war with each other, a new low. 

Judges 19 - So Vile a Thing

Here at the end of Judges we get a series of events that are quite alarming.  No doubt it is to show how low the Israelites have sunk.  Even after being given so many virtuous and heroic judges (we may even call them saviors) from God, the Israelites just keep falling into sinful ways.  In Judges 19 we see a new low, though really it's not so new.  The events of Judges 19 feel awfully similar to what we saw with Lot and Sodom in Genesis.  But what makes Judges 19 seem so shocking (at least to the Israelites living at that time) is that it is occurring not in the old and "wild" days of Genesis, but in the "new" days of the Mosaic Law, of the Promised Land, of a supposedly more pious time.  The crime I speak of, of course, is the rape and murder of the Levite's wife, as well as the men of Gibeah's initial intention of committing crimes against nature with the Levite himself.  We can also add to the list of sins the Levite's actions, as it was he who gave the malicious men his own wife to abuse in his stead.  Everything in Judges 19 reeks of corruption.  There are virtually no innocent figures.  Again it illustrates how bad things had gotten during the time of the judges, and we can see why the era of the kings felt so right and needed to better control the wildly sinful populace (and of course kings will do no better, which illustrates the point that men are simply weak and no amount of man-made solutions will ever do; only God Himself could remedy this situation, which He eventually will do upon the cross).  At the time, though, it appears this particular crime against the Levite's wife really sent shock-waves throughout Israel.  It is specifically said in Judges 19:30 that "There was never such a thing done in Israel, from the day that our fathers came up out of Egypt, until this day."  So it does appear that things are getting worse, and sinful acts once thought expunged from the land have made a return.  This will horrify the other tribes and set off a civil war of sorts aimed against the tribe of Benjamin, whose lands the crime was committed in.  It's a tough chapter to read, but it just goes to show how much mankind is in need of saving.

Judges 18 - The Exploits of Dan

Micah's farcical religion doesn't last long.  In Judges 18 we see a powerful army put together by the tribe of Dan march through Bethel, enter Micah's house, steal both his priest and his idol, and continue on their way.  Micah's left with nothing, but his false god lives on among the Danites when they establish their new community far to the north.  Which brings me to the main events of Judges 18 -- the exploits of the tribe of Dan.  It seems a little ambiguous as to whether or not Dan's maneuvers are warranted.  The tribe was given land along the coast, west of Ephraim and Benjamin, but it also bordered the Philistines, who we know from Samson's saga were subjugating the Danites.  So it makes sense that they would be seeking out a more peaceful territory.  But the tribal allotments were pretty firmly established, and the Danites took it upon themselves to go and take over a foreign community -- a community that was peacefully minding its own business.  Micah's priest does tell the Danites that "the Lord" approves of their mission, but is this the Lord?  Or is it a devil?  Or is it simply a false priest saying false things?  The Danites then go and allow graven idols to be worshiped in their new community.  Of course all this is going on during a very lawless period in the history of the Israelites, which is essentially the point.  As the people drift from God, their doings become much more self-involved, and their religious practices become what they want them to be rather than what was ordained by God.

There is a flip-side to the story in Judges 18, and that is what we ought to make of the people the Danites conquered.  The people of Laish, positioned in an isolated valley, had little contact with outsiders and thus had little to fear.  They were "secure," a word specifically used in the text:  "... they saw how the people dwelt therein without any fear, according to the custom of the Sidonians, secure and easy, having no man at all to oppose them, being very rich, and living separated..." (Judges 18:7).  We may also learn a lesson, a cautionary one, from the people of Laish, that when we are "secure" and "rich" and things are "easy," that's when we should be most on our guard.  The Danites quite easily defeated Laish because they weren't prepared for an enemy.  When we become thus lazy and secure, we will just as easily be overcome by the enemy.  We see such a dilemma today as many of us want security and safety above all things, but what's never considered is how a people so lulled by those things is a people completely defenseless against threats both physical and supernatural.  "No one is sooner overcome than the man who has no fear; and security is generally the forerunner of ruin." -- Velleius

Judges 17 - By Whose Authority?

We abruptly leave Samson behind and suddenly in Judges 17 find ourselves in a new setting meeting new people.  In particular we have the story of Micah and his idol.  As has been the case throughout the Book of Judges, it's a seesaw, with periods of peace and faithfulness followed by periods of anarchy and idolatry.  Micah lived in one of the latter periods, and decided to make his own domestic god.  It's a short chapter but one with a pretty poignant lesson.  Micah makes his personalized religion in the likeness of the true religion.  He makes his son a priest (in violation of Levitical law).  He makes an ephod and theraphim.  And then eventually meets an actual Levite who he "hires" to be his priest (possibly in an effort to legitimize his endeavor).  It's interesting to note what is said in Judges 17:6:  "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every one did that which seemed right to himself."  Without a strong religious authority, a central governance, like that established by Christ and placed upon Peter the Rock, anything goes.  But it's made clear in the Old Testament that the true religion must adhere to predetermined and divinely designed rules (as was meticulously described throughout the Torah).  We've already seen what happens when men take it upon themselves to worship according to their own rules (cf. Nadab and Abiu, Aaron's sons, who used strange fire during a sacrifice in Leviticus 10).  And Jesus is even more clear when he utters, "Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many wonderful works in thy name?  And then will I profess unto them: I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:22-23). 

Judges 16 - A Sign of Things to Come

Judges 16 concludes the saga of Samson.  It's one of the most striking and dramatic stories in Scripture.  As I noted in my last entry, Samson's character has been a source of debate.  Some have called him arrogant and, though physically strong, spiritually weak, and some have even claimed he could not have been a judge of Israel.  But there wouldn't be four chapters of Scripture devoted to someone so flawed if there weren't a larger reason for us to know his story.  Yes, he did have weaknesses, as all humans do, the saints included, but his strengths and feats were so astounding that only a supernatural explanation makes sense.  God clearly chose Samson, as He chose all the judges and the prophets.  Samson's mission was to deliver his people from bondage, in much the same way Moses or Joshua did.  Even as Jesus has done!  And here we get to Samson's ultimate significance.  He pre-figured the Christ in as awesome a fashion as we find in Scripture.  From his miraculous birth to his being besieged by tempters to his sacrificial death.  That death, described in chapter 16, shows Samson at his most powerful.  He had undergone a period of penance after the weaknesses and even sinfulness of his time with Delilah.  He was imprisoned, his eyes gouged out, and he reemerges a man intent on doing God's will:  "O Lord God remember me, and restore to me now my former strength, O my God, that I may revenge myself on my enemies, and for the loss of my two eyes I may take one revenge" (Judges 16:28).  God answers his prayers and Samson destroys the building and all the thousands of Philistines in it.  And so Samson's story ends.  He's a remarkable figure, some even saying he is actually the inspiration behind Hercules (the similarities are quite striking, from the killing of the lion to being ultimately betrayed and undone by a woman).  But it's as a sign pointing towards things to come that Samson becomes something more than just an intriguing historical figure.  Jesus's destruction of the enemy and his freeing of humanity from the bondage of sin didn't play out in the same sort of material, physical sense that Samson's acts did, but what we will eventually see in the New Testament was far more dramatic on the cosmic stage.  Samson's story is a lesson, an example, in material terms that we can understand, so that we may have some grasp of Jesus's even more miraculous and powerful acts in saving us.  Samson may have lifted the gates of the earthly city of Gaza, but Jesus opened for all mankind the eternal gates of heaven. 

Judges 15 - The Humble Hero

Samson's story continues to be a fascinating moment in Scripture.  In Judges 15 we read of his miraculous feat of destroying 1,000 Philistines using nothing but the jawbone of an ass.  It's a moment that defies reason, but that's precisely the point.  What's interesting is that there has been debate as to Samson's character as he goes about performing these implausible feats of strength.  Is Samson an arrogant hero who gives himself all the credit for his accomplishments?  Or in humility does he remember that his strength comes from God?  Great figures such as Saint Ambrose or Josephus have believed the former.  But many, I think rightly, believe the latter.  One simple verse in Chapter 15 seems to settle the debate:  "And being very thirsty, he cried to the Lord, and said: Thou hast given this very great deliverance and victory into the hand of thy servant: and behold I die for thirst, and shall fall into the hands of the uncircumcised" (Judges 15:18).  Some believe his thirst is evidence of his arrogance, as a punishment for it.  Granted, it is at a moment of weakness that he cries out to God and attributes his feat to Him.  But there isn't evidence that he gave himself all the credit prior to this moment.  And his thirst (which is only an understandable consequence of his immense physical feat) gives occasion for God to perform another miracle, that of the water issuing forth from the jawbone.  Samson clearly calls himself a "servant," which alone requires much humility.  This isn't to say that Samson is a perfect figure.  He clearly has moments of weakness and perhaps that is what ultimately does him in.  At this point, though, his exploits are miraculous occasions for God to show His wonders and deliver His people from the hands of the Philistines.  Samson is an instrument, and one unlike any we've ever seen in Scripture.  He is a Hercules working for God, a servant of strength, showing God's signs and wonders come in all forms.