Judges

The judges were tribesmen in Israel upon whom the Lord laid the burden of Israel's apostate and oppressed state. They were the spiritual ancestors of the prophets; that is to say, men raised up of God, the theocratic King, to represent Him in the nation. They were patriots and religious reformers because national security and prosperity were inseparably connected with loyalty and obedience to Jehovah. Not one of the chosen deliverers had anything whereof to glory in the flesh. Othniel was but the son of the younger brother of Caleb; Ehud was a left-handed man and an assassin; Shamgar, a rustic with an ox-goad; Deborah, a woman; Gideon, of an obscure family in the smallest tribe, etc. Each of the classes mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:27 1 Corinthians 1:28 is illustrated among the judges.- Scofield Reference Notes 191.

Theocracy: government of a state by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided—Merriam-Webster online dictionary

After Joshua led Israel into the promised land, there were generations of God’s people who waxed and waned in their submission to God’s authority. They mostly waned. They were a stiffnecked, rebellious people, from the time of their exodus from Egypt through the entire period of the Judges. The judges were God’s delegated authority figures in the land. They weren’t all nice people, or people of great integrity, or even always very smart people. They were, however, the individuals God Himself had placed in authority over Israel for the protection and leadership of that nation for that specific period of time. The Jews would cry out to God in their fear and weakness when under oppression from the Canaanites. He would raise up a judge to lead them in battles and in matters of state. Then, as always, the Jews would reject God’s leadership and revert to idolatry among the worshippers of Baal. Fun. Excitement. Sensuality. If it feels good, do it. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6, 21:25).

They brought about their own divine discipline by this behavior. They had been repeatedly warned in Exodus 20, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28 and more, that by rejecting God’s statutes and turning to idols they would forfeit their peace, prosperity and freedom and that of their children and their children’s children. That’s four generations. Children perpetuate the behaviors and attitudes of their parents. They did it anyway, and were chastised as promised, each time more severely than before. It was a self-defeating cycle of an emotionally volatile people.  It makes us wonder: why don’t these people ever learn?  Well, we can look around us, at our own nation and see the same repeating pattern among individuals and the nation. Rebellious, stiffnecked people who reject authority in favor of entertainment.  Arrogant, self-righteous people who have no concept of humility. They dramatize their “personal sacrifice,” but are not interested in obedience.

Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the Lord. Judges 2:1-5

Arrogant people can be shocked into repentance. The problem is, repentance can quickly wear off in time of prosperity.

Judges 2:8-10: And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years…. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

Judges 2:11-15: And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

This is divine discipline, folks, upon God’s own people, because of their disobedience. They were reaping the results of their rebellion. Yes, God will withdraw His protection upon His people when they reject Him. Yes, sometimes—if not every time—calamities are the direct discipline of God. Certainly, if it is happening to God’s people, He has allowed it, for a reason.

Baal and AshtorethThe chief Canaanite fertility gods were Baal and Ashtoreth. Baal (the son of El) was revered as the god with power over rain, wind, clouds, and therefore over fertility. Ashtoreth was a Semite goddess derived from the Babylonian god Ishtar. As worshipped locally in Canaan, she was the consort of Baal, and supposedly brought fertility to the people who worshipped her. While temples are occasionally mentioned, Canaanite worship often took place in open-air sites at the tops of hills, referred to in the Bible as "high places." Usually there was a masseba or stone pillar erected as a symbol of the male deity and an asherah representing the female counterpart, some sort of wooden pole or image of the goddess. In front of these was a sacrificial altar.

Cult Prostitution Craigie and Wilson describe some of the worship: "Characteristic of Canaanite fertility ritual is the association of male and female 'holy ones' (cult prostitutes) with temples and shrines of the fertility deities. By joining in the activities of cultic sexuality, common people could participate in 'stockpiling' fertility energy, which ensured the continuing stability of agricultural as well as human and animal productivity. Archeological excavations in Canaanite locations have uncovered temples with chambers where sexual activity took place. Also, many iconographic representations of the fertility goddess with exaggerated sexual features have been discovered. The influence of the fertility cult was widespread; it was combated fiercely in Israel as alien to the covenant faith (e.g. Hosea 1-3)" (P.C. Craigie and G.H. Wilson, ISBE 4:100).

But an even greater danger than the detestable practices of Canaanite religion, were the assumptions that underlay them, which were diametrically opposed to the worship of Yahweh. We need to consider carefully how the worship of the true God differed. -From Joyful Heart Ministries, Dr. Ralf F. Wilson

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.” So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua. Judges 2:16-23

The story of Israel’s Judges is a story of failure after failure after failure of God’s people to obey His statutes for living. They had no appreciation for His grace and their occasional humility was soon forgotten in times of peace and prosperity. Such is the character of the old sin nature. People are weak, arrogant and forgetful. There is only one solution to the sin problem: the righteousness of Christ. Nothing we can do as humans will ever measure up to His perfect righteousness, but He has made it freely available to us, as He did to the exodus generation.  We receive it by believing in the perfect atonement of the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world. Then our lives are hid forever IN CHRIST.

These Jews would come up with what they thought would guarantee their national prosperity. That, too, would prove to be a rejection of God. Rejection of God brings severe consequences. 

Their idea: “give us a king.”