Thursday, August 30, 2007

JudgesStudy

The original Hebrew title implies 'to act as a divine judge' - as there was no hereditary or political succession (which is usually the case throughout history!); as such the book of JUDGES is all about LEADERSHIP. I might add that a 'judge' might be a 'leader'! What, incidentally, is a 'leader'? Who are good/great leaders? Who are 'not so good' leaders?

THREE PARTS OF THE BOOK OF JUDGES:
I. Palestine (which means literally the land of the 'Philistines'!) after Joshua.
II. Stories of the Judges.
III. Stories (vilification!) of the tribes of Dan and Benjamin.

A New Generation has arisen that does not know the Lord (Exodus opens: 'Now there arose a Pharoah who knew not Joseph'! - not only is life about, to a great extent, 'who you know', but 'who KNOWS YOU'! (We remember the kindness bestowed upon the Hebrews because of Joseph.) Albert Outler said that the church is only one generation away from extinction!

We see repeated throughout JUDGES a cynical and distressing cycle of 'falling away' from the Lord following deliverance from various 'judges'. Compare Proverbs: 'As the hog/dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his follies'.... Recall Rob's good series on the 12 Steps: 'What keeps us from learning from our past mistakes?

Judges 2:20-23 says that the pagans of the land were not completely 'driven out' because they were a means of 'testing' the Hebrews, to see if they 'would walk' as their forefathers?
I am a part of a Christian men's group LEGACY OUTFITTERS. What sort of 'legacy' has been left us, and what sort of 'legacy' are we leaving for those who walk after us?

JUDGES shows us that God will use whom he will; JUDGES might be thought of as 'the LEAST likely to succeed' (Isa. 6 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?) - 'God does not CALL the QUALIFIED; God qualifies, Equips!, the CALLED!'

JUDGES shows the failure of Israel to uphold the standards YHWH's covenant as expressed in DEUTERONOMY. The book is structured around a well defined theological premise, that the problems Israel had in securing the land were directly related to their ongoing love affair with Baal Worship.... This is summarized by the concluding statement in the book (21:25): "all the people did what was right in their own eyes." (THE RHETORIC OF THE BOOK OF JUDGES - by Robert H. O' Connell)

Contrast to John Calvin: 'The scriptures are the lenses by and through which we see things as they are, apart from which all else is confused.' As today, the setting of JUDGES is a confused and perplexing pagan landscape, everyone doing what is right in their own eyes! Who are 'our'
(culture's) 'heroes' and 'leaders'?

Thoughts and implications the book of JUDGES has for Us:
a) the Greatness of the Judeo-Christian heritage left to us (through Scripture and Tradition/church history);
b) the greatness of the leaders we have known, our country's forefathers (as Thom Hudson recently shared with us) ;
c) the greatness of the legacy left to us through John Wesley ("I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America, but I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this udoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out."