Judges Concluded

The book of Judges can be simply summarized by the book's final sentence: "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25).  Throughout the book, we see Israel, God's chosen people, fall more and more into unbelief, disobedience, and apostasy.  Once Samson dies the descent away from God becomes complete.

First we see Micah, an Israelite of Ephraim, try to set up his own pagan religion.  He makes an idol, hires some Levites(!) to be the priests.  To which we see the tribe of Dan steal the idol and kidnap the priests in order to "own" the religion.

Then there is the issue with the Levite and the concubine, which culminates in the story of Gibeah, in which there is an old man whose concubine is viciously raped by the drunken townsfolk of Gibeah, to which he responds by taking her home, cutting her into twelve pieces, and sending those pieces throughout all Israel.

Israel then responds by riling up the eleven tribes to commit genocide against the tribe of Benjamin.  They are so effective in their attempt that by the time the tribes realize their sin, they had killed over 18,000 Benjaminites.  There response is to kidnap the daughter of Mizpah, their pagan neighbors.

In the end, the book of Judges represents a gritty and dark time in the history of Israel, but it is a necessary history because it informs much of what comes in Samuel and Kings.  And the stories of the judges reveal profound truths about people.  More so, though, the book of Judges reveals a God who is faithful to His promises despite the unfaithfulness and disobedience of His people.  This, in and of itself, is enough reason to spend some time studying this rich though challenging book.  Praise God that He is always true and always faithful!