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An influential Christian voice of our times, Dr. Walter Brueggemann, has made a powerful observation. He says, “Long ago, someone seduced the Church into believing it needed to be the happiest place in town. The Church doesn’t need to be the happiest place. It needs to be the most honest place in town.” 

As we continue studying our way through the Bible, the next book we survey is called Judges. Please don’t wait for Judges to be happy. You may be waiting for a while. Instead, Judges is honest. 

Any responsible study of Judges has to be framed in that brutal and uncomfortable honesty. You may be familiar with the story of Samson and Delilah. You may remember the strong and faithful military leader, Gideon. Their stories are found in the pages of Judges. 

Let me give you some core samples from Judges if you’d like to read only a little. Judges 1: 1; 2: 10-13, 16-17; 21: 25 will wade you in. That last verse, 21:25, should run a chill up your spine with its indictment of the people. Everyone was doing what seemed right in their own heart. 

That’s not a compliment. That was the problem. 

In the previous book, Joshua has led Israel across and into the Promised Land. Now, this loose federation of tribes must be organized and Joshua can’t look after every family squabble or territorial brushup. Judges are put into place within the tribal areas to lead, organize, protect and to rule. 

Coaches speak of some players being easier to work with because they take coaching. Other players don’t take to coaching, choosing instead to do their own thing. Try winning a championship with a group of individuals. By definition, we strain to even use the word team in that setting. That was early Israel. 

We can’t unknown what we know. The people are going to rebel yet again, this time against what God has set up. They were to have been ruled by God through the work of the priests. Instead, what unfolds here in Judges is the interim arrangement. 

Their addiction to their own wants and fickle passions is what led to Israel demanding a king. We know that later, God will punish them by eventually giving them exactly what they ask for. 

In other words, Judges and the books to follow will continue to be the cautionary tale of a people who at times thought they knew better than God, and who sometimes suffered the effects of God letting out just enough rope for them to– well, you know the rest. 

Key themes to Judges might be like this. First, the importance of obedience to God. Then, what happens when we abandon God and sometimes get our just due by attaining what we wanted. Finally, God’s mercy upon repentance is on display.

Let’s clarify just what kinds of judges these were, if not like the conventional legal understandings we have today. These were givers of the law, or a governor of sorts. They were local or regional leaders who would be responsible for making decisions in controversial situations, executing judgment, discriminating, condemning, punishing and vindicating. 

Oh, and there’s one other function the judges sometimes had. They mustered troops from their tribes, leading them into the inevitable battles. 

Jephthah is a good example of one Judge you may not be familiar with, but who within these pages steps up as both a governor and a strong military leader. Want to know who another was? Deborah. 

That is, in the same sense, our modern day Secretary of War or ultimately a commander in chief might organize and oversee battle. For her tribe, Deborah was the military leader. She was the one who deputized the ranks of leadership and saw to it that her tribe contributed its part. 

In these pages, Deborah was a prophetess, a judge and a military overseer. Mess with her tribe at your own peril. Of course, she is only emblematic of so many of the highlighted leaders in this book. There are violent, intriguing and graphic outcomes, always in response to some squabble in the ongoing war with the people of Canaan. 

Meanwhile, like the people in Judges, God waits for us to tire from chasing our own ways. God longs for us in true and meaningful fellowship. Freed from wants, distractions, and able to be the people we were made to be. So that, among other things, we might finally stop having to say, “Here we go again.”

DR. CHARLES QUALLS is senior pastor at Franklin Baptist Church. Contact him at 757-562-5135.