Our house church just wrapped up a few months of studying the book of Judges. We wanted to delve into something Old Testament that we didn’t know well.
We get plenty of Sunday School and VBS stories and sermons on Noah and David, Jesus and Paul – and we had a couple caricatures in our head about guys like Samson or ladies like Deborah. But how much did we really know?
Turns out, not a lot! The book is full of examples, good and bad, of people figuring life and faith out simultaneously. It speaks deeply to our human condition, both the depth of our sinful nature but also the heights of our potential for faith, obedience, and repentance.
Since we’ve been studying several months – and since many of our readers might not have dug around in the book of Judges recently – I wanted to share some things I learned!
The Holy Spirit
In Judges, the Holy Spirit is very present. We generally think of the Spirit popping up just in the New Testament, but from the Spirit dwelling over the water in Genesis 1 through the prophets He shows up regularly.
However, the Spirit comes upon people in power for limited time periods and purposes. He descends on Samson to help him fight but then removes Himself. It reminds us how blessed we are to have the Spirit indwelling us instead of dropping by on occasion!
Faith “Heroes” Are Just Like Us
Our own personal sin struggle is not unique – what a relief! Even the “heroes” of the Bible are deeply flawed. You may have heard that Noah got drunk after the flood and David committed adultery and murder before coming back to God. Judges follows the same pattern, both of individuals messing up and coming back and of a society messing up and coming back.
It reminds us that when the New Testament calls us saints, it is very serious – it’s not ignoring our nature and frequent failings. The story of Judaism and Christianity is one of transparent honesty about a bleak past full of failures – as well as a Good News offer of hope. Even the “best” of our faith heroes were just as sin-sick as us, which means we have just as much hope of being called “good and faithful servants” if we continually cling to God.
God is Faithful – If…
God makes “covenants” instead of promises. Covenants, of course, are conditional. God often lets Israel fail and suffer, but only after they have abandoned their side of the covenant. Our God will be faithful to His end no matter how often we stray – but He also has standards and will discipline us when we walk away, until we return.
He surrenders us to the consequences of our sins until we repent and return to Him. In Judges, Israel constantly falls away while God regularly delivers – but only after repentance. God is true to His covenants, but also expects us to be true to ours.
God’s Plan is Better
History is always violent – and the history of faith is no different. But the worst accounts happen when Israel goes against God’s commands. It is when men go their own way “doing what is right in their own eyes” that the judges and their tribes get in the worst situations. Often atheists use Judges to assume violence was God’s will and command – but a close reading shows the opposite.
Israel gets rebuked for killing foreigners who were at peace, for instance. Assuming that every violent thing Israel did was stamped by God’s approval sort of misses the entire theme of the book – Israel rebelled and did it’s own thing, following the pattern of violence seen in warring neighboring countries instead of following the pattern God gave.
God is There When Times are Too Dark to See Him
God’s love, provision, and grace are found in the darkest of times. I love the story of a shepherd leaving 99 sheep in order to find the 1 that strayed. I often feel like God isn’t seeking me specifically. What we see in Judges, however, is a God who pursues specific people.
Today, God has made clear that the “New Israel” is not a genetic or racial group, nor is it a country (here’s looking at you, Amerrrrica). The New Israel is the Church, a spiritual community that everyone is welcome to join. Seeing God interacting in personal ways with specific persons in the Old Israel reminds me to look for the personal ways He’s trying to communicate with me since I joined the New Israel.
Judges is Useful
Finally, all Scripture is useful. People read 2 Timothy 3:16 and fixate on the phrase “God-breathed.” Don’t forget that all Scripture is useful! If any book of the Bible seemed a curiosity but useless, it was Judges. Instead, I found that every week we uncovered new significance for our lives.
It deals with hospitality and treatment of immigrants and foreigners. It deals with women’s rights and women in leadership. It deals with grace after failure. It deals with God being personal. It deals with repentance, both of people and societies. Every page we turned applied to our modern situation is very personal ways, speaking into our present day culture as well as our individual lives.
A challenge from us to you: read Judges next month and rediscover this biblical gem for yourself!
Rogue Millennials 
It’s a relief to find somebody else who sees the new Israel as the Church.
(The New Israel is the Church, a spiritual community that everyone is welcome to join. )
I still can’t figure out how today’s Israel is similar to OT Israel.
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The same with people who treat America as the new Israel. I get that people want to take Old Testament promises and take them for their own purposes – but I would think people would be wary to call themselves God’s holy people in pride. Being God’s people is a very humbling thing!
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I don’t know as many people who see America as the new Israel as I see Americans devoting themselves to today’s Israel. Even Israelis have a tough time understanding why Americans are so ‘into’ their country. Most of them aren’t believers but they do appreciate the money which flows in from tourists and foreign aid from the states.
I can certainly believe that God has a hand in the goings on in all countries, America included. The Church in China doesn’t grow without willing hands, and so on.
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Amen on all fronts. “The Rapture Exposed” explores why many Americans devote themselves to Israel, approving of anything they do without taking into consideration the plight of Palestinian Christians for instance!
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I’ll look into that. Thanks.
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New Israel?
I know about the New Jerusalem, where do you get the new Israel from?
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Good question. Israel was “God’s chosen people.” In the New Testament, everyone is chosen by God (“Gentile inclusion”) and those who accept His invitation are called “the Church”. Since the Church is God’s new chosen people, many people call them the new Israel. I don’t know if that exact phrase appears in the Bible, but the concept is all over the New Testament – the old priesthood of Aaron has been replaced by the priesthood of Believers, for example.
The problem comes when people start thinking the modern country of Israel or the country of the United States is some “new Israel,” a new group of people chosen by God. The Church is, and it breaks beyond all national and ethnic boundaries.
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I believe that all Christian denominations are truly Christians, not just one group like “Baptists” or “Lutherans” or “Catholics” or “Greek Orthodox.”
But even some select denominations like to call themselves the “New Israel” – here’s an article by a Catholic author on why they consider the Catholic Church to be the New Israel: https://catholicexchange.com/church-new-israel
It can be very problematic for specific groups of Christians to pretend like they are the only ones that God chose, the only ones God loves, the only ones God’s grace covers, the only ones going to heaven.
So I’d just caution people to use the phrase “New Israel” more carefully – to include all who profess Jesus as King and follow Him as Lord.
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