We don't have a good English word for what we call "judges" in the Old Testament. The activity of "judging" represents bringing God's justice to a situation. Without that overtone, it would be easy enough to call them "warlords." Reduce political power to it's most basic and fundamental level and you get a warlord, someone with specific power to lead in mounting a defense to threat. Absent a threat, there is hardly any reason to grant such emergency power to anyone. During peace time, it remains the responsibility of clan and tribal leaders to maintain social order. That they failed to do so is the primary reason the judges arose.
In the tribal setting of Israel settling into and occupying the Land, the Covenant required clan and tribal leaders to maintain the covenant relationships among people, but also between people and God. There is no other way to explain the general failure of the nation to finish the job of driving out the former inhabitants. Notice what the angel at Bochim pointedly says was the whole point of the exercise: breaking down the pagan altars. Instead, they sued for terms with the local inhabitants, always allowing them to keep their own gods, idols and temples. When Joshua spoke to the nation, the leadership of each tribe was always up front, because the responsibility fell on them. It was they who failed to keep the Covenant, failed to obey the command to cleanse the land. Killing or driving out the Canaanites was a by-product of the primary aim of removing the deeply offensive local pagan religion.
Let us not forget the underlying principles at work here. First, there is the pure justice issue of nations defying God's Laws. Second, there is a distinct family evil in the Canaanites, and distinct curse upon them from Noah's time, in part because of the most despicable and flagrant flouting of those Laws. In particular, the Canaanites were utterly disgusting in their sexual practices, and God does not take this lightly. Hidden in the background of this whole sordid tale is the severe and relentless judgment of God against loose and filthy sexual practices. Israel's leaders were derelict in grasping this essential element of the Covenant, since compromise and idolatry always meant engaging in these practices. Third, it wasn't absolutely necessary to physically slaughter every living human in the Land.
Hebrew language is dramatic, loaded with hyperbolic elements. It is downright stupidity to insist God's Word is somehow violated if we do not read back into it a Western precision and literalness which is utterly foreign to Hebrew people and God's own cultural framework for revelation. What mattered is not bloodshed, but a removal of the pagan altars and images. Had Israel simply done their duty of forcefully moving in and tearing down every such site, it would have been counted as obedience. Granted, such activity would certainly mean having to fight and kill the devotees of such sites. However, by walking in the assurance God was behind that, victory was assured every step of the way. It was not Caleb's peculiar war-making talent which cleared the Hebron Highlands, but his faithfulness as a spiritual man. He didn't quit until the job was done. Did he kill everyone? Again, it's hyperbole, because at the end of the narrative, the whole point was driving them out with their pagan religion.
Thus, we see a cycle which played out at the tribal and national level. The leaders would allow their clans and tribes to sin, and in so doing, lead their people out from under the Covenant protection. So the demons were permitted to come and stir up the remaining Canaanites, or some bordering nation, to begin harassing and oppressing Israel. At some point, the people would return to a modicum of faithfulness and call upon their Covenant God, who would then raise up a warlord. This warlord would judge the sin, often in the Israelis themselves first, then lead them in righteous judgment against their enemies. Things would be okay as long as that warlord remained in authority, keeping an eye on the Law and making the people obey it. Then they would fall away again, because their family chiefs would fail to keep things straight.
Citing such problems as the enemy having iron chariots does present a tactical problem. Israel was forbidden to use chariots because every draft animal -- onagers at first, then horses later -- were in those days inextricably tied to pagan religious practices. Israel was required to fight all wars as infantry. However, there were plenty of times when, in the power of God's Covenant protection, they defeated the charioteers. We can trace the use of heavy lances to skewer horses as the tactic, but the one deciding factor was faithfulness to the Covenant. Other historical factors are scarcely mentioned, things the prophetic authors took for granted, which we now have to work hard to dig up and understand, but what matters is the spiritual principle screaming at us from every page: Stay faithful to the Laws of God, and no one can stand against your nation. There might be other reasons for victory in battle which have nothing to do with any covenant, but most certainly within the Covenant, obedience reaps consistent shalom as promised. By the same token, violating the Covenants promises eventual disaster.
There was surely a large measure of patience on God's part. Folks don't suddenly apostatize in large numbers, so it's silly to expect demons to come rushing in overnight with large numbers and great authority to act. At some point, when Israel had drifted away, mistaking patience for God's lack of concern, they were entangled and needed help. God's response to their call might be a little delayed, too. Thus, we are reminded our Western sense of justice cannot possibly grapple with God's ways.
Eventually we realize the real issue is the utter weakness and failure of the clan and tribal leaders. They keep failing for whatever reasons, and it requires some hero. Throughout the whole period is that steady drumbeat of the call to diligence in observing the Covenant provisions, in order to gain the Covenant promises. This naturally fulfills a critical purpose in revealing God. It shows how He works, and what the world should expect from Him in dealing with nations.
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By Ed Hurst
27 April 2009
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