Leadership Themes in the Old Testament
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THEME: Leaving a Legacy
Chapter 6
Leaving a Legacy: Leadership in Judges
Michael J. Smith
The transition from the time of Joshua into the period of the judges indicates a significant leadership change in Israel. God had appointed Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt (Exod. 3). Later, when Moses sinned, God instructed Moses to appoint Joshua as his successor (Num. 27:12–23). When Joshua came to the end of his life, God did not appoint a successor. Instead there was an intended transfer of leadership from Joshua to the “elders and their heads and their judges and their officers” (Josh. 23:2; 24:1), all of whom held positions as “representatives of the people on important ritual and covenant-making occasions.”[1] As Joshua came to the end of his life, he gave two exhortations to this group, with an application to each individual family unit.[2] After giving God’s review of all that he had done for the nation (Josh. 24:2–13), Joshua challenged the people as individual households to choose whom they would now follow: “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve … but as for me and my house, we will serve [ʿāḇaḏ] the Lord” (Josh. 24:15). Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to examine Israel in the period of the judges, looking at individuals and families, as represented in the judges themselves, as they responded to the leadership of God. The book demonstrates that Israel increasingly failed to follow God’s leadership by failing to pass on the faith within their families. The end result was that, because they did not see an earthly king in Israel, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25).
Framing the Book of Judges: Introductions and Epilogues
The book of Judges is unique in its construction. It is a book that is symmetrically arranged, and gives evidence that it was written by one author who carefully placed each of the stories in a specific order to communicate his prophetic message to Israel.[3]There are two separate introductions to the book, each using the death of Joshua as their starting point (Judg. 1:1 and 2:6–8). The first introduction (1:1–2:5) is a focus on the military compromises of the nation, as they failed to drive out the remaining Canaanites. The second introduction (2:6–3:6) is a focus on the religious and moral compromises leading to cycles of idolatry, servitude to a conquering nation and the gracious response from God to raise up judges to free them. Judges 3:3–6 indicates that the conquering nations were for a test for Israel “to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he had commanded their fathers through Moses” (Judg. 3:4). But in rejecting their God, Israel lived among the nations left in the land; they intermarried with them, exchanging sons and daughters, with the result that Israel served the gods of those nations. Instead of reflecting the God who had delivered them from Egypt and led them into the Promised Land, they became like the Canaanites God had warned them about. A failure to live and respond to the leadership of God in the family structure opened the door to the “Canaanization” of Israel. Leadership comes out of the common culture, where man becomes like the one he worships.[4]
Just as the book begins with two introductions, it also concludes with two contrasting epilogues. In the two epilogue stories there are no stories of judges and no external enemies. Israel instead becomes its own enemy in the spiraling decline of the nation. In each case, a problem began in an individual Israelite home and then escalated to become a source of moral failure in the nation.
Between the two introductions and the two conclusions the narrator has placed the stories of the six major judges and the supplemental stories of the six minor or secondary judges. In each of the major judge stories, there was an active forsaking of God and a choice to follow other gods of the Canaanites (Judg. 2:11–13). As a result, God “gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies” (Judg. 2:14). When they were severely distressed “then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them” (Judg. 2:16). In spite of the fact that they did not listen to the judges, “the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them” (Judg. 2:18). However, “when the judge died . . . they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways” (Judg. 2:19), resulting in a continual downhill spiral throughout the whole book.
The role of the judges is defined by the narrator in Judges 2:16: “Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them.”[5] Block makes three points regarding the role of the judges:
(1) The source of the judges’ authority and power was Yahweh. (2) The purpose of their appointment was not judicial but soteriological. . . . Indeed the designation môšîaʿ, “deliverer, liberator,” is specifically applied to several judges. . . . (3) These individuals were instruments of deliverance from external enemies; their purpose was not the settlement of internal disputes.[6]
That God was to be considered the one real and true leader (and king of the nation; see 1 Sam. 8:7), however, is seen in that the actual title “the Judge” is only applied to one Person in the book: to God. The verb “to judge” (šāpat) is used to describe the activity of the human judges in the book, but the noun-title “the Lord, the Judge” is only used by Jephthah in Judges 11:27, as he describes God’s role over the nations. Israel at this time is a nation of individual families, clans, and tribes headed by fathers, and clan and tribal leaders, under the ultimate rule of God who has given all levels of sub-leadership the goal of subduing the land and removing the Canaanite influence. Life was to be carried out in obedience to the Law of God as taught by the Levites and administered by the priests (Lev. 10:8–11; Deut. 31:9–13).
The descending cycle of sin in the nation of Israel is seen in the descending character of the judges. Younger points out that “the ‘cycles’ themselves in 3.6–16.13 . . . are arranged in such a way as to point to the decline in the character of the judges as illustrative of the chaos of the time. . . . Each judge may be seen as a microcosm of the nation.”[7]God reached into the nation at successive points to provide a deliverer, but the deliverer/judge was also an example of how far Israel had descended in the cycle.[8] The stories move from the first judge, Othniel, as a good example in creating a family by taking a wife who is linked to the faith of the past in her father Caleb, to the last judge, Samson, who completely failed to create a godly marriage, much less a godly legacy, ending his life in suicide. “The failure of the family to pass on the faith from generation to generation, in obedience to Pentateuchal commands, is a partial explanation for the downward cyclical trend of the nation of Israel in the Book of Judges. This theme is part of the larger purpose of alerting Israel to the Canaanization that has taken place in the nation because of disobedience to God.”[9]
The First “Introduction” to Judges: Militaristic Compromise
The theme of the first introduction (1:1–2:5) centers on Israel’s military compromises in taking the land. In answer to an inquiry before God, Judah was given leadership in the fight against the remaining Canaanites (1:1–2). However, Judah failed: “Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots” (1:19). This was a test God gave Israel “to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord” (3:4). From that point on, the phrases “[tribal name] did not drive out” or “[tribal name] did not take possession” is applied to seven other tribes (1:21–35). In response, God rebuked the nation (2:1–5). God had demonstrated an unbending commitment to the covenant he had made with the patriarchs, but Israel had demonstrated the opposite in compromising with the idolatry of the Canaanites. As God demonstrates his own character in leadership, he asks his people to imitate that same character in their own levels of leadership. If God is the Judge, then all leadership is to be a reflection of him.
Within the first introduction there are three short stories. The first story is a negative story. Israel began the Canaanization of their nation by imitating a Canaanite ruler rather than imitating the character of God (Judg. 1:5–7). Having caught a Canaanite ruler, they cut off his thumbs and big toes as he had done to his enemies. In a connecting story in the second epilogue, a Levite mutilated his wife (Judg. 19). No one can follow both the culture and God at the same time. Leadership involves looking past the culture we must deal with, looking instead to the character of the One we must follow. Failure to do that can corrupt even spiritual leadership, with shocking results.
The second story is a positive one. Caleb, the spy from Numbers 13, who had already demonstrated faith in God and a willingness to follow him in obedience, advertised for a son-in-law who would share his own desire to obey God by taking the very land promised to them (1:11–15). Othniel responded, demonstrating that same commitment to take the land; and he received Achsah, Caleb’s daughter, as his wife. Achsah, like-minded with her father in wanting to enjoy the land and its goodness, asked for more land than her father initially gave them. This is the same Othniel who becomes the first judge, but this is before the judge stories begin. Leadership in a home—the basic unit of a nation—begins with a good marriage between a man and a woman who are both committed to trusting God, obeying his commands, and committing themselves to God’s program.
The third story is again a negative one. This story mimics the story about Rahab in Joshua, but it ended with a frustrating failure (1:23–26). Spies made an agreement to spare a man in a city, only to have that man go off and start another Canaanite city. The narrator is hinting on the compromise to follow with “Israel’s increasing coresidency with the natives.”[10] Once compromise begins—and this story is situated within the list of compromising tribes—the blessing of God cannot be presumed upon to automatically follow.
The Second “Introduction” to Judges: Religious Compromise
The theme of the second introduction (2:6–3:6) centers on Israel’s religious compromise. When Joshua and the leadership of his day all died, Israel began the downward spiral. We see Israel’s tendency, which is not too uncommon throughout history, to compromise on the spiritual commitment of those who came before them. However, part of this result may lie in a former generation’s inability to faithfully pass the faith on to their children. “All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord nor yet the work which he had done for Israel” (Judg. 2:10). Block comments here:
This text is a witness to the apparent failure of the community to keep alive its memory of Yahweh’s gracious saving acts. The priests had failed in their instructional duties (Lev. 10:11); and the elaborate system of festivals, memorials, and other customs, designed to pass on the rich spiritual tradition (Deut. 6:20) had either lapsed or been reduced to formality. If the Shemaʿ(Deut. 6:4) was being recited at all, the following injunctions to the community (6:5–6) to instruct the children in the fundamentals of covenant faith were obviously regarded more in the breach than in the observance. When people lose sight of God’s grace, they lose sight of God and the sense of any obligation to him. All that follows in the book is a consequence of Israel’s loss of memory.[11]
One of the roles of leadership is to intentionally model and pass on the faith to the next generation. If the leadership fails to do this, it can be expected that the next generation will fill the void with an allegiance of their own finding.
The downward spiral of sin cycles in the nation began at this point, with Israel playing the part of a prostitute with the gods of the Canaanites. Each successive round of sin and deliverance under a judge brought the nation lower. The failure of the nation was at the very level of the family: They lived among the Canaanites, interchanged sons and daughters in marriage, and served their gods (Judg. 3:4–6). When families abandon their role of following God, there is no other safety net for the children. The children are thus being groomed by example to be godless leaders.
Leadership in the Quadrant 1 Judges: Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar
Williams presents the twelve judge stories in the form of a circle divided into four quadrants, with three judges in each quadrant.[12] The first quadrant covers Othniel (3:7–11), Ehud (3:12–30), and Shamgar (3:31). These are the most positive stories, each presenting a brave warrior who led Israel against an enemy and so was used by God to deliver the nation. There is a noted absence of women in this quadrant, which accentuates the masculine role seen in the first three judges, but it also prepares the reader for the sudden occurrence of a woman in the judge position in the second quadrant.
The account of Othniel (3:7–11) is a short, paradigmatic presentation of the judge cycle, described in generalities in the second introduction (2:11–19). Israel forgot Yahweh their God and served a set of male and female gods. “Asherah is now known to have been a prominent goddess in Canaanite mythology, the wife of the high god El (ʾil) and mother of seventy gods” who is now a consort “of Baal in this fertility religion.”[13] Othniel, by his marriage into a family of faith, has already demonstrated his leadership in the nation by choosing a good wife and not indulging in the adultery portrayed by the Canaanite gods which attracted Israel into their worship. Othniel, as the first judge, is a stark contrast to Samson, the final judge, who failed to provide any family leadership in Israel and instead demonstrated the very promiscuous behavior of the Canaanite gods. In place of Othniel’s positive leadership, Samson’s failed leadership further promoted Israel’s descent into spiritual chaos.
The story of Ehud is much longer (3:12–30). Ehud is a Benjamite who also stands as a contrast—first to those in Judges 1:21 who did not drive out the Jebusites, and also to the Benjamites of the second epilogue who defended the evil men of Gibeah (20:11–17). Israel again did evil before God, and God strengthened the king of Moab over them (3:12). In response to Israel’s cry for help, God raised up Ehud who demonstrated his courageous leadership by personally killing the king of Moab in his own quarters, and then leading Israel in the ensuing battle against Moab. He knew God’s plan, and he led Israel in acting on it (3:28). In his confident leadership, Ehud is a strong contrast to Gideon, who will continuously questioned God’s plan. He is also a contrast to Samson, in that it is Ehud who deceived the enemy instead of fraternizing with the enemy and becoming deceived himself. Ehud’s leadership is also seen in his responses to idols. The references to Ehud and idols in 3:19 and 3:26, provide us with an important ideological frame to Ehud’s deliverance of Israel. The deliverance itself is not just a matter of the defeat of Moab and the subsequent eighty years of peace for Israel. For Ehud’s decisive action begins when he “turns away from the idols at Gilgal” and his escape is successful when he “passed” the idols and fled to Seirah. It is he whose decisive actions for Israel began with a characteristic “turning away from the idols (šûb min happesîlîm),” as one “turns away from the evil way (šûb midderek harācāh)” (1 Kings 13:33; 2 Kings 17:13) and “returns to Yahweh” (Deut. 30:10).
Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10 say that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. Since the first commandment in the Decalogue says, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exod. 20:3), godly wise leadership must begin with a proper understanding of God. When leaders know the character of God and what God is about in the world, it gives them a perspective out of which to make their own decisions. Tozer wrote, “What comes to our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. . . . The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than he is—in itself a monstrous sin—and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness.”[14] Ehud had a right view of God, and God blessed his efforts to deliver Israel.
The account of Shamgar the son of Anath is very brief, being contained in one verse: He “struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad; and he also saved Israel” (3:31). The story is in line with the masculine behavior of the first judges, but it introduces the short accounts of the secondary judges. The narrative pattern the narrator uses in the sin cycles is disrupted, and this change “alerts the reader to the possibility of further disruptions of the pattern by the writer.”[15]Further, the name Shamgar has “four strong consonants: š-m-g-r” rather than the three consonants of Hebrew words,[16] and the additional “ben Anath” might be an indication that his family was originally connected with a Canaanite goddess.[17] In spite of that possibility, Shamgar is presented in a positive way in the text. He came after Ehud and “he also” saved Israel. His victory over the Philistines is preparatory for the coming of Samson, but in contrast to Samson, Shamgar “saved Israel.” Shamgar is evidence that God is not limited to conventional means and methods for saving his people. God will impartially use leaders who demonstrate that they have a commitment to God’s program, regardless of their ethnic background. This is in keeping with 2 Chronicles 16:9, and is a hint of things to come.[18]
Quadrant 1 presents courageous men who are effective military leaders, used of God to accomplish the desired end of saving Israel from those who dominated them. When men act within their leadership roles as assigned by God, God gives success. Their life stories, however, show that their success arose out of their obedience to God.
Leadership in the Quadrant 2 Judges: Barak, Deborah, and Gideon
Quadrant 2, in Williams’ structure, contains the stories of Barak and Deborah, Gideon, and the secondary judge Tola. The movement from Quadrant 1 to Quadrant 2 brings some major changes. Several strong women are presented in contrast to a very hesitant military leader in the Barak-Deborah story, and then a similarly hesitant judge appears who finally succeeds and then fails in a most profound way, first with his family and then as a carryover into the state of the nation in the Gideon story.
Barak and Deborah: Weak Leadership and New Leaders
As Quadrant 2 opens, the narrator appears to resume the sin cycles but then abruptly deviates from the norm.
Instead of following his formulaic pattern for introducing the deliverer, the narrator abruptly breaks into the narrative (4:4) with a circumstantial clause and Deborah’s name is placed in the emphatic position. He clearly wants to capture the reader’s attention to direct it to something unusual. The reader is struck by bewilderment. Instead of being introduced to the man he anticipates will be Yahweh’s next deliverer for Israel, he is introduced to a woman who is already performing as prophetess and judge. It is quite apparent that something out of the ordinary is happening and he feels compelled to ask, “What is going on here?”[19]
Deborah does not function in the story as one of the judges, but rather as an introducer of the judge,[20] and as a representative of a new subtheme in the book.[21] The story presents her as “a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, [and she] was judging Israel at the time” (4:4). She was situated in a place that was not the spiritual center of Israel, but was “under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim,” and the sons of Israel were coming to her for “the judgement” (4:5). In the poetic version of the story, she calls herself “a mother in Israel” (5:7).
The story begins in the normal way telling of Israel’s sin, God selling them into the hands of a Canaanite king, and Israel crying out to God for deliverance (4:1–3). “It appears that when ‘the sons of Israel’ come to Deborah for ‘the judgment’ they are not asking her to solve their legal disputes, but to give them the divine answer to their cries. She functions as a representative of Yahweh.”[22] Israel is asking Deborah to identify for them the next judge who will bring about the deliverance, and in the next verses she does that. Deborah summoned Barak, the next judge, and gave to him the command from Yahweh that he was to go against Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army. God would draw out the commander and his army, and God would give them into Barak’s hand (Judg. 4:6–7). Barak, however, was hesitant and would not go unless Deborah would go with him. Deborah agreed, but told Barak that because of his hesitancy, he would lose the honor of the battle and that Yahweh would give it to a woman instead (Judg. 4:8–9). When the two armies were assembled, “Deborah said to Barak, ‘Arise! For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hands; behold, the Lord has gone out before you.’ So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him” (Judg. 4:14).
When God brought the victory as promised, and Sisera’s army was defeated, Sisera escaped and hid in the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Jael appeared to offer hospitality to Sisera in keeping with her husband’s defection from Israel into a peaceful relationship with the Canaanites (4:11, 17). When Sisera fell asleep, however, Jael killed him in her tent (4:18–21). Barak arrived shortly thereafter to find God’s pronouncement true: He had lost the honor of the battle to a woman (4:22).
The story of Barak, Deborah, and Jael demonstrates God’s choices in some areas of human leadership. The first area of Israel’s leadership downfall is seen in the area of weak men lacking faith in God and his promises. Rather than trusting God’s direct word to him through Deborah, Barak hesitated and put his faith in the messenger rather than in the Sender of the message.[23] Numerous items in the story show that men of the time were falling away from God as the focus of their faith and worship. The men are weak; thus, God uses the women who have a heart for his plan for Israel. Deborah is chosen as God’s messenger, in contrast to the priests at the ark. Deborah’s husband played no part in the story, and God called a “mother in Israel” (Judg.5:7) as his messenger. Heber the Kenite, the wife of Jael, had parted with the other Kenites to side with Israel’s enemies. Other men are rebuked in the psalm of Deborah for not participating in the battle (5:16–17, 23), and a comment from Sisera’s mother and her princesses give an indication of the focus of Canaanite men, which will soon be shown to be the growing focus of Israelite men (5:28–30).[24] In contrast to the masculine men of the first quadrant, the men in this story have failed to be the models, protectors, aggressive leaders, and worshippers in Israel. The story is repeated in the only poetic portion of the book, a psalm composed by Deborah in Judges 5. In this psalm, Deborah picked up the teaching function of men in Israel (Deut. 6) and praised God for the victory. When men lapse spiritually, their faith in God is replaced with desires for personal safety, personal honor, and material goods. God then turns to women, and they receive the honor men would have received. Deborah saw herself as a “mother in Israel” (5:7), and Jael is praised as a woman in her tent (5:24). Barak finally led the army but there was no honor for him in the end. He is remembered as a man who cowered.
Gideon and Abimelech: Fatherly-Leadership-Failure
The account of Gideon and his family is the longest story in the book. In this story, the theme moves beyond the account of the judge and shows the impact a parent has on his children. It is a three-generational story. Gideon’s father, Joash, was a worshipper of Baal. Gideon rose to faith in God over time as God used him to defeat the enemy, and then Gideon fell back into his idolatrous roots, impacting first his family and then the nation.
Israel sinned again and God gave them into the hands of the Midianites (Judg. 6:1). When Israel cried to God for help, God sent a prophet to rebuke them for the sin of thanklessness. God had rescued them from Egypt and had given them the land. He told them not to fear the gods of the land, but they did not obey him. A basic quality of a spiritual leader at any level must be to cultivate a historical remembrance of God’s blessings. Remembrance brings thankfulness; thankfulness encourages faith for future tests. Israel forgot God’s blessings to them and as a result, they walked away from him as though there was no obligation of thankfulness.[25]
In response to Israel’s cries for help, God went about recruiting Gideon to fill the role of deliverer-judge. Exum wrote, “No character in the book receives more divine assurance than Gideon and no one displays more doubt.”[26]As a representative of his time, Gideon was not thankful for past blessings and so lacked any faith for the present challenge. God identified the potential he saw in Gideon, but Gideon rejected it (Judges 6:12–13). God gave specific instructions, but Gideon dismissed them (6:14–15). God gave the direct promise of his presence and a promise of victory, but Gideon demanded a sign (6:16–18). God graciously provided that sign (6:19–21) and gave a further assurance that Gideon would not die when he expressed fear (6:22–23). God then gave Gideon a job to do—tear down his father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah. Gideon fearfully did the task at night, and his own father protected him when the men of the city wanted to kill him for the desecration (6:25–32).[27] When God empowered Gideon with the presence of his Holy Spirit, Gideon put God to a further test with the fleece (6:34–40).[28]
Seeing a potential problem in Gideon, God reduced his army until Israel was greatly outnumbered (7:1–7). The reason given was that “Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me’” (7:2). Then, God gave Gideon one final gracious encouragement, instructing him to go down into the enemy camp where he received a direct confirmation that his army would be victorious in the battle (7:9–15). This final word brought Gideon to worship and to assure his army that “the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands” (7:15). Gideon doubted all the words from God, but was finally convinced by the words of an enemy soldier. Leaders always need to seek advice and counsel from advisors. God’s wisdom, however, must always take precedent over that of human advisors, as man is prone to pride and earthly influences, and only God’s wisdom is pure in its motivation (James 3:13–18).
The outcome of Gideon’s story is first hinted at in Gideon’s instruction to his men. Twice he gave the battle cry as, “for the Lord and for Gideon” (7:18, 20). Leaders are prone to see themselves as more important in the process than is warranted before God. Pride is the leader’s constant enemy, and an ever-present temptation.[29] When the war was won, Gideon at first avoided confrontation with Ephraim by emphasizing first the importance of their accomplishments, and then by telling them that God had given the leaders of Midian into their hands (8:1–3). However, when Gideon met men with doubt like his own, he became ruthless in his treatment of them (8:4–17), even to the point of killing fellow Israelites for being hesitant to fully enter the war.[30] Leaders must always remember their own humble journey, and God’s grace in their lives, and then be an instrument of that grace to others in their journey. Gideon sorely failed in this matter, being fed by his own swelling pride over the Midianite defeat.
From this point on, Gideon’s pride rose to the front and controlled his actions. He embarrassed his own fearful and hesitant son over the killing of the two Midianite kings (8:18–21). He claimed for himself the kings’ “crescent ornaments which were on their camel’s necks” (8:21). When the people came to Gideon and asked him to rule over them, forming a dynasty along with his sons, Gideon piously declined, stating “the Lord shall rule over you” (Judg. 8:23). Instead, Gideon asked each of them to give him an earring from the spoil of the war. They willingly did this, providing Gideon with more than forty-three pounds of gold, “besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the neck bands that were on their camels’ necks” (Judg. 8:26). The narrator says, “Gideon made [the gold] into an ephod, and placed it in his city, Ophrah, and all Israel played the harlot with it there, so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household” (Judg. 8:27).
Gideon then married many wives, and had seventy sons, one of them being Abimelech, the son of his Canaanite concubine. Here a judge failed to obey specific commands from God not to intermarry with the Canaanites (Deut. 7:3; Josh. 23:12). A leader’s prideful elevation of himself will even take him to a place where he feels above the laws of God. Gideon’s sin in making an idolatrous ephod impacted his own home, as seen in the following story of Abimelech, and then in the nation. When Gideon died, “the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals” (Judg. 8:33). Gideon piously refused the title of king which the people wished to give him, but he certainly lived “like an oriental king, a status memorialized in the name of his son, Abimelech (‘my father is king’).”[31] Gideon’s story began in the idolatrous household of his father. Through many gracious events God brought Gideon to a place of faith. His victory, however, was tainted with pride, and Gideon’s life ended back in idolatry.
The story of Abimelech demonstrates the impact Gideon had on his own family.[32] The narrator writes that Gideon surely defeated the Midianites and “they did not lift up their heads anymore” (Judg. 8:28), but the story of Abimelech illustrates that Gideon destroyed his own family in the process. Leaders tend to see the big-picture challenges before them as the primary focus of their calling, while at the same time they may fail to see the need to look beyond their own lives and leave a godly legacy when they are gone. The leader’s family often gets little attention, resulting in sons and daughters who are ill-prepared to carry on the victories of the parents.
Abimelech is such a case. Abimelech illustrates a son who picked up on all the bad traits of his father. He illustrates the proverbial saying, “like father, like son,” but with a step downhill. Abimelech purposefully sides with the idolatrous side of his background, with no thought of obeying Yahweh. The narrator then shows numerous parallels between Gideon and his son.
Gideon is said to have looked like the son of a king (8:18); Abimelech’s name meant he was the son of a king. Gideon ends his life in idolatry (8:27); Abimelech financed his evil reign from the house of Baal-berith (9:4). Gideon tore down the altar of Baal and sacrificed a bull to Yahweh in preparation for his judgeship (6:25–28); Abimelech sacrificed his own brothers “on one stone” in preparation for his kingship. Gideon’s brothers were killed by the enemy (8:18); Abimelech killed his own brothers as his enemies (9:5). Gideon told his men to watch what he did and do likewise, as they went into battle against Midian (7:18); Abimelech told his men to do the same as they went to war against his own family in Shechem (9:48). Gideon overreacted and killed all the men in the tower at Penuel (8:17); Abimelech overreacted and did the same at Thebez, killing all the men, and some women (9:49; there was no mention of this city previously as a warrant for Abimelech to attack).[33]
There is a definite cause-effect relationship between Gideon and Abimelech. While Gideon damaged his family spiritually, Abimelech damaged his family both spiritually and physically, demonstrating the downward cycle in the book from Judges 2:19. Abimelech turned on both his father’s and his mother’s families, freely murdering both. When leaders neglect or purposefully abuse their families, they take sides against God who is seeking to preserve the family as a basic building block of society (Judg. 9:23–24).
Leadership in the Quadrant 3 Judges: Jephthah among the Secondary Judges
The story of Jephthah (Judg. 10:6–12:7) continues themes from both Gideon and Abimelech. It is once again a story about a parent with personal goals that are in conflict with God-given family goals. Like Abimelech, Jephthah was the offspring of a woman outside the main family circle (Judg. 11:1). As such, their fathers were poor examples for them. Both were ostracized by the main family group and formed a group of their own of “worthless men” (Judg. 11:2–3). Both had aspirations of creating a dynasty which led to their downfall.
The story of Jephthah must be viewed against the backdrop of the stories surrounding it. Viewed as the centerpiece in a chiasm [34] from Gideon to Abdon, the story of Jephthah can be understood from the theme of the growth of the family and the roles the offspring assumed. The chiasm is formed based on the numbers within these stories themselves.
A. Gideon’s main family had 70 sons; the story involves a 3-generational family
B. Tola’s story gives only basic facts of his life, career, death and burial (10:1–2)
C. Jair’s story had 30 sons, 30 donkeys, 30 thirty cities (10:4)
D. Jephthah had one child, a daughter (11:34)
C'. Ibzan’s story had 30 sons, 30 daughters, 30 sons-in-law (12:8–10)
B'. Elon’s story gives only basic facts of life, career, death and burial (12:11–12)
A'. Abdon had 40 sons, 30 grandsons, a 3-generational family, riding 70 donkeys (12:13–15)
Tola and Elon seem to be placeholders in the pattern, but the growth and development of the family in the other secondary judges demonstrates the important theme. Gideon certainly had his eye on a dynasty, with himself as the king.[35] That idea is then developed through the chiasm, based on the offspring of the judge.
The narrator begins the theme of the extension of the family with Jair. He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. The donkeys are signs of wealth as they are the vehicle for kings.[36] Jair seems to have appointed his sons to continue his own rule by putting them over thirty cities in Gilead (Judges 10:4). Ibzan also had thirty sons, along with thirty daughters. He gave the daughters in marriage and he brought in thirty other daughters-in-law to marry his sons (Judg. 12:8–10). With Ibzan the family is expanding beyond just having offspring. The children are getting married. Abdon had forty sons and thirty grandsons and he gave them all donkeys. With Abdon the family again moves to the next step. The children get married and have grandchildren, but the presence of the donkeys indicates that the role of Abdon as judge is now passed to both his sons and to his grandsons. The building of a dynasty is in place. This is something that almost happened with Gideon and Abimelech, and it is the very thing that Jephthah wanted most.
Jephthah had been disinherited from the brothers of his father’s wife since he was the son of a harlot (Judg. 11:1–2). Jephthah left home and gathered a band of “worthless fellows” (Judg. 11:3). When the sons of Ammon fought against his homeland, the elders of Gilead sought Jephthah out and asked him to return and become their chief to fight against the Ammonites (Judg. 11:4–6). Jephthah negotiated an arrangement with the elders of Gilead that if he won the war they would make him “head and chief over them” (Judg. 11:7–11).[37] Jephthah would be able to establish his own dynasty, even over the brothers who disinherited him. Jephthah, however, had only one child, a daughter.
In his desire to win the war, “Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, ‘If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering’” (Judg. 11:30–31).[38] Block argues that Jephthah “had everything to lose if God should fail him; all that he had gained politically would slip from his fingers. If God should abandon him, so would the people.”[39] Human sacrifice was an abomination in Israel (Lev. 18:21; Deut. 12:31), but it was practiced by the Ammonites.[40] “In this instance Jephthah was neither rash nor pious (in the orthodox Yahwistic sense)—he was outrightly pagan. Rather than a sign of spiritual immaturity and folly, like Gideon’s ephod, his vow arose from a syncretistic religious environment.”[41] Jephthah was covering his bases by making a promise to the God of Israel, but by offering a human sacrifice he was also making an appeal to the gods of the Ammonites who accepted human sacrifice.[42]
Jephthah won the war,[43] and when he returned home, his daughter came out of the house to greet him (Judg. 11:32–34). As a result, the narrator simply said that Jephthah “did to her according to the vow which he had made” (Judg. 11:39). Then, following the war, in a confrontation with the men of Ephraim, in contrast to Gideon’s treatment of Ephraim (Judg. 8:1–3), Jephthah turned against them and killed “42,000 of Ephraim” for not supporting him in the battle (Judg. 12:1–6).
The lessons of the Jephthah story indicate that Israel had spiraled further downhill. In staking everything on his personal goal, Jephthah foolishly destroyed his own goal by destroying his own family. His daughter was his only offspring, and in sacrificing her, he sacrificed the only hope for a dynasty. Leaders need to see that success in building their families is intricately tied to the success of their career. If leaders model a destructive approach to the family, they are contributing to the destruction of the nation and their local body of believers. When a leader places such an emphasis on personal career over family, he/she is in danger of losing both.
The Gideon story describes what happened to the sons as a result of the fathers not living and passing on the faith. The Jephthah story tells what happens to the daughters when the fathers are concerned for themselves rather than preparing a godly heritage. When the men failed, God raised up women to take over their responsibilities (e.g., Deborah, Jael, the unnamed woman in Judges 9). But if the women are removed from the picture, as Jephthah’s daughter was, the very existence of the nation is at stake. . . . Problems in the home ultimately impacted the nation.[44]
Leadership in the Quadrant 4 Judges: Samson
The story of Samson (Judg. 13:1–16:31) is the last of the judge stories, and as such, it brings Israel to the bottom of the downhill spiral. Samson took the drive for personal satisfaction that is seen in Gideon and Jephthah to a new low. His first words in the story focused on wanting what he saw (Judg. 14:2), and in the end he lost his sight (Judg. 16:21). He never finished his marriage ceremony and he died without a family. Samson embodied the promiscuous behavior of the Canaanite gods.
The story begins with yet another spiritually weak man, Manoah. He is blessed by God with the promise of an extraordinary son, which puts Samson in line with other great leaders born to barren women.[45] The angel of the Lord came to Manoah’s wife multiple times with the message because Manoah seems spiritually dull in understanding God’s plan, even to the point of fearing death which would annul the plan (Judg. 13:1–22). Manoah’s wife understands the ramifications of the angelic visit and needs to brace up her husband (Judg. 13:23). When Samson was born and expressed his desire for a Philistine woman, Manoah was unable to persuade him otherwise and so acquiesced to his demands. If leaders are spiritually dull they may begin to follow those they are supposed to lead.
The story of Samson begins with Israel’s sin and God giving them into the hands of the Philistines. This story does not have the stage where the nation cries out to God for help. Judah, who was the designated leader-tribe in the book (Judg. 1:1–2; 20:18), tried to stop Samson from harassing the Philistines (Judg. 15:9–13). It is for this reason that God gifted Samson with supernatural strength: A one-man army was needed to fight as a representative of all Israel. Judah was willing to sacrifice their own Spirit-filled judge by giving him to the enemy rather than fight for their own freedom (Judg. 15:11). When leaders have lost their spiritual contact with God, they resign themselves to the whim of fate and the forces they cannot control. Even leaders can lose their God-given vision for the task at hand as they needlessly surrender to the enemy.
Like Gideon and Jephthah, Samson’s personal passions drove his actions. His lust for women, and his hatred for the Philistines, controlled him in all the episodes the narrator included of his life. Samson’s greatest strength was his unstoppable God-given power over the Philistines. His greatest weakness was his inability to overpower his personal lusts. In the end his weakness for women led him to a most unglorious death. Samson was blinded by his lust and was unaware of the tactics of Delilah. He treated the secret of his strength as Esau had treated his own birthright, each selling it to indulge their temporary appetites.
Concluding the Book of Judges: The Canaanization of Israel
The conclusion of the book has two extended epilogue stories that correspond to the two introductions. These final stories (17:1–18:31 and 19:1–21:25) are clearly distinct from the stories of the judges. Instead of being built around the cycle of sin and deliverance, they are built around the repeated phrases, “In those days there was no king in Israel” (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25) and the resultant fact that “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (17:6; 21:25). In these last two stories, “the narrator will offer the reader a series of glimpses at how ordinary Israelites fared in the dark days of the ‘judges’ (governors). The effect will be to confirm the picture of a pervasively and increasingly Canaanized society.”[46] Each story began in a dysfunctional Israelite home, creating a situation that would lead to first a moral and then a military disaster in the whole nation.
In the story of Micah and his mother (Judg. 17:1–18:31)[47] Micah stole money from his mother and then confessed in fear of a curse upon the thief. His mother gave the money back to Micah, commissioning the making of idols for the home. Micah created a shrine with the idols and commissioned his son as the priest. Soon a traveling Levite arrived and replaced Micah’s son as the family priest, only to be enticed away by some Danites who were moving their tribe to a better location in the far north. The Levite took Micah’s idols and went with the Danites to become their priest. They set up an alternate worship center in the city of Dan that was later used by Jeroboam as a cultic center, and it lasted until the Assyrian captivity of Israel in 722 bc. The Levite is identified at the end of the story as Jonathan, the grandson of Moses.[48] A private shrine in the syncretistic home of Micah and his mother escalated into a place of pagan worship for Israel for hundreds of years. This was the corresponding end result of the moral compromises seen in the second introduction of the book (Judg. 2:6–3:6).
The story of the Levite and his concubine (Judg. 19:1–21:25), a shocking account of moral depravity, occurred early in the period of the judges.[49] A concubine “played the harlot” and left her Levite husband to return home. When the Levite went to retrieve his wife, he experienced great hospitality in contrast to the treatment they experienced on the way home. Avoiding a Canaanite city, they went to an Israelite city where “the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house” in order to “know him” (Judg. 19:22, esv). Their Ephraimite host offered the men his virgin daughter and when they refused, the Levite thrust his concubine out the door. Finding her raped and lying at the doorway in the morning, he took her home, cut up her body and sent parts to all the territories of Israel. When the nation gathered to discipline the guilty men, the tribe of Benjamin rallied to protect them and a civil war arose. When all the tribe of Benjamin was reduced to only six hundred men remaining, the war was called off. Now they needed to find wives for these six hundred men so that the tribe was not lost to Israel. Since those who fought had sworn not to give any of their daughters to Benjamin, they came up with two plans. They wiped out all but the virgin girls in one city that had not helped in the war, securing four hundred virgins. Then the remaining Benjamites kidnapped another two hundred virgins from a group holding “a feast of the Lord” (Judg. 21:19–23). The Levite had mutilated his concubine wife—an even more depraved counterpart to the story of Adoni-bezek in the first introduction who had mutilated his enemies (Judg. 1:5–7). The Benjamites murdered and kidnapped virgin girls because they needed “wombs” to re-start their tribe again—a counterpart to Sisera’s mother’s comment about the Canaanite view of women as spoils of war (Judg. 5:28–30). All of this happened because “in those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25).
These epilogue stories both contain a Levite as part of the story, with one coming from the very family of Moses. The temptation to be drawn into personal gain, or to be impacted by the prevailing culture around us, is not something that affects only a few. These are temptations that impact everyone, even those who are directly attached to the ministry. Leadership in spiritual ministry is no guarantee that one will be exempt from the allure of the sins of the culture. Thus, one must remain vigilant to the task given by Yahweh instead of pursuing what is right in one’s own eyes.
Leadership Significance
The setting of the book of Judges arises out of Joshua laying down a challenge for individual families to purposefully choose to serve the God who brought them out of Egypt into the Promised Land (Josh. 24:14–15). Their job, entering this next period of time, was to rid the land of the remaining pockets of Canaanites and remain faithful to God who would help them. Israel failed by allowing the Canaanites to remain, and by compromising on God’s moral instruction. They formed family-marriage alliances with the Canaanites and failed to pass to their children a faithful adherence to the covenant in Deuteronomy. The judge stories show the downward spiral, as they moved from order to chaos. Othniel began the story by marrying into the faith of the past, building a marriage around God’s promises for the land. Samson closed the story, fully indulging the lusts of his eyes and becoming physically blind as Israel was spiritually blind. The end product was a failure to fulfill the responsibility of family leadership given by Joshua, with the result that everyone just did what was right in their own eyes.
Godly leadership must be chosen willfully as it is only one of many options for those in leadership. Godly leadership is not naturally found in a onetime decision, but instead it is something that has to be chosen over and over as leaders are constantly barraged by choices and opportunities to sacrifice their service of God in exchange for serving one’s own passions and appetites. The leader’s service must be built around a thankfulness for God’s demonstrated grace, with a maintained commitment to God’s goals, recognizing God’s principles for carrying out those goals. When leaders abdicate their responsibility to do that, they enter a downhill spiral where allegiance to God is gradually replaced by allegiance to self. Pride and self-serving goals are the temptation of every leader. If followed, the end product is a blindness to all heavenly wisdom in favor of what is right in their own eyes.
Many of the lessons found in the Book of Judges are negative lessons, but there is a sliver of hope that needs to be highlighted. It is generally accepted that the book of Ruth, is joined thematically to the book of Judges and takes place “in the days when the judges governed” (Ruth 1:1).[50] Even though the book of Judges ends on a pessimistic note, God, the Judge, is behind the scenes preparing a leader who is a man after His own heart. That man is David (Ruth 4:18–22), a descendent of Ruth, who will turn the nation back toward a proper worship and service of God. And, it is through the lineage of David that God brought to the world a Savior who brought grace and truth (John 1:17) to all who fail. Leaders must never lose sight of the grace of God which is behind all that we are and all that we do (1 Cor. 15:10). With that perspective, there is always hope, even in the darkest of days.
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