The Judges’ Cycle of Deliverance
READ Judges 2:1-3
Why did the Lord leave the inhabitants of Canaan as
“thorns” and their gods as “snares” to Israel?
The Lord didn’t - Israel did
this when they either refused or were unable, through their lack of faith, to
destroy the people of the Canaan.
The people of Canaan as
“thorns” is meant to “prick” the people into remembrance of the Lord (when they
are afflicted by the local kings).
The gods of Canaan are
“snares” only if Israel falls into the trap - there is always an enticement to
draw the prey into the snare but if the prey ignores the enticement, they will
be safe from the snare.
READ Judges 2:10-12
How did a generation whose parents and grandparents
“served the Lord all the days of Joshua” and had “seen all the great works of
the Lord, that He did for Israel”, know not the Lord?
Perhaps they had not been
taught by their righteous parents (doubtful).
Seeing all of the great works
of the Lord is not the same as knowing Him for yourself. Perhaps the parents and grandparents served
the Lord because of what they had seen, not what they had personally
experienced (they had not come unto Christ to be sealed up to eternal life
themselves); and because they had not experienced Jehovah for themselves, the
“great things” had ceased with Moses and Joshua, and could no longer be
personally observed by their children or effectively taught by them with power
to later generations.
But even if they did KNOW
Christ for themselves, every one of us stands at the veil individually - we can
be taught, served and enticed to come unto Christ – even by those that know Him
personally (like Moses or Joseph Smith), but if we refuse the invitation, we
will “know not the Lord”; at a minimum, that is what is happening here.
READ Judges 3:7-11
What is the cycle of Judges laid out here?
Sin (v7).
Consequences (v8).
Repentance (v9).
Means of deliverance (v9-10).
Deliverance (v10).
Peace (v11).
This same pattern is repeated
generation after generation, six times - through the following deliverers:
Orhniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, although this last story
is a bit different and we will walk through it in more detail. Let’s talk about the various “deliverers” in
each of these stories.
READ Judges 3:9,15; Judges
4:4; Judges 6:15; Judges 11:1-2; Judges 13:3-5
What common theme do you see across these deliverers of
Israel?
None of them are the obvious
choices to be “Deliverers of Israel” - they are all socially unacceptable to
ancient Israel in some way: a younger brother, a left-handed person, a woman, a
poor man, the illegitimate son of a prostitute, a miraculous birth and a
Nazarite (one who is separated and different from the rest of society).
They all parallel the “Great
Deliverer” in some way.
The story of Jephthah, the
illegitimate son of a harlot, is interesting…
READ Judges 11:5-11
What do you think the Elders of Gilead were planning to
do to Jephthah after the battle was won?
Cast him out again.
He is only “their head” for
the “fight against the children of Ammon”.
It is only after he tells them
his terms: that he be their legitimate leader - that in their desperation, they
agree to be led by one of such lowly station and heritage.
How do these various deliverers parallel the Great
Deliverer?
“Can any good thing come out
of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
“He hath no form nor
comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire
him” (Mosiah 14:2).
“He is despised and rejected
of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our
faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not” (Mosiah 14:3).
We have a natural tendency to
read what we think we know of the Lord back into the story, but those who
encountered Him in His mortal ministry didn’t see Him for who He really is…
READ Luke 4:22-24
READ the Story of Axis the Horse
“There was a Celtic tribe
whose horses were known for their strength and speed. They used to allow their horses to run wild
when not being used by the tribe for work or battle. One horse, born in the wild, grew to be
bigger and stronger than all the rest.
He ran at the head of any herd.
He was challenged many times and fought without defeat. When he raced, he always won. When he was finally brought into the town, he
was scared from battle. The people named
him Axis, in part for his warlike appearance.
He was never truly tamed. He was
hard for any man to ride, and many feared to approach him. Only the most brave
attempted it. Only a few were able to ride him. Years after the horse was dead,
the princes of the tribe decided to build a monument to Axis. They commissioned the best sculptor in the
land to make a statue of the greatest of horses. The sculptor looked far and wide for someone
who had actually seen Axis alive and he finally found an old man who had seen
the horse when he was a small boy. The
old man described Axis as larger than any horse in the herd, with scars like a
warhorse, and strength that showed through.
The sculptor began to create the statue in line with this description
but when the princes of the tribe saw it, they hated it - “it is too large; it
is disproportionate; it is disfigured; it is rearing up and warlike; it is not
beautiful and no one will want to look at it.
You must remake it - Axis is known throughout the world and his statue
must add to his fame.” So the sculptor
discarded the statue and began again.
This time he found the most beautiful horse he could find as a model. Although it was a mare, it fit the
description the princes wanted. He
created a stallion version of the horse, which all that saw it said was a most
amazing work of art! “It is without
blemish! It is a thing of beauty! It is perfect!” the princes exclaimed. The old man had died by the time the new
statue was finished but when the horse was unveiled to the public, they
marveled, “I thrill at the sight of him!
Look how gentle he must have been!
He must have been named Axis because of his perfect proportions, equal
in all dimensions! He must have been the
most attractive horse ever born. All of
the other horses must have followed him in wonder!” The people of the tribe began to breed their
horses in line with the statue. They
became known across the world for their exquisitely beautiful animals. They won every horse show and the animals
were kept carefully in stalls and fed the best hay and oats. They never ran wild or fought or raced or
worked, as they were too valuable and not fit for these purposes, anyway. And behind an old barn stands a neglected
and forgotten statue, whose rearing, scarred form had come to represent
everything that was unwanted in a horse.”
Why do we want a hero or Deliverer
who is different from real life?
We worship at the altar of telestial
appearance and subjective success – and we’ve constructed heroes in stories and
movies that fit our socially acceptable narratives; we really do not like it
when real life differs from our preconceived notions of how things “should be”.
We have no idea what traits a
true Deliverer (hero) will have, anyway.
We do not think about the
price a true Deliverer must pay in a mortal world and what that would do to
that person over a lifetime (Christ’s price was larger than a 24 hour sacrifice
in the Garden and on the cross).
Gideon’s Signs
READ Judges 6:14-17 and
6:36-40
Who does Gideon lack faith in, such that he is asking
the Lord for signs?
Himself - he is doubting his
own ability to exercise faith or doubting his own ability as poor (from
Manasseh), and the least in his father’s house.
What is Gideon seeking for with the fleece?
Confirmation.
Strengthening.
Assurance beyond what he has
already received.
What is the difference between sign-seeking and
“fleece-seeking”?
Sign seeking = “I’m not going
to do it unless you give me a sign”.
Fleece seeking = “I want to do
what you are asking, I intend to do it, I am going to do it, but I need some
encouragement and help to increase my faith sufficiently to be able to be an
effective tool”.
“Fleece-seeking” comes from
the same place of hope mingled with fear that the exchange between the man with
the sick son and Christ in Mark 9:22-24 came from. “IF thou canst believe, all things are
possible to him that believeth.” To
which the man replies, “Lord, I believe… help thou mine unbelief!”
Gideon was commissioned to
defeat the Midianites. All of them that
volunteered to fight were Israelites, and all were seeking to follow the Lord.
Yet only a few finished the course.
READ Judges 7:2-3
If this story is an analogy for Coming unto Christ, why
do two thirds of the “active” Israelites turn back?
They forsake following the
Lord because of the cares and temptations of this life.
They “fear” to do good, when
tempted to do otherwise.
It is a cautionary tale that
while having a desire to come unto Christ is necessary, it is not sufficient.
READ Judges 7:4-7
What symbolism exists in the fact that the Lord had
Gideon cull his army twice?
All are Israelites or “called”
but only a few finish the course – only a few are self-elect enough to be
“chosen”.
Three degrees of glory.
What is significant about the way that the 300-person
Army of Gideon drank the water?
They remained vigilant as they
drank - watching for their enemy - valiant in their purpose of coming unto
Christ.
They drank while balanced on
their knees, using their (left) hand as a cup to drink the life sustaining
water (their right hand balanced on the ground, able to grab their swords if
needed).
The image of the cupped hand
speaks to begging for and being ready to receive God’s word which will greatly
enlarge the souls of those who receive it meekly; it also speaks to being
hidden in the hand – suggesting God’s power to protect us when we have faith in
Him; it reminds us of how Christ beckons for us – he entreats, implores and invites
us to come unto Him – He does not compel with a clenched fist or harsh gesture
which belies an authoritarian status.
What does the group that put their faces into the water
teach us about the journey back to Christ?
They knelt before their
fleshly appetites and momentarily forgot the danger AND purpose of their
mission.
They did not remain vigilant;
they forgot why they were there.
They turned their eyes from
Christ to the true desires of their hearts.
What does the fact that less than one percent of the
Israelite men who set out to follow the Lord’s command succeeded in their
desire?
The Way is strait and narrow
and few there are that find it.
This applies to the “called”,
not just the general public; we should be much more humble about our chances. But having said that, it is wholly up to us –
which is good news.
Samson as a Messianic
Figure
READ Judges 13:1-3
What is the significance of this miracle birth?
The pattern: a woman cannot
hear a child because of infirmity, age, infertility or lack of marriage; a
promise is made by God that a son will be sent; the son is born in miraculous
circumstances; the son plays a role which alters the course of the Lord’s people.
The boy is a type of Christ,
who also fit the pattern.
Others sons who fit this
pattern include John the Baptist, Isaac, Samuel.
READ Judges 13:4-5
What is a Nazarite?
One becomes a Nazarite by
making a vow to God.
They separate themselves from
the world unto the Lord and consecrate the time unto the Lord – they keep His
commandments.
What is the Nazarite vow?
Vow includes following God’s
commandments, abstaining from wine/drink, not cutting hair, not becoming
unclean through touching the dead, not profaning the Sabbath (see Numbers 6).
There
is some speculation that Christ Himself had sworn a Nazarite vow; the thought
is that the statement in Matthew 2:23 that Christ was called a “Nazarene”
should be translated as “called a Nazarite”, as “no good thing” was thought to
come out of Nazareth, as it was such a small hamlet of a village at the time
that no one would be called a Nazarene; and that Mary cut the strands of his
hair when she anointed Him with the spikenard, in preparation for his death.
Samson had great strength,
which he used to afflict the Philistines, who were the enemies of Israel. He fell in love with Delilah, a Philistine,
who tried to get him to reveal to her the source of his strength. After several attempts…
READ Judges 16:15-20
Why did his hair give Samson “super-strength”?
It didn’t - the Nazarite vow,
which Samson had only partly kept, had been honored by the Lord, who gave
Samson strength to do His will.
What does hair represent?
The Nazarite vow of
consecrating oneself to God.
Health or lack thereof
(baldness is a curse in Isaiah, so hair is symbolic of blessings).
A life focused on God as
opposed to the mundane things of this world - a healthy spiritual life or lack
thereof.
READ Judges 16:24-25, 27-28,
30
How does Samson’s death point to Christ’s?
He is taken captive by his
enemies.
His enemies proclaim their god
is stronger than Samson or his god.
He is called a destroyer of
the country (Christ was sentenced for treason).
He is put to death between two
pillars (crosses).
He is tied so that his arms
are wide open.
He is mocked by his enemies.
He prays that he might be
remembered of God (not forsaken).
He prays to God for strength
in his hour of death.
The Deliverer of Israel is put
to death by his enemies.
The greatest building of his
enemies was rent apart when he died (veil of the temple; later the whole Temple
building).
