To "catch up" on the Bible's Story, the reader can look at previous installments: Part 1, Parts 2 and 3, Part 4, and Parts 5 and 6.
The next book of the Bible after Joshua and the conquest of Canaan (the land promised to Abraham’s descendants as one of the three parts of God’s covenant with Abraham - Genesis 12, 15), is the book of Judges. The question of a “human” ruler or king has come up, and as the later book of 1 Samuel hints at, Israel was supposed to acknowledge God as their king (8:7). Here, however, fresh off of an incomplete campaign to rid the land of all foreigners, the book of Judges shows us repeatedly how in this instance: a) Israel sins (involving worship of the Baals and other pagan fertility gods), b) God sends various groups of foreigners in who fight against Israel, c) the people cry out in anguish, asking for someone to save them, and d) God raises up a “judge” (“judge” here refers to a warrior/leader, rather than our common understanding of someone who presides over a court room), and the judge rescues Israel according to God’s plan.
Perhaps the best way to summarize the book of Judges, as well as the newly formed kingdom of Israel, is to look at the very last verse of the book itself: “In those days, Israel had no king, and everyone did as he saw fit.” (21:25). And though the “judges” were raised up by God to save Israel and restore the kingdom, the pattern of everyone “doing as they saw fit” demonstrates the Biblical nature of sin itself: for a person to follow their own ways and not the ways of God.
The book of Judges chronicles this repeating pattern and how such well known Judges as Othniel (3:7-11), Ehud (3:12-30), Deborah (ch. 4-5), Gideon (ch. 6-8), Jephthah (10:6-12:7), and Samson (ch. 13-16) carry out God’s ultimate plan and drives back such ethnic groups as the Moabites, the Canaanites, Midianites, Ammonites, and Philistines. Other, lesser known Judges are also chronicled in the book. It is noteworthy to see that there was a female Judge - Deborah, who was originally a prophetess for the people. It is also worth mentioning that the beginning of every account of each Judge begins with stating that the Israelites “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” following the previous Judge, such as with the beginning of Gideon’s rule (ch. 6).
Many people might recall the story of the Judge, Samson (ch.13-16), who had great strength and had been set apart from birth, much the way John the Baptist from the Gospels had. Samson was a man of considerable strength - one might call him the “strongest man in the world.” Unfortunately, he was also gullible and succumbed to his wife, Delilah’s persistent attempts at trying to learn the secret of his strength to betray him to the Philistines (ch. 16). After several failed attempts by her to betray him, he finally admitted to her that the secret of his great strength lie in his head, which had never before been shaved or trimmed. She had his braids shaved off (16:19), and he was defeated then by the Philistines.
Another and perhaps lesser known Judge was Jephthah - also an example to us of how we should think before speaking or making a promise. He was “a mighty warrior” (11:1) and after Israel turned again to false idols, cried out to God for help, and made him their Judge, he made a vow that he would sacrifice the first thing to walk out of his house upon his return, should the Lord make him victorious in battle. God did make him victorious, and the first “thing” to come out of his house was his very own daughter. Ironically, it was the daughter who insisted that he needed to keep his vow to God (11:36).
Sadly, though, this pattern of everyone doing what was right in their own eyes and “doing evil in the sight of the Lord” continues, despite the “reign” of several Judges over the early years of Israel as a nation.
If the time of the Judges demonstrated Israel “doing their own thing,” the time of the Kings showed the extent of them failing to listen to God. Following the time of the Judges, Israel still clamored for a true “king” to lead them, despite that it has been God all along telling them that he was their king, and they needed no other (1 Samuel 8:7). Their problem continued to be the first commandment - they could never seem to get over worshiping the false gods of their neighbors and the foreigners in their land. God sent them a king anyhow, with the warning to the people, “if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will be swept away.” (1 Samuel 12:25). Thus begins the line of the Kings of Israel.
The books of 1 and 2 Samuel tell the stories of Saul and David. Following Saul, who was eventually rebuked by God (1 Kings 15:26), comes the great kingship of David (2 Samuel 2), who is known in part for his battle with Goliath (1 Samuel 17). Though he honors God in establishing Jerusalem as the spiritual center and trusting in God’s power, even David was not without troubles. Eventually his sin compounded as he committed adultery with Bathsheba, then allowed for the murder of her husband Uriah, and finally claimed her as his own wife (2 Samuel 11). Psalm 51 is David’s song of lament and repentance for these sins.
The books of 1 and 2 Kings follow the accounts of 1 and 2 Samuel and present a succession of kings who followed in later generations. Solomon follows David after another, Adonijah, had himself wrongfully appointed as David’s successor (1 Kings 1). As Solomon succeeds David as the true King of Israel, he asks God for a wise and discerning heart (1 Kings 3:9). Sadly, even now, the people were forgetting God and worshiping false idols in the “high places” of Israel (3:2), and even Solomon did the same. However, God grants him the wisdom he sought and despite his sin, he rules wisely.
Solomon arranges for the construction of a great temple to God (ch. 5), and it was eventually built, and the inner space called the “Holy of Holies” was the residing place for the “Ark of the Covenant,” which contained the stone tablets of the 10 commandments and God’s covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-20). Despite his wisdom, and because of his sin, Solomon could not keep the nation of Israel together, and so it split in two during his reign: the northern kingdom of Israel (10 of the 12 tribes) and the southern kingdom of Judah (the tribes of Benjamin and Judah). The kingdom of Judah is where David’s capitol city of Jerusalem, and thus the temple, was to be found.
The remaining chapters tell the account of the various kings of both Israel and Judah. In most instances, these kings are described as one who “did evil in the eyes of the Lord...” (1 Kings 15:34 and elsewhere). They worshiped false idols and failed to worship God. Consequently, disaster was waiting to happen. Israel’s kings were far worse, and the northern Kingdom of Israel was overrun and destroyed by the Assyrian empire in 721 BC.
Judah’s kings to that point had been much more obedient as a rule. Josiah was one such king (2 Kings 22-23), who when having the temple refurbished, discovered the books of the Old Testament law, and instituted a series of sweeping reforms to try and return the kingdom to one that worshiped God alone. His reforms were short-lived, however, as Judah returned to pagan worship and eventually it too was overthrown in 597 BC. Its’ inhabitants were carried off into exile by the Babylonian empire, to what is present day Iraq. The temple was looted and destroyed, and the kingdom was no more.
Exile for both awaited, and the next installment will deal with both Exile and Restoration.
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