Judges (Chapter 1)

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Welcome And Where Judges Fits

Phil Porter 0:00

You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast. Our mission is to help the people of God understand the Word of God. Join us each Monday and Thursday for new episode releases. Listen to our full library of content at teachmethebible.com or by downloading the Teach Me the Bible app from any app store. You're listening to Teach Me the Bible Podcast. Well, hey everybody, welcome to Teach Me the Bible Podcast. My name is Phil Porter, alongside Dr. David Klingler, and we are going to be starting chapter one of the book of Judges. Just to give clarification, Moses has passed away. Joshua has died. And now we're entering into the time of the judges. And we're gonna, if you haven't um listened to the overview, encourage you before you listen to chapter one. It'd be really great for you to just go back and listen to the overview so that you can kind of understand more about the book. Uh uh Klingler explained a lot of it in

Why The Story Repeats Itself

Phil Porter 1:05

detail. And so uh, but today we're in chapter one and we are off.

Dr. David Klingler 1:10

We're we're off and walking. We're not running yet. We'll be running when we get to about uh chapter three, it starts to to really pick up. Um there are places in um in Hebrew Bible, in the narrative, in the story, where the story stops and reviews. Um here it says, and it came about after the death of uh of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, who will go up for us? Uh we're gonna get in chapter two. Uh if you look at uh chapter two, I believe it's down in verse eight. Yes. In first six, then Joshua dismissed all the people, the sons of Israel went out each to his inheritance to possess the land. You're going, wait a second. I thought that Joshua died in chapter one, and the sir the people served uh the Lord all the days of Joshua, and Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. You're gonna get these these places where the story goes back and fills in uh or summarizes. Uh we're gonna get in chapter one, later in chapter one, uh, verses eleven and following. Uh 11 down through uh let's see here. Not really down through verse 20. Um, you're gonna get a story that's already been recorded in the book of Joshua. Why is it being repeated? Well, this is a part of scripture where where the narrator is saying, okay, let's let's stop and let's remind ourselves of some things. Uh Joshua led Israel into the conquest. And at the end of chapter one, starting, you know, we're gonna start and go through basically each each tribe and say, well, how they do, right? The sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem

Reading Judges Through God’s Law

Dr. David Klingler 3:10

to this day, right? You're gonna get that type of type of thing. You're gonna get an evaluation of where Israel failed. Okay, now remember last time we talked about this is the Deuteronomic history. And so the reader has to know the law, has to know what Israel was supposed to do. If you don't know what they were supposed to do, then you can't evaluate what they are doing, right? Um and this is going to be all the way through. Very rarely does the narrator say, um, they did X, and that's bad, right? Uh we actually have many assignments uh through our Old Testament courses that I assign at the seminary where I give them an old testament law passage, and they are supposed to go just summarize it, just read it. It's a few verses and summarize it, right? Um if you make a vow to the Lord, you will be sure to keep it, lest the Lord your God require it of you. Right? So what does that says if you take a make a vow to the Lord, you have to do it. Summarize it. That's it. And then you go later into the story, and I'll give them a later passage, and someone makes a vow to the Lord and doesn't keep it. And they're supposed to say they made a vow to the Lord, and they're supposed to keep it, but they didn't. That's bad.

Phil Porter 4:35

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 4:37

And that's the point. That's all we're doing. We want them to see what the law uh commands and then what they're doing and see the difference. And this is the way that the narrator, the storyteller, shows you how Israel is following the word of the Lord or not following the word of the Lord. And usually it's not. Correct. And so uh you have to know the law. If you don't know the law, then what will inevitably happen is you'll start making stuff up, right? And you'll interpret according to your personal values, uh, theology, morality, ethics, persuasion. Yes, you know, I kind of like this guy because he's left-handed and I'm left-handed. Yeah. I mean, who knows what you're coming up with, you know. But I'm not left-handed, but uh I am. Uh yeah, but you are, yeah. So maybe uh you might so this is applying to me today. Yeah, yeah, you might show favoritism towards the left-handed guys. Anyway, uh and so we pick it up in uh in verse one, or we continue in verse one. In the New American Stand, and I'm looking at the translation here, it says, Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord. Um, and they're they're translating this, and now it came about. That's that communicates like a pause in the action or something like that. It's actually not. Uh, in the the Hebrew, it's just what we call a preterite, it's just a continuation of the narrative. Uh in um in Joshua chapter one, and we we mentioned this, in Joshua chapter one, it's the exact same construction. And it came about, or and it happened after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, uh like the secretary of Moses, saying, You know, Moses, my servant, is dead. Uh and so in Judges chapter one, uh, it came about after the death of now not uh not Moses, but the the death of Joshua, uh, that uh the sons of Israel asked from the Lord, saying, Who will go up for us to fight against the Canaanites? Uh to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah will go up. Behold, I have given the land into his hand. Then Judah said to Simeon, his brother, Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, uh that we may fight against the Canaanites, and I in turn will go with you into the territory allotted to you. So Simeon went with him. And Judah went up, and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Parasites into the hands and uh into their hands, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek, and they found Adonai Bezek. Um Adonai uh just means Lord. Uh so like this would be like their king, the king of of the of Bezek. In Bezek, and fought against him, uh, and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But Adonai Bezek, the the the the Lord of Bezek, uh

Judah’s First Battles And A Brutal King

Dr. David Klingler 7:40

fled, and they pursued him and killed him. That's how it's supposed to go. Right? You shall utterly destroy the Amrite, Hittite, Canaanite, Jebusite, if it breathes, kill it. That's how it's supposed to go. Yeah. Uh, and they um cut off his thumbs and his big toes. You're going, what? What in the what in the world are we doing here? Yeah, that's strange. And Adonibesek said, seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes um cut off used to gather up scraps under my table, and as I have done, so God has repaid me. So they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. No, what do you do with that, right? Uh and we're gonna see this type of stuff all the way through. Um, we're gonna get later in the book of Judges, and and uh you're gonna hear the excuses, right? Um let me say it this way the reader is supposed to know the law, and you're supposed to hear what the narrator's saying, and you're supposed to see the difference. You know, they they couldn't uh you know fight these people because you know they had iron chariots, right? And that's you know, I mean, come on. Yeah, we we we can't we can't overtake iron chariots. Well, and then later in Judges, um seems that iron chariots aren't quite the problem for the Lord. So um is it the problem that they had iron chariots? Any time that Israel cannot take the land, and this is gonna become relevant here in just a minute, um, why can't they take the land? Right? It is because they're disobedient to the Lord. That's it. There's nothing else. Um, and so you're gonna see all these little compromises, all of these little, all the way through judges, we're gonna see these little times where you're going, wait, what? Is that what what what are they doing? What is Samson doing? Why is he doing this when he's a Nazirite and he's not supposed to be doing this? That type of thing. It's always gonna be kind of this borderline, what are they doing? Why are they doing this? They're gonna give an explanation to justify themselves, right? Uh and so, well, the reason why we did this to him is because he used to do this to others. No, that's not that's not how we're operating. Uh, you are to follow the word of the Lord, right? Um, and um, and so you get this quote from Adonai Bezek, which sounds to me like justification for Israel, but no, that's not how you're supposed to do it. So they uh brought him to Jerusalem and he died there. And then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. And afterwards the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, living in the hill country and in the Negev and in the lowland. And so Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron. Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kariath Arba, and they struck Asheshai and Heman and Ptolemy. From there they went uh he went against the the inhabitants of Dabir, and the name of Dabir formerly was uh Kariath Sephar, and that place is going to uh play we're gonna see these names throughout the scriptures. And Caleb said, The one who attacks Kariath

Caleb And Othniel Set The Bar

Dr. David Klingler 11:05

Sephira and captures it, I will uh even give him my daughter Aksa for a wife. We talked about this uh when we did our uh our Joshua uh podcast, but we'll explain it again here. Um and so what is Caleb doing? Remember Caleb? Now Caleb was one of the twelve the twelve spies. He goes out and uh and comes back, and he was one of the two spies that came back with a good report. Um, and um you know Joshua was the other, so it's Joshua and Caleb. Uh Caleb is um uh is uh you know so so so Caleb is is an obedient one. Um and after the time in uh in the wilderness, now Caleb is ready to go take the land, and he says, Well, let me Adam, right? Um and he and he says, you know, I'm just as strong today as I was when I you know came out of uh um so it's been 40 years of wonders, wildering, uh uh will uh wandering in the wilderness. Um and so what has he been doing, like a workout program? No, no. He's his faith is just as strong as when he was, you know, left Egypt. It's just as strong. It's never wavered, right? And so is he looking for like a is he treating his daughter as like a uh you know a trophy wife or something? No, no, that's not what's going on. What's going on is he's saying, look, guys don't walk in and take over cities by themselves, right? Unless the Lord is with him. So you show me the guy who can go take that city, you show me someone just like me, and I'll show you someone who can marry my daughter, right? So that's what's going on here. And so this is how we're introduced to Othniel. Othniel is going to be the first judge in this book. Um, this is how the narrator shows you when you see Othniel, think Caleb. When you see Othniel, think about one of the only faithful men in Israel, one of the two that made it out of the first generation, right? Uh you equate Othniel's faith and faithfulness with Caleb, right? And so Athniel, the son of Kines, Caleb's younger brother, captured it. Uh, and so he gave him his daughter Aksa for a wife. And when it came about that uh she came to him, uh, that he persuaded him to ask her father for a field. And she alighted herself from the donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you want? And she said, Give me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. Now the descendants of the Canaanite, Moses' father-in-law, went up from the city of Palms with the sons of Judah to the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad. Now, uh the now the descendants of Canaite, Moses' uh father-in-law, we're gonna always refer back to Moses at these spots along the way. Uh Moses is Moses' name is going to be dropped in um all the way through this story. Uh why? Because uh we need to remember Moses. And and actually, uh when we get late in this uh in the book of Judges, down in uh uh into um uh you know the the towards the end, it's going to say Manasseh, um, but it's actually referring back to Moses, uh Jonathan, uh son of Gershem, son of Moses, right? Oh no, this priest is a direct descendant from Moses. This what is going on here? Oh, how far we have fallen. And so anyway, uh we're starting here. He went up to the city of Palms, the sons uh with the sons of Judah, uh, to the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Ered. And they went up and they live with the people. Um are they supposed to go up and live with the people? No, they're supposed to utterly destroy the people. And Judah sent with uh Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites living at uh Zeppath and utterly destroyed it, right? That's what they're supposed to do. So they called the name of this city Hormah, uh, and Judah took Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. Uh hold on to these cities. These are Philistine cities

Compromise Spreads Tribe By Tribe

Dr. David Klingler 15:40

that we're going to see later in the story, uh, later in uh the Samuel Kings. You're going to continue to run into these stories. Samuel in particular, first and second Samuel, and the Philistines become the uh kind of the chief adversary in many of those stories. So Gaza, Ashkelon, uh, Ekron, all of these stories, all of these cities are going to show up again in the story. Uh 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. Right, there it is. No, that's not the problem. Then they gave Hebron uh Hebron to Caleb as Moses had promised, right? So we're we're summoning back to the story of you know of Caleb and Moses. Uh, and he drove out from there the three sons of Anak. Um hold on to that. We're going to see them show up again later in the story. But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. Now, um, again, uh I'm kind of just saying, okay, heads up. Um, it's like watching a movie. Every detail of the movie matters. Um, and if you just are reading for theology, you're going to miss the point. Um, the narrator is not showing you how they're doing by theological statements, per se, for example. Uh, this Jebus. The Jebusites live in uh in Jebus. Uh Jebus is Jerusalem. Um when we get it into the kind of end of this book, there's going to be a priestess. This is in Judges chapter 19. There's going to be a Levite who has a concubine who's traveling. Um, and he comes to a choice at night. He can turn to Gibeah, which is an Israelite city, or he can turn to Jebus and stay in Jebus for the night. He says, Well, I'm not going to stay in Jebus because they're evil there. That's the Jebusites live in Jebus. Well, first of all, why are they living in Jebus? Because the Benjamites couldn't drive him out. Um, and so he goes and stays in Gibeah, and then the story of Sodom and Gomorrah plays out in Gibeah. The the Gibeites are just as evil as Sodom and Gomorrah, right? And so you're going to have these ironic situations uh play out in the story. So hold on to Jabis. Uh they do they took uh Jerusalem, they destroyed, they they captured Jerusalem, burned it with fire, uh, but they couldn't drive out the Jebusites. And so uh David is going to have to go capture Jerusalem again later in the story. Uh so the the Jebusites lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. Okay, well, what's going to happen if the ites live among the people? They're going to intermarry with them, they're going to cause them to follow the foreign gods, and then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against them. This is going to be the next chapter. This is Judges chapter two. It's what's going to happen. Likewise, the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them. Uh, the house of Joseph spied out Bethel. Now, the name of the city formerly was Luz. We learned this back in Genesis. And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, Please show us the entrance of the city, and we will treat you kindly. So he showed him the entrance of the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword. But did they let the man and all his family go free? No, that's not how we're supposed to do these things, right? Uh and the man went into the land of the Hittite and built a city and named it Luz, uh, which is its name to this day. So the man went into the land of the Hittite and built a city and named it Luz, which is his name of the city of this day. So compromise results, compromise results, compromise results. But Manasseh did not take possession of Bethshaan and its villages, uh, nor Tutanak and its villages, and the inhabitants, uh, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Iblam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages. We're watching this increased failure to take the land. So the Canaanites persisted in living in the land. Well, is the pro what's the problem? Is the problem the Canaanites persisted? You know, excuse me, could y'all leave? No, we persist in living here. We're really insistent. We're not no, no. Um, they were not walking faithfully with the command and instruction of the Lord. And it came about that when Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely. What does it mean when they became strong? Well, when they followed the Lord, uh, you know, this is Deuteronomy 28. When you're obedient to the Lord, you will be blessed, and you will go higher and higher, and your enemy will be lower and lower. You will be the head, they will be the tail. But if you're disobedient, if you reject the Lord, if you're disobedient to the Lord, if you don't follow the instruction of the Lord, then you will be lower and lower, uh, uh, you will borrow and not lend, uh, you will be the tail and not the head, uh, and the nations will rule over you. This is you're watching it play out. We're not three minutes into the story of Israel's occupation in the land, and they're already blowing it, right? So the narrator is saying, All right, we see where this is going. Uh, end of Deuteronomy. Moses tells them, You're a stiff-necked rebellious people, you're not going to go take the land, you're not going to do what I tell you. And guess what? They don't, right? And so, as we said last time, we can sum this book up in two words. Told you, right? Uh, and it came about when Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, uh, but they could not drive them out completely. And Ephraim didn't drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer. So the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. Zebulun didn't drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of uh Nahalal. So the Canaanites lived among them and became subject to forced labor. So now the tide's turning, right? Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko, the inhabitants of Sidon. On the inhabitants of Athlab or Axib or Helba or we're starting to get a long list here. So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites. Switched. You see that? The Canaanites lived among the, you know, you know, whatever tribe. So the uh, oh let's see, let's go back here. So, so the uh Canaanites lived among, you know, the you know, tribe of Manasseh or whatever. Now it's switched, right? Now uh the Asherites are living among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Naphtali didn't drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth-Anon. Um Beth just means house, house of Shemish or house of Anon. But they lived among the Canaanites and the inhabitants of the land, and the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and the Habish and Beth Anon became forced labor for them. Then the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come into the valley. Yet the Amorites persisted in living in Mount Harris and in Ajalon and in Shaalbim. But when the power of the house of Joseph grew strong, they became forced labor. And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akra Akrabim from Selah and upwards. And so what's happening, and this is the same thing that's happened in uh the book of Joshua, is the narrator narrator stops here and says, All right, let's evaluate how we're doing. Okay. They didn't take the land. Oh, they took some of it, they conquered some of it. Uh, you know, but the inhabitants uh of the land dwelled among them. Well, that tells you how they're doing. Uh, and uh so when we get to chapter two, uh, we're going to be um, you know, the angel of the Lord, maybe

Living Among The Canaanites Backfires

Dr. David Klingler 24:00

we can just continue right in here. The angel of the Lord um came up from Gilgal to Bachim. Bakim means weeping, and we're going to see why it's called weaking. Uh Gilgal uh to Bachim. And he said, I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break my covenant with you. This is the angel um that was promised um by Moses, if Lord, if you don't go, I won't go. And the Lord says, My angel will go with you. Um, this is the angel that um in Joshua chapter five, um, you know, I am, you know, the angel of the Lord appears uh to um uh to Joshua and he says, Are you for us or against us? And he says, Neither. You know, I am the angel of the Lord. Right? Well, this is the angel of the Lord who's been leading them the whole way. He says, I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the land which I swore to your fathers, and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. In other words, I will do my part. But it's a covenant, you have to do your part. So as for you, uh, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars, you uh but you have not obeyed me. Oh obeyed me. What is this you have done? Therefore I said, I will uh not drive them out before you, but they will become as thorns and your sides and as gods, uh, and their gods will be a snare to you. And when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. So they named the uh they called the name of the place Bachim, weeping, and there they sacrificed to the Lord. This is going to play out over and over and over. Uh, and so we'll we'll stop here. But what we're gonna see is that Israel rebels against the Lord, they reject the word of the Lord, the Lord judges them, as was foretold in the covenant, right? So the Lord's just playing the game according to the rules until he doesn't. And what I mean by that is he's going to actually start to cheat on their behalf. Um the way it's supposed to work is if they're disobedient, they're judged. And the purpose for the judgment was to get them to repent, to return to the Lord. This is the same thing that that we're to do, right? If you see your brother sinning, you go and you confront him. Uh why? Because the goal is to win your brother over, to get him to return to the Lord. Same thing here, right? So the judgment, the uh the famine, the disease, the sickness, the enemies, all of the judgments that were to come upon them per the covenant were to get them to repent, to return to the Lord. And when they returned to the Lord, then the Lord would raise up a deliverer, and that deliver, a judge, and that deliverer would go and deliver them, right? And then they would uh rejoice, they would sacrifice to the Lord, um, you know, it's all great. And then it's usually followed by all the, you know, and Israel serve the Lord all the days of the judge, and then it starts all over, starts all over, right? Same, uh, we call this the cycles of sin. So the Lord is playing the game according to the covenant. The problem is Israel doesn't. And so you're going to watch as is the Lord show more and more mercy, more and more compassion. Uh, where even by the end of these uh judges section when we get into the j to Samuel or Samson, uh Judge Samson, um, Israel's being judged. The Lord has already raised up a deliverer, but Israel isn't repenting. In fact, they're saying, Samson, would you quit making it hard for us with the Philistines? Right? Uh you know, quit quit causing problems with the the people. Now we've already conquered their land, but now they've they've won that land back. The Philistines are back in those cities that we mentioned earlier here, just uh uh earlier in this uh in this podcast, the the uh you know Ashkelon in these these cities. Uh and um and so the Lord is cheating on their behalf. Uh He's doing his part and more, um, and they're not doing their part, they're not uh repenting when judgment is coming. Uh and so ultimately that's gonna lead to their expulsion from the land. But anyway, so so this is kind of the trail we're going to go down, where the narrator is going to show us. We're gonna start with with these judges, gonna start with Othniel, who's just like Caleb, and we're going to end with Samson. Uh when we get to Samson, we're gonna have uh a judge who does what's right in his own eyes, Samson. That's a problem. Um there, the nation, the people are being judged, they're not repenting. That that's a problem. They're actually telling Samson, who's causing problems with the enemy, who's you know, subjugating them. Samson, just stop it. Just leave them alone, right? Uh, and it's going to end with there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes, right? And so the focus is going to turn to the priests in those final chapters of the book of Judges. So we're going to watch as the judges get worse and worse. They make vows that they shouldn't make. When you make a vow to the Lord, you will be sure to keep it. You're going to watch them break the law, reject the Lord, not follow the covenant again and again and again in all these little ways. And so uh when they come up, we'll point them out uh as we go along.

Phil Porter 29:33

Wonderful. Well, thank you uh for laying the foundation for what we're about ready to continue in. Um uh next time we'll uh pick right back up just a little

The Cycle Of Sin And What Comes Next

Phil Porter 29:45

bit more into chapter two, like we just did it today. Uh, but thank you for anything. Anything uh else before we conclude today?

Dr. David Klingler 29:51

No, just hold on because we're we're we're about to be introduced to the judges, and these judges' stories you're going to see show up again uh in later stories. So these are going to not only does the narrative and we saw this in Genesis, right? Um, for example, Abram is selling off his wife as his sister, right? And that's bad. Uh, and then you're going to see Isaac do the same thing. You're gonna say, oh no, here we go again, right? Well, the these things that are going to happen in the judges, you're gonna see later in Samuel and later in Kings. The same stories you go, oh no, they're doing the same thing, right? Uh just as you know uh Jerubal is violating the law, um, Gideon is violating the law, so later they'll violate the law in the same way. Uh and you're going, oh, this is another Gideon story, right? It becomes a type story. And so we'll see that as we go. So there's a lot going on here, uh, which is why you can't start in Samuel. You don't start with David and Goliath, you don't start with even Judges. You have to start in Genesis and work your way through the narrative. And so that's what we've been doing. And so we'll we'll we'll explain all these connections as we go.

Phil Porter 31:06

Wonderful. Well, thank you everybody for joining us today for uh the book of Judges, starting in chapter one and the desire uh for us at Teach Me the Bible. We always remind everyone this to help the people of God understand the word of God. We'll see you next time. For more resources, visit teachmethebible.com or download our app from any app store. You can partner with Teach Me the Bible in helping the people of God understand the Word of God by subscribing and sharing with others. Thank you for listening to Teach Me the Bible Podcast.