Exegesis and Theology

Judges revealed that Israel’s sin problem was tied to the lack of a king (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). But when the Israelites asked for a king, the request was treated as a rejection of Yahweh (1.8:7; 10:19; 12:12, 17). This is at first difficult to account for given the previous revelation that God intended for Israel to have a king (Gen. 17:6, 16; 35:11; 49:8-12; Num. 24:7, 17; Deut. 17:14-20; also 1.2:10).

Part of the difficulty lay in the Israelites’ motive. The motive behind their request was a desire to be like the other nations. Though, the terminology “like all the nations” is found in the Deuteronomic legislation about the king (Deut. 17:14-20), Deuteronomy 17:14 should probably be interpreted as a prophecy of what Israel would say rather than instruction as to what the people should say (see Merrill, Deuteronomy, 265; Bergin, 1, 2 Samuel, 112f.). The regulations that follow were designed to distinguish the Israelite king from those of the surrounding nations. In other words, Deuteronomy predicts that Israel will want a king to be like the nations and counters with instructions that prohibit that kind of king. Samuel predicts Israel’s kings will disobey the Deuteronomic instructions and will be kings like those of the surrounding nations (1.8:11-18).

Furthermore, Israel wanted a king to defeat their enemies (1.8:20). This may sound innocent enough, but the invasions of Israel came as a result of Israel’s sins. Yahweh their king was able to defeat all their enemies. The book of Judges looked forward to a king that would prevent the Ca­naanization of Israel; the Israelites in Samuel’s day desired a king in order to be like the other nations. The book of Judges looked forward to a king to solve Israel’s sin problem; the Isra­elites in Samuel’s day desired a king to evade the consequences of their sin. Truly their request for a king was a rejection of Yahweh as their king (1.8:7; 10:19; 12:12).

In this world of sin, Hannah sang a song that proclaimed the transfor­mation that Yahweh intended (1.2:1-10). She sang of the exaltation of the humble and the humiliation of the mighty. The entire world as it existed would need to be transformed. Hannah realized that Yahweh alone could effect that kind of exaltation and humiliation (1.2:3-10). For this reason, Hannah closed her song with an appeal for Yahweh to “give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed [מָשִׁיחַ]” (1.2:10). Once again God reveals that setting the world right will involve a God-appointed king.

Works Cited
Merrill, Eugene. Deuteronomy. New American Commentary. Edited by E. Ray Clendenen. Nashville, B&H, 1994.
Bergin, Robert D. 1, 2 Samuel. New American Commentary. Edited by E. Ray Clendenen. Nashville, B&H, 1996.

Though God’s people were to look to the future for the prophesied deliver(s), Israel itself was part of God’s plan of redemption. The nation was to be a priest to the nations (Ex. 19:6). They could bless the families of the earth (Gen. 12:3) by leading them to the true God (Deut. 4:1-8). But Israel was also part of the world’s sin problem. God predicted that Israel would fail to keep his law and would therefore suffer the covenant curses (Deut. 30:1-8). Israel, even in Moses’ day, was comprised of people with uncircumcised hearts. They needed regeneration so they could turn and obey they Lord (Deut. 30:1-10). Though Israel successfully conquered the Promised Land (Josh. 10:40; 11:23; 21:43-45), Joshua told the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord” (24:19).

The book of Judges confirms Joshua’s prediction. The people quickly turn from beings priests to the nations to becoming like, or even worse than, the nations. By the end of the book, one judge offered human sacrifices. Another judge was more concerned with Philistine women and personal vendettas than with delivering God’s people. Israel’s judges were unable to restore God’s people to God’s law.

Not even the priestly class in Israel maintained the true worship of Yahweh (Jdgs. 17-18). The last account of the book includes an incident eerily reminiscent of the Sodom story. Amazingly, the story in Judges is darker than the one in Genesis. In Sodom, the angels blinded the men and no wicked deed was accomplished, but in Judges, the men of Gibeah “knew her and abused her all night until the morning” (19:25). They left her for dead, and the concubine’s master dismembered her and sent the pieces of her body throughout the land. Israel, the priest to the nations, had become worse than the worst of the nations (Sodom throughout Scripture is the illustration of human wickedness; Deut. 32:32; Isa. 1:10; 3:9; jer 23:14; Ezek. 16:46-56; 2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7; Rev. 11:8).

The nations needed a better priest, and their priest, Israel, needed better priests (The last two accounts in Judges feature wayward Levites, including a descendant of Moses himself; cf. Block, Judges, Ruth, 512). The text explicitly notes Israel needed a king. Four times it says, “In those days there was no king in Israel” (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). The closing words of the book are, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25). These words recall the actions of Adam and Eve doing what was right in their eyes. Israel was acting in the same manner that led to the distortion of human dominion at the beginning, and God said they needed a king to fix this sin problem.

The storyline of Scripture moves forward into the book of Samuel. Stephen Dempster says, “It is hard to imagine a worse situation than the end of the narrative of Judges, but this is it” (Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty, 135). The opening chapters of Samuel reveal that sin permeated the priesthood. Eli’s sons insisted on taking whatever raw meat would come up when they stabbed it with a meat-fork (1.2:13-17) despite Torah prohibitions (Lev. 7:22-25, 31-36; Deut. 18:3-4). Furthermore, they corrupted the women who ministered at the tabernacle (1.2:22; cf. Ex. 38:26) in a way that may have mimicked the forbidden cult prostitution of the Canaanites (Deut. 23:17). In summary statements, these men are called “sons of Belial” and men who “did not know the Lord” (1.2:12; this contrasts with Exodus which repeatedly says that the purpose for God’s miraculous deliverance was so Israel would know that he is the Lord: Ex. 6:3, 7; 10:2; 16:6, 12; 29:46; 31:13). Their actions were said to be blasphemy (1.3:13). Eli was little better. Despite his strong words, his remonstrance with his sons was ineffectual (1.2:22-25). Priests like this could not mediate between God and man.

God intervened at this crisis point in Israel’s history by raising up a prophet: Samuel. The necessity of a prophet showed the failure of the priesthood. The priests could receive revelation from God through the Urim and Thumim. They were given the responsibility of teaching God’s word. These tasks mirror the prophetic tasks of receiving revelation from God and declaring his word to the people. Samuel was a faithful prophet (1.12:3-5), but he was not sufficient to turn the people to God. Furthermore his sons became known for their wickedness (1.8:1-3).

Israel was in need of a righteous king, priest, and prophet.

Works cited
Block, Daniel I. Judges, Ruth. New American Commentary. Edited by E. Ray Clendenen. Nashville: B&H, 1999.
Dempster,Stephen G.  Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible. New Studies in Biblical Theology. Edited by D. A. Carson. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003.

See Part One

The sin that disordered man’s blessing of dominion also disordered his relationship with God. God revealed that sacrifice is necessary for sinful man to approach God. Some see this in the killing of animals to provide clothing for Adam and Eve (cf. Waltke & Fredericks, Genesis, 95).  More clearly, the chapter directly following the account of the Fall reveals that humans now approached God in worship through sacrifices. The position of Leviticus in the Pentateuch further reinforces the necessity of sacrifices if sinful man is to approach God. Exodus closes with the erection of the tabernacle, which was a symbol of God’s presence (Exod. 29:46). This raised the question that existed since man’s sin drove him from the presence of God (Gen. 3:8, 23f.): how can God dwell with sinful man? This is the question that Leviticus exists to answer (Lev. 26:11-13), and it answers it with a detailed exposition of Israel’s sacrificial system (cf. Kiuchi, “Leviticus,” 152.).

Sacrifices imply priests. If Job reveals the state of true religion in patriarchal times, it may be that the father served as the priest for the family (Job 1:5; cf. Gen. 8:20; 12:7; 13:4; 35:1). Melchizedek, king of Salem, also served as a priest (Gen. 14:17), and this may indicate that for a time kings served as priests for their subjects. With the establishment of the nation Israel, God ordained a separate class of priests to mediate between God and man for the nation.

For mankind to receive revelation from God about his condition and about God’s expectations regarding worship, fallen man needed prophets. Abel (Matt. 23:34), Enoch (Jude 14), and Abraham (Gen 20:7) were all prophets, but among the covenant people, the office of the prophet originated when the people of Israel asked for someone to mediate between them and God (Ex. 20:18-21; Deut. 5:22-27; 18:15-16) (Robertson, The Christ of the Prophets, 25). Not only was Moses the first to fill this office, he was the greatest of Israel’s prophets (cf. Robertson 36-39).  As his ministry drew to a close God told the people to look for a future Prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15-22; cf. Acts 3:22-23).

By the close of the Pentateuch, God’s people knew that sin had disordered mankind’s dominion over the world, and they knew that as part of God’s restoration they ought to look for a Judean king and a Mosaic prophet. There was no prediction at this point of a coming priest, but the Israelites probably already realized the insufficiency of their sacrificial system and thus the need for something more than they had in their current priestly system. [While many liberals have suggested a tension between the Pentateuch’s sacrificial system and the prophetic critique, Childs suggests the basis for the prophetic critique is found in Leviticus 26:14-45, which predicts the judgment of Israel for its sins in the exile. In the exile Israel is unable to offer sacrifices and they must simply cast themselves on the mercy of God (Childs, Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context, 160f.).]

Works Cited
Watke, Bruce and Cathi J. Fredericks. Genesis: A Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.
Kiuchi, Nobuyoshi  “Leviticus.” In New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Edited by T. Desmond Alexander and Brian S. Rosner. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2000.
Robertson, O. Palmer.  The Christ of the Prophets. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2004.
Childs, Brevard S.  Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985.