| HANGING BY A THREAD |
| Theft, rape, murder, idolatry: Israel was destroying itself. |
| In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. 17:6 |
| A time comes when you can no longer blame your problems on other people. In Pogo's immortal words, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." So it is at the end of Judges. The camera zooms in for a closeup, focusing on internal violence. Enemies are no longer in view: the enemy is Israel itself. They make ugly portraits, these last five chapers. Pointless and violent, they begin with a son stealing from his mother and end with parents agreeing to let their daughters be kidnapped. In between are homosexual and heterosexual gang rape, murder, idolatry, armed robbery, mass slaughter. No enemy does all this: Israelites do it to each other. Clearly, the exalted nation of Israel, God's chosen people, has lost all sense of direction. Who Can Rescue Them Now? The first 16 chapters of Judges tell of repeated enemy invations that moved Israel to call out to God. Hearing his people, God would send a freedom fighter to save them. In the last five chapters, by contrast, God sends no freedom fighters. No military leader could rescue them from themselves. These chapters instead repeat the solemn words: "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." "Everyone did as he saw fit" may not sound very negative in our era, which places high value on individualism and person freedom. But God prizes something more: unity. He wants his people united in love for him and each other. God's law had bound his people to a common worship in the tabernacle and to a common standard of caring for each other. For this the Israelites substituted do-as-you-please religion and a |
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