Judges and Scripture and Life: What Defines the Story?

 “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me…”

ー Jesus (Jn. 5:39, NIV 1984)

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Have you ever read the book of Judges?

Oh, don’t give me that blank stare. You’ve read some of it, at least? 

Okay, here, let me help refresh your memory: Samson? Gideon? Deborah? The chilling summary line: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (21:25)?

Or maybe you’re at least familiar with the so-called “sin cycle” that has appeared on white boards, PowerPoints, and (dare I say) projector slides in Bible classrooms for decades? Here is an example that I drew just for you. Please enjoy the detailed, professional illustrations:

Now do you remember? 

Great. Now let me introduce you to something I heard last night around 12:30 a.m. (Yes, I do confess I was awake at that hour listening to a podcast on the book of Judges. Don’t ask.)

The podcast I was listening to is called The BEMA Podcast. I think it’s honestly been the best gift I have encountered in years. The hosts of the show, Marty Solomon and Brent Billings, give an extensive walk-through of the biblical text over the course of 6 seasons (at least at the time of this writing). They engage the text by acknowledging and wrestling with the tough questions it evokes (rather than just ignoring or explaining away those questions and pretending like nothing’s wrong). They explore the layers of meaning and beauty within the text and provide insights from ancient rabbinical teachings as they go, ultimately highlighting the wonder of what it is to “gnaw” on Scripture and to learn, from it, who God is and who we are meant to be as His people.

Multiple times, their discussions have stopped me in my tracks and made me sit still, just thinking about the weight of what they’ve said, trying to grasp the impact that an understanding they’ve shared might have on my understanding of Scripture as a whole, and marveling at the seeming insanity of the realization that I managed to make it through this much of my life (and years and years of Christian education) without ever hearing of the possibility of an approach like this before.

And last night was no different. I was listening to an episode on the book of Judges entitled “The Redemption Cycle” (released June 29, 2017). And in it, Marty said something that floored me. He mentioned, as I did above, the characteristic “sin cycle” that most people use in teaching the book of Judges, but he asked a question (or, rather, a series of questions) I’d never considered before. In his words: 

My thundering question in my head as I’ve always heard this taught time and time and time again is: Why is this a sin cycle? When we see this cycle of the people in the book of Judges, how come our focus is on the sin and putting flames in the Judges graphic? How come this isn’t on the redemption of God? How come this cycle isn’t about God’s patience and God’s unbelievable longsuffering and His continual, never-ending pursuit of His people?¹

Put concisely, in Marty’s words again, “How come it’s about my failure and not God’s redemption?” (ibid.). Shortly after this, he nearly erupts in incredulity: “We read the Bible through the lens of Genesis 3, and it’s impacted the way we read everything” (ibid.).

Pause with me for a minute. Do we realize the gravity of what he is saying? 

If our outline of Judges is focused on Israel’s sin, Israel’s failings, and Israel’s hardheaded tomfoolery…have we been so focused on that that we’ve missed YHWH in the middle of it? 

And what about when we read the rest of Scripture? How do we write its narrative arc? Is it all about people’s faults and failures, inconsistencies and idiocies? Is it all about what God “had” to do to make sure He kept His promises to Adam and Abraham? Do we read of His victorious redemption as though it was in spite of human behavior? 

What about our own lives? Are they defined by our bad decisions, our stubbornnesses, and our fears? Do we “read” our own story as a record of all the stuff God had to wade through to finally, mostly, get us where He was trying to get us to go? 

In all of it, are we more impressed by the sinfulness of people or by the patience of God? Do we remember stories by just how awful we were (or others were), or is that memory coupled with一better, dwarfed by一the mind-boggling patience and relentless redemption of God?

Let me ask that question again: Do we remember stories based on our foolishness, or is our foolishness dwarfed by the faithfulness of God? 

Marty and Brent took their podcast discussion from here toward a different point, but I can’t help but sit on this more. I can’t help but wonder with them if we are一or, at least, I am一missing something in my thinking about Scripture and my thinking about my own life.

Two thoughts come to my mind.

1. In the verse I quoted at the beginning of this post, Jesus said that all of the Scriptures testify about Him. How we’re reading Scripture, then, is crucial. If we’re caught up in exasperation at the mistakes of humans in its pages without balancing that exasperation with awe at the Lord’s unending determination to save His people and wash them clean, we may have missed the point. The point we’re supposed to get from all those stories is that this is who God is: He is “the LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Ex. 34:6-7, NIV 1984). God cares about righteousness. He really does. And yet the ratio there is 1000 to 3. If we fail to be impressed by the faithfulness of His love, manifest in all of Scripture but most manifest in the person of Jesus Christ, I think we’ve missed the point.

2. When we look at our own lives, the same defining arc should guide our interpretation of our story. When we look back, we might remember our sputterings and bumblings and outright rebellions. But they should be dwarfed by the sheer awe that comes from recognizing the mercy of God that’s been there the whole time. Self-accusations, horror at our own failures, and fear of failing in the future all have to bow to His patience and grace, His definition of our story. What He has forgiven is forgiven.

A question popped into my head a few days ago, before I happened upon any of this Judges content, and I think I’ll close with it here: If you found out that you were not all the things you accuse yourself of, what then would you do?

If God’s faithful love defines our lives and our readings of Scripture, dwarfing all our own thoughts about who we are and who we’ve been and what’s possible next, then I guess we’d best believe Him. We’d best believe Him and simply fall on grace. 

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¹ Solomon, Marty. “The Redemption Cycle.” The BEMA Podcast, hosted by Brent Billings. Season 2 Episode 36, 29 June 2017, https://www.bemadiscipleship.com/36.

P.S. If you decide to give The BEMA Podcast a listen, I’d highly recommend starting from the beginning. It’s the best way to get a clear picture of the perspectives they’re teaching and using throughout the podcast. Enjoy!