Judges: A Political Campaign

The book of Judges is filled with horrific tradgedies and rashly-made poor decisions. It is a time period not unlike our own. Covering a 350-450 year span of history between Israel's conquest of the Promised Land and Samuel's prominence as the spiritual/moral leader of the nation (approximately 1450-1050 BC), Judges was written around 1005 BC, during King David's rise to the throne in the aftermath of King Saul's suicidal demise.

Whoever wrote Judges continually reminded his audience that the terrible events came to pass as the people did what was right in their own eyes. They repeatedly broke their side of the covenant that God had made with their fathers - and the author offers a reason: they had no king.

As Judges winds down, infamy is spread over the tribe of Benjamin, and specifically the city of Gibeah, from whence King Saul had come. Saul's son, Ish-Bosheth, was reigning over a portion of the nation while David led the other portion, namely Judah. Thus, the purpose of this political assault against Saul's tribe and hometown was to support King David as the one, rather than Saul's son, to whom the nation should turn to deliver their nation once for all. It would be like bashing former President George Bush in hopes of getting current President George W. Bush out of office.

The thought was that a king would unite the nation and aid the people in keeping the law that Moses had given them from the Lord. And they were right. The nation turned to David - perhaps as a result of the campaign of the Judges campaign speech - in hopes that he was the one they needed. David was a man after God's own heart, but he was merely a type of the true King, the King of kings, who reigns on the throne of David forever as the Lord of lords. His name is Jesus, and the book of Judges rightly points us to Him as the keeper of God's covenant.