Скачать книгу

See ibid., 87–88.

      Pericope 1

      Failure and Indictment

      Judges 1:1—2:5

      [Failure of the Conquest; God’s Indictment]

      SUMMARY, PREVIEW

      Summary of Pericope 1: The first pericope of Judges (1:1—2:5) comprises Prologue I of the book. It sets the sociopolitical stage of the rest of the narrative, depicting the failure of God’s people to live in uncompromising godliness and to trust him for success. The consequence of this failure is a progressively worsening state of coexistence with the native Canaanites; these defeats culminate in a divine indictment.

      Preview of Pericope 2: The next pericope (Jdg 2:6—3:11) is made up of Prologue II of the book and the story of Othniel. It details the religious decline of the Israelites, the unfaithfulness of the new generation after Joshua who did not know or experience God firsthand. A cycle of evildoing, punishment, and deliverance is described. Othniel, the first judge, is the parade example of a godly leader: his narrative follows the paradigm for the judge stories precisely and, with divine aid, he becomes the deliverer of Israel.

      1. Judges 1:1—2:5

THEOLOGICAL FOCUS OF PERICOPE 1
1Uncompromising faithfulness to God manifest in behavior distinct from that of unbelievers, maintenance of godly traditional values, and reliance on divine strategies for success results in the enjoyment of divine blessing (1:1—2:5).
1.1Failure of uncompromising obedience to divine commands precludes the enjoyment of divine blessing.
1.2Faithfulness to God involves behavior distinct from that of unbelievers, maintenance of godly traditional values, and abandonment of reliance on human strategies for success.

      OVERVIEW

50667.png

      Joshua, the one who had begun to lead the Israelites so successfully against the Canaanites, and who was God’s agent for assigning land to the various tribes, was now gone. At his departure he had exhorted his people to follow after Yahweh, and not after the gods of the Canaanites—an apostasy that would jeopardize the Israelites’ taking over of the Promised Land (Joshua 22–24). Would they heed the words of this worthy one? An era had concluded with the death of Joshua. A new beginning was at hand, and with it the challenge of finding godly leaders. This is the burden of the book of Judges.

50684.png

      Indeed, a similar recapitulation occurs in Joshua 1 duplicating the central themes of Deuteronomy, after the death of the hero of that book, Moses.

      One notices that the opening of Judges (1:1) resembles that of Joshua (1:1) and of 2 Samuel (1:1); in these cases, a leader dies and a new one takes over. But in the case of Judges, no new leader is on stage. This is concerning: What would happen to a rudderless nation? Rather than an individual, we see a tribe designated to lead: “Judah shall go up,” said Yahweh (Jdg 1:2). But down the road, it would be the same tribe that would lead in the tragic civil war (20:18). From the failures of the first chapter to the catastrophe of the last chapters, the nation is leaderless, faithless, and ultimately, godless!

50714.png

Скачать книгу