The Role of Judges

To restore order and call His people back to faithfulness, God raised up judges—military leaders, prophets, and deliverers who guided Israel for over 400 years. These were not courtroom judges, but military and political leaders divinely appointed and empowered to save Israel during a turbulent time. 

In the Book of Judges, found in the Old Testament, we learn about each of the judges of Israel. The stories of these judges, tied to Israel’s history reveals, both the consequences of disobedience and the mercy of God. 

Be forewarned – given how much the Israelites turned away from God, this book is pretty dark and would likely be rated PG-13 as a movie. 

Take a look at Judges 2 for an overview of the role of the judges, but also the continued cycle the Israelites would go through with each judge during these 400 rebellious years. 

“Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them.  But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.” (Judges, 2:11-19, NIV, emphasis added)

The problem was that after one judge died, the Israelites would get more corrupt and evil until God put a new judge in place. With each judge, the judges got worse in character, but so also the Israelites got worse in their own behavior. 

This cycle—sin, oppression, repentance, deliverance, and peace—highlights Israel’s ongoing struggle to remain faithful without a righteous and lasting leader.

The last verse of Judges sums up the heart of the Israelites during that time:

“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” (Judges 21:25, NIV)

Everyone was out for themselves. And the judges never fully solved the problems the Israelites kept creating for themselves