Judges portrays Israel as the land of the walking dead, but the book also provides an autopsy. What went wrong? How did the people of the land pass from life to death? The author’s report is fronted, in chapter 2, right there at the beginning so that readers won’t miss it. The diagnosis in Judges is just like what we see in other portions of the Old Testament, in Paul, and in the teaching of Jesus. The report is dark but deeply hopeful.

Judges

The first step is abandoning Yahweh, their source of life.

They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. (Judges 2:13)

If we aren’t careful, our eyes can run across that word “abandon” (עזב) too quickly. In a sense, this is not specialized theological vocabulary. It means “to leave something behind.” It occurs over two hundred times in the Hebrew Bible. When Joseph left his clothes in the clutching hands of Pharaoh’s wife and ran way, this is the word (Gen 39:12). Judges wants you to know that Israel left the LORD — they did the leaving. If anything is clear in Scripture up to this point, in Genesis through Judges, it’s that the LORD is the source of life and flourishing.

The second step is marked by Yahweh actively giving them (נתן / παραδίδωμι) over to themselves. Leaving the source of life and protection means humans treat other humans inhumanely.

Yahweh became angry at Israel, and he gave them into the hand of people who plundered them. And they did plunder them. He sold them into the hands of their surrounding enemies with the result that they were not able to stand before their enemies. (Judges 2:14)

God’s active role in this process is allowing them to leave and “giving” people over to people’s desires, instead of his. You can’t read Genesis through Judges and think that this is in any way what God wants. He wants his people to flourish with him. Over and over in the story, this point is made loud and clear. Israel makes the choice to abandon Yahweh and he gives them over to what they want.

Did they abandon Yahweh or did he give them over to their enemies? The author of Judges would say, “Yes.”

The hand of the LORD was against them for decreation (רעה, “disaster”), as the LORD had warned and sworn to them. (Judges 2:15)

The Hope of Yahweh’s Active Role in Judgment

The prophets emphasize Yahweh’s active role in this process because they want Israel to know that he is in control. If he is in control, then he can help. The process playing out in Judges is exactly what Moses forecasted in Deuteronomy 4. Notice the connection between Yahweh’s active role in judgment and the hope this is intended to provide:

Rebellion and God’s active role in handing them over to what they want:

When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. (Deuteronomy 1:25–28, ESV)

Here comes the hope:

But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. For the LROD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them. (Deuteronomy 1:29–31)

Moses forecasted the exile, and what you see in Judges is the beginning of this process already playing out. In Judges, we have glimpses of God’s exodus salvation and glimpses of the coming exile. Yahweh wants exodus salvation for his people, but he allows them to choose and do what they want. It’s almost as though the core problem is that people need a new heart. Left to their own desires, they walk away from life. This is, of course, what Moses said in Deuteronomy 10:16 and 30:6.

Judges and Deuteronomy make the connection clear between human desires and choices, decreation, and God’s active judgment. This is what we see throughout the Old Testament, and it’s what we see in the New Testament as well.

New Testament

Take a look at Paul’s diagnosis in Romans 1:21–25:

Human choices and desires leading to decreation:

For though they knew God they did not honor or give thanks to him as God, but they became empty in their thinking and their senseless hearts became dark. Claiming to be wise they became empty and exchanged the glory of incorruptible God for corruptible images of humans, birds, four-footed creatures, and creeping things. (Romans 1:21–23)

God’s active role is bringing judgment through giving humanity over to themselves:

Therefore God handed them over in the desires of their hearts to filth, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, people who exchanged the truth of God for what is false and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:24–25)

The idea is clear in Jesus’s story about the prodigal son, too (Luke 15:11–32). The father allows the son, whom he loves dearly, to be the grown man that he is. The son chooses, and the father grieves. The son abandons the father, and as a result he experiences decreation. He becomes like an inhumane pig. In the midst of this active judgment — the father gave him what he wanted! — the son comes to his senses and returns to the father’s loving arms.

Conclusion

The Judges autopsy is clear and helpful. Israel chose to walk away from God and life. As a result they plunged themselves into a realm of death and decreation. This autopsy fits with the human condition as described across Scripture. God is not the moral monster for allowing people to do what they want. He is a loving father who wants his children to listen to his voice and live and flourish. It is hopeful to recognize that this dynamic stretches across Scripture and into our own lives. God is in control, and he will recreate — and resurrect! — those who turn to him and cry out for help. The psalms show you what it looks like to lay your twisted desires before a God who makes hearts whole, but that’s another topic for another post.