In those days, Israel had no king

Have you ever been scammed? Getting scammed is an uncomfortable experience for a myriad of reasons. First, you do not see scams coming. This affects your ability to trust your perceptions and upends everything you’ve always believed to be true.

I genuinely hope anyone who’s ever been cheated or scammed heals from the experience and starts trusting their perceptions again.

Reading the last few stories in the book of Judges felt like someone was trying to pull a fast one on me and it started from the story of Micah and his idols.

No sane 21st century author would spring up a story about idol worship the way the biblical authors did it in Judges 17. A 21st century author would try to by his language, show you how not normal it was to have done that, a biblical author on the other hand, well, he just jumps right into the meat of the story without any forewarnings or preambles.

This is another reason why we must study the bible in context.

It was a totally random occurrence right after the tragic story of Samson which I talked about here.

A man named Micah had gotten some silver from a rather cryptic exchange between him and his mother and with the silver, he made an idol.

Here’s the weirdest part of the whole thing: his mother consecrates the silver to the Lord for her son to make an idol.

(Swivels head in 360 degrees of confusion)

Were these people not listening when the Lord said not to make graven images to represent Him or anything He has made?

Exodus 20:4–6

‘“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. ‘

It gets even more bizarre. Micah makes an idol and then hires a Levite to service his home temple.

I don’t even know which is worse. An idol to the Lord or a Levite for hire.

Soon afterward, men from the tribe of Dan raid Micah and cart off with his idols and his Levite, then they raid a peaceful city called Laish and start living there.

This story of wickedness, violence and sheer disobedience is soon followed by another tragic story of a Levite’s concubine who was raped to death by men of the tribe of Benjamin.

It seems the bible uses the prevalence of unguarded and inordinate sexual desires, excessive trust in might and military prowess, and a survival of the fittest mentality to demonstrate the reality of a wicked nation awaiting judgment from God. The same pattern could be found in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Here, check it out;

Judges 19:22

‘While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house,

“Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.” ‘

Genesis 19:4–5

‘Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom — both young and old — surrounded the house. They called to Lot,

“Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” ‘

In fact, in both stories, the guests opt to sleep at the city square, but their hosts insist that they do not, and in both stories, the hosts offer their daughters as a replacement for the city men to spend their unbridled sexual desires.

Unfortunately, unlike the story of Lot and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, there was no intervention for the Levite’s concubine and she was released to the wicked, godless, Benjamites who raped her to death.

Overcome by grief, the Levite cut up her corpse and sent it to all the tribes of Israel. Israel, seeing and hearing the Levite’s story was moved with compassion and rage and rose to avenge him and purge the evil from their land.

Interestingly, God backed them up.

They sacked the settlements of the Benjamites so much that they were on the verge of going extinct and they had to bypass a difficult oath by having the men of Benjamin seize their daughters rather than give them in marriage so that the Benjamites could have children and fill their lands again.

This story of betrayal, war, and reconciliation marks the end of the book of Judges.

The biblical authors were trying to build a narrative. They wanted to connect the general lawlessness of the Israelite society to the lack of a king and they did so by repeating this statement ever so often,

“In those days, Israel had no King, everyone did as they saw fit.”

What might the concept of Kingship have to do with the bible’s overarching narrative? Do you have an idea? I would like to know what you think. Share with me in the comments.

I hope that in the future, I get to share more of the things that stood out to me from studying my bible and getting to know my God. I invite you to this same community of God-knowers who have faith in and believe the testimony of the man Jesus Christ who was God in the flesh, who died for your sins and was resurrected for the justification of anyone who believes this good news; that it pleased God to punish Jesus for your sins and resurrect him as you, so that the urge to sin against God is no longer irresistible to anyone who believes.

If you need a bit more context, you can start from here

https://www.youtube.com/live/BoeaFTvC5HM?si=ghO8PL9ApPwbGSlG

Love and cheers.