Judges

The Chosen People’s story continues in the Book of the Judges; what occurs after Joshua’s death is really bleak. «The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the LORD that he had worked for Israel. Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred ten years old. [...] Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn’t know the LORD, nor yet the work which he had worked for Israel. The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked the LORD to anger. They forsook the LORD, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of marauders who plundered them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had spoken, and as the LORD had sworn to them: and they were in great distress. The LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not do so. When the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it grieved the LORD because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them. But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they did not cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way». Even the Lord’s angel rebukes the people for their inconclusive attitude towards enemies. «I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you: and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not listened to my voice: why have you done this? Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you». These texts give us the opportunity to clarify some “problematic” aspects of the Old Testament. In fact if God is good, why does he recommend killing other human beings and why does he punish Israel when they do not complete the war actions against enemies?

 

 

The Bible should be read as God’s progressive revelation and communication to humanity, a long journey that reaches its fulfilment in Jesus. The Christ and his Gospel are therefore the key to interpret all biblical texts. Those texts are never to be read individually, but always in relation to the totality of the Revelation. The sacred authors do not lose their humanity with divine inspiration, their culture remains (with all the beliefs that we can find rude, violent, non-scientific, because we live far from that people in time and place). The Bible was not written to be a historical chronicle or a science book; it uses those cultural elements to communicate us all the necessary truths for man’s salvation. Divine inspiration (and the absence of error) refers only to that truth «for the sake of salvation» (see Dei Verbum, no. 11). When we read the Bible we should therefore have two attentions; we cannot isolate a text from the totality in which it is inserted (in particular from Jesus, the fulfillment of revelation) and we should wonder what is the salvific meaning that God wants to communicate through those passages (it is valid «yesterday, today and forever», see Heb 13,8). Where the Bible writes about merciless extermination of big and small enemies, we can read an effective teaching on sin. One person should never compromise with evil: it must be eliminated immediately to avoid negative consequences in life. In the Old Testament concrete people represent idolatry and perversion, but in the New Testament there is a step forward. «For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of this darkness, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places» (Eph 6,12). Even Apostle Peter says an emblematic phrase after being sent by God to preach to the Gentiles: «You yourselves know how it is an unlawful thing for a man who is a Jew to join himself or come to one of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean» (Acts 10,28).

I invite you to read the stories of the judges who ruled over Israel: between them especially Deborah, the prophetess, Gideon and Samson (he, like Jesus, was conceived for an angel’s announcement). The conclusion of the book is rather pessimistic, it opens to future developments that we will narrate in the next posts: «In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes».