Three Timely Messages Students Need from Judges
“FAMILY ARGUMENT LEAVES SEVERAL BROTHERS DEAD”
“CIVIL WAR BREAKS OUT IN THE MIDDLE EAST”
“KIDNAPPED GIRLS FORCED TO MARRY STRANGERS”
“UNLIKELY ARMY DEFEATS WORLD POWER”
These could be headlines in the newspaper today. They are also key events in the book of Judges. Students often think of stories in the Bible (especially the Old Testament) as being out of touch with our modern world. However, the Old Testament is relevant today because people then are just like people now. This generation would like to think they are more enlightened and are somehow fundamentally different than those before us. We aren’t. The book of Judges, bloody and confusing as it is, gives us a clear look into many of the same issues that plague our students today.
A common call of our age is “Follow your heart.” Judges takes that cultural mantra and adds a question mark to it. By the end of chapter 22 any reader will be saying “Follow your heart(?)” Judges paints a clear picture of what happens when “Everyone does what is right in their own eyes”: those who do so follow their hearts to their own destruction.
There are three timely messages for students in the book of Judges that are particular points needed in an individualized age.
Heroes Have Never Lived Up to the Hype
While our age is marked by individual identity—our students often wrap their identities up in the identity of a celebrity. Whether it is a sports star, TikTok icon, or activist—celebrities hold undue influence on our students, their identities, and how they go about their lives. This almost always ends badly when that icon proves themselves to be less than the paragon of perfection they were held up to be. This leads to confusion, hurt, and cancellation. Then students move on to the next hero.
The book of Judges teaches us that hero worship is always a bad idea. The good guys aren’t usually that good. The book gives us a gritty realism about the fallenness of the world and the inadequacy of those who are considered heroic. Judges points our students to the one sinless Hero who never disappoints — Jesus.
God Has Always Drawn Straight Lines with Crooked Sticks
Judges does not present students with characters whose hearts, situations, and struggles are dissimilar to their own. The Judges all struggle with hearts that are prone to wander, test God, and squander their God-given abilities.
In Gideon, we see how we so often test God’s good promises. The rampant idol worship of Israel shows us how we look at our salvation and still run to other gods of this age. In the story of Samson we see that someone can be gifted in every way, but apart from God’s grace they can only accomplish evil.
Through our sympathy with these characters we see our own weaknesses. In one sense, that gives our students hope - God is not bound by our goodness to carry out his will in the world. He really does draw straight lines with crooked sticks. He sometimes drags us along to accomplish his purposes even when we are doing everything all wrong. It also points us to our deep need for someone better. We need a deliverer who is not enslaved to sin. We need Jesus Christ, the God-Man.
People Have Followed Their Hearts Before
Judges’ most memorable line occurs at the end of the book when the author summarizes: “everyone did whatever seemed right to him” (Judges 21:25, CSB). A world of “living your truth,” “following your heart,” and “being true to yourself” needs to hear a message that shows a clear picture of the results when you follow these ideologies. Judges speaks a sharp and clear message to heart of our students’ post-Christian world.
The book can help our students see the vapid and destructive nature of the slavery our society calls freedom. Rebellion against God in pursuit of self turns out to be a secret trapdoor to worshipping today’s Ba’al’s and Asherah. There is a King in Israel and his name is Jesus. Judges shows that there is more freedom in following Him than there ever will be following your own heart. Today, maybe more than ever, our students need the provocative and relevant message of this old and esoteric book.