Week 11 Judges
I did myself a favour last year when I read Judges. Because coming into the book this year I already know two things:
A) I know what to expect. I.e. a heavy dose of assassination rebellion treachery fratricide inter-tribal & international trouble-and-strife. So I take a deep-breath and do a psychic-emotional prep for all the violence and brutality – kind of like watching today’s news.
B) I also know what the Judges Pattern looks like: Israel rejects the Lord – a foreign power conquers Israel– a warrior-judge comes to Israel’s rescue.
I decided to page-through and count up the judges named in the book. Looks like thirteen. Six of the thirteen I don’t know anything about. If I tried telling a story about Shamgar Tola Jair Izban Elon or Abdon it would be a totally fictionalized account because the bible offers basically zero-detail about those six.
The other seven judges are different. They have stories. Othniel only gets five verses…but there’s a story. The other six warriors – Ehud Deborah Gideon Abimelech Jephthah & Samson – have longer and more detailed stories.
I have a couple of questions:
Q#1: why is almost nothing said about Shamgar Tola Jair Izban Elon or Abdon?
Q#2: what do I do with Abimelech?
The answer to Q#1 is: I don’t know.
The answer to Q#2 is: I don’t know for sure…but Abimelech really seems like the odd-man-out in the group of seven. He just doesn’t seem to fit the Judges Pattern.
So I wonder why he’s there.