Re:Verse passage – Judges 1:1-2, 8-13, 20 (day three)
“Now it came about after the death of Joshua…”
The first line of Judges plunges us into the story of an age in Israel’s history that would last four hundred years or so by some accounts. It’s chaotic, tumultuous, gruesome, offensive, and full of heroes that do horrible things. In other words, it’s a society we can recognize if we’ll drop the pretense of politeness. It wasn’t the society they needed, but it was the society they deserved. There was mercy for the asking. But the cyclical social patterns took their toll. In the course of time, Christ provided a way out of that cycle. Its allure still beckons, though. We would do well to read Judges as if it’s our own diary.
