How the Book of Judges Proves There Is a God

Last week in Bible class, I mentioned an observation made recently by brother Don Deitrick. He
said the book of Judges is one of the most depressing books in the Bible. That’s because it contains
numerous examples of degradation and departure from God’s way, during a very dark and
confused period of Israel’s history.
In the first two chapters of the book of Judges, we are immediately disappointed to learn that
the Israelites quickly began to fail in their God-given mission of conquering and fully possessing
the Promised Land. The tribe of Benjamin, for example, “did not drive out the Jebusites, that
inhabited Jerusalem,” (1:21). Manasseh “did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its
towns, nor of Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns,” etc., etc. (1:27).
The tribes of Ephraim, Zebulon, Asher, and Naphtali similarly failed, (1:29-33). And, remarkably,
the tribe of Dan stood by like children as the Amorites forcefully prevented them from processing
their inheritance, (1:34), giving rise later to what is known as the “Danite migration” described at
the end of the book, in which they literally traveled to the northern extreme of the Promised Land,
seeking an inheritance somewhere else. Why? All of these failures were a direct result of a lack of
faith and trust in God, and a refusal to obey Him fully. But as we read of these repeated failures,
we get the uneasy sense that trouble for God’s people is brewing on the horizon. The storm clouds
are gathering. We have seen it over and over. As they failed to obey God, God simply turned His
back on them, and let them fall into the hands of their enemies, and all kinds of affliction.
True to his word, God never broke His covenant with them, (2:1), “but ye have not hearkened
unto my voice,” (2:2). We are told very sadly but plainly that “the people served Jehovah all the
days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua,” but after they were gone, “there
arose another generation after them that knew not Jehovah, nor yet the work which he had wrought
for Israel,” (2:6-10). “And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah,
and…forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers,” (2:11). Everywhere they went “the hand of
Jehovah was against them for evil,” their troubles multiplied “and they were sore distressed,”
(2:15).
This discouraging cycle was precisely what God had predicted through His servant Joshua
(see Joshua 23:14-24:28). As a prophecy only an all-knowing God could utter, the more God’s
people turned against Him, the more they suffered, then eventually cried out for help and sought
deliverance through various judges. Over and over we see Gods’ foreknowledge confirmed, as
well as his love and mercy for His people. We see it confirmed in various pockets of God’s people,
numerous geographical locations, consistently fulfilled in diverse circumstances over a period of
many years. That’s something only an Almighty God could predict and execute.
The reality and faithfulness of God is demonstrated through these recorded warnings and
predictions which ultimately came to pass. The fact that all of this is accurately recorded and
preserved for our benefit, shows the hand of God behind it. Cultures turning away from God do
not record their failures. They make excuses. They distort the facts in an effort to justify
themselves. Yet this book in the Bible unhesitatingly bares it all. It tells the good and the bad –
mostly the bad. It describes the ancestors of a proud people (especially some of the tribes), and
tells how they embarrassingly failed. This is not what cultures do. They praise their past, they
make themselves look good, they speak highly of their ancestors, and they pretend that they have
done everything right. The very record of such failures and shameful blunders as we read in the
book of Judges, is a testament to the inspiration of the book. It shows the hand of God, not only in
their history, but in the recordation and preservation of these humiliating facts.
No nation, absent direct intervention by God, would have permitted such a record to be
generated, much less allowed it to be preserved and promulgated down through ensuing centuries.
The book of Judges proves there is a God – and that He lovingly calls each of us to a life of
faithfulness.