A Word about the 2012 Elections from the Book of Judges

 

                Old Testament scholars believe that the Book of Judges may have been written, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, around the time of King David.  The reason they draw this conclusion is that the Book of Judges seems in some ways to be an apologetic for the establishment of the Israelite kingship.  Scholars see this apologetic in the last sentence of the book: “In those days there was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).  Similar statements are made by the inspired writer in Judges 17:6; 18:1, and 19:1.  The idea seems to be that the time of the judges was a period of such great evil in Israel because there was not a righteous king like David ruling over the people and leading them to follow the Lord. 

 

                That certainly seems to be part of the reading of Judges 21:25.  But surely there is more to this verse.  Surely the inspired writer means not only that Israel declined into great evil because it lacked a human king, but even more the point of Judges 21:25 is that at the time of the judges, the Jewish people were not serving the Lord as their ultimate King.  To be sure God was still ruling over his people; no human action can dispossess God of his universal supremacy.  However, the Israelites at the time of the judges were living in practical ways as if the Lord were not the supreme King of their nation.  Because the people were living as if God really were not their ultimate King, the Book of Judges is for the most part a discouraging account of serious spiritual decline and the violence and degradation that flow from such decline.

 

                Here is where I think Judges 21:25 speaks to American Christians in an election year.  On the one hand, it is right that we should pray every day that God in his mercy would raise up to political leadership in our land men and women who love righteousness and justice.  We desperately need leaders full of God’s love and biblical wisdom.  At a deeper level, however, Christians need to pray that Americans would recognize that the God of the Bible is our supreme King—and to live under that reality.  Even more than godly leaders, the United States needs the Lord himself to come with reviving mercies, beginning with a spiritual cleansing of the church and moving outward from there.  Until the day Americans recognize God as our supreme King, the men and women of this country will continue simply to do what is right in their own eyes.  As the Book of Judges demonstrates, doing right in our own eyes can only lead to violence, degradation, and destruction.