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Writer's pictureOliver Hamilton

The Book of Judges: Poetic Punishment



This is one of the books of the Bible which we must burn and fling away if we deny that God does directly, immediately, and definitely punish sin. The punishment of God is poetic.


That which fell upon these people – the nation of Israel – was due to their own sin. They bent the neck to low ideals of religion and were compelled to bend the neck to the rule of the people to whose immorality they had stooped. The people they ought to have driven out, but whom they tolerated and admired, and to whom they confirmed themselves, became their tyrants.


What was the preferred form of deliverance by God in the Book of Judges? Judges.


  • Shamgar: Fitted to his times he was a rough rugged hero.

  • Deborah and Barak: A woman of poetry and flame, a man full of ideas and ideals, a strategist.

  • Gideon: A man so afraid of himself, that he must have proof on proof, but so sure of God that he was content with 300 men, lamps, pitchers and trumpets to attack a host.

  • Jephthah: Was full of power, he was a man with iron in his soul, born into the world not in the proper way, and therefore despised, he became a freebooter and an outlaw, yet honest and strong.

  • Samson: There is much sadness in this man, a nation decaying and a man unable to deliver. He should have begun to save Israel, but he never succeeded. Written of him was something that makes the soul blanche with fear as nothing else does.


God raised up these judges (and others) to save the nation, yet when each judge died, the people quickly reverted back to their corrupt, sinful ways.



We learn three things here:


  1. Through the process of punishment, God is seen waiting and watching in mercy for His people, hearing them the moment they cry to Him, and answering them immediately with deliverance;

  2. God always finds the providential man (or woman) at the right moment. We cannot produce him (or her); and

  3. We need to identify for ourselves the process of deterioration, individually and collectively, and stamp it out completely.


If we are ignorant of God’s mercies, we become prime candidates for His judgment. Therefore, we must not be careless with these learnings.


Philippians 2:12: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

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