On Judges and Reading Whole Books

Today I read Judges.  I don’t know exactly, but I estimate that I spent about five hours reading through the book (once).  It was an exceptional journey.  I’ve suggested here before that we need to read more books (and less stories and chapters).  Things come to life in a different way if you read the whole book.  Stories that don’t seem related actually are.  Incidental comments aren’t incidental when you remember what happened six chapters back.  You see threads and themes.  You see the big picture.  It’s a wonderful privilege.  If you have a Bible at home, I recommend that you try this.  And not just for Philippians, but for Judges or Deuteronomy or Genesis.  I could write twenty posts on things I learned and observations I made today. 

I can only comment briefly, but here are a few fresh things that come from reading the whole book.

The Ephraimites are jerks.  They don’t show up for the battle, but they show up after the victory has been won.  And they want the spoils.  And if you ‘re not ready to share, they ‘re ready to fight you.  This is their character.  You see it in both the stories of Gideon (where he is nice) and Jephthah (where he is not).

Leadership is a good thing.  The people do well when they have a leader, but as soon as he dies, the people turn wicked again.  Judges is an apologetic for the monarchy.  Maybe one of the elders who came to Samuel when he was getting old wrote the book.  (Not really, but you see my point.)

God put the Levites throughout the land so that they would witness to all the tribes for him.  Instead they decided to be entrepreneurs, serving at idolatrous shrines for whoever paid the most.

The Abimelech story sticks out like a sore thumb.  Unlike the stories before and after it, there’s no judge, there’s no deliverance from oppression, and there’s no peace.  It is the story of a curse fulfilled, of God getting revenge.

If you read the whole book straight through, when you start chapter 20, this verse will blow you out of the water: “Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as one man.”

I have a problem with Jabesh Gilead.  If all of the people were killed, why does Saul’s family celebrate Thanksgiving here each year?  How does he have family there that he is interested in saving (1 Sam 11) and that later save him (1 Sam 31)? 

Judah looks good; Benjamin looks bad.  But Benjamin defeats Judah in the first (and maybe second) battles.

The Levite who turned his concubine over to the Benjamites is a wretched man.  Why did he ever go to rescue her from dad in the first place?  (Don’t try to answer my questions without reading the stories carefully; I’m not putting all of the details into my descriptions or questions.)

Was the tabernacle and ark always at Shiloh?  I’ve always thought so.  But it doesn’t seem like it in chapters 19-21, especially when we get directions to Shiloh at the end.

So that’s a few thoughts at the end of a long day.  I’ve read and taught these stories (most of them) many dozens of times.  But this is the first time that I’ve ever carefully read through the whole book.  All I did was read the book itself; I didn’t look at study notes or commentaries.  Tomorrow I ‘ll do some reading in other books.  I may change my mind on some things, I ‘ll certainly gain some understanding in some areas, and I may come up with new questions.

My plea to you is this: find 3 or 4 hours in your life and do this.  Pick a book you want to “crack” and just work through it, writing (or typing) notes as you go (I have about 15 pages of typed notes from today).  If you aren’t delighted with the results, I ‘ll give you your money back.  If you do it and you ‘re inclined to send me an email or comment here, please do.  The Bible is a better book than any other you have read, are reading, or will read.  It’s worth more than a 10-minute devotional in the morning.