Jesus in Judges

When we read in Luke 24 that the Resurrected Lord explained to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus how the whole Old Testament teaches concerning himself, one might be forgiven for assuming that Jesus glossed over the book of Judges pretty quickly. After all, how can such a dark book teach concerning the Light of the world? But if we are right to assume that all of the OT testifies concerning Christ, we must seek to find him even in Judges. Although it is not apparent at first, what we find is that the entire book, not just discrete scenes, shows us concerning Christ’s person and work.

The first places I think we ought to look to find Jesus in Judges are those episodes where the Angel of the Lord appears. After reading of each scene where this mysterious figure appears and hearing how he speaks and how people respond to him, we are lead to assume that this figure is much more than just an ordinary angel. Indeed, many scholars are right to conclude that these are theophanies or appearances of a divine figure in the likeness of a man. What we have here are pre-incarnate appearances of the Second Person of the Trinity, the Divine Logos. We see him in chapter 2 bring forth the covenant lawsuit against unfaithful Israel (Law). And in chapters 6 and 13, he brings announcements of future deliverance from their enemies (Gospel).

But it is not just in these places that we find Christ. Indeed, as I already said, the whole book is about him. But how? To answer that, we must first ask when Judges may have been written. If we can get an idea of the original intent of the author and the expectations of its original audience, we can better understand how it speaks of the One who was to come.

Judges never tells us who wrote it, nor does it say when, so we are left to speculate a bit. Judges tells us of the time in Israel’s history “when there was no king” (17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25), suggesting that its final composition took place in a time when there was a king. Also, it speaks of this time as a very dark and chaotic era, where “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” We also see much focus upon the fact that Israel lacked unity and strong centralized leadership like that of Moses or Joshua. The tribes are always bickering and fighting like little children. So Judges clearly argues for the need for a good king to rule over the people, to establish law and order, promote pure worship, and unite them as one people of God with faithfulness to his covenant. It is these sorts of expectations and desires that lead me to believe that Judges was written during the life and times of king David. It is easy to see David as the original answer to the problem of godly leadership because he, more than any other king in Israel’s history, fulfilled the description given above.

You may be wondering at this point, “I thought you said the book was about Jesus? Why so much speculation about David?” The beauty of a Redemptive Historical interpretation is that you can appreciate a portion of Scripture from many different vantage points. We can seek to read the book the way the original audience may have, but then also consider how the book may have been viewed throughout Redemptive History. The reigns of David and Solomon represent the golden age in Israel’s monarchy, after them the gold gets really dim, really fast. You can see how these readers would start to think that maybe David wasn’t God’s final solution to Israel’s problems and then begin to look for another One who is to come who would finally and ultimately offer salvation. So as we read of all the shortcomings of the judges, Christ’s presence can be felt in his absence. Reading of the failures of these men reminds of the success of the one Man, Jesus Christ.