“You are to appoint judges and officers for all your gates [in the cities] Adonai your God is giving you, tribe by tribe; and they are to judge the people with righteous judgment.”-Deuteronomy 16:18
Verse 18 starts off by telling us that the “YOU shall appoint judges…”.
Who is “you” referring to here?
Many people mistakenly assume that “You” is referring to the common citizens.
However, that is NOT how tribal systems operated in the ancient Middle East.
In ancient tribal systems, it was the elders who served as the representatives of the people.
The elders had to answer to the tribe but they did NOT have to answer to the tribal chief.
The “you” in this context is referring to the elders.
And it was actually the elders who were responsible for appointing the judges.
In Hebrew, the word for “judge” is SHOFET or in the plural SHOFETIM.
After Israel took over the land of Canaan, a 250-300 year period known as the time of the Judges began.
That’s right.
In Scripture, the book depicting this era is aptly titled “Judges” or SEPHER SHOFETIM in Hebrew and details the exploits of the series of judges who ruled, led and delivered Israel from gentile oppression.
The strongman Samson is one of the more famous judges who appears in this absolutely fascinating book.
Although, the book of Judges comes much later, the office of SHOFET is established right here in Deuteronomy.
However, this wasn’t the first time a system of authority figures was set up to judge everyday civil matters in Israel.
Recall way back in the Book of Exodus when Moses’ father-in-law Jethro told Moses to set up a sort of lower court to take care of the routine problems that normally came up in the daily lives of the people who were living in close quarters to each other.
It was only if the issues proved too challenging or a problem arose that was really serious in nature that Moses and his brother Aaron the High Priest stepped in and took charge.
Understand that out in the wilderness, legal matters were taken care of via a CENTRALIZED SYSTEM.
In other words, Moses had set up a council of elders comprised of men from all the different tribes.
The civil problems that arose were NOT dealt with tribe-by-tribe.
A member from the Tribe of Benjamin for example could find himself answering to a lower court comprised of members from the Tribe of Ephraim.
However, all of this would change once Israel entered the Promised Land.
Out in the wilderness, Israel was a united nation operating under one leader, Moses.
However, once they entered into the Promised Land lead by Joshua (Moses’ successor) and successfully conquered the land to the point where a military-style administration and structure was no longer necessary, the central government that had been established out in the wilderness dissolved.
The reason is because each of the 12 tribes had established a foothold in the portion of land that had been allotted to them and were at that point now autonomous on an individual basis.
So each tribe had their own set of judges and officials.
However, regardless of the changes in government structure that took place, there is one important thing that NEVER CHANGED AND WILL NEVER CHANGE.
Whether it was the centralized system of government out in the wilderness or the tribal-based governments set up once the Israelites had settled in the land, God expected everyone to operate under ONE COMMON SET OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIVING.
Of course, I’m talking about the Law or the Torah.
And when the millennium kingdom is established upon the Messiah’s return, so also shall it be.
It is this very Torah that we are studying that will be the law for the whole world with the central governing body being located smack dab right in the heart of Jerusalem.
Leave a Reply