In a nutshell, the era of the Judges was a period of big time political instability for Israel.
And the reason why is simple.
They possessed no central leadership like they had had under Joshua.
They were supposed to look towards God as their king.
And the priesthood was to be the central government serving as Israel’s moral compass in terms of what was right and wrong.
Unfortunately, things rapidly fell apart with every man doing what he thought was best in his eyes.
So what’s the best way to describe Israel’s style of government during this time?
I’m going to introduce a Greek word here you’ve probably never heard of before.
That word is AMPHICTONY.
And here’s the definition of the term straight from Webster’s dictionary:
“an association of neighboring states in Ancient Greece to defend a common religious center”.
What?!
A Greek style of government in ancient Israel?!
That’s right homies.
This really is the best way to describe Israel’s style of government at this time since they possessed no central government and had no main leader at this time.
To get a clearer idea of Israel’s political structure (or lack thereof) at this time, think of the UN.
The UN doesn’t have any central ruling authority except in special situations, right?
And the countries who join the United Nations do so on a voluntary basis.
The UN member nations simply agree to come together to help each other out for mutual trade and security benefits.
This was exactly Israel’s situation during this era of the Judges.
Makes sense?
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