Today we begin Judges Chapter 17.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE.
For the King James Version, click HERE.
Bible scholars have given the remaining chapters of the Book of Judges (17-21) a special title.
They call them “appendices”.
Why is this?
It’s because these remaining chapters no longer deal with any Judges at all.
Instead, the purpose of the information and stories provided is to strengthen our overall understanding of the period of the Judges.
You should also know these remaining chapters of Judges are NOT in chronological order (a phenomenon not necessarily unique to the Book of Judges).
For example, the events depicted in Judges Chapters 17 and 18 happened about 200 years BEFORE Samson came on the scene.
Samson was the last Judge who took Israel from the era of Judges into the era of the kings.
But most scholars agree that the events in Judges 17 and 18 took place during the period of the very first Judge, Othniel.
The reason why the Scriptures don’t always follow in chronological sequence is because the Hebrew mindset is much more concerned with subject matter than time.
This is quite a contrast to modern “Greek-based thinking” authors and teachers who seem obsessed with making sure events and stories are always presented in a very linear, A-to-Z order that things occurred.
This is just one example out of many how the Hebrew mind is much more flexible than the gentile mind.
The Hebrew mindset was more concerned with piecing together the key elements that made up a story EVEN IF these other elements had to be pulled from totally different time periods in history.
You’ll notice that the final chapters of Judges focus on the tribe of Dan.
So let me ask you this?
What tribe of Israel did Samson hail from?
The answer is the tribe of Dan.
That’s why the Book of Samson is strategically placed in the Scriptures where it is.
The whole idea is to communicate on many levels and from many different angles how the Tribe of Dan had so terribly fallen away from the Lord…
And the dire consequences that ensued when they abandoned the territory the Lord had assigned to them to head up north because they thought life up there would be easier.
There’s another major spiritual lesson in that last sentence but I think I’ll close it here.
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