My favorite time of the morning, I was downstairs reading. The sun had not yet risen. Humidity was heavy outside. Hopefully, rain was on the way, as our area is parched. I was in the Old Testament book of Judges. Our dog was beside me, next to my right thigh in the chair, snoring.

Judges is one of those books I like to read straight through in one sitting. Why? Well, first, it’s short enough to do so. Second, it encapsulates the biblical narrative. Third, it emphasizes man’s pattern and God’s consistency.

The writer states the theme of Judges overtly: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25, ESV). Straightforward enough. You get either exact repetitions or echoes of that in Judges 17:6 and Judges 19:1, among other places. God’s message, in short, is clear: Israel has again fallen into rebellion, apostasy, syncretism, false worship, and worse; therefore, God judges their sin via providing judges, mediators, and leaders.

What are God’s purposes? First, to reveal his unchanging holiness. Holiness must judge sin. Second, to quicken his people. Third, to prefigure to ulimate judge, Christ the Lord. The judges in the book of Judges were occasionally quite good and effective, but they were nonetheless insufficient to fully conquer sin, redeem, and lead the people of God into the land of promise.

Judah was sometimes trustworthy, but not always. Benjamin failed to take Jerusalem, a prefiguring of Saul’s many failures. Joshua died. Gideon sometimes trusted the Lord but at other times fell quite short. Samson, time and time again, went from hero to zero. The pattern remains the same, in other words. Human mediators, judges, military leaders, etc. fall short. Our trust ought never to be in sinners because all of us sinners fall short and let one another down. We all have feet of clay.

As a whole, Judges is to point us to Jesus, the sole sufficient and efficient mediator, judge, leader and conqueror. Paul writes that “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5, ESV). How many mediators? One.

We are to learn from Samson’s failures, from Gideon’s failures, from Benjamin’s failures. We’re to learn of the consequences of syncretism and impure worship. We’re to see that God always judges sins, that no one escapes the eyes of God. When it comes to this, I don’t think of others. I have so many sins that I’ve no room to cast glances and point fingers. Were I to receive justice from God, I’d be damned. Without hesitation. I do not hide from that. That is my point: There is no hiding from God. No fig leaves. No clothes. No amount of good manners or educational degrees. I’m gifted in academia, but one thing I learned a long time ago is that are MANY ‘educated’ fools. Degrees? Yes. Wisdom? No. (God save me from credentialism.) I’d rather sit at the feet of my maternal grandparents in GA than in almost any lecture hall where a pagan pontificates. (Momo and Granddaddy, Rooster honors you, as do countless others into whom you poured but were scantly repaid. Thank you for your steadfast love and patience with a tender but stubborn boy, who loved you with a love unspeakable.)

In sum, God has revealed one coherent story in the 66 books of sacred Scripture. It’s all showing why Christ was necessary to redeem the elect. The one coherent story hinges upon the unchanging character of the triune God, and the passive and active obedience of Christ. No book of the 66 books of sacred Scripture is anything less than God-breathed.

This is why understanding God’s revelation to be one coherent story is foundational. Judges remains just as relevant today for all who are or will be in Christ.