aBeLOG
Welcome to the aBeLOG, a series of (hopefully!) fortnightly posts on all matters homiletical. I intend to touch on whatever grabs my attention regarding preaching—issues contemporary and ancient, ideas hermeneutical and rhetorical, personalities conservative and liberal, publications antiquarian and avant-garde. Essentially, I’m going to follow my own homiletical olfactory instincts up rabbit trails and after red herrings. Comments are always invited and appreciated.
Judges 17:1–18:31
Godless leadership leads to godlessness in society that invites the discipline of God.
Othniel is the perfect model of a judge; Ehud is deceptive; Barak is fearful; Gideon is skeptical and hubristic (and Abimelech is a bloodthirsty butcher—not a judge figure); Jephthah is a manipulator and a child-sacrificer; Samson cannot control his fleshly passions and defects from his calling. It is no wonder, then, that at the end the book of Judges, in the Epilogues (17:1–21:25),
Judges 15:1–16:31
Rebellious disdain of one’s divine calling, expressed in uncontrolled lusts and vengeful actions, can lead to destruction.
At some unspecified time in the recent past, Samson, in a rage, had abandoned his wife (14:20). Now he wants sex—“I will go in to my wife”—and so he decides to make amends. Bearing a goat’s kid (like a box of chocolates, I suppose?), Samson proceeds to his wife’s house (15:2) where he is told that she has been given away to one of his
Judges 13:1–14:20
Though God remains gracious, a devotionless rejection of divine interests in favor of selfish passions leads only to disaster.
Samson is the last judge in the book, and his story gets the most space—four whole chapters and ninety-six verses. The account begins, as usual, with a statement that the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of God (13:1–2). And so they are given over to the Philistines for forty years—the longest oppression on record in Judges.
And, heeeeere’s
Judges 10:6–12:15
Manipulation of God and the adoption of the world’s practices can lead to tragic loss of blessing.
The passage begins with the longest of all the condemnatory introductions to the judge stories (10:6–18). Yahweh’s rebuke begins with a statement of his delivery of the Israelites from seven nations/people groups (10:11–12). This corresponds in number to the sets of gods Israel was serving (10:6)—seven. Even as the seven defeated enemies point to
Judges 8:33–10:5
The illicit thirst for power, destructive in its ramifications, brings about fitting retribution from God.
Of all the narratives in the book of Judges, Yahweh’s presence is felt the least in this account of Abimelech. Deity is present, but almost always as ’elohim, “God,” not “Yahweh” (8:34; 9:7, 9, 13, 23, 56, 57). And in every instance, this occurs as part of a pejorative statement by the narrator or a character. There is no direct link between Abimelech
Judges 7:23–8:32
Godliness involves abandonment of self-glorifying vendettas and of power.
After Jdg 7:22, with Israel’s victory over the Midianites accomplished, one would have expected the narrative to conclude with the notice of the Midianites being subdued and the land obtaining rest, followed by an announcement of Gideon’s death and its aftermath. But no, there is an “interpolation” before the end that adds some more unsavory dimensions to Gideon’s life.
The summoning of troops
Judges 6:1–7:22
Faithful trust in God, without pridefully taking credit for divine action, leads to blessing.
After the lofty praises sung to Yahweh in Judges 5, we are brought down to terra firma with an unmistakable thud: the Israelites returned to their evil ways (6:1).
Usually, at this juncture Yahweh would be raising up a deliverer. Instead we have a detour—a round of deserved divine excoriation of the nation’s behavior (6:8–10). Israel had chosen to fear and obey not Yahweh,
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.