Judges 17-21: An Overview of the Appendix of the Book of Judges

Let’s read together Judges 17:1-6 which says, “There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2 And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.” 3 And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” 4 So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. 5 And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

As we come to the last part of the book of Judges it will be helpful to understand that Judges 17-21 is an appendix to the Book of Judges. (Appendix- a section of additional material at the end of a book.) This appendix contains two stories which are not chronological with the stories that have come before. These last two last stories contain very difficult and disturbing material and they do not necessarily take place after the story of Samson.

The structure of this book has been interesting from the beginning. For example, do you remember that the Book of Judges began with two introductions. (Judges 1-2:5; 2:6-3:6) After those introductions we were told about 14 of Israel’s judges. After that we come to the appendix which gives us more insight into the culture of God’s people during the time of the judges. Both of these last two stories introduces us to a phrase that shows up in both stories, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” (17:6;21:25)

I’ve come to believe that these two stories are events that took place somewhere around the beginning of this book around the time of Joshua’s death and the elders who lived after him. We will see evidence for this as we look at these stories that are contained in the appendix. Let me give you a couple examples regarding this.

• At the end of the first story in Judges 18:30 we read, “And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan (the generation after Joshua {2:10}) the son of Gershom (the generation of Joshua {2:7}), son of Moses, and his sons (Jonathan) were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.” The apostate Levite at the center of this first story was the son of Gershom- the son of Moses. Moses’ grandson is the critical figure who leads his family and the whole tribe of Dan into faithlessness and apostasy. (Remarkable considering Exodus 32:10! Oh the power and patience of God!!)

• Similarly, consider Judges 20:27-28 which says, “And the people of Israel inquired of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there (Bethel) in those days, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days)…”. In the second story we have a similar time marker. Phinehas is the priest during this story who served before the LORD. Phinehas was the grandson of Aaron.

At the beginning the structure of this book was hard for me to understand. This was because throughout the book of Judges we’ve seen Israel slide farther into faithlessness and apostasy. Because of this these two stories seem to describe just how far things have become in Israel after the last judged died. You will recall that in this book we’ve seen that Israel has been caught up in a downward cycle. (described in 2:11-23)

• Israel was blessed by God,

• Israel would fall away and not repent so God disciplined them,

• Israel would eventually cry out to the LORD,

• God would raise up a judge who would deliver them

• Israel would be blessed for a time, however, they would quickly fall away again and the cycle would begin again.

There have been 14 judges and every time this cycle takes place we’ve seen Israel decline farther into apostasy. Did you know that there was not one time when Israel was rescued by God and the next generation continued to be faithful? Every time the judge died the next generation fell away! This has given me a greater respect for those few times in history when this cycle was broken. Are we one of those few generations? Let’s pass on the faith to our family and in this church family. Question: What role can you play to help this happen?

Because of these things it seemed like these last two stories described what Israel was like after Samson. Surprisingly, however, this doesn’t appear to be the case. One of the lessons we learn from this is how quickly God’s people turned away and do evil in the eyes of the LORD. (2:11;3:7,12;4:1;6:1;10:6:13:1) We also learn how difficult this is to recover from. From a distance Israel might have looked pretty good, but the when you look closely that is not the case.

This morning I’d like to show you from the scriptures that this quick departure away from the LORD should not have been a surprise to anyone. Let’s consider Deuteronomy 31:12-13 where Moses gives a copy of the law to the priests and says, “Assemble the people, men, women, and the little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” (31:12-13) The people of Israel were to hear the Word of God and respond in faith.

I say this because earlier in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 Moses gave Israel the law they were told that obedience would require faith. There Moses says, “For this commandment that I command of you today (This command is the statutes that were written in the Book of the Law {v.10}) is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the Word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” The LORD had given Israel His Word and they were to receive it with faith and then obey it in faith.

It would not be long after Moses said these words that he would die; therefore, Israel would need to receive the Word of God, obey it with faith, and let it guide them in every generation. What a precious gift the LORD had given Israel when they were given the Word of God to guide them.

The Baptist Confession speaks of the blessing it is to have the Word of God written down for His people. In chapter 1.1 of the section entitled ‘The Holy Scriptures’ it says, “The LORD was pleased at different times and in various ways to reveal Himself and to declare His will to His church. To preserve and propagate the truth better and to establish and comfort the church with greater certainty against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and the world, the LORD put this revelation completely in writing. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures are absolutely necessary, because God’s former ways of revealing His will to His people have now ceased.”

Application: These last two stories in the Book of Judges show us just how quickly the corruption of the flesh, the malice of Satan, and the world can affect God’s people when the Word of God is neglected. Therefore, we are not to do what is right in our own eyes, but to obey Romans 12:1-2.

Consider what the LORD says to Moses and Joshua in Deuteronomy 31:16, “Behold, you (Moses) are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.” (31:16) Notice how the LORD confesses that Moses is about to die and that the people will immediately begin to whore after foreign gods. This will happen very fast!

Throughout the scriptures we see many examples of this. In the scriptures people can turn as...

• ...quickly as Samson strayed from his mission in Judges 13:24-14:5.

• ...quickly as Adam and Eve sinned in the garden.

• ...quickly as the people began to grumble as they were leaving Egypt.

• ...quickly as Achan sinned when the people came into the Promised Land at Jericho.

• ...quickly as the Galatians turned away from Christ to another Gospel. (Gal. 1:6-9)

• ...quickly as Israel did after their Exodus from Egypt when in Exodus 32 the people came to Aaron and say, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, we do not know what has become of him.” (32:1) The LORD’s own testimony regarding this event was to say to Moses in Exodus 32:7-8, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.”

Back in Deuteronomy 31 the LORD knows that Israel will be faithless so He tells Moses to compose a song that will be a witness against the people. Moses is to teach Israel this song and it is to be passed down from generation to generation. Notice what the LORD says in 31:21, “For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.”

In Deuteronomy 31:24-29 Moses wrote the law down in a book and he gave it to the Levites, saying in verses 26-27, “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD. How much more after my death!”

Israel had been given the Law of God and they were to be diligent to obey everything in it by faith. However, they were a rebellious, faithless, and a stubborn people who did what was right in their own eyes. Moses testified to the people the same things that he had heard from the LORD, and said in verse 27, “Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD. How much more after my death!” (27) Then Moses says in Deuteronomy 31:28-29, “Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.” We have seen that all of this came true in the Book of Judges!

Now look ahead at Deuteronomy 32:44-47 where we read what Moses’ did and said before he died, “Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to Israel, he said to them, ‘Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.’”

My friends, the Book of Judges has given us a warning, as did the Book of Hebrews, about how easy it is for us to not respond to God’s word with faith. Therefore, we ought to examine ourselves to see if we are continuing in the faith once and for all passed down.

These last two stories in Judges 17-21 describe how quickly bad things had become after Israel entered into the Promised Land. This happened because they did not receive God’s Word and apply it with faith. In these stories we see that everything that Moses had warned Israel about came to pass.

Unfortunately, what was happening in Israel during the Book of Judges was not unique to that generation. Psalm 81:11-14 says, “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways. I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes.” (Hebrews 2-3)

Contrast Psalm 81:11-14 with what David says in Psalm 18:20-24, “The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His rules were before me, and His statutes I did not put away from me. I was blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my guilt. So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.”

When we look at Judges 17-21 we will not see anyone who resembles David. No, we will see examples of how foolish it is to forget God’s Word, to put it aside, and to neglect it and do what is right in their own eyes.

Two Applications:

1. The appendix of the Book of Judges will keep us from looking back at our lives and saying, ‘Those were the glory days of my life and or of this church!’ As a church of the reformation we are to always be reforming. Like Paul, we ought to always say, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward for what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Those of us who are mature think this way…”. (Philippians 3:1215a)

2. This appendix to the Book of Judges should be a wake up call to all of us that our families and our churches can so easily drift away from God’s Word and into faithlessness and apostasy. Can we say that we are one of those few generations who have broken the vicious cycle and built upon the faith of the last generation and recovered some of what has been lost? What do we need to do to be one of those very rare groups of people who truly do see biblical reformation and revival that is past on to the world and to the next generation?

3. Let’s aspire to be one of those rare generations who passes on the faith to the next generation and pray that God will continue that work in their lives for many more generations. How will you respond to the message that we have been taught this morning?