The Book of Judges is an awesome, fascinating, brutal, and grinding portion of Scripture. It is a repetitive account of duty neglected, discipline applied, and deliverance brought. Through it all runs the twin themes of God’s faithfulness and his people’s faithlessness. As the book progresses, this weighty statement appears: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6, ESV; see also Judges 18:1, 19:1, 21:25). God’s people have rejected God as king, and a kingless people are a powerless people. Israel needs a king, and that king must be righteous.
In their rejection of him as king, God remains faithful even to his faithless nation. After recounting Israel’s apostasy and God’s judgment in Judges 2:11-15, in verse 16 the author writes, “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them” (Judges 2:16, ESV). God’s people need a righteous king, but first God will bring them deliverance through a judge, or judges, who will save them, rescue them from the hands of their enemies. Notice the link here between judgment and salvation. It is the judge who saves. The judges in this book aren’t Israel’s ultimate saviors. They’re temporary rescuers, but they’re rescuers who prepare readers of Scripture to think not merely of a judge who condemns, but a judge who saves: “…the LORD raised up judges, who saved them…”
Now, move from Judges to the Book of Acts, and listen to the words of Paul preached in Athens’ Aeropagus:
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31, NASB).
Who’s the man Paul’s speaking of? It is, of course, Jesus Christ; the same Jesus whom Scripture describes as “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42, 1 John 4:14, ESV). Jesus is the final judge who saves. He is the coming judge foreshadowed by the temporary magistrates in the Book of Judges.
Now, consider one final link. Judges – with its Christ-foreshadowing, nation-saving magistrates – ends with the pressing need for a king, a righteous king. Shortly thereafter, the arc of Scripture lands us on David, and generations thereafter we arrive at David’s greater son, Jesus, the son of Joseph, Jesus of Nazareth. Who is Jesus? He is “…the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One…” who sits enthroned “…at the right hand of power…” (Mark 14:61-62, Ephesians 1:20-23). Jesus Christ is the righteous king of all creation. The judge who saves and the king who rules are one in the same! As the biblical narrative unfolds from Judges, it becomes clear that the judge saves by offering himself as the object of condemnation, and the king rules with a cross as his coronation seat.
Finally then, all of this that I’ve reflected on briefly in writing, Sovereign Grace Music puts beautifully in song. I commend to you the song “Jesus, Our Judge and Our Savior.”
Fix Your Mind 