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humiliation is all the more pronounced that it takes place at Ajalon, the scene of such a
mighty triumph under Joshua (Josh. 10: 12).
In Judges 2: 6-20 we read in solemn language the Divine synopsis of the whole
book:
"The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that
outlived Joshua . . . . . And there arose another generation after them, which knew not the
Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel . . . . . they forsook the Lord God of
their fathers . . . . . and served Baal and Ashtaroth . . . . . He delivered them into the hands
of spoilers . . . . . He raised up judges which delivered them . . . . . yet they would not
hearken."
In these circumstances, instead of driving out the nations from before Israel, the Lord
said He would use them to "prove" Israel, much as He had used the experiences of the
forty years' wandering in the wilderness (Deut. 8: 2).
From this point to the end of Judges 18: we have the history of the judges, and the
closing chapters depict the fearful condition, both spiritually and morally, into which
Israel had fallen. As, in these closing verses, we three times hear the sad refrain, "There
was no king in Israel" (18: 1; 19: 1 and 21: 25), so the subject of kingship will be
found running throughout the story of the judges. Gideon's brethren "resembled the
children of a king". He himself was invited to rule over Israel but refused, and his son
Abimelech, born of a concubine, in Shechem, usurped the kingdom. Again, Jephthah is
invited to be head over all Gilead, and the sad confession is made in the days of Samson:
"Knowest thou not that Philistines are rulers over us?" (Judges 15: 11).
Equally with the absence of the true king in all this turmoil and misrule, is felt
the absence of the true priest. Even Gideon made a Ephod to the undoing of Israel
(8: 24-27). This finds an echo in the Ephod made by Micah (17: 5). Truly the whole
sad history cries out for the one King-Priest after the order of Melchisedec, even the Lord
Jesus Christ. At every turn its typical teaching illustrates the condition and character of
the world and of the church, while He is absent, or while He is not recognized as Lord
over all to the church.
With this review of the book in mind the reader will perhaps the better appreciate the
following structure of the book as a whole, which places the items we have surveyed in
their respective places, and demonstrates the design of the book and the intended lesson.