Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. – Judges 2:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 30, 2012): Judges 2

Back in the early nineties there was a television series (running on CBS) called “Dark Justice.” The show lasted three seasons and the plot line was about a judge who was frustrated by the legal system – so by day he did his job as a judge, often forced to allow criminals to go free because of a technicality that went in their favor – but at night he got onto his motorcycle and became a vigilante, protecting his society in a way that he could not protect them in his day job. The tag line when “Judge Nicholas Marshall” would be forced to let one of these criminals go free was to declare that “justice may be blind, but it can see in the dark.”

The idea of the vigilante judge of “Dark Justice” is much closer to the idea of a Judge in book of Judges. Unlike modern Judges, these Judges were not hampered by the technicalities of the modern day legal system. The ancient Judges of Israel were more protectors of the nation than they were arbitrators of law. The Judge was in many ways the closest thing that history has to a comic book superhero. In Israel, there was no king and the tribes of Israel were only very loosely connected. But in times of trouble, God would send a Judge to protect the people (there must have been a cosmic bat-signal hiding somewhere.) Israel did not always have a Judge, but invariably they were raised up in times of difficulty for the nation. And they were the ones who were responsible to save the people.

Judges disappeared after this one, short period of history. As the people clamored for a king, he became the one that was responsible for the protection of the nation. Judges were unnecessary, and they disappeared – stepping permanently out of the pages of history. And sometimes the kings of the nations have done an admirable job of protecting their people – and sometimes they have fallen short of the task. But it still was the king’s responsibility to take over for the judge.

And today it is our political leaders that have taken the Judges responsibility to protect on their shoulders. It is the one task that no one else can do. They are the ones that have to rise up, and with the authority of God, protect their people from harm.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 3