It is helpful, from time to time, to remind all of you that I don't just pick which passages I want to read each morning. I follow a proscribed list. It is called "The Daily Lectionary," and over the course of a two year cycle I will be exposed to most of the content of the bible.
The Lectionary is currently directing me to the book of Judges. Judges has many wonderful stories. We will come to Gideon and to Samson. It also has many tales which are disturbing and disagreeable with our modern sensibilities. There are references to the "people of God" killing every man, woman, child, and animal in the lands of their enemies.
Throughout the book, the theme which holds is that even when the people of God abandon God, God does not abandon them. The differing stories of the Judges begin with the reminder that "God rose up (insert name) to judge Israel." They did not judge by sitting on the bench of a courtroom, they judged by showing how much is possible when one follows God's word. Typically, they were military leaders rather than political or judicial authorities.
As I read through the book of Judges, I continually wonder who it is that God has "raised up" in our day. God's faithfulness would not leave us without someone (many someones) to guide us. Maybe the "Judge" isn't a widely known servant, but someone observed by a tight circle of seekers.
The stories in Judges remind us that that there are lines of authority and then there is true authority. The servants of God are in the latter group. And there will always be those showing us the way, regardless of whether we will observe and listen and follow.
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