Ok, so now we move to a consideration of how the issues of holiness and justice were addressed and lived out in Israel and Judah from the time of the conquest to the time of the exile—basically the era of the judges and kings. This will definitely take a few posts to unpack, so I’ll start today with a few observations related to these themes from the time of Israel’s entry into the Promised Land to the beginning of the monarchy.

The first thing that it is important to note is that, in spite of the prolonged moral and ethical instruction that they had received in the wilderness, it did not take long for the Israelites to begin abandoning both holiness and justice once they had entered the Promised Land. An extremely early example of this is Achan’s theft at Jericho in Joshua 7, an act in which he displayed both a lack of concern for holiness by disobeying God’s express command, and the sort of greedy acquisitiveness that always serves to undermine justice. This episode, occuring as it did following the very first battle after Moses’ impassioned reiteration of the Law in Deuteronomy, obviously did not bode well for Israel’s chances of upholding their calling to embody holiness and justice.

The Book of Judges confirms, in a spectacular way, our suspicions that Israel may be in trouble. The book begins with the arrival of an angelic messenger who condemns the Israelites for failing to obey the Lord’s command to drive out the pagan nations who dwelt in the land, and the remainder of the book is a sad litany of Israel’s recurrent disobedience and idolatry (basically “holiness” issues), which periodically led to repentance and deliverance through the raising up of a ”judge,” only for the nation to quickly abandon its commitment to holiness and repeat the whole process again. By the time of Abimelech (Judges 9), justice had gone out the window along with holiness, as his reign was marked by officially sanctioned mass murder and counter-revolutionary banditry. The nadir of both holiness and justice in the period of the judges can be found in the horrific story of the rape and post-mortem dismemberment of the Levite’s concubine (Judges 19), an episode that ends with people saying in shock and disgust, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt” (19:30), and which proves the truth of the statement with which the entire Book of Judges concludes: “In those days . . . everyone did as he saw fit” (21:25).

As the story transitions from the period of Judges to the days of Samuel and Saul, we find that Eli’s sons were involved in a form of priestly misconduct that involved both disobeying God’s explicit instructions and regulations regarding sacrifices and thus dishonoring Him (holiness problem), and forcibly taking meat from the worshippers (justice problem). When God condemns their behavior, He addresses both sides of the issue, accusing them of scorning His instructions and of fattening themselves on the offerings of others (see 1 Samuel 2:12–36). This double failure on their part leads directly to their deaths, as well as to the death of their father, Eli, and the temporary loss of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4), after which Samuel becomes the leader of Israel and seeks to restore holiness and justice.

Later, however, we learn that Samuel’s sons abandoned his example and chose instead to follow a path that was similar to that embraced by Eli’s sons: they “turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.” (1 Samuel 8:3). And it was partially in response to their unsuitability to lead that the people came and asked Samuel for a king “like all the other nations have.” This event marks a major turning point in the life of Israel as a nation, and serves to hasten the abandonment of both holiness and justice that had been ongoing since the time of their entry into the land. Indeed, God construes the people’s request for a king as an unequivocal rejection of Him and an illustration of the same lack of holiness that has caused them to serve other gods on and off for centuries (8:7–8). And, as Samuel clearly warns them, the establishment of a monarchy will also lead to great injustice as the king begins to dominate the life of the nation, demanding tribute and forcing the people into his service (8:11–18).

In the next post, I’ll begin to look at how holiness and justice continued to be eroded during the period of the kings (with a few brief and/or partial exceptions). But for now it should suffice to note that Israel’s early national history makes it abundantly clear that holiness and justice are closely linked, and that any neglect of one will inevitably bring about the abandonment of the other, at which point evil and chaos reign. The rest of the pre-exilic Old Testament narrative will make this point all too clear. More later…