We might well ask, “Why would God send saviors to a people so persistently disobedient and fickle?” Judges tells us: “The LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them” (Judg. 2:18; see Neh. 9:27). As the Puritan Thomas Goodwin once counseled believers, “Your very sins move him to pity more than to anger . . . even as the heart of a father is to a child that hath some loathsome disease.”

Few books are as depressing as Judges. The old Methodist commentator Adam Clarke once lamented that some of its worst characters are people whom “humanity and modesty wish to be buried in everlasting oblivion.” The book serves as a painful reminder of what we’re capable of apart from God’s grace.

But unsurprisingly, human depravity in Judges also provides the dark backdrop for God’s mercy. Paul tells us that all Scripture is profitable for training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). And Christ himself instructs us that the Scriptures testify about him (John 5:39; Luke 24:27). So let’s examine three ways this dark book of Judges contains glimmers of light that eventually lead to Jesus.

Rise of Judah

In the book’s opening words, we see the tribe of Judah singled out for prominence and leadership. Israel inquires of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” The Lord responds, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand” (1:1–2).

The same thing happens near the book’s end, suggesting the author is trying to get our attention (20:18). Once again Israel inquires, and once again the Lord says, “Judah shall go up first.” This story of God choosing Judah to lead the other tribes in battle bookends Judges. In both cases, Judah takes the lead in defending Israel against its enemies, whether external (the Canaanites) or internal (Benjamin).

This prioritizing of Judah didn’t come out of nowhere. Long before Judges, we can see the beginnings of the tribe’s prominence. In Genesis, the tribe’s namesake emerges as a sacrificial leader among his brothers (Gen. 44:8–9, 14–34). His tribe is prophetically singled out as the one from which Israel’s kings would eventually come (49:8–10). Finally, during Israel’s time in the wilderness, we see the tribe setting out first on the march (Num. 2:1–9). After Judges, Judah’s military leadership over Benjamin will reemerge in 1 Samuel when a leader from Judah (David) replaces the leader from Benjamin (Saul).

But it culminates in Jesus Christ, whom Revelation 5:5 famously describes as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” A Lion who, like his forebears in Judges, conquered his people’s enemies, both external (the world and the Devil) and internal (our own sin). By the mid-first century, Jesus’s Judah connection was so widely known that the author of Hebrews could claim, “It is evident that our was Lord descended from Judah” (7:14). Thus by being structured around Judah’s leadership, Judges carries forward a theme that will find its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus (see Mic. 5:2; Matt. 1:3; Luke 3:33).

Sending of Saviors

The book’s title, “Judges,” refers to the men (and in one case, a woman: Deborah) whom God sent to deliver his unfaithful people again and again. Chapter 2 summarizes the cycle that will be repeatedly depicted until chapter 16:

Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. . . .

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