The Creation matrix begins with a single mediator and ends with a corporate mediator-nation. The judges were single mediators, corporate only in a progressive way: a new creation.

But there were seven ‘elected’ judges (seven is 3+4 [betrothal] at the centre of a greater pattern). The basic themes of their respective narratives illustrate a new creation, with Gideon’s ‘Pentecost’ flames at the centre, and the great solar bridegroom at the end.

All this adds deeper meaning to the role of Samuel as the last judge, the eighth judge — the one who carried Israel from tribes to kingdom. Son of a barren woman, he was the beginning of a new week.[2]

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[1] This also explains the 42 children mauled by Elisha’s bears, 12 x 3 1/2. See Elisha’s Short Fuse.
[2] This fact is slightly more narrative than historical. James Jordan observes that Samson and Samuel, two Nazirites from birth, and Obed, son of Boaz and Ruth, were all born around the same time: two shoulders and a new head. The Nazirites were miraculous births, and Obed was born to Naomi by a Gentile surrogate. See Judges: God’s War Against Humanism [PDF]. Eli the High Priest was also a judge, whose tenure overlapped that of Samson and Samuel. See the chronology in Peter J. Leithart, A Son to Me: : An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel.

The Nazirite Vow

(Article requested by Drew J.)

This vow in Numbers 6 follows the “inspection of jealousy” in Numbers 5. Mark Horne observed that, just as the woman in Numbers 5 was to be inspected for harlotry with her hair untamed, so the Nazirite (whether male or female) was not to cut his or her hair. A Nazirite is a human picture of the church as a warrior bride. Hair is glory. Hair is the cloud of angels (and now, saints) surrounding the throne of God.

“Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.” (1 Cor. 11:10)

A woman is the glory of her man. A woman’s hair is a symbol of submission, but also a symbol of her own “cloud of angels” – her godly offspring (See Ezekiel 5 for the children of Israel symbolised as the prophet’s hair, Micah 1:16, Matthew 10:30 and also my comments on Nehemiah and his hair-pulling). In battle, a Nazirite was like a blazing torch (the Ark-chariot/Adam) and smoking firepot (the smoke clouds of the incense altar/Eve army), parting his enemies like the pillar of God.

The hair is her “crop”, the twelve stars around her head (Rev. 12), and the question constantly posed to Israel concerns her role as God’s mediatorial Land. Is her crop one of thorns and thistles, or is it godly grain? This is also the question in Numbers 5, and the Lord put Israel to this exact test after the idolatry with the golden calf. The “harlots” were slain with the Levitical sword.

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