Judges 17-18

The Book of Ruth

The One Accord Podcast tackles the entire book of Ruth in a single episode, exploring how a woman from a nation banned from the assembly of the Lord ended up in the genealogy of both King David and Jesus Christ. Joe, Eric, Greg, and Micah dig into the Deuteronomy 23 ban, the theology of God's providence in suffering, the beauty of kinsman redemption, and what this short but stunning book reveals about God's redemptive plan.

Judges 19-21

Joe, Eric, Greg, and Micah close out the book of Judges by working through chapters 19–21 — the Levite and his concubine, the atrocity at Gibeah, the near-extermination of Benjamin, and the bizarre "wife catching" plan to preserve a tribe. These three chapters are widely considered some of the darkest in the Old Testament, and the team wrestles honestly with what the text is actually emphasizing, who is morally culpable, and what God is teaching His people (and us) through this period of national apostasy.

Judges 17-18

We are back together for a verse-by-verse walk through Judges 17 and 18; two of the most disturbing and revealing chapters in the entire book. With no judge named and no foreign oppressor in sight, the narrative pulls back to show us the moral and religious condition of Israel itself. A wandering Levite, a homemade shrine, a stolen blessing, and an entire tribe carving out an inheritance God never gave them, all stitched together by the haunting refrain: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."

Judges 13-16

In this episode, we tackle one of the most famous — and most misunderstood — figures in the Old Testament: Samson. Across four chapters of Judges, we meet a Nazarite who breaks his vow, a deliverer who looks more like a wrecking ball than a savior, and a man who somehow ends up listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. Was Samson a champion of God or a cautionary tale? The Bible's answer is more complicated than the Sunday school version.

Judges 11-12

In Episode 128 of The One Accord Podcast, Joe, Greg, and Eric dig into one of the most disturbing and debated passages in the book of Judges — the story of Jephthah, the valiant warrior born of a harlot who was rejected, rediscovered, and raised up to deliver Israel from Ammon. But his victory is shadowed by a vow so rash it has troubled readers for millennia. Did Jephthah actually sacrifice his own daughter as a burnt offering? Or did he dedicate her to lifelong service to the Lord? The guys wrestle through the Hebrew text, the translational flexibility of a single conjunction, and the theological implications of either reading. The conversation then moves into Judges 12, where Israel's first recorded civil war erupts — Ephraimites vs. Gileadites, the infamous "Shibboleth" test, and the brutal slaughter of 42,000 Israelites by fellow Israelites. The episode closes with an unexpectedly sharp observation: the book of Judges is quietly setting the stage for Israel's demand for a king.