Right Words

1 Sam. 12:11, 1 Chron. 7:17

Did you know that one of the judges of Israel was not mentioned in the book of that name? Strange, huh. But God reserves the right to tell us things at any time, and he often reveals details about past events much later in scripture. Take Jude 9, for example, where we read that there was a dispute in the spirit world over the disposition of Moses’ body. We’re told in Deut. 34:6 that no man knew where he was buried on Mt. Pisgah, but it’s not until Jude 9 that we’re told that Michael recovers his body, despite Satan’s protest, explaining Moses’ presence at Christ’s transfiguration (Luke 9:30-31) and appearance in Daniel’s Seventieth Week as one of the two witnesses (Rev. 11:1-13).

We don’t learn about the mysterious judge Bedan until Samuel, the last judge (1 Sam. 7:15-17), mentions him in a quick recap of Israel’s history in 1 Sam. 12:6-12. He’s mentioned between Jerubbaal (or Gideon; cf. Judg. 6:32) and Jephthah and Samuel, so if their judgeships were sequential, he judged Israel sometime in the Judges 10 window, though he’s not mentioned along with Tola (10:1-2) and Jair (10:3-5). If he preceded Jephthah, I would put him somewhere in 10:1-5, since 10:6ff. deal with the Ammonites, whom Jephthah delivers Israel from in Judges 11.

The only other thing we know about Bedan is that he hailed from the half- tribe of Manasseh east of Jordan and was the great-grandson of Machir the son of Manasseh (1 Chron. 7:14-17). For those who think that reading 1 Chron. 1-9 is pointless, think again: we wouldn’t know anything about this mysterious judge – except that he judged Israel – if it weren’t for the genealogies in 1 Chron. And then there’s dear Jabez, the names of all David’s brothers, and other treasures to be found in these chapters for those looking. Whoever Bedan was, he made enough of a contribution for Samuel to mention him with the other judges and himself. God knows the rest of the details and will reward him accordingly one day!