Judges

Judges is a cycle of sin, the consequences of sin, and salvation from sin, repeated again and again over a period of several centuries. Rather than try to illustrate everything that went wrong, I chose to concentrate on the people who served as judges after Joshua died.
I often use magazine photographs as reference for faces and poses. While looking for images of leaders, I found a group photograph that gave me ideas for several of the figures in this painting. You probably would not recognize the original models, because whenever I work from photographs, I make enough changes so that I am not copying them directly, but simply using them as inspiration. Their clothing also changes their appearance.
One of the judges was left-handed, and he appears near the top in a yellow ochre outfit, holding his sword. I am afraid that without looking back through the book, I do not recall his name. Gideon is on the left, wearing a turquoise-blue garment and holding his wet fleece. Shamgar is beside him, more toward the center, wearing blue and holding his oxgoad. Barak is the figure in green and yellow just behind Deborah’s left shoulder. Samson is in the lower left-hand corner. I know I have not named them all, but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.
What I do remember is that by the time I had finished studying Judges, drawing, and coloring this picture, I had come to know these judges as people not so different from ourselves. They were left-handed and right-handed, brave and afraid, insecure and questioning, raised by believing parents, family men, morally weak, spiritually strong, and very much ordinary people.
Another element in the painting is the presence of idols. These may look like little statues, but they are meant to represent not only false gods, but also the spiritual decline of the tribes in general.
In the center, there is also a free-floating hand holding a gavel, symbolizing judgment over the nations.