Book 7 The Book Of Judges
Who wrote the Book of Judges: Book of Judges is believed that Samuel wrote the Book of Judges
When was Book of Judges written: Sometime after 1;000 B.C.?
Why was it written: To give a historical account of the years following Israel’s entrance into Canaan to the time of the first anointed king of Israel? Judges gives several accounts of s entrance into Canaan to the time of the first anointed king of Israel.
Judges also tell of Israel’s disobedience, oppression at the hands of their enemies, their crying out to God for help, and his discipline and rescue.
From a ‘message perspective,’ the book of Judges is a message of salvation because of God’s love, mercy, and grace. Containing the elements of sin, confession, and repentance, the book of Judges could be our story.
Read and Learn More Bible Study For Beginners
Following Joshua’s death, the Israelites asked God who they were supposed to look to for leadership. This was a people who had known only two leaders in their lifetime—Moses and Joshua.
They had the priesthood and the elders of each tribe to guide them through many of the decisions and circumstances they faced, but they honestly didn’t know how to function without an intercessor between them and God.
God answered the Israelites by saying the tribe of Judah would take the role of leadership in regard to fighting the battles they still had to fight.
Times Of War And Peace
While God had given the Israelites victory over their enemies and the Israelites had established the areas of land that they were to call ‘home’, there was still a lot of lands to conquer and battles to fight and win.
Think about it —when have you known anyone to go down without a fight? The Canaanites certainly didn’t. They were at war against the Israelites for years and years following the fall of the walls of Jericho and the battles immediately following.
Disobedience Equals Defeat
After Joshua and the rest of that generation were gone, the next generation paid no attention. And to that one has to ask why? Why didn’t they know?
The Israelites disobeyed God in a number of ways. They worshipped idols, they rejected the Law; following the laws and rituals of their enemies— enemies they married and added to their families and took as slaves.
As a result of their disobedience, God allowed their enemies to defeat and plunder the Israelites.
God, however, would not and could not break his promise to Abraham to make Israel into a great nation. So rather than allow the Israelites to be completely destroyed, he provided them with judges. The judges were predominantly men who led Israel in similar fashion to Moses and Joshua.
Most of the time the Israelites turned back to God when a new judge was provided to them, but time and time again they returned to their sinful ways of idol worship and depravity.
Many of the things Israel did in the name of worship to other gods included human sacrifice and horrific sexual sins. The phrases, “Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD…” and “But when they cried out to the LORD…” are repeated over and over again throughout the book of Judges.
The fact that God is both a firm disciplinarian and merciful forgiver towards Israel should come as no surprise, though, because he does the very same for us each and every day of our lives.
A Unique And Prophetic Purpose
By now you should have no doubts that God has a plan and a purpose for everything he does and that his plan and purpose will always win out.
These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan.
(He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonia’s, and the Hives living in the Lebanon Mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamah.
This passage answers several questions people often ask about God’s plan for life here on earth as well as this period of time in our history. It tells us:
Israel’s disobedience would continue; making it necessary for them to defend themselves.
God would not overlook Israel’s disobedience, but would instead discipline them by not allowing them to enjoy the peace, protection, and prosperity he had promised in return for their faithful and total obedience.
The judges
Over a period of 500 + years, God sent a number of judges to rule over Israel. As stated earlier, the Israelites almost always enjoyed a time of fellowship with God; worshipping him and following the Law under the leadership of the judges.
But after a while, they fell away, at which time God would allow them to be treated harshly by the Philistines and others. Israel spent these five centuries jumping in and out of faith and paying for it every time. They just wouldn’t learn.
Some Of The Most Renowned Judges Include:
- Toenail: He was the first judge.
- Ehud: He was the left-handed judge who killed King Eglin (the king of Moab). When Ehud thrust his sword into King Eglin’s stomach, it ‘disappeared’ (even the handle) because King Eglin was so fat. Ehud left the sword in the king and turned and walked away without anyone knowing what he had done.
- Deborah: Deborah was the only female God chose to lead Israel.
- Gideon: Gideon is one of the two most famous or well-known judges. Gideon was neither bold nor overly confident, but God saw in him the makings of a great warrior and leader. Gideon had a few trust issues, but God didn’t let those get in the way of Gideon living out God’s purpose for his life. Instead, he helped Gideon work through his doubts. As a result, Gideon led an army of only 300 men to fight and defeat tens of thousands of Midianites and Amalekites.
- Samson: Samson is listed as a judge in Bible commentaries, but God does tell his parents, Manoah and “Mrs. Manoah” that he was going to give them a son who would begin to deliver the Israelites out of the hands of the Philistines. NOTE: The Philistines were in control of the Israelites for a period of 40 years because of Israel’s disobedience and turning away from God.
- Eli: Eli was the judge who raised Samuel after Hannah gave Samuel to God to fulfill her promise to him (God) if he would allow her to have a child. Eli was a good and Godly man who took great care in raising Samuel up to be a man of God.
- Samuel: Samuel was the last judge. He was the judge who (against his wishes) anointed Saul as the first king of Israel.
The Israelites put an end to the ‘system of judges’ when they demanded that Samuel provide them with a king because everyone else around them was ruled by a king. They refused to see and acknowledge that they were under the leadership of the King of kings and LORD of lords.
Samson
Samson was born to a couple who was unable to conceive outside of God’s divine intervention. God told them, however, that the child was to be a Nazirite (Numbers 6).
Samson’s life was full of ups and downs and it would be safe to say he was a man who often lived life by his rules rather than God’s. In the end, however, he honored God and God worked through him to begin restoring Israel as a nation of people who (for a time) worshipped God.
Fighting Among Themselves
While there were definitely times the Israelites argued and disagreed among themselves, they had never fought against each other—not until the end of the book of Judges. found in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first chapters of Judges is ugly and perverse in a number of ways. It ends by saying,
Living this way didn’t work for the Israelites and it won’t work for us, either.
Key Verses In Judges
Every book of the Bible provides us with words of wisdom, instruction, comfort, encouragement, admonishment, warning, promise, and hope.
Let’s look at some of what the Book of Judges has to offer.
