Things You Need to Know ... from the Book of Judges
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Why isn’t the Bible like Facebook, Instagram or TikTok?
Why isn’t the Bible like Facebook, Instagram or TikTok?
Life is not perfect! The Holy Spirit constantly reminds us of our total depravity, our moral corruption, our need for a savior and a deliverer who will rescue us not just from the evil of the world but from our “wretched body of death.”
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
The Book of Judges A reminder of God’s will and the results of disobedience (1-2) Deborah and Four Judges (3-5) Gideon and the Midianites (6-8) Seven Judges and Civil War (9-12) Samson and the Philistines (13-16) Idolatry and Immorality During the Time of the Judges (17-21)
About 350 years
The downward spiral of godless (but religious) culture
A pattern repeats throughout the book: 1) the people abandoned the Lord; 2) God punished them by raising up a foreign power to oppress them; 3) the people cried out to God for deliverance; and 4) God raised up a deliverer, or judge, for them.
The Judges of Israel: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Barak, Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson
If there’s one thing you need to know about the Book of Judges...
This is a book of declining godliness, a descent into
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Therefore, each Judge is farther and farther removed from godliness.
That means that Gideon (#6) and Samson (#14) need to be seen in the light of scripture - not for their heroic deeds but for Gideon’s fear and reluctance to trust God and Samson for his depravity and complete disregard for his covenant commitment to the Lord as a nazirite who blatantly drank and womanized and touched dead bodies and cut his hair, all of which were outward symbols of a love for God that was to be a love with all of his heart and soul and mind and strength.
His heart was not for God but for pagan women. His soul was filled with violence. His mind was devoted to trickery and riddles. His strength was not used for God but for pleasure.
And so in Judges we see:
A culture that has lost sense of covenant commitment:
A commitment to marriage...
A commitment to employees. A commitment to employers.
A commitment to integrity.
It’s not all unicorns and rainbows...
The fallenness of mankind...
The total depravity of the human condition: we are not totally bad but every part of our being has been corrupted by sin
The rebellion that lurks in every heart...
The necessity of a deliverer...
A deliverer who is empowered by God...
The downward descent of even the most noble human endeavors...
The need for an inspired, God given moral code...
The need to “come out from among them and be separate”… (2 Corinthians 6:17; Isaiah 52:11)
The Book of Judges - more than history
Heroes who aren’t heroes...
The best of men can only offer a fleeting hope
Only Jesus can offer a hope and a deliverance that is eternal