Day 103 – Judges Origin

Today’s readings give you a introduction to the time of the judges, as well as a cheeky look at the ending line of the book to see whether this is a good time for God’s people or not.

Before we start today, we need a very brief history lesson. This book, along with the three after it, come in the history of the Israelites called the “Period of the Judges”. Look at the timeline below to see more. We’ve had the time in the wilderness, and we’ve had the time of the conquest of Canaan (we’ll read the last of this today). Up to now the people have been led, humanely speaking, by Moses and Joshua, but after they die the Israelites fall into a depressing cycle of sin, idol worship and ignoring the commands of God. Only through the twelve judges that we’ll read about in this book did God – graciously – bring temporary salvation and peace to the people. Sadly, as we’ll read, the victories brought by the judges caused the people to trust in God only until the judge died, after which sinful behaviour returned again.

• The first part of today’s readings is Judges 1:1 through to Judges 2:10. It covers the remaining requirements that God had set out to clear the land of any of the other nations living there. What did the people do right in these passages, and what did they do wrong?
• Which tribes failed to do what God told them in Judges 1:27-36?
• This section ends with a flashback to Joshua’s death (this had already happened, as the first verse shows). This flashback helps us show the general faithfulness of the people under Joshua, and contrasts this to the unfaithfulness of the time after him, which the passage goes on to talk about.
• Look at Judges 2:10. New generations were growing up who didn’t know God. Wow. Just think about that for a minute. Their parents have been brought out of the wilderness, and gone battle after battle in the Promised Land with God giving them victory against the odds. You would have thought that their hearts’ desire would be to teach their children about the saving power of God, but either the parents don’t do their job or the children are lured away by the idols in the world around them. Which do you think it might be?
• The next verse (Judges 2:11) is repeated throughout the book of Judges. The people repeatedly did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. The Baals were false gods of the other nations in Canaan. Look at Judges 1:27-36. The Israelites had not followed God’s command to destroy everyone in the country, as we read in chapter 1. Because of this, the people who survived continued to serve their false gods, and the Israelites started to do so to. In other words, the sin of the Israelites caused much of their own suffering during the years of the time of the judges.
• Read chapter 2:16-19 especially carefully. It describes something called the “cycle of apostasy”, which is a pattern that repeats continually throughout this book. I’ve attached a diagram below to show this more clearly. As we look at each judge, you should look at this diagram to help focus what is happening in each story.

• By the way! The “judges” weren’t like judges we have in courtrooms nowadays. The judges we’ll be reading about were warriors and leaders! Do you know any of the judges before we begin reading about them?

Check out the video below. It’s from “What’s In The Bible”, an awesome kids show which we use in Pathfinders. It has Rhett and Link give a song about who the judges were. Sadly, the two singers are now agnostic, but the video is still great fun. Watch it and love it, as it is really quite ace.