Week 6
Wednesday 09/28/22
Judges - Israel’s Total Failure
- ”all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes” - a common theme in this
chapter
Directions in Judges
- Death of Joshua
- Judges 1:1
- Judges 21:25
Causes for Failure
- Lack of faith & disobedience to God (Did not drive out the Canaanites
- Judges 2:11-12
- Failure to pass on the faith to the next generation
- The new generation of Israel does not know God - They only know idols
- Judges 2:10
- No king in Israel
- Leadership was passed on to the tribe’s elders, but without a king there was no
unity
- Judges 17:6
What were the Judges?
- An individual God raised up to lead one or more of the Israelite tribes
- God raises up a judge, they rescue the people, and then Israel falls back into
captivity
- A military leader
- Uninherited position - all are chosen by God
- Called from different walks of life to serve
- Excercised all of the governmental powers
Who Were the Judges?
- 12 in total
- Progression of Judges: From good, to okay, to bad, to worse
- Good
- Othneil;Ehud’ Deborah
- Ok
- Gideon
- Bad
- Jepthah
- Worse
- Samson
The Spirit of God in Judges
- God uses sinners and the sinned against; that is all that he has to work with
- This does not endorse the actions of the judges
- God empowered the Judges
- The difference in the old and new testament: Judges coming and going vs Jesus staying
- Using someone not powerful to do something powerful
- Gideon
- Send people home, because if I let this many people go you will think you
did it on your own power, not mine (God’s)
- Spirit empowering the judges
- In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit comes to empower people for a time.
This is no longer the case in the New Testament
Cycles of Sin in the Judges
- Fall into sin
- Cry out to God
- God sends a Judge
- Judge saves us
- Fall into sin
- Etc
Othniel
- God forgotten by Israel; Israel pursued idols
- The King of Messopotamia comes and oppresses Israel
- Othniel, a devoted servant of God, is raised up by God
- Othniel brings peace in Israel and delivers them from the king of Messopotamia
- Israel is brought back to God. God sends trouble towards Israel, raises up leadership,
sends the Spirit of God, and this brings restoration
Ehud
- Left handed judges from the tribe of Benjamin
- Raised up by God to deliver the Israelites from King Eglon
- Israel had peace for 80 years
- Ehud is not a leader like Joshua or Othniel. His cultural weakness, his left-handedness,
is used by God to deliver Israel
Deborah
- Recognized as a leader by Israel and they sought her out for her wisdom in legal, social,
and relationship cases
- Called by God to deliver Israel. With Barark as the military leader, leads Israel to victory
over Sisera. Although Jael is the one who kills Sisera
- What counted were the obvious gifts and the calling by God of this exceptional woman,
not her gender. What still counts today is not how society limits us, but how God enables
us
Gideon
- Delivered Israel from the Midianites with 300 men, trumpets, torches, and pitchers
- Was often doubtful and cowardly about following God and leading Israel
- Did not finish well. Ended up leading Israel back into idolatry
- Our times of greatest victory are often followed by our times of greatest temptation
Jephthah
- Was the son of a prostitute and kicked out of his home by his brothers for this reason
- Called back to deliver the people from the Ammonites
- Made a rash vow to God
- Delivers Israel from the Ammonites
- Early disadvantages need not limit the future of those who know God
Samson
- We tend to emphasize physical strength; the BIble emphasizes his moral and spiritual
weakness
- Started the deliverance of the Israelites form the Philistines
- Comitted to the Lord as a Nazarite even though he routinely broke his vow
- His love for foreign women leads to altercations between Israel and the Phillistines
- It was only when he was humbled, broken, and blinded that he was used by God to
judge the Philistines
- God brought Samson to a place where it appeared to everyone that he was no longer a
threat, no longer able to accomplish anything
- God used him again to bring glory to himself
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