Judges - An overview

Author and Purpose

The author of Judges was probably Samuel. The purpose of this book was to show that God's judgment of sin is certain, and just as certain are his forgiveness of sin and restoration to a relationship with Him for those who repent.

Background

After God handed Canaan to the Israel through Joshua, the nation was in danger of losing the Promised Land because they compromised their convictions and disobeyed God. Sin became a major problem.

The nation's sin started with incomplete obedience to God during Joshua's days. They did not remove ALL the wicked inhabitants from the land. As a result, the Israelites intermarried those survivors, which also led to idolatry. Their attitude and disobedience eventually let them to become captives once again.

God's goodness

Out of desperation, they begged God to rescue them. God is always faithful to His promise, and out of His loving kindness, He raise up a leader, which was called a judge then, to deliver them. For that period, they enjoy peace. Then complacency would set in, disobedience resurrected and the cycle repeated itself.

All in all for over 300 years, God raised 12 judges in response to the people's cry to for help.

The Judges

God used a variety of leaders, from Othniel (Caleb's son-in-law) to Deborah and to Samson. They were certainly not perfect people; included were an assassin, a sexually promiscuous man and a one who broke all laws of hospitality. But they had one thing in common, they were submissive to God. For that reason alone, God used them greatly.

To get you familiarized with the 12 judges, here are their names (in chronological order); Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon and Samson.

What to look out for as we study this book?

The book of Judges records for us some major learnings. Whenever the Israelites lost their focus on God, they faced decline and failure because they compromised on their high spiritual purpose.

You will observe that Israel's downfall had its roots in the fierce independence that each tribe cherished, more than the vision of the nation. It led to every one doing whatever seemed good in his own eyes. There was no leadership, no unity in government nor in worship. This decay then led to apostasy. (Judges 17: 6 - "In those days, Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.")

While God used oppressors as a punishment for their sins, more importantly He used them to bring the nation to repentance.

And finally, you will observe that as the nation repented, God raised heroes to deliver them from their sin and the oppression it brought.

Up next....

Let's take this journey to learn of God's goodness as we travel through Judges together.....Chapter 1 will be up next Monday, 14th May.