Book of Judges
Introduction
Judges 6:13. “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened?”
Events of Judges occur at a time when Israel had no king and the contrast.
JOSHUA JUDGES
A story mostly of victory A story mostly of defeat
Israel’s faith Israel’s apostasy
Israel taking a stand for God Israel turning away from God
Freedom Servitude
The sin of the Canaanites is judged The sin of the Israelites is judged
Pattern of sin, bondage and repentance that would last for nearly 350 years (around 1380 to
1050 BC). Foreshadows Deuteronomy 28.
Years of Deliverance
Enemy Judge Scripture
Bondage and Rest
Mesopotamia 8 Othniel 40 3:7-11
Moab 18 Ehud 80 3:12-31
Canaan 20 Deborah 40 4:1-5:31
Midian 7 Gideon 40 6:1-8:28
Ammon 18 Jephthah 6 10:6-12:7
Philistia 40 Samson 20 13:1-16:31
Judges 2:1-5. The emphasis here is on the broken covenant. The Angel of the Lord was saying
that Israel had violated the covenant so badly that the Lord not only would not now drive out
the Canaanites from before them, but he would use the Canaanites as a means of their
chastisement. The children of Israel wept at the news, but it evidently was a superficial
repentance in light of their subsequent behavior.
Truth had become relative. Pluralism and moral decline was the way of life.
Judges 17:6. In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in
his own eyes.
Modern Day Equivalents
a. Emerging Church: Mixing Christianity with post-modern views.
b. Indigenous People Movement: Allowing them to "hold on to many of their traditional
religious beliefs and practices" so as to refrain from offending others within their culture."
c. Church Growth movement: Anything to get people into the Churches.
Why Study Judges?
1. The steps to a Spiritual decline.
a. Toleration: Children of Benjamin (Judges 1:21); Manasseh (Judges 1:27); Vs 29,30,
31,33.
b. Assimilation: Judges 1:27; 29; 34; 3:5.
c. Imitation: Judges 2:12. (Resulting from Judges 2:11-13).
d. Rejection: Judges 2:13.
Augustine, “He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee., which loves
not for Thy sake.”
2. The cycle of unbelief in the heart of men and women. Judges 2:18-19; 3:7-9.
a. Cycle repeated 7 different times.
b. “Don’t touch a hot stove twice." What "hot stoves" have plagued your life?
3. Teaches us about God
a. God of Mercy and forgiveness. Judges 2:16,18. Though [the Israelites] forgot [God],
he did not forget them. He gave innumerable new beginnings. Again and again he
sent ‘judges’ to rescue them. He would not let them go. God is the real hero of
Judges" (The New Student Bible).
b. God is Sovereign. Gideon: "in order that Israel may not boast against me that her
own strength has saved her" (Judges7:2). Samson: slay 1,000 Philistines with a
donkey’s jawbone (15:14-15). He caused the Kishon River to sweep away the
Canaanite army (5:21). He used a non-Israelite woman (Jael) to kill a Canaanite
leader with a tent peg (4:21-23).
c. God is righteous. Even as God extends his graciousness and patience toward us,
he commands us to be righteous or His chastisement will fall.
d. God is the real true Judge of Israel (of us in the present time).
4. Teaches the power of Godly leadership. Judges 2:16.
5. The unvarnished record of men and women used by God.
a. [Link], “We may easily be too big for God to use, but never too small.”
b. Junior Samples, “Size ain’t got nothin’ to do with it. If it did, a cow could outrun a
rabbit.”
6. The passing on of the baton. Judges 2: 8, 10, 17.
7. Biblical truths never change with time.
a. Oz Guinness, “…By our determined efforts to redefine ourselves in ways that are more
compelling to the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our
identity but our authority and our relevance.”
b. Heb 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
c. Make Him the compass, the True North of your life, for He is the Way, the Truth and the
Life.
d. We become irrelevant when we move from Him.
Picture of Christ
Pictures are unique and together we get a composite. Some early examples are:
Othniel: Delivered Judah and secures a bride. (Judges 1:12-13). This shows us a type of
Christ who has secured the Church as a bride for Himself by His delivering us from our
bondage to the enemy.
Ehud: Name means: "son of my right hand", (Judges 3:15-16). We are seated with Christ
at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places. The double edged dagger represents the
Word of God, which is sharper than any two edged sword.
Shamgar: (Judges 3:31). An ox goad is a stick about 8 feet long, and 2 inches thick, with
a point at one end. It is symbolic of a rod used for correction, or a shepherd's staff used
for guidance. (Psalm 23).
Deborah: (Judges 4). Christ is symbolic of both the nail, and the workman’s hammer.
