The BOOK – Dark Age

Judges covers the period after the death of the great leader, Joshua to the ascension of Israel’s first King, Saul. During this period, the people of Israel were ruled by Judges whom God raised up to deliver them. This book is filled with struggles and disasters, but also with the moral courage of a select few. 

There are fourteen Judges mentioned, starting from, Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson, Eli and Samuel.  Gideon and Samson were warrior judges, Eli was a priest judge, and Deborah and Samuel were Prophet Judges. The Chief Judges were Deborah, Samson, Gideon and Samuel. 

The People of God went away from Jehovah by worshipping the gods of the nation’s round about them. They forgot that God had chosen them for a purpose – to tell the world the truth that there is but one true God. In punishment for their sins God would deliver them into the hand of other nations. Then under the oppression of these new enemies they would cry to God for mercy and God would hear them and send a Judge to deliver them.

Human pride would love to believe that humanity’s trend is upward. But God’s word shows us that the natural course is downward.

Judges 1 to 3 we see Israel’s failure after Joshua’s death. Israel’s troubles were due directly to their disobedience to God. Instead of exterminate enemies from the land, they worshipped the idols of those people and became corrupted in their mind. Chapter 1 records a series of disobedience and Chapter 2 see defeat and failure. Children of God brought on their own judgement upon themselves and became their own executioners. 

God does not forget his covenant, but he allows our very weakness, our guilty weakness, to drive us back to him. God wanted the chosen people to realize that they were a holy people. They must not mix with the wicked nations about them. They must continuously separate themselves. People who believe in Christ Jesus today must remember that they cannot mix with the world. They must keep close to God and war against sin and unrighteousness. God wants us to be good warriors. 

I pray that this study will make you think about the desires you had with the world. Those same desires, God wants to take away from your mind and soul to make you separate and keep you beside him. May you surrender to Christ and leave the worldly life style and obey him to see his blessings upon your life, Amen.