Today we start in the book of Judges. For you to have some kind of an idea as to where we are in the history of the Bible I want to give you some background today that will help you have some kind of and idea as to what you are reading when you start diving into this book of the Bible with us.

A very quick history of Israel to get us to Judges…
God had chosen Israel to be the nation that He would use to bring salvation to the world. He did this by calling out Abraham to be the Father of this nation. Abraham was a father to Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob who was also known as Israel. Jacob/Israel had 12 sons. One of these sons was Joseph, who God used to save his large family along with the rest of the world through Egypt. Eventually, a pharoah came into power that didn’t know or care about Joseph and his now large as a nation family. This pharaoh made the children of Israel slaves. Eventually God raised up Moses to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt into the land that God had promised to them, Canaan. They wandered the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan for 4o years because when they had gotten to the promised land they didn’t believe that God would really allow them to be protected and defeat the people that lived in their land. Because of this, God made them wander. Eventually Joshua took over, and lead them into the promised land. God commanded them to conquer the land and drive every inhabitant out of Canaan. Eventually, Joshua died as they were supposed to continue to conquer the land. And that’s where we are when we start the book of Judges.

As we look at the book of Judges there will be a pattern that you see over and over again:

1) Israel’s departure from God;

2) God’s chastisement in permitting military defeat and subjugation;

3) Israel’s prayer pleading for deliverance; and

4) God raising up “judges,” either civil or sometimes local military champions who led in shaking off the oppressors.

As we start this study this week, let’s think about this question:  Do you think this pattern happens in our own lives?

How so?