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?
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
I think it’s like our life because sometimes we only pray to God when we are in trouble like the Israelites. They departed from God and then when they were scared and worried then they prayed to God and I don’t think it should be like that. We should pray to God in good times and bad.
That’s a great thought Blake. I know that I’ve been guilty of that at times!
I’ve been learning a lot about the book of Judges lately. I studied it in school a couple weeks ago, and I’m also doing it in my personal devotions. One thing I notice that happens all the time is Israel sinning against God. I wonder how many times the book of Judges says “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.” a lot! And this is a pattern that has happened in my life many times. Like Blake said, a lot of times we only pray to God when we need help. When things are going good it’s easy to forget about praying, but it’s so different when things are going bad! Not a very good pattern to get into..
That’s cool that we’ll be going through Judges to give you a double-whammy! 🙂
I would say it happens all the time. We walk away from God a lot I think. We start to depend on ourselves too much. And then later when we realize it, we plead for His forgiveness and to guide our lives again. I would say things haven’t changed much at all. It is sad because you would have thought the Israelite’s would have had a different reaction seeing that God was literally guiding them, but they didn’t.
You’re right Laura, and we have what they didn’t have too- The written Word of God for every person who wants it in our own language.
The cool thing is we have the Word of God, and we have a choice!
Praying for you guys Laura!
This pattern happens today, and I think too much. I believe that God put this in the bible for a reason, so that we can see how the Isrealitites acted and to learn from it. It’s so true that when things are good we forget to pray, but in reality, that’s when we should be praying the most and thanking God for all of the blessings He’s given us, yet we do the opposite. We pray when we’re introuble and wonder how things got so bad. I don’t want to get caught up in this pattern that is all around us still today.
You have a severe case of Senioritis I’m sure, and you are still on here doing your devos. How cool is that?