48. Beginner Bible Course: The Judges of Israel, Pt. 1

EPISODE 48  The simple Bible overview of…THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL, PT 1

We now come to the second book of history in the old Testament, the book of judges, the book of judges covers approximately 330 years from the conquest of the promised land to Israel's first King Judges begins with explaining the mopping up operation of taking the rest of the promise land I'm using the term mopping up loosely. Think of toddlers, mopping up your kitchen floor, doing a poor job and missing a lot of spots. And that's exactly what the Israelites did. They missed a lot of spots. They leave many pockets of EITs in place. God warned them of this. And Moses reiterated this warning before he died. It appears the book learning from God's law and the people listening from Moses, their leader is not working in Judges generation three, clearly lean hard on the third option.

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Learning the hard way once settled in the land, the 12 tribes of Israel are a loose Confederacy. The book gets its name from the civil and military leaders who were raised up by God to help this Confederacy against its EIT enemies. Yes, the ones they left all over the promised land. We think of Judges like judge Judy making decisions on difficult legal cases, but in Judges they were almost always more like deliverers generation one dropped in the desert Judges chapter two verse 10 records, the end of generation, number two, it says this. Then there Rose up a generation who did not know the Lord nor the works he had done for Israel.

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That's shocking. That would make Moses rollover in his unmarked grave to not know the Lord nor the mighty works he had done must mean they almost systematically disregarded the law. The book of the law Genesis through Deuteronomy 300 years of not knowing the Lord nor the mighty works that he had done for Israel. I wonder how that's going to work out during this 300 plus year period, instead of doing what God had told him to do, Israelites were saying, I'll do what I wanna do when I wanted to do it. And with whomever, I want to do it. This was the attitude starting with generation three in the promise land.

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Moses said, love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and obey him. Joshua said S for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord. Now generation three and beyond was saying whatever, starting a chapter three and all of the way through Judges this loose Confederacy of the 12 tribes of Israel, go on a rollercoaster ride. It's called the Judges cycle for my students. I draw a wavy line on the board. It's a Hill than a Valley than a smaller Hill than a Valley than a smaller Hill. Still all the way across the white board in judges. There's a whole pile of these cycles. The top of the Hill is peace.

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Then Israel what's right in its own eyes, sins, and things go downhill quickly. God allows the EITs they've left in place to start a pressing them at the bottom of the trough. Israel cries out for help. Or sometimes God just sees their misery and has compassion. Then God sends a deliverer or judge that judge acts often mightily with God's help. That's the climb up the next Hill, the oppression beaten back. The people have peace. We're at the top of a Hill and guess what happens next? They do what's right in their own eyes and slide down the next Hill into sin. When they've hit rock bottom, they cry out to God and guess what?

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God raises up a deliverer who delivers them and brings peace. This repeats and repeats. And in most cases, each time it gets a little worse. Let me introduce you to a few of these Judges or deliverers in the roller coaster ride of Judges in chapter three, Moab to the East is making life miserable, especially for the Southern tribes. And the people cry out to God. God raises up a man named <inaudible>. My students remember him as he in the hood, the text tells us he was a left-handed man. He hood arranges to meet with the King of Moab. This is a middle school student story for the ages.

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Right-handed soldiers would keep their sword or knife strapped to their left leg. Apparently the Mullah by guards only Frist Ixodes left leg. The quick story is he put an end to egg line King of Moab, and with the King dead, the Israelites routed Moab in the North where the Canaanites were strong, a Rose to power, and he made the Israelites in the North miserable. The text tells us he had 900 tanks chariots. The Northern tribes cry out to God for help. This time, God answers with Debbie that's right. A woman deliver and leader unable to be defeated by the Israelite men.

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God uses another woman Jael to hammer a tent peg through Cicero as temples. Then we get to oppression in the middle of the country. This time, the EITs are the Midianites oppressed. They cry out to God and God raises up Gideon. Gideon's a real piece of work. He gets three chapters in the book of Judges the writer lingers over this man. It tells us he was from a little tribe and his father had an image of bale and Ashura in his backyard. Astra, by the way, is Mrs. Bale. He was timid and frankly, a little dull. We also hear he's not obedient to God's command one.

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Man, one woman glued together for life. We know this because it tells us he had 70 sons. And presumably as many daughters you'll read how an <inaudible>. He made something to determine God's will became an idolatrous object of worship to the people around him. And we get the idea of this. Once Tim had band became a little too full of himself, as he grew older, he names one of his sons, a BIM aleck, a BIM Molech means my daddy is King. You have to wonder why God would use someone like this to deliver his people. Just maybe that was the best he could find yet. God does use this unlikely figure to do a major number on the Midianites with 300 guys and weapons of torches and trumpets.

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00:06:32

I'm not making this up. A BIM aleck, Gideon son becomes the next judge a bit. Molech begins the delivery of God's people by killing all, but one of Gideon, 70 sons that's right. His brothers who would do that? Well, two a BIM, a lack. It was right in his own eyes. What a mess did God deliver the children of Israel into this land for this? Where every single person did what was right in his own eyes? Well, not exactly everyone did what was right in his own eyes or her own eyes. Does God ever have a story for us? And we'll get that story in our next wordpicture.