Today we shall begin the study of the Book of Judges of the Old Testament.
Background:
Samuel is usually named as the one who wrote the Book of Judges—military leaders rather than spiritual leaders who delivered the people of God from their enemies. It covers a period of 350 years (some estimate it to be 300 years) and was likely written during the lifetime of Samuel when Israel had a king. This is based on these facts:
- It refers to “In those days Israel had no king” (Jdg. 21:25).
- The Canaanites had yet to be driven out of Gezer; this eventually took place in Solomon’s reign (Jdg. 1:29; 1 Ki. 9:16).
- It was likely before David conquered Jerusalem (Jdg. 1:21; 1 Chr. 11:4-7).
- Sidon rather than Tyre was still considered the capital of Phoenicia (Jdg. 1:31, 3:3, 10:6, 18:28; 2 Sam. 5:11).
In contrast to the Book of Joshua, it was a period of apostasy which marked a vicious cycle in which God punished the Israelites with defeat in the hands of their enemies, and delivered them again by raising up judges when they repented only to see them fall again into apostasy. This period of history of God’s people could be summed up by the last verse of the book, “In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit” (21:25).
There were 15 judges in all, 13 of whom were mentioned in this book, with Eli and Samuel being mentioned in the Book of 1 Samuel.
(1) Compare the beginning of the Book of Judges with that of the Book of Joshua:
a. What are the similarities between the beginning of the two books, and thus the two periods of Israel’s history?
b. What are their dissimilarities as well?
(2) Has God’s promise to Moses and to Joshua come to pass? Why or why not?
(3) What does their inquiry in 1:1 signify, as far as God’s promise to them is concerned?
(4) Why did they have to inquire? Shouldn’t each tribe seek to capture whatever land allotted to them still remained “unclaimed”?
(5) Some opine that Judah’s request signified their lack of faith; others think that it was the proper and prudent thing to do. What do you think and why?
(6) Why was this campaign successful? What does the Bible attribute this success to?
(7) What does the Biblical writer seek to teach through the mouth of Adoni-Bezek (literally, the lord of Bezek)?
(8) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Can you name the cities successfully conquered by Judah in this passage?
(2) We know the historical significance of Jerusalem. Do you know how important Hebron (Kiriath Sepher/Arba) was at that time? (See Gen. 23:2; 35:27)
(3) The author of Judges gives a bit more detail of Caleb’s capture of Hebron (Kiriath Sepher/Arba) than the account in Joshua 15:13-19:
a. Why did Caleb give his daughter land in Negev without the springs?
b. What did Acsah tell her husband to do?
c. Why did she have to ask Caleb herself instead?
d. What might be the reason for the insertion of this story into this book, apart from historicity (i.e. what would you not have learned if this incident was not recorded in the Bible)?
(4) What does the inclusion of a non-Israel people group, the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenites, signify?
(5) If “the Lord was with the men of Judah”, why could they not drive the people from the plains, just because the enemies had iron chariots?
(6) Why did the Benjamites fail to dislodge the Jebusites in Jerusalem?
(7) How did the story of the conquering of Bethel resemble that of Jericho in Joshua 2? What is the message in both stories?
(8) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) The list of tribes failing to drive out their enemies as commanded by the Lord increases—apart from Judah and Benjamin, it now includes Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Dan. The following chapters give us more details to the reasons, but at this point, can you imagine ...
a. ... what the Canaanites might think of the Israelites and their God whom they once feared with melted hearts (Jos. 2:9)?
b. ... what the Israelites think of God and His promise?
c. ... what about the Lord—how would He feel seeing His people fail to drive out their enemies when He had promised them victory?
(2) However, the conditions under which some of these tribes failed to drive out their enemies appear to be rather different:
a. What is the reason given for Manasseh’s failure (and for that matter, Zebulun’s and Naphtali’s)?
b. If they were strong enough to press them into forced labor, how could they not have driven them out completely? Whose fault was it?
c. What was the danger for the Ephraimites to co-exist with the Canaanites (and for that matter the tribe of Asher too)?
d. But the most pitiful of all were the Danites, won’t you agree? Why?
(3) These failures to drive out enemies is one of the most
precious spiritual lessons we can learn in terms of our failures or victories
over our sins. What lessons can be learned from the failures of these below?
a. Manasseh, Zebulun and Naphtali
b. Ephraim and Asher
c. Dan
(4) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
We were asking the question yesterday about how God would feel about the failures of the Israelites to drive out their enemies when He had promised them victory. The answer is now being given here by the angel of the Lord (whom, according to Keil and Delitzsch, “is essentially one with Jehovah”, i.e. the 2nd person of the Trinity):
(1) What reason did the angel of the Lord give for God not keeping His covenant?
(2) While the Israelites had totally broken their covenant, did God’s action in return signify His total breach of His covenant as well? Why or why not?
(3) List the sins committed by the people in their breach of their covenant with God. Why would they willfully sin against God?
(4) What was God’s punishment as a result of their sins?
(5) Was it really God’s punishment or a natural consequence of their action or both?
(6) As we sin willfully against God and bring disastrous results on ourselves, how can you tell that it is God’s punishment or a natural consequence of our own action?
(7) Why did the people react to the words of the angel of the Lord with weeping? Did it represent repentance? Why or why not?
(8) What did their action of offering sacrifices signify?
(9) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?,
Here is a recap or summary of basically the entire history of Israel during the period of the judges:
(1) How does the Bible describe their land? What is the importance of such a description?
(2) In a spiritual sense, what is our inheritance as Christians? Have we truly possessed and enjoyed our inheritance?
(3) 2:10 says, “…another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord, nor what He had done for Israel.”
a. How could this new generation not know what the Lord had done for Israel? Whose fault was it?
b. What is meant by the word “know”?
(4) What important lesson(s) can we learn about passing the “knowledge” of the Lord to the next generation?
(5) Vv. 11-13 describes the first “Act” of this recurring
downward spiral of the period, beginning always with the sins of the people
during the time of the judges. Try to highlight
or list all the “verbs” used in these verses that denote the sinful deeds of
the people, and
a. Compare them to the deeds of present-day Israel, and
b. Compare them to the deeds of the post-Christian western world.
Who might be “provoking” God to even greater anger? Why?
(6) What might be the most fitting word to describe the sin of God’s people in this passage: Rebellious? Disobedient? Unfaithful? Betrayal? Evil? Or…?
(7) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Vv. 14-15 describes the 2nd “Act” of this recurring downward spiral of the period and that is God’s punishment or chastisement:
a. Again, like yesterday’s reflection, try to highlight or list all the “verbs” used to denote God’s punishment of His people.
b. Among these verbs, which one stands out to be most tragic of all and why?
c. It is one thing to be up against human enemies; it is another thing to be up against God. Which is worse and why?
d. Have you felt that you have been up against God? How would you describe such a feeling? (Is “great distress” a fitting description? Is there any way out?)
(2) What is the 3rd “Act” of this recurring cycle?
a. What were the judges for?
b. In spite of deliverance from the hands of the raiders, did they contribute to the repentance of the people? Why or why not?
c. Why then would God care to deliver them?
(3) What is the 4th “Act” of this recurring cycle upon the death of the presiding judge? Do you agree with me in calling this recurring cycle a “downward spiral”? Why or why not?
(4) Pause and examine yourself: Does your walk with God resemble this pattern of the Israelites during the time of the Judges?
(5) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Here (in 2:20-23) is an interesting explanation of why the Lord allowed the nations to remain without driving them out “at once” even in the time of Joshua. Why would allowing the nations to remain be a test for Israel? I thought it was their doing? How could you reconcile these two apparently contradicting notions?
(2) Since it was a test, the implication is that Israel did have the ability to pass the test. Do you agree? If so, how could they pass such a test?
(3) At least one of the purposes for leaving the nations among them was to “teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had precious battle experience” (3:2). Do you think this purpose was a little odd? Why or why not?
(4) How did the Israelites, especially under Joshua, learn the way of warfare and how different was it from that of the nations?
(5) In stating that the nations “were left to test” them, what is the emphasis of the Bible?
(6) According to v. 5, what was the result of the test?
(7) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?