Journey through Judges

Journey through Judges

Judges starts where Joshua left off.  The first many chapters are history once again.  Judges 1 goes through extra land that was conquered and then land that wasn't.  Chapter 2 is Gods response to land not being conquered and thus breakining the covenant with God.  Joshua dies and there is a nice recap on the sins of Isreal.  Chapter 4 is the story of Deborah and her song is found in chapter 5.  Chapter 6 is the start of the history of Gideon which continues thru to chapter 9.  Chapter 6 contains the story of Gideon and his fleece test with God.  Chapter 9 talks about Abimelech who was another judge over Isreal.  Chapter 10 about two other judges Tola and Jair.  In this chapter there is an interesting passage:

Judges 10:13,14  "Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress."
A nicely worded warning for us not to server other gods as we know they can not deliver us. 

Chapter 11 is more war with Jephthah leading Gilead's army.  There is another nice attribute of God verse found in here too.
Judges 11:27  "I therefore have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by making war against me; may the LORD, the Judge, judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon."
The Lord the Judge.

Chapter 12 goes into a brief history of a few more judges of Isreal.  Chapter 13 is the start of the history of Samson which I will post next time.

Journey through Judges - continued

Chapter 13 talks about the parents of Samson and the instructions given to them of how they were to raise him. He was to be raised as a Nazarite which means that no razor could touch his head, drink no wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. There was also instructions given to Samsons mother to adhere to while she was bearing Samson.

Chapter 14 Samson see a Philistine women and picks her for his wife. In this chapter too Samson kills a lion with his bare hands. It says that he rent him as he would have rent a kid. The carcase of the lion was filled with honey. In this chapter Samson shows for the first time his weakness to women. First he chooses a wife from outside the nation of Isreal and second she is decives him by telling the answer to his riddle. Because of this, Samson murders 30 men to pay the bet he made against his riddle.

Chapter 15 starts out with Samson finding out that his father-in-law has given his wife to his companion and tries to pass off her sister to Samson instead. As a result Samson takes 300 foxes and sets them a fire to run through the corn fields of his father-in-law. The father in response wants Samson killed and asks Judah to hand him over. Judah ties Samson up and sends him to the Philistines. Just as the Philistines were about to attack him, he breaks his bonds and kills 1000 men with a jawbone of an donkey. When all is done he is thirsty and God causes water to flow out of the jawbone.

Chapter 16 Samson gets caught again and tied up. He shows his weakness for women once again and the Philistines catch and tie him to the gates of the city. In the middle of the night Samson ripes the gates off the wall and walks away with them on his back. Next Samson shows his weakness for women yet again as he is decived by Delilah. Because of this Samson loses his strength as the Philistines shave his head. The Philistines parade him around and mock him. During a gathering in large house Samson receives strength from the Lord one last time to push out the pillars killing thousands of Philistines and himself. Samson was judge over Isreal for twenty years.

Chapters 17 to 19 are really sad examples of how far the tribe of Benjamin strayed from God. They did unspeakable things. Chapter 20 is where the congregation of Isreal gather together to deal with the tribe of Benjamin. There are three attacks that are done with the first two Isreal loses. Each time they are told by God to attack again and on the third try they destroy almost the entire tribe of Benjamin. Chapter 21 then deals with how the tribe of Benjamin is to continue so that Isreal does not lose one of its tribes completely.

21:25 "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes."
The very last verse of the book is a sad reminder of how Isreal went a stray from God.

That concludes Judges. A lot of history and some famous stories.

If there is something that I either missed that was important or am mistaken in something that I said, please let me know.

Feel free to comment and discuss.

Yes Samuel was the same. 1 Samuel 1:11 says that no razor should come upon his head. He just wasn't the Incredible Hulk like Samson

It is interesting to read cover to cover like this because you get a much better sense of the time line and how events unfolded. It is also interesting to note that when Isreal first started to war other kingdoms and cities, they never lost and they were very swift. As time goes on and they stray from God, their wars start going worse and worse. In 1 Samuel (just about to start that thread) they lose over 50,000 men in a battle and not only that they have the ark of the Lord taken from them at the same time. It was interesting also in that battle that the first attack failed so they brought out the ark as if it was a lucky charm and well it wasn't lucky at all.