Judges 21:25 – Review of Judges
The Book of Judges began at the end of Joshua’s life when the Land of Canaan had been apportioned to the tribes of Israel, but had not yet been fully conquered. As the tribes moved to occupy their allotted lands a pattern soon developed: a generation would forget the LORD; He would discipline them (usually through oppression by their enemies, but sometimes through civil wars or other calamities); they would cry out for deliverance; He would send a judge to rescue them; they would be (more or less) faithful to Him until the generation who had been rescued had passed away; the next generation would forget the LORD; the cycle would begin again with each generation becoming more depraved than the last. This downward spiral reached its lowest point with the events recorded in the last several chapters of the book. Throughout this there were several appearances of the Angel of the LORD – God, Himself, appearing as His own Messenger. For several reasons we understand this to be an appearing of the Son of God before His birth as Jesus of Nazareth.
The Book of Judges teaches the themes of God’s holiness and sovereignty. His holiness is seen in that He punishes the wicked for their sins and disciplines His children when they go astray from Him. His sovereignty is seen in how He overrules events to bring about His good purposes (even using human folly and sin to His good ends), shows His strength in human weakness (using flawed men such and Jephthah and Samson and the few and the weak such as Gideon’s army or Jael), and demonstrates His rightful Kingship over Israel (and the foolishness of disregarding that Kingship to do what is right in one’s own eyes). We can be very grateful that God has given us the Book of Judges from which we can learn so much
Questions
- What pattern do we find in the Book of Judges?
- How do we see God’s holiness in this book?
- How do we see His sovereignty?
Prayer Points
- Pray for the preaching and hearing of God’s Word tomorrow.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters