Judges

I have given up on the proverbs for now. I will get back to them when my heart feels that is what I should be writing about.

I have decided that going back to writing the history of each book of the Bible is what I should be doing at this time. I know, I bounce around quite a bit, but please just stick with me. I can’t write about something when my heart isn’t fully in it! 

So I ended with Joshua several months back now. I am starting today with the next book, Judges. Feel free to look back and read the history of the other chapters as well.

Judges 

In their earliest days the Hebrews were a family led by a dad named Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons. Their descendants grew to be a nation of slaves in Egypt, a country that was led by the Pharaoh. Then they became exiles led by Moses. Then they became an army led by Joshua. Then came the Book of Judges. 

The Book of Judges is about a time in the life of the Hebrews before they had a king. When they needed to make decisions, they went to a judge, a national leader. A judge was sort of like a king, but no castle or crown or bowing—just a leader. 

During the time of the judges, the Hebrews went up and down like a morality yo-yo. They would obey God if they were listeing to a good judge. Then that judge would die and the people would fall away again. In fact, the phrase you’ll most often read about in this book is “and everyone did as he saw fit…” When you read that in Judges, you know that it means, “and here they go again –doing their own thing no matter what God wants.” Then another Judge would come into leadership and they’d clean up their act for a while. 

The purpose of the Book of Judges was to show us that what we fail to learn from history we must often learn by painful experience. The Book has multiple themes including apostasy, oppression, repentance, and deliverance. It was written around 1043-1004 BC.