God had sent 12 judges over a period of 300 years in Israel’s history (1383 – 1043 BC) in order to deliver the disobedient nation from oppression and turn their attention back to God.  The judges would temporarily free Israel from oppression and usher in a time of peace; however, God’s people repeatedly returned to their disobedient ways and brought more judgment upon themselves.  The final judge mentioned in this book of Judges is a man named Samson, who is probably the most recognized judge during this time in Israel’s history.  When the children of Israel did evil in the sight of God following Abdon (Judges 12:13-15), God judged the nation with 40 years of oppression from the Philistines (13:1); however, there was a glimmer of hope as God was raising up Samson to deliver the nation of Israel from their enemies.

A man named Manoah was married to a barren woman, but their lives were about to change as an Angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife and said, “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.  Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean.  For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines” (13:2-5).  The child to be born would become a lifelong Nazirite, which meant he was set apart to God for special use and therefore could not drink wine, cut his hair, or touch a dead body.  When the woman told her husband what the Angel had said, Manoah prayed to the Lord and asked Him to send the Angel once again to teach them what they should do for this coming child (13:6-8).  The Lord answered Manoah’s prayer and the Angel of God appeared to them and repeated the same things He had initially spoken to Manoah’s wife (13:9-14).  Upon hearing these words directly from the Angel, Manoah said, Let us detain You, and we will prepare a young goat for You” (13:15).  The Angel of the Lord responded to Manoah’s request saying, “Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord.  (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the Lord.)” (13:16).  Manoah’s curiosity about the Angel was heightened so he asked, “What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor You?” (13:17).  The Angel responded to Manoah’s question by asking, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?” (13:18).  At this moment when Manoah offered the grain offering, the Angel did a “wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on” (13:19).  As the flame from the offering “…went up toward heaven from the altar, the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar!” (13:20).  Upon seeing this supernatural happening, Manoah and his wife fell on their faces and when the Angel did not appear to them again, they knew He was the Angel of the Lord (13:21).  Their reaction evidenced that they believed they had been in the very presence of God!  Both of them feared for their lives and thought they would die because they had seen God (13:22); however, Manoah’s wife said, “If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time” (13:23).  ”So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.  And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol” (13:24-25).  Although Israel was in the midst of a 40 year oppression, God’s plan was unfolding and He was about to send a deliverer to rescue them from bondage.

Dear God, even when it may not seem like You are at work, help me to remember that Your plan is always unfolding.

Several judges had already presided over the nation of Israel and they were primarily used by God in order to deliver Israel from her oppressors and bring His people back into a right relationship with Him; however, the people would often rebel and invite more oppression into their lives.  Under Israel’s judge Othniel (Judges 3:7-11), Israel was oppressed 8 years and then experienced 40 years of peace.  Israel disobeyed God again and faced another 18 years of oppression until Ehud (Judges 3:12-30) delivered them, which gave them 80 years of rest in the land.  Shamgar (Judges 3:31) was a judge, but not much is known about his reign.  Israel then experienced another 20 years of oppression because of their disobedience, but God sent Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-5) to deliver His people and give them 40 years of peace.  Once again, Israel did evil in the sight of God and was oppressed for 7 years until God called out a man named Gideon (Judges 6) to give them victory over the Midianites (Judges 7-8).  The defeat of the Midianites brought Israel 40 years of peace until Gideon’s son, Abimelech (Judges 9), led a rebellion which brought civil war in the land.  After Abimelech was destroyed (Judges 9:50-57), Tola (Judges 10:1-2) judged Israel 23 years and then Jair (Judges 10:3-4) judged Israel 22 years.

Unfortunately, Israel had not learned their lesson even though they had been repeatedly oppressed because of their continued disobedience and rebellion against God.  ”Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him” (10:6-7).  Israel’s failure to worship God alone brought an 18 year oppression from the Philistines and Ammonites (10:7-9).  When Israel could not handle the oppression any longer, they cried out to the Lord for forgiveness (10:10), but God rejected their cries and told them to call out to the other gods for deliverance (10:11-14).  Upon hearing God’s cold response to their cries of distress they said, “We have sinned!  Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray” (10:15).  Israel decided to put away the foreign gods and serve the Lord, which got the attention of God and “His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel” (10:16).  As a result of Israel’s repentance and lifestyle change, God allowed another judge to be raised up to deliver Israel from her oppression (10:17-18).  Jephthah, a mighty man of valor, was driven out of his home at a young age because he was the son of a prostitute (11:1-3); however, after some time had passed, the elders of Gilead approached him to be their leader in a war against the Ammonites (11:4-6).  Jephthah agreed to be their leader against the Ammonites if they would make him their head after he was victorious over their enemies (11:7-9).  The elders of Gilead agreed to the terms (11:10-11) so Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon and he told them that he was angry because Israel had taken some of his land (11:12-13).  Jephthah responded to the king by declaring that their land was actually the land of the Amorites when Israel took possession of it and Israel had remained there for hundreds of years because God had given the land to them (11:14-27).  The words of Jephthah were not well-received by the king of Ammon (11:28) so the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and he made his way to battle against the people of Ammon (11:29).  Before entering into battle, Jephthah made a vow to the Lord saying, “If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lords, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering” (11:30-31).  Jephthah eventually fought against Ammon and the Lord delivered Israel’s enemies into his hands (11:32-33), but when he returned home from battle, his only child was the first thing to come out of the doors of his house to meet him (11:34).  Jephthah was distraught by the fact that it was his daughter whom he would have to offer as a sacrifice to the Lord in fulfillment of his vow (11:35).  His daughter encouraged Jephthah to keep his vow to the Lord, but she requested to be allowed to lament her virginity for two months before the vow was fulfilled (11:36-37).  Jephthah permitted her to go and then she returned to her father, who carried out his vow to the Lord (11:38-40).  Scholars have debated whether Jephthah actually sacrificed his daughter or if she was actually sentenced to be a lifelong virgin.  Scripture seems to indicate that Jephthah sacrificed his only child as a fulfillment of his vow.  No matter which view a person takes, Jephthah’s vow was made in haste and should be a warning to anyone who would make a vow to the Lord without thinking about the ramifications.  Jephthah then had to deal with Ephraim’s jealousy over his military success (12:1-6), but he went on to rule Israel for 6 years until he died (12:7).  After Jephthah judged Israel, there were several judges to follow: Ibzan judged Israel 7 years (12:8-10); Elon judged Israel 10 years (12:11-12); and Abdon judged Israel 8 years (12:13-15).

Dear God, may any promise or vow made to You not be done in haste. 

Following the death of Gideon (Judges 8:29-32), the judge who had delivered Israel from the oppression of the Midianites (Judges 7), the Israelites turned again to other gods and “…did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side” (Judges 8:33-34).  The children of Israel also refused to show kindness to the house of Gideon even though he had done so much good for them (Judges 8:35).  Without Gideon ruling over Israel as a judge, a struggle for leadership and power over Israel began to surface with Abimelech who was one of Gideon’s sons.  Abimelech went to Shechem and spoke with his mother’s family saying, “Ask the leading citizens of Shechem whether they want to be ruled by all seventy of Gideon’s sons or by one man.  And remember that I am your own flesh and blood!” (9:1-2, NLT).   The men of Shechem decided to support Abimelech and even gave him money, which he used to hire “worthless and reckless men” (9:3-4).  Abimelech took these men and their first rebellious act was to kill all of his brothers; however, Jotham (his youngest brother) hid himself and escaped the mass murder (9:5).  After this horrendous act, the men of Shechem gathered themselves and made Abimelech their king (9:6).

When Jotham heard what his brother had done, he stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and spoke a parable of the trees (9:7), which is written in Judges 9:8-15.  Jotham’s parable spoke of the trees who repeatedly asked for someone to rule over them, but three times (olive tree, fig tree, vine) they had been refused (9:8-13).  After three refusals, the trees finally asked the bramble (thorn-bush) to rule over them even though the bush was considered inferior to the others (9:14).  The thorn-bush agreed to rule over them as long as they would “…take shelter in my shade” (9:15).  It was impossible for the thorn-bush to provide shade so this statement by the bush was made in pride.  Jotham revealed that the thorn-bush in his parable represented Abimelech, who had elevated himself in pride in an attempt to rise to power.  Jotham then confronted the men of Shechem and asked them if they were honoring the memory of Gideon by making Abimelech their king (9:16-19).  If the men of Shechem had not acted in sincerity and truth, Jotham asked that they be destroyed along with Abimelech (9:20-21).  Three years passed since Abimelech had come to power, but then the Lord caused a spirit of trouble between the men of Shechem and Abimelech so that those who dwelled in Shechem planned a revolt against Abimelech (9:22-25).  This revolt was led by Gaal, son of Ebed, but Abimelech soon found out about their plan when Zebul sent word to him while he was away (9:26-33).  Abimelech quickly formed a plan to attack Gaal and he eventually took the city, killed the people, demolished the city, and polluted the land with salt (9:34-45).  The events described in Judges 9:46-49 are probably further details concerning Abimelech’s attack on the people of Shechem.  After his defeat of Shechem, Abimelech attacked and captured the town of Thebez but the men and women escaped to a tower and barricaded themselves inside (9:50-51).  Abimelech decided to set the tower on fire, but as he was standing near the entrance a woman dropped a millstone from the roof and it crushed his skull (9:52-53).  ”Then he called quickly to the young man, his armorbearer, and said to him, ‘Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, A woman killed him.’  So his young man thrust him through, and he died.  And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed, every man to his place” (9:54-55).  By dying in this matter, “…God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers.  And all the evil of the men of Shechem God returned on their own heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal” (9:56-57).  Although it may seem like those who rebel are getting away with their selfish acts, their actions will eventually be punished.

Dear God, guard me from leading in foolishness and pride.

Gideon had been called out by God to deliver the nation of Israel from the oppression of the Midianites, which had been occurring for seven years (Judges 6:1-24).  Although Gideon was skeptical of God using him to free the people from bondage, the Lord gave him several signs to prove that he would surely lead Israel in victory over the people of Midian (Judges 6:36-40).  Gideon quickly formed an army of 32,000 warriors (Judges 6:33-35; see also Judges 7:3), but God reduced the army to 300 men (Judges 7:3-8) in order to ensure that Israel could not claim victory in their own strength (Judges 7:2).   Through God’s power and an unorthodox battle strategy, Gideon defeated the Midianites (Judges 7:16-22).  After the initial surprise attack of the Midianites by Gideon’s 300 men, he called on other tribes (Naphtali, Asher, Manasseh, and Ephraim) to assist him in pursuing the small amount of people who had escaped (Judges 7:23-25).  In an act of jealousy, the men of Ephraim became upset with Gideon because he had not involved them in the initial attack on Midian, but Gideon was able to avert the conflict by praising Ephraim for their actions concerning the escaped enemies (8:1-3; see also Judges 7:24-25).  When this conflict was resolved, Gideon and his army of 300 men continued to pursue the 15,000 Midianites who had escaped the slaughter of the 120,000 other Midianites (8:4, 10).  His army was exhausted from their pursuit so they asked the men of Succoth to provide some food in order to gain some strength (8:5).  The leaders of Succoth refused to give Gideon’s men bread to eat so he promised to return and punish them after he had captured Zebah and Zalmunna (8:6-7).  Gideon’s army traveled a little further and asked the men of Penuel to give them food, but they also refused so Gideon promised to return and tear down the tower in their city (8:8-9).  Even though they were exhausted from the battle and pursuit of those who escaped, Gideon’s men continued to chase the escaped Midianites until they had captured Zebah and Zalmunna and killed the remaining 15,000 enemy soldiers (8:10-13).  Upon returning from battle with Zebah and Zalmunna in custody, Gideon punished the men of Succoth, who had refused to give his men food, by having their bodies dragged over thorns and briers (8:14-16).  Gideon also visited the men of Penuel, who had earlier refused to give his army food, and “…tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city” (8:17).  He then killed Zebah and Zalmunna, which completed Israel’s victory over the Midianites and gave them 40 years of rest (8:18-21, 28).

“Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, ‘Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also; for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.’  But Gideon said to them, ‘I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you’” (8:22-23).  Gideon showed great wisdom in guiding the people to desire God alone as their king; however, Gideon made a prideful request that all the people of Israel give him the golden earrings plundered from the Midianites (8:24).  Gideon’s indulgence in the spoils of battle may have been a way to make himself great in the eyes of the people, even though he did not want to be their king.  The children of Israel gladly handed over their golden earrings which totaled over 40 pounds (8:25-26).  Gideon then melted down the golden earrings and made it into an ephod (8:27a), which was probably an idol at this time in Israel’s history.  Unfortunately, Israel ended up worshiping the ephod Gideon had created and “it became a snare to Gideon and to his house” (8:27b).  It appears that Gideon also continued to stray away from God until he died, as he took to himself many wives and concubines (8:28-32).  ”So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god.  Thus the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) in accordance with the good he had done for Israel” (8:33-35).  How quickly Israel forsook God and returned to worshiping other gods.

Dear God, please keep me from turning my back on You. 

The book of Judges is a record of God using specific men and women to deliver Israel from their oppressors and guide them back into an obedient relationship with Him.  Numerous judges were needed throughout this time in Israel’s history because the nation would turn from God once the judge had freed Israel from oppression and died.  Under Israel’s judge Othniel (Judges 3:7-11), Israel was oppressed 8 years and then experienced 40 years of peace.  Israel then disobeyed God and faced another 18 years of oppression until Ehud (Judges 3:12-30) delivered them, which gave them 80 years of rest in the land.  Shamgar (Judges 3:31) was a judge, but not much is known about his reign.  Israel then experienced another 20 years of oppression because of their disobedience, but God sent Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-5) to deliver His people and give them 40 years of peace.  Once again, Israel did evil in the sight of God and was oppressed for 7 years until God called out a man named Gideon (Judges 6) to give them victory over the Midianites.  Gideon was skeptical about God using him to give Israel victory over their enemies, but God provided three supernatural signs (Judges 6:19-24; 6:36-38; 6:39-40) in order to prove that he would destroy the Midianites.

With full confidence that God was with him, Gideon (also called Jerubbaal, see Judges 6:28-32) took the army that he had gathered (6:33-35) and camped “…beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley” (7:1).  While they were camped there the Lord spoke to Gideon and said, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’” (7:2).  Although it seems odd that God would require Gideon to cut down on the amount of soldiers accompanying him to battle, the Lord wanted to make sure that Israel knew that it was His power rather than theirs that gave the victory.  Gideon first cut down the number of warriors from 22,000 to 10,000 by allowing anyone “fearful and afraid”  go home (7:3); however, the Lord still thought there were too many soldiers so He commanded Gideon to take those who remained down to the water where He would reduce the number even more (7:4).  When Gideon arrived at the water with his army of 10,000 men the Lord said, “Divide the men into two groups.  In one group put all those who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs.  In the other group put all those who kneel down and drink with their mouths in the stream” (7:5, NLT).  The 300 men who used their hands to drink the water were the soldiers God told Gideon to take into battle against the Midianites (7:6-8), whose army was said to be “as numerous as locusts” (7:12).  Taking 300 men to battle against a very large army does not make sense humanly speaking; however, God is capable of accomplishing the miraculous even when the circumstance appears to be impossible.  God commanded Gideon to go down that same night and overtake the Midianites, but He also told Gideon that if he was scared he could take his servant, Purah, and listen in on a conversation in the enemy camp that would strengthen his hands against the Midianites (7:9-11a).  Since Gideon was fearful, he decided to secretly take Purah with him to the enemy encampment and there they heard a man recounting a dream he had and the dream was interpreted by another man as God delivering the Midianites into the hand of Gideon (7:11b-14).  When Gideon heard the words of this man, he worshiped the Lord and returned to the camp of Israel where he divided his army of 300 men into three companies and gave each of them a trumpet, an empty pitcher, and a torch to go inside the pitcher (7:15-16).  These tools would be used to make it appear as if the Midianite camp had been surrounded by a whole host of Israelite soldiers.  A little after midnight when the Midianites were asleep, Gideon had the three companies surround their camp, blow the trumpets, break the pitchers to reveal the torches, and shout “The sword of the Lord and Gideon!” (7:17-20).  When the Midianites awoke to this chaos, they ran around in a panic and even turned their swords on each other because of the confusion (7:21-22).  Those Midianites who escaped from the camp were then pursued by additional warriors from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh (7:23).  Gideon also enlisted the tribe of Ephraim to prevent the escaped Midianites from crossing the Jordan River (7:24-25).  God had given Gideon and the children of Israel an incredible victory over the Midianites through unorthodox means.  Their knowledge that God had helped them would hopefully bring Israel back into an obedient relationship with Him.

Dear God, thank You for overcoming seemingly impossible obstacles. 

Israel had been experiencing a period of judges, whom God used to turn the nation’s attention back to Him.  God’s people were constantly influenced by the pagan tribes surrounding them and often guilty of worshiping other gods, which was a direct violation of His commandments.  When Israel turned their hearts away from God, He allowed their enemies to oppress them until they finally cried out to Him for deliverance.  God would respond to their cry by sending a judge to Israel who would free them from oppression and restore the nation’s relationship with Him.  Here are the judges God had already used to turn Israel back to Him: Othniel (Judges 3:7-11), Ehud (Judges 3:12-30), Shamgar (Judges 3:31), and Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-5).  Unfortunately, Israel would soon return to their evil ways after a judge would die.

After the time of Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-5), Israel had rest in the land for 40 years (Judges 5:31); however, the children of Israel “did evil in the sight of the Lord” (6:1a) and were oppressed by the Midianites for seven years (6:1b-2).  This oppression was the worst they had faced during the time of the judges.  During this seven-year oppression, Israel hid in caves/mountains out of fear (6:2); furthermore, during Israel’s harvest of their crops, the Midianites would destroy their food supply and leave them without any sustenance (6:3-6).  Israel’s desperate situation caused them to cry out to the Lord and He sent a prophet to expose their sin and disobedience (6:7-10).  About this same time that the prophet came to Israel, the Angel of the Lord (pre-incarnate Christ) appeared to Gideon who was threshing wheat in a hidden location so that the Midianites could not destroy it (6:11).  The Angel said to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (6:12).  In response to the words of the Angel, Gideon said, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites” (6:13).   Gideon refused to believe that God was with Israel because of their current circumstances, but the Angel assured Gideon that God was going to use him to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites (6:14-16).  Gideon was still skeptical about the words of the Angel so he requested a sign from God that he could lead Israel to victory over the Midianites (6:17).    The Angel did give Gideon a sign by miraculously causing fire to come out of the rock where Gideon had placed an offering he had prepared for the Angel of the Lord (6:18-21).  Upon witnessing this supernatural act of the Angel, Gideon realized that he had been in the presence of the Lord and built Him an altar as an act of worship (6:22-24).

On the same night Gideon built the altar, the Lord appeared to him and said, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one that is seven years old.  Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it.  Then build an altar to the LORD your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down” (6:25-26, NLT).  Gideon obeyed the word of the Lord and took ten men with him to carry out the command of the Lord (6:27).  When the men of the city discovered what Gideon had done, they demanded that his father, Joash, bring him out so that they could kill him (6:28-30).  Joash refused to bring out his son to the men of the city and told them that if Baal was real, he could take revenge on his own (6:31).  From that day forward Gideon’s father referred to him as Jerubbaal, which means let Baal contend (6:32).  Soon after this incident, the Midianites and Amalekites gathered themselves together to fight against Israel but the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he quickly assembled an army of soldiers (6:33-35).  Still having a few doubts concerning the outcome of this battle, Gideon asked God to provide another sign that He would give Israel the victory through him (6:36-40).  Gideon laid out a fleece asking that it would be wet with dew the next morning, while the rest of the ground surrounding it is dry (6:36-37).  God answered his request (6:38).  Gideon then asked for another sign, but this time he asked that the fleece would be dry and the ground surrounding the fleece would be wet with dew (6:39).  Once again, God answered Gideon’s request and proved that He would give Israel the victory by his hands (6:40).  The actions of Gideon demonstrate that God understands our lack of faith and is sometimes willing to strengthen our faith through performing the miraculous.

Dear God, allow me to see a sign of Your presence with me. 

“When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.  So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim.  And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel” (Judges 4:1-3).  Three judges (Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar) had already been sent by God to deliver Israel from their oppressors but after the latest judge, Ehud, was dead the Israelites returned to their evil ways.  God’s judgment came upon them once again by an enemy overtaking them and oppressing them for twenty years.  After two decades of oppression, Israel finally cried out to God and He sent another judge to Israel whose name was Deborah.  She was a prophetess in Israel known for wisdom and discernment among the people (4:4-5).  One day Deborah called for a man named Barak and commanded him to take 10,000 warriors to battle against Sisera, who would be defeated (4:6-7).  Barak responded to her request by saying that the only way he would go to battle was if she accompanied him (4:8).  Deborah agreed to go but said these words to Barak about his conditional agreement, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (4:9).  Deborah did accompany Barack with an army of 10,000 soldiers and they swiftly defeated Sisera’s army (4:10-15a, 16); however, Sisera escaped on foot (4:15b) and took refuge in the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber (4:17).  It is obvious that Sisera had some type of peaceful relationship with Heber, but it appears that Heber’s wife, Jael, did not share that same relationship.  Jael initially received Sisera into her tent and hid him under a blanket, but after promising to keep him hidden from his enemies she quickly went into action (4:18-20).  ”Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died” (4:21).  Not long after she had killed Sisera, Jael came out to meet Barak and showed him the body of Sisera inside of her tent (4:22).  In this culture, being killed by a woman was disgraceful, but Jael’s actions were a fulfillment of Deborah’s words to Barak in Judges 4:9.  Through the actions of both Barak and Jael, God brought victory over Sisera (commander of the army) and Jabin, king of Canaan (4:23-24).  In celebration of Israel’s victory over their enemies, Deborah and Barak sang a song that day as an expression of praise to God, which is recorded in Judges 5.  Singing songs of praise were common expressions of worship throughout Israel’s history and this song was most likely written by Deborah (see Judges 5:7), although Barak added his voice to the song (Judges 5:1).  As Deborah praised God for His personal involvement in Israel’s victory, modern-day worshipers should also be careful to express their praise to God for His goodness in their lives.  Failure to give God thanks for His work reveals a selfish heart on the part of a believer.  All glory goes to God for every good thing!

Dear God, I praise You for all the victories You have given to me in my life. 

It had only taken seven years for the children of Israel to conquer the land of Canaan (1405-1398 BC); however, some enemy tribes still remained scattered throughout the Promised Land and Israel was commanded to completely remove them.  Moses (Deuteronomy 7) and Joshua (Joshua 23) had forewarned Israel that they were to remove all the people of the land lest they should be influenced to worship other gods and intermarry with their enemies.  Unfortunately, Israel did not completely expel their enemies (Judges 1-2) and they ended up intermarrying and worshiping other gods (3:1-6).  ”So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.  They forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.  Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years” (3:7-8).  After the oppression had lasted for eight years, Israel finally cried out to God and He sent Othniel, who delivered them from their enemies and gave them rest in the land for the next forty years (3:9-11).  Following nearly four decades of peace, Israel “…again did evil in the sight of the Lord” so He allowed Eglon, king of Moab, to overtake them for eighteen years (3:12-14).  When Israel then cried out to God, He sent Ehud to deliver Israel from their enemies (3:15a).  Ehud, a left-handed man, armed himself with a dagger (3:16) and was sent by Israel to Eglon with a tribute (3:15b), but the offering of gifts was simply a tactic for Ehud to get close to Eglon, who is described as being a “very fat man” (3:17).  After Eglon had received the tribute, those standing together with them in the room were sent away when Ehud said that he had a secret message for the king (3:18-19).  As soon as Ehud was alone with the Eglon in his private chamber, Ehud took the hidden dagger and thrust it so deeply into Eglon’s belly that the fat closed around the dagger (3:20-22).  Ehud made a quick escape from the king’s private chambers, but the king’s attendants became suspicious when the king did not open the doors to his chamber for an extended period of time (3:23-25a).  When they could not wait any longer, the king’s servants opened the door with a key and found him dead on the floor (3:25b).  By the time Eglon was found dead, Ehud was far away and eventually returned to the children of Israel, who quickly attacked the people of Moab and subdued Moab (3:26-30a).  Israel experienced rest in the land for eighty years (3:30b), which was the longest period of peace experienced by Israel during the time of the judges.  After Ehud,  Shamgar was also a judge and deliverer of Israel (3:31).    Not much detail is given concerning his circumstances except that he killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad.

God passionately loved His people, Israel, but they continued to turn their back on Him by disregarding His commandments and worshiping other gods.  Instead of abandoning the children of Israel for their disobedience, God heard their cries to Him and sent deliverers to free them from their oppressors.  The Lord’s continual forgiveness and patience should have caused Israel to worship and love Him as the one, true God; however, they continually walked away from Him and embraced the things of this world.  The consequences Israel faced because of their disobedience should be a warning to any whose hearts are turned from God in exchange for the pleasures of this world.

Dear God, may I embrace You while continually turning my back to the things of this world. 

Joshua died in 1383 BC (Joshua 24:29), just fifteen years following the conquest of Canaan which ended in 1398 BC.  Although the major cities of Canaan had been conquered by the Israelites, there were a few remaining tribes spread throughout the Promised Land who needed to be expelled.  Both Moses (Deuteronomy 7) and Joshua (Joshua 23) had forewarned Israel that they were to remove all the people of the land lest they should be influenced to worship other gods and intermarry with their enemies.  Desiring to remove the remaining tribes from Canaan, the children of Israel inquired of the Lord about which tribe should lead the way in fighting against the Canaanites (1:1).  The Lord commanded that the tribe of Judah lead the way and then promised that He would give them the victory (1:2).  The tribe of Judah joined forces with the tribe of Simeon and the Lord gave them the victory over the Canaanites and the Perizzites (1:3-4a).  Ten thousand men were killed in this battle at Bezek (1:4b).  Adoni-Bezek, a king in this region, had his thumbs and big ties cut off as an act of retribution (1:5-6); however, it does not appear that God commanded this barbaric act to take place, but Adoni-Bezek did recognize Israel’s actions as punishment from God since the king had done this many times himself (1:7).  After defeating the Canaanites and Perizzites, Judah successfully attacked Jerusalem and set it on fire (1:8).  The tribe of Judah continued in their efforts and fought against those in the southern mountains and lowlands (1:9-20).  Judah defeated the people dwelling in the southern mountains, but they failed to drive out the inhabitants of the lowlands because they had chariots of iron (1:19).  God had promised Israel that He would enable them to defeat all their enemies (Joshua 17:16-18) so Israel had no excuse for not expelling them.  The tribe of Benjamin also failed to drive out the Jebusites (1:21).  The tribe of Joseph only partially expelled the central parts of Canaan (1:22-26).  Manasseh as well as Ephraim disobeyed God by not removing all of the inhabitants from their territory (1:27-29).  The tribes of Zebulun (1:30), Asher (1:31-32), Naphtali (1:33), and Dan (1:34-36) also failed to drive out their enemies from northern Canaan, which was part of the land God had promised to give them.  Israel had quickly forgotten the words of the Lord and was now in danger of experiencing His judgment.  Since the children of Israel had disobeyed God in not fully driving out the inhabitants of Canaan (Judges 1), an Angel of the Lord (a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ) told them that God would keep His covenant with them, but that the people of Canaan would become thorns in their side and their gods would ensnare Israel (2:1-3).  When the nation of Israel heard these words of the Angel, they wept and even sacrificed to the Lord but they did not turn from their disobedience.  Their sacrifices were an external action and not motivated by internal repentance.

Beginning in Judges 2:6,  the author of Judges links the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 6:1-12:24) with the stories of the judges written in this book.  He begins by reviewing the death of Joshua (2:6-9) and then provides an explanation of why Israel strayed away from God’s commandments.  Here are the words he writes, “When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” (2:10).  The generation following Joshua’s death was a faithless generation, which resulted in God’s judgment upon the entire nation.  This faithless generation worshiped other gods and caused the Lord’s anger to fall upon them (2:11-12).  God’s anger was unleashed by allowing these inhabitants of Canaan to oppress them (2:13-15) until they would cry out and He would raise up a judge to deliver them from oppression (2:16); however, Israel’s deliverance would soon lead her back into disobedience (2:17-19), which caused the cycle to begin again (2:20-21).  Instead of miraculously expelling Israel’s enemies from the land, God left them there in order to test the nation’s obedience to Him (2:22-23).  If Israel would remove their enemies from the land, they would experience God’s blessings; but if Israel refused to expel them and worshiped their gods, they would face God’s judgment.  Israel needed to choose whom they would serve.

Dear God, may I fully obey Your commandments so that I might experience Your richest blessings. 

The book of Judges was written somewhere between 1045-1000 BC by the prophet, Samuel.  Although Samuel is never identified as the author, the Jewish Talmud declares that he penned it; furthermore, as one who lived and wrote (1 Samuel 10:25) during the events of Judges, Samuel would be qualified to document the history of Israel in this time period.  The historical events written in Judges span approximately 350 years (1383-1043 BC), which begin with the death of Joshua (1383 BC) and end just before the monarchy was instituted in Israel (1043 BC).  While the book of Joshua celebrated Israel’s obedience to God and inheritance of the Promised Land, Judges was a dark period in Israel’s timeline because of their disobedience and idolatry.  After the death of Joshua, the nation of Israel gradually began moving away from the Lord by failing to remove the Canaanites from the land (Judges 1), worshiping other gods (Judges 2), and intermarrying with the Canaanites (Judges 3:5-6).  Moses had forewarned Israel about the dangers of all three of these things and told them about the consequences of not obeying God (see Deuteronomy 7); however, they failed to listen to the voice of Moses as well as Joshua.

Each time Israel disobeyed the Lord, He would send judgment upon them by allowing their enemies to conquer them and each time their enemies had victory over them, Israel would cry out to the Lord for deliverance.  In the book of Judges, God’s deliverance arrived for Israel whenever He would send judges (men to protect Israel from their enemies) to call the people to repent and return to the Lord.  The history of these fourteen judges is recorded in Judges 3:7-16:31.  Here is a listing of the judges:

Othniel (Judges 3:7-11)
Ehud (Judges 3:12-30)
Shamgar (Judges 3:31)
Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-5)
Gideon (Judges 6:1-8:32)
Abimelech (Judges 8:33-9:57)
Tola (Judges 10:1-2)
Jair (Judges 10:3-5)
Jephthah (Judges 10:6-12:7)
Ibzan (Judges 12:8-10)
Elon (Judges 12:11-12)
Abdon (Judges 12:13-15)
Samson (Judges 13:1-16:31)

Even though Israel was unfaithful to God, He delivered them from their enemies every time they were oppressed.  God’s mercy is clearly recognized throughout the book of Judges, but those who love God must not take advantage of His willingness to forgive.  It is always best to obey the first time.  Although God’s mercy is demonstrated numerous times during this 350 year time period, the concluding words of Judges still read like this, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25).  The words of this book should be a firm reminder that God expects obedience in all areas of life and anyone who ignores Him will experience the consequences of their sin.

Dear God, help me to obey You the first time.