Bible in a Year March 14: Joshua 24; Judges 1-2

 March 14: Joshua 24; Judges 1-2

JUDGES

The book of Judges begins at the time of Joshua’s death. The Israelites have settled peacefully into the Promised Land and have started building up their cities and falling into a routine life. But with comfort unfortunately comes complacency. There isn’t a strong leader to fill Joshua’s shoes and the Israelites begin a cycle of rebellion, judgment, and deliverance through a series of judges ordained by God. Some say it’s a series of hero stories that demonstrate both God’s compassion and the weakness of the leaders.

There is a cycle to the book that establishes a framework for these stories

1.    1. People do evil things and worship other gods
2.    God gets angry and allows other nations to invade
3.    Israel cries for help
4.    God raises up a judge who delivers the people from their enemies
5.    Israel again returns to foreign gods.

 It is traditionally considered that Samuel wrote this book, and it was written after the establishment of kingship. Some believe that perhaps Nathan and Gad, the prophets, participated in the editing of the book during the reign of David.

 Key verses are Judges 2:11-12 and Judges 21:25.

It’s a bit sad to say goodbye to Joshua. He’s been a good leader and his farewell speech is pretty amazing. There has been almost no rebellion in his time and the Israelites are finally at peace. I imagine his quote, “But for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” hangs in thousands of homes today. We also say goodbye to Phineas, who has served the people well as head priest.

Joseph’s bones, which were carried with the Israelites for the last 40 years, were buried in the tract of land his father bought to pitch his tent back in Gen 33:18. Joseph had slept on that ground during his lifetime, and now the whole land belonged to his descendants.

Did you have a sense of dejavu when you started reading Judges? I wonder what was so significant about the story of Acsah that it was repeated? We see another story of grace toward the people who helped the Israelites invade a city – I’m glad they kept their promises to those residents.

As we saw earlier, there were quite a few Canaanites who remained in the land. While initially they were servants to the Israelites, it only took one generation for the people to be influenced by that culture.

One of the key verses is in our reading today:

“11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; 12 and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger.” (NIV)

TOMORROW’S TEXT: Judges 3 – 5