1. How Judges fits in the Old Testiment:
2. Cycle of failure in Judges:
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. —Judges 21:25 NASB
(Don’t) ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you. —Joshua 23:12-13
The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. —Judges 6:1-6
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. —Judges 6:11
“The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” …if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us…Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you? “But Lord, Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” —Judges 6:12-16
3. Get out of your
and
God is for you.
Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. —Judges 6:25
4. Living like nobody else starts
.
5. Identifying modern-day idols:
- Where do I sacrifice my time and money?
- What do I worry about the most?
- What do I dream about?