The Bible OverBrew - Bible in a Yearنموونە

Week 11. Day 1. Judges 1-3.

Introduction to Judges.

In Joshua, the people entered into the Eden-like land of promise. But just like Adam in the garden, they failed to serve and worship God. Judges is a dark book, recounting the misery of what happened when there was no king. It presents an overall picture of progressive deterioration, with the key message being in the refrain‘In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.’ (Judges 21:25 ESV). As we look to see how Judges points ahead to Jesus, this may often be by negative example: we need a leader who is not like many of those in Judges.

Judges 1-3.

Ch 1-2 describe the failure to complete the conquest of the land.

1:1-2:5 Failure from a military perspective. What is the cause of the failure according to 2:1-3?

Do you detect any allusions to previous scripture in these verses?

The people did not drive out the evil canaanites (reminding us of Adam failing to drive the serpent out of the Garden of Eden). God’s judgment is that these Canaanites will be ‘thorns in your sides’ (Judges 2:3), reminding us of the thorns and thistles curse from Genesis 3:18.

2:6-3:6 Failure from a religious perspective

2:6-10 What will be the cause of faithlessness among the people?

(compare with Deu 6:4-9 where the people were told to re-tell the story of what God had done, so future generations would trust him)

The first set of judges described (in ch3-5) are generally good judges. Look at Othniel (3:7-11) as an example of the cycle that takes place

1. The people…………….
2. The LORD…………………
3. The people………………....
4. The LORD…………………
5. The land…………………
6. The judge…………………
7. The cycle begins again

NOTE: Days 1-5 of each week contain the scripture reading for that week. Day 6 has just the 'key chapters'. If you want a briefer version of this plan that still takes you through the whole Bible, you could just read the key chapters featured on day 6. Day 7 has the podcast video where we discuss the week's reading.