Judges

When everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

We need to understand the destructive nature of our sin. That, in fact, we often run in cycles of sin, constantly judegescomicbook repeating some of the same things over and over. We need God’s grace to step in or not only will our cycle of sin never end but it will go from bad to worse. In fact, without God's grace this cycle can be quite depressing! The book teaches us the bad news...and also the good news.

We see this cycle of destruction in the book of Judges. We also learn much about the nature of God as some very terrible things happen in this book and God responds to humanity’s rebellion and sin.

Main themes

• God’s grace to preserve people through their rejection of his instruction

• Israel’s descent into self-destruction and Israel’s desperation for God’s rescue

The violence of the Old Testament does not seem to fit with Jesus’ teaching about loving your enemies or with his decision to lay down his life for his enemies.

This is an extremely complicated issue. It raises historical questions and challenges of interpretation. It also generates theological questions about the character of God.

For further study on this topic may we suggest a few resources:

As the book of Joshua closes and Judges begins, we see the Israelites, for the first time, moving into what is called the "Promised Land" (Exodus 13:17, 33:12; Deuteronomy 1:37; Joshua 5:7, 14:8 and Psalms 47:4). Today, we are asking once again about the "Promised Land" and how this should be viewed in modern day Palestine. For a detailed discussion about this, check out the Podcast:

"Promised Land"

JudgesGraphic