Judges

Theme 1: The Lord blesses obedience and loyalty to him and punishes those who disobey him. Throughout Judges there is a record of peace and war and at many different occurrences the people of Israel forsake the Lord and as a result God lets them become subject to another ruler and be forced to serve another nation. Judges 2&3 record several cycles of this.

Theme 2: A willingness to obey and trust in Yahweh yielding to his plans allows him to do great and wondrous things through us. Judges 4&5 record the victory of Deborah and Brach who trusted the Lord and were given victory over the Canaanites. Gideon tests the Lord and sees that he can trust in him and so he is used by the Lord to deliver the people from the Midanites. (Judges 6&7).

Theme 3: Even those whom God used for his purposes and to deliver his people from foreign rulers often rebelled against him and abandoned him. Sampson did not obey the Lord but was used by him to accomplish the purpose of punishing the Philistines. Sampson breaks God word by marrying a Philistine woman ( Judges 13) but in doing so he was able to kill 30 Philistines at his wedding party (Judges 14). Sampson disobeyed the Lord and broke his vow by having his haircut and is captured by the Philistines. In his death he is used to kill 3000 Philistines. ( Judges 16). The story of Micah who disobeyed the Lord and caused the people to worship idols after he built a shrine, faced death. In that death he showed to the people that it was foolish to go one’s own way and to disobey the Lord. (Judges 17&18).