Thursday Thoughts: The Book of Judges

I recently finished reading the book of Judges (finally), so I thought I would post a few thoughts about it. One of the biggest things I saw in this book is that when the Isrealites were doing God's will, and worshipping Him alone, things were great, but when they turned aside from Him, things always went wrong, and then they would beg for God's mercy again. (On a side note: haven't you ever noticed the same pattern in your own home? When you are putting God first, there is peace and contentment in your home, but when you leave Him out, that is when the strife begins?)

Chapter 2 verse 10 says that after Joshua and all that generation had died, "another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel." Then in verses 11 and 12 it says, "Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; 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."

Because of their disobedience, God would allow the other nations to overtake the Israelites, and they would suffer because of it. But when they begged for God's mercy, and turned back to Him, God would raise up a Judge to deliver them from their enemies.

One of my favorite stories from this book is the story of Gideon. This story proves that God can use those who are weak in the world's eyes to do great things. You can find the whole story in ch. 6 verse 11 through the end of chapter 8. The Lord went to Gideon and told Him that he wanted to use him to save Israel from the Midianites. So Gideon said to the Lord, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." (Sound like anyone else we know? Maybe Moses? See Exodus 3:11, 4:1, 10) But the Lord said to Gideon, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man." (6:15,16)

We read in chapter 7 that when it came time for the Israelites to come up against the Midianites, they started out with around 32 thousand men, but the Lord said that was too many, so Gideon told the ones who were scared to go home, and 22 thousand of them left, leaving only ten thousand men to fight the Midianites. But God said this was still too many, so He took it down to only three hundred men. And verse 12 says that the Midianites were "as numerous as locusts." That means there were a lot of them! Why do you think God wanted the Israelite army to be so small? Ch.7 v.2 says, "lest Israel clain glory for itself against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'" God wanted them to KNOW that their strength came from HIM, not from their own hands. So they defeated the Midianite army with only three hundred men!

Can you think of any examples in your own life where God made you "weaker", only to show you that He was the one taking care of you?

“ I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2)