Moses delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage and led them almost to the Promised Land (via the LORD of course). Then Joshua completed Moses’ work by bringing them into the Promise Land. Then Joshua led the conquest against all the nations that occupied the land; killing everyone in their path. Now with Moses and Joshua gone, the period of the Judges begins. This was a time when Israel was governed by a series of very colorful judges as you will see. Then the period of the Judges comes to an end when Saul is anointed as the first king of Israel.
JUDAH AND SIMEON So the book of Judges starts right off with killing. God tells Judah to go up and fight the Canaanites and Judah in turn asks his brother Simeon to come along. They killed 10,000 men but the strange thing is that when one fled named Adonibezek and they caught him then cut off his thumbs and big toes! They brought him to Jerusalem where he died.
OTHNIEL, EHUD AND SHAMGAR In chapter 3 we read that because the children of Israel were worshipping other gods such as Baal, Astarte and Asherah God was so angry that He had the King of Mesopotamia attack them and they served him for eight years. When the children of Israel however cried out to the LORD, God raised up Othniel to deliver them from the King of Mesopotamia and then they had peace for forty years. Then the children of Israel go back to worshipping other gods again so God had Eglon, King of Moab attack them and they served him for eighteen years. When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD again, God raised up Ehud—a left-handed man to deliver them from King Eglon. So Ehud made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long and hid it on his right thigh under his garments. He brought a present to the King, who we are told was a very fat man. Later while they were alone Ehud took his sword and “thrust it into his belly and the hilt went in after the blade and the fat closed upon the blade so that he could not draw the sword back out of his belly, and his entrails came out” (3:22). After Ehud escaped he blew the trumpet for war against the Moabites and they killed 10,000—every one of them. Then they had peace for eighty years. The next Judge was Shamgar who rescued Israel by killing 600 Philistines with an ox goad. DEBORAH Interestingly enough one of the Judges of Israel was a woman named, Deborah. How this story begins in chapter 4 is with the children of Israel doing evil in the sight of the LORD again. And so “the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan” whose captain of the army was Sisera. He had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years. Once again the children of Israel cry out for deliverance and they are given Deborah who is also a prophetess. Deborah tells a man named Barak to gather 10,000 soldiers to fight Sisera and his army and says that God will give him the victory. But Barak says that he won’t go unless she goes too. Deborah says she …show more content…
Abimelech wants to be King of Israel so he kills all seventy of his father’s other sons and he rules Israel for three years. There is an uprising by some in Shechem over Abimelech but in the end Abimelech herds the people of Shechem into fields where all of the people are killed. Then when he heard that some of the leading me of Shechem were hiding in the temple of Baal, he burned it down, burning alive about a thousand men and women. Then when Abimelech goes to a strong tower where people have locked themselves in for protection he intends to burn them alive inside the tower but a woman on top of the tower drops a millstone down on Abimelech’s head and cracked his skull. Abimelech doesn’t want to be remembered as having been killed by a woman so he has his attendant run him through with his sword. The first attendant-assisted suicide in the Bible—but there will be
JUDAH AND SIMEON So the book of Judges starts right off with killing. God tells Judah to go up and fight the Canaanites and Judah in turn asks his brother Simeon to come along. They killed 10,000 men but the strange thing is that when one fled named Adonibezek and they caught him then cut off his thumbs and big toes! They brought him to Jerusalem where he died.
OTHNIEL, EHUD AND SHAMGAR In chapter 3 we read that because the children of Israel were worshipping other gods such as Baal, Astarte and Asherah God was so angry that He had the King of Mesopotamia attack them and they served him for eight years. When the children of Israel however cried out to the LORD, God raised up Othniel to deliver them from the King of Mesopotamia and then they had peace for forty years. Then the children of Israel go back to worshipping other gods again so God had Eglon, King of Moab attack them and they served him for eighteen years. When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD again, God raised up Ehud—a left-handed man to deliver them from King Eglon. So Ehud made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long and hid it on his right thigh under his garments. He brought a present to the King, who we are told was a very fat man. Later while they were alone Ehud took his sword and “thrust it into his belly and the hilt went in after the blade and the fat closed upon the blade so that he could not draw the sword back out of his belly, and his entrails came out” (3:22). After Ehud escaped he blew the trumpet for war against the Moabites and they killed 10,000—every one of them. Then they had peace for eighty years. The next Judge was Shamgar who rescued Israel by killing 600 Philistines with an ox goad. DEBORAH Interestingly enough one of the Judges of Israel was a woman named, Deborah. How this story begins in chapter 4 is with the children of Israel doing evil in the sight of the LORD again. And so “the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan” whose captain of the army was Sisera. He had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years. Once again the children of Israel cry out for deliverance and they are given Deborah who is also a prophetess. Deborah tells a man named Barak to gather 10,000 soldiers to fight Sisera and his army and says that God will give him the victory. But Barak says that he won’t go unless she goes too. Deborah says she …show more content…
Abimelech wants to be King of Israel so he kills all seventy of his father’s other sons and he rules Israel for three years. There is an uprising by some in Shechem over Abimelech but in the end Abimelech herds the people of Shechem into fields where all of the people are killed. Then when he heard that some of the leading me of Shechem were hiding in the temple of Baal, he burned it down, burning alive about a thousand men and women. Then when Abimelech goes to a strong tower where people have locked themselves in for protection he intends to burn them alive inside the tower but a woman on top of the tower drops a millstone down on Abimelech’s head and cracked his skull. Abimelech doesn’t want to be remembered as having been killed by a woman so he has his attendant run him through with his sword. The first attendant-assisted suicide in the Bible—but there will be