Bible In A Year: Judges

The book of Judges records Israel’s life in the land after Joshua, showing repeated cycles of disobedience, oppression, repentance, and deliverance. Israel failed to drive out the nations and turned to other gods, and the Lord allowed their enemies to oppress them. When the people cried out, God raised up judges to deliver them. The book ends with the repeated statement that there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges shows the consequences of disobedience and the Lord’s continued mercy toward His people.

Transcript

Mission And Series Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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Judges Opens With Compromise

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Well, hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Teach Me the Bible Podcast, where we are currently in a series walking through the story of God, the story of the Bible in a year. And so today we find ourselves uh in the book of Judges. We've kind of walked up to this point and um want to just encourage you to uh if you want to continue to follow along with what we're doing in this series or other series, we have uh I'll teach you or uh encourage you to go over to teachmethebible.com uh and check out uh some of other resources we have daily devotionals, uh book studies, bible studies uh that will be helpful for you in continuing to understand this story. Um you can find question and answers with David even as we uh kind of walk through these things. But again, we today we find ourselves in Judges. Uh we've seen how Israel has now through uh Joshua begin to conquer the land. And we read about judges and priests and kings and prophets and in Deuteronomy and how they're supposed to help uh Israel operate according to what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord. Right. And so we're gonna check in on the book of Judges and see how things are going.

Dr. David Klingler 1:41

And so with that, I'll turn it over to you. Um it's not going so great. Right, right. Uh and so the book of Judges uh is uh is the you know beginning of how's Israel doing in the land. The judges, the priests, the kings, the prophets, these were the officers uh who really uh appear in the in the messianic spot over Israel to ensure that Israel, as you said, did did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord. Um if they followed the word of the Lord, if they followed Deuteronomy chapter 20, uh and they were they were to totally eradicate the you know all the ites, the Amorites, Hittites, Canaanites, Jebusites, you always say termites, if it's an Ite, kill it, you know, man, woman, child, kill, because they will cause you to follow uh their gods. Right. Uh and uh and so what chapter one of Judges does is it is it uh checks in and says, Well, how is uh each tribe doing? And it begins with the with the tribe of Judah. Um uh interesting. I love this out. Now the Lord was with Judah, this is in 119, and they took possession of the hill country, but they could not drive they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots. I love that, right? They had well, I mean, come on, you know. I mean, the Lord can, you know wipe out Pharaoh's army full of chariots, yeah, full of full of chariots and uh uh and wipe them out in the sea. Uh but that you know, but iron chariots, I mean, those are tough. You know, it's like kryptonite for the Lord, right? No, no, no. Uh it wasn't because, you know, in other words, I think what's going on here is the is this is this is the people's excuse. Well, they had iron chariots, so you know the Lord. Uh actually uh we're gonna find a little bit later in the story that iron chariots turns out they're not such a problem for the Lord. Um but uh uh but then the the Jebusites, it says the Jebusites um lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem until this day. That's in verse 21. Uh Jebes was the city of Jebus was the city of uh Jerusalem or Shalom. Jerusalem is to uh Jerus is to contend, can contend for the the the city of Shalom, Jerusalem. Um likewise the house of uh uh of Joseph went up against Bethel, and so so the the tribe of Joseph they failed. Uh Ephraim didn't drive out the Canaanites, um so the Canaanites lived among them. And you can see where this is going if you know the book of Deuteronomy. If you don't wipe them out, they're gonna lead you astray, they're gonna cause you to follow their gods, and sure enough, Zebulun doesn't uh drive out uh Asher doesn't drive out the Canaanites, uh Naphtali doesn't drive out uh the Canaalite, uh the uh the Canaanites. Uh the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the whole country. Um they persisted and I like that you know we we'd really like to be driven out, but we're we're gonna have to persist here. That's good. It's such a excuse me, but we're we're we're gonna have to take exception to that. We're we're gonna have to live here, you know. Uh no, every tribe fails. And so the angel of the Lord, that this is the angel of the Lord that that is uh was promised back in uh in uh Exodus 33 that has appeared in in Joshua chapter uh five. Uh he uh he came up to Gilgal to Bochim. Bachim is uh it means weeping. And uh said, I brought uh you up from uh Egypt, from the land uh to which I sworn to your fathers, and said, I will never break my covenant with you. Right? Um this reminds us back of you know Joshua at I, you know, oh Lord, you know, what do you do? And you brought us out here to kill us. I mean, this is what Israel has been saying the whole time. Right. And uh Day three. Yeah, and and the the Lord says to Joshua, not me. I kept my end of the deal, right? It's you. Sin is in the camp, right? So uh I will never break my covenant with you, but as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land. You shall tear down their altars and uh and destroy. But you have not obeyed me. What is this you've done? So I've done my part, you haven't done your part, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

You don't want to hear that from the Lord. What is this you have done?

The Cycle Of Sin Explained

Dr. David Klingler 6:03

Yeah, yeah, what yeah, what is this uh you have done? And so uh and so uh because they didn't wipe out the ites, the ice are gonna cause them to follow their gods, they're going to go and serve the Baals. Uh, and so this is introduced to what we mentioned a couple weeks ago uh with in the book of Deuteronomy, the cycles of sin. Uh the uh Israel would go serve foreign gods, serve the Baals, they would forsake the Lord their God. Uh, then the Lord would bring up people against them, uh, the Gentiles to rule over them, to subjugate them. Um then Israel would cry out to the Lord, they would repent, the Lord would raise up a judge uh to restore them, and he would deliver them, and then the cycle would start right back over again. And so uh you you're gonna you see this repeatedly throughout the book of Judges. Um the the the first judge on the scene is Othniel. I love this story of of Othniel. Um you know, we we mentioned it uh last week. Well, um we you know, I I I love this story. Um uh and it's uh it's the story uh of how does this the storyteller tell you we're starting with a good judge, right? Well Othniel uh is the is Caleb's um son-in-law, right? Um and and so Caleb says, here's the deal if anyone can conquer a city, like I did, right, single-handedly, um, then I will give this person, this this man, my daughter, as a bride. And you think, was that like a trophy wife? No, no, no. Yeah, you don't conquer stuff unless the Lord is with you. You know, so he says, uh, so so I love this. What he's saying is, uh, if you have a faith just like mine, if you're faithful just like I am, because there's only two people that made it through the first generation, me and Joshua. Yeah, right. And I ain't so sure about Joshua. Yeah, but me, I'm sure about right. If you have a faith like me, if you if you're faithful like I am, then you can marry my daughter, right? And Othniel does it. And so so this is how the storyteller tells you Othniel is just, I mean, just top-notch.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

That's such a good example of needing to know what's come before. Yes, because you can't interpret that saying that you can only conquer cities if the Lord is with you and if you are trusting in him, and so uh that's a really great example of needing to know what's come before in order to interpret what's later, yeah. Yeah, and all the details.

From Othniel To Gideon’s Drift

Dr. David Klingler 8:37

Then uh uh you get uh the Ehud and uh Deborah and Barak, Shamgar is mentioned in there. Shamgar, that's interesting because uh it doesn't appear to be a uh uh a uh Jewish name. Uh and then you get uh to uh the song of uh of Deborah. Then in chapter six, you're introduced to this guy named Gideon. And and uh uh and Gideon um he's his his name he's called Gideon, he's also called Jerubal, he contends with Baal. Um Israel wants him to be king. Hey, you you know you you be king over us, and he says, I will not be king over you. Uh but I will violate all of the rules in Deuteronomy chapter 20 pertaining to the king.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Let me take your gold.

Samson And Missing Repentance

Dr. David Klingler 9:23

I'm gonna multiply uh you know riches, I'm gonna uh multiply wives. And uh and oh, by the way, I'd like to introduce you to my son. Really? What what's his name? Well, his name is uh Abimelech. Abimelech. Uh uh what does that mean? Uh my father is king. Yeah. Which is uh which is uh greatly ironic. And so this uh and so this uh gets just gets worse and worse. The uh you're introduced to some minor judges along the way. There's a judge Ja'ar. Uh uh this this uh uh he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, right, and had thirty cities. He and he named this the cities, the uh the towns of Ja'ar. And so if you know the story, right, if you go all the way back to Genesis chapter four, where uh Cain has a son, Enoch, and builds a city and names it after the name of his son, and uh and then in chapter 11 of Genesis, uh, you know, everybody's building this city and to make man's name great. But now you have these um these judges who are uh multiplying wives. Uh yeah, I don't know how you get uh 30 sons uh that you could uh uh and uh who rode 30 donkeys. You know, so the who rides the donkey? Well, the king rides the donkey, and so they're multiplying uh wives, they're acting like kings, they're naming cities after themselves, and you're going, well, this is this is horrible. It's like you're you're reading through this, and it's kind of like watching a poker game, right? You know, I'm this evil, and then the next one comes on the scene and says, I'll see your wickedness and I'll raise you, right? You get over there with Isban over there in chapter 12 and says that he had 30 sons and 30 daughters, yeah. Wow, uh, who he gave in marriage outside the family, and he brought in 30 daughters for the 30 sons. Wow, right? And uh uh then you skip down a little bit in Abdon. He says, Well, I got 40 sons and 30 grandsons, right? On 70, and he's gone, this is just getting ridiculous. It's just you know, every one is worse than the last one. Yeah, and then you get this Samson guy who comes on the scene, and you know, and he uh he's uh born to begin to deliver Israel. Now, one of the things that happens is all the way through these judges, the Lord judges Israel, Israel cries out to the Lord, the Lord raises up a judge and delivers them. But in this last cycle, uh, which is uh the Samson story, uh Israel does evil does evil in the eyes of the Lord, he raises up the Philistines and uh to judge uh to judge Israel. Uh but Israel is not delivered. It says Samson uh began to deliver Israel, right? And the thing that's missing in this story is you don't see Israel's repentance. And so Israel doesn't cry out to the Lord, uh Samson does what's good and right in his own eyes, the whole story. It's only after his eyes are gouged out that he begins to deliver Israel. He begins to do what's good and right in the eyes of the Lord after he doesn't see according to his own eyes. Yeah, and we've seen we've heard that language all the way through the story, and so so that you know the the storyteller is working from the book of Deuteronomy and saying the the judges are failing. Right. Right. And so now let's the judges have utterly failed. Let's look at the priests. Certainly they are doing better than that, and and know that they're it's horrible, right? Um, there was a certain man in the hill country of Bathroom whose name was Micah, and uh he had 1100 pieces of silver which were taken. Uh he says to his mom, the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, which you uttered a curse in my hearing, uh, behold, they're they're with me. I I I took them, right? So the you know, the the story, you know, kind of the the the the the the camera kind of shifts over here to this, you know, to this man in the hill country of Ephraim, and you're going, well, why do we care about this? Um in the story he talks about this this mom who had silver stolen and the son comes and says I yeah, I stole it. Uh and then um uh and then uh she uh she wholly dedicates, she says, I wholly dedicate the silver that my son stole to build a graven image. Oh boy, you're gone. Wait a second, that's a violation of uh you know the Ten Commandments, right? Build a graven image. Uh and uh if you make a vow to the Lord, you uh must be sure to keep it. Uh this is uh chapter twenty Deuteronomy 23, verse 21 and following. And so you make a vow, you gotta keep the vow. Um and so now she's made a vow to break the law.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 14:08

Well, what do you do? Do you break the law or do you break the vow? Well, she does both. She uses only 200 pieces of silver, still does the graven image, still breaks the law. And you're going, it can't get worse. You go, no, no, yeah, it does it. Yeah, it does. And so then they uh the the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and a household idols, and he consecrated one of his sons to become the priest.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Yikes.

Priests Get Even Worse

No King And The Road To Saul

Dr. David Klingler 14:36

And so, you know, he's the priest, and uh, in those days there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes. And uh now there was a young man from Bethlehem of Judah, the family of Judah, which was a Levite, and he was staying there, and the man departed from the city and uh and he's going to find a place, and so he he's got this guy who's got his sons and they're playing priests, which you're not supposed to do because it's supposed to be a Levite. Here comes the Levite walking by, don't know what he's doing, and the you know, this the family says, Hey, let's make this thing legitimate. Yeah, why don't we hire you? Well, you're not to be a priest for hire. That's a violation. So this guy's you know, a priest for hire, or he's taking bribes and priests for hire, and you're going, This can't get any worse. Oh, yeah, it does. Uh then then uh you look out the window, right? You look out the window, and there the tribe of Dan is walking by and you're going, Where are they going? Well, they well, they were supposed to you know conquer the land down there around Joppa, but we're up here in the north, and and here they're passing by the window, and you're looking going, Well, where are y'all going? And well, we're going north, and and say they hire this guy. He says, Why would you you know be a priest for hire for a family when you can wreck a whole tribe? Let's you know, come come work for us, and so off they go. And and so then they go up there and and set up uh you know high places and and uh everything in violation uh uh of of the the law. And uh and this is in chapter uh um they called the name of the city Dan, the name of the city after the father who was uh was born in Israel. However, the name of the city was formerly Lyish. This is in chapter 18, verse now 30. And the sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image. And Jonathan, son of Gersham, son of the the numeric standard says son of Manasseh. Uh now um if you know the story, uh you know that Jonathan, son of Gershim, is son of Moses. Oh wow. Uh and uh and so uh many old manuscripts read Moses here as it should. Uh and some put a uh an N, the some manuscripts have a noon. We call it it's a it's a Hebrew N. It's suspended in between the M and the S of Moses, right? To change it from Moses to Manasseh. So in other words, we all know it's Moses, but you don't we're not blaming this on Moses. We're not gonna blame this on the great prophet Moses, even though it's a direct descendant. Wow, we'll blame it on Manasseh. He he can take the hit, it's okay, right? Uh and so you're going, what this can't get worse. And you just can't, oh no, it can get worse. And then it goes into this story of uh there was a uh there was a certain uh uh uh Levite who had a concubine who played the harlot, and you're going, Oh boy, what it just this whole thing just keeps going down the hill faster and faster and faster. And you thought the judges were bad, the priests are worse. And by the by the time you get to the end of the book of Judges, the priests are absolutely horrible. Uh and so the when the screen uh you know kind of comes back to life or the curtain comes up in the first Samuel, Eli uh is the priest, his sons are called sons of Belial. Uh there's no king in Israel, every man does what's right in his own eyes. And so Israel says, We want a king. Um like the other nations. Oh, this is about yeah. I see where this is headed. Yeah, and so you're just watching this story kind of careen down the hill, just you know, crashing down the hill, and and at every stop along the way, it's getting worse and worse and worse. And uh, and so the book of Judges is this beginning of the evaluation of how is Israel doing in the land, uh the beginning of the evaluation of the judges, uh, the end of the evaluation of the judgment they're failing. The last judge uh is going to be Samuel, he's going to introduce the king. Um in the in the book of our first uh first Samuel. Yeah. Um, but uh but the judges have failed, the priests are failing, and now Israel is going to Shaol ask for a king, and God's gonna give them what they ask for, gonna give them Saul. Wow. Uh and so we're heading towards a king, and we're gonna see how the kings are doing. You know how that's gonna go. The kings are gonna do what's good in their own eyes and cause Israel to sin. And so so the book of Judges, uh, important book, uh, amazing stories uh in uh in the book of Judges.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah, I mean uh just all of this I think highlights when God says in Exodus that he's slow to anger. No. I mean, how long is the period of the judges? Uh something like 400 years or something like that, you know. Um for him to sit and watch all of this and even offer them blessing when they repent in those early cycles is just the the mercy and the long suffering in the Lord.

Dr. David Klingler 19:40

And it's gonna be loyal in his love. Even after they rebel against him, yeah. Dr. Bayless said years ago, uh he was talking about uh something. He said, If I was God, I would wipe me out a long time ago. And we all laughed because we thought it was funny. And and he just looked at us with a stalm face and said, Don't laugh. Right. I'd have wiped you out first. If I was God, Israel would have been a you know, poof. Um you know, and if if I was God, I'd have wiped me out a long time ago. Uh I I make myself sick.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

No, we laugh, we laugh about it, but it's incredibly what can you do?

God’s Patience And Our Hearts

Dr. David Klingler 20:19

You know, it's just uh how many times have you said, Lord, if you will rescue me, if you'll help me this one last time, then I'll never do it again. Like, you know, three seconds later, you're right back doing the same stuff or whatever it is. Yeah, and it's just you know, it's and and and really this whole thinking that we can negotiate with God, that God takes bright, we just don't know, we don't know the character of God. And Israel didn't know the character of the Lord. Uh and uh in the book of Judges, though, you're starting to see the contrast between Israel's lack of faithfulness and the Lord's faithfulness. And so you start to understand why why Paul would say something like, He is faithful when we're faithless, because he cannot deny himself. He he's going to keep his promises. And so just amazing book of faithfulness to the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Some of the words that sort of stick out to me, and maybe this is because of my uh perspective as a family pastor, yeah. Um, but you know, is this this this language of these generations rose up and they forgot, you know, or or they they rebelled against the Lord, and and I think that highlights this failure of, I mean, all through Deuteronomy we're reading fathers teach your sons, you know, uh put it on the doorposts, bind it on, you know. Um and I think this is all highlighting a failure of the of the fathers and well and of the judges and the leaders to teach, and the fathers and the mothers to teach, um, because they don't they don't know the word, they don't know the law. And I think that's a good thing. Well, they they don't they may know it, but they don't live it.

Dr. David Klingler 21:52

So, in other words, the problem that all throughout Israel's history is that the word doesn't change their heart. Heart. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. Because that which fills the heart comes out of the mouth. At the end of Deuteronomy, I love what Moses says. We think that the law is hard. It's too difficult. You can't do it. Well, that's not what Moses says. It's not out of reach. It's not unrevealed. It's not in heaven that you would say, who will go up and get it? It's not in a foreign land who will go over to the sea and get it. But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart that you would observe it. So see, I set before you today life, and they translate life and prosperity. This is in chapter 30, verse 15 of Deuteronomy. It's actually, I've set before you life and good, death and evil. So choose life. Choose doe. Choose tove, choose good. Let this word be on your heart. Meditate on it day and night. Blessed is the man. Back to Psalm 1, who does not walk in the way. But his meditation is on the law of the Lord and the character of God. They don't do it. They won't do it. And because they don't let it penetrate who they are, it doesn't penetrate how they live. And so one of the things that you'll see with uh with kids, kids kids know a hypocrite when they see one.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Yeah.

Preview Ahead And How To Support

Dr. David Klingler 23:28

And uh it's not you know as a parent, you don't have to be perfect, right? Uh but you do have to be honest. You gotta call balls and strikes on them for their good, but also on yourself. Yeah. Yeah. So Lord, I'm blowing it again. You know, and and when your kids see that you keep short accounts with the Lord, uh they they they go, ah, yeah. Mom, dad, they they believe this stuff, you know. Uh, and and so um the failure to live it out, the failure to let these words penetrate your heart and and meditate on them day and night, right, uh will change who you are. Yeah, a failure to do it will uh will not change who you are. Yeah, you'll be hypocrites and uh and uh your children will not follow your ways.

unknown 24:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

So well, so um we uh are in judges and we see that uh not all is well in Israel. The judges fail, the priests uh are worse than the judges, and spoiler alert, it's not gonna get better for a while. And the Lord's gonna continue to wait. Yeah, you you you thought it was bad, just wait.

Dr. David Klingler 24:34

It's heading it's heading for worse. Yeah, so there's gonna be a bright spot. We're gonna be introduced to a to a couple bright spots. Saul isn't all bad, he's uh he starts off really uh great, uh, and then we're gonna be introduced to David. Uh and David is just well, uh a man after God's own heart. But even David's going to fail. Yeah. So we'll uh we'll get into that next time.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

That's good. All right. Well, we uh well thank you, Doc, for uh walking us through the book and continue to walk us through the story. Um we uh thank you for tuning in and listening in with us, and we encourage you to hop in next week as we continue to uh watch this story unfold.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

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