Into The Spin Cycle Series

October 25, 2025

According to 1 Kings 6:1 – in the 480th year after leaving Egypt and in the 4th year of his reign, Solomon began to build the Temple in Jerusalem. The date universally agreed upon: 967 BC.

Many things occurred in those 480 years, including the desert wandering, the conquest, the death of Joshua, the judge years (which include years of oppression and years of peace), the years of Eli and Samuel and the reigns of Saul and David and the first 4 years of Solomon’s reign. A period, if added together, far exceeds 480 years.

The natural explanation is that there is some degree of overlap in the stories and Judges 10:6-7 bears this out – revealing that the Ammonite oppression (Ch. 10-12) and the Philistine oppression (Ch. 13-16) occurred at the same time, with the Philistine oppression only coming to an end during the judgeship of Samuel (1 Samuel 7:6-14).

There is also evidence that some events were not written down in chronological order. Judges 1 opens with the death of Joshua, but Joshua 2:6-9 speaks to Joshua’s final act of dismissing the people, his death at 110 and his place of burial. In Judges 20, Phinehas, the son of Eleazer is mentioned as being active in the events described (20:28). This is the same Phinehas who killed the Israelite man and Midianite woman in Numbers 25:7 and who is mentioned at the end of the book of Jushua (24:33). If the book runs chronologically, Phinehas would be well into his 300’s…..

The time of the Judges is a complex period in Israel’s history. It begins with the death of Joshua and ends with the establishment of the monarchy under Saul.

The covenant relationship God established with Israel ensured her safety and security. However, the book of Judges diverges dramatically from the relative faithfulness of the people in the book of Joshua.

Through obedience and trust in the power of God, the initial conquest of Canaan was successful. After Joshua died, however, Israel’s connection to Yahweh went on life support.

Judges is a history not a commentary and it tells a sad tale as God's people slipped further into disobedience and apostasy.

It is a no-holds-barred, unapologetic, ugly and graphic tale of what happens when the Law of God and God Himself are cast aside in favor of “self- government” as His people chose to do “what felt right in their own eyes.”

Judges starts off well enough….

After Joshua died the people consulted God, “Who should be the first to go and fight the Canaanites?”

The answer…. Judah, “I have given the land into their hands.”

The men of Judah attacked and burned Jerusalem (Jebus), but we know that they were not successful in completely dislodging the Jebusites (Joshua 15:63).

This would prove to be the recurring theme in chapter 1 as Israel began to inhabit the land.

The Benjamites failed to dislodge the Jebusites….

Manasseh did not drive out the people…

Neither did Ephraim….

Neither did Zebulun….

Neither did Asher….

Neither did Naphtali….

And the Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain….

They chose not to completely remove the inhabitants of the land as Yahweh had clearly told them to do (see Exodus 23:31-33 and Deut. 7:16). As a result of this failure, Yahweh had some things to say:

Judges 2:1-3 - "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you."

The conditional judgment of Joshua 23:11-13 came to pass and the rest of “Judges” is characterized by a spin cycle of sin, oppression, crying and deliverance and it didn’t take long for the people to jump full throttle into the spin:

Judges 2:10-16 - After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither Yahweh nor what he had done for Israel (see Deut. 4:7-10 and Deut. 6:1-12). Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baals. They forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked Yahweh to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel Yahweh handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of Yahweh was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. Then Yahweh raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.