LESSON 1
Judge:
The term JUDGE doesn’t mean someone who sits in a court and decides legal issues. The Hebrew word shaphat has more of the idea of a heroic leader, ruler, saviour, or deliverer. “The Hebrew word Shophetim means to put right and to rule. The English title is somewhat misleading with its judicial or legal connotations, for the judges' role of administering justice was only secondary. There were fourteen judges in the book, including Deborah and Barak, who served as co-judges. These leaders combined spiritual, civic, and military efforts, specially empowered by God, to save Israel from the nations who afflicting her. No central leadership. However, there were national deliverers who were neither elected nor succeeded in royal succession. They were specially gifted by God for leadership in their times. The people forsook God (Judges 2:13) and God forsook the people (Judges 2:23).
Progressive Canaanization: The book of Judges gives us a general downward progression in Israel’s morals, character, and worship. Instead of progressive sanctification, they had a systematic deterioration of holiness and morality. It’s known as progressive Canaanization.
League:
“We can never enjoy God's promised rest for long if we tolerate only "partially crushed" sins to continue with us. If we make a league with questionable things because they seem harmless, we shall soon find ourselves wedded to the desires of the flesh again, and down from the heights to which God had lifted us.” (Disciple Study Bible). There is a connection between sin, punishment, and deliverance that really forms the keynote to the historical movement recorded in the whole of the Book (G Campbell Morgan). The pattern of bondage, deliverance, and blessing, again and again, is a discouraging fact in many Christian lives today. Deal decisively with sin to experience the fullness of the Spirit and Christ's victory over sin. There must be no compromise and no coexistence with sin. A partly committed life to the Lord Jesus will never find fullness but bound up in a spiral that inexorably takes downhill spirituality. The cycle of disobedience, discipline, despair, and deliverance is seen today whenever God’s people turn away from His Word and go their own way (Austin Precept).
God’s Instruments:
Judges are replete with an interesting, colorful list of "foolish things which Jehovah used to deliver His people: Ehud’s Dagger, Shamgar’s Ox Goad, Jael’s hammer and tent peg, Gideon’s trumpets, jars, and torch, The woman's millstone, Samson's jawbone.
(Ref: Enduring Word Commentary, Matthew Henry, Explaining to the Books: Judges, Austin Precept)
