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Judges
There is a Book in God’s Word called “Judges.” I not sure how much it is preached or taught in today’s church. I know I have not spent lots of time in it in my years of ministry. I am not sure how much time I will spend in it now but I do want to look at some of the things it can teach us. First these judges were not like judges in our time. Our judges are generally schooled and skilled in the law of the land. They are elected or appointed to determine who is or has the right in certain issues or disputes. In Israel of the Bible, judges may have done that but more likely they were raised up to oppose enemies or persecutors of Israel. There were quite a number of them. We could consider Moses to be the first. He acted much more like our judges today, deciding right or wrong and settling disputes between people. He seemed to be the only one in Israel for a time. His father-in-law saw what he was doing and rightly advised that he would wear himself out doing this and urged that a hierarchy, like jurisdictions, of judges be appointed for groups of people. These people would deal with minor issues and more difficult cases or disputes could be passed up the chain of hierarchy with the ultimate judge being Moses. Moses of course was God’s chosen leader for Israel. Joshua succeeded him as leader but does not seem to be involved in judging. When Israel entered the Promised Land, things went well for a time. The land was divided among the tribes. But there were two things that were problematic. First, Israel did not drive out the people who had lived in the land. These people were heathen. They worshipped idols, were immoral, and evil. It was God’s intent to remove them from the land altogether. He would certainly helped, or done it altogether but Israel did not seem to think it important. In the first case, Israel was deceived by one of the enemy nations, who realized Israel was stronger than they. Ultimately, these people became slaves or servants of Israel. It may have seemed a good idea but it was not. Their evil lifestyles were an influence that ultimately led to idolatry and evil living in and by Israel. The second issue was that God had strictly warned Israel to teach succeeding generations the importance of God’s Law and their history. They were to teach the promises God gave and warnings He gave against disobedience. This was done in the beginning. But, it seems after the first generation of Promised Land residents something went wrong. Either the parents did not teach, or the children rejected the teachings. Whichever of these things Deuteronomy chapter six did not impact the second and succeeding generations as it should have. We might propose the people could see the blessings all around them. The land was beautiful and productive and a wonderful blessing. But unless people are keeping careful records, the productivity would diminish without their being aware. And they could very easily come under the curses. But these disobediences did come abruptly. A cycle we can be aware of happened over and over. “God blest them. They received the blessing but instead of worshipping God, they turned to idolatry. To stop the idolatry, God sent punishments of various kinds. The people repented and called out for help. God delivered and blest them. The cycle restarts.
Scriptures to Read
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Deuteronomy 6:10-19
Deuteronomy 6:20-25
Deuteronomy 7:1-9
Deuteronomy 7:10-16
Deuteronomy 7:17-26
Deuteronomy 8:1-14
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