Judges 16
Judges 16 - Samson was a man of extremes. As quickly as the Spirit of the Lord came upon Him, He also just as quickly left Him (Jdg 13:16; Jdg 14:4; Jdg 16:20). There was little stability ...
Judges 17
Judges 17 - If you have been following along in Judges, then you know that Israel's decline has been building. Chapters 2-16 are the meat and potatoes of this book, describing the foreign threats to Israel, the ...
Judges 18
Judges 18 - I recently heard of an episode that Dr. Phil did about a religious cult. What began as a typical 60's communal-type gathering became a den of alleged sexual molestation, prostitution and extreme physical abuse that ...
Judges 19
Judges 19 - This is a terrible story, to say the least. In fact, you will be hard-pressed to find a more shocking chapter in the Bible. In a horrifying scene of events, we get a picture ...
Judges 20
Judges 20 - The story we read from the Levite priest in Judges 20 is not the same story we read in the previous chapter. Here, the priest states that it was "the men of Gibeah" who ...
Judges 21
Judges 21 - They said, "Why, O LORD, God of Israel, has this come about in Israel, so that one tribe should be missing today in Israel?" Judges 21:3 NASB The irony surrounding this prayer is both ...
Judges 1
In Judges 1, we pick up on the journey after Joshua's death. Verse 1 states that the Israelites sought guidance from the Lord on who should lead the fight against the Canaanites. God designated Judah, who ...
Judges 2
Judges 2 emphasizes Israel's cycle of sin, disobedience, and God's grace. Despite reminders of the covenant, they abandoned the Lord, adopted Canaanite practices, faced oppression, but received judges for deliverance. ...
Judges 3
Judges 3 describes how the Lord left certain nations in Canaan to test Israel. These foreign nations would help determine Israel's faithfulness to His commands. Despite this, the Israelites intermarried with the surrounding nations and adopted their ...
Judges 4
Judges 4 recounts how Israel once again turned from the Lord after Ehud’s death. In response, God allowed King Jabin of Canaan to oppress them for 20 years through his commander, Sisera, who led an army equipped ...
Judges 5
Judges 5 is the Song of Deborah, a victory hymn sung by Deborah and Barak after Israel’s triumph over King Jabin and Sisera's army. ...
Judges 6
In Judges 6, the Israelites once again sinned against the Lord and were oppressed by the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites, along with the Amalekites and other desert tribes devastated Israel's crops ...
Judges 7
In Judges 7, Gideon gathers his troops near the spring of Harod to face the Midianites. However, God instructs him to reduce the number of soldiers so that Israel will not boast in their own strength ...
Judges 8
In Judges 8, Gideon was criticized by the men of Ephraim for not including them in the battle against Midian, but he appeased them by highlighting their own victories. As he and his 300 men pursued the ...
Judges 9
In Judges 9, Gideon's son Abimelech persuades the people of Shechem to make him king by arguing that it's better to be ruled by one man than by all of Gideon's seventy sons. With money from the temple of ...
Judges 10
In Judges 10, Tola from the tribe of Issachar led Israel for 23 years and was buried at Shamir. Jair from Gilead then led Israel for 22 years, having 30 sons who each rode a donkey and controlled 30 cities in ...
Judges 11
In Judges 11, Jephthah, a warrior from Gilead and the son of a prostitute, was driven away by his half-brothers and settled in Tob where he gathered a group of followers. When the Ammonites waged war ...
Judges 12
In Judges 12, the Ephraimites confronted Jephthah angrily for not calling them to battle, threatening to burn his house (Judges 12:1). Jephthah responded that he had called for their help, but they did not come ...
Judges 13
In Judges 13, the Israelites did evil in God's sight yet again. God allowed the Philistines to oppress them for 40 years. An angel appeared to the barren wife of Manoah, a man from the tribe of Dan, and told her
Judges 14
In Judges 14, Samson saw a Philistine woman in Timnah and demanded his parents arrange the marriage, despite their objections. They did not realize this was part of God's plan to confront the ...