Moving from Chapter 18 to Chapter 19 again represents the beginning of a story given out of time sequence. This story takes three chapters, the rest of the book. This certainly leaves one with a negative view of the book and the period. However, we need to remember that the…
In Chapter 17, we began the story of Micah the Ephraimite who had set up a house of gods and took in a wandering Levite to be his priest. Chapter 18 continues with the reminder that “In those days there was no king in Israel”. The tribe of Dan had…
Chapter 16 was the end of the first section, and we now come to the second section of the Book of Judges starting with Chapter 17. It is certainly set out of time sequence, and it was probably originally written by a different author. The circumstances dictate an early timeframe, but…
Samson was judge of Israel for 20 years. This was annotated at the end of Chapter 15 and is again noted again at the end of this chapter. It is not two periods of 20 years, but rather it is two references to the same time period. Two references. Yet,…
Last time in Chapter 14, we looked at the first part of Samson’s story after becoming an adult. We exploded the myth that his marriage to a Philistine was somehow sinful. We saw how God intended to use the marriage to seek an occasion against the Philistines. We also saw…
Last time in Chapter 13, we looked at Samson and the circumstances of his unusual birth. He was to be a Nazarite from birth. Usually, someone took a Nazarite vow for a specific amount of time and did so voluntarily, whereas Samson had no say in the matter. It is…
Chapter 12 left off with a long list of judges, but now we come to the story of perhaps the most famous one of all: Samson. The story of Samson covers four chapters in the Book of Judges, making it the longest story in the book. It has also been…
Continuing on from Chapter 11 of the Book of Judges, we now come to Chapter 12. There are some rough parallels between Gideon and Jepthah. We saw a major one in that both had their hopes of a dynasty crushed before they even started. Gideon’s son would not kill Zebah…
In Judges 10, we saw again how Israel fell into idolatry soon after the death of one of the judges. Going on into chapter 11, we were introduced to Jepthah the Gileadite, who was born out of wedlock. Gilead’s legitimate sons ran him off in order to keep him from…
In Chapter 9, we saw how the lust for power of Abimelech and Gaal came to a violent ending. Things have not changed much today, as people grab for power, but unfortunately it isn’t limited to the world. Paul and Jesus both warned of such things coming from within the…