Our reading challenge for the day is Judges 1-5. I’ll hit a few highlights. You make comments too and fill in the gaps. What strikes you as specially significant?
These first chapters of Judges set up the pattern which will remain typical for several hundred years. The people of Israel do not do what God has commanded them. They leave the people who have been in the land rather than obeying God’s command to displace them. Those people become a trap for Israel, enticing them to depart from the true God. Israel is brought into bondage and God raises a deliverer who will rescue them. These deliverers, called judges, are of varied quality. Not all are exemplary leaders. But all are raised up by God to deal with a situation which is troubling the nation.
Sometimes Deborah is treated as a victory for women. While she is doubtless used to deliver the people, see that the Scripture views her almost as a defeat for men. Where were the manly men who should have risen up and defended their country? They ran away rather than leading their families and their nation. This is a terrible defeat for everyone involved.
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