There’s a major theme to Judges that’s seen throughout the entirety of the book, which is the consequences of not completely following God. It’s a theme that will also carry over into 1 Samuel with Saul, Israel’s first king (but that’s a different story for a different time).
In Judges we see a downward spiral that goes something like this:
people forget God and His ways, people fail to completely obey God, God’s favor is then removed, people experience oppression followed by acts of brutality and violence, the people cry out for deliverance and repent, God sends a deliverer (i.e. judge), and then there is great peace and prosperity. People forget God and His ways, people fail to completely obey God, God’s favor is then removed, people experience oppression followed by acts of brutality and violence, the people cry out for deliverance and repent, God sends a deliverer (i.e. judge), and then there is great peace and prosperity…
Over and over and over and over and over. It’s an insane repetition, yet not completely pointless. Sometimes we do the same.
When the “tragedy” has passed and when we’ve been delivered from whatever it is we’re crying out to God for relief from, we’re prone to drift back into our old ways. It’s an insane spiritual lifestyle that simply doesn’t work (a la Judges).
Although we’ll always have some form of tribulation (John. 16:33), by obeying God and leaving the consequences with Him we can most certainly break out of this insane pattern. Otherwise, we can find ourselves in our own personalized version of Judges.
Whenever we read the Bible, ask the larger questions:
- Is there any action I need to take to apply to my life?
- Based upon where I’m currently at, what would I have done? Not what I like to think I wouldve done but rather, based upon my life as it is now, what would I have done? etc.
The book ends with a sobering verse “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25 NKJV).
May we have a better epitaph. By obeying God and leaving the consequences with Him, you will!
