This book is called "shophetim" in the Hebrew and "Kritai"
in the Greek. It covers a time
period of about 350 years, from the death of Joshua to about the time
of Samuel. It has a
reoccurring theme and that is "Israel forgot their God." Some of the
greatest events took
place during this time and also some of the darkest days of Israel's
history.
In Judges 2:10 we learn that there grew up a "generation
that knew not God nor the things
that He had", done for them. Couple that verse with Judges 21:25 which
said, "In those days
there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in
his own eyes" and we see
much of the problem that we read about in this book.
Time and time again the people would forget Jehovah
God and go whoring after false gods.
During those times God would allow different countries to oppress the
people to cause them to
repent of their sins and return to God. God would then raise up a judge
or a deliverer who would
rally the people and God would bring them victory over their oppressors.
Instead of learning their lesson and staying true
to God just as soon as the last judge died the
people would turn away from God. The endless cycle would start again.
© Copyright 2001. Paul D. Fisher. All rights reserved.