March 31st

Today's reading from the One Year Chronological Reading Plan is Judges 1:1 - 3:30.

Today we being the study of the Book of Judges. I found several commentaries on these passages. I didn't have time to read them all, but if you're interested you can read Why Study Judges (an introduction), Living with the Enemy (Ch 1-2:5), Say it Again Sam(uel): A Second Introduction to Judges (Ch 2:6-3:4) and Ehud's "Gut Reaction" or No Guts, No Gory (Ch3:5-31).

The book of Judges is the book that covers what happened between the Israelites being led by Moses & Joshua, to having their own king (1 Samuel). The pattern is that the Israelites sinned by worshiping idols, they were punished, then they cried out to God for help and were rescued by a judge sent from God, they obeyed God for awhile until the death of the judge, at which point they quickly fell back into idolatry.

There's a lot going on in these passages, but I'm just going to touch on a couple things.

The people seemed to only be able to follow God in the presence of a strong leader. Shoot, it took them less than 40 days to turn from God when Moses went up on Mount Sinai! This just impacts to me again, what a huge responsibility we have to train our children in the Lord. We need to make sure that we are passing on a legacy of faith.

In the absense of a strong, godly leader, the people faltered. We need to remind our children of the importance of surrounding ourselves with godly people, and we need to practice this ourselves. The Israelites were drawn into idol worship when they began to intermarry with the Canaanites (another great example of the huge dangers of being unequally yoked with unbelievers). It is absolutely ok to form friendships with non-Christians, (indeed, it's necessary in order to be an effective witness for the Lord) but we do then need to be very careful not to accept or adopt their patterns of behaviour or become entangled in ungodly practices.

We need to both maintain fellowship with strong believers in order to hold strong to our beliefs, as well as develop discernment for ourselves so that we will be able to remain strong in the absense of a strong leader. We can't rely on other people to show us the way, we need to study the Word for ourselves too, and we need to measure other people's opinion on the Word of God. But we also need to surround ourselves with godly mentors and friends. Both sides of that equation are necessary.

Back to our text - I think it's fantastic that Caleb's nephew is the first judge of Israel. It makes me wonder though - during the times of Israel's rebellion, were some still faithful to God, but the majority caused the minority to suffer along with them for their idolatry? It seems that Othniel would've remained faithful, though the text does not say whether this is the case. Israel was in captivity for 8 yrs before Othniel delivered the Israelites. I'm so curious about what exactly happened in these families during those times.

I think it's an amazing testament to the character of these men when the Bible says "For the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died." (2:11) and "The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived hin and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel" (2:7).

Wow! I want to be that person. I want to live my life in such a way as to inspire my children and grandchildren to follow the Lord. What a huge challenge, but what an incredible legacy to leave behind!

Tomorrow's passage: Judges 3:31-6:40