Judges, Chapters 1-11
• “They found Adonibezek there and fought him.
He ran away, but they chased him, caught him,
and cut off his thumbs and big toes. [He] said,
‘Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes
cut off have picked up scraps under my table.
God has now done to me what I did to them.’
He was taken to Jerusalem, where he died.”
(Judges 1:5-7 – GN)
• “He took his concubine’s body, cut it into twelve
pieces, and sent one piece to each of the twelve
tribes of Israel.” (Judges 19:29 – GN)
• “The LORD’s servant Joshua son of Nun died at
the age of a hundred and ten...That whole
generation also died, and the next generation
forgot the LORD and what he had done for
Israel.” (Judges 2:8-10 – GN)
• “Whenever the LORD gave Israel a leader, the
LORD would help that leader and would save the
people from their enemies as long as that leader
lived. The LORD would have mercy on them
because they groaned under their suffering and
oppression. But when the leader died, the
people would return to the old ways and behave
worse than the previous generation. They would
serve and worship other gods, and stubbornly
continue their own evil ways. Then the LORD
would become angry with Israel and say,
• ‘This nation has broken the covenant that I
commanded their ancestors to keep. Because
they have not obeyed me, I will no longer drive
out any of the nations that were still in the land
when Joshua died. I will use them to find out
whether or not these Israelites will follow my
ways, as their ancestors did.’ So the LORD
allowed these nations to remain in the land; he
did not give Joshua victory over them, nor did
he drive them out soon after Joshua’s death.”
(Judges 2:18-23)
• “And so the people of Israel settled down
among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the
Jebusites. They intermarried with them and
worshiped their gods.” (Judges 3:5,6 – GN)
 “The people of Israel sinned against the LORD again.
Because of this the LORD made King Eglon of Moab
stronger than Israel. Eglon joined the Ammonites
and the Amalekites; they defeated Israel and
captured Jericho, the city of palm trees. The
Israelites were subject to Eglon for eighteen years.
Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he
sent someone to free them. This was Ehud, a lefthanded man...The people of Israel sent Ehud to King
Eglon of Moab with gifts for him. Ehud had made
himself a double-edged sword about a foot and a
half long. He had it fastened on his right side under
his clothes. Then he took the gifts to Eglon, who
was a very fat man. (Judges 3:15-17 – GN)
• With his left hand Ehud took the sword from
his right side and plunged it into the king’s
belly. The whole sword went in, handle and
all, and the fat covered it up. Ehud did not pull
it out of the king’s belly, and it stuck out
behind, between his legs.” (Judges 3:21-22 –
GN)
 “…Sisera, running for his life, headed for the tent of
Jael, wife of Heber…Jael stepped out to meet Sisera
and said, ‘Come in, sir. Stay here with me. Don’t be
afraid.’ So he went with her into her tent. She
covered him with a blanket. He said to her, ‘Please, a
little water. I’m thirsty.’ She opened a bottle of milk,
gave him a drink, and then covered him up again. He
then said, ‘Stand at the tent flap. If anyone comes by
and asks you, Is there anyone here? tell him, No, not
a soul.’ Then while he was fast asleep from
exhaustion, Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg and
hammer, tiptoed toward him, and drove the tent
peg through his temple and all the way into the
ground. He convulsed and died.” (Judges 4:17-21)
The Song of Deborah
“Lord, may your friends shine like the rising sun.”
- Judges 5:31
 “So may all your enemies die like that,
O LORD, but may your friends shine like
the rising sun!’ And there was peace in
the land for forty years” (Judges 5:31 –
GN)
“Lord, may all your enemies die with a tent peg driven
through their temple. But, may your friends shine like
the rising sun.”
- Judges 5:31
 “Break the teeth of these fierce lions, O God.
May they disappear like water draining away;
may they be crushed like weeds on a path. May
they be like snails that dissolve into slime; may
they be like a baby born dead that never sees
the light. Before they know it, they are cut
down like weeds; in his fierce anger God will
blow them away while they are still living. The
righteous will be glad when they see sinners
punished; they will wade through the blood of
the wicked.” (Psalms 58:6-10 – GN)
• “Happy are those who pay you back for what
you have done to us---who take your babies
and smash them against a rock.” (Psalm
137:8,9 – GN)
• “I approve of the theology in this Psalm.” God
• “LORD, if I argued my case with you, you would prove to
be right. Yet I must question you about matters of justice.
Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why do dishonest
people succeed? You plant them, and they take root; they
grow and bear fruit. They always speak well of you, yet
they do not really care about you. But, LORD, you know
me; you see what I do and how I love you. Drag these evil
people away like sheep to be butchered; guard them until
it is time for them to be slaughtered…
• The LORD said, ‘Jeremiah, if you get tired racing against
people, how can you race against horses? If you can't
even stand up in open country, how will you manage in
the jungle by the Jordan?’” (Jeremiah 12:1-3,5 – GNB)
• “Then I said, ‘Lord, you understand. Remember
me and help me. Let me have revenge on those
who persecute me. Do not be so patient with
them that they succeed in killing me…I did not
spend my time with other people, laughing and
having a good time. In obedience to your orders I
stayed by myself and was filled with anger. Why
do I keep on suffering? Why are my wounds
incurable? Why won’t they heal? Do you intend
to disappoint me like a stream that goes dry in
the summer?” (Jeremiah 15:15-18 – GNB).
• “To this the Lord replied, ‘If you return, I will
take you back, and you will be my servant
again. If instead of talking nonsense you
proclaim a worthwhile message, you will be
my prophet again” (Jeremiah 15:19 – GNB).
Gideon
“Once again the people of Israel sinned against
the LORD, so he let the people of Midian rule
them for seven years. The Midianites were
stronger than Israel, and the people of Israel his
from them in caves and other safe places in the
hills” (Judges 6:1,2 – GN)
“Then the LORD’s angel came to the village of
Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that
belonged to Joash…His son Gideon was
threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press,
so that the Midianites would not see him. The
LORD’s angel appeared to him there and said,
‘The LORD is with you, brave and mighty man!’
• Gideon said to him, ‘If I may ask, sir, why has
all this happened to us if the LORD is with us?
What happened to all the wonderful things
that our fathers told us the LORD used to do--how he brought them out of Egypt? The LORD
has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of
the Midianites.’
– “Then the LORD ordered him, ‘Go with all your great
strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself
am sending you.’ Gideon replied, ‘But Lord, how can I
rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of
Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my
family.’
– The LORD answered, ‘You can do it because I will help
you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they
were only one man.’ Gideon replied, ‘If you are pleased
with me, give me some proof that you are really the
LORD. Please do not leave until I bring you an offering of
food.’
– He said, ‘I will stay until you come back.’ (Judges 6:11-18
– GN)
 “So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat
and used a bushel of flour to make bread without any
yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot,
brought them to the LORD’s angel under the oak tree,
and gave them to him. The angel told him, ‘Put the meat
and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over
them.’ Gideon did so. Then the LORD’s angel reached out
and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the
stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and
burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel
disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the Angel
of the LORD, he cried out, ‘Oh, Sovereign LORD, I’m
doomed! I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face!’
‘It is all right,’ the LORD replied. ‘Do not be afraid. You
will not die.’” (Judges 6:19-23)
• “Then Gideon said to God, ‘You say that you
have decided to use me to rescue Israel. Well, I
am putting some wool on the ground where we
thresh the wheat. If in the morning there is dew
only on the wool but not on the ground, then I
will know that you are going to use me to rescue
Israel.’
• That is exactly what happened. When Gideon
got up early the next morning, he squeezed
the wool and wrung enough dew out of it to
fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to
God, ‘Don’t be angry with me; let me speak
just once more. Please let me make one more
test with the wool. This time let the wool be
dry, and the ground be wet.’
• That night God did that very thing. The next
morning the wool was dry, but the ground was
wet with dew.” (Judges 6:36-40 – GN)
• “It was by faith that Abraham…
• “Should I go on? There isn't enough time for me
to speak of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
David, Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith
they fought whole countries and won. They did
what was right and received what God had
promised.” (Hebrews 11:32,33)
• “While Gideon’s men were blowing their
trumpets, the LORD made the enemy troops
attack each other with their swords” (Judges 7:22
– GN)
• “Gideon made an idol from the gold and put it in
his hometown, Ophrah. All the Israelites
abandoned God and went there to worship the
idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.”
(Judges 8:27 – GN)
• “He had seventy sons born to him, for he had
many wives. He also had a concubine in
Shechem, who gave birth to a son, whom he
named Abimelech.” (Judges 8:30-31 – GN)
• “After Gideon’s death the people of Israel were
unfaithful to God again and worshiped the Baals.
They made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god, and no
longer served the LORD their God, who had saved
them from all their enemies around them” (Judges
8:33 – GN)
• Gideon’s son Abimelech – The men of Shechem
“gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple
of Baal-of-the-Covenant, and with this money he
hired a bunch of worthless scoundrels to join him.
He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and there
on top of a single stone he killed his seventy
brothers, Gideon’s sons.” (Judges 9:4,5 – GN)
• “Then Abimelech went to Thebez, surrounded that
city, and captured it. There was a strong tower
there, and every man and woman in the city,
including the leaders, ran to it. They locked
themselves in and went up to the roof. When
Abimelech came to attack the tower, he went up
to the door to set the tower on fire. But a woman
threw a millstone down on his head and fractured
his skull. Then he quickly called the young man
who was carrying his weapons and told him, ‘Draw
your sword and kill me. I don't want it said that a
woman killed me.’ So the young man ran him
through, and he died.” (Judges 9:50-54)
“Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight.
They worshiped images of Baal and Ashtoreth...
Not only this, but they abandoned the Lord and
no longer served him at all. So the Lord burned
with anger against Israel, and he handed them
over to the Philistines and the Ammonites, who
began to oppress them that year. For eighteen
years they oppressed all the Israelites…The
Israelites were in great distress. Finally, they
cried out to the Lord, saying, ‘We have sinned
against you because we have abandoned you as
our God and have served the images of Baal.’
The Lord replied, ‘Did I not rescue you from the
Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the
Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and
the Maonites? When they oppressed you, you
cried out to me, and I rescued you. Yet you
have abandoned me and served other gods. So
I will not rescue you anymore. Go and cry out
to the gods you have chosen! Let them rescue
you in your hour of distress!’
But the Israelites pleaded with the Lord and said,
‘We have sinned. Punish us as you see fit, only
rescue us today from our enemies.’ Then the
Israelites put aside their foreign gods and
served the Lord. And he was grieved by their
misery” (Judges 10:6-16 – NLT)
Jephthah
• “Jephthah, a brave soldier from Gilead, was the son of
a prostitute…” (Judges 11:1 – GN)
• “Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land
of Tob. There he attracted a group of worthless men,
and they went around with him.” (Judges 11:3)
• “Jephthah promised the LORD: ‘If you will give me
victory over the Ammonites, I will burn as an offering
the first person that comes out of my house to meet
me, when I come back from the victory. I will offer
that person to you as a sacrifice.’ So Jephthah crossed
the river to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave
him victory.” (Judges 11:30-32)
• “When Jephthah went back home to Mizpah,
there was his daughter coming out to meet him,
dancing and playing the tambourine. She was his
only child. When he saw her, he tore his clothes
in sorrow and said, ‘Oh, my daughter! You are
breaking my heart! Why must it be you that
causes me pain? I have made a solemn promise
to the LORD, and I cannot take it back!’ She told
him, ‘If you have made a promise to the LORD,
do what you said you would do to me, since the
LORD has given you revenge on your enemies,
the Ammonites.” (Judges 11:34-36)
• “But she asked her father, ‘Do this one thing for me.
Leave me alone for two months, so that I can go
with my friends to wander in the mountains and
grieve that I must die a virgin.’ He told her to go and
sent her away for two months. She and her friends
went up into the mountains and grieved because
she was going to die unmarried and childless. After
two months she came back to her father. He did
what he had promised the LORD, and she died still a
virgin. This was the origin of the custom in Israel that
the Israelite women would go out for four days
every year to grieve for the daughter of Jephthah of
Gilead.” (Judges 11:37-40)
 “Should I go on? There isn't enough time for me to
speak of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David,
Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith they
fought whole countries and won. They did what
was right and received what God had promised.”
(Hebrews 11:32-33 – GN)
• “Given the state of morality that is evident in
Judges…God had almost nothing positive to work
with as he looked at his people…[In Jephthah’s]
attitude toward oaths we have a glimmer of
integrity, a slender thread out of which God could
begin to weave a garment of righteousness and
justice. God had to begin with the raw materials
that were ready at hand…In the work of character
development, one can at least begin to work with a
person who stands for something, even though he
may be too rigorous and may even be standing for
the wrong thing.” – Alden Thompson
Samson
• Why would God choose to bless someone with this gift?
Why not create Samson as “the kindest person ever”?
– R-E-S-P-E-C-T
– Each nation had a ‘god’ who ruled in his territory
– Yahweh was the God of Israel
– Chemosh was the ‘god’ of Moab
– “When the king of Moab realized that he was losing
the battle, he took seven hundred swordsmen with
him and tried to force his way through the enemy
lines and escape to the king of Syria, but he failed. So
he took his oldest son, who was to succeed him as
king, and offered him on the city wall as a sacrifice to
the god of Moab. The Israelites were terrified and so
they drew back from the city and returned to their
own country” (2 Kings 3:26,27 – GN).
• “Then Samson prayed, ‘Sovereign LORD, please
remember me; please, God, give me my strength just
this one time more, so that….
• …with this one blow I can get even with the
Philistines for putting out my two eyes” (Judges
16:28 – GN)
• Hebrews 11
• Anyone else blessed with remarkable talents that
blew it?
The Levite and his concubine
• “…he and his concubine started on their way, with their
servant and two donkeys with pack saddles. It was late in the
day when they came near Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), so the
servant said to his master, ‘Why don't we stop and spend the
night here in this Jebusite city?’ But his master said, ‘We're
not going to stop in a city where the people are not Israelites.
We’ll pass on by and go a little farther and spend the night at
Gibeah or Ramah.’ So they passed by Jebus and continued on
their way. It was sunset when they came to Gibeah in the
territory of the tribe of Benjamin. They turned off the road to
go and spend the night there. They went into town and sat
down in the city square, but no one offered to take them
home for the night.”
• “While they were there, an old man came by at the end of a
day's work on the farm. He was originally from the hill country
of Ephraim, but he was now living in Gibeah. (The other people
there were from the tribe of Benjamin.) The old man noticed
the traveler in the city square and asked him, ‘Where do you
come from? Where are you going?’ The Levite answered, ‘We
have been in Bethlehem in Judah, and now we are on our way
home deep in the hill country of Ephraim. No one will put us up
for the night, even though we have fodder and straw for our
donkeys, as well as bread and wine for my concubine and me
and for my servant. We have everything we need.’ The old man
said, ‘You are welcome in my home! I’ll take care of you; you
don't have to spend the night in the square.’ So he took them
home with him and fed their donkeys. His guests washed their
feet and had a meal.”
 “They were enjoying themselves when all of a sudden
some sexual perverts from the town surrounded the
house and started beating on the door. They said to the
old man, ‘Bring out that man that came home with you!
We want to have sex with him!’ But the old man went
outside and said to them, ‘No, my friends! Please! Don’t
do such an evil, immoral thing! This man is my guest.
Look! Here is his concubine and my own virgin daughter.
I’ll bring them out now, and you can have them. Do
whatever you want to with them. But don’t do such an
awful thing to this man!’ But the men would not listen to
him. So the Levite took his concubine and put her
outside with them. They raped her and abused her all
night long and didn’t stop until morning.
• “At dawn the woman came and fell down at the door of the old
man’s house, where her husband was. She was still there when
daylight came. Her husband got up that morning, and when he
opened the door to go on his way, he found his concubine lying
in front of the house with her hands reaching for the door. He
said, ‘Get up. Let’s go.’ But there was no answer. So he put her
body across the donkey and started on his way home. When he
arrived, he went in the house and got a knife. He took his
concubine’s body, cut it into twelve pieces, and sent one piece to
each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Everyone who saw it said, ‘We
have never heard of such a thing! Nothing like this has ever
happened since the Israelites left Egypt! We have to do
something about this! What will it be?’” (Judges 19:10-30 – GN)
• How could God allow this to happen?
• What does this story say about God?
• Why is this story even in the Bible?
• “You got your start in sin at Gibeah— that ancient, unspeakable,
shocking sin— And you’ve been at it ever since.” (Hosea 10:9 – The
Message)
• “When Israel was only a child, I loved him. I called out, ‘My son!’—
called him out of Egypt. But when others called him, he ran off and left
me. He worshiped the popular sex gods, he played at religion with toy
gods. Still, I stuck with him. I led Ephraim. I rescued him from human
bondage, But he never acknowledged my help, never admitted that I
was the one pulling his wagon, That I lifted him, like a baby, to my
cheek, that I bent down to feed him. Now he wants to go back to
Egypt or go over to Assyria—anything but return to me! That’s why his
cities are unsafe—the murder rate skyrockets and every plan to
improve things falls to pieces. My people are hell-bent on leaving me.
They pray to god Baal for help. He doesn’t lift a finger to help them.
But how can I give up on you, Ephraim? How can I turn you loose,
Israel? How can I leave you to be ruined like Admah, devastated like
luckless Zeboim? I can’t bear to even think such thoughts. My insides
churn in protest. And so I’m not going to act on my anger. I’m not
going to destroy Ephraim. And why? Because I am God and not a
human. I’m The Holy One and I’m here—in your very midst.” (Hosea
11:1-10 – The Message)
• How did God feel?
– “My insides churn in protest”
• What did God do?
– “Still I stuck with him”
– Which 2 tribes were left in Jesus’ day?
– Judah, Benjamin
• The Bible: an inspired textbook of horrible disease and
the wonderful healing remedy
Judges - Summary
• “There was no king in Israel at that time.
Everyone did whatever they pleased” (Judges
21:25 – GN)
Where is God’s Justice?
• “We will bring the terrorists to justice.”
(George Bush)
• “While the Cross was a violent episode, we are
not witnessing God’s violence…Good Friday
was not the outpouring of God’s violence
upon Christ to assuage his own wrath. That
day was God’s ‘No!’ to wrath and ‘Yes!’ to love
and forgiveness in the face of our violence and
wrath.” (Stricken by God?)
God’s justice
• Biblically, to "bring justice" does not mean to bring
punishment, but to bring healing and reconciliation
• Justice means to make things right
• Justice is an expression of mercy
• “Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I
see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to
do right. See that justice is done---help those
who are oppressed, give orphans their rights,
and defend widows.” (Isaiah 1:16-17 – GN)
• “This is what the LORD of Armies says:
Administer real justice, and be compassionate
and kind to each other.” (Zechariah 7:9 – God’s
Word)
• “This is what the LORD says: Judge fairly every
morning. Rescue those who have been robbed
from those who oppress them.” (Jeremiah
21:12 – GN)
• “The LORD is waiting to be kind to you. He
rises to have compassion on you. The LORD is
a God of justice.” (Isaiah 30:18 – God’s Word)
 Hebrew: ‫(צדקה‬t'sedeka) – synonymous with acts of
charity and bring healing and reconciliation. To make
right. (righteousness and justice) “loving restoration”
 Today Jewish charities are often named t'sedeka which
has become synonymous with charity.
 “The gist of Tsedaka is charity, the giving of your time or
money to help someone else, without expecting something
in return. It is one of the cornerstones of the Jewish
religions.”
 Greek: Dikaiosunē (the LXX) – same meaning
 Latin: iustitio
 Quid-pro-quo payback justice, retributive justice, legal
justice, appropriate punishment
• “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the
one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my
Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice
(“loving restoration”) to the nations. He will
not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his
voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not
break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff
out, till he leads justice (“loving restoration”)
to victory.” (Matthew 12:18-20 – NIV)
 "But now a dikaiosunē (loving restoration) from God, apart
from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the
Prophets testify . This dikaiosunē (loving restoration) from
God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, and are dikaioō (set right) freely by his grace
through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God
presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, taking away sin
through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his
dikaiosunē (loving restoration), because in his forbearance
he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he
did it to demonstrate his dikaiosunē (loving restoration) at
the present time, so as to be dikaios(righteously loving) and
the one who dikaioō (lovingly sets right) those who have
faith in Jesus.”
Ruth





Famine in Israel
Naomi, her husband and 2 sons go to Moab
Naomi’s husband and 2 sons die
She plans to return to Judah
“Again they started crying. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law
good-bye and went back home, but Ruth held on to her. So
Naomi said to her, ‘Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her
people and to her god. Go back home with her.’ But Ruth
answered, ‘Don't ask me to leave you! Let me go with you.
Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your
people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
Wherever you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried.
May the LORD's worst punishment come upon me if I let
anything but death separate me from you!’ When Naomi saw
that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing
more.” (Ruth 1:14-18 – GN)
Ruth
• On what evidence did Ruth have this trust in
the God of the Jews?
– “Don’t call me Naomi,’ she answered; ‘call me
Marah, because Almighty God has made my life
bitter. When I left here, I had plenty, but the LORD
has brought me back without a thing. Why call me
Naomi when the LORD Almighty has condemned
me and sent me trouble?’” (Ruth 1:20-21 – GN)
• Ruth trusted in the God of the Hebrews
• How would God reward her?
Ruth
• “Boaz answered, ‘I have heard about
everything that you have done for your
mother-in-law since your husband died. I
know how you left your father and mother
and your own country and how you came to
live among a people you had never known
before. May the LORD reward you for what
you have done. May you have a full reward
from the LORD God of Israel, to whom you
have come for protection!’” (Ruth 2:11,12 –
GN)
Ruth
• “So Boaz took Ruth home as his wife. The LORD blessed her,
and she became pregnant and had a son. The women said to
Naomi, ‘Praise the LORD! He has given you a grandson today
to take care of you. May the boy become famous in Israel!’”
(Ruth 4:13,14 – GN)
• “The women of the neighborhood named the boy Obed.
They told everyone, ‘A son has been born to Naomi!’ Obed
became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David. This
is the family line from Perez to David: Perez, Hezron, Ram,
Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David.”
(Ruth 4:17-22 – GN)
• God honors a Moabite woman by her by making her a
descendant of king David and ultimately the Messiah
• God dedicates a book in the Bible to a Moabite woman