Judges

● The Israelites now have Canaan. Joshua died, assigning them to do

the following – continue serving God, finsih conquering the land and
get rid of all the idol-worshipping Canaanites. Instead they live with
the Canaanites and more and more of the Israelites began to believe
the same things that the Canaanites did. God punished them by
sending invaders. Israel suffers for a while, but the people ask God for
deliverance. God then sends a leader (a Judge) who saves the people.

● Idol Worship (2:6-23) – The people of Israel did not pass along the
word of God to their kids like they were supposed to. The parents
begin to worship the idols, and God becomes enraged. He allows
others to raid Israel and steal their crops. When they can't take it
anymore, the Israelites turn to God. He answers them by sending
them a leader to resue them. As long as that leader is around, things
go well. Later on the Israelites become even more sinful.

● The Battle of Mount Tabor (4:1-24) – A hostile king harrasses the

people of Northern Israel for 25 years. The people ask God to help. He
sends Deborah a prophet and judge to help. She tells the people to
put together an army. The enemy has 900 chariots, built by
professionals. Israel's military is untrained and called to defend
themselves without chariots and without weapons. They gather at
Mount Tabor. Rain pours from the sky which casues the valley to
become a huge mud pubble and traps the iron wheels of the chariots.
The enemies run from the chariots and for their lives, but none of
them make it out.

● Gideon's Rout (7:1-25) – This cycle continues and the people of Israel
return to their sinful ways. At harvesttime each year, God then allows
desert raiders on camels to invade Israel as punishment. When the
people again ask for God's help, he calls on Gideon who whines, “How
can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest one in Manasseh, and
everyone else in my family is more important than I am”. Gideon ends
up raising an army of 32,000. God then downsizes the forces to only
300. Gideon's men surround the enemy camp with torches hidden
inside a clay jar. The tens of thousands of invaders see the jars
smashed and the torches rasied and they turn for home and run.

● Fatal Attraction (16:4-31) – Samson wasn't like the other judges. He

was a one man army and he hated the Philistines with a passion for
killing his new birde and burning her body. He settles for revenge by
burning their crops and slaughtering a thousand of their soldiers by
 using nothing but the jawbone of a donkey. His strength was
incredible because it was given by God. He had a vow to never cut his
hair. When he fell in love with Delilah, the Philistines offered her 30
pounds of silver to find out what could make him weak. After she fails
two times, she succeeds. She wove his hair into seven braids and
when he fell asleep she clipped his hair. She then calls in the
Philistines who were waiting. They rush in, capture him and gouge out
his eyes then put him to work at a grinding mill. Samson's hair grew
back by the time they were going to parade him around as a a war
trophy. Samson prayed for strength again and he breaks two pillars.
The roof collapses and that kills at least 3,000 Philistines. Samson
dies with them and he is the last of the 12 judges.

● Dark Days - The days towards the end of Judges for the Israelites
couldn't be any worse. And the book ends with this sad quote, “In
those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in
his own eyes”.