Judges: a downward trend commences

The Gutenberg Bible at the Ransom Center

Volume 1, Old Testament, Book of Judges, pages 114 verso and 115 recto

Kathee and I have (generally) been reading 2 chapters a day of the Scriptures. I say generally because we do follow this routine on Sunday nights (when we are in Church) and then there are some other nights that it does not work out for us (eg. I worked last Saturday afternoon and evening, tomorrow night I have a Metro Womens Center board meeting).

We find it valuable to not pick and choose books or chapters, but just read it right through. Some books are more difficult than others (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are difficult books in my opinion). But the Scripture is true when it states "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

After we finished Revelation we turned back to the beginning and restarted with Genesis. Both Kathee and I have NASB versions for personal study. I have the NASB MacArthur Study Bible that has helpful book introductions & outlines, charts, maps, and notes. (By my chair I also have a KJV, Greek interlinear, and old NASB (Ryrie study Bible), and the New King James version. I'm prepared!).

Our routine works as follows: We have dinner, Kathee makes coffee, Blue our cat comes beside Kathee on the couch for loving, and we read the Scriptures over coffee followed by prayer. Our routine takes about 15 minutes. It seems right and it works for us.

So we started back with Genesis and and just finished Joshua. The first six books of the Bible are relatively easy reading (you do have some difficult place and personage names which when reading aloud are easy to stumble over!).

Tonight we started Judges and read the first two chapters. I observed to Kathee that it seems that everything begins to go downhill for Israel beginning with Judges.

Examples:

Judges 2:1,4 "Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: “I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you. And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.’” So it was, when the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.

Note the above bolded text, "but you have not obeyed My voice". That is where Israel's downward trend commenced.

Here is a key phrase in Judges: "everyone did what was right in his own eyes"

Found here:

Judges 17:6, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

Judges 21:25, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

Not to sermonize, but it is incumbent for the disciple of Christ to endevor to obey Him as Lord! One will never do this perfectly (trust me if you knew all the details of my life you would know how imperfectly I follow Him!). But nevertheless one ought to "walk to please God" (I Thessalonians 4:1).

God has not promised health or wealth but He has promised to be with His children, to give them joy, and to bless them. The degree of one's joy and the experience of God's blessing is a function of how closely one walks with Christ.

I think that this is one of the important lessons from Judges. We are not to live a life that is "right in [our] own eyes". We are to live lives that are submissive to the revealed will of God (the Scriptures) asking the question "how [might I] please the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:32)