Judges 1:1-2:5
Dear RTB’ers,
Today we go back to the Old Testament, to the book of Judges. Joshua is the book immediately preceding Judges in the Bible. It’s been a while, almost nine months (August 2024) since we read Joshua in our RTB reading schedule. It was inserted by the STS authors halfway through Exodus, and we’ve since finished Exodus and read the rest of the Pentateuch (Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), as well as nine more New Testament books. So we’ve covered a lot of ground in the interim.
To get a feel for the book of Judges we need to review a bit from Joshua. Your Study Bibles (if you have one) provides a good introduction to Joshua. Alternatively our STS intro to Joshua provides a bare-bones look at the content – see pages 78-79 for their quick “analysis” of the book, then go through the questions in the next few pages to help you remember what we covered back then. In a nutshell we saw Joshua leading the Israelites as they crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, then did battle with the inhabitants to secure the land (see especially Joshua 10-11). They divided the land into territories for all twelve tribes, established cities of refuge on both sides of the Jordan River, and settled into their inheritance. A good closing for the book of Joshua is given in Joshua 24:31, Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the LORD did for Israel. That takes us to Judges.
So what do we read today? Good news, then bad news, then the beginning of the Lord’s judgment for Israel’s failure to trust Him. Judah and Simeon bring the good news, taking almost all of their inheritance and re-introducing us to Caleb, that “faithful spy” (along with Joshua) from Numbers 13. Then we see the beginning of the bad news, But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem… (Judges 1:21) This verse is followed by a number of other “…did not drive out…” verses covering Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali. Finally, there is one more “…drive them out…” verse, in the next chapter from the angel of the Lord speaking: So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides… (v. 2:3a) So that’s where we are today, their ever-faithful Lord telling them that they’ve got work to do! These words provide the context for the rest of the book of Judges. Happy reading!
Blessings!