Judges tells the story of Israel between the death of Joshua and the beginning of the monarchy.
The people enter the promised land, but do not completely drive out the peoples already living there. Little by little, they learn the customs of their neighbors and forget the God who delivered them from Egypt.
A pattern repeats throughout the entire book. Israel turns away from the LORD, suffers oppression from an enemy, cries out for help, and receives a deliverer. After a time of peace, it all begins again.
These deliverers are called judges. Among them are a prophetess, a left-handed man, a fearful farmer, and even the son of a woman rejected by her own family.
Gideon, for example, is called while hiding from the enemy, full of doubts. Even so, God uses him to deliver the people with a handful of men, showing that victory comes from him, not from human strength.
Samson is perhaps the best known judge. He received supernatural strength from birth, but let his own passions draw him away from God, until he lost everything he had.
Despite human failures, God remains faithful. He hears the cry of his people again and again and raises up whoever is needed to save them. The last chapters, however, show the result of a nation without an authority faithful to God: idolatry, violence, and war among its own tribes.
The closing line sums it all up: there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
Judges is an honest mirror of what happens when a people gradually forget God. It is also a reminder of divine patience, which never gives up acting on behalf of his children. Read this book and discover how God’s grace appears even in the darkest moments in the history of his people.