The Judges of Israel - Judges 1
Why is the temptation to be an idolator so strong? Israel had a major battle with wanting to worship other gods instead of the one True and Living God. The first commandment that God gave to His people was that they were to have no other gods before Him. The second commandment had to do with idolatry as well. Creating gods according to our own likenesses and desires. Israel is no different than we are today. We all have things in our lives and around us that we love and treasure more than we do God. That is the sin of idolatry.
Now we are entering the book of Judges, which tells about God's faithfulness to Israel, and Israel's unfaithfulness to God. One thing that God instructed the Israelites to do was to drive out the people from the land. The land was full of people who were idolators. They had all kinds of gods they worshiped. They did not worship the one true God. Now Israel would be tempted to follow after the other nations and worship other gods too, if they weren't careful.
As long as the Israelites obeyed God, God blessed them and took care of them. When they disobeyed, and did not listen to God's instruction about destroying the other nations, they would always have the temptation to become idolators. God gave the enemies into their hands when they were faithful to Him. But sadly, they fell away many times, and were seduced into worshiping the Canaanite gods.
There was a cycle that was repeated throughout the book of Judges. The Israelites would go after other gods, and forsake the True and Living God, then God would punish them. They would become oppressed by their enemies, then they would cry out to the Lord and repent to Him. God heard the cry of His people and would again deliver them. He sent a judge to set them free. Once the people were delivered, they went right back into idolatry again, and God would give them over to their enemies once again. And the cycle continued.
The major judges were Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, and Samson. They were used by God to free the people from enemy oppression.
The time period of the Judges was around 1389-1050 B.C.
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