Hi James and Ellen,
Judges is a historical document of what took place between 1375 A.D. and 1050 A.D. in the land that God gave the Israelite people guys and gals – who are His specially chosen guys and gals, to always have to live in as their very own land if . . . 1375 A.D. is the year when Joshua died. 1050 A.D. is the year when a Benjamin tribal clan guy – whose name was Saul. was anointed by Samuel to be the first positioned king to rule over the Israelite people group guys and gals. The historian – who may have been Samuel, who documented and edited what took place between 1375 A.D. and 1050 A.D. with the twelve Israelite people group tribal clans, uses his treatise to include vignettes on thirteen guys and one gal who bubbled up as proactive leaders in their tribal clan areas. Even though Joshua had Moses set a bar for him in getting him in a good place to succeed him when he died, Joshua did not plan for succession when it was his turn to die. Because Joshua did not mentor another guy to become when he died his successor as the Israelite people group’s monarchial leader, different tribal clans had guys and a gal – who became known as judges, heroically stepped up as fighters against their oppressive neighboring people groups of guys and gals. The thirteen guys and one gal who were singled out by the guy who scribed the 21 chapters in the Judges Book who demonstrated military prowess as a tribal clan leader were Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Gideon, Deborah, Barak, Abimelech, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon and Samson.
The Judges Book author includes in what he scribed a very frank and unvarnished description of the moral degradation and political decline of the Israelite people group guys and gals during the 325 years between when Joshua died and the inauguration of Saul as God’s first positioned king to reign over His specially chosen guys and gals. Because there was no one Israelite people group guy mutually acknowledged leader in place to replace Joshua when he died, the different Israelite people group tribal clans began to do self-governing. The spiritual compass that Joshua had been able to keep pointed in the direction of the Mosaic Laws that God gave – through Moses, to His specially chosen guys and gals to faithfully obey or else, turned towards syncretism when the Israelite people group guys and gals began to incorporate idol worship into their God mandated, non-negotiable worship mandate. When the Israelite people group guys and gals – who were 3,000 years ago known as Hebrews and who are today known as Jews, began to neglect their seventy year old religious heritage by compromising their God instructed faith walk in only Him by acquiescing to paganistic worship there was being practiced by the neighboring people groups of guys and gals who were living in land areas that surrounded the land area that God gave to His specially chosen guys and gals to always have to live in as their very own land if . . ., unsettledness and turbulence became constant life interrupters during these 325 years of the history of the Israelite people groups guys and gals.
It needs to be noted that even though God did do a number on His specially chosen guys and gals – as He had promised them that He would if . . . , God also promised His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, that He would return them to the land of their heritage – which He has. It needs to be also noted that the Israelites – or the Jews, who call home the same small slip of land that Abraham settled and which God’s specially chosen guys and gals repatriated years later and which still uses the name of Israel today, are still being harassed and killed by oppressive neighboring people groups and/or factions such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Your grandpaa is sensing now that what took place in Israel during this 325 year period of Israel’s existence may be beginning now at the end of the United States’s first 235 years of existence. The spiritual demise and moral decay slippery slope that God’s specially chosen guys and gals found themselves on over 3,000 years ago in the land that God gave them to always have to live in as their very own land if . . . began when they self-centeredly began to diss God by not obediently obeying the tenants of the Ten Commandments that He had to twice write with His finger on stone slates and which He had Moses present to them. The United States founding fathers through what they wrote and by what they signed were very intentional in insuring that their embryonic country would be a place where the one true divine God would be preeminently worshipped. Your grandpaa this past week heard parts of two interviews that talk show hosts were having with Pat Buchanan. Pat Buchanan is promoting a book that he just wrote which he entitled ‘SUICIDE OF A SUPERPOWER: The Suicide of Liberty. A critical piece that Pat Buchanan has identified per what he said in each interview is that up to the ‘60’s, is that God was the one core communality among the Jews, Protestants and Catholics who made up the vast majority of guy, gals and kids who were living in the United States. When a very small minority of the United States populace was able to make corporate speaking with God in a public school environ along with teaching or reading God’s Living Word in a public school setting unlawful and that a God assigned embryo be a disease that can be aborted by his or her ma, your grandpaa believes that these decisions really dissed God. Reading between the lines in the Judges Book, a dissed God will limit His presence among His people.
Judges