This is the first time I am reading through the book of Judges. I haven’t finished the book yet and am at Judges 12 today. Based on what I have read so far, the book of Judges records the events that take place after Joshua’s death.
In order to understand the context of the book of Judges, let’s back track on the books before:
• Book of Exodus: Moses was appointed by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt
• Book of Leviticus: The Israelites have left Egypt, no longer slaves and got to the Sinai wilderness. God gives detailed instructions through Moses on how the Israelites are supposed to live with God.
• Book of Numbers: Israelites continues journeying in the wilderness towards the Promised Land under Moses’ leadership. According to Deuteronomy 1:2, later revealed, the Promised Land was only an 11 day journey but due to the people of Israel’s disobedience to & lack of trust in God resulted in their wandering in the wilderness for 40 years until the unbelieving generation passed away.
• Book of Deuteronomy: The unbelieving generation has passed, and the new generation of Israelites along with Moses are outside and about to cross into the Promised Land. The Book of Deuteronomy starts with Moses’ farewell speech to the Israelites, which is like his reflection of the lessons learned during the journey in the wilderness, the appointing of Moses’ successor – Joshua. The book ends with the death of Moses.
• Book of Joshua: Records the events that happened after Moses death under the leadership of Joshua.
And with that, here we are now at the book of Judges. Unlike Moses, God did not appoint a successor after Joshua.
I think the reason is because God wanted to move His people into a direct relationship with Him. Each tribe had its land and was supposed to inquire of the Lord, obey His law, and trust Him directly.
I came to this conclusion because:
• Joshua kept pointing the people towards God before he died. He kept reminding them what God did since Egypt, and kept repeating in Joshua 24 to not serve other gods.
• later in Judges 8:23, when Gideon won the war for the Israelites, they wanted to make him rule over them and Gideon said that neither he nor his sons will rule over them – the Lord will rule over them.
By Judges 1, the Israelites have entered the promised land but they have not fully taken possession of it.
Joshua had led many military victories, like Jericho and Ai.
However, not all of Canaan (the Promised Land) was conquered. There were still pockets of resistance, strongholds, and inhabited cities not yet driven out.
This is an excellent introduction and context to the book of Judges. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The layout on the blog post was easy to follow! You explained things in simple terms which is wonderful for me. Can’t wait to read more!