Judges

Date Written: 1400-1000 B.C.

Author: It is thought to be Samuel, but isn’t known for certain.

Setting: This book takes place in the land of Canaan, later called Israel. God had helped the Israelites conquer Canaan, which had been inhabited by a host of wicked nations. But they were in danger of losing this promised land because they compromised their convictions & disobeyed God.

Key People: Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech, Jephthah, Samson, Delilah

Purpose: To show that God’s judgment against sin is certain & His forgiveness of sin & restoration to relationship are just as certain for those who repent.

Key Verses: In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. 17:6

Chapter Outline:

1-3:6 The military failure of Israel

3:7-16 The rescue of Israel by the judges

17-21 The moral failure of Israel

Importance of reading Judges:

• What we read: Whenever a judge died, the people faced decline & failure because they compromised their high spiritual purpose in many ways. They abandoned their mission to drive all the people out of the land & they adopted the customs of the people living around them. What we can learn: The world has many rewards to offer those who compromise their faith such as wealth, acceptance, recognition, power & influence. When God tells us what to do, we must obey it completely. Incomplete removal of evil often means disaster in the end.  
• What we read: Repeatedly we see the nation of Israel sinning against God & God allowing suffering to come upon the land & the people. What we can learn: Sin always has its consequences. Where there is sin we can expect suffering to follow. Rather than living in an endless cycle of abandoning God & then crying out to Him for rescue, we should seek to live a consistent life of faithfulness.
• What we read: Despite the efforts of Israel’s judges, the people still wouldn’t turn wholeheartedly to God. They all did whatever they thought was best for themselves. The result was the spiritual, moral & political decline of the nation. What we can learn: We will also experience decay if we try to do things our way instead of God’s way.
• What we read: God used evil oppressors to punish the Israelites for their sin, to bring them to the point of repentance & to test their allegiance to Him. What we can learn: Rebellion against God leads to disaster. God may use defeat to bring wandering hearts back to Him.
• What we read: Decline, decay & defeat caused the people to cry out to God for help. They vowed to turn from idolatry & to turn to God for mercy & deliverance. When they repented, God delivered them. What we can learn: Idolatry gains a foothold in our hearts when we make anything more important than God. We must identify modern idols in our hearts, renounce them & turn to God for His love & mercy.
• What we read: Because Israel repented, God raised up heroes to deliver His people from their path of sin & the oppression it brought. He used many kinds of people to accomplish this purpose by filling them with His Holy Spirit. What we can learn: God’s Holy Spirit is available to all people. Anyone who is dedicated to God can be used for His service. We have to realize that we can do nothing in our power, but that we need God’s guidance & power.
• What we read: Gideon was very fearful to go into battle. He put meat on an altar & fire from heaven burned it up. The he asked God for a sign from heaven as if the fire wasn’t enough. God graciously provided another sign through a fleece that was dry on day & wet the next. Gideon had to lean that it is by God’s strength & strategy that battles are won. What we can learn: We may not fight battles against me with swords like Gideon faced, but we are in battle against an enemy shooting fiery darts at us. We can’t win this battle in our own strength. We need God to fight this battle against the demonic forces that come against us. 

Things to think about as you read Judges:

• What have you learned from Judges about carefully listening to & obeying the command of the Lord? What have you seen about the consequences of doing what is right in your own eyes? What parallels do you see between the sins committed in chapters 17-21 & today? What does this tell you?
• What happens if a church decides to do what is right in their own eyes?
• Think about why the cycle of sin wasn’t broken in the days of the judges. Are you caught in a cycle of sin in your own life? What will it take to break it?
• What have you learned by studying the lives of the judges? What lessons can you apply to your own life?

Ruth

Date Written: Sometime after the period of the judges 1375-1050 B.C.

Author: Unknown. Some think it was Samuel, because the writing style in 1Samuel is identical in language to the book of Judges & Ruth. Also, it was his style to teach from the history of his people. 

Setting: A dark time in Israel’s history when people lived to please themselves & not God.

Purpose: To show how 3 people remained strong in character & true to God even when the society around them was collapsing. It shows us the kind of faithfulness, godliness, loyalty & love that God desires for us.

Key Verses: But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go & where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people & your God my God.’ 1:16

Chapter Outline:

1 Ruth remains loyal to Naomi

2 Ruth meets Boaz

3 Ruth follows Noami’s plan

4 Ruth & Boaz are married

Importance of reading Ruth:

• What we read: Ruth is faced with a choice. Go back to her country, Moab, or go with Naomi. But not only did she choose to stay with Naomi, she chose her people &  her God.   She made the right choice. What we can learn: This is a reminder of how so much can hang onto one decision.
• What we read: When we first meet Ruth, she is a destitute widow. We follow her as she joins God’s people, gleans in the grainfields & risks her honor at the threshing floor of Boaz. In the end, we see Ruth becoming the wife of Boaz. What we can learn: This is a picture of how we come to faith in Jesus. We begin with no hope & are rebellious aliens with no part in the kingdom of God. Then as we risk everything by putting our faith in Christ, God saves us, forgives us, rebuilds our lives & gives us blessings that will last through eternity. Boaz’s redeeming of Ruth is a picture of Christ redeeming us.
• What we read: Faithfulness – Ruth’s faithfulness to Naomi as a daughter-in-law & friend showed her love & loyalty. Ruth, Naomi & Boaz were faithful to God & His laws. Throughout the story we see God’s faithfulness to His people. What we can learn: Our life should be guided by faithfulness toward God. To be loyal & loving in relationships, we must imitate God’s faithfulness in our relationships with others.  
• What we read: Kindness – Ruth showed kindness to Naomi. Boaz showed kindness to Ruth, a despised Moabite woman with no money. God showed His kindness to Ruth, Naomi & Boaz by bringing them together for His purposes. What we can learn: We need to show kindness.
• What we read: Integrity – Ruth showed high moral character by being loyal to Naomi, by her clean break from her former land & customs & by her hard work in the fields. Boaz showed integrity in his moral standards, his honesty & by following through on his commitments. What we can learn: Just as the values that Ruth & Boaz lived by were in sharp contrast to those of the culture shown in Judges, so should our lives stand out from the world around us. Others should know that we are Christians without us having to tell them. If we are having to tell others that we are a follower of Christ because otherwise they wouldn’t know it, then we may need to examine how we are living.
• What we read: We see God’s care & protection over Naomi & Ruth. He keeps them safe & secure. They came to Bethlehem as poor widows, but they soon became prosperous through Ruth’s marriage to Boaz. Ruth became the great-grandmother of King David, the lineage of the Messiah.  What we can learn: No matter how hopeless our situation may look, we can trust God to take care of us. His resources are infinite. We can believe that He can work in the life of any person, whether that person is a king or a stranger in a foreign land. We can trust Him to provide for us.

Things to think about as you read Ruth:

• What have you learned about loyalty from the story of Ruth? What does it mean to be loyal to God, to His people, to His precepts & to trust God to do what He says He will do?
• As you think of Boaz redeeming Ruth, remember that you have a kinsman redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of how Jesus has acted on your behalf as your kinsman redeemer by becoming a man so He could break death’s hold by paying for your sin. Remember that you weren’t redeemed from your life of sin with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of the Lamb of God, a Lamb without spot or blemish.
• The final verses of Ruth show us that Ruth was included in the genealogy of David & therefore in the human lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only did a sovereign God include the harlot, Rahab, in the genealogy of His Son, but He also chose a Gentile, Ruth. Both of these women chose to believe God when those around them didn’t. Consider how their example might apply to your life.
• In the book of Judges, Israel forsook the true God & turned to idols, while in Ruth the opposite is seen. One Gentile woman turns from idols to serve the only true God.

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/0tCcmi2rwf4?si=B7iqV5MfDTMDHzkV

Blessings,

Nichole Henson, Fullness of Joy Ministry