In the book of Joshua, we learned how,“the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim”, and in chapter one and verse one of Judges, we begin with an introduction of the book of Judges as we discover what happened “after the death of Joshua” where we read,
Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
The people of Israel had journeyed through the wilderness for forty years under the leadership of Moses. Afterwards they entered the promise land under the leadership of Joshua, and after some time passed, Joshua and Eleazar the high priest died. Now was to be a time when the people of Israel would be more on their own, and this led to the occasion for the “judges” to rule among them.
The people of Israel developed a pattern during the time of the thirteen judges that are mentioned in this book, and the judges were semi-rulers over them.The judges made judgments among the happenings of the people, and this time period was previous to the time when “kings” would reign over the people of Israel. The time of the judges lasted some three to four hundred years.
The people of Israel vacillated between following Jehovah God and falling away from Him. They suffered when they turn away from God to serve other deities, and they were blessed when they remained near to Him. The people of Israel turned away from Jehovah God to worship Baal, Ashtoreth, various deities of the Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Hitties, Jebusites and the people in the land in which they were dwelling. This apostasy caused them to be turned over to their hating foes, and afterward they cried out to God who would raise up a “judge” on their behalf.
The “judge” delivered them from their adversaries, and they followed Jehovah God again for some time, however, they fell away again. God blessed the people of Israel and gave them prosperity when they aligned with Him, however when they forsook the LORD and abandoned their relationship with Him, they experienced difficulties and troubles. These alternating activities and trials for the people of Israel serve to give us direction and motivation not only to have a personal relationship with Jehovah God through His Son Jesus who died on the cross for the sins of all mankind and was raised from the dead after three days, but also to teach us the value of God’s forgiveness, promise of eternal life and the equipping of His Holy Spirit who will guide us into all truth and give us the ability to remain close to Him.
Next time we begin the book of Judges where we read what happened, “after the death of Joshua”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow…there is more…
See more devotionals on the website "thewordfortodaywithray.com" or look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".
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