Time of the judges
Greetings, friend!
Joshua is dead, but the Creator is still alive. One by one the tribes went out and conquer part of their allocated areas. But they did not destroy all the cities as the Creator ordered them. The angel of GOD appeared to them and said, because of their disobedience, these remnants in the country would become thorns in their side and that their idols would become a snare to them.
When their children became adults they started to worship the local idols instead of the Creator. Still, every now and again when the Israelites get out of line, HE would send a judge or leader to bring them back. Most of them would not listen to them though.
The first judge was Othniel, Caleb's nephew. The next were Ehud, a left-handed man from Benjamin and Shamgar, son of Anath.
After Ehud's death, the Israelites sinned again. A prophetess, Deborah, tried to guide them back to the way of the Creator. She called Barak, a descendant from Naphtali, to lead the Israelites against their enemies. He asked her to join him and she told him that the evil king would die at the hand of a woman. The evil king, Sisera, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Jael gave him some goats milk and put him to sleep. While he was sleeping she killed him with a tent peg. After this she called Barak and showed him Sisera's body.
The next judge was Gideon who was called from the winepress of Joash the Abiezrite. After offering his father's second bull that was supposedly to be offered to one of the idols (with the idol as firewood!) the tribe demanded his head. Gideon's father, however said, "Are you going to plead the idol's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by the morning! If this idol really is GOD, he can defend himself when someone breaks his altar." And Gibeon got the nickname Jerub-Baal.
Gideon asked for a sign TWICE to confirm his leadership and the Creator confirmed his leadership twice. After this Gideon leaded the Israelites in war and defeated their enemies. Their enemies actually was confused by the Spirit of the Creator so their killed themselves!
The next judge was Abimelech, the son of Gideon. He killed his seventy brothers except his brother, Jotham, who cursed him. Abimelech still lead them for three years before a rebellion broke out. He was killed by a woman dropping a stone from a tower.
More judges, including Samson the strong one, followed. You can read more about them in the Book of Judges in the Torah and the Bible.
One important story from this era is the story of how a tribe, Benjamin, almost got wiped out. The descendants of Benjamin married idol worshipers from the area and the "new" tribe was a mixed breed worshiping the idols of the land and doing the customs of the idol worshipers. Because of this, the rest of the Israelites took a covenant to refuse marriage of their children to those of the tribe of Benjamin. Another war broke out against the idol worshiping enemies of the area and the tribe of Benjamin was nearly wiped out except for a handful of young men who were not idol worshipers. Due to covenant they had to take other measures to ensure the future of these young men.
They repented and assembled before the Creator at Mizpah, a solemn assembly that was made compulsory to all and punishable with the death for not attending. After a day of repentance they started to inquire who did not attend this meeting and found that no one of Jabesh in Gilead came to repent. They went against the city and killed everyone except the young maidens who were not yet committed to a man. These they gave to the young men of Benjamin. The young girls were not enough for all of the young men, but the rest were allowed to "steal" a young maiden at the annual festival at Shiloh.
Soon the Israelites were settling in and their lives went on...
TODAY'S QUESTIONS:
Do you listen to the Creator?
Forgiveness and a new life is waiting for you!
You would know what to do... GO AND DO IT NOW!
Metusalah and Elias
Messengers of the Creator
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