After Joshua’s death, the Israeli army continued to fight the heathen nations as the Lord had told them to; and God helped them and made them Victorious. But they stopped fighting before they had driven out all the nations of Canaan; they allowed some of the heathen nations to stay.
Then the Lord said to the people of Israel, “I brought you out of Egypt into this land I promised you. I commanded you to destroy the idols of the nations living here, and I told you never to make peace with them. But you have not obeyed me. Now I will not help you anymore. The rest of the nations shall stay, and they will tempt you to sin and cause you great trouble.”
The people of Israel wept when they heard this. But they soon forgot what the Lord had said, for they not only allowed many of the heathen to stay in Canaan, but they treated them as their friends. They even married them; the young men of Israel took heathen girls for their wives, and the Israeli girls were permitted to marry heathen men.
Then the people of Israel began worshipping idols named Baal and Ashtaroth, who were the gods of the people of Canaan. The Lord was very angry about this and sent enemies to fight against His people and to make them their slaves.
But when they turned away from the idols and turned again to the Lord and asked for His help, He helped them by raising up leaders, called judges. These men helped them fight against their masters and win. Yet, as soon as the Lord set the people free, they would forget Him and sin again by worshipping idols and ignoring the Lord. This sinning and repenting continued for more than three hundred years! During that time fifteen judges were their leaders.
The first judge was Othniel; he was the younger brother of Caleb, one of the good spies. Othniel fought against the king of Mesopotamia, who had kept the Israelis as slaves for eight years. And God helped Othniel and the men of Israel conquer their master’s army, so they were free again for the next forty years.
But after Othniel was dead the people of Israel began to worship idols again. Then the king of Moab led his army against Israel and enslaved them for eighteen years. But when the people of Israel cried to the Lord for help, the Lord appointed Ehud as their leader. He was a man of the tribe of Benjamin, and was left-handed.
Ehud made a dagger, hid it under his coat, and came to the king of Moab’s palace while the king was sitting in his summer parlor.
“I have a secret message from God for you, O king.” Ehud said to him. When the kings assistants returned. they saw that the doors of his room were locked and said to themselves, “The king must want to be alone; we’d better not go in.
But after they had waited a very long time, they took a key and opened the doors and found the king lying dead on the floor.
By this time Ehud was far away, and they couldn’t find him. Ehud went to Mount Ephraim, in the land of Canaan, and blew a trumpet to call the men of Israel to him.
“Follow me,” he told them. “The king is dead, and the Lord will help you conquer the army of Moab.”
The men of Israel followed him to the Jordan River where they fought and killed ten thousand brave soldiers of Moab; not one escaped. So the Israelis were again free from the Moabites. This freedom continued for the next eighty years.
Questions:
Why didn’t God want the Israeli young people to marry non-jews?
What were the leaders of Israel now called?
Who was the first judge?
Who was his Brother?
Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Psalm 119:90
Joshua Chapter 24 & 25
Judges Chapter 1
"Only Life Changes" 