1st Week of May 2012 Adult Sunday School Lesson

Judges 2nd Chapter verses 6 - 10

Last week in class we went on and covered these verses. Even thought the last chapter of Joshua speaks of Joshua's death, this part of the 2nd chapter covers it as well. Notice that in the 7th verse it mentions the elders that outlived Joshua and had also seen the great wonders God had performed for the children of Israel as he brought them out of Egypt. There were some after Joshua's death that knew of the great things God had done and by their presence or the retelling of the times God had delivered them, it seems to keep them out of trouble. They still honor God while these elders are alive. In the tenth verse it is plain that the next generation did not honor the Lord.

Judges 2nd Chapter verses 11 - 15

Now in the 11th verse we quickly see that it doesn't take Israel long after death of the elders to go in the wrong way. They served Baalim. They were not supposed to dwell and intermingle with the people of Canaan. They were not supposed to marry into those tribes, but they did anyway. We can see similar things like this in today's church. We are not supposed to be wedded with the world. We are not supposed to let the world and the activities of this world rule in our lives. We take on relationships with the activities, interests, and going on of this world. We are to be a separated and peculiar people. We not supposed to hide from the world, but we are to change the world, not the other way around.

It doesn't take god long to be angered, and to let the Israelites know that when he said the dwellers in Canaan would be a thorn in their side, he meant it. He let the Israelites serve other people as their masters since they decided to serve other gods.

Judges 2nd Chapter verses 16 - 23

God's anger is never as fierce as it could be, and he always hears the cries of his people. He starts to give them judges to be over them. Not kings, like the other kingdoms and people had, but judges who were leaders in both a spiritual and military sense. A king, as Israel later found out, takes up great resources out hands of the people to support himself. The very fact that a king and his family doesn't support themselves seems to make it so that they expect servitude, gratitude and everything else from the backs of those that serve him. Judges were different though, and they were leaders who supported themselves or were supported by their own families. Israel had good judges and bad judges, but the things he did by their hands were wonderful and nothing short of miracles.

Since Israel was rebellious, God let them deal with the dwellers of the land that they failed to drive out. The end of the second chapter is a brief overview of what the next chapters will be like. The start of the third chapter starts the story about a particular judge named Othniel.

Judges 3rd Chapter verses 1 - 7

Here we have a listing of the nations that are to be a thorn in the side of the children of Israel for thousands of years. The Philistines, Canaanites and so on, are among the offenders. We are know that the Philistines will be thorn in their side till after Davids time. Some of the people are descendants of Ishmael, Esau and other people that were part of a people that fulfill God's promise of the evil that would befall them for not obeying. So in the sixth verse they intermingle with these people, and in the seventh verse they do all manner of evil before God including serving other gods.

Judges 3rd Chapter verses 8 - 11

Here comes a ruler named Chushan-rishathaim out of Mesopotamia. He attacks Israel and puts them under his thumb for eight years. Finally Othniel, Caleb's younger brother and probably a well known Israelite, fought against Chushan-rishathaim and delivered Israel and they had rest for 40 years.