I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 1-3.

    The Book of Judges starts with a recap of the conquest of the land of Canaan. It includes a story about after the Israelites had more or less completed the conquest of the land God sent them a message confronting them over their failure to drive all of the people out of the land and destroy all of their altars. The context suggests that they entered into more alliances with the people of the land than just the one mentioned in the Book of Joshua with the Gideonites. The introduction to the book concludes with the description about how, after the death of Joshua and the members of the generation he led, the people of Israel sinned against God and God turned them over to their enemies. It goes on to say that when the people cried out to God in their suffering He raised up a judge to rescue them. Then when that judge died they returned to their sins. This passage describes a pattern which we see time and again throughout history: people who know God’s will fail to follow that will and fall into hardship. They turn to God and cry out for His salvation. He sends them a leader who rescues them and teaches them to do as He wills. The leader dies and the next generation, or the one after that, turns away from God. The process repeats.