I’m reading through Judges, one of the more depressing books in the Bible, beginning with this sad and incredible verse:

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. (Judges 2.10, ESV)

The only way that could have happened is for the Israelites to ignore this basic instruction from Moses:

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6.6 – 9, ESV)

Don’t teach the children, and a generation will come “who do not know the LORD.” Judges continues with a template for much of the book:

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD…They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger…So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them…Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. (Judges 2.11 – 16, ESV)

A standard outline of the cycle, repeated at least six times in detail in Judges goes something like this:

• Sin
• Servitude
• Supplication
• Salvation (through a Judge – the savior)
• Serenity (e.g., “The land had peace for 40 years.”)

Rinse and repeat.

Tomorrow we’ll look at how this played out with Gideon.

This text is about the Israelites’ time in the wilderness, but it could just as easily apply to the accounts in Judges. Watch and learn:

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (1 Corinthians 10.6 – 11, ESV)