The Judges Cycle

1

• Apostasy (Jug 211-13)
• Bondage (Jug 214-15)
• Cries to God (Jug 215b)
• Deliverer (Jug 216, 18)
• Enjoys rest (Not in preview)

The Judges Cycle
2

• Apostasy (Jug 37)
• Bondage (Jug 38)
• Cries to God (Jug 39a)
• Deliverer (Jug 39b)
• Enjoys rest (Jug 311)

The Judges Cycle
Othniel (Jug 37-11)
3

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Cries to God
• Deliverer
• Enjoys rest

The Judges Cycle
4
1 Cor 1011-13 Now these things happened to them
as an example, and they were written for our
instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have
come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands
take heed that he does not fall. 13 No temptation
has overtaken you but such as is common to man
5

• Apostasy
• Violated top commands
• Did the opposite of what God said

The Judges Cycle
6
Deut 71-2 When the LORD your God brings you into
the land where you are entering to possess it,
and clears away many nations before you, the
Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and
the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites
and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and
stronger than you, 2 and when the LORD your God
delivers them before you and you defeat them,
then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall
make no covenant with them and show no favor to
them.
7
Deut 73-4 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry
with them you shall not give your daughters to
their sons, nor shall you take their daughters
for your sons. 4 For they will turn your sons
away from following Me to serve other gods then
the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you
and He will quickly destroy you.
8

• Apostasy
• Violated top commands
• Did the opposite of what God said
• they forgot the Lord their God
• They feared the gods of the land
• They forsook the Lord for idols

The Judges Cycle
9

• Apostasy
• Violated top commands

The Judges Cycle
10
Matt 2236-38 Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the Law? 37 And He Jesus said to
him, 'you shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind.' 38 This is the great and foremost
commandment. John 1421 He who has My
commandments and keeps them is the one who loves
Me and he who loves Me will be loved by My
Father, and I will love him and will disclose
Myself to him.
11
Matt 2239 The second is like it, 'you shall love
your neighbor as yourself.' 1 John 420 If
someone says, "I love God," and hates his
brother, he is a liar for the one who does not
love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love
God whom he has not seen.
12

• Apostasy
• Violated top commands
• Did the opposite of what God said

The Judges Cycle
13
1 John 215 Do not love the world nor the things
in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love
of the Father is not in him. James 44 You
adulteresses, do you not know that friendship
with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore
whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes
himself an enemy of God.
14
1 John 33-8 And everyone who has this hope fixed
on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Everyone who practices sin also practices
lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know
that He appeared in order to take away sins and
in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in
Him sins no one who sins has seen Him or knows
Him. 7 Little children, make sure no one deceives
you the one who practices righteousness is
righteous, just as He is righteous 8 the one who
practices sin is of the devil for the devil has
sinned from the beginning. The Son of God
appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works
of the devil.
15
2 Cor 614-16 Do not be bound together with
unbelievers for what partnership have
righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship
has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has
Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in
common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement
has the temple of God with idols?...
16

• Apostasy
• Violated top commands
• Did the opposite of what God said
• they forgot the Lord their God
• They feared the gods of the land

The Judges Cycle
17
1 Peter 314 But even if you should suffer for
the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. and
do not fear their intimidation, and do not be
troubled
18

• Apostasy
• Violated top commands
• Did the opposite of what God said
• they forgot the Lord their God
• They feared the gods of the land
• They forsook the Lord for idols

The Judges Cycle
19

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• (Jug 37-8) Mesopotamia 8 years
• (Jug 312-14) Moab 18 years
• (Jug 41-2) Canaan - 20 years
• (Jug 61-4) Midian 7 years
• (Jug 106-9) Ammon 18 years
• (Jug 131) Philistines 40 years

The Judges Cycle
20
Heb 124-11 You have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding blood in your striving against
sin 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation
which is addressed to you as sons, My son, do
not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor faint when you are reproved by Him 6 for
those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and He
scourges every son whom he receives." 7 It is for
discipline that you endure God deals with you as
with sons for what son is there whom his father
does not discipline? 8 But if you are without
discipline, of which all have become partakers,
then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
21
Heb 124-11 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers
to discipline us, and we respected them shall we
not much rather be subject to the Father of
spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for
a short time as seemed best to them, but He
disciplines us for our good, so that we may share
His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment
seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful yet to
those who have been trained by it, afterwards it
yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
22
James 12-4 Consider it all joy, my brethren,
when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that
the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4
And let endurance have its perfect result, so
that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in
nothing. 1 Peter 16-7 In this you greatly
rejoice, even though now for a little while, if
necessary, you have been distressed by various
trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being
more precious than gold which is perishable, even
though tested by fire, may be found to result in
praise and glory and honor at the revelation of
Jesus Christ
23

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Suffering is not necessarily divine
  punishment due to apostasy
• Success and blessings are not necessarily
  a sign of Gods favor
• It is almost impossible to say today whether
  something is, or is not, a result of Gods
  hand because He has not told us

The Judges Cycle
24

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Cries to God
• Deliverer
• Enjoys rest

The Judges Cycle
25

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Cries to God
• Deliverer
• Enjoys rest

The Judges Cycle
26

• Apostasy
• Violated top commands
• Did the opposite of what God said
• they forgot the Lord their God
• They feared the gods of the land
• They forsook the Lord for idols

The Judges Cycle
27

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Suffering is not necessarily divine
  punishment due to apostasy
• Success and blessings are not necessarily
  a sign of Gods favor
• It is almost impossible to say today whether
  something is, or is not, a result of Gods
  hand because He has not told us

The Judges Cycle
28

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Cries to God
• Admission of guilt
• Only God can help
• Putting away their sin
• Pursed positive service to God

The Judges Cycle
1 Jn. 15-9
29

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Cries to God
• Deliverer (Judges)

The Judges Cycle
30
God raised up Judges / Deliverers Othniel The
Spirit of the Lord was upon him Ehud A
left-handed man
31

• God raised up Judges / Deliverers
• Othniel The Spirit of the Lord was upon him
• Ehud A left-handed man
• a man lame in his right hand (Matthew Henry)
• one who cannot use the right hand freely, and
  consequently left-handed (Jamison, Faussett,
  Brown)
• A man shut up with regard to his right hand
  (i.e. hindered in the use of his right hand, not
  necessarily crippled, but in all probability
  disabled through want of use from his youth
  upwards) (Keil Delitzsch)

32
God raised up Judges / Deliverers Othniel The
Spirit of the Lord was upon him Ehud A
left-handed man Shamgar struck down 600
Philistines with an oxgoad Deborah Jael
women Gideon 300 girly men sent an entire army
running Jephthah son of a prostitute Samson
strong as an ox, as smart as one too
33

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Cries to God
• Deliverer (Judges)
• Enjoys rest

The Judges Cycle
34
BONDAGE REST Mesopotamia 8 years ..40
years (Othniel) Moab 18 years..80 years
(Ehud) Canaan - 20 years...40 years
(Deborah) Midian 7 years...40 years
(Gideon) Ammon 18 years..6 years
(Jephthah) Philistines 40 years..20 years
(Samson)
35

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Cries to God
• Deliverer (Judges)
• Enjoys rest

The Judges Cycle
36
Prov 2611 Like a dog that returns to its vomit
Is a fool who repeats his folly. 2 Peter
222 It has happened to them according to the
true proverb, A dog returns to its own vomit,
and, A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing
in the mire."
37

• Apostasy
• Bondage
• Cries to God
• Deliverer (Judges)
• Enjoys rest

The Judges Cycle