The Judges’ Cycle of Deliverance
READ Judges 2:1-3
Why did the Lord leave the
inhabitants of Canaan as “thorns” and their gods as “snares” to Israel?
READ Judges 2:10-12
How did a generation whose
parents and grandparents “served the Lord all the days of Joshua” and had “seen
all the great works of the Lord, that He did for Israel”, know not the Lord?
READ Judges 3:7-11
What is the cycle of Judges
laid out here?
This same pattern is repeated
generation after generation, six times - through the following deliverers:
Orhniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, although this last story
is a bit different and we will walk through it in more detail. Let’s talk about the various “deliverers” in
each of these stories.
READ Judges 3:9,15; Judges
4:4; Judges 6:15; Judges 11:1-2; Judges 13:3-5
What common theme do you see
across these deliverers of Israel?
The story of Jephthah, the
illegitimate son of a harlot, is interesting…
READ Judges 11:5-11
What do you think the Elders
of Gilead were planning to do to Jephthah after the battle was won?
How do these various deliverers
parallel the Great Deliverer?
We have a natural tendency to
read what we think we know of the Lord back into the story, but those who
encountered Him in His mortal ministry didn’t see Him for who He really is…
READ Luke 4:22-24
READ the Story of Axis the
Horse
“There was a Celtic tribe
whose horses were known for their strength and speed. They used to allow their horses to run wild
when not being used by the tribe for work or battle. One horse, born in the wild, grew to be
bigger and stronger than all the rest.
He ran at the head of any herd.
He was challenged many times and fought without defeat. When he raced, he always won. When he was finally brought into the town, he
was scared from battle. The people named
him Axis, in part for his warlike appearance.
He was never truly tamed. He was
hard for any man to ride, and many feared to approach him. Only the most brave
attempted it. Only a few were able to ride him. Years after the horse was dead,
the princes of the tribe decided to build a monument to Axis. They commissioned the best sculptor in the
land to make a statue of the greatest of horses. The sculptor looked far and wide for someone
who had actually seen Axis alive and he finally found an old man who had seen
the horse when he was a small boy. The
old man described Axis as larger than any horse in the herd, with scars like a
warhorse, and strength that showed through.
The sculptor began to create the statue in line with this description
but when the princes of the tribe saw it, they hated it - “it is too large; it
is disproportionate; it is disfigured; it is rearing up and warlike; it is not
beautiful and no one will want to look at it.
You must remake it - Axis is known throughout the world and his statue
must add to his fame.” So the sculptor
discarded the statue and began again.
This time he found the most beautiful horse he could find as a
model. Although it was a mare, it fit
the description the princes wanted. He
created a stallion version of the horse, which all that saw it said was a most
amazing work of art! “It is without blemish! It is a thing of beauty! It is perfect!” the princes exclaimed. The old man had died by the time the new
statue was finished but when the horse was unveiled to the public, they
marveled, “I thrill at the sight of him!
Look how gentle he must have been!
He must have been named Axis because of his perfect proportions, equal
in all dimensions! He must have been the
most attractive horse ever born. All of
the other horses must have followed him in wonder!” The people of the tribe began to breed their
horses in line with the statue. They
became known across the world for their exquisitely beautiful animals. They won every horse show and the animals
were kept carefully in stalls and fed the best hay and oats. They never ran wild or fought or raced or
worked, as they were too valuable and not fit for these purposes, anyway. And behind an old barn stands a neglected
and forgotten statue, whose rearing, scarred form had come to represent
everything that was unwanted in a horse.”
Why do we want a hero or Deliverer
who is different from real life?
Gideon’s Signs
READ Judges 6:14-17 and
6:36-40
Who does Gideon lack faith in,
such that he is asking the Lord for signs?
What is Gideon seeking for
with the fleece?
What is the difference between
sign-seeking and “fleece-seeking”?
Gideon was commissioned to
defeat the Midianites. All of them that
volunteered to fight were Israelites, and all were seeking to follow the Lord.
Yet only a few finished the course.
READ Judges 7:2-3
If this story is an analogy
for Coming unto Christ, why do two thirds of the “active” Israelites turn back?
READ Judges 7:4-7
What symbolism exists in the
fact that the Lord had Gideon cull his army twice?
What is significant about the
way that the 300-person Army of Gideon drank the water?
What does the group that put
their faces into the water teach us about the journey back to Christ?
What does the fact that less
than one percent of the Israelite men who set out to follow the Lord’s command
succeeded in their desire?
Samson as a Messianic
Figure
READ Judges 13:1-3
What is the significance of
this miracle birth?
READ Judges 13:4-5
What is a Nazarite?
What is the Nazarite vow?
Samson had great strength,
which he used to afflict the Philistines, who were the enemies of Israel. He fell in love with Delilah, a Philistine,
who tried to get him to reveal to her the source of his strength. After several attempts…
READ Judges 16:15-20
Why did his hair give Samson
“super-strength”?
What does hair represent?
READ Judges 16:24-25, 27-28,
30
How does Samson’s death point
to Christ’s?
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