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Scripture Review - OT - Judges

This week's lesson is based on the Book of Judges. The Come Follow Me Primary manual entry for this week says that the lesson should be derived from Judges 2–4, 6–8 and 13–16. In this post, we quickly review what these scriptures are about.

We left off in the previous book, Joshua, with the Prophet Joshua having guided the Israelites into and across the Promised Land. At the end of the book, Joshua passes away. Judges picks up the story at this point and talks about how the Israelites are led by a series of leaders. Judges is a fairly bleak book, with a repeating theme of the people going astray, a (not always ideal) leader coming in to help them with guidance from Heavenly Father, bringing some short term peace and stability, before things go off the rails again. The Bible Project (YouTube) has a terrific short animated video about it. Below is a summary of the key chapters for this week:

  • Judges 2: This chapter provides the template for the stories coming up. The people ignore Heavenly Father, start worshipping idols and marrying the Canaanites (which is forbidden), then Heavenly Father introduces "judges" (or tribal leaders) for the people to follow, but it only brings short term relief since the people revert shortly after each judge passes on.

  • Judges 3: The ruler of Mesapotamia takes over Israel, until Othniel is empowered by Heavenly Father to fight him off. Another cycle occurs, with the King of Moab (Egion) taking over. This time, Heavenly Father empowers Ehud, who stabs Egion in the stomach and leaves him to die. Lovely.

  • Judges 4: In another cycle, Heavenly Father sells the Israelites to the King of Canaan, Jabin, until Deborah and Barak step in and fight back. Another woman, Jael, the wife of Heber, kills Sisera, the leader of the Canaanites, by driving a nail through his head.

  • Judges 6: Midian and his Midianites raze the home of the Israelites to the ground. Heavenly Father appears to a farmer's son named Gideon and strengthens him to lead the people. HF challenges Gideon to give a sacrificial offering of one of his father's bullocks, which Gideon does to everyone's surprise.

  • Judges 7: Just 300 people volunteer to fight for Gideon. The soldiers blow trumpets that scare away the Midianites.

  • Judges 8: Gideon is asked to rule the Israelites but refuses. He creates a gold artefact which the people worship, sires many children, and finaly passes away as an old man.

  • Judges 13: A woman who can't concieve, Manoah the wife of Zorah, is helped by Heavenly Father to bear a child, Samson.

  • Judges 14: Samson is introduced in the previous chapter. A questionable role model, he covets a Philistine woman whom his father declares off-limits, and then randomly kills a lion which turns out to contain a store of honey. He marries the woman, then proposes a riddle to a group of thirty men, which has to be solved in 7 days, with the winner getting 30 garments. Samson's wife asks him for the answer but he rebuts her questions. When they fail to answer his riddle, he goes into Ashkelon and kills 30 men, and takes their clothes as reward.

  • Judges 15: Samson's father-in-law prevents him from seeing his wife, saying that he thought Samson hated her. Samson goes and pulls the tails off 300 foxes, ties the tails together and burns them. The Philistines, in response, burn his wife and father-in-law. Samson takes revenge on them. 3000 men from Judah tie him up and take him to Lehi, where he's empowered by Heavenly Father to break free of his restraints, take up a donkey's jawbone, and kill a thousand men. He then rules Israel for 20 years.

  • Judges 16: Samson has a relationship with Delilah, who asks him three times about what his weakness is, so that she can pass the information to the Philistines. Samson misdirects her three times, but finally reveals that he's never been shaven. Whilst he's sleeping, Delilah invites someone to cut off some of his hair, causing him to lose his strength. The Philistines capture him and plan on offering him as a sacrifice to their god Dagon. Samson prays to Heavenly Father, regains his strength, pulls down the door to the building, and kills himself along with 3000 people.
Phew! Judges is a tough, dark read, with more in common with the Judge Dredd comic books than a scriptural text. It'll be a challenge to turn this into a lesson suitable for primary children. Anyone have any suggestions on how to do so? If so, feel free to comment below or on the Twitter thread.


The Promised Land. Photo by Krys Amon on Unsplash


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