1. Life Lessons From Judges
God’s Grace

2. Indicators of God’s Character 1) We serve a God of second chances
Israel’s Disobedience
God’s Salvation
2:11
2:16
3:5
3:9-11
3:12
3:15, 30
4:1-2
4:3; 5:31b
6:1
8:28

3. Indicators of God’s Character 2) God turns ugly into beautiful
Summary of Jephthah
A father gives up his only child
As a sacrifice
For the sake of a promise
To win victory for Israel
The child laments the duty
But obeys willingly because it’s the right thing to do
Israel, then, in response mourns and memorializes the child’s sacrifice

4. Indicators of God’s Character 2) God turns ugly into beautiful
Summary of Jephthah
Samson’s “swarm” of bees
149 times in the OT
127 time “congregation”
Others: company (14), assembly (4), band (1), council (1)
One reference to non-human (Ps. 68:30 “herd”)
“In a world of decay and decomposition Samson discovers a “community’ of bees not only existing but producing sweetness to the world around.” (Block, 429)

5. Indicators of God’s Character 3) God sees the good
Gideon (Judges 8:34-35)
Heb. 11:32
“Despite defects of personality and lack of nerve, the deliverers stepped out against overwhelming odds. This was either the mark of folly or of faith. The author of Hebrews is correct in casting his vote with the latter. Empowered by the Spirit of God, the deliverers charged into battle. For the moment, if not for their entire lives, by faith they cast themselves on God, counting on him to fight for them as he had fought against the Egyptians, the Amalekites, Sihon and Og, Jericho, and the rest of the Canaanites, as recounted in the Book of Joshua.” (Block, 70)

6. Indicators of God’s Character 4) God has taken care of our problem

7. “Far from being agents of spiritual change, the deliverers demonstrated repeatedly that they were a part of the problem rather than a solution: (1) Ehud’s treachery and brutality bear striking resemblance to Canaanite patterns of behavior; (2) Barak is weak-willed and indecisive; (3) Gideon is successively cynical of Yahweh’s interest in his people, resistant toward his call, brutal toward his countrymen, and despite his pious comment in 8:23, imperial in his rule; (4) Jephthah, the scion of an immoral man, is ambitious in relation to his countrymen and pagan in his bargaining with Yahweh, not to mention abusive toward his daughter whom he sacrifices; and (5) Samson, whose very name ‘Little Sun’ (šimšôn) is suspicious, treats his Nazirite status with contempt and fritters away his high calling with illicit philandering with pagan women. The human materials available to Yahweh for dealing with the foreign oppressors were raw indeed. Far from distinguishing themselves as paragons of virtue and faith, the deliverers tended to be the antithesis… (Block, 40)

8. Indicators of God’s Character
We serve a God of second chances
God turns ugly into beautiful
God sees the good
God has taken care of our problem