Judges 1/2 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage:  Judges 1:1-15  

A. Find Out

1. Which tribe was to lead the fighting? v.1,2

2. Who take they take as partners in battle? v.3

3. Against who was their first battle and how did they fare? v.4-7

4. Where did they also take and what did they do to it? v.8

5. Which areas did they next clear? v.9-11

6. What happened with Caleb? v.12-15

B. Think:

1. How is this largely a story of wide sweeping history?

2. Yet how are there small detail stories also included?

C. Comment:

Moses and Joshua have died and the people are in the Land. It is now a time to go through the land cleaning it up and removing the old inhabitants still there.  Israel ask the Lord (a good sign of their spiritual health at that moment) who should deal with the Canaanites. The Lord calls Judah to do it and they ask Simeon to go along with them (v.3). Fellowship in battle is a good thing! Thus the cleaning up process starts.

Their first clearing up operation was at Bezek, a place of present unknown location, where they inflicted a large number of casualties. The leader’s name of the Canaanites, Adoni-Bezek means ‘lord of Bezek’ which would lead us to assume Bezek was a town or area over which he ruled. Cutting off thumbs and big toes was a common practice to humiliate and disable the person, to render their movement very difficult and make them subservient. They then proceed to clear the south and south west. The strategy is clear.

In the midst of this is a small incident recorded of Caleb (Joshua’s old partner) who offers his daughter in marriage to the most valiant of the warriors. It turns out to be one of her cousins, Othniel. He prompts her (see NIV page note) to also ask for a tract of land to farm and then further for land that has water. It’s a nice little example of young people who look to the future and take the present opportunities to get established in acts of faith (this is now our land!).

D. Application:

1. Our fight today is against spiritual forces (see (Eph 6).

2.  Do we look to extend and establish God’s kingdom today?

Passage:  Judges 1:16 – 2:5

A. Find Out

1. Make a chart and identify how each tribe succeeded in clearing the land as follows: Judah & Simeon v.17-19 / Benjamin v.21 / Joseph  v.22-26,35 / Manasseh v.27,28 / Ephraim v.29 / Zebulun v.30 / Asher v.31,32 / Naphtali v.33 / Dan v.34

2. What did the Lord say Israel had done? v.2

3. So what did He say would happen? v.3

4. How did Israel respond? v.4,5

B. Think:

1. What is the overall message of this passage?

2. Which tribes are missing? Why?

3. What would be the spiritual lesson of all this for us?

C. Comment:

The history of Israel within the book of Judges is not always glorious – in fact it rarely is, and this is the starting point of this inglorious period in their history (and it doesn’t get much better later on!) At the outset they were told by the Lord to sweep the land clean yet, by this time, this had still not happened. When they first entered the land the fear of the Lord had been with them and if they had wholeheartedly cleaned out the inhabitants that would have been done then. But they hadn’t and so now there is a mopping-up operation under way and it doesn’t go well.

As a result, various groups of the inhabitants are well and truly lodged in position and no longer fear Israel and resist. As a result of this the Lord warns that they will be a perpetual thorn in the side of Israel. What is the significance of this for us to day? Well we have a spiritual enemy, Sin, and we’re told to put it to death (Rom 6:11,12, Col 3:5-8).

When we came to Christ we moved into a completely different kingdom, one free from sin (Col 1:13, 1 Jn 1:5, 2:1). However if we permit old sinful habits to remain in our lives we have not obeyed the Lord and those things will be a thorn in our side. We will forever be crying out to the Lord for help. It’s all a matter of commitment to obedience – total obedience, not partial.

D. Application:

1. The command is to clear the land – be free of sin.

2. Failure to obey means ongoing pain for us.