Recap of the Book of Judges and Intro to the book of Ruth

Well, that wraps up the Book of Judges. The Book of Judges covered a span of 325 years. During this time there were twelve judges. One of the Judges was a woman named Deborah. She was a judge for 40 years.

 The judges were not kings. God was the king of Israel. The judges were appointed by God to handle disputes and arguments. During the rule of each individual judge, the Israelites experienced a measure of peace. But after a judge died and before a new judge was appointed by God, the Israelites turned their backs on God and did whatever they wanted. This caused chaos in the land. Samson was the last judge. After he died, the Israelites were back to their old tricks, doing whatever they felt like. They began to ask God for a king. Finally, 13 years after Samson died. The Israelites got their first (human) king. God tried to discourage them from wanting a king, but He finally gave in.
 God wants to be king of our lives. More specifically, He wants Jesus to be our Lord. What does that mean? Jesus as Lord means this:  That Jesus is the boss. Jesus is the ruler. Jesus is the master of our whole life. Not just a part of our lives. The more we know Jesus, the more we know what He wants. Doing what Jesus wants, doesn’t get us into heaven. Jesus is our Lord, our boss, our ruler, our master because He bought us. He paid for our sins with His blood.

 We will talk about Israel’s first king, but there is an amazing story during those 13 years between the  Samson’s death and Israel’s first king that we will look at first. It is the Book of Ruth. It is the story of a woman named Naomi, her husband (Elimelech), and her 2 sons. They lived in a town named Bethlehem. Does that sound familiar? That’s right. Bethlehem is where Jesus was born. There was a bad famine in the land. That means that there was no rain, so the plants wouldn’t grow. The people and animals had very little food and many of the animals died.
 Naomi and her family decided to leave Bethlehem for a country called Moab. The Moabites did not like the Israelites, but Naomi’s husband heard that they had plenty of crops there.  So they left Bethlehem for Moab. After a while in Moab, Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died and Naomi was left with her two sons. Then her two sons married Moabite women. One was named Orpah and the other was named Ruth. Ruth is the woman that this book Bible was named for. About ten years later, Orpah and Ruth’s husbands died. This left Naomi feeling very alone. Sure she had Orpah and Ruth, but they were Moabites. They belonged in Moab. She was an Israelite.
 Then Naomi heard that God had blessed the Israelites again with good crops. She decided that they go back to her home town, Bethlehem. This is basically where our story begins.

Samson the Lion and the Wedding (Judges 14)

 So Samson grew into a very strong young man. God had great plans for Samson. He was going to use Samson to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. Remember how God used Moses and his leadership skills to free the Israelites from the Egyptians? Now God was going to use Samson and his physical strength to free them from slavery again. This time from the Philistines.
 Samson travelled back and forth from his home to the city of Timnah. One day while in Timnah he saw a beautiful Philistine woman there. He went home and told his mother and father that he wanted that woman for his wife. Samson’s parents tried to talk him out of it because the Israelites were only supposed to marry Israelites. Especially since Samson was being raised as a Nazirite for God.  Some of the rules for Nazirites were 1. No alcohol. 2. Not to touch anything dead. 3. To never get a haircut. So Samson, being set apart for God, surely should not marry a Philistine woman, but his parents finally gave in and said yes.

 One day while Samson was going back to Timnah, a lion attacked him. Samson killed the lion with his bare hands! He continued to Timnah and talked with the woman that he wanted to marry. Things went well and Samson left with joy in his heart.
 Some time later, Samson’s parents were in Timnah making the final wedding preparations. As Samson was walking toward Timnah, he decided to check out the dead lion that he had killed. He noticed that bees had made some honey in the carcass. He stuck his hands into it and scooped out some honey and ate it. He brought some to his parents to eat, but didn’t tell them where he got it because he wasn’t supposed to touch anything dead.
 While Samson’s father was making some last minute wedding preparations, Samson decided to throw a party. He invited the 30 men in his wedding party. He told them a riddle. He made them a bet that they couldn’t guess the answer in seven days.
The men actually threatened Samson’s wife if she didn’t get the answer to the riddle and tell them. For seven days Samson’s wife cried. “If you loved me, you tell me the answer to the riddle. You must not really love me!”
 Finally, Samson gave in and told her the answer. She went right to the 30 men and told them. The next time they saw Samson, they answered his riddle. Samson was furious because he knew that he was tricked! He killed 30 Philistines. Then he left Timah and went to stay with his mother and father.







 After a few weeks, Samson cooled down and went back to Timnah with a young goat to make up with his wife. A young goat back then, was like a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates. I don’t think a young goat would would melt a woman’s heart now a days.

 Samson knocked on his father-in-law’s door. His father-in-law answered and said. “I didn’t think that you were coming back so I gave my daughter in marriage to your best man.”
Now Samson was really mad! He burned the Philistine grain fields and the piles of grain that had been stored. He burned their olive trees and their grapevines.
 “Who did this?” The leaders inquired. “Samson!” The people replied. And so the leaders of the Philistines took Samson’s wife and her father and burned them to death. This is how the Philistines and Samson became bitter enemies. Samson was determined to get revenge. He went out and killed many of the Philistines.
 Do you see God working in this story? Even though Samson made many mistakes, God is using his mistakes to work out His plan of freeing the Israelites from the Philistines.. The word for this is God’s sovereignty. God has a perfect plan. We are not perfect, but He wants to use us anyway. Isn’t that amazing! Now I’m not saying that we can do as we please and God will use us anyway. There are consequences to disobedience as we will soon see in Samson’s life.
 A lot of people discover that God has a plan for their lives as they get older. Samson’s parents knew that God had a plan for Samson before he was even born. The fact is. God had a plan for you before you were born ... just like Samson. Discovering God’s plan for our lives is an exciting adventure!

The Birth of Samson (Judges 9-13)

Like we said last time, after Gideon died, the people went back to their old ways. They began worshipping Baal and living wicked lives. Why would the people worship a wooden statue? Because a statue doesn’t expect much. The people wanted to do their own thing and they knew that God would require obedience and sacrifice.  Here is an example of just how wicked their lives had become.
 Believe it or not, Gideon had 71 sons! After he died, the sons took over as the leaders of the Israelites. One of his sons, Abimelech, wanted to be the ruler all by himself. He went to the town that his mother was from (Shechem) and persuaded the people there that it would be better for them if he were their king. The people agreed. The town took up a collection from the Baal Temple for Abimelech and he spent the seventy silver coins that they gave him on some soldiers.
 Abimelech took his soldiers to his fathers house and killed sixty-nine of his brothers. One of his brothers named Jotham escaped.

 Jotham climbed to the top of a mountain and shouted to all the people of Shechem. “If what you did by making Abimelech your king, is pleasing to God, may you find joy and peace while he is your king. But if what you did is dishonoring to God and to the name of Gideon, who defeated the Midianites for you, then may your time under Abimelech’s rule be filled with sorrow, pain and unrest.” Then Jotham went and hid because he knew his brother wanted to kill him.

 After three years, God decided it was time to stir up some trouble between Abimelech and the town of Shechem. The whole town began to badmouth the Abimelech. But he had spies in the town. They reported back to him what was happening. Abimelech knew that it was a matter of time before the whole town would revolt against him, so he wanted to make the first move. He took his army and stationed them outside the Shechem city limits.  The men of Shechem were no match for Abimelech and his men and when they came out defend their city many of the Shechemites were killed. The rest ran back and told the people to hide in the temple. Abimelech told his men to gather some branches. They laid the branches at the base of the temple and burned it down, killing the people in it. The rest of the people ran to the center of town where there was a huge tower. They took refuge in it, but Abimelech told his men to get more branches. He laid the branches at the base of the tower and has Abimelech was leaning over to start them on fire, a woman dropped a brick off the roof of the tower. It landed on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull.
 Abimelech was barely alive. “Take your sword and kill me!” He told one of his soldiers.. “I don’t want it known that a woman killed me.” So the soldier finished him off.

 God punished Abimelech and the town of Shechem for murdering Gideon’s sons. (Judges 9:56&57)

The Israelites went through several more judges (rulers), but they continued to turn their backs on God. God grew angry and took His hand of protection off the Israelites and they fell into the hands of the Philistines and became their slaves for forty years. Do you realize that God’s hand of protection is upon you and me? Our lives are so fragile! God is the sustainer of all things. Which means that He keeps everything and everyone going.

 Well the Israelites finally realized how self-centered they had been living, and they cried out to God for help. God is so compassionate, caring and forgiving. He decided to raise up a judge that would rescue the Israelites from the Philistines.
 God sent His angel to the wife of a man named Manoah. The couple had not been able to have children, but the angel assured them that they would have a son. The angel also said that their son must be dedicated to God as a Nazirite. (Which meant that he could never get a haircut, never drink alcohol or never touch any dead thing).
 When their son was born, they named him Samson. God blessed him as he grew. His parents kept their part, and never gave him a haircut.