Judg 1:1, Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?" 
	Today, we start our reading and consideration of the Book of Judges. We will spend some time with a number of introductory remarks from Dr. Herbert Wolf, in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, edited by Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein. We do so, Lord willing, to shed some background and historical light into the discussion of this book. 
Judges is one of those transitional books of the Bible which covers over 300 years of the history of the Children of Israel as they tried to live in the land of Promise. Sadly, they did so without fully submitting to the Lord God Almighty as their King and Sovereign. We will be invested in the details of humanity’s inability to honor the commandments and the ordnances of the Lord through human effort and commitment. 
	As Dr. Wolf states, quote, The Book of Judges covers the period from the death of Joshua to the dawn of the monarchy. Political and religious turmoil accompanied Israel’s attempts to occupy the land that had been conquered and divided by lot under the leadership of Joshua. Apart from the struggle against the Canaanites at the time of Deborah, Israel’s adversaries came from outside the land. Most of these, such as Moab, Midian, and Ammon, periodically plundered the land. The Philistine’s, however, who at this time entered Palestine in greater numbers, contested with Israel for permanent possession of the land.
	Tragically, the Israelites even fought among themselves. Ephraim was ravaged by Manasseh (ch.12), and Benjamin was almost annihilated by the other tribes (chs.20-21). Between the days of Joshua and Samuel, Israel plummeted to moral and spiritual disaster. Over and over the pattern of sin followed by oppression was repeated. Occasionally God raised up a Deborah or a Gideon to turn the people back to Himself, but the intervals of revival were all too brief.
	Judges falls directly within the heroic age, a time when divinely provided leaders were called on to save the day by personal exploits. It was an unstable period characterized by tribal migrations and lack of central authority. People led dangerous yet simple lives in which warlike pursuits alternated with ordinary peacetime activities. End quote.
	As we can tell by our reading together of the first chapter of Judges, we find great victories as well as significant defeats. The various tribes were unable to completely remove the inhabitants of the land from those areas that were generally conquered. These small pockets of Canaanites were not dispossessed, but rather incorporated into the community of the Israelites. This was not what they were supposed to do.
	Please refer back to Deut 7:1-6, where God made it very clear what they were to do to all the inhabitants who were to be utterly destroyed by the Lord through Israel. It was because these nations had become so corrupt and defiled in their despicable adoration and dedication to the gods of their own making. As a result, they were practicing all manner of vial and horrid atrocities in the worship of those detestable idols. That is why they were to be completely destroyed.
	 Deut 7:1-6, "When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 
	The fact of the matter was that God knew that the nations that were not utterly and definitively destroyed would, in fact, infest and defile this, His Chosen Nation. They would insinuate their false gods and idolatry into the lives and the posterity of this nation of God’s own people. Therefore, those defiled nations were to be completely annihilated from the land, just as cancer needs to be absolutely obliterated from the body to prevent further decay resulting in death.  
	As was so evident in the history of Israel in the land and so described by this Book of Judges, Dr. Wolf continues, quote, The primary purpose of the Book of Judges is to show that Israel’s spiritual condition determined its political and material situation. When the nation turned to God in obedience, God graciously sent deliverers to rescue the people from oppression. When they disregarded Joshua’s warnings and worshiped the gods of Canaan, the nation came under the control of tyrants and invaders. End quote
	Dr. Wolf highlights the fact that Judges details the need for order and for unity. This so blessed nation had disintegrated into factions fighting invaders from outside its borders, uprisings from Canaanites inside its borders, and even rebellion among themselves, as they refused to honor the Lord as the source of their cohesion and guidance. Each group of Israelites was only after that which served the immediate and self-centered purposes of its own gratification. 
	Quote, As the book progresses, Israel’s plight worsens. The stunning victories of Deborah and Barak and of Gideon are followed by the less decisive efforts of Jephthah and of Samson. Jephthah’s victory over Ammon failed to prevent civil war. Samson’s stories of sin and all-out civil war depict the nation’s desperate need for unity and order. The repeated references to a time when Israel had no king (18:1 et al.) emphasize the author’s intention to show the advantages of a monarchy over anarchy. The implication is that a nation led by a godly king would experience prosperity under the blessing of God.
The Book of Judges shows that Israel failed to realize her divinely intended goal without a king. Israel was unable to govern herself according to the Mosaic law and thereby proved that she needed a king. In light of the leadership role assigned to Judah in both the prologue and the epilogue (1:1-2; 20:18), it is not surprising that eventually Judah emerged as the tribe that produced the Davidic dynasty. End quote. 
 One of the key aspects of the entire book of Judges is that Judah did become the preeminent tribe, as directed by God. The other family units of the Children of Israel were ordered in accordance with their being submitted to Judah as the tribe from whom God would choose the king over the whole nation. This would not be without bloodshed and internal implosion. Despite this, the fact of the matter was that God directed Judah as the tribe to lead the rest of the families of the nation of Israel. 
This is indicated quite directly at the very beginning of this Book of Judges as the people, who were then still loyal to God, asked Him which one of the tribes should begin the destruction of the Canaanites. God chose Judah.
Judg 1:1+2, Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?" And the Lord said, "Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand." 
This divine choice of Judah as the royal tribe of the nation was again reiterated at the end of Judges, in Chapter 20, verse 18. It is here that the civil insurrection of the other tribes against the sovereignty of the Lord needed to be quelled. The Lord made it very clear that this task would be lead by the tribe of Judah. There was a need evident for a king to lead the people because, on their own, they were dissolving into chaotic anarchy. The Lord made that choice to be from Judah as it was Judah who would take the lead against the strident disobedience of the tribe of Benjamin. 
Judg 20:18, Now the sons of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and inquired of God, and said, "Who shall go up first for us to battle against the sons of Benjamin?" Then the Lord said, "Judah shall go up first." 
This is an important detail in the fact that this showed that the eventual kingly lineage would be from the tribe of Judah. The eternal line of kings would begin with David and culminate in the everlasting Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God who was also the son of David’s earthly heritage. As such, He is not just the King of Israel, but the established Sovereign over the entire Kingdom of God forevermore.
The next consideration of this book of the Bible, as detailed by Dr. Wolf, is that Judges completes the segment from the Pentateuch to the arrival of the kingly order as recounted in the books of Samuel, the last of the judges. There is continuity in place in both the historical events as well as in the spiritual upheaval which evidences the absolute need of the establishment of unity and order in the lives of God’s people. 
Quote, The events recorded in Judges also serve in general to fill in the gap between the time of Joshua and that of Samuel. By recounting the fortunes of Israel during those three hundred difficult years, the author gives the student of Scripture a connected history of Israel at this time. End quote.
Please bring to mind what we find in the warning of the Lord, pronounced through Joshua, to this people as recounted in Josh 24:14-25. We spent much time with this bold statement of fidelity, tinged with the reality of what mankind, apart from the dedication, consecration, and absolute fidelity to the Lord will encounter. Joshua did not leave any doubt as to what would happen if the nation allowed itself to be drawn away from the Lord through idol worship and the incorporation of the beliefs of the nations whom they were to utterly destroy.    
Josh 24:14-25, "Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And the people answered and said, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. "And the Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God." Then Joshua said to the people, "You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you." And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the Lord." And Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him." And they said, "We are witnesses." "Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel." And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice." So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 
Again quoting Dr. Wolf, Few books portray so complete a picture of human depravity as does Judges. A nation that before Joshua solemnly swore to obey God quickly intermarried with pagans and turned to other gods. Morality sank to great depths as son stole from mother (17:2-3) and a whole tribe condoned homosexuality and a rape-murder (19:22-30).
Israel’s sin made God angry; so He turned her over to her enemies. The nation that broke the covenant felt the wrath of a righteous God (2:20). He could not condone the people’s behavior; and every time they lapsed into sin, judgment followed. God even strengthened the forces arrayed against Israel (3:12). End quote.    
Judg 2:20-22, So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, "Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to My voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not." 
Judg 3:12, Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. 
The cycle, which is so known to you and to me in our hearts and minds, was repeated over and over again. We call out to the Lord to save us from our situations and circumstances. We promise to be true to Him if He will deliver us. Then, when He does, we so readily turn again to that which got us in trouble in the first place. Again and again, we circle that mountain of selfish hostility to obedience and reverent honor to the Lord. Still, He is faithful to deliver when we truly call out in humble repentance and in our seeking to know Him.
Quoting Dr. Wolf, Over and over the suffering of the people led to repentance and a cry for mercy, and God’s gracious response demonstrated His love and patience. Israel was His own special people, and He did not abandon them. When they prayed earnestly, He sent someone to rescue them, just as He had responded to the anguished cry of the Israelites in Egypt and sent Moses to rescue them from bondage…. Hebrews 11:32 praises the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, each of whom God sovereignly prepared to meet specific crises. Often the Spirit of the Lord stirred the judges to action (3:10; 6:34; 11:29). To prove that victory was His doing, the Lord sent a flash flood to stop Sisera’s mighty chariots and used Gideon’s tiny army of three hundred to overwhelm the hosts of Midian. End quote. 
Much as we would like to dismiss the details of the Book of Judges as an aberration in the history of humanity, we can’t. We see ourselves in the selfish and unthinking actions of those chosen people of God. We come face to face with the downfalls, the deceptions, and with the compromises enacted with the defiled nations surrounding them. 
They were to be a holy people set apart for the testimony of the Lord, but they were truly the example of human depravity at its worst. They were without hope and without any means of deliverance through their own abilities. It was only by the Hand of Jehovah that they were delivered and transformed into a nation which could show forth the witness that Yahweh is the only Living and True God. His Sovereignty would be established in them as it is in us when the Light of the World shone upon and in them and in us by the establishment of the eternal kingdom of God in His Son. So be it!
Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?" Amen.

This morning’s benediction is 2 Cor 9:8, And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; Amen.