WE BEGIN our study of the second of the Historical Books of the Bible. Judges is named for the twelve leaders who were raised up by Yahweh at critical points in Israel’s history from the late 13th century to the mid-11th century B.C., and it chronicles Israel’s slide into apostasy and chaos, showing the need for a godly king to lead them.
Today, we look at the first five judges: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar (who may have been a devotee of the Canaanite goddess of war), Barak, and Deborah.
We also discuss a few interesting aspects of the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), especially the curse by the Angel of Yahweh (Jesus, if you’ve just joined us) against Meroz. According to a Jewish tradition, Meroz was a group of supernatural inhabitants of the second heaven who refused to fight for Yahweh against the Canaanites.
Hello there Derek and Sharon. Found you (somehow) many weeks ago and have been consuming your podcasts 1 to 2 every day since. I began at the beginning with your Bible Study Archive lesson #1 and have been with you from Genesis through Job and now starting into Judges. I look forward to every new day when I can listen to you in the archives. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart for your glorious teaching – you are truly an enormous blessing for me. Also, learning about Michael Heiser (I am reading The Unseen Realm) and others you speak of is proving to be a blessing. I have an opinion that I would like to share. Since you may be teaching thousands who are new to scripture or coming back to scripture after a very long time (as am I) it would be really helpful if at the end of every lesson you would summarize what was covered. Like one would experience in a classroom – where in the beginning you tell what you will teach, then you teach it and finally tell your students what was taught. Just a thought. Thank you both again very much for this wonderful work that you are doing; Praise Yahweh! (Feb 8, 2020)