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  COMMENTARY ON JUDGES 1-7
  by Chuck Smith
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DESCRIPTION
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CONTENT
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Through Moses, the children of Israel were let out of Egypt and God
began to form a national kind of identity and began to forge the
beginnings of a nation. At the death of Moses, Joshua, who was the
servant of Moses, took over and continued to lead the people now into
the land that God had promised to their father Abraham that should be
theirs, that they should inhabit. And thus, God keeping his covenant and
his word to Abraham.

Now the book of Judges takes up the next period in their history. There
were some thirteen Judges over Israel. They became sort of quasi leaders
of Israel. They would judge in the matters of the people. They were
leaders but never fully empowered by the people as rulers. They were in
an interim period between Joshua and the establishing of a monarchy at
which time Saul became the first king over Israel.

So this book of Judges covers this period of time between the death of
Joshua and the coming in of Samuel, who was the final judge over Israel
and who anointed Saul to be the first king over Israel, where their form
of government was changed from a theocracy, God ruling over to people,
to a monarchy. Now the theocracy was not successful simply because the
people would not submit to the rule of God.

In the book of Judges we find a pattern that emerges, a very tragic
pattern, and that is during the time when they were blessed, at ease,
without war. They would turn to other gods and begin to worship Baal and
Ashtoreth and the various gods of the Canaanites and the Perizzites and
the Hivites and the Hittites and the Jebusites, the people in the land
in which they were dwelling. And because of their apostasy God would
give them over into the hand of their enemies and they would be
oppressed by their enemies. And being oppressed by their enemies they
would cry out unto the Lord and the Lord would raise up a judge to be a
deliverer and they would be delivered from the oppression from their
enemies. Then they would have a period of prosperity, the judge would
die and back into the same old pattern of turning their backs on God and
beginning again to worship Baal and the other gods and the groves and
all. And it\

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/chuck-smith/commentary-on-judges-1-7/
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