Downward Spiral
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Synopsis:
Judges is a history book that describes what happened to the people of Israel as they lived in a covenant relationship with God. A covenant is a binding agreement that two parties would verbally make together that was sacred. We find in Deuteronomy 28 that if the people of Israel live according to God's commands they will be blessed but if they don't they will be cursed. This was the covenant agreement.
The Time Period
Judges describes how Israel followed God after they took the promised land. After Israel took the promised land they were 12 separate tribes that were independent but allied with each other. The word “judge” is shofet is more open ended than our English word for judge. Shofets did sometimes issue judgements like our judges but that was not their primary task. They primarily were deliverers or saviors that rescued Israel from their invaders. If I could I would rename the book Warlords.
Judges chapter 2 gives an overview of the whole story and functions as an outline for what we should expect. This outline is easily summarized by the acronym: SWORD.
SWORD
S- SIN
W- WAR
O- OPPRESSION
R- REPENTANCE
D- DELIVERANCE
This acronym is easily seen in Judges 2 which is the author's overview of the whole time period.
Judges 2:2- Sin
Judges 2:11-13- Sin
Judges 2:17- Sin
Judges 2:19- Sin
Judges 2:14-15- War and Oppression
Judges 2:20-23- War and Oppression
Judges 2:16- Deliverance
Judges 2:18 Repentance and Deliverance
This is the cycle the people of Israel found themselves in and this is what most of the book of Judges is about. This cycle is the same sort of cycle as: 1. Addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, and sex.
2. Abusive families
3. Failing governments, churches, businesses and institutions
Discussion questions
1. Does knowing the overall big picture of Judges make you feel like you can tackle the rest of the book?
2. Have you seen anyone in your own life in a SWORD cycle?
3. Now that you know Judges is about this negative cycle does it change your expectations about this book? If so how?
4. Why do you think people fall into downward spirals?
5. How come these spirals are able to continue?
Note:
This is merely my outline for a Sunday school class I taught. If anything is confusing I will be happy to discuss in the comments section.
