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-- © GodSpeak International 2003 --
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net http://www.godspeak.net
Editor: Elvi Glass

A Prophet's Eye-View Of Bible History"

Lesson 14
God's Government (part 2 of 3)
Joshua and the Judges

By Teresa Seputis

God created the earth, and humanity (left to their own devices) became evil and had to be destroyed. God spared one godly man and his family and from them the earth was re-populated. As the population began to increase, God selected and nurtured a special people group to be His people and to worship Him. He started with a single family and for the first several generations, the family was governed by the family patriarch. But they eventually grew into a massive people group. As the population increased, it became necessary for God to set up various prophets and judges to lead and rule His people.

The first leader that God raised up was Moses. We already looked at Moses' life in the last lesson. This lesson we will look at Joshua, and then at the various judges. The next lesson will look at Samuel, Saul and David.

Joshua

Moses was a prophet God raised up from scratch to lead His people. But Joshua's story is quite different. Joshua was trained and groomed for leadership from his youth by Moses.

One of the first accounts of Joshua was as a military commander for Israelite forces. God had recently delivered them from the Egyptians. Then He brought them into the desert. Shortly after that, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Joshua was Moses' assistant. So Moses instructed him to choose some men and go fight the Amalekites. Joshua and the men he chose were not trained as soldiers -- they had been slaves and brick makers. None the less, Joshua did as Moses asked. This was the battle where God empowered the Israelites to win as long as Moses held up his hands. Even though none of these men had ever fought in a battle before, God gave them a tremendous victory.

The next account of Joshua is in Exodus 24, when God told Moses to come up on the mountain to ratify the covenant that Israel was making to be set apart as His people. First Moses did a short trip with 70 of the elders going part way up with him and standing before God at a distance. Moses came back down with God's covenant and then God instructed him to go back up for what turned out to be 40 days. On this second trip up, Moses took Joshua as his aid. They went part way up the mountain and set up a base camp just below the glory cloud that covered the mountain. After 7 days, God called to Moses and invited him into the glory cloud. The bible does not say it explicitly, but it is assumed that Joshua stayed at the base camp, and Moses when up alone. (It is possible that Joshua actually went up into the glory cloud with Moses.)

There is another account of Joshua, while he was still being mentored by Moses in Exodus 33. Moses had set up a "tent of meeting" where people could go to inquire of God. When Moses went to the tent to meet with God, God's glory cloud would descend on it and all of the people would worship God because of the glory cloud at the tent entrance. Ex 33:11 says, "The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent." In other words, Joshua had gone into full time ministry and was continually seeking God and ministering to those who came to inquire of God.

When it came time to send the 12 spies into the promised land, Joshua was one of two who brought back a good report. The other ten convinced the people to rebel against God and earned them a 40 year exile in the desert.

Joshua served as Moses' assistant for forty years, and Moses trained and mentored him in the things of God during this time. When it came time for Moses to die, he was the one that God selected as the next leader of Israel. He was commanded to lead the people into the promised land and to fight and take the land. Just before Moses died, the Lord promised Joshua, "Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you" (Deut 31:23). Just after Moses died, God told Joshua, "Moses My servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them-to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses ... No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Jos 1:2-5).

Joshua's response to God was, "Whatever You have commanded us we will do, and wherever You send us we will go" (Jos 1:16). Joshua was able to respond to God in faith and obedience because of the training and experience he had already had with God.

The book of Joshua details the various battles they fought and won, and how God empowered them to possess the promised land.

Various Judges

God brought His people into the promised land and they settled there. At first they were faithful to worship Him, but as time progressed, they began to decay spiritually. The nation of Israel went through the same pattern over and over. They would start out committed to God and under his blessings. As they prospered, they put their own agendas over God's and they backslid and fell into idolatry and worshipped other gods. Then God sent judgment and they were besieged, oppressed or taken into captivity. They would repent and cry out to God and He would raise up a judge to deliver them. Then the whole cycle would repeat.

We learn many things from these various judges. Let's briefly examine three of them:

DEBORAH

Deborah was a prophetess who lived while the nation of Israel had been in captivity by the Canaanite king Jabin for about 20 years. Deborah served as a judge -- she held court outdoors under a palm tree and many different Israelites came to her to have their disputes settled. In addition to being a judge, Deborah was a wife (married to Lappidoth) and probably a mother as well. In her role as prophetess, she relayed a message from God to Barak with military instructions to defeat the oppressing king in battle. Barak obeyed the Lord's command and defeated Jabin, winning a deliverance for Israel. However, Barak respected Deborah so much that he would not go into battle unless she went with him. The land, under Deborah's rule, had peace for 40 years after they defeated Jabin.

From Deborah, we learn that God uses women as leaders, not just men. She was a prophetess, so she served as a spiritual leader. In addition, she was a judge, so she served as a political leader. Deborah's life and ministry demonstrate that God's criteria for His leaders is not their sex -- it is their heart after Him and willingness to obey and honor Him.

GIDEON

After Deborah died, the Israelites fell back into spiritual depravity and God allowed the Midianites to conquer them and oppress them for seven years. The people repented and cried out to God for help. So God raised up a judge and leader to set them free. He choose a very unlikely candidate, Gideon. Gideon was a poor farmer's son, coming from an uninfluential family. And Gideon was not a brave man and he needed a lot of confirmations and reassurances from God to obey what God told him to do. For instance, God told Gideon to tear down his father's altar to Baal and build a proper altar to God. Gideon did obey God, but he did it secretly at night, so no one would know who did it.

God used this timid man to raise up an army and defeat the vast military forces that oppressed Israel. Gideon should serve as a big encouragement to us -- God uses every-day people who are not greatly gifted in the natural. He uses people who are not great men/women of faith -- providing they are obedient. This gives people like you and I hope that as we make ourselves available to God and commit to obey Him and do things His way, He will use us to do real kingdom work with Him.

We learn another interesting lesson from Gideon. He raised up an army to fight the enemy army, then God told him he had too many men. So Gideon sent home those who were afraid and he had 22,000 men left. Then God said that is still too many men, and he sent home all but 300 men -- and this was to face a very vast and well-equipped army. God used this tiny band of 300 to defeat the massive army. From this we learn that it is not by our might or power, but by God's. We do not need massive amounts of resources when God gives us a task to do for Him. He is able to work with what we have and empower us to do the job.

SAMSON

Samson was a Nazirite, set apart for God from birth. He was never to cut his hair, because his uncut hair was a sign of the covenant he had with God. Samson had a supernatural strength, and he fought and defeated a lot of Philistine oppressors. For instance, one time he grabbed a donkey's jawbone and used it to slay 1000 Philistine soldiers who attacked him. Samson was not a particularly godly man, he even slept with Philistine prostitutes. He was motivated for many wrong reasons. But as long as he kept his Nazirite covenant with God, God was with him and empowered him.

Later on Samson fell in love with a Philistine beauty named Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines asked her to find out the secret of Samson's strength so they could disable him. He was ruled by his hormones, not by his intellect, and she used her feminine whiles to manipulate him. So he eventually told her about the restriction not to shave his head. She shaved his hair off while he was sleeping, and God's anointing lifted off of him. He was taken captive by the Philistines, imprisoned and they even gorged out his eyes. But his hair began to grow back. Some time later, they had a festive celebration to their god Dagon and they brought Samson out of prison to entertain them. They tied him between the two supporting pillars of Dagon's temple. Samson prayed for God to hear him and empower him one more time, and the supernatural strength returned. Samson pushed against the supporting pillars and knocked the temple down, killing himself and many many Philistines.

We learn the importance of keeping our covenants with God from Samson's story. God forgave his weaknesses and even his improper motives. But when Samuel entered into willful disobedience in allowing his hair to be shaved off, God withdrew his anointing. It is very important that we do not choose to willfully disobey any restrictions God puts on us, or He may lift His anointing off of us. Willful disobedience is a very bad thing.


-- © GodSpeak International 2003 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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