Sunday – October 13, 2013 “Why Should We Study Judges?”

October 13, 2013 – Read the Word on Worship

Why Should We Study Judges? from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Judges was written to be an encouragement to us and reminds us that God uses some of the grimiest and broken people for His plans and to achieve His purposes. Even the enemies they faced were raised up by God to cause His people to cry out for God’s redemption and salvation. If you are a Christian and you feel that you have made a complete mess of your life that God can’t use you, stay with us as we see how God uses people like Sampson who were not model citizens. God uses broken people to accomplish great things. And if you do not know the Lord as your Savior, God saves broken people. The Book of Judges is all about God being faithful to His promises to save people who are in bondage to their sin. Liberty comes from the Great Judge and the Great Deliverer, Jesus Christ. May the Lord speak to us all as we study this wonderful book


Word On Worship – October 13, 2013 Download / Print

Josh 24:31-33
Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Now they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him at Gibeah of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.”

When I have spoken with people about doing a study in the Book of Judges, I have gotten many strange looks and the inevitable question is asked. “Why in the world would you study the Book of Judges?” Many people have their excuses for why they stay away from this book. Some cite the lack of a central character such as Moses, Joshua or David. Others point out that the book seems to be a train wreck of the Israelites as they go from failure to failure. And sadly, some are under the belief that because it is in the Old Testament, there are no important things to be learned and applied to our lives today.

How wrong they are! The subject matter of the Book of Judges is not as foreign as you might think. The very things we see in the news and even in our modern entertainment are the background of this book: violence, sex, sin, disregard for God’s word, and living according to your own standards rather than living according the standards of God. That is not just Israel long ago and far away; that is our generation today. We have much to learn from this book that so few study in its historical context between the time of Joshua and the appointment of Saul, the first king of Israel.

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” So, if we do not think the Old Testament is relevant to our lives today, then how can we think the New Testament is relevant to our lives in the 21st century? If we did not need the Book of Judges it would not be there- but it is there because we do need it. A study in this book is need by the church and we need to wrestle with the text to find out how application can be made in our lives today.

Judges was written to be an encouragement to us and reminds us that God uses some of the grimiest and broken people for His plans and to achieve His purposes. Even the enemies they faced were raised up by God to cause His people to cry out for God’s redemption and salvation. If you are a Christian and you feel that you have made a complete mess of your life that God can’t use you, stay with us as we see how God uses people like Sampson who were not model citizens. God uses broken people to accomplish great things. And if you do not know the Lord as your Savior, God saves broken people. The Book of Judges is all about God being faithful to His promises to save people who are in bondage to their sin. Liberty comes from the Great Judge and the Great Deliverer, Jesus Christ. May the Lord speak to us all as we study this wonderful book.

What do you think?