Judges paints an almost 400-year picture beginning with the two terrible stories at the end of the book involving sexual sin and idolatry. It shows a time when God’s people stopped fighting to enlarge their borders and inherit the entire land. Inevitably they would fall away from God, God would allow them to be conquered by other nations, then they would cry out to God, God would give them a deliverer who would save them for a time. Then the cycle repeats. Sampson, one of the most famous judges, was a valiant, powerful man who did almost nothing to deliver God’s people from their oppressors. He is a perfect picture of the chaos of this almost 400 year period.

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