Series Summary:

Who will fight for us? What we are fighting for? These questions guide our lives and the lives of generations. The book of Judges shows us that when we are unwilling fight as God commanded, compromise to get along, fight with the wrong people, and fight for lesser things we descend into tribalism and chaos. We end up with the disaster of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes. We find ourselves crying out again, Who will fight for us? #Judges#2026

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Starter

What is something you have failed to get done? NOT something someone else has failed to get done

Pray

Study Questions

READ: Judges 1:1-2

  1. “Who will fight for us?” How is this still the question people are asking and living by today?
  2. Judges 1:2 says “Judah is to go. I have handed the land over to him.” God prophesied through Jacob, in Genesis 49:8-10, that from the tribe of Judah would come “praise”, “a lion”, “a scepter”, and “obedience.” Revelation 5:5 says “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.”
    Who is all of this talking about that will ultimately fulfill the prophesies of scripture?
  3. God breathed into mankind His nature to be able to think, reason, and use words. At fxchurch, we often talk about…
    Word Theology Description Interpretation Prescription Why do those who say they are believers often just want to see the Bible as Descriptions or Prescriptions instead of the hard work of Interpretation?
  4. Discuss how Interpretation is vital if we are going to “correctly teach the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15)

READ: Genesis 12:7, 17:8, Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 14-15, 9:5-6, Joshua 24:16-28

  1. What was the plan of God in the Old Testament according to these verses or other knowledge you have from other scriptures? (Hint: It is clearly NOT just about getting earthly land and stuff for ourselves right now.)

  2. Numbers 33:50-56, Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy 12, Exodus 23:23-24, Joshua 23:12-13 give a list of all that the Israelites were supposed to do.

    Divide the Land by Lot as assigned by God Drive Out the Inhabitants Do Not Make Treaties or Covenants with them Destroy the Idols and Worship Sites Do not Intermarry with the Inhabitants Do Not Adopt Canaanite Customs Worship Only at the Chosen Place Set yourselves and the land apart

    Even though it shouldn’t be hard, it is hard for people in our day to understand how God would ask His people go into a land and do this. We forget that God said that the land and the people were vile, polluted, and corrupt. It can seem like God did not give the inhabitants a chance to know or cry out to Him, but He did. He gave hundreds of years of warning. a. How did God give the inhabitants of Canaan the chance to see Him, His ways, and turn to Him?

    b. How can the list above still be a good list for us as believers living in exile waiting for a new covenant land that is coming one day?

READ: Titus 2:11-14, 2 Peter 3:10-14, Hebrews 11:9-10, 13, 16, Revelation 21:1-2

  1. At fxchurch, we often talk about…
    Land Theology Wilderness Captivity Promised Discuss how interpreting this is vital if we are going to “correctly teach the word of truth” in our day? (2 Tim 2:15)
  2. What has always been the ultimate plan of God according to the verses we just read?
    1. Why is this vital to remember this Land Theology if we are going to follow God in this life and not settle, compromise, and be deceived in a foreign land like the Israelites?

READ: Judges 1:3-2:5

  1. Genesis 49:5-7 prophesies, “Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.” That is why the tribe of Simeon was living in the land of Judah and did not have their own allotment.
    1. What were Judah’s first compromises according to Genesis 49:5-7 and Judges 1:2-7?
  2. Caleb and Joshua were the only two men of the previous generation that did not die in the wilderness. They did not die because they were the only 2 of the 12 spies that were not afraid. They said let’s believe God and take the land! However, the 10 spies conspired to undermine God and get the nation to rebel and suffer the 40 year consequences. Joshua and Caleb had to suffer with everyone else for 40 years while leading and preparing. Caleb would have been very old and yet miraculously still full of fight. Think about how Caleb must have felt to finally be able to do what he had been preparing himself and others to do for the last 40 years! He wins! He then gives his daughter land and a marriage to a man full of faith and fight, Othniel, who later becomes the first Judge!
    1. How is this an incredible testimony for believers today?
    2. Proverbs 22:15 says, “Foolishness is tangled up in the heart of a youth; the rod of discipline will drive it away from him.” Ephesians 6:4 says, “Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” If we refuse to get our children, grandchildren, and “tribes” ready for the promised land as God has commanded in verses like these what can we expect?