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
Starter
What is something that causes your anger to burn?
If your answer was “nothing”, how might that be a problem?
Pray
Study Questions
The Lord promised the land of Canaan to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. The people of Canaan were so wicked and had polluted the land so badly the Lord said they had to get out. God tells the Israelites to, divide the Land by lot, drive out inhabitants, not to make treaties or covenants, destroy idols and worship sites, not intermarry, not adopt Canaanite customs, and worship only at the chosen place, setting yourselves and the land apart. It is now time for the people of God to take the land. However, The Angel of the Lord confronts them with reality, “But you have not obeyed Me. What is this you have done?”
- What is a Theophany in the Bible?
- “The Angel of the Lord” was often a theophany in the Old testament. Exodus 33:20, God explicitly tells Moses, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live". Colossians 1:15 says, Jesus “is the image of the invisible God.” So who most likely is the The Angel of the Lord in Judges 2?
- How does this help us to see God’s whole redemptive plan?
- Who breaks the covenant between God and Israel in Judges?
- Who never breaks the covenant?
- God leaves the Canaanites as “thorns” for his people? Why?
- How is this similar for believers today?
- God never puts on humanity what He does not have a plan to take Himself. Who fulfills the curse of the thorns by taking all the thorns for us?
READ: 1 Samuel 15:22-23, 2 Corinthians 7:10-11
- What do these verses say will be the results of a truly repentant person or people?
- Did the Israelites have these responses according to Judges 2-3:6?
- How do we, God’s people today, often settle for stopping at earthly sorrow and sacrifice like the Israelites after Joshua instead of moving toward repentant long suffering obedience?
- What happened after the death of Joshua and that generation? Why?
- Galatians 6:9 says, “So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.” Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works.” How are these verses helpful so we do not become a generation that falls away like the Israelites?
- What is The Pattern of the Judges according to Judges 2? (vs 16-23)
- How is this still a pattern we see among God’s people today?
- How does that go against the pattern God gave his people in scriptures like Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and 2 Timothy 2:1-13?
- Who’s responsibility is it to keep ourselves and others from falling into this pattern?
- What will it likely mean for us if we stand up to this normal going along, doing what works, and forgetting pattern?
- “The Lord’s anger burned against” his people.(2:14, 20) Why?
READ: Mark 11:15-18, John 2:13-16, Revelation 2:5, 7, 10-11, 16-17, 20-21, 29, 3:1-2, 6, 8, 13, 15-16, 22
- In Revelation God is calling the churches to repent and listen to the right ways because judgment is coming. God starts in his own house first. Jesus in righteous anger starts cleaning up the outer Gentile courts of the Temple that his people were using for their own profit and benefit instead using as an example to the nations.
- What do these verses teach us about getting the Lord’s anger to burn?
- What do you think makes the Lord’s anger burn among his people in our day?
- If we are willing to listen to what the Spirit says the churches (Revelation3-4), what should our life patterns be like instead of the pattern of the Judges?