Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Judges is a book full of bloody and wicked stories. I tell you that not only so you can prepare

your own heart for it, but in case you're concerned about little ears listening in. Depending on who's counting, this book covers anywhere from 160 to

410 years in its 21 chapters. Some people think some of the judges overlap, so this is just a

high-level account of what happened with each of the 12 judges in this time period.

By the way, we have to reframe our understanding of the word judge in accordance with this book and time period.

For the most part, these aren't courtroom judges.

These are civil and military leaders, more like a very hands-on president who enacts laws and commands the army. Of all the judges

in this book, the one who sticks the closest to what God has ordered is a woman named Deborah,

but you're probably more familiar with the bad judges like Samson or the mediocre judges like

Gideon. At this point in its history, Israel is still a theocratic nation state. Being a theocracy means

God rules the country, not a king or a president. There is no separation of church and state.

This kind of system may sound like a great idea, but having God as your leader doesn't mean you

follow him. The problem is the human heart. It doesn't respond to laws. It responds to what it loves. And if you don't

love God, you will find his rules repugnant and irrational, and you'll rebel against him.

You may recall from yesterday that even though Israel is dwelling in the promised land, they still

haven't conquered the land completely. There were pockets of Canaanites throughout the land

and in major cities. This was the result of Israel's sin and failure to obey God's covenant and

commands. And God warned them repeatedly about the consequences, which are, the Canaanites will become

a snare and lead them away into apostasy, and then they will become oppressed and dragged away.

So today we set out for a long ride on the apostasy express. For the Israelites, this train runs in a loop,

and it looks something like this. Israel sins, they fall into oppression, then they cry out to God

...