so we'll just dive right into this this evening Old Testament overview and we are going to be talking about life in the promised land life in the promised land and so what are we going to be discussing tonight well we need to do a little bit of review the Bible. However, just a collection of books and they just are so arranged Joshua judges Ruth. Some of the kids say what did Ruth do? Well, no, this is not Joshua judging Ruth, but rather this is just the order of books that we have for this evening. Those are the next three books that you have in your Bible. after the Torah, which are the first five books of the Bible. Sometimes it's called the Pentateuch, the Pentateuch. And so that would include Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. These are the books that Moses authored. And so sometimes they're also called the five books of Moses. Well, in your Bibles, as they are arranged today, unless you have a very special Bible, you probably have Joshua, Judges, Ruth and next. And these are the beginning of the historical books. How many historical books do we have? Well, we have twelve historical books. And so it's not just Joshua, Judges and Ruth, but also first and second Samuel and first second Kings, first and second Chronicles. And Joshua Judges Ruth. These are all pre-monarchy books. The books I just mentioned are the monarchical books. They are the books during the during the Davidic line line. And of course Saul before that and then we have the post-monarchy books Ezra and Nehemiah and Esther. Now, this is arranged a little bit differently in Jewish Bibles. And we're going to talk about that in just a moment. But in our Bibles, we have five and twelve and then another five here, five poetic books, Psalms and Proverbs and Song of Songs or Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes would be the next five. And then we have five major prophets from Isaiah to Daniel and twelve minor prophets. And so that's usually how it's broken up. We could just say law, the historical books, the poetic books, and then the prophets. But as I said, the Jews divided up a little bit differently. They referred to these early historical books as the former prophets. the former prophets. And so that would be from Joshua all the way through Kings, excluding Ruth. Ruth wouldn't be in there. Ruth would be somewhere else. Now, if we want to think about how they thought about it, we could see an example of this in the book of Luke, for instance, Luke 24. This was Jesus here walking along with his disciples after the resurrection. They are sad, but then he begins to open their eyes to this reality. Luke 24 verse 44. With 2444, he said, These are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that in all things which are written about me and watch this now in the law of Moses, that would be the first five books, right? And the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Well, see, he's got this large category known as the prophets. And then we have the Psalms, which would be the writings. And this is typically how the Jews divided up the Bible. They had the law, and then they had the prophets, and then they had the Psalms. We talked about this, and that's if you take the first letters of each of those in the Hebrew, you get the word Tanakh, which is the Hebrew word for the Old Testament. And so those are the three sections there, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. And sometimes it's written slightly different. the Psalms, meaning the writings. Sometimes the prophets will say Isaiah, but that would just be the head of the prophets there. The former prophets, to be specific here, the former prophets give a continuous history of Israel in the land through the eyes of the prophets. And so that would be Joshua, that would be Judges, that would be Samuel, 1st and 2nd Samuel, and then we move on to the Kings and even into the Chronicles. Now, the latter prophets indict, excuse me, the latter prophets indict the law breaking of Israel and Judah. But also predict Yahweh's future restoration of Israel. And of course, God does restore Israel. Now the former prophets are where we're studying tonight or the historical books and that will lead us into the monarchy. So these are the pre-monarchy books. We're talking about tonight. And Israel received Yahweh's blessing here in in the in the former prophets. Israel received Yahweh's blessing only so long as she remained faithful to the stipulations of the Mosaic Covenant. Now, in Deuteronomy, Chapter 28, God gives a whole list of stipulations. And we didn't really get into this but Deuteronomy 28 is one of the more important question chapters to answer the question of why Israel would suffer within the land or why Israel would be blessed in the land. The God actually gives a promise of blessings. He says, you know, you blessed are you if you do this blessed shall be you in the city. Blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of the ground and the offspring of your beast. Blessed shall your basket and your basket, your kneading bowl. You're going to have food. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. This is a whole list of blessings that he gives. But when we get down to verse 15, there is a break there and he switches the tone. He says, but it shall come about if you do not obey the Lord, your God, to observe, to do all he his commandments and his statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. So instead of now to be attitudes or the blessings here, there is a listing of cursings. Cursed shall be you in the cities. See how it's reversed now. Instead of blessed, shall you be in the city cursed? You will be in the city and cursed. You will be in the country. Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be your offspring of your body, et cetera, et cetera. There's going to be cursings and he lists out the cursings. where they're actually going to receive famine. They're going to receive plagues. They're going to receive all of the things written about in this book. They will even be sold into slavery and everything else. It is interesting, by the way, that the Black Hebrew Israelites, which is a heretical group that started here in the United States, we start so many heresies. It's not really something to be proud of, but it is something that makes us stand apart. We have a lot of heresies here. And that that's one and they point to Deuteronomy 28 to say, ah, see, this is us. This is because we were brought over in slave ships. But no, this is actually talking about Israel. And in fact, Israel is being told, if you do this, there's going to be a point where you try to sell yourself off in slavery and they won't even buy you. you won't even have that as an option anymore. And so, so these are all curses that are being brought about in Israel for covenant disobedience. Now, as we move through this section, if you want to call them the former prophets, if you want to call it the historical books, pre-monarchy, we're going to be talking about the conquest of the land. And then we're going to get into that moment, and next week we'll really talk about it, the establishment of the dynasty of David over the land. And that's going to be key because it's going to lead into a new covenant that God makes with David. And that's going to be a key covenant for not only the first coming of Christ, but the second coming of Christ, where he will come and rule and reign as the descendant of David. But that's really getting ahead of ourselves. We'll just be talking about David in the land, and then we will talk about exile from the land. And so this is really a breakdown of the timeline of the next several books. But let's talk about Joshua now. Joshua. The Hebrew name for Joshua is Yehoshua. Yehoshua. And the Ye there, Yah, from Yahweh, Yahweh is salvation. The Lord is salvation and it is related to Yeshua. Same same kind of word. They're just a shortening Yeshua. The Greek actually is similar as well. And the theme here is not divide and conquer but conquer and divide and conquer and divide. They are re-entering the land and they're going to conquer the land and then they're going to divide it up among the people. And so that's what we have going on in the book of Joshua. Well, when do we have it going on? Well, we have it going on from the death of Moses And again, I'm giving very conservative dates. There are a lot of folks who would not agree with these states, a lot of Bible scholars. But I do believe that they are the more faithful dates to scripture from the death of Moses 1406 BC to the death of the elders associated with Joshua, which would have been 1375. You say, wait a minute, that date is lower. Remember, BC counts down. What are we counting down to? Christ, right, the birth of Christ. So this is before Christ. B.C. doesn't mean birth of Christ. It means before Christ. We're counting down. And so the bigger numbers are earlier in history. The smaller numbers are later in history. And so from 1406 to 1375, obviously not a large span there. And who are the people? They are the ones who came out of the wilderness. They were the ones who are under the age of 20 coming out of Egypt. Why the ones under the age of 20? Because everyone older than that, except for Joshua, everyone older than that perished in the wilderness. All the adults were scared of going into the promised land where Joshua is about to take them. God says, OK, if you're scared to go into the promised land, you won't go into the promised land. You're scared for your kids. Well, guess what? Your kids are going to be the ones who grow up and go into the promised land. And that's what happened. And so everyone who is under 20 coming out of Egypt. And so we have the little ones back there. They would be included if this was then they would be included in that. You would be just under that line when you. you would be safe. I wouldn't be safe, but you would be safe back there. You could go in as well, but not much older than that right there. And so that would be the age range. And they lived for about 30 years in the land helping to conquer. Now, is this history? Yes, it is. Israel did exist in history. Of course, the Pharaoh of Egypt had the steel in 1225 BC, which identified Israel as a nation. Of course, that's a little later in history, as I said. But as a result, liberals can't say Israel didn't exist at this time. That's something that liberals used to say. Well, Israel wasn't really a thing. Maybe there was a King David, but he only ruled over a little town of Jerusalem at that time. And then there were just these other kings everywhere else. And that's kind of their view of it. Now, they have to admit, well, Israel did exist as a nation, but they didn't really conquer the land like the Bible says. There's always an argument, right? It's not like the Bible says. And over and over and over again, it's proven it is in fact like the Bible says, and they just shift to a different argument. We won't spend too much time on that tonight. Let's talk about an outline of the book of Joshua. We have the first 12 chapters focused on conquering the land on seizing the land. And so you have the invasion of the land. and the subjugation of the land. And then the latter half of the book, verses 13 through 24, that's focused on on dividing the land. And so I said it's conquering and dividing. That's what we have. We have conquering in the first half of the book. Then we have dividing in the second half of the book, distributing the land and the and then finally the addresses by Joshua and his death in the last two chapters there. And land is a major theme, by the way, in the book of Joshua. Why do you think land is a big deal? Because it's the promise land. God is fulfilling the promise. That's why we are looking at the land. They're going into the land. God made a covenant. Who did he make a covenant with? Abraham and then Isaac and then Jacob. Right. He made a covenant with them. He made a covenant saying that they would go down even into Egypt. They would come back. Well, guess what? This is the coming back part. This is the reentry part. And so God is fulfilling his promise to bring them into the promised land. And for the children of Israel that didn't know because they they they had been spending so much time in Egypt. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. plenty of provision there, which is a very beautiful way of saying there's plenty of provision there. If it's a land flowing with milk, that means that there's a lot of grass for the flocks so that you can feed the flocks so that they can produce milk for you. If there's honey, that means there's lots of flowers and bees and everything else to make the honey. There's a lot of provision there. God also said in Deuteronomy 20 verse 16 though that they would need to go and conquer this land. Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. They have to go in and conquer. This is a this is a very difficult work. It's a bloody and tiring work. They cannot sit back and say, OK, God, just remove these barriers for us. They actively have to apply faith by working out the problem here. And there is a wickedness among the Canaanites. And they would have to spend time dealing with the Canaanites because they did not want to at first. That's why they spent 40 years in the wilderness wandering while all the people over the age of 20 died off. So that finally their children would go into the land. It's because they were afraid of the Canaanites. God said, you will do this and I will be with you. And then he repeats it when the time comes with Joshua. You say, yeah, but this this sounds horrible. Why would the Canaanites have to be destroyed? Couldn't they work something out? Well, no, Deuteronomy 7, 16 says they would become a snare to Israel. And as I said, they were very wicked people. They were dedicated to idolatry. The children of Israel did not need to intermingle with them. And the people could have left. The people could have left. But for those who stayed and they said, no, we're going to stand against your God. They were the ones who would be put to the sword. Remember, for instance, Rahab was a Canaanite. She was a harlot even, right? As far as the people who could be a snare, she was one of them, but she did something different than her Canaanite brethren. She repented. She said we've heard of your God even 40 years ago. They knew what God had done to the Egyptians. They knew how the children of Israel had gotten out because God had said plague after plague after plague and and decimated the Egyptians how God had opened up the Red Sea and brought them through. She knew that it was only a matter of time before her city, Jericho, would lay in ruins. And yes, we have found Jericho, by the way, and guess what? The walls have fallen down. They have fallen down outward, not inward. You can look in you can look in archaeology books and verify this. It is exactly as God said in his word that she knew that was only a matter of time before that would be the end of her city. And so she repented, but no one else did. And see, that's that's that's what you see. People could have repented. People could have made other choices, but they did not. They did not. And in fact, as we read in Joshua 11, 20, there's an explanation there. God actually hardened their hearts. Sometimes as people are dedicated to their wickedness, we should all take warning of this. If you remain dedicated to your wickedness, God will harden your heart so that you will remain dedicated to your wickedness. And then you become an instrument of destruction. because it's not just life that you are facing, it's internal damnation. It's not just suffering in this life, I mean, it's eternal damnation. Well, let's consider here what we read next. Land is a major theme, as I said. They come against Jericho, and it's interesting that as they enter into the promised land, as they cross over the Jordan, God stops the miraculous supply of manna. Where are they going to get their food? They have to go earn it now. Now it's time for the rubber to meet the road. Now it's time for their faith to become action. And so they need to go and and take the land see the Canaanites. They have been farming the land and they they were within their walls with plenty of food for Israel to take. It's all there. God provided supernaturally for His people, and now He is going to provide providentially. He does not just provide supernaturally for His people. He also provides providentially. We have to know the difference between those. Sometimes we can say, okay, God, we have a need, and we can pray, and maybe that check will be in the mailbox that we have been praying for and hoping for. But there are also times when God says, okay, well, you need to be more responsible. You need to put your faith into action. You can't just go to Las Vegas, for instance, and gamble away all your money and then say, oh, God, you know, now I have bills to pay. Well, you should have thought about that first. Right. Right. And so God does call us sometimes to do that. And sometimes he provides providentially as well. OK, well, here's a job application. Oh, I don't want that. I didn't want that in my mailbox. I wanted the check in my mailbox, not the job app. Well, sometimes that's how God provides as well, right? Well, God is doing this. He also is protecting his people. How? Well, in their conquering of the land, they are having success. Of course, there is there is that moment where they conquer the big city, Jericho. And and it's all and it is almost miraculous how that happens. It is miraculous in a way. They just walk around the city. Once once a day for seven days, seventh day, they do it seven times and blow the trumpets and the walls come down. So we said, well, maybe it's something in the resonance of the trumpets and it's matching the frequency of the brick. No, no, it's just supernatural. God just brought the walls down. I don't think we can explain it with the way that they were blowing their horns there. But no, the walls came down, the people had victory over Jericho, then they go to a relatively smaller city, Ai, to conquer it, and they are unable to take it. Because they had done something displeasing to the Lord, they had touched the thing devoted to destruction. And of course, there was one person who said, there's a lot of gold in the city, I want to keep a little bit of it for myself. Well, that's not what they're there for. And so God does say, OK, you've got to do it the right way. But as they are doing it the right way, they're able to take the land gradually. And the and the kings are not gathering against them. There's not an organized force and they're able to gradually take on the land through guerrilla warfare and different things like that. First, he restrained the kings, as I said, of the land from coming against Israel all at once. They had to fight. only the people who were nearby. Second, it kept them from conquering the land too quickly and becoming spread too thin and disorganized. They were able to launch a sustainable offensive into the land. And of course, there's a lot of interesting stuff with that, but we have to keep moving on and considering this. We also have to consider the fact that they failed to conquer all the land. With all of what I just said, they sobbed. They didn't accomplish it all in Joshua's time. And God promised, okay, I'll continue to help you. In chapter 13, He promises to continue driving out the Canaanites, and He commands the individual tribes to continue to work as they begin dividing up the land. Okay, now, we don't need all of Israel to do this. The individual tribes can take this on. But what do the individual tribes do? They begin to look at their own land and they say, OK, well, actually, there's some work that needs to be done. You know, I've got to go mow the grass. You know, and get this place, you know, ship shape. I don't really have time to go out and continue fighting an offensive here. And so there's a stopping of the conflict. The people start to become more internally focused. when they stop obeying the word of the Lord. For instance, Ephraim. Ephraim. Ephraim complains that they are too numerous for their allotment. And so what does Joshua instruct in Joshua 17? Let's take a look there, Joshua 17. Just as one example here. Joshua 17 verses 17 and 18 Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph to Ephraim and to Manasseh saying you are a numerous people and have great power you shall not have one lot only but the hill country shall be yours for though it is forced you shall clear it and to its furthest borders it shall be yours for you shall drive out the Canaanites, even though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong." He's like, look, you can have this nice piece of land. We can divide it up. You just have to go and do this thing. Oh, you had me until we got to the chariots of iron thing. Well, you've been having victory all this time. Aren't you going to put faith in the Lord to continue this effort? God will give it, but they must exercise their faith. But then when we get to chapter 23. Chapter 23, verse four, we see that there's still work to be done. And so verse four, he says, See, I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes with all the nations which I have cut off from the Jordan, even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun. The Lord your God, He will thrust them out from before you and drive them from before you and you will possess the land just as the Lord had promised you. This promise is given to them, but they have to exercise their faith. They need to remember this promise and they need to act accordingly. And unfortunately, they don't do it. And this is what's going to lead them to so many problems later on. When we get into judges, when we get into first Samuel, for instance, we see the problems there and we see the problems that Saul had to face this king. And then later, David had to face this king. It's because they were inconsistent in their application of God's word. It was an incomplete application of God's word. And there is a spiritual lesson for us there. Because, as I said earlier, God promises to sanctify the land of your heart. Right. Cleansing you of sin, but don't think that means that he's not calling you to put in some sweat, blood and tears into the process. You have to believe the word. He's the one sanctifying you. Yes, but then you believe it you apply it. And you live it out. The rubber needs to meet the road in your heart. So what are some key passages in the book of Joshua? Well chapter 1 verses 7 and 9 be strong and courageous know and keep the law. Chapter 10 has a key passage, that's the sun standing still passage, and I've just got to throw this in here. I see it every once in a while floating around on social media, on Facebook. No, NASA has not discovered a missing day. I'm sorry. I know it sounds like it supports the Bible and you're like, oh, this is really neat. OK, how would NASA discover something like that, first of all? That's not something that you just discover, unless you have a time machine, I guess. I don't know. But it's not something you just discover. No, that's not true. Now, there are some explanations for that, and we could go over a list of them. It's possible that maybe God just provided a supernatural light so it looked like the sun was standing still. That's possible. It doesn't involve the Earth's rotation coming to a complete halt. and an ocean sloshing over continents, you know, and dinosaurs flying off the other side of the planet, you know, as the planet comes to a stop. It doesn't require that necessarily, although that would be an interesting scenario too, but no, and I heard another one that maybe there was a near pass-by by Mars, which adjusted the Earth's orbit, which made the Earth, or which made the sun look like it was still in the sky, but actually the Earth's axis was I don't know if we have to go to such explanations as are interesting. I find them interesting, but it's also possible that God just provided a supernatural light and and and it just looks like the sun from their perspective is standing still. But that's that passage chapter 24 verses 14 and 15. Let's take a look there since we're already Joshua 24 23 now 24 and verses 14 and 15. Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're telling me that they got delivered from Egypt. 10 plagues, 10 plagues, right? They got taken through the Red Sea. They got to Mount Horeb. God says, I'm the Lord your God. Don't have any gods before me. Don't make any idols. They still had them then. They wandered for 40 years in the wilderness. These are the younger people growing up, watching their parents slowly die off. Their parents who had been in sin, that's why they're dying off. Oh, but this is an idol from Egypt. Oh, okay. They go through the Jordan supernaturally. They get into the land. They go on this campaign for 30 years conquering the land, and they still got idols from Egypt. They still got idols from Egypt. This is the human condition. There's a lesson for all of us to learn here. Put away those idols and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you'll serve, whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. What a great verse that is. What a great verse that is. And so there we have that. And of course, I have a map of the division of the land on the screen here, and you can kind of see how the people divided up the land on both the east and the west side of the Jordan River there. It's interesting to see how much of this land is contested today in current conflicts. But this is the land that they possess. They actually should have had more land. They never took full possession of the land. God had promised them more land. For instance, Numbers 34 promises that the Mediterranean was supposed to be the outer boundary. Joshua 1 gives clear parameters of that. However, Israel never took possession of the land under Joshua, under the judges, under Saul, under David, or even under Solomon. God had promised it in Joshua 21. What do we do with that? Well, God promised it. They just didn't apply it. That's one application. Another application is that they will still have it one day because it is theirs. It's obviously not completely fulfilled. God gave it to them over time, but they had failed to take it. They were supposed to have that much land, for instance, but boy, those Phoenicians and others who were in that area, they just never took it. And it's interesting, again, as we are looking at the maps and we see the Gaza Strip there, but just a reminder right there, that should be Israel's land as well. I don't know how that factors into the current political climate over there, but that is Israel's land. So is the West Bank. So is the northern territories there, which are in Lebanon. That's all Israel's territory. Biblically speaking, but let's now talk about judges since we have seen what some of the issues are and we won't spend quite as much time with these books. Just a few minutes here judges 1127 says may the Lord the judge judge today. He is the ultimate judge. He is the ultimate judge, but he did command in scripture that judges be appointed in each of the cities. Now, what is the dating dating of this? Obviously, I'm continuing to give you conservative dates here from the death of Joshua, 1390 B.C. to the death of Samson, 1055 B.C. So we're talking about a little bit of a larger span of time, about 300 years. The reigns of judges overlapped there. So as we are going through the Book of Judges and you're reading about all these judges, remember that some of their reigns are overlapping because they're in different parts of the country. Jewish tradition says that we can thank Samuel for the judges or for the Book of Judges, that is. Samuel, of course, himself would have been considered a judge. And so that's kind of the overlap that you see as you're transitioning into the period of the monarchy. He himself would have been a judge, but it's sad that a lot of experts, quote-unquote experts, in the Old Testament don't believe that today, but I think that's a perfectly acceptable view there. We have the theme of disobedience and defeat. As we see the disobedience of Israel there, we see Israel being cost its covenant blessings and there in chapter 2 verses 16 through 19, what I tried to read this morning, but I was in the wrong spot. Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside. quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandment of the Lord, they did not do as their fathers. When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies. All of the days of the judge for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. God would raise up people to afflict them, and then he would raise up judges. And some of the key chapters, just to point them out, in case you're interested, we have the Song of Deborah in chapter five. Chapter six through eight, we have Gideon's judgeship. And that was certainly an interesting one. And of course, the most interesting one that people probably think of, Samson's judgeship in verses 13, or excuse me, chapters 13 through 16. What are some of the key passages? I wish we had time to go into this interpretive issues. We don't have time for that tonight. Jephthah's foolish vow regarding his daughter and, you know, what actually happened there. And then in chapter 17, verse six, and in chapter 21, there's this repeated refrain. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. There was a Bible miniseries that was on TV a few years ago, and it actually quoted that line as though that was a positive thing. Well, didn't you teach me to do what was right in my own eyes? Oh, yes, son. That's what the Lord blesses. No, this is not a good thing. We are not called to do what's right in our own eyes. We're called to do what's right in the eyes of the Lord. And that's what the judges were supposed to do. They were supposed to point the people back to the Lord away from what their own wisdom was teaching them and to what the wisdom of God was teaching them. Isn't he the creator of everything? Don't you think he knows how things should operate? And he's the one, by the way, who's blessing and cursing. So, yes, we need to be doing things God's way, not our own way. But unfortunately, the people continue to do what was right in their own eyes. That's repeated. Who were the judges? They were the people who were judging. It's funny, you know, that people in Christian circles actually talk about you know, judges as though it's a bad thing. You know, you don't want to be a judge. Well, actually, a judge was a good thing in scripture. But that's that's a different subject there. Their main job was to judge. Moses was a judge, for instance. We don't usually think of Moses as a judge, but Exodus 18, 13 describes him as a judge. He taught and he applied God's word to the people's situations. And as I mentioned briefly before, Deuteronomy 16, actually commanded the creation or the appointment, I should say, of judges in every town so that the people would have someone to go to to hear their spiritual matters. Now, when there was oppression in Israel because the people were ignoring the teaching of the judges, the people would begin to repent. They would begin to cry out to God and God would raise up new judges. These judges would also then serve the purpose of delivering the people from oppression. That's typically what we think of when we think of the judges, like Othniel, who's had that really neat ninja routine with the staff and all of the... Oh, it's a fun book. It is a fun book in some ways. I had a teacher who said he loved teaching judges to his fourth and fifth grade boys' classroom because they just ate it up. You have, you know, Ehud swinging out of a window on a curtain with a dagger in his hand after he just, you know, killed the king and, you know, it's just swashbuckling and everything else. It is a fun book in some ways. And so sometimes we do think of judges for that aspect of it, but their primary task wasn't to defeat the enemies of God, but it was to teach the people of God the ways of God. And that's what they were there for. In Hebrews 11 remembers some of the examples of their faith and their leadership and responsibilities foreshadowed the coming King who would rule over all of Israel the the true coming judge. Now, with the Book of Judges, we see, unfortunately, a cycle of sin. We see Israel's, and that should be apostrophe S, Israel's sin, Israel's servitude, Israel's supplication, or repentance and prayer to God, Israel's salvation, and then Israel's security. You say, okay, yeah, that sounds kind of like my life. There's some sin, and then God sends some oppression sometimes or some hardship, which wakes me up. And I say, I shouldn't have been doing this. And so I make supplication to God. I pray. He provides salvation. And then I'm in security. And then when you're in security, you're like, okay, well, maybe I can get back into sin now. This is the human condition, right? And this is what we see in Judges, unfortunately. This is the cycle, the pattern that we see in the book. And it is a sad pattern. And what makes it even sadder is that the returning point is lower than the previous ones. And so if we imagine it like this, instead of just like a cycle, the two-dimensional cycle, imagine it more like a spiral. And so there's the sin, the servitude, the supplication, the salvation and security. But now at the moment of security, that's it's lower morally, spiritually than it was. And then we go in the cycle again or the spiral. And then finally they return to security. And now they're even lower down the pole than they were. In fact, the judges themselves, being men of their times, are progressively less righteous. Think of how low it gets by the time of Samson, who's out there just trying to get a pretty girl. Right. And he's breaking his Nazarite vow and he's he's lying to his parents and he's and he's doing all kinds of other things. And you say, how is this man a judge? Well, because he's one of the more righteous people who's alive at that time, believe it or not. And that's just how times go sometimes. Because he does what's right in his own eyes, and that's it right there. Why does God continue to deal with these people then? Why does God continue to deal with us when we go down our spiral of sin? Because of his covenant promises. To them, it was the covenant promises to Abraham, and to Moses, to us, it's the new covenant promises. And of course, that includes the Abrahamic covenant, but that's a different topic. And so that's judges. Let's now turn to Ruth. As we are winding down here, Ruth. is not one of the former prophets. In the Hebrew Bible it was considered one of the writings. One of the writings. It was right after the book of Proverbs. You would have Psalms, you would have Proverbs, you would have Ruth before the Song of Solomon. And there is an interesting little connection here. Take a look at Proverbs 31. Some of you ladies know exactly what Proverbs 31 says, right? Proverbs, I don't know why I went that far, Proverbs 31. Verse 10. Proverbs 3110, an excellent wife who can find for her worth is far above jewels. Okay, let's go to Ruth now. Ruth chapter three. Ruth chapter three, verse 11. We read there, now my daughter, Boaz speaking, do not fear, I will do for you whatever you ask, for all my people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence. He's about to make her his wife, because an excellent wife, who can find? You find an excellent woman, you want to marry her. And of course, that's what we see with Boaz. And so there is that connection there. Right after we read about the excellent wife in the Hebrew canon, we would read about Ruth. And so it is interesting to see Ruth following Proverbs in the Hebrew canon. But this does take place during the time of judges. And so that is a reason why it is placed where it is in our Bibles. The date of events is around 1126 to 1105 BC. And the theme is the kinsman redeemer. Yahweh will sovereignly, but in a hidden way, affect the birth of his king through the actions of his people. And this book is also read every Shabbat or or Feast of Pentecost, which is interesting. What's also interesting here is that Ruth is not the main character, despite the fact that the book is named for her. She's not the main character. What is the book start with Naomi, her hardship? Her husband dies, her sons die. She's completely cut off from the inheritance. She's in a desperate place. And then even in chapter four, it's her land that's in dispute, and Boaz has to go and fight for the land, not of Ruth, but of Naomi. Naomi is named first in the book, and she's also named last in the book, and she's named throughout. And then when we get to Ruth 417, Ruth 417, we see that a son has been born, not to Ruth, but to Naomi when she has, when Ruth has the baby. It's actually Naomi who gets the baby, because this is about Naomi receiving her redemption. And of course, generations removed, she is the mother of King David. She speaks the most in the book, followed by Boaz and then followed by Ruth. So this is a story about how God works in the life of Naomi. Not Ruth, necessarily. Of course, Ruth is key, and we see a lot of blessings in a study of Ruth as a character, as a person in the book. But this is about Naomi and Boaz getting together in a sense, Boaz redeeming Naomi through Ruth. But it's an even deeper story than that. It's a story about how a kinsman redeemer saves Naomi and a kinsman redeemer ultimately is Jesus Christ who redeems his people from sin and restores them back to their promise. This is a story about how he saves his people. And one key passage I'll note as we are about to wrap up here, I hear the kids and I think it's about that time. Chapter 4 verses 18 through 20 where I just read from we have right before where I read from we have the generations from Perez all the way to David. The story of Perez is assorted one. We went through this in our Sunday school class. This is where Jacob's son Judah. denied Leverite marriage to Tamar, his daughter-in-law. And of course, this book is about Leverite marriage where someone needs to be redeemed. Well, because Perez is born through an illegitimate birth, he is in a sense cut off until the 10th generation. What is that generation? That's David. And so we see resolution here from that story in Genesis to here. Through Perez, through Ruth and Naomi and Boaz, all the way to Jesse, David, the king is born. And so God is working through his people. He is working even through their sinfulness. He is working even through their circumstances to bring about his good purposes. You say, how is God going to work something out of my life? Listen, he can work something out. He can work something out. If he can work through these individuals who are sinners just like us, he can work through sinners just like us, right? And so that brings us to the end. We got through Joshua, Judges and Ruth. Next week, Lord willing, we'll get through Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, which are actually six books in the way that we have them in our Bibles. Today, we'll talk about the reign of King Saul, we'll talk about the Davidic dynasty, and then finally,