When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.”
The above verses capture perfectly the theme of the book of Judges. After Joshua had brought the nation into the promise land, he distributed it to them. He told them to go out and possess the land:
Joshua 23:3-5 (ESV)
And you have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the LORD your God who has fought for you. Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. The LORD your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the LORD your God promised you.
But he also warned them about following the gods of these people:
Joshua 23:16 (ESV)
if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”
Yet, as this passage in chapter six of Judges shows, they did exactly what they were warned not to do. The entire book is made up of this cycle of them disobeying and worshipping the gods of these nations. These nations then put them into servanthood and oppression. They would then, cry out to God for deliverance. God would then send a judge to deliver them. After years of prosperity they once again start to worship other gods and the cycle repeats itself. Their life of faith was more like a cycle of disobedience. God wanted to bless them and each time a judge rose up to contend for God for them. But, like children of the flesh, rather than children of faith, they would fall back into that trap. This is similar to the cycle of a New Testament believer. This is why Paul wrote to the Romans and warned them to not allow sin to reign over their lives. His solution to this challenge for believers was to submit each member of their body to Christ and allow the power of His grace to reign over them, instead of sin. Here is the solution to this struggle we read about in Judges:
Romans 6:12-14 (ESV)
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
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