The Israelites in the Time of the Judges

 Below is a map of Israel during the time of the judges:
Courtesy of www.preceptaustin.org

The Book of Ruth takes place during the time of the judges. During this period the people of Israel were rebelling against the Lord. In Judges 2:8 - 22 we see several factors for God's displeasure of the Israelites:
  1. People had served the Lord all the days of Joshua and the elders who out lived him.
  2. Once the the elders were gone, the people did evil in the sight of the Lord.
  3. They forsook God.
  4. They worshipped and served the Baals and Ashtoreths.
Even in all of this the Lord tried to help the people by raising up judges who would deliver the people out of the hands which plundered them. But the people would not listen to the judges, they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down to them. God's anger burned against them. He stopped driving out the nations that surrounded Israel.

This was the cycle in the time of the judges:

The theme of Judges is this: In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes [Judges 21:25]. This is a statement not just about the government but the condition of the peoples' hearts. It's in this setting that the Book of Ruth takes place.

This was somewhat of a long post so tomorrow I'll post about the Kingdom of Moab. Then we can start to dig into the Book of Ruth.



     
     

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