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How Do We See God's Character in the Book of Judges?

Greg Gilbert

The following is a transcribed Video Q&A, so the text may not read like an edited article would. Scroll to the bottom to view this video in its entirety. 

“I think you can see a lot of different aspects of God's character in the Book of Judges. One is just His unfailing compassion for His people. He brings His people into the land of promise and tells them that He's fulfilling His promises to them by giving them the land. He tells them exactly how they're supposed to go in and conquer the land and take it, and they just disobey Him. And in spite of that, He sticks with them. He doesn't abandon them, He doesn't cast them off, He raises up judge after judge after judge. There's this amazing progression in the Book of Judges over and over again where you see God delivers people, and then the people rejoice, and then after a few years the people fall right back into disobedience and rebellion. And then what does God do? The next step in the cycle? He raises up another judge to save them again. Just seven or eight different times in the book He does that, so I think you see His compassion.

You also see God's amazing sovereignty and power. You have some really powerful nations in the Book of Judges that are repressing the people of Israel, and not a single one of them is a problem to God. He can take them down with a guy who is a left-handed warrior, which means that he shouldn't be able to fight at all. He can take them down with a man who's strength has been taken away from him completely. It doesn't really matter. None of these kinds, none of these oppressors are able to hold a candle to God's power. And so you see that wonderfully in the book also.