March 10, 2026 - Judges 3-6

It’s that time in my reading that, every year, I point out the reoccurring cycle found in the book of Judges.  I mean, one just about cannot understand the point of the book without noticing this pattern.  In the third chapter it is reported, “The people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. . . . And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” (3:5-7).  And this observation, i.e., that the people did evil in the sight of the Lord, begins the cycle as seen in the accompanying verses:

3:7-8.  SIN--They turned to false gods and did evil.

3:9a.  SUFFERING--God would afflict them by allowing their enemies to have victory over them.

3:9b.  SUPPLICATION--The people would cry unto the Lord for deliverance.  There was never genuine repentance.  It was always sorrow at what their sins had caused rather than for their sins.

3:9c.  SALVATION--God would send a judge to deliver them.  But when the judge died, the cycle would start over.

The point?  Israel, like us, so often sinned and spurned the Lord; yet, he was always merciful and gracious, when they cried out to him, to raise up a deliverer.  We have such a one except that he is much greater, and he delivers us not merely from political and militaristic danger but from sin and death themselves.  To Joseph, the angel announced, “She (Mary) will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).  He is our deliverer!

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

in a believer’s ear!

It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds,

and drives away our fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole

and calms the troubled breast;

‘tis manna to the hungry soul,

and to the weary, rest.   –John Newton (1779)