Judges Chapter 3 Discussion

Othniel is the first mentioned ( Judges 3:9)

who was the first judge

Hi Teresa. When we read about God "sold them" (as in Judges 2:14; Judges 3:8; Judges 4:2; etc.), the meaning is not that God wanted to trade Israel for money or goods. Rather, that God 'gave them over, or giving the control of them to another power which is not of God'. When God handed over Israel to anyone else, Israel lost the blessings & privileges of being God's children & became vassals of gentile nations. When Israel came to her senses and repented, God in His great mercy, received them back to Himself.

Question? Judges 3:8 God sold them, for what???? Why, He sold them? I understand His anger, but what did He sell them for? God doesn't need money or anything for that matter.. What did He sell them for? I've noticed God sell them alot in next few chapters, which has raised a few questions, I try hard not to lean unto my own understanding, but this one has confused my inner being.

Judges 3:12

3 Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;

2 Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;

The Lord does not deliver Christians from all besetting sins at salvation. He leaves some for Christians to struggle with to help them learn and grow in the Lord.

Verse 15-Jehovah God was so merciful with the wayward Israelites. When they would cry out to him for help he would send it even though they brought this trouble on themselves.

Verse 12~As long as the Israelites obeyed God and did good they had his protection. We see here that because they did evil, Jehovah God took his protection away from them.

V. 31 - "And after him was Shamgar ..... who slew 600 men with an ox goad." Reminds one of Samson who slew hundreds with the jaw bone of an ass. All these Philistines, Amalekites, Canaanites, etc. were all 'types' of sin in the N.T. When you leave the Lord, then all these sins come after you - drugs, drinking alcohol, partying down ( 'down' is the right word).

Ehud, a man LEFTHANDED. This was God's plan - lefthanded men. To kill Eglon, Ehud had to get a weapon past the guards. 95 per cent of men were righthanded; so the guards searched Ehud's left side. So long Eglon.

God is so merciful but we should not take His lenience to be weakness

God told the Israelites to go into the land He promised them and destroy the inhabitants thereof in each city. At first, they did as God commanded they do and killed all the people of each city they took. This seems cruel to us but God wanted to cleanse the cities that his people took by making sure that those false gods were not worshipped anymore. Then the Israelites began to really disobey God and let the people of the cities they took live and inter marry and live with them. This angered God as His chosen people, the Israelites were disobeying him .He began to withdraw His support of the Israelites and let them be conquered and in bondage as they once were in Egypt many generations before to teach them a lesson ..but they would cry out to Him and He would raise up one of them to lead them out and free them again for a while .then they would revert back to worshipping other gods again and make Jehovah angry with them again and He would withdraw from them again to teach them a lesson As long as the Israelites were in obedience to His word to them, He blessed them and was their strength ...all this tells me that we as Christians need to obey God 's holy word and keep His commandments and He will not abandon us ..but will be with us in good times and bad...

l undersatnd here that GOD Loves lsraelites so so much after all there wrong doings they cried unto the LORD and LORD had compassion on them.. what am trying to say as a child of GOD if you fall into sin unknownly we must cry for mercy and repent for all our sins because HE is the GOD of Mercy "

Disobedience doing there own ting, God got tired of it so they r paying the price, so like my self got to get in line, wen I goes wrong, and consequence r to be full filled..no matter wo wat, as Jesus says in his commandments...obey...

God delivers when we follow his principles and punishes when we don't. This is a constant reminder that if things are not well in my life I must look within to see where I am out of alignment with God.

God is consistent. His righteousness prevails regardless of the circumstances. No one disobeys God and wins His approval. God Judges and deals rightly with any sinful act as demonstrated in Judges 3.

This is a great scrpture. They were fat because they ate up God's sacrifices by theivery from his people.

oH YES to be more willing to serve the Lord and not self. That is the struggle.
That is why I love reading these chapters because they keep me in check about where I am at with God.
And show me how personal GOD'S WORD IS TO ME.
How relevant His word is and how true.

I think that it is a very good chapter because it teaches me that you can't just do what you want to do and not expect God to cause things to happen to you because of your disobedience.

God loved the Isrealites so much and they knew it,they kept proveing it.
Guess how much he loves? He proves it every day.

The Lord again was desiring His people to be faithful, and thankful, in following His commandments, but they continued to be disobedient to Him, and they had to continue to be punished for it. But, because God loved His people so much,He continued to send deliverers to rescue them from the hand of their enemies. It makes me want to strive to become m0re obedient, and faithful in followingm the word and seek the will of God, and not be rebellious, trying to do my own thing. I want to seek to -please God more, and with consistency!