JUDGES

Real heroes are rare to find these days. Modern research

and the media have made the personal weaknesses and

the character faults of our leaders very transparent. It

is a fact that the masses search in vain for men and women to

emulate.

The movie, music and sport industries produce a steady

stream of “stars” who shoot to the top and then quickly fade

from view.

Judges is a book about heroes: Twelve men and women who

delivered Israel from its oppressors. These judges were not perfect;

in fact, they included an assassin, a promiscuous man and a

person who broke all the laws of hospitality.

But they were submissive to God and God used them.

Judges is also a book about sin and its consequences.

When we come to the Book of Judges, we come to a book of

the Bible that really does need an introduction. When I looked

at a lot of my favourite websites, blogs and some literature in

order to see what others have done, I found that other writers

have done little or nothing on the Book of Judges. I find that

Christians in general tend to avoid the book.

The book of Judges is relevant and is all about the long ago

and the far away. It describes a culture and a people who are

vastly different from us. It is relevant to different cultures elsewhere

in the world because we live in a post-modern age, where

it is believed that there is no absolute truth, but that all truth is

in the eye of the beholder. That is precisely what was happening

in ancient Israel during the days of the judges.

The sex and violence of that day were little different, both in

kind and in degree, to our own times.

Could it be that we are seeing God’s discipline on our nation

as we go through government corruption to a level where we

are losing our status among many nations and as our economy

continues to struggle?

I really believe that in spite of the fact that we are not Israel,

we are experiencing similar circumstances to those described in

Judges. (Extract from my new book, " Greatest Story", publishing stage)