The Israelites were God’s chosen people, and God gave them a pretty specific set of rules to follow—the Ten Commandments. The first commandment was a big one: You shall not have any other gods before me. But the Israelites kept worshiping other gods. In this story, God got fed up with the Israelites’ disobedience and allowed their enemies to plunder them. To help set them straight, God gave the Israelites judges who advised and protected the Israelites from their enemies. Many of them fought violent bloody battles with the Israelites to get rid of their enemies who worshiped other gods. But the Israelites would eventually fall back into old habits and worship other gods again. Over and over, Israelites would find themselves in peril, and over and over God would have mercy on them and send a judge to save them. The judges preserved and protected Israel’s relationship and covenant with God, despite the people’s disobedience. They led the people to be faithful to God and to trust that just as God had delivered them in the past, so God would deliver them again. God sticks by our side too, even when we sin and disobey. God’s covenants last forever.

This video explains a bit of who the judges were. It mentions that the book is full of stories that are violent and brutal. (The video doesn't show any of that.)There were both men and women judges and most of them were pretty tough. But they were far from perfect. So why would God choose less than perfect people to lead his people?

So what happened? Well, each flawed superhero eventually fell for the biggest temptation ever. Putting themselves or other gods ahead of the one true God. Breaking the covenant with God. God said "You shall have no other gods, you shall worship no idols..." but the superheroes and the Israelites couldn't stay true to their part of the covenant.

Follow the covenant and good things happen. Ignore the covenant and bad things happen.

Why is it important to learn these violent stories in Judges and other stories in the Old Testament? Think about all we have been talking about this lesson and throughout the year. God keeps trying to get the Israelites to follow God and they keep failing. What is this all going to lead to?

Talk with your family about why you think these stories are important? What can we learn from them? How does it grow our faith?

Color your timeline up to and including "the judges lead the people." Here is a copy in case you've misplaced yours.