When Ed and Abbie Potter landed on Madeira Island at 8:30 p.m. on December 3, 1976, with three small children, they had absolutely no idea what lay ahead of them in the future. In fact, they didn't even know where they would spend the night. That's not very different from what the Israelites were facing after Joshua died, who had led them in conquering the Promised Land of Canaan. The Book of Judges describes the first 300 years or so of their struggles to control the land they had "conquered", leaving us with many lessons to learn in our own struggles in life.

The first two chapters of the book serve as an introduction and from them we glean 6 important lessons.

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