Seven hundred years after God’s promise to Abraham, the people of God are in their own land, God is present in the tabernacle, laws guide their lives and a sacrificial system exists for forgiveness of sins. The people were truly blessed by God, but there is a problem—sin. Sin still reigns in the hearts of the people. God’s people kept putting themselves into a never-ending cycle of disobedience, discipline, declaration of wrong, and deliverance. Judges like Deborah and Gideon and Samson helped them find their way back to God. What were the people doing that was so bad they needed judges? Two things: first, they failed to put God first in their lives; and second, they did not teach their children to know God. These two sins led to their downfall and ruin.