The chaos, death, and destruction of humanity is on full display as the Israelites reject their identity as God's set apart people and ignore his purpose as a light to the nations.

God's people continue to settle in Canaan and choose to disregard God's story, writing their own.

From the moment Samson was conceived, he was set apart by God for the purpose of delivering the Israelites from the Philistines. As the bodies pile up, he forgets God's bigger story and replaces it with his own...with deadly consequences.

As the Israelites continue to do evil in God's sight, he hands them over to the Philistines. But there's a bigger story at play that includes a barren woman, a visiting angel, and a judge named Samson.

After demonstrating what looks like repentance, the God's people again cry out for deliverance. What they get is Jephthah, a warrior judge with the gift of language who delivers the people of God from the Ammonites at great personal cost.

We're stepping out of our Judges series this week to spend time with Pastor Zane and talk about vision and direction for Family Ministries at WestWay. Zane brings a wealth of knowledge from his time at BoysTown about the importance of family, parental, and grandparental involvement in the lives of children and students.

God has defeated the Midianites through Gideon, and 40 years of peace follow. When Gideon dies, the Israelites return to their spiritual adultery by worshiping the images of Baal. Instead of an external oppressor, God punishes his people from the inside, the son of Gideon, Abimelech. God himself becomes deliverer, and for the first time, the people begin to see the real problem: they are sinning against God.

As the cycle of national sin continues, Gideon reluctantly accepts his call to rescue Israel. Rather than be transformed by his role, Gideon is consumed by pride and arrogance and chaos, death, and destruction flow from him.

This week we’re reading “The Gospel of Deborah.” Deborah proclaims the same gospel message we find in every book of the Bible: “God is rescuing His people and inviting us to join in his work of proclaiming the reality of who God is: holy, loving, kind, merciful, patient, and righteous.”

The people have entered the Promised Land and are unable and unwilling to follow God's commands. The consequences of their sins bear down on them and the cycle begins: they cry out to God in sorrow and He delivers them through a judge. As time passes, their response to God's mercy is more sin.