The book of Judges bustles with colorful characters.
- Ehud, a left-handed political assassin who cleverly dispatches a corpulent king.
- Deborah, a bold prophet and matriarch of Israel who musters tribes to war.
- Samson, a Rambo-like warrior who dallies with women and annihilates Philistines in a temple of doom.
To Christian readers Judges is interesting, sometimes inspiring, but also puzzling. What message should we take from it? How are we to understand the ambiguous spirituality of the judges themselves? What was God doing during this wayward period between Joshua and Samuel?
With wit, insight and sensitivity to the narrator's art, Michael Wilcock answers these and other questions. God himself is the Judge, he argues, who transcends the uncertain record of human judges. He is the principal actor in this drama. Always ready to respond to those who call on him, he takes the initiative and uses raw human resources to preserve Israel from her enemies and shape the nation for his purpose.
In exposing the twists and turns and nuances of this story, Wilcock sends us back to Judges with a renewed quest, not only to rediscover the story of God and Israel, but to find fresh perspective on the ways of God and his church in a post-Christian world.
About the Bible Speaks Today (BST) Series:
Edited by J.A. Motyer and the late John R. W. Stott, the Bible Speaks Today commentaries are characterized by what Stott called a "threefold ideal . . . to expound the biblical text with accuracy, to relate it to contemporary life and to be readable." As such, each contributor in this series is both a noted scholar and a working pastor.
The BST series, now complete, covers all sixty-six books of the bible (Old and New Testaments) in fifty-five volumes. If you preach or teach from Scripture, the Bible Speaks Today series will help you apply the timeless biblical message to the everyday experiences of your listeners. And if you study the Bible on your own, these volumes will be a helpful resource focusing on the significance of God's Word for your own life and work.
