W. Robert Godfrey

But there's a reason that Judges comes between Joshua and Ruth.

You know, what's the book of Ruth all about?

Well, it's about the family of David and how he gets born.

And so here we are.

God is preparing us for this lesson and preparing us particularly through what he is doing in the various judges culminating in Samson.

Now, I thought it might be useful just to pause a minute and look at the way this is sort of the pattern that God does things throughout the Bible.

And I think we see that in the Psalms.

And I want to read just a little bit from a couple of Psalms, because I think what we see, first of all, is the pattern that God has to deal with of Israel's ups and downs.

And then we see the promise God makes to his people of salvation.

And then we see the person designated who's going to bring that promise to fulfillment.

So if we look at Psalm 85...

Let me read the first seven verses there, because here you get this sense of Israel's ups and downs spiritually.

And the psalmist writes, Psalm 85, Lord, you were favorable to your land.

You restored the fortunes of Jacob.

Now, if the fortunes of Jacob were restored, they had to have gone downhill, right?

So here's an up.

You were favorable because there'd been a down.

You forgave the iniquity of your people.

You covered all their sins.

You withdrew all your wrath.