ST. PAUL SCHOOL OF LEADERSHIP

(With Frank Eiklor, Walter Contreras and Christopher Lucey)

INTRODUCTION

These lessons are taken from my book “Winners and Losers”. I consider this book of Old Testament winners and losers one of our most important works. Yet it is the least popular of all books I have written. The “why” is easy to answer.

All the other devotional, prophetic and motivating books really require little thinking—just read and enjoy. This study makes people think. You have to look up verses and do a little research work. But that is the best way to learn and retain truth.

So now we shall study the Book of Judges and the examples of those who pleased God and those who grieved Him. If we learn from the good examples, our lives will yield positive fruit. If we fail to learn from the bad examples, we will follow their path to destruction. Walter, Christopher and I pray that you and we shall choose the path of the winners.

1:6,7 Example of a heathen king recognizing the true God and the law of sowing and reaping.

2:1-3,6,9-23 Example—How quickly God’s people can be corrupted and play the spiritual harlot (see also 3:5-15, 29,30).

4:1-4,6-9,14 Deborah—Example of obeying God’s voice against all human odds.

5:15-18,24 Example of cowardice and courage noted in song.

6:1,2 Example—How sin reduced God’s Chosen People to caves.

6:11-15,25-27,34-40 Example of a humble man becoming a man of valor—one fearful step at a time.

7:2,3,6,7 Example of how God uses the few over the many in order to insure His glory, not man’s.

7:9-11,14-18 Example of God raising the courage of His servants for the battle.

8:27-31 Example of how weakness not dealt with will come back to haunt the godly.

8:33-35 Another example of the depravity of the human heart.

9:1-5,16,17,20,23,49,53,56,57 Example of God dividing allies of sin at payback time.

10:6,7,14-16 Example of how pain cures from sin—and how confession and tears bring God’s mercy.

11:1,7,13,22-27 Example—A half-pagan Israelite still had sense enough to know that God was the bestower of Israel’s land.

11:30,31,34-40 Example of the high cost of embracing the world’s ways of worship.

13:1-5,18,22,23 Example of a woman of faith calming a husband’s tendency toward unbelief.

15:11,12 Example of Jews selling out their own Samson in the interest of a false “peace.”

16:15-17 Example—Samson’s greatest sin—a divided heart “…your heart is not with me”—Delilah.

16:23,24 Another example of the price paid for matching gods against the living God (vv27-30).

19:16,17,20-24 Example of an old man’s compassion and concern in the face of imminent danger.

19:22,25 Example of a city of God’s chosen people turned to depravity.

20 (all) Example of the love of sin and the abandonment of God reducing a nation to civil war (happening in Israel today).

21:25 Example of the one verse that exposes man to his own deception and futility.

TEST YOURSELF

1) Has the Holy Spirit reminded you of any weaknesses from your past that continue to challenge your walk with Christ today?

2) What are some of the examples from the book of Judges that speak to you the most?

3) How has the tragic statement, “every man did that which is right in his own eyes”

infected the body of Christ today?