When people read the Bible, they may be surprised to find shocking stories of wickedness mixed with stories of great faith, sometimes in the very same people. In other words, it contains stories of people like us. Judges reports on the chaotic situation in Israel after the death of Joshua during which a series of deliverers rescued God’s people time and time again from self-inflicted problems. At the end of the book, things spiraled out of control, but this failure reveals the main point of the book. In the end, the judges could not have lasting success but were signposts pointing forward to the answer to their failures and ours.
No matter how bad things get, God is still working out his own holy will through seen and unseen agents.
Because humans were dead in our sins, the only possible solution was for God to make us alive because of his grace.
In James 1:9-18, the author continues to urge us to have a biblical perspective on the difficult and the good things in life, including...