• Title Page
• Pentateuch
• History
  • Lesson 10: Joshua
  • Lesson 11: Judges and Ruth
    • The Preface to the Book
    • The Number of Judges
    • The Division of the Book
    • Material for a Bible Reading
    • Did Jephthah Slay His Daughter?
    • Was Samson a Suicide?
    • Particular Details of Evil
    • The Book of Ruth
  • Lesson 12: I Samuel
  • Lesson 13: II Samuel
  • Lesson 14: I Kings
  • Lesson 15: II Kings
  • Lesson 16: I and II Chronicles and Esther
• Poetry
• Prophets
• Post Captivity Prophets
• Gospels, Acts
• Pauline Epistles
• General Epistles

observed, Thanksgiving Day, or fast day? Is God publicly recognized and honored among us as He ought to be? Do our children thus hear us rehearse His wondrous acts of old time? Should not Washington’s birthday, and the Fourth of July be holy days before the Lord, for His sake and our children’s sake? What great memorial or “altar of witness” has God Himself set up for us in His church to keep perpetually before us and our children the wonderful sacrifice of His Son? All this is aside somewhat, but may be suggestive in the use of this chapter in preaching and teaching.

The Renewal of the Covenant, Joshua 23-24

In what solemn and important act does Joshua now engage be fore his death? What commandment does he lay upon the people (Joshua 23:6-8)? With what promise does he assure them (Joshua 23:10)? What warning does he give them (Joshua 23:12-13)? What seems to be his feeling as to their future conduct, as expressed in the general tenor of his words? What does he set before them (Joshua 24:15)? What obligation do the people lay upon themselves in the verses that follow? What testimony to the authenticity of this book is contained in Joshua 24:26? At what age did Joshua die? Point out in these two chapters the ways in which he kept his own merit in the background and exalted God.

Judges and Ruth

The story of the book of judges is something like this: While Joshua and the elders of that generation lived, (those who had personally known the wonders of Jehovah), the people continued in measurable obedience to the divine law. But when they died, and another generation came on the scene, there was a steady decline. They had made the way easy for this, by failing to drive out all the Canaanites from amongst them, as we saw in the last chapter. The proximity of these corrupt heathen people began to act like leaven in the dough. Israel intermarried with them, and by degrees was led into idolatry by them. This weakened their power so that from conquerors they became the conquered. They turned their back upon God, who, in a sense, turned His back upon them, allowing them to be taken captive by their enemies, and sorely oppressed.