Our small study group will complete “Judges: Returning to God” (a Lifeguide Bible Study) by the end of August, 2002. The Book of Judges is definitely not one of my favorite books of the Bible. The author of Judges paints a disgusting, discouraging portrait of mankind doing its own thing. It’s like watching the evening news or reading the latest crimes in the newspaper----violence, cruelty, genocide, religion for profit, prostitution, sex crimes against men and women, robbery, abduction, wars, occupation by foreign armies. Sound familiar?

Yet, in contrast to all that evil is the mercy of God. When people finally get enough of wallowing in the painful consequences of ignoring God’s loving instructions (sin); cry out to him to be pulled out of it; and begin to learn and practice what God says is right, he is eager to rebuild that lost relationship.