- Sermon Series: In Those Days There Was No King
- Sermon Title: The Downward Spiral
- Preacher: Steve Constable
- Scripture: Judges 2:6-3:6
SERMON DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
READ JUDGES 2:6-3:6
This section should be seen as a second introduction to the book of Judges. We need to have both 1:1-2:5 and 2:6-3:6 in mind as we read through the rest of the book.
- How would you sum up your own history in a couple of sentences? Have you seen certain themes recur time and again in your life?
- Israel did exactly what they had been warned not to do. They settled among the Canaanites in the land and began to adopt their practices. God who loved them and desired to win them back institutes a pattern of rescue. How does the cycle begin in verses 6-10a?
- We read that “there arose another generation” after the generation of Joshua’s time “who did not know the LORD” (10b). Within a generation Israel had gone from being people who “served the LORD” to people “who served the Baals.”There is no automatic passing of faith from one generation to the next, from parents to children.
- How does the pattern continue in verses 10b-19a? What short title would you give to each of the stages in the pattern? i. 2:10b-12, ii. 14a, iii. 14b, iv. 15b, v. 16, vi. 2:7, 18, vii. 19a?
- Why does the pattern end (2:23)? What is surprising about this?
- If an idol isn’t just something you physically bow down to but something you have given effective mastery of your life over to so that it replaces your hope in God, what kind of things can an idol be? What instructions can you find in the passage for turning away from idols and back to the LORD in His mercy?
- Ask that the LORD would show you things that have become too important to you. Identify one of them, confess it to a friend, or if you can your whole community group. Ask for their prayer as you seek to move away from its control to the hope again of Christ.