Home / Judges: Verse by Verse / Judges 1
Beginning to Drift
- Passage
- Judges 1
- Taught
- August 3, 2025
- Series
- Judges: Verse by Verse
Summary
After the death of Joshua, Israel asks the Lord who should go up first against the Canaanites, and He answers: Judah. Judah, with Simeon, wins victories at Bezek, Jerusalem and Hebron. The chapter also tells how Caleb offered his daughter Achsah to the man who captured Debir, and Othniel did so, a story of courage, initiative and faithfulness rewarded over time.
But the chapter turns. Judah cannot drive out the people of the plain with iron chariots, Benjamin does not drive out the Jebusites in Jerusalem, and tribe after tribe (Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Dan) fails to drive out its Canaanite neighbors, often putting them to forced labor instead.
The lesson’s theological themes are incomplete obedience, coexistence with sin, and pragmatism over purity. The slides set these against God’s earlier commands in Numbers 33, Deuteronomy 7 and 20, Exodus 23 and Joshua 23, which Israel ignored.
Two halves of the chapter
Chapter 1 starts with obedience and ends with compromise.
- 1:1–21. Judah leads, with victories and the story of Caleb, Achsah and Othniel.
- 1:22–26. The house of Joseph takes Bethel.
- 1:27–36. Tribe after tribe fails to complete the conquest.
Practical takeaways
The slides give two sets of lessons:
- Seek God first in uncertainty; God honors obedience; you reap what you sow.
- Courage and initiative open doors; partial obedience leads to long-term problems; faithfulness is rewarded over time.
Questions to talk about
- When I am unsure, do I seek God first, as Israel did when they asked who should go up?Judges 1:1–2.
- Where am I tolerating something God told me to remove because it seems easier or more profitable to live with it?Israel chose forced labor over full obedience (Judges 1:28).