As the Israelites conquered the people of Canaan, the twelve tribes each took part of the land. It was their job to chase out all the rest of the Canaanites who still lived there so that the Israelites would not mix with them and be corrupted by their idols. After Joshua died, the twelve tribes of Israel ruled themselves. When they began to feel comfortable and prosperous in the new land, they forgot what God told them to do. This is how we could describe that time: “Every man did what was right in his own eyes.”
Then the angel of the Lord said to the people, “When I brought you out of Egypt I said, ‘Do not let the Canaanites live in the land with you’. But you’ve broken the covenant between us. You’ve let the Canaanites live with you, and you did not break down their altars and burn their idols. So I will not drive any more of them out of your land. They will be thorns in your side, and their gods will trap you.”
And this is exactly what happened repeatedly. The new generation would forget God, worship Canaanite gods and do terrible things. Their enemies would attack them, and whenever Israel went out to fight, God opposed them, and they would be defeated.
When they became slaves again, they would remember God again, repent, and call to Him to save them. Then God would raise up a leader called a judge who would deliver them from their enemies.
But after a while they would forget God again, and this pattern would start all over again. Fourteen times in less than 350 years the children of Israel turned away from God to worship Canaanite idols! Every single time, God punished them just as He said He would when He gave them the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Yet every time that the children of Israel repented from their sin and kept their part of the covenant by obeying Him, God forgave them, and He began to bless them all over again. This is called the period of the Judges. Some of the judges or deliverers were Gideon, Deborah, and Samson. The last judge to rescue the children of Israel was a man named Samuel. When he was a boy, God spoke to Samuel and told him what was going to happen in the future. As he grew up, God was with him, and everything he said came true. Thus all the people knew that Samuel was God’s prophet.