We will look at a few more lessons from the book of Judges.  We see that sometimes, that some one who should be one of God's people only wants power for themselves and is willing to sacrifice or even kill others to attain it.  If a person begins to see what should be a role of service to God as a means of self service instead, then that person is a child of God in name only, at least at that point in time.  We cannot follow God and glorify our self at the same time, and if we are only following God for self glory, then we will ultimately fail.  I believe that we also cannot take our relationship for granted, as we learned from Samson.  He was dedicated to God from birth, and as long as he remained faithful to that dedication, he was unbeatable.  Then, he began to play games with his relationship with God, and was completely defeated.  If we begin to treat our relationship to God as if it is not important, then we set ourselves up for failure.  We also learn from Samson that if we return to God, though we may be suffering physically from our departure from him, then we can be restored to a right relationship to Him.  In Samson's case, that restoration to power cost him his life, and in our case if we stray from Christ and return, it may cost us everything that we have gained while we are not in a right relationship with Him, but it is worth it.  It is better to die following God's guidance than to live under the bondage of sin.   Finally, I believe that we learned that just because people are called a part of the people of God does not make them so, as we saw with the tribe of Benjamin.  When a fellow man of Israel came to them for safety and security, they only wanted to abuse him.  We cannot be the same way today, but if anyone comes to us for help, we need to do our best to help them under the leadership and power of God.  We should never treat those in need with anything less than the love of God.  Of course, if someone who calls himself or herself a Christian or group of people who do commit a sin, no matter how great it may be, we should not want them to be annihilated, but should look to God for a way to restore them.  We will next look at the book of Ruth.