Gideon

Judges 6 starts the story of Gideon. The land is oppressed by the Midianites and so Gideon is hiding away in a winepress threshing wheat and an angel of the Lord says to him "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior" and Gideon's response is- if the Lord is with us, why are things so bad for us? An appropriate response to seeing an angel of the Lord? I'm not sure. The Lord might have been smacking himself of the head after that. So what does the angel do? He tells Gideon that Gideon is going to save Israel! Something about stop whining about the problem when YOU are the solution goes through my head.
Gideon then asks God for a number of signs, which God gives him, and he finally goes off and trounces the Midiantes in a battle that truly belonged to the Lord as he took only 300 men to fight thousands.
He gets some gold from the plunder which he makes into an ephod but unfortunately "it became a snare to Gideon and his family"(Judges 8:27). So even though there can be a great God-time, you can't live there- you have to watch for snares all the time!

I'll just end with a side note about Abimelech, the guy who uses money to hire "reckless adventurers"(Judges 9:4) and then gets a millstone dropped on his head by a woman. This line cracked me up Judges 9:55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead. they went home . That's it, they just went home!

Turning

After Joshua died, there seem to be a series of judges that led Israel.

19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

It seems that the people needed a more stable leadership. They were not able to stay committed to the Lord on their own.

Don't stay on your own. Be committed.

Understanding

Joshua 22 is a very crazy chapter, but I think it is something that plays out often.

The Israelites have pretty much taken all the land that they set out to take, so they send home the 3 tribes from over the Jordan, who fought faithfully with them as they had promised.
On their was home they build an 'imposing altar' by the Jordan.
This completely freaks the rest of Israel out and they prepare to go to war against these 3 tribes.
Wow, they were fighting side by side for weeks, months before and now they build an altar and they aren't friends anymore?
Luckily, before they head to war, they send a group to talk to the 'rebelling' tribes. Only to find that they weren't rebelling at all.
Now that's not to say that the altar building was God-inspired even though they use some talk about how it is an altar to commemorate Him. They do indicate that it was fear-inspired. Fear of the other tribes leading them astray.

Don't build altars based on fear of what might happen in the future.
Don't make judgments about other people's actions.
Don't get angry. Hear the full story.

Cities of Refuge

In Joshua 20 cities of refuge are set up so that if you accidentally killed someone, you would have a safe place to go. A protection from the 'avenger of blood'. (presumably relatives of the dead person?)

In the next chapter, cities are doled out to the Levites because they got no inheritance of land because they were the priests. Within the cities they received, they managed to land pretty much all of the cities of refuge. I'm not sure if this would have made them happy or not. It would make some sense as these were cities that probably were a lot of work as well as would not have as great ties to the surrounding land.

Know your inheritance

In Joshua 14, Caleb asks for land promised him when he was one of the spies (that brought a good report)

10 "Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said."

He's kinda old but still ready to fight and take what he was promised.

Fighting others' battles

In Joshua 9, the Israelites make some unwanted friends. The Gibeonites were scared about how the Israelites were taking the country, so they made a 'spiritual' lie. They said they were from far away and the God had sent them to the Israelites to make a treaty with them. They showed mouldy bread and old shoes. But really they were from close by. The Israelites did not inquire of the Lord and became friends with them, then they found out the truth. Maybe they were flattered by what the Gibeonites had said.

So they were friends on false pretences.

Then some of the other kings in the area heard about the Gibeonites becoming friends with the Israelites and they went to attack the Gibeonites. And the Israelites went to protect the Gibeonites. Even though they had been lied to by these 'friends' to become friends, the commitment of the friendship went so far. These days are we so comitted to our friends?

All

In Joshua 7 some dude steals some of the holy things of the Lord and hid them under his tent. The result is that Israel looses a battle and the people all get discouraged, then God says to Joshua in v. 11 "Israel has sinned". Not just the one silly dude, but the whole country gets the blame! Because the people of God are a body, an organism, what one member does affects all the rest.

ETA: Fred noted that the rest of Israel was not so lily white. Probably the guy centered out was not the only dude stealing. But also, some people must have known this was going on and turned a blind eye to it.

Ready to cross

Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses. Before he goes he sings a song that seems very critical of how ungrateful Israel is. Probably because he felt frustrated a lot of the time! Not sure how good of a song this would make, but I find it interesting that it DID come out as a song.
After that he blesses Israel. First criticism, then blessing, then death.