Now I think certainly our society, but Christians generally have a problem with the book of
Judges.
It is so earthly, so puzzling, so primitive, so violent.
Judges could be described as despicable people doing deplorable things.
That's a summary of the book of Judges, despicable people doing deplorable things.
It records a history of murder, assassination and massacres, of immorality, lawlessness and
unfaithfulness.
And one way to deal with embarrassing books of the Bible is simply to ignore it.
Just, you know, let's just preach on the Gospels or something like that.
But it's difficult to do with Judges because it contains some of the Bible's most recognisable
leaders and most flawed people.
Samson, Gideon, Deborah.
I mean, these are the great Sunday school stories.
They revolve around these characters.
And so with characters who are so colorful and so flawed and so dramatic, it is easy, I think,
to miss the actual intention of the book of Judges and just pluck the characters out and
just do a character study instead.
And totally miss the point of Judges.
Judges.
This book is revelation from God about God.
That's what it is.
And it is pure gospel.
Pure gospel.
Judges is about the God of mercy and long-suffering patience who continually works in and through
and for his people.
And what's more, he does it despite the constant resistance of God's people against his purposes.
God relentlessly offers his grace to people who neither deserve it nor seek it and don't even
appreciate it when they're being saved by it.
List all the heroes you like in the book of Judges, but there is only one.
And that's God himself.
He is the only hero in this book.
It is God who consistently rescues Israel from the stupidity of their decisions and the mess
that they have created for themselves.
The 12 human judges who we'll start to look at next week, or the saviors in this book, point
us to the great saviour.
Through all of their flaws and their strengths, we see our need for our saviour.
And so we need to read this book with a great deal of humility.
So the first thing we need to do is fit judges in the Bible.
Where does it fit?
Where does it fit in God's unfolding plan of salvation?
God has rescued his people from Egypt.
He's promised them that he's taking them to the promised land.
And the very first verse of this book and the last verse puts it within its historical setting.
It covers the period from the death of Joshua and the end of the exodus from Egypt period
to, at the end of the book, the very last phrase says, very last sentence,
is that in those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did as they saw fit in their own eyes.
And so it's the period between the leadership of Moses and Joshua to David and Solomon.
It's a period of something like 200 to 400 years.
And the question at the very first verse of Judges really is asking the question,
well, who's going to lead us now?
Who's our leader now?
Joshua's dead.
Anyone?
Anyone want to lead?
Anyone?
What we are introduced to in the verses of Judges section by section is 12 judges, 12 rulers.
They are not leaders per se, but rescuers.
They are redeemers and saviors.
They're the people that God raises up to pull his people once again out of oppression and slavery because of their disobedience.
And as we look into the very first verses, there is one vital lesson that we learn.
In all of those verses I just read, there is one vital lesson.
One main point.
It's not so much a list of Palestinian places that aren't on the tourist route nowadays.
There's much more to it than that.
And to understand this lesson that we've just read out, we need to effectively look over our shoulders to understand what Judges 1 is all about.
We're going to look back.
Which is what, in fact, the very first verse of Judges does for us.
It encourages us to look back.
It says, after the death of Joshua.
Joshua was one of only two men.
One of only two men.
Two men.
In the whole generation that had been rescued from Egypt who had remained faithful in trusting God's promises to bring his people from Egypt into the promised land.
Two men.
That's it.
And the book of Joshua, one book before Judges, charts God's work in and through his people to keep his promises to them, to take them to the promised land.
To bring them into the land, to defeat their enemies and to begin to give them blessing and rest in their new home.
It teaches us that because God always keeps his promises, God's people can bravely obey him and worship him.
And this is the book.
Joshua is the book that provides the background for the book of Judges.
In fact, it is the book that provides the yardstick, if you like.
The measuring tool by which we measure the progress and the success of the taking of the promised land in the book of Judges.
So let's, you've got your Bibles in front of you, but let's turn back to the beginning of Joshua to see what God called his people to do.
What is his specific mission for his people having rescued them out of slavery in Egypt?
So Joshua, this is God speaking to Joshua as he takes up the reins as the leader of God's people after the death of Moses.
So Joshua chapter 1, verse 5 to start with,
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.
Be strong, very courageous.
Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you.
Do not turn from it to the right or to the left that you may be successful wherever you go.
Keep this book of the law always on your lips.
Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and courageous.
Do not be afraid.
Do not be discouraged.
For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
So in verses 7 and 8, God reminds Israel that their military advances into the promised land will be accompanied by a close and humble and obedient walk with God.
Victory and rest in the promised land will come because they are dependent and obedient people of faith in the promises of God.
They will not achieve victory and rest for themselves.
And so the book of Joshua records the beginning of the campaign to take the promised land.
And the purpose for driving out the Canaanites to conquer the promised land, it was not vengeance.
It was not economic gain, but it was spiritual.
It wasn't vengeance.
It wasn't for economic gain, which is why they were not to take any plunder.
They weren't to have any slaves.
They weren't to enslave the people.
They are to be removed so that Israel didn't fall under the influence of their gods.
By the time we get to the end of Joshua's life, there is still so much more to be done.
You can see that at the end of the book of Joshua.
Much of the land still needs to be settled.
And God's call on his people, both then and now, is to combine a trust in his promises with courage, with bravery, with risk.
True Christian discipleship is risk-taking and it is radical because true disciples rely on God to keep his promises to bless them
and not on their own instincts, not on their own plans, not on their own insurance policies.
And so with the mission and the purpose of God clear for his people,
we are now ready to launch into Judges chapter 1 and see how they go at trusting in the promises of God
to be with them and to give them victory and rest.
And we arrive at verse 3 and Judas failed already.
Who's to go up first?
Judah.
What did Judah do?
Turn to the Simeonites.
Hey guys, you guys want to come with us?
It would be a whole lot easier taking the land if we did it together.
Now that makes sense from a military perspective.
But they didn't trust God for the victory.
And yet despite this, verse 4, God graciously grants them victory in spite of their disobedience.
Judah continues to take its inheritance in verses 8 to 11 and then again in verses 17 to 18.
And in between those victories, there's this little story in verses 12 to 16,
which we get a glimpse.
In amongst all of this, there is a glimpse of one faithful, obedient family.
Caleb's family.
Surprise, surprise.
And what they do here is they demonstrate the covenant faithfulness and courageous obedience to God
that all Israel should have.
Caleb, Othniel, who will be introduced to soon, and in particular Aksar,
reveal wholehearted discipleship.
They believe in the promises of God and keep grasping for more.
And they are a rebuke.
This woman here is a rebuke.
Caleb's daughter is a rebuke to all of Israel.
Now if the chapter ended in verse 18,
you would kind of go, it's mostly encouraging, kind of.
You know, until you get to verse 19.
The Lord was with the men of Judah,
but they were unable to drive the people from the plains
because they had chariots fitted with iron.
Now if you did not know what God had said to his people through Joshua,
the book of Joshua,
there would be plausible reasons why the Israelites didn't succeed in their military campaign.
We don't have chariots.
They've got chariots.
We've got guns.
They've got tanks.
There's a reason for this.
So why not just be sensible about it?
Why not just be sensible about this and compromise and negotiate a treaty?
It was half-hearted obedience.
And unfortunately, it was contagious.
When you read through the rest of chapter 1,
it kind of reads like a collection of press releases from Israel
with their advancement,
each tribe's advancement into the land,
and their own spin on how they're going with it.
Benjamin fails to dislodge the Jebusites in verse 21.
The tribe of Judah makes a covenant with a Canaanite in verses 22 to 26.
Can you see the failures when you read Joshua and what they've done here?
Manasseh fails to drive out various inhabitants,
but they become strong enough eventually to exploit them as forced labor.
In verses 27 and 28,
Ephraim allows Canaanites to live among them in verse 29.
Zebulun opts for forced labor in verse 30.
Asher doesn't simply allow the Canaanites to live amongst them.
They choose to live amongst the Canaanites in verses 31 and 32,
as does Naphtali in verse 33.
Dan advances nowhere.
It says they become confined to the hill country in verse 34.
And the slap in the face here,
it says in verses 35 and 36,
that the Amorites have got more tenacity,
more bravery than God's own people.
Chapter 1 gives us the facts.
But at the beginning of chapter 2,
what happens is we get heaven's explanation.
It starts with,
the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochum and said,
that's a really significant point.
It's easy to miss.
This is not just another destination issue.
Not just another Palestinian village.
Angel happened to be there and thought,
oh, I better go over there.
In Joshua chapter 5,
it was at Gilgal that Israel made a covenant with God.
We will remain obedient to you and we will exclude all others.
This was the place where God had forgiven their sin.
He had bound them to himself as his people
and entered into relationship with them by grace.
He had motivated,
sorry,
that covenant was motivated only by his own loving kindness towards his people.
And so God's assessment of his people's performance in verse 2
is in fact devastating.
You have disobeyed me.
Now Israel disobeyed God through what they had done.
They in fact made a covenant with the people of Canaan despite being told not to.
They enforced labor when they're told not to.
They cohabited in Canaan when they were told not to.
But Israel also disobeyed God through what they had failed to do.
They failed to break down the altars of their gods.
The purpose of this campaign was to cleanse Canaan of its idols to get rid of every idol god.
Because there is only one god worthy of worship and total allegiance.
And the fact that Israel didn't clear out the idols means that they hadn't rejected God as their god.
But they hadn't fully surrendered to him as their god.
They hadn't rejected him yet.
But they hadn't accepted him either.
They hadn't surrendered to him.
One of the big points that we see right through the book of Judges
is that this god wants lordship over every area of life.
Either all of life is given to God in grateful, loving, obedience, or none is.
He doesn't pick and choose.
We don't pick and choose.
It's either everything or it's nothing.
In verse 19 of chapter 1, we read that it says there,
the Israelites were unable to drive out the people from the plains because of the iron chariots.
That's their take.
That's their take on this issue.
We couldn't do it.
We just could not do it.
God's assessment in chapter 2, verse 2, is not that you could not do it, but that you would not do it.
You chose disobedience.
It's always really, really helpful for us to ask ourselves the question,
where in my life am I saying, I can't do it, God?
But God is saying to us, actually, you won't do it.
It's true to say you won't do it.
It's not that you can't do it.
It's that you won't do it.
Israel thought they had good reasons not to obey, but God called them flimsy excuses.
And God's assessment of Israel is based on his promises.
So here's one promise.
Here's one promise from 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13.
God is faithful.
He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
How about that promise?
God will never put us into a position where we cannot obey him.
He will never, ever, ever put us in a position where we cannot obey him.
There is never, ever an I can't moment in our lives.
Ever.
And this is a very searching and threatening passage to apply to our lives.
Because there may be all sorts of things in our lives that we think that we are unable to do,
but which we actually are refusing to do.
We're refusing to do it.
So here's just a couple.
Ever said,
I just cannot forgive this or that.
I just cannot forgive him or her.
But God commands forgiveness in Matthew 18, 35.
Which means we, in fact, we can, in fact, determine to put aside anger,
to soften our hearts with the knowledge of the gospel of grace
and act as though the wrong had never happened.
When we don't forgive, we choose not to forgive.
It's not that we can't.
It's that we won't.
When we say we can't, we mean we won't.
We want to hang on to our anger.
We want to hang on to our bitterness and our desire to get even.
All under the excuse of,
oh, you just don't understand how bad I've been treated.
What about this one?
Ever said,
I can't tell them the truth.
It would just destroy them.
God tells us in Ephesians 4, 15 and Ephesians 4, 25
to speak the truth in love.
And more often than not,
it is because of our cowardice or our pride
that we say,
I can't.
It's our cowardice or our pride where we say,
I can't.
What we really mean is that if I were to tell them the truth,
then they just might not like me anymore.
What about this one?
Ever said,
I just cannot give
a minimum of a tenth of my income to Christian ministry.
I just can't do that.
You don't understand my situation.
I just can't do that.
And yet God commands it.
He says, in fact,
that we rob him when we don't.
God is the one who's made clear promises
to give us everything we need.
He cares for us more than the sparrows.
When we say we can't,
we mean I won't
because I don't trust that he will.
What about this one?
I can't resist doing this thing
even though I know it's wrong.
I think we need to understand,
we're going to see it very soon here in a moment
in this text,
that sin has addictive power
over our lives.
It is true
that we may not be able to resist
the temptation
through our own sheer willpower,
but then again,
Israel was not meant to take the promised land
under their own sheer willpower.
We can, however, get help.
We can admit our problem.
We can humble ourselves.
We can cry out to God for mercy
and we can seek transformation through him
and become accountable to others.
1 Corinthians 10 tells me
that God always provides a way out.
No sin is inevitable.
No sin is irresistible.
And if we don't resist,
it's likely we would simply rather keep on sinning
and excusing it with a,
I can't.
When what God says here,
it's actually, I won't.
I refuse.
Now, already
in this book,
we are introduced to one of the major tensions,
one of the major tensions
of the book of Judges,
which goes right through.
God is holy.
God is just.
He cannot tolerate
or live with
or bless
evil sin
in any way whatsoever.
And God is also loving
and he is faithful
and he cannot tolerate
the loss of people
he has committed himself to.
So what does he do?
What does he do
with these sinful people
that he cannot tolerate
but he's committed to?
And this is a tremendous
and almost seemingly
irresolvable tension
in the book of Judges.
Will God finally give up?
on his people.
Right?
I've had enough.
Covenant reversal.
Rip it up.
Done with you.
Or will he finally give in
to his people?
Oh, whatever.
You know,
kid nags you.
No, no, no, no, no.
Oh, whatever.
Yes.
Is God just going to do that?
And the tension here
is only resolved
outside of the book of Judges
centuries later.
God takes decisive action
to resolve it in himself.
He takes the tension,
resolves it in himself
with the crucifixion
of his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our sin was credited to Jesus.
Jesus takes our sin
so that his righteous life
might be credited to us.
God's anger was poured out
on Jesus.
Jesus satisfies
both justice
because sin was punished
and loving faithfulness
since God is now able
to live
and accept us
on the merits
of the Lord Jesus
alone.
And so the cross of Christ
is the only way
the tension of Judges
can possibly be resolved.
Without the good news
of Jesus Christ,
we will always
either be complacent
with our sin
and take his mercy
for granted
or we will live
under the burden
of guilt,
shame and fear
because we don't know
that his mercy covers it.
We will go
on one of those
two directions.
Either liberalism
and license
and go,
well, God's in the business
of forgiveness.
That's his job
so keep on sitting
and give him a job to do.
Or burden of guilt
that God could not possibly
ever forgive
a sinner like me.
With the good news
of the gospel,
we are able to live
forgiven,
obedient lives
despite also living
sinful,
disobedient lives.
You see,
the cross is where
we find the freedom
to accept ourselves
without being proud
and to challenge ourselves
without being crushed.
God resolves the tension
in the death
and resurrection
of Jesus
and it is the power
and the motivation
to fully commit
ourselves to God.
God.
You see,
Israel's failure
to obey,
our failure
to obey
is a failure
to remember.
Our God
is the God
who rescues.
He's the one
who brought them
out of slavery,
out of Egypt.
He is the God
who remains faithful
to them
right through
the wilderness
and he said,
I will never
break my covenant
with you.
And so the core issue
of our won't,
of our disobedience
is essentially
a failure
to remember
who he is
and who he has
made us
to be
in him.
And the reverse
is also true.
As long as we
remember
who he is
and what he's
done for us
in the Lord Jesus,
as much as that
becomes the defining
vision of our lives,
we will serve him
wholeheartedly,
radically
and joyfully.
And Israel
failed to do this
and the consequences
were clear
and they were
catastrophic.
The idols
of Canaan
would ensnare
them.
Have a look
in chapter 2,
Judges 2 verse 3.
This is God's
pronouncement
on his people.
I will not
drive them
out before you.
They will
become traps
for you
and their gods
will become
snares to you.
Oh,
what a tragedy.
I have
rescued you
from slavery
and now
you have
chosen
slavery.
It's a great
description here
of what idolatry
is and what
idolatry does.
Idolatry,
according to the
Bible,
is taking a good
aspect of creation.
It could be
marriage,
days on the beach,
business,
family,
money,
and turning
it into
the ultimate
source of
our security,
our comfort,
our identity,
our power.
And these
idols
are what
are called
thorns.
When you
make something
good into
the ultimate,
it will
make you
miserable.
it will
make you
miserable.
I've got a
splinter at the
moment in the
bottom of my
foot and I've
been trying to
get it out for
some time,
which is very
difficult to do
when it's at the
bottom of your
foot and you
can't quite get
there.
And I really
don't want anyone
else to play
with it.
That's what a
thorn does and
every moment I
know it's
there and
it makes life
miserable.
If our
children are
our idols,
when their
lives are
troubled,
we lose our
joy.
And even
when their
lives might
become troubled,
which in fact is
all the time,
we will worry
and we will
lose our
joy.
Idols are
snares,
they trap us,
they blind us,
they enslave us,
and it gets to the
point where we
just have to have
it.
We cannot say
no to it,
become addicted
to it.
And this is why
so many people
work so hard
and they
sacrifice their
family,
their friendships,
their health at
the altar of a
career or give
themselves to
certain relationships
that are so
destructive.
Because a good
thing has become
the ultimate.
The more we
pursue half-hearted
discipleship, the
more ensnared we
become, the more
miserable we
become, the more
unstable we
become.
That's what I
think it means
when James says
a double-minded
person is
unstable in all
that they do.
They've got a
foot in both
camps.
Verses 4 and
5 I think is
helpful.
We see less of
it as judges
progress, but the
people hear the
word of God and
they weep, they
weep and they
offer sacrifices.
There's a picture
here of genuine
repentance.
Tragically,
repentance
decreases as the
storyline progresses.
Heed that as a
warning, friends.
As the storyline
progresses,
repentance
decreases.
Our response to
God's accusing
word here should be
more than wet
eyes.
It is good to
remove to tears,
but it is much
better to be
moved to
repentance.
Judges shows us
that spiritual
decline is
inevitable for
everyone and
spiritual renewal
then becomes the
continual need for
everyone.
Decline is
inevitable, renewal
is a continual need.
God wants to
produce in us
good grief.
Good grief.
Joel 2
verses 12
to 13,
return to me
with all of
your heart,
with fasting
and weeping
and mourning
and tear open
your heart,
not your
garments.
can I
plead with
you to tear
open your
heart in
the coming
weeks as we
study judges,
repent of
half-hearted
discipleship.
To be
disciple of
Jesus means
we are under
his discipline.
Search your
heart and ask
whether he's
committed to
following God
rather than
the idols of
our society
and our
neighbours.
Are there
any sins that
you're particularly
struggling with at
the moment?
How are you
going at the
moment,
avoiding sexual
immorality?
What about
gossip,
slander,
incessant
criticism?
Are your
words building
up?
Are they
tearing down?
Are you
acknowledging
error,
seeking
reconciliation?
Are you
confessing
sin?
Are you
seeing sin
in others
more readily
than you see
it in
yourself?
Do you
get angry
or depressed
when someone
points out a
flaw to you?
Has your
commitment to
church,
to your
church family
wavered so
now it's
three out
of four
or two
out of
four
or one
out of
four?
Have you
just decided
for the
first time
in a while
just not to
join up to a
community group
this time?
What's your
prayer life like
right now?
What have you
been mostly
praying for?
God help me
do this.
God provide
for that.
Do you
have a
global picture
in God's
glory,
surrendering,
confession?
What has God
been teaching
you through
his word
lately?
Have you
felt your
passion stirred
in personal
or corporate
worship lately?
Or is it
just criticism?
criticism?
I don't
give a rip
whether you
can sing
the songs.
Are you
trying?
Have you
been able to
control spending
and your
saving habits?
Have you been
able to control
both your
spending habits
and your
saving habits
so that you
become more
generous?
are there
areas of
your life
where you
have made
big decisions
but haven't
consulted God
or mature
Christians for
wisdom and
God's will?
Are you
making decisions
for relationship
with Jesus
or making
decisions against
relationship with
Jesus?
Maybe you
haven't rejected
him but you
haven't fully
surrendered to
him either.
Tear open
your hearts
to God
with weeping
and mourning
and repentance.
our sins.
Thank you.
Missing
and
glory
and
going
to be
ourselves
unknown AH
here.
If
you're
figuring out
everything