Aleethia!

Last week we looked at the book of Joshua and we saw the Israelites successfully conquering the Promised Land. We learned from the book of our need for total dependence on God, and exclusive loyalty to God. We then saw the piles of stones the Israelites erected to serve as reminders, reminders of God’s covenant with them, reminders of God’s miraculous deeds for them, and reminders of the consequences of not keeping the covenant.

This week we’re looking at the book of Judges. Judges is the sequel to Joshua. We don’t know for sure when the book was written or who the author is, though Jewish tradition attributes the book to Samuel. That would place the writing at some time around the institution of the monarchy.

Much like Joshua, the book of Judges will again relate a period of Israel’s history with the intent of teaching a specific lesson. The history related is somewhere between 200 to 400 years, covering the time from Joshua’s death to the time just before the rise of the monarchy.

There are many stories in Judges. Tragic stories and hopeful stories, but even the hopeful ones don’t go just right. The story is told of twelve different “judges” who arise in Israel during this time. Now the judges have a God appointed job to do, that is, to deliver the Israelites from their oppressors and lead them in worshiping God.

Now you might ask why they would need delivering. Didn’t they conquer the Promised Land and renew the covenant with God in the story we saw in Joshua. Well, yes they did, the problem is, they didn’t keep that covenant.

And so, the purpose of the book of Judges is to show us what happens when God’s people don’t heed the lessons we learned last week in Joshua. That is, what are the consequences of not relying in total dependence on God, but rather relying on our own strength and wisdom? And, what are the consequences of not being exclusively loyal to God in the worship of our hearts? What happens when we disregard those piles of stone and don’t remember the lessons they were intended to remind us of?

What happens when we try to claim victory by our strength and wisdom? What happens when we commit idolatry and worship the same gods the world worships?

The book of Judges has some cool stories, but it’s a tragedy. I’ll warn you right now that it doesn’t end well.

It opens well.

But it doesn’t end well.

Let’s see what happened.

If you read chapter one of Judges you’ll notice that things go well for the first 18 verses. The people are continuing the conquest after Joshua’s death. Judah is experiencing great success in capturing the land, until verse 19.

That word “but” just ruins it, doesn’t it? They were doing so well! They were doing what God told them to do, they just didn’t go far enough, they didn’t do ALL that the Lord told them to do.

Again in verse 21 we see another tribe fail to follow through.

This pattern continues through the rest of the chapter. Look at the first sentence of each paragraph, they all begin with the name of a tribe of Israel and then the words,

…did not drive out…

And so, the people of Israel are in the Promised Land, but it is not theirs completely. They are plagued by these people they did not drive out.

In chapter two God announces that they have disobeyed his command in this regard and that these people will serve as a thorn in their side and these peoples’ gods will be a temptation and a snare to them. Their sin of omission, failing to do as God said, will soon result in sins of commission, doing what God said not to do.

It doesn’t take all that long, one generation.

One generation passes and the new generation quickly descends into idolatry. Just to warn you, it’s going to go from bad to worse, or actually worst. Here’s a short outline of the book.

1. Bad (1:1 – 3:6)
2. Worse (3:7-16:31)
3. Worst (17 – 25)

Here in the opening section, the people have abandoned worship of God to serve the false gods of the people around them. God turns them over to their enemies for punishment and pretty soon they cry out to him for deliverance and he raises up a judge to deliver them. The judge does more than just deliver them, he judges them, ruling over them, deciding matters, and leading by example in the worship of God. As soon as the judge dies though, it gets even worse than before.

This is a pattern that will hold true throughout the book, as things just go from bad to worse.

Notice the closing verses of this opening section. God, through Moses had explicitly commanded them to make no peace with the Canaanite nations, but to drive them out completely. They were not to intermarry with these peoples, yet they do.

As God’s people today, I fear we are very much guilty of the same sins. We live among pagans. Instead of being provoked by their idolatry, as Paul was in Athens, we are, more often than not, lured into joining them in it. We engage in the idolatry of worshiping money, success, material possessions, food, and sex to name just a few. The Canaanite religions, as we said last week, were rife with sexual perversion, and the Israelites joined them in it.

If we are to be the people of God, and serve him with exclusive loyalty, we must guard against such temptations so that we don’t fall. This means using internet filters and accountability, but it means more than that. It means guarding our hearts and minds and eyes so that we are not worshiping at the alter of sex like so many in our culture. It means that we don’t watch those movies. It means that we don’t wear those clothes. It means that our relationships look different than the world. It means that we don’t view the opposite gender in that way. You know what I’m talking about.

I plead with you, don’t worship the false idol of sex. It won’t bring you true happiness. Sure guys, it feels good in the short term to pursue sexual pleasure. Sure girls it makes you feel special and desirable to dress that way, or behave that way, and get guys’ attention. But it’s idolatry of self either way, and it won’t bring you lasting joy.

And this is just one idol in our culture. Materialism is nearly as bad. We neglect our families and our Lord in pursuit of material wealth and possessions. The big house, the nice car, the right clothes, the newest iPod or blackberry, etc.

So that’s what’s going on in the first section of Judges. The people of Israel are worshiping the gods of the surrounding culture.

Beginning with chapter 3 verse 7 we see the time of the Judges. Notice the pattern.

First, the people turn away, they sin, they commit idolatry.

Second, God punishes them with difficult times by handing them over to their enemies. This is for a purpose. This is punishment with a purpose. The reason God allows these pagan nations to come against Israel, achieve victory, and oppress them, is to drive his people back to a place of total dependence on God. That was the first lesson of Joshua. This turning back is called repentance. It is a central truth of the Scriptures.

You and I are no different from the Israelites. When things are going well, we tend to forget God. We begin to worship the gods of the world, of the peoples around us. And God uses hard times in our lives to turn us back to him in repentance. These hard times can come as a result of decisions we’ve made, the consequences of our actions. Sometimes they are imposed on us from outside. Let us not hold God responsible for others’ sins, but let us recognize his sovereignty, that just as Joseph’s brothers acted out of the wickedness of their own hearts to sell him into slavery, meaning it for evil, God meant it for good.

It doesn’t say that they acted and then God “used” it for good. No, it says he “meant” it for good. In his sovereignty, God used Joseph’s wicked brothers, he used the pagan nations around Israel, and he uses events in our own lives. And Scripture tells us this is discipline (Hebrews 12) for the purpose of bringing us to repentance, and moving us to a place of total reliance on God.

And so the people of Israel, each time they are oppressed, turn to God for deliverance. And each time he sends a deliverer. It may be Ehud, one of my favorites, or Gideon, or Sampson, or Barak, but he sends a deliverer. As we’ll see, these men are not perfect. God uses them for his purposes, but they are far from the standard set by the deliverer of our souls, Jesus Christ. He is the true deliverer. He delivers us from bondage to sin through his sacrifice on the cross.

The stories of these twelve judges are incredible. They are stories of divine intervention and miraculous deliverance. They are also sad stories of fallen men.

Take the story of Ehud, my favorite judge. He’s my favorite because he comes off like a sort of James Bond character. His story is funny and yet tragic.

Let’s read it together in chapter 3, starting with verse 12.

So the people sinned. God raised up this king in Moab to discipline them. After 18 years of oppression, these folks are slow to learn!, the people cry out to God for deliverance. God sends Ehud. Ehud kills the king of Moab, escapes from the palace, raises and army and defeats the Moabites in open battle, delivering the Israelites from this oppression. But notice how that last verse reads.

Subdued? They weren’t suppose to “subdue” the Canaanites, they were supposed to completely eradicate them. You see the problem? The land had rest for 80 years, but it wasn’t a permanent solution.

And so it goes. One judge after another delivers Israel from it’s current situation but doesn’t provide permanent deliverance. And some are worse than others.

Some of the judges are given only a verse or two, others have their story told in detail.

The story of Gideon takes chapters 6-8. He delivers Israel from the oppression of Midian, but he demonstrates a decided lack of courage and faith at times. Even after he learns the lesson of total dependance on God for victory, which he does, he still doesn’t learn the second lesson of Joshua, which was, exclusive loyalty to God.

In a scene that is eerily reminiscent of the tragedy of the golden calf, Gideon gathers up over 40 pounds of gold and creates on object of worship that was a snare to himself, his family, and the entire nation.

Eventually you get to the story of Samson, the last judge. Samson’s story is told in chapters 13-16.

I want us to consider this story for several reasons. First, Samson is used by God, but is far from exemplary in his lifestyle. Samson is also one of the most interesting judges to study because he’s the most like a super hero. Ehud was left handed. Gideon learned to trust God and became a courageous military leader. Samson, he had super human strength. He’s the original Hulk, complete with the temper!

Samson’s birth is extraordinary. Israel is being oppressed by the Philistines because of their sins against God. This time, they don’t cry out for deliverance. Instead, God sends an angle to Samson’s parents, who couldn’t have children (sound familiar?), and tells of the coming child, who is to be dedicated to God from birth as a Nazarite.

Several times previously in Judges we’ve been told that the Spirit of the Lord came upon a judge before he went out war. It happened with the first judge, Othniel. It happened with Gideon. And it happened with Jephthah. In Samson’s case though, we are told that the Spirit began to stir him.

Then three more times we are told that

…the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him…

And, surely in his tragic death scene this must also have been the case, though it is not explicitly stated there.

Samson enjoyed tremendous strength.

He fell pray to sin though. He didn’t turn away from worshiping God, he just disobeyed him. You see, he did what was right in his own eyes.

Samson knew what God had commanded concerning intermarriage with the Canaanites. He chose to ignore it. He did what seemed good to him.

Scripture tells us this is a bad way to do life.

Samson takes his own way rather than Gods. The amazing part is, God continued to use him for Israel’s good. In fact, the text tells us that is was God’s plan.

So God, once again, in his sovereignty allows Samson to pursue the wicked desires of his own heart, as part of God’s divine plan for redemption. Samson sinned in marrying this woman. He was responsible and causal in that sin. At the same time,

…it was from the Lord…

Isn’t our God amazing?!

Samson’s story includes further sins with foreign women, including a prostitute. It includes sins of gross anger. And eventually it includes the sin of breaking his Nazarite vow.

At this point he’s married to Delilah, whose name has become associated with seduction, when it should be associated with nagging. She kept after him until

…his soul was vexed to death.

That’s not what seduction looks like my friends. That is nagging.

Anyway, he tells her his secret and she cuts his hair. Now shall calls in his enemies and tragically, he doesn’t even discern that the Lord had left him.

He still hasn’t learned the first lesson of Joshua, to depend totally on God rather than his own strength. When you have superman like strength it would be easy to become prideful and self-reliant, but nonetheless, he is overcome by his enemies.

The amazing part of this story is yet to come though.

Remember that the cycle of Judges is that the people sin, are oppressed, repent and cry out to God, and he delivers them. Here we see that same pattern in the life of Samson, in a tragic way.

Samson has sinned. He is now oppressed by the Philistines. They gouge out his eyes and make him a circus act for them to laugh at. They chain him up in the temple of their god and they feast and worship their demon god.

I don’t know what to make of Samson. He cried out to the Lord. He prayed for God to renew his strength. Yet his motives, even now, are personal revenge rather than service to the Lord.

While I don’t know what to make of Samson, I do know what to make of our God though. He hears Samson’s prayer and grants his request despite the impure motive of his heart, again because it serves his purposes in delivering his people.

The lesson here is twofold.

First, God can use sinful, broken, and even fallen leaders.

Second, God is faithful to deliver his people, even when the people and the leaders themselves are not faithful to God.

The idolatry and sins of people continue to get even worse as the cycle repeats into the final section of the book.

We witness gross perverted sexual practices akin to that of Sodom.

While Samson did what seemed right to him, he was a judge. Now in chapter 17 we are told that everyone does the same.

And so we have the story of a Levite, who should be serving God as a religious leader, who leads some of the people in idolatry for personal gain. He begins in a household and ends leading a tribe in idolatry.

Chapters 19-20 tell the story of another Levite. This story is one of the most gruesome in the Bible. The Levite has a concubine who runs away, back to her father’s house. The story of his trip to get her back includes an attempt at sodomy similar to what happened in Genesis 19, just before God destroyed Sodom. Failing that, the men of the town violently, and repeatedly rape the concubine, resulting in her death by morning.

The Levite seems very uncaring for her personally, but very upset about the treatment of something, a person!, he views as his property. He cuts up her body and mails the pieces around Israel, stirring up unrest which eventually results in a civil war which decimates the tribe of Benjamin.

Chapter 21, the final chapter of the book, relates the story of the preservation of the tribe of Benjamin by providing wives for the remaining 600 men, that’s all that are left! It’s not a feel good tale. The way in which the wives are provided is not honoring to God, and the chapter concludes with the verse we read at the outset.

There are many lessons to found in this book, but the main theme of the book seems to be a demonstration of what happens when the lessons of Joshua are not heeded.

God’s people are to be totally dependent on God and exclusively loyal to him in worship. Failing to do so results in tragedy.

When the people of Israel took their eyes off those piles of stone we talked about last week, they forgot what God had done for them, and what he had promised to do for them. When that happened, they became spiritually blind, their worldview became skewed, their vision clouded. They did what appeared to be right in their own eyes, but it was indeed wrong. They moved away from right worship of God and worshiped the idols of the surrounding culture.

So we too, when we take our eyes of Christ, our stone of remembrance, when we forget the lessons of communion, “do this in remembrance of me…” When we forget what Jesus has done for us on the Cross for our justification, when we forget what he has promised to do for us in this life, for our sanctification, and what he has promised to do for us in the future for our glorification, then we too become spiritually blinded. Our worldview gets skewed and what appears to be correct to us in actually offensive to God. Our worship gets redirected and we become idolators. We worship at the alter of the gods of the culture that surrounds us.

There is only one solution. Keep your eyes firmly fixed on the cross of Jesus. He is our deliverer, and unlike the judges, his deliverance is perfect, effectual, and everlasting.