In The Story we come to a 300 year period known as the period of the Judges, the Book of Judges. In the Old Testament while these judges not only could throw you in jail, they are known mostly for getting God’s people out of jail. Seven hundred years after God’s promise to Abraham, the people of God are in their own land, God is present in the tabernacle, a book of law guides their lives, and a sacrificial system exists for forgiveness of sins. The people were truly blessed by God. But there is a problem. Sin. Sin still reigns in the hearts of the people. Sin raises its ugly head.
If you remember from last week, we saw that while Joshua lead the
nation of Israel into the Promised Land, their task was incomplete as he grew
old. They did what God expected them to do in Joshua’s life time. God promised
to go before them and drive out the rest of the inhabitants of the land, but
the people of Israel needed to follow God’s commands and listen to His
direction.
One of the requirements for the Nation of Israel to claim the Promised
Land was to wipe out its current inhabitants. This was God’s plan to reclaim
the land from its sinful inhabitants. As you read Judges Chapter 1, you will
see they did not follow through with what God wanted.
Judges 1:19
“19 The Lord was with
Judah and enabled them to take possession of the hill country, but they could
not drive out the people who were living in the valley because those people had
iron chariots.”
Judges 1:21
“21 At the same time the Benjaminites
did not drive out the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem. The Jebusites
have lived among the Benjaminites in Jerusalem to this day”
Judges 1:27-36
“27 At that time Manasseh failed to
take possession of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or
the residents of Dor and its villages, or the residents of Ibleam and its
villages, or the residents of Megiddo and its villages; the Canaanites refused
to leave this land. 28 When Israel became stronger, they made
the Canaanites serve as forced labor but never drove them out completely. 29 At
that time Ephraim failed to drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer,
so the Canaanites have lived among them in Gezer. 30 Zebulun
failed to drive out the residents of Kitron or the residents of Nahalol, so the
Canaanites lived among them and served as forced labor. 31 Asher
failed to drive out the residents of Acco or of Sidon, or Ahlab, Achzib,
Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob. 32 The Asherites lived among the
Canaanites who were living in the land, because they failed to drive them out. 33 Naphtali
did not drive out the residents of Beth-shemesh or the residents of Beth-anath.
They lived among the Canaanites who were living in the land, but the residents
of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath served as their forced labor. 34 The
Amorites forced the Danites into the hill country and did not allow them to go
down into the valley. 35 The Amorites refused to leave
Har-heres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim. When the house of Joseph got the upper hand,
the Amorites were made to serve as forced labor. 36 The
territory of the Amorites extended from the Ascent of Akrabbim, that is from
Sela upward.”
The Nation of Israel failed to clear out the land as
commanded by God and it only got worse.
Judges 2:7-13
“7 The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders
who outlived Joshua. They had seen all the Lord’s great
works He had done for Israel. 8 Joshua
son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at
the age of 110. 9 They buried him in the territory of his
inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount
Gaash. 10 That whole generation was also gathered to their
ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works He had done for Israel.
11 The
Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
They worshiped the Baals 12 and abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They
went after other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They
infuriated the Lord, 13 for they abandoned Him and worshiped Baal and
the Ashtoreths.”
During Joshua’s life things were
good, even during the rest of the lives of those elders who served with Joshua
the Nation of Israel remembered all that God had done. For the Nation of Israel
to be blessed they needed to remember the Word, talk to God, and stand apart as
God’s children. In these verses we see things falling apart.
They were to remember the Word of
God, talk to Him, and be set apart
Judges 2:10-11
“After them another generation rose
up who did not know the Lord or the works He had done for Israel. 11 The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals”
The people of Israel no longer
remembered the Law and obviously did not talk to God anymore if they did not know
what He had done for them and they no longer acted any different than the
sinful people around them.
It took 1 generation of not
learning what God had done, for them to turn from Him. For this new generation
to not know what God had done, their parents and grandparents must not have
taught them about it.
Think about this for a moment, today Christianity is only 1 generation from extinction. If the present generation does not teach the next generation about Jesus, there will be a new generation that arises that does not know the Lord. Sadly we could easily be drifting towards a time when people no longer know who Jesus is. Every year we see the largest Christian denominations shrink and more and more people saying they do not believe in God. Even many of those who claim to be Christian don’t believe the Bible as 100% true or are spreading some false teaching. Unlike Israel after Joshua died we need to be purposeful about raising up the next generation of believers to Love God and to follow Him. If not, we are facing extinction.
Two mistakes led to this. They did
not teach their children about God and all that He had done and secondly they
failed to drive out the Canaanites and were influenced by their sinful
behaviors.
As we look further into the Book of
Judges we need to understand God intervened and raised Judges to help His
people for two reasons. The other nations had seen that God had truly blessed
Israel and God wants the other nations to know His Goodness and Blessing.
Remember the whole reason for creating Israel was for them to be a blessing to the
world. God also saw the need to intervene when His people cried out to Him.
When people pray, God responds in a powerful way.
In the Book of Judges we see a
cycle of behavior that is repeated several times, 6 times to be specific.
The cycle begins with sin.
Something bad happens, the Nation of Israel cries out and God sends a Judge and
restores the Nation. Then a time of prosperity hits and the Israelites are no
longer worried about God, they can handle it on their own. They may grow
interested in the lifestyles of the Canaanites and turn from God. Sin slowly
sneaks in and they turn from God. They turn from honoring God to worshipping
pagan gods.
Psalm 37:4
“Take delight in the Lord, and He
will give you your heart’s desires.”
Take Delight in the Lord – Make God
the number one priority. Put God ahead of everything else. Remember what God
has done for you.
It starts with sin, then the people
or Israel feel the consequences of no longer honoring God, the oppression
begins.
Judges 2:20-21
“20 The
Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He declared, “Because this
nation has violated My covenant that I made with their fathers and disobeyed
Me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the
nations Joshua left when he died.”
The sin resulted in God removing
His hand of protection over His people and He allowed the surrounding nations
to oppress them. During the book of Judges we see 6 pagan nations oppressing
the Nation of Israel. 111 of 400 years are spent being oppressed by these
pagans by not putting God first in their lives.
Sin led to Oppression, which drove
the people to Repentance.
During their oppression the people
cry out to God for help. They remember what He had done and Turn or Return to
the Lord. They make a decision to make a complete turn from worshipping pagan
gods to worshipping the One True God. Once the people repent God raises up a
judge to deliver His people. Othniel delivers them from the Mesopotamians, Ehud
delivers them from the Moabites, Deborah from the Canaanites, Gideon from the
Midianites, Jepthah from the Ammories, and Samson from the Philistines.
Sin, Oppression, Repentance, and
then Deliverance.
While the judges were flawed human beings God used them to deliver His people out of oppression and into a time of prosperity. Two judges stand out as being flawed.
Gideon the week and Samson the
arrogant.
Gideon questioned if God could
really use him and asked God for a sign three times. God uses Gideon to
delivery His people, but not before making it impossible for Israel to do it on
their own.
Judges 7:2
“The Lord said to
Gideon, “You have to many people for Me to hand the Midianites over to you, or
else Israel might brag : ‘I did it myself’”
God then thins the
army down to only 300 soldiers and deliveries Israel from their oppression.
Samson the
arrogant, was a man who seemed to take what he wanted and became prideful with
his strength. In chapter 16 Samson gave in to Delilah and told her the secret
to his strength after she already betrayed him 3 times. His head was shaved and
he lost all of his strength, in the end God gave him the strength to wipe out
the Philistines but Samson gave his life in the process. His pride and
immaturity lead to his death.
The Nation of
Israel showed a nasty habit of turning away from God. We do to.
We sin – we don’t
keep God on the throne of our lives. We let other things get between us and
God. Our job, our family, video games, TV, drugs, alcohol… whatever it is we
sin.
We are Oppressed
–
1 John 1:6
“6 If
we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying
and are not practicing the truth.”
If we are walking
in sin, God is not with us.
We Repent -
1 John 1:9
“9 If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We are Delivered –
1 John 1:7
“7 But
if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with
one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
The Book of Judges
reminds us that sin leads to oppression that can only be relieved through
repentance which leads to deliverance through the Blood of Jesus Christ.
If you have any
sin you need to repent of this morning I want to invite you up to pray during
our closing song.
REPENT AND BE DELIVERED!
It is not to late to join us on our trip through the Bible. You can join us every Sunday morning at 11 AM in Clark Missouri or pick up your own copy of The Story and read along with us.
God Bless and Thanks for Reading!
Robert
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