Whole, Half or Hard Hearted?

So why Judges? Judges is a dark book with some very disturbing and hard to explain stories and situations. It's a book of tragedy, but it's also a book of faith. Hebrews 11 - considered the "Biblical Faith Hall of Fame" even mentions some Judges...

SLIDE HEBREWS 11:32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

There are some very powerful - and disturbing at times - stories in the book of Judges. And yet, when you read Judges, there are some great similarities to the times in which we live. There are very specific - and timely - lessons/examples for us in the book of Judges that speak to the times we are living in right now.

The book of Judges captures how the people of God struggled in a time when false gods and idols were plentiful. It was a time where cultural influences imposed their values on the people of God. Yet, It was a time where some hereos/heroines arose to lead & to save.

Fast forward from then to now - the church (at large) has been struggling for decades now, but maybe it's starting to rebound a bit, there are false gods & idols all around, there are values and systems of belief & practice the world holds to are being forced upon the church, and we need the Savior more than ever.

A fitting label to describe both the time of Judges & Today would be an age of Apostasy.

APOSTASY: SLIDE

Apostasy: a total desertion of or departure from one's religion, principles, party, cause, etc.

The images used to portray apostasy generally show a gradual and self-willed movement away from God. Such apostasy is pictured as a seed planted on thorny ground and choked by thorns (cares of the world, Lk 8:14), the heart hardened by the deceit of sin (Heb 3:12–15), “crucifying again the Son of God and holding him up to contempt” (Heb 6:6 NRSV) and having “spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant … and outraged the Spirit of grace” (Heb 10:29). There are at least four distinct images in Scripture of the concept of apostasy. All connote an intentional defection from the faith. The four images are rebellion, backsliding or turning away (heart), falling away (structures), and adultery. - DBI

In an age of Apostasy you'll likely find 3 types of people: Whole-hearted, half-hearted, or even hard-hearted.

So as we look at Judges, we want look at: "How we cultivate faith in an age of Apostasy." SLIDE (Title with Text References)

So let's jump into the Introductions of the book of Judges. We're going to take some glances and summarize 1:1-3:5 and pull out a few key themes along the way.

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

The best way to start will be to understand WHAT'S HAPPENING? in the book of Judges. The book of Judges has a dual introduction.

Chapter 1 sets what the Israelites were facing in their current situation.

Then Chapter 2 goes back in the story a little bit and then moves toward that current reality.

ILLUSTRATION: It's similar to when you see a show or a movie that shows an intense scene and then it pauses and jumps back and says "6 months earlier". It's sort of like that.

Israel's Current Situation

Chapter 1 - When you pull out Chapter 1 there's some intense fighting going on. Now, it's not the most thrilling of reads. But basically what you have in CH1 is some "Headlines" with a few "articles" about what's happening. Think of Chapter 1 more like someplace you get your news - Flipboard, News App, Newspaper, etc....These are like the "trending topic reports".

Here's the basic headlines from Chapter 1:

SLIDES

Joshua dead. Israelites continue attacking promise land.

Judah takes on Caananites. Simeon tags along.

Judah Defeats 10,000 at Bezel

Judah captures Adoni-Bezek. Thumbs and big toes mysteriously missing.

Jerusalem set on fire by Judah.

Caleb offers Daughter in marriage for capturing Debir.

Othniel wins Caleb’s Daughter. Field and Hot Springs given as wedding gift.

Moses’ father-in-law settles in territory of Judah.

Simeon captures cities, destroy Zephath, Judah’s helps.

Iron chariots stop Judah in plains.

Caleb receives territory promised by Moses…finally!

Benjamin fails to drive out Jebusites from Jerusalem

Joseph takes Bethel, allows one family to escape

Manasseh fails at taking 5 villages

Ephraim loses battle of Gezer

Zebulun stopped at Citron

Asher goes 0 for 7 in recent battles

Naphtali looses twice, settles in with Canaanites

Dan not allowed to enter into hill country, Amorites called ‘persistent’

7 Tribes fail to remove Caananites, Caananties forced into hard labor by 4 tribes

That's their current situation - and as you can see, the more the headlines go on, the worse things are getting. 9 TRIBES in Ch 1 are FAILING to do what God told them to do. Things aren't going that well for Israel. Their objective was to go inhabit the promised land - and they are FAILING!

When you read what's going on a little deeper in chapter 1 there are some things happening that sound reasonable. Judah didn't want to fight alone - so he took Simeon as reinforcements - which seems practical except that's not what God said to do. Later they are fighting against chariots made of iron, and they don't have any. But what's an Iron Chariot when God is on your side?

But it's not what could be seen as "practical hurdles" that's stopping them. There's another reason. Chapter 2 begins with an explanation: SLIDE

Bible Passage

Judges 2:1a Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim.

Gilgal to Bochim

It doesn't mean much to us, but Gilgal is significant here. Prior to what was happening with Isreal they made a covenant with God at Gilgal.

VERSE: Joshua 4: 20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. 21 And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, 24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”

The new generation is circumcised and the covenant is renewed. (Genesis 17)

The angel goes from there up to Bochim and speaks to the Israelites. This is what he says: 3 SLIDES - step by step through the Angel's words.

Bible Passage

And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

Why is Israel Losing?

SLIDE

They made covenants with the inhabitants of the land.

They didn't break down their altars, but rather added them alongside God - or at times even threw God out and kept the idols/altars.

SLIDE

They angel of the Lord sums it up pretty clearly - They didn't obey the voice of God. They stopped listening to God. They didn't trust His voice anymore, and started letting the circumstances dictate their obedience - rather than the voice of God.

SLIDE

The consequence - the enemy becomes a thorn in your side, and the false gods are like a snare.

They were given clear instructions - and clear conditions - with a promise from God Himself - but they chose not to obey.

Has that ever happened to you? You know what to do, but you don't do it? It's happened in our house a few times....

ILLUSTRATION: MaKenna jumping off her dresser. SLIDE YOU ALWAYS GET HURT WHEN YOU DISOBEY.

That's what's happening to people of God -they are getting hurt and caught in a trap because they are walking in either half-hearted obedience, and/or plain old hard-hearted disobedience.

And as we'll see - the false gods and the culture around them become a: Snare: Trap, Bait.

The proper understanding of this Hebrew word is the lure or bait placed in a hunter’s trap. From this sense comes the primary use of the term to mean the snare itself. It is used to signify a trap by which birds or beasts are captured (Amos 3:5); a moral pitfall (Prov. 18:7; 20:25); and anything that lures one to ruin and disaster (Judg. 2:3; Prov. 29:6). - WSOTD

The confrontation of the angel to the people ends with weeping:SLIDE

Bible Passage

4 As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5 And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the Lord.

Judges 2:1-4

Weeping

The people weep and offer sacrifices to God. They try to make some atonement for their sin - but as we'll see, an emotional reaction doesn't usually produce lasting change.

So Judges opens with all these intense battle sequences, some victories, more and more defeats, and a confrontation between the angel and the people - and then weeping and sacrifice. Picture it kind of like a war movie with lots of fighting and intensity....Then we go the second intro: 2:6 - "Previously in the Book of Joshua" SLIDE

Bible Passage

2:6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years.

Judges 2:6-8

Joshua & Elders

He's buried in his promised land inheritance.

Joshua was quite the leader! As well as the Elders who were in his generation. These were people who had seen the work of the Lord firsthand. Moses' assistant. Lived the through the desert journey. Spied out the promised Land. Led many battles. Led the crossing of the Jordan. Led the beginning of coming into the promised land. But like all leaders - there comes a time for his leadership to end. He dies at 110.

Sounds great - except of one major flaw. Joshua didn't train a leader to take his place after him. Moses trained Joshua. But Joshua didn't leave a successor. Instead, he left the people the famous words: SLIDE

Joshua 24:15And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

And he tells the people they have half-hearted hearts because they have false gods/idols, and they will turn away from God because of that. Then he sent the people off. And we already saw in chapter 1 what the people got themselves into after Joshua died.

Without clear leadership - the people of God end up like that at the beginning of Chapter 3: SLIDE

Bible Passage

3:1 Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. 2 It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. 3 These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.

Some bad verses....

Chapter 3 introduces us to a full blown age of Apostasy for the people of God. The people of God have become hard-hearted to ways of the Lord.

This age of Apostasy is captured in some of the darkest verses in all the Bible SLIDES

Bible Passage

10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

12 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

That's the context we enter into in the book of Judges

SLIDE Disobedience always leads to Distress.

So that's the context of what's happening in the beginning of the book of Judges:

SUMMARY: Leaderless people, who broke the covenant they made with God, and failed to take the land, and end up giving up on God and exchange the truth of God for a lie of false gods/idols.

In the rest of the book you'll see God doesn't give up on His people. When they come to their senses and cry out to God, God raises up Judges for 300 years to lead the people - and next week we'll start looking at those judges.

So that's the context - but what does that have to do with us?

We've talked about "WHAT", but now let's talk about "WHY?"

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

So why is all this happening? You heard part of that already in that the people didn't listen to the voice of God. But I mean that question on a bigger scale.

Why the warfare in the first place? Why is God putting Israel in this position? Some skeptics could look at this and say: "Isn't this like an ethnic cleansing or 'imperialistic conquest' kind of thing?" "This is just a story of some more religious war-mongering." So why is this happening?

Way back in Genesis & Deuteronomy:

SLIDE Genesis 15:13-14, 16 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ….16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

SLIDE Deuteronomy 9:4-5 New International Version (NIV)

4 After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

This is what was brewing behind the scenes for the 400 years the people of God were in Egypt. The full measure of sin was being filled up by these nations. Dispossessing them from the land entirely, was not be to be an ethnic thing because this had nothing to do with race - it was about wickedness.

God telling His people not to inter-marry was not about inter-racial marriage, but about inter-religious marriage.

It also had nothing to do with plundering these nations because God instructed the people not to take prisoners, nor take possessions.

God chose to mediate His justice upon these wicked nations through His people. How wicked were they then?

False Gods

So I did a little digging, and I found a partial list of Canaanite gods. Canaanite religion - false gods: SLIDE. (Types of gods)

War and strife

Sexuality

Storms - or rain, water, irrigation

Renewer of energy

Grain

Healing

Fire

Marriage & Pregnancy

Craftsmanship

Dance (Entertainment, experience….)

Vegetation

Orchards

Fruit

Love

Plague & Healing

Dawn & Dusk

Death

Peace

Skies

Land

Sun and Moon

Justice/Righteousness - “legal”

River

SLIDE with Photos (Names of gods). Here’s one of the statues of their little gods. This is a picture of Baal.

Ba’al - fertility, weather, rain, wind, lightning, seasons, war, sea-going

Asherah - goddess of motherhood & fertility

Teshub - god of battle and victory, especially when the conflict involved a foreign power.

Shapash - there is a Caananite god whose gender is unclear

Molech - Child Sacrifice - has potential roots in a son taking out his father, then fearing his sons will overtake him, so he kills his sons to prevent that from happening.

God told the people this: SLIDE Deut 12:31 - You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

It was so pervasive and abominable, that God decided to remove them from the land. God also knew that His people would go astray if they made covenants, compromises, alliances, allegiances, and families with these nations.

The Canaanites (and the 4 other nations) worship of these gods let to the practice of deeply horrible atrocities.

In Judges, you see the people go from trusting God who brought them out of Egypt, to turning to stupid little statues to give them life and significance.

PROP: It basically worked like this. We would never pull out a pack of Play-Doh and make a little statue with our own hands and claim that this statue made all things. We would never do that right?

But before we get to proud of ourselves - SLIDES The values these gods represent still exists today:

Shapash - gender identity/confusion.

Molech - abortion.

Mammon - money.

We've even added some:

Experience Seeking &/or Avoidance - take those drugs to 'feel' a certain way or to escape

Career

Personal Freedoms

Hobbies

At will Divorce

Nationalism

Affairs

Lifestyle

Addictions

Porn, etc…

I can't help but see the similarities to our time and to the time of the Judges. (As we go through this book, you'll even see how some of these false gods/idols take out the Judges called to lead.)

Can I be so bold as to say, that some of these false gods also exist in the church today.

Tim Keller sums it up this way: SLIDE

"Idolatry is making a good aspect of creation— marriage, mountains, business, and so on— into the ultimate source of security, identity, and power. And so false gods are a thorn. When we make something into an idol, it continually makes us miserable. If we fall short of it, or if we might fall short of it, it robs us of joy. If our children are our false god, when their lives are troubled, we will lose our joy; and even when their lives might become troubled (which is all the time!), we will worry, and lose our joy. And idols are snares. They trap us. When we make something into an idol, it binds and enslaves us. We have to have it, so we cannot say no to it. We are addicted to it. This is why many people work too hard, sacrificing family, friendships and health at the altar of career; or give themselves to certain relationships that are destructive; and so on.”

- Tim Keller

We may not bow our knees and make statues, but we bow our hearts to these false gods/idols. The same values of the Canaanite gods are still alive today, and if we are not careful they will be thorns in our sides, and snares for our feet. If we're not careful we can easily drift from Whole-hearted, to half-hearted and on to hard-hearted people.

AND WORSE If we keep entertaining these false gods, we'll also continue to see a generation of young people emerge that doesn't know anything about God.

SO NOW WHAT?

So what do we do with all this? How do we cultivate faith in an age of apostasy? SLIDE

3 Things:

SLIDE1. Do a heart check: Realize that following God is not primarily about behavior, it's about the heart.

SLIDE2. Pray like you've never prayed before. Like we said last week: Extraordinary things happens when God's people extraordinarily pray.

SLIDE3. Invest in the next generation. Gen Z is the largest unchurched generation in history! They are also an incredibly open generation to the spiritual dimensions of life. This is a golden opportunity. (ILLUSTRATION: Story of a girl who couldn't find a youth ministry to help her know the Bible).

Our #1 goals for 2023 is reaching young families with kids. Those families need what you have to offer church! We have to reach the next generation! We cannot allow a generation to emerge in our time that does not know God, nor the things God has done. We must go after hearts!!!!

But know this:

SLIDE We think that if we instruct our children in true doctrine, shelter them from immoral behavior and involve them in church and religious organizations, then we have done all we can. But youth are turned off not only by bad examples, but also by parents [and churches] who are not savvy about the lives and world their children are living in, or who cannot be open about their own interior spiritual lives. - Tim Keller

The next generation needs Whole-hearted followers of Jesus - or as we say here "Fearless world-changing disciple-makers" - to invest in them and show them the way of Jesus. ( So be someone who is consistent in behavior, wise about reality, and warmly personal in our faith. - Tim Keller )

Because here's the bottom line: SLIDE

Bottomline

God's heart is whole-heatedly set on you becoming a whole-hearted follower of Jesus. Whole-hearted followers alter the trajectory of generations.

Examine

We are living in an age of apostasy? Where rebellion is called 'good'. Where people have thrown off God. Where systems that used to help have collapsed? Where giving yourself over to evil is seen as positive?

AND odds are - these false gods/idols that are still active in the world today have touched your life in some way - Personal, Family, Business, Free Time, Work Place, Friendships, etc.

So to get us started moving into 2023 - start with doing a little heart check. Would you describe yourself as WHOLE/HALF/HARD hearted toward God?

Paul says, SLIDE2 Corinthians 13:5Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Am I willing to do whatever God says about this area?

Am I willing to accept whatever God sends in this area?

- Tim Keller Questions from Judges for You.

families

careers

possessions

ambitions

time, and so on

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