Judges: From Victory to ???

NEW BEGINNINGS

Judges 1:1 (HCSB)

After the death of Joshua…

There are events that mark our lives. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, promotions, retirements and so on.

Of course the death of a spouse, a child, a parent or any significant person who has been part of your life also define our lives.

Dale Ralph Davis, in his commentary on Judges reminds us that:

Exodus begins with the death of Joseph;

Joshua begins with the death of Moses;

Judges begins with the death of Joshua;

and so on.

(Dale Ralph Davis, Judges: Such a Great Salvation, Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, LTD, 2000, p.19)

Each of those deaths must have called God’s purposes and intentions into question. How can God’s people move forward without this leader, this influential person?

And yet, thousands of years later you and me - we are proof that God’s purposes and intentions are moving towards His ultimate goal of restoring His creation to Himself.

As we study this anonymous book we will learn that God’s people are flawed. Some of them are deeply flawed. There are tales of murder and bloodshed in this book that are revolting and disgusting.

Many believers would prefer to skip this book, because of the graphic nature in which human beings are displayed.

The value of such a book is that God reminds us that it is His purposes that prevail, not our plans. It is His power that s made available, even when we choose NOT to use it.

Judges 1:1 HCSB

After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of the Lord, “Who will be the first to fight for us against the Canaanites?”

We will see more about Joshua’s death next Sunday.

the Israelites inquired of the LORD…

There was no doubt that when Moses died, Joshua would step up and be God’s anointned leader.

Deuteronomy 31:7–8 HCSB

Moses then summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with this people into the land the Lord swore to give to their fathers. You will enable them to take possession of it. The Lord is the One who will go before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

Without a specific leader designated the men of Israel turned to the LORD.

His answer was to designate the men of Judah - who invited the descendants of Simeon to join them.

Judges 1:4 HCSB

When Judah attacked, the Lord handed the Canaanites and Perizzites over to them. They struck down 10,000 men in Bezek.

In Judges 1:17 the scene shifts to the descendants of Judah.

Judges 1:19 HCSB

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.

Then,

Judges 1:22 HCSB

The house of Joseph also attacked Bethel, and the Lord was with them.

The rest of chapter one describes many of the remaining tribes and tells a different story.

The Benjamites did not drive out the Jebusites…

The descendants of Manassah failed to take possession …

Ephraim failed to drive out the Canaanites…

Zebulun failed to drive out the residents of Nahaiol…

Asher failed to drive out the residents of their land…Naphtali did not drive out the residents of their assigned land…the Amorites forced the Danites into the hill country….

One writer summarizes Judges 1 with this observation:

this chapter is pervaded by unfulfilled commitment, incomplete obedience, and compromising tolerance

Daniel Isaac Block, Judges, Ruth, vol. 6, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 109.

The Angel of the LORD

God had sent messengers prior to this event - in (Genesis 31; Exodus 14 and several other locations).

There is a particular significance in the geography here.

Gilgal is where Israel first camped after crossing the Jordan. Here all the males born in the wilderness wanderings were circumcised.

Gilgal is where the tabernacle was placed and Gilgal was the location where Joshua divided the land among the tribes (see Joshua 4, 5).

Bochim located near Gilgal, is significant because the word ‘bochim’ in the Hebrew language means ‘weeping.’

The messenger of God confronted the people of Israel by reminding them of God’s unalterable promise, God’s eternally secure covenant and their failure to fully obey.

In this confrontation God’s messenger indicated that there were consequences to the disobedience:

Judges 2:3 HCSB

Therefore, I now say: I will not drive out these people before you. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you.”

At first hearing the messenger sounds as though he is directly contradicting God’s original promise:

Genesis 15:18–19 (HCSB)

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River: the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

Deuteronomy 7:1–5 HCSB

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and He drives out many nations before you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from Me to worship other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you. Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn up their carved images.

And yet, through Joshua God had also promised:

Joshua 23:12–13 HCSB

For if you turn away and cling to the rest of these nations remaining among you, and if you intermarry or associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out before you. They will become a snare and a trap for you, a scourge for your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you disappear from this good land the Lord your God has given you.

RESPOND AND REFLECT

Decades of wandering, years of battle, and now God seems to be backing away from His promise.

God is faithful to His Word

Yes, He promised Israel the land. He also promised them that disobedience always brings consequences.

God Requires Full Obedience

There is no partial obedience. There can be no hesitancy in obedience. As God’s people ran into hardship and difficulty instead of throwing themselves fully upon the presence of God they began to acclimate themselves to the presence of these enemies.

Instead of seeking God’s power to eradicate their enemies, Israel allowed them to remain - with their worship of idols, with their different ways of looking at life.

And the consequence:

When the Israelites observed the prosperity of the Canaanites, the latters’ gods seemed to offer so much: fertility, prosperity, security. But Yahweh hereby turns their twisted theological thinking against them. Rather than finding new freedom in the religious structures of the Canaanites, the Israelites would be caught in the trap of their gods, like a fly in a spider’s web.

Daniel Isaac Block, Judges, Ruth, vol. 6, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 116.

Judges 2:4 (HCSB)

When the Angel of the Lord had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly.

Samaritan’s Purse - the parent org of Operation Christmas Child was founded by Bob Pierce in 1970. On one of his trips to Asia, he penned these words in his Bible:

“Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.”

The confrontation between God’s messenger and His people prompted an outpouring of weeping.

Are we willing to allow God to confront us about our disobedience, about our failure to fully trust His power and presence?

Paul Tripp, in is daily devotional guide for Jan 5 notes

“The fact is that sin is a bigger disaster that we think it is…”

(Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies, Jan 5).

As we begin a new year

CONFESS

FORGIVE & RECIEVE GOD’S FORGIVENESS

MOVE ON

What is one step you can take to obey God this week?