D6 J-F W1: God Raises up Leaders

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Play video: bit.ly/JudgesAnmtn

What did you get from that video?

The book of Judges is called such because Judges ruled

It is a violent book

Why is it violent? To teach what life without God will do to a people.

Gods People have a Tendency to Drift from God

So often we look at the Israelites and wonder “Why on earth don’t they just listen to God! He is showing them His presence and miracles and they still disobey!” Oh but when we look at our lives we don’t like to take blame for the same exact type of behavior.

No, we may not be building golden calves to worship, but we sure worship much over God.

Instead of straying so often, How can we maintain a close, consistent walk with God?

Judges 2:1–5 ESV

Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. 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, 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? 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.” 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. And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the Lord.

The angel of the Lord in verse 1 is either an angelic messenger sent from God, a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus (a christophany), or a visible display of God the Father that people could see (a theophany). He spoke to Israel regarding His past faithfulness to them and reminded them of His promise to never break His covenant with them. The angel also repeated the warning first given in Exodus 23:31–33 forbidding alliances with the Canaanites and their idolatry (verse 2). Tragically, Israel had not obeyed. The question at the end of verse 2 could also be translated as, Look what you have done! The Lord was disappointed in their decision to disobey Him.

Sometimes, people drift from God instead of making a deliberate choice to turn from Him. Why is complacency dangerous?

What might entice us to drift away from God?

The Israelites disobeyed God and, like He did often with the Israelites, gave them a consequence of loss of battle.

Why is loss of battle so serious?

Although they lost the battle, although they displeased God, He still had mercy on them and raised up a Judge to lead them after the death of Joshua, their leader.

While the judges were sometimes spiritually weak and sinful, God mercifully used them to save His people from their oppressors. However, even when a judge attempted to point God’s people back to God, the people refused to listen, going after other gods instead. They went after other gods, bowing down to them and serving them, and refused to turn from their stubborn, disobedient ways

Why is it always best to follow and obey God?

What warning signs might indicate someone is drifting away from God?

Good Spiritual Leaders Influence God’s People to Follow and Serve the Lord

Judges 2:6–10 ESV

When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 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. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 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.

God reminded the people of Israel here just how much good God had done for them.

The people had seen the great work the Lord had done on their behalf, and inspired by godly leaders, served the Lord through both Joshua’s death and the deaths of the generation that had witnessed the Lord’s mighty works.

In other words, the Israelites had good leaders, they just went astray once they were gone.

What qualities make someone a good spiritual leader?

What are some ways you follow the influence of a spiritual leader?

The people of God drifted. From one generation to the next the people of God strayed away from the right path and went on to do what was right in their own eyes.

This is how people drift. When you have kids, if you don’t take them to church and teach them the ways of God, they wont see church as something super important, and then their kids won’t see church as important at all and their kids wont know what church even is.

This is basically what happens through the book of Judges.

How can we pass along our faith to those younger than us?

Who has been modeling vibrant faith for you? What have you learned from them?

Through your life, you will be given opportunity to follow God or not. To pass on your faith or not. You are given daily choices to choose God or not. What are you going to choose?

Respond

Take old tire and roll it across the room and give a student a spatula to stop it.

Ask “what did it feel like to stop the movement of that tire with just a spatula? Odd wasn’t it!”

When we try to stop the movement of God, we will know it. We will feel it. But, eventually we will become numb to it. Our children will become numb to it. Our younger siblings will become numb to it.

It is our responsibility to see the movement of God and keep pushing that tire, not try to stop it. We will never stop the movement of God, but we can cause generations after us to not care about Him at all.