Remembering The Need To Remember | Judges 2:6–15
Notes
Transcript
Intro: I want to start tonight by asking you all some trivia questions from now and then from when your parents were your age. Who is the president right now (Donald Trump). Ok. Who was the president in 1994? (Bill Clinton) Who is the current Vice President (J.D. Vance) Who was the vice president in 1995 (Al Gore). What are the most popular social media platforms today (Tik Tok, Instagram) What were they in 1995 (AOL Instant Messenger and Chat rooms) What is the most common search engine today (Google). What about 1995 (Yahoo, AltaVista, Lycos, Ask Jeeves)). You see things are different now than they were when your parents were young. We don’t naturally know about the things our parents and grandparents experienced. The only way we are going to know about these things, is if you are taught. In today’s passage we will see that is the position the Israelites found themselves in. In today’s text we will see that, “If we forget God’s works and follow false beliefs, we risk straying from truth and facing consequences.” We will see in the text that, The Faithful Generation Passes, Israel’s Rebellion and Idolatry, God’s Judgement and Discipline, God’s Mercy Through the Judges and the Cycle of Rebellion Continues. As always, can you please stand in the honor of reading God’s Word.
1. The Faithful Generation Passes (Judges 2:6-10)
Exposition: The passage starts with verse 6 where we read Judges 2:6-7
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.
We have to understand a little bit about what is going on here. After Moses led Israel out of Egypt, he led them across the Red Sea where God parted it for them and then drowned the Egyptian army. HE left them in the wilderness for 40 years because they didn’t believe he could lead them into the promise land. That generation passes away, and under the leadership of Joshua, God leads them across the Jordan river, parting it like he did the Red Sea. They then go and walk around the walls of Jericho and scream and the walls fall down and they take the city. He then takes them on a conquest and does incredible things to help them take the land. And after all that Israel is now dwelling in the land that God promised Abraham hundreds of years before that. I want you to think about that. This promise that had been passed down from generation to generation. The promise from God that they probably wondered if it was true when they were slaves in Egypt. They were finally living in the fulfillment of it. And they had seen God do incredible things to lead them to that point. And what was the result of seeing and knowing all God had done for them? They served him with obedience. They knew all that God had done for them, and it led them to obedience.
Application/Illustration: Never stop being in awe of all that God has done. Never stop seeing the examples of how God has worked in your life. There is no greater example of this than the fact that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, he has brought you from death to life. Think about all the things that happened in your life to bring you here. I think we have a great church and a great youth group. Don’t forget the role God plays in these things.
Exposition: How obedient were the Israelites to God after the conquest. Almost completely (as we will see). Verses 8 and 9 read Judges 2:8-9
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.
This can seem like a weird detail to put in. It’s not like we are going to go to take a field trip to modern day Israel and find the grave. But the reason it’s in here is because that’s where God said Joshua’s inheritance was to be as a reward for leading the people in conquest of the promise land. We read in Joshua 19:50
By command of the Lord they gave him the city that he asked, Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. And he rebuilt the city and settled in it.
Exposition: They made sure that out of obedience, that Joshua was buried where God said he was to live. What the writer of Judges is stressing is that the people of God lived like they were the people of God.
Application: Let me ask you this this evening young people. If somebody were to write a book about the season of life you are in, would they say that you were a person that served the Lord like the people of Israel are described in verse 7? Is that how you would be described?
Exposition: This section of the passage closes out with verse 10. Judges 2:10
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.
Exposition: We find out that everybody that was a part of the generation that had crossed over the Jordan into the Promise Land, all the people that had seen the walls of Jericho fall and the Sun stay still during battle, all these people died. And it was now their children and grandchildren who made up the population of Israel. And the text tells us that they didn’t know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. The late great Tim Keller says of this word that it is unlikely that they did not know at all about, Yahweh, the God of their fathers who had led them out of Egypt and into the Promise land. But that he probably wasn’t precious to them anymore. They didn’t understand his greatness, but this is a huge problem. They have not been taught who God is and all that he had done for them. This is the first area of disobedience we will see from the generation of Moses and Joshua. In Joshua 4 after the Israelites passed over the Promise Land, God gave Joshua a command that he had the people fulfill. Joshua 4:1-4
When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’ ” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe.
And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”
The people of the generation that had seen God do all those things were suppose to communicate to their children what God had done. It was their job to make sure their kids knew who God was and all that God had done. It is the job of those who do know God to tell those who do not know.
Application: This applies in your lives in two ways. The first is how you raise your children. And I know, y’all are in high school and middle school, you don’t have children yet, and if you all take the advice you got in Choosing the Best, it will be a while before you do. But you are starting to get to the age where you are starting to date or at least have interest in dating. And the end goal of dating is marriage. Young people commit now to marrying somebody that loves Jesus and will help you raise your children in a manner that they know who He is. The way you commit to that now is to only date people who have this interest. If somebody does not have interest in following Jesus, stay away from them. Set the standard now. But also, it manifests itself in what our commitment is to those who do not know who Jesus is. Look at that wall, over there. It is full of people who do not know what The LORD had done for Israel. It’s full of people who do not know that they are in their sins and Jesus died for those sins and rose again making a way to eternal life. In your schools there are people who do not know this. Are we willing to meet the obligation to tell those who do not know how much God loves them and wants them to be in relationship with him. Will we take that seriously?
Transition: We see that a generation was born that did not know all God had done. Let’s see what the result of that was.
2. Israel’s Rebellion and Idolatry (Judges 2:11-13)
Exposition: We read in verses 11-13 what happened because the generation did not know all that God had done for them. Judges 2:11-13
And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 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. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.
Explanation: Dale Davis in his commentary explains what the problem was. Baal was the main God that the people of Canaan worshiped. He and Ashtaroth, his female counterpart were seen as the providers of rain and crops and things like that through their fertility. The worship of Baal was evil. When it says serve, it doesn’t mean like doing good things and telling people about Baal. No, it was much worse than that. It was believed that Baal and Ashtaroth provided these things in the same way that a woman gets pregnant, if you catch what I’m saying. But they needed to be encouraged. The way they were encouraged were to see the activity played out at a temple to Baal. So at the temple there were prostitutes that the men would come have sex with so Baal would provide. And if you believe that these men were just doing their civic duty I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. They were doing something evil. These young girls were being prostituted out in the name of religion. And that sounds so evil it’s hard to imagine how the people of God could just go along with this. But here’s how, it was just what the people around them did.
Application: It’s very easy sometimes to just mix what everybody else does into our lives and think that it’s not a big deal. We say that it’s 2025, things have changed and we don’t need to worry about those things. Sending or receiving inappropriate pictures, that’s just what I have to do for him or her to like me now days. We say gender is fluid or that God’s design for sexuality isn’t as important. Cussing, it’s not a big deal because everyone does it. Weed, it’s illegal but that’s an old law so it’s not a big deal now. There’s lots of thins like that. But that is not the standard. God is the standard. Young people are you allowing the remembrance of who God is to drive your behaviors, or are you allowing culture to drive your behavior? We need to make sure what we do reflects that we worship a God that paid a price to free us from our sins.
Transition: The people forsake the one true God and then pursue other gods, What is God’s response?
God’s Judgement and Discipline (Judges 2:14-15)
Judges 2:14-15 read Judges 2:14-15
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. 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.
Exposition: God is naturally mad that Israel is doing this. God is a loving God. In fact he loves us so much that he is jealous and will not tolerate his people worshiping somebody other than Him, as he expressed in the very first commandments in the ten commandments.
Illustration: Davis puts it like this. Say that a man found out his wife was having an affair. When he finds out he calls his best friend and tells him what happened. When his friend asks him how he’s doing he just says, “It’s not a big deal. You win some you lose some.” If that is the man’s reaction how much do you think he really loved his wife to begin with? True love requires exclusion. God was not just going to let them worship a false god and be ok with it. He was going to do something about it.
Exposition: The thing, is that God had already warned them this would happen. In Leviticus 26 God says through Moses Leviticus 26:14-17
“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.
Exposition: God had promised Israel that He would bless them when they followed Him, but that he would also cure them when they didn’t. We could twist this in our minds to make ourselves believe that God is being unfair. That allowing His people to suffer in this way isn’t right. But God is a God that wants all our worship because he deserves it. Why should he allow people to worship false gods. Why should he allow them to not worship the one who could actually save them. And why should he have to share His people with something that’s not real.
Judges 2:14-15
Application: The same thing is true in our lives as well. God will keep his promises, just as it was true that if Israel would turned and worshipped false gods, then the one true God would turn his back on them and allow them to be attacked by other nations. God has given us a similar promise. Folks, we have to deal with the reality that hell is a real place. All those who do not know Jesus as their savior will die in their sins and spend eternity apart from Him in hell. But you see, God promised Israel that if He were their God, then they would be His people and He would bless them. This same promise has been made to us. You see, we can’t make our sin go away on our own. But God made a way. He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. He paid the price. And he rose him again so that all who believe that Jesus is Savior and Lord and confess this truth can be saved. The promise of punishment is real, but so is the promise of hope.
Conclusion: Right now each of you are surrounded by culture. I think you are all blessed to be in a school system where there are a large amount of people that know Jesus. But you probably hear the things people are saying. You probably hear and see what people are doing. It doesn’t take long to know that people in your schools aren’t worshiping the one true God. You can see their actions are not glorifying to God. That brings to mind an issue, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to join in. Are you going to mix their ways with yours? Or will you continue to hold fast to the truths of scripture? What about the moments that you begin to forget about what God has done for you? What about the moments where you just forget Him in general? Are you willing to spend time in God’s Word so that doesn’t happen? What about your responsibility? Are you willing to commit now to dating Christians to ensure you marry a Christian that will help you raise your family to know who Jesus is? Will you commit to telling those who do not know Jesus of His love for them? Or if you are somebody who has never placed his trust in Jesus, are you ready to do that? Are you ready to stop worshiping the gods of the age and place your faith in Jesus. Let’s pray.
