Judges - The Need for Deliverance #4

The Cycle of Sin and Deliverance

Judges 2:11–23 KJV (WS)

11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: 12 And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. 13 And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. 14 And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed. 16 Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. 17 And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so. 18 And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. 19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. 20 And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; 21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: 22 That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. 23 Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.

Introduction

Are you a good parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle?

Or, do you at least strive to be?

Why don’t you let your kids play with fire?

Why don’t you let them run around with firearms?

Why don’t you let them have a cobra for a pet?

Because you know these things can harm them seriously.

God is the same with his children/people when it comes to sin.

God hates sin, he is offended by sin, and he can not be around sin.

But God also knows the effects of sin.

So, when his children are involved with sin, he takes it very seriously.

God’s love for us means that he will not sit idly by while play with sin.

He will work to correct us and teach us not to play with sin again.

We don’t always like to be rebuked or chastised, but it is always for our good.

In this passage, we see how God works to try and correct the direction of the Israelites as they move further and further away from him.

This passage acts as a summary for what we will see moving forward.

Step 1: Sin vss 11-13

Israel did evil before the Lord.

This evil had it’s source in idolatry.

Idolatry is giving someone or something other than God the first place in your life.

They served the Baalim (plural) of the Canaanites.

This is why the Canaanites were supposed to be driven out from among the people.

They worshipped gods that required perverse and immoral acts of worship.

Their gods claimed power that only belonged to the one true god.

Their gods tempted the Israelites to give their allegiance and worship to something other than God.

That’s what they did.

They forsook the Lord who had delivered them from Egypt.

They served the gods of the Canaanites.

They were all around them according to verse 12.

So, the people bowed to these gods.

Figuratively

Literally

You know what it was, don’t you?

The Canaanites had gods for everything.

Struggling with infertility? They have a god for that.

Crops not growing like you want? They have a god for that.

Since you have Canaanite neighbors living all around you, the temptation is right at hand.

You see them at the market, down the street, maybe even at work.

You start to talk and strike up a bit of a relationship.

You tell your Canaanite acquaintance about your struggles and he asks if your God has done anything about it.

You say no so he offers you a small idol and asks if you would like to try praying to his god who specializes in your area of trouble.

Next thing you know, you’re bowing down to this idol in your home with your family.

You still pray to God, but you also pray to your god.

This provoked God to anger.

God is a jealous God.

He will not share his role with anyone or anything else.

Think about that word “provoke.”

It means that they aroused God’s anger.

Does that sound like a good thing to be doing?

No, it was not and is not a good idea.

God has to respond to their sins.

Step 2: Judgment vss 14-15

When God’s anger was hot against Israel, He used instruments to punish them.

Those instruments were personal.

He sent spoilers to spoil them.

The promised land was supposed to be a land flowing with milk and honey.

It was a prosperous land that God intended to give to His people.

They were to inherit fields they didn’t plant and homes they didn’t build.

Now, God sends the spoilers in to take the produce of their labors.

Whether it’s raiding parties or full blown invasions, Israel’s sin of idolatry resulted in God’s anger which resulted in their loss.

He also sent enemies before whom they could not stand.

Israel had enjoyed such phenomenal victories during the times of Moses and Joshua.

These victories had not been because of the military strategies of Moses and Joshua.

Instead, they had to be attributed to the power of God at work on Israel’s behalf.

Do you remember what Rahab said to the spies when they came to Jericho?

She said that the people of Jericho were afraid of Israel.

Why would they be afraid of Isreal?

Because of the God they served.

He had enabled them to stand against enemies, that they had no business standing against.

That would no longer be the case.

Now they would falter and fail against their enemies.

They would suffer defeat after defeat until they lost all heart to go to battle.

Remember how many men left Gideon when he dismissed those who were afraid?

Out of 32,000 men, 22,000 went home.

Every where they turned the hand of the Lord was against them.

This was not because God justwanted to inflict pain.

God was trying to accomplish something.

He was trying to get them to return to him.

God wanted them to stop bowing themselves to idols and start looking to him.

He had told them that there were consequences for sin.

This still caused great distress for the people.

Step 3: Deliverance vs 16

While God lifted his one hand of protection off of the Israelites, He simultaneously moved His other hand of deliverance to raise up judges to deliver the people.

These are the individuals that we will see throughout this book.

The Judges are amazing people.

They pour their lives into the people and the nation.

One thing to always remember no matter the human we are considering, any good that comes from their lives is always the work of God.

Whether its a Gideon, a Samson, or Deborah.

God uses human instruments for his purposes.

Some for judgment,

Some for deliverance.

The problem with Israel was that would not follow God’s judges.

Step 4: Repeat

Return to idolatry. vss 17-19

The people would not listen to the judges.

Instead, they would turn back to their idols, prostituting themselves to these false gods.

There had been a generation that had not acted like this.

The Bible testifies that this generation had actually obeyed the commandments of the Lord.

These new generation would not.

Can you imagine trying to serve as a judge for this kind of people?

Thankfully, we see that God was with the judges.

God enabled the judges to deliver the people from their oppressors.

As we study their lives you will see that this undoubtedly the case.

God did not want his people, whom he loved, to suffer.

That’s why he gave them a way of deliverance.

Unfortunately, as soon as the judges died, the people abandoned any spiritual progress they had made.

The implication of this verse is that after each judge, the next generation became more corrupt than the last.

We will get to some pretty icky stories towards the end of the book that demonstrate this.

This is why God judges them. vss 20-21

They crossed the line and broke God’s covenant with them.

They refused to listen when he tried to call them out of their rebellion.

Just as he used people to deliver them, he uses other people to prove them.

God uses the Canaanites to prove Israel vss 22-23

There really isn’t a question about what God means when he says this.

The author states that God intends to use the Canaanites to test Israel to see if they would obey God or not.

God gives us the freedom to choose if we will obey him or not.

This opportunity is given to each generation of Israelites.

So much of what we see in this passage informs us of how God operates.

The Israelites had to choose to obey God or not.

This was an individual’s choice.

Past generations couldn’t make it for them.

They couldn’t decide for future generations either.

They lived in a world where temptation was regularly presented.

Canaanites were everywhere.

So were their gods.

The Israelites had to choose to obey or disobey.

When they chose to disobey God, two things were true.

Sin had consequences.

God grace was greater than their sin.

Time and time again God sent them help.

The Israelites were not left to themselves.

God gave them people to encourage and help them to do what was right.

The judges.

And yet, we see from this passage that they either ignored the judges.

Or, they appeased them until they were gone and went right back to doing what they were doing.

Application

We face a similar situation.

We must choose whether we will obey God or not.

Each one of us must make that choice for ourselves.

No one else can make it for us.

There is certainly plenty of temptation in this world to affect us.

How much temptation do you face on a daily basis?

Probably more than you even realize.

It’s everywhere.

Whether we choose to obey or disobey, we have to understand that there are consequences for our sins.

Speaking to God’s people, Hebrews reminds us that the legitimate children of God are chastened for their sin.

Out of his great love for you, God will not allow you to sin and continue down the path of sin unopposed.

Even when we sin, we can never outrun God’s grace.

You are going to be amazed by the amount of times god rescues his people.

He’s never written them off, he will never disown you either.

We are not alone in this journey.

You have people in your life that are there by God’s providence to help keep you on the right path.

It could be a spouse, a friend, parents, your pastor, or maybe even a stranger.

Don’t treat them the way the Israelites treated the judges.

Don’t ignore them.

Don’t try just to appease them.

God cares about the behavior of His people.

Conclusion

Sin always has consequences.

Though we as believers have been delivered from the eternal consequences of sin, God still deals with us as his children.

He wants us to be like holy like he is holy.

He is our father and every father wants to see themselves in their child.

Sin mars that image.

We should not be surprised when God corrects our sinful behavior.

Instead we should allow him to correct us and take comfort in the knowledge that He loves us.

If there is sin in your life today, you must begin by confessing it to your Father.

Agree with Him that it is sin and then turn from it.

He is always gracious and faithful to forgive us and cleanse us.