Uncovering the Roots of Chaos
Christ or Chaos? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Introductory thoughts on the book of Judges being an exceedingly dark book.
Also include the point about a mixed-age audience and not diving so deeply into the specifics.
Also, point out the importance of not ignoring the darkness of the content, as God desires to equip us to avoid these problems.
We understand the reason for God’s anger better, the reason for the kind of judgment He brings on it. It also gives us hope for salvation from our sins.
Context (Judges 2:6-9)
Context (Judges 2:6-9)
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.
9 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.
· How did we get here with Othniel?
· This is a recounting of the end of Joshua 24:28-31.
· Joshua’s godly leadership impacted an entire generation to obedience.
Amnesia and Abandonment (2:10-15)
Amnesia and Abandonment (2:10-15)
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.
· Judges departs from Joshua here at verse 10.
· This illustrates perhaps the most fundamental error in the history of Israel.
o They failed to properly pass on their faith to the next generation.
· God commanded Israel about this in Deuteronomy 6.
· Deuteronomy 6:1-2 (ESV)
1 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it,
2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.
o Deuteronomy 6:6–7 (ESV)
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
o Deuteronomy 6:20–25 (ESV)
20 “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’
21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
22 And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes.
23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers.
24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day.
25 And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’
o But they didn’t do it. Because as soon as Joshua was gone, their children rebelled.
· Israel did not maintain the proper separation as God commanded them, which would have helped it properly confront a wicked culture.
We are called to maintain a stance of being distinct from the world while actively working to change it.
· What Israel lacked was not the power of God or the word of God.
They knew about God and his works but they did not knowGod and His works.
· We have a responsibility as followers of Jesus Christ not to fail in passing on the faith to the next generation.
o An experiential religion—knowing Christ and Him crucified.
§ Not just dead religion, correct theology, proper church governance, right political views.
· I heard a fellow pastor friend of mine say this week, “God doesn’t have any grandkids.”
o This is a shocking statement, but on reflection, it’s true.
o No one is saved because they know someone who knows Jesus.
o John the Apostle’s first epistle has this idea as a central idea.
· 1 John 3:1 (ESV)
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
· This new generation did not have a connection to the previous, and so they did not know God. This is illustrated in the fact that He is called “the God of their fathers”
When we lose our first love, the gospel, which proclaims the works that God has done for our salvation, we are doomed to the same fate.
o To drift away from knowing God and into all kinds of sinful error.
· What they do after Joshua illustrates the evil that they did in the sight of the lord
o They abandoned: They were unfaithful to the God who had delivered them out of Egypt, brought them through the wilderness, and given them the land.
o They went after: They weren’t just unfaithful, but they showed intentional movement away from God and toward the gods of the Canaanites.
o They bowed down: They offered themselves to the gods of the Canaanites.
§ The main way that the Canaanites worshiped the Baals and Ashtaroth was through the practice of ritual prostitution.
o Canaanite religious practices held that Baal was the god of storms and fertility, important in a rain-parched region.
§ They further believed that the fertility of the land relied upon the relations of Baal and his consort Ashteroth.
§ So by engaging in relations after their example, they would coerce Baal and Ashteroth to make the rains fall and the crops grow.
This shows what was truly important to the Canaanites…and unfortunately, to the Israelites as well.
· But the wickedness of the Canaanites was much more abominable than this.
o I won’t go into depth on this here as there are young ears and I don’t want to cross any lines that parents might rather I not.
o But if you read the testimony of the Old Testament, we find that the Canaanites lived lives full of evil, bloodshed, and spiritual abuse that the Lord had warned His people not to fall prey to.
· These wicked practices were designed to coerce the gods to action, but only fulfilled their sinful desire for pleasure and violence.
What we value is shown in what we invite people to. (Music, compelling preaching, programs, money, etc.) But if we are seeking to please people’s desires, we will forfeit our opportunity to properly witness.
· And so, they provoked God to anger. They knew it was wrong, and that it would anger God, but they did not care.
o Recklessness, false confidence of sinners.
§ Confidence is not evidence of being right.
· God shows his impeccable character in staying true to his word.
o He warned them of what would happen if they turned aside.
o He is faithful to His word, even in His anger.
o And so, Israel comes under the curse of God.
· He gave them up…
o The sad and terrifying truth is that if we are set upon sinning, God will permit us to have our way.
· Romans 1:21–25 (ESV)
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
· He sold them into the hands of their surrounding enemies…
o Israel believed that they would remain dominant because of their strength, yet God would show that they had only ever been strong because of Him.
· They could no longer withstand their enemies…
o God withdrew his power from supporting them.
§ They desired to live by the sword, and so they would also die by it.
· The lord was against them…
o After rejecting the Lord as their God, they joined the ranks of his enemies.
o It is no surprise that they should find that He is working against them.
The sad truth is that they abandon, reject, and rebel against the gracious provision of the creator God to follow the practice of the Canaanites that better suited their sinful desires.
Faithful God, Rebellious People (2:16-19)
Faithful God, Rebellious People (2:16-19)
16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
17 Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.
18 Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.
19 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.
· He raises deliverers for them: the Judges.
o To relieve their troubles and give them rest.
o To lead them back to righteousness before the lord.
· They lacked a present experience of God’s power, so He faithfully reminds them by delivering them out of distress through their amazing military exploits.
o Yet the true root of the problem is the sinfulness and rebelliousness of the people.
§ They accept deliverance from oppression, but they don’t listen to the judge’s call to repentance.
· They stay in line as long as the judge is around to watch but abandon the path of obedience as soon as they are gone.
· There is no excuse for anyone to turn aside and plead ignorance or abandonment.
o In fact, we see a downward progression in the sinful rebellion of Israel.
o Despite God’s faithfulness in restraining the sinfulness of the Canaanites and Israelites, at every point along the way, they reject Him as their God.
§ The degradation of the people is demonstrated in the fact that the years of oppression increase, while the years of deliverance and rest decrease.
· Yet God remains faithful.
o His response is anger, yet compassion.
§ He does not rejoice in our trouble, even when it is self-inflicted.
· He continues to care about His people deeply, even though they are unrepentant.
We see here that God doesn’t bring sin into the world, rather the judges cycle shows that He is restraining sin’s corrupting influence.
· Hebrews 4:15 (ESV)
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
o In His love, He knows that sin is toxic to us, and He moves to restrain its poisonous influence.
§ He is pained by the destructive cost of sin in our lives.
§ He created us for freedom, and we are enslaved to sin’s power.
o Consider this charge from the prophet Isaiah on the folly of idolatry:
· Isaiah 44:12–20 (ESV)
12 The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.
13 The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house.
14 He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.
15 Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it.
16 Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!”
17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”
20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
o A sad and terrible fate. Crying out to an idol that you made hoping that your creation will save you.
· Romans 1:28–31 (ESV)
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Apart from God, we are like blind men, stumbling around in the dark. Unable to perceive the dangerous state we are in. And if it were not for the kindness of God, we would be forever lost.
But God has a good purpose in everything He does, even in our failure. (Romans 8:28)
· Romans 8:28 (ESV)
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Testing, Trials, and Trust (2:20-3:6)
Testing, Trials, and Trust (2:20-3:6)
20 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice,
21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,
22 in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.”
23 So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.
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.
· God demonstrates great patience with His rebellious people.
o Rather than destroy them, he disciplines them.
§ By permitting them to repeatedly go through this cycle, He continually offers them a way of escape. Calling upon them to recognize what happens to when you live apart from the life of God.
· The lord giving over Israel is ultimately a kindness to them.
o To teach them to truly repent…not just to be sorry…not just to groan under oppression, but to turn.
· God leaves enemies as an opportunity for Israel to prove their faithfulness to the covenant.
o What they continually prove is their faithlessness.
o They prefer to live among the people of the land and adopt their wicked practices rather than maintain their covenant relationship with the God who loves them and delivered them and they are doomed to degradation because of it.
· 2 Peter 2:20–22 (ESV)
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
· Yet God never gives them over completely; never abandons them…for if he did, they would surely have disappeared from the earth.
The question remains for us: what will we choose to do?
· We live in a wicked culture that rejects God and invites people to follow their desires.
o Whose influence will prevail if we choose the way that Israel did…to try and operate from the inside of a sinful culture instead of abandoning it?
· The Lord has given us the tools:
· Exodus 14:14 (ESV)
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
· Joshua 1:9 (ESV)
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
o Do you trust in the power of God to deliver you? Has He overcome the world through Jesus Christ? Is His Holy Spirit dwelling in you to testify to His nearness?
· Israel would not yet learn this lesson and would continue to suffer because of it.
o They would cement the influence of the Canaanites by uniting with them in marriage.
§ God expressly forbid this in Deut 7:3-4:
· Deuteronomy 7:1–5 (ESV)
1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you,
2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
· This isn’t an ethnic issue, but a cultural/religious one.
o God knows, and it has been demonstrated now in history, whose influence prevailed.
§ Even Solomon the wise could not stand against such influences.
· Covenant commitments must prevail over any other, even family.
· Luke 14:26–27 (ESV)
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
· Jesus’s standard is all-in. Nothing held back.
Conclusion
Conclusion
· The biggest threat to the Christian faith is not that some new evidence should come along that would defeat it.
· Nor is it some worldly threat that would crush it.
The threat is that we would come to abandon our first love. The experience of God’s work of salvation through Jesus Christ.
· That we would forget what he has done for us and come to believe that we could go it alone.
o Testify to the grace of God in your life!
o Testify of it to yourselves!
o Testify of it to others!
o Testify and stand firm against the temptations of the world.
· Because we have seen the truth…we have looked and seen that God has raised up a greater deliverer than the Judges, the Lord Jesus Christ.
o He defeated and disarmed our enemies.
o He rescued us from our sins
o He leads us into righteousness before the Father.
We need to take seriously the obligation we have to pass on the relationship we have to the next generation.
o Don’t think that just because you are a Christian, that it will mean your children will be.
o Make sure they know the Savior Jesus Christ and what He has done for us.
§ Let them know His goodness and faithfulness.
§ Let them know that He can deliver us from all danger.
§ Teach them to endure to the end for the great hope we have.
· Revelation 2:7 (ESV)
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
