Untitled Sermon (6)

Intro: The world lost a great ambassador of Christ, and expositor of the word -Voddie Bauchman- “do you know it was His mercy that woke you up this am, because His judgment should’ve killed you last night”! We left off with Gods anger burning. His righteous judgement for Israel by not driving out the idol Baal and Astaroth worshipping inhabitants, and conforming to the culture. For 3 chapters, the author wants you to see 2 things- the demise of Israel morally and spiritually- a political prologue, and then the very heart and nature that lead to this apostacy- a theological prologue. 3 chapters of this cycle before any attempt at a rescue is presented.  What Israel truly desired most, was REST. That’s ultimately what the fall in Gen 3 fractured, unrest with man, unrest in the land, and unrest with God. You have these periods where Israel will see the error of their ways, and because of the increasing chaos and calamity would cry for help. God drives Israel to a point beyond themselves, with intent and purpose to produces something beyond themselves. That’s in fact the definition of testing.

There is no depth, nor height, nor circumstance to which our God will NOT go to woo His children back to Himself. That’s WHAT GOD IS DOING: 2:21-22. God tested Israel to bring forth, and produce something in Israel they could not produce on their own. REST. God wants to see the inward REALITY of HIS GRACE, what is now in us, by the receiving of His gift, and the working of Spirit, Lived out in reality. Testing is the actualization of Faith. Its Testing, that gives you Rest. In the comfort and ease of life, in complacency and compromise, we are prone to wander. We attempted to seek physical false rest that leads us to slavery. We need that which is unclean to be revealed and removed. Which is why we need an ultimate and divine deliverer. Testing is what produces Rest. Test v1-6, Rest v7-11.  PRAY.

V1-2: To really understand the weight of these verses. I want to jump back into last week’s section v20. Now, this is hard to dissect in the English, but this a jab to Israel. When the word NATION- goy or goy-hem, is typically used, its used in reference to Gentile nations. (Ahm) is typically the word used to refer to Israel, but not here. This is an indication of the “Caanatization” that is happening to Israel. So, God is going to TEST. That wording was already introduced in the Torah. God tested Abraham Genesis 22 and said take your son your only son whom you love Isaac and sacrifice him. We read in Deuteronomy that God was testing Israel throughout their 40 years in the wilderness, to create a heart of trust and dependence. So now, God is giving Israel over to the fruit of their worship. Their segmented Worship of God plus… Yahweh, plus Baal, Yahweh plus Asherath. God gives them over to these nations. He will let these inhabitants and other nations—REST, lay down, set up camp, dwell, which was His plan For ISRAEL. There is in fact no archaeological record of Israel from 1200 BC to 1000 BC. All artifcats of worship, culture and family life are from the Canaanites. Israel got what they wanted, the land, but lost everything. Why would God do this? It says why—to teach them war. But the design, and call was for rest, peace in the land, peace with one another, not for war. But here, you see the consequence of sin, taught to know war. The original divine purpose of the wars in Canaan was to eradicate the inhabitants, to create pure, exclusive worship for the people, to give Israel rest. But partial obedience is total disobedience. So now, God removed His hand from Israel. Which resulted in full warfare. Yet, it’s amazing how our consequences of sin, our idolatry and spiritual worship, are never truly outside of His redeeming power. Yahweh ISNT TEACHING, them HOW to fight, militaty tactics. His is teaching them how to successfully, depend solely upon on the Lord to for victory. This is the entire book of Joshua. Israel had experienced and learned, that the power to conquer its foes did not consist in the multitude and bravery of its own fighting men, but solely in the might of its God, which it could only possess so long as it continued faithful to the Lord. Paul is teaching us the same- 2 Corinthians 3:5 “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” This isn’t to learn proficiency in killing, but dependency in surrendering, which is always the purpose of TESTING.

V3-6: You get a detailed list of groups within the Canaanite tribes that remained in the land.(  MAP ) it first starts with the 3 bordering peoples whom Israel would engage in war. The Philistines-(5 cities) known as the sea people, they had infiltrated Egypt and setup on the Mediterranean Coast. Cities that include Gath, Ashalon, Gaza, Ekron, Ashdod, we hear throughout scripture. Skilled in warfare. They become a thorn for Israel for generations, leading up to David!

The Sidonians were the Phoenicians, Sidon being chief port to the northwest. The Hivites were a branch of the Horites, who established the kingdom of Mitanni in upper Mesopotamia in the Northeast! They geographically scattered and cover Israel.  Constant warfare, affliction from all sides. This warfare to test, to prove, to refine, Israel- to create in them a heart of obedience to God and His word. Now, this war is two-fold, you have the external enemies, but you also have the internal enemies. The outside enemies engaging in physical war, and the internal enemies engaging in spiritual warfare. V5. So the people of Israel lived among. Dwelt. I want you notice the verbs listed here: Lived among, they took their daughters for themselves as wives and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. A lot of piling up of verbs that describe all the various ways in which the Israelites were failing the test! This is full on spiritual adultery.

The original command given to Moses: Deuteronomy 7:3-5. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 5 But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.” Here we are, full circle. The spiritual adultery, the compromise, the complacency. So, how will they learn the error of their way, the consequences for disobedience? War. This is to show you the power, slavery, and bondage of sin.  It so easy to see the repeated cycle of sin. But why couldn’t they break the pattern of sin? To answer that, we have to understand what sin actually is… Sin is not simply an action you do or fail to do, that you can choose to do or not to do. Sin is a power that holds you in its grip. That is precisely what the apostle meant when he averred that all—both Jew and Gentile, both religious man and pagan man—are ‘under sin’ (Rom. 3:9. Until the church gets a proper view of sin, we will never see salvation as much more than a moving religious charade, rather than as an act of holy, vicious violence by which Christ wrenches His people out of darkness. Israel is sins captive. This wasn’t just one action Israel failed to do… this was ongoing willful defiance.

Illustration: “CS Lewis said- the safest road to Hell is the gradual one, gentle soft underfoot, without signposts.” Sometimes our spiritual apathy and apostacy is visible and undeniable. But more times than not, the enemy isn’t storming the gates or announcing its arrival, instead he slithers and slips through cracks. Our sin is subtle, slow, and often quiet, we hardly notice it happening, this gradual neglect. Faith rarely collapses in a moment. Its hurried prayers, little compromises, crowded schedules, and distracted hearts. This lull. Evil knows that it cannot make us evil, so instead it distracts, distorts. The compromise, the weakening of our foundation. That’s the slavery, it’s not a cliff, it’s a slope. The cliff is dangerous, but the slop, seems harmless, right? Israel didn’t get here overnight. This breaking of the covenant with God, the first commandment was a slow burn. They forgot, this didn’t slip their mind, these apathetic actions, this apostacy happens with willful rejection. Israel is acting according to its very nature, as do we…Which is why we need a deliverer. To give us what our hearts desire most- Rest from War.

V7-8: That verse again!! Did what was evil!! Don’t forget what God deems as evil- This is the second of eight times the masculine term “evil” is seen in Judges. Each time, it is accompanied by the words “in eyes of Yahweh.” Thus, the offense is personal in the relationship between the people and the Lord…God allowed the Mesopotamians, led by King Cushan-risha-taim, to oppress the Israelites. Mesopotamia is way to the east, on the other side of the Jordan! God sells them, not an Amorite King or a Canaanite king, but to a king far away! Whose name means- doubly wicked. God sells them. You can only sell what you own. God owns His people. Does that sound familiar? 1 Cor. 6:19-20. Numbers 3 explains that God claims the first born of every living thing as His. He is burned with anger, and this is bad, or is it? Yahweh’s anger is actually hope for Israel, His anger shows that He will not allow Israel to serve Baal uncontested. Israel has slowly intertwined itself with Canaan, and its false idol worship. Yahweh’s wrath is the heat of His jealous love by which He refuses to let go of His people; He refuses to allow His people to remain comfortable in sin. Serving this far off double wicked king, may not sound like salvation to us—and it isn’t, but, if it forces us to lose our grip on Baal, the beginning of salvation. His anger, shows that the covenant God who has bound Himself to His people will not allow them to become cozy in their infidelity. ‘Steadfast love’ pursues them in their iniquity and is not above inflicting misery to awaken them. The burning anger of Yahweh is certainly no picnic, but it’s the only sign of hope for God’s people. This isn’t what they wanted, but this is what the need to rid themselves of this cultural compromise. Enter the deliverer.

V9-11: We meet our first Judge for the second time. Othi-ne-ial. Calebs nephew. There's a city that Caleb wanted to capture, and he says, if any of you are brave and strong enough to capture the city,  I'll give you my daughter “Oxa” as a wife. So, his nephew steps up and, yeah I'd like to marry my cousin! So he captures the city and he gets Oxa as his wife. We make light of it, but it was tremendous faith, it was complete surrender to Gods promise to deliver the city. Oth-ne-ial’s name means Lion of God. He is the protype Judge, no apparent flaws, except that he dies. He is not a native Israelite, he is a Kennite, grafted into Israel… and yet, the spirit of the Lord came upon him. Its not indwelling, it was saving as we would think, because its only temporary. He is showing the divine hand, the divine conqueror is the one that is always at the forefront.

After the eight years of bondage Israel finally cried out in dependence on God. How long does it typically take us living in slavery and bondage before we truly recognize? Better question, how much misery, chaos , affliction can we endure? Israel, with external war at every border, internal war from idolatry, finally relents. They cry out. Just like when they were held captive in Egypt- Exodus 2:23. They cried out. Now this verb is interesting. (za-aq). Its sometimes believed that this crying, implies repentance or conversion. In fact, I even used in on the sin chart. But does not mean repentance, it means a call for help in distress because of an unbearable circumstance. There is in fact a difference, Every time that verb is used in scripture, it’s always used as a response by someone is complete affliction. Which explains why Yahweh would raise up a deliverer, not as a reaction to their repentance, but a response to their misery and sorrow. Here is what I mean…

Illustration: I think we sometimes look at God as an ambulance driver/EMT. Someone who just shows up after the disaster to restore. God doesn’t just show up after the fact. There is no greater objective evidence than the cross.

God isn’t just responding to isolated incidents by Israel. He is moving everything towards the moment of redemption and rest on Calvary. We are born into the very nature that caused Israel to forget God. His foreknowledge of who you truly are…So, the God of comfort and rest, is willing to move you to uncomfortableness, and unrest to produce in you what you can’t produce on your own. A heart, of repentance, total change, a piercing of your soul that you have sinned against God, and you no longer desire slavery. The sin cycle repeats for Israel after 40 years, because of 2 things: 1. They did not move away from the very idols that lead them to bondage. They remained captive, because that is what sin does. 2. Oth-na-eil, as great as he is described, died. He could not provide the spiritual covering that Israel ultimately needs. Spiritual REST.  Our hearts long for something deeper than physical rest. We want a rest that lasts beyond certain times (nights, weekends) and extends beyond certain places (bed, vacation spots). We want a rest that leads us like a pillar of fire and follows us like the goodness and mercy of God.  We want a rest that wells up from within like living water. We want an unending rest of the soul. No human judge can truly offer this rest. Deut 5:15: What did God design to remind them of HIS GRACE? Rest. Not just physical, spiritual. Its rest that is a declaration of our freedom. It means you are not a slave—not to culture’s expectations, demands, not even to your own insecurities. Outside God’s presence, our little attempts at rest — our sleep-ins, our days off, our life balances— are empty, because until TRUE repentance, we remain in bondage. We sow and dig and water, but the soil of our souls can’t hold the seeds; we look for rest and reap restlessness. Exiled from Eden, we need the God of the garden to once again become our God; we need the Lord of rest to be our Lord and Rest. Matthew 11:28–29. The wording in verse 9 is intentional. A human judge cannot offer what our souls need. God raised up a deliverer, who saved. the wording here for deliverer is intentional.  Its Mo-shee-ah someone God uses to rescue in a moment of crisis. BUT, there is Limitation: each savior dies, the people relapse, and the cycle begins again. Israel had many saviors but no lasting salvation. Their need pointed beyond Judges.

The Word מָשִׁיחַ (māšîaḥ) — ma-shoe-ahk, Anointed One, set apart, divine. DOES NOT appear in the book of Judges. Its applied, to the coming Redeemer. Represents office and identity rather than just function. In Judges: no one yet bears this title. Israel is saved from affliction, and misery, not sin. The cycle of highlights the need for a permanent, Spirit-anointed redeemer. These saviors, God uses in the moment to save, but the Messiah, God appoints permenantly to redeem. Judges shows us partial, fragmented, temporary saviors—leading and pointing to the Anointed One. Jesus unites both titles: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Anointed by the Spirit (Luke 4:18–21; Acts 10:38). Unlike the judges, His salvation is final, full, and forever. This is not just war for temporary rest, its not God just responding to spiritual adultery, it God paving the way for the perfect one. These judges are bandaid for a moral wound. Human deliverers can rescue from crisis, but only the Messiah rescues from sin. What we need, is REST. Jesus does not say he will point us toward the rest we long for, or even lead us there himself: He says HE IS REST.

Closing: The deepest rest lies in his possession — in HIM alone. You are tested, the warfare, is to cultivate dependence, to attack pride and compromise, to awaken a hunger, to create in you what you cannot achieve on your own- Rest. this is only possible if the bondage, slavery of sin is conquered. The land rested- no war, turmoil, but the silence and peace, did not lead them to deeper conviction and worship… over a long period of time, 40ish years, they slowly begin back to wandering. So a loving God would test them, to bring them into what He has ordained since the foundations of the cosmos- rest. A gracious God, knowing our propensity to wander, knows, we cant do this on our own, so He sends us the ultimate savior we need.

Do you long for righteousness? He has already won it (Romans 3:26). Do you yearn for an identity? He calls you his own (Hebrews 2:11). Is success what you seek? He shares his victory (1 Corinthians 15:57). Do worries keep you awake? His shoulders can carry them (1 Peter 5:7). Do you lack others’ favor? You still have his (Romans 8:31). Do you feel trapped in the life you have? He is a world always new (John 21:25). Jesus holds a rest for every kind of restlessness because the bondage of slavery of sin IS FINISHED. No more cycles. No more relapses. No more halfway deliverance—only full and final redemption, that comes from TRUE repentance.