Breaking the Cycle

A Sermon on Judges 2:10-19

Introduction

Good morning, everyone.

I want you to picture something with me for a moment. If you've ever taken little kids to a playground or watched children playing, inevitably you'll see them play tag. And when they play this game, they'll usually chase each other in circles. Sometimes the object they're running around isn't even very large—maybe just a picnic table or a small jungle gym.

As you sit there watching them chase each other round and round, perhaps you begin to wonder: Why doesn't the one who is "it" simply stop and turn around? If they did, they'd easily be able to tag the other child. But they don't. No one does. Instead, they just keep running in circles, laughing and panting, going nowhere fast.

For those of us observing from the outside, the solution is so obvious it's almost painful to watch. But the children caught up in the game miss what's right in front of them. They're so focused on the chase that they can't see the simple solution.

This morning, as we continue our journey through the book of Judges, we're going to see that the Israelites fell into a similar pattern—not a playful game of tag, but a devastating cycle of sin that would define generations. And like those children on the playground, they kept running the same destructive circle, unable or unwilling to see the obvious solution.

Today's big idea is this: 

Israel's cycle of sin is a bad habit that Jesus died to end. 

And here's what I want you to take home: 

To avoid getting stuck in a cycle of sin, keep your eyes fixed on the cross.

The Shape of the Cycle

Before we dive into our text, I need to show you something that will help us understand not just today's passage, but the entire book of Judges. There are two crucial themes that repeat throughout this book like a broken record—or maybe more like a hamster wheel that never stops spinning.

The first theme is the cycle of sin itself.

Picture it like this:

Israel starts by serving God faithfully.

Then, like a slow leak in a tire, they begin to drift into sin and idolatry.

Before they know it, they're enslaved to the very people they were supposed to drive out of the promised land.

After suffering under oppression, they finally cry out to God for help.

And here's where we see the amazing grace of our God—He responds with mercy and raises up a judge to deliver them.

The judge leads them to freedom, Israel experiences spiritual renewal, and they serve the Lord again... until they don't. And the whole exhausting cycle starts all over again.

The second theme is the person and role of the judge—God's chosen instrument of deliverance. But we'll get to that in a moment.

Turn with me to Judges chapter 2, beginning in verse 10.

When Compromise Creates a Crisis

Let's look at verse 10:

Judges 2:10 NIV

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.

This is one of the most tragic verses in all of Scripture. How do you go from a generation that witnessed the walls of Jericho fall to a generation that doesn't even know the Lord? The answer is found in what we studied last week—compromise.

Remember, Israel was instructed to completely drive out the inhabitants of the promised land. But when they encountered resistance, they settled. They made deals. They said, "Close enough is good enough." They told God, essentially, "We think we know better than you."

Here's what half-hearted devotion produces: children who don't know God.

When one generation compromises their faith—when they concede elements of their faith to unbelief—it shouldn't surprise us when the next generation doesn't care about God at all.

Think about it this way. If I water down orange juice, adding more and more water with each serving, eventually my kids won't even recognize it as orange juice anymore. It'll just be vaguely orange-flavored water.

That's what happened to Israel's faith. By the time it got passed to the next generation, it was so diluted that they couldn't even taste God in it anymore.

These young Israelites had been given a compromised faith. They might have known some facts about God—like knowing that George Washington was the first president—but they didn't know Him. They didn't know His stories of deliverance. They saw obedience as optional, like a suggested speed limit sign rather than a command from the Creator of the universe.

And friends, this hits close to home, doesn't it?

How many of us are giving our children, our friends, our coworkers a watered-down version of Christianity?

A faith that says, "God is love" but never mentions holiness?

A faith that celebrates Easter but ignores the cost of the cross?

A faith that fits comfortably with the values of our culture rather than challenging them?

Sin Is Never Private

Look at what happens next in verses 11-13:

Judges 2:11–13 NIV

Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

A generation that doesn't know the Lord will inevitably live like they don't know the Lord. And notice—this wasn't gradual. The text says they "forsook" the Lord. That's abandonment language. That's walking out on a relationship.

But here's what our individualistic culture doesn't understand: sin is never a private matter. We love to say things like, "It's my life, not yours," or "What I do in private doesn't hurt anyone," or "Do you really think God cares about this little thing?"

But sin is like a virus in the body of Christ. You know how a tiny paper cut on your pinky finger—so small you can barely see it—can hurt every time you move your hand? That's how sin works in the community of faith. What seems small and private affects the whole body.

Israel's "private" idolatry led to public devastation.

Their personal choices led to national consequences.

And the same is true today.

Your "private" pornography habit affects your marriage, your parenting, your witness.

Your "personal" bitterness poisons every relationship you touch.

Your "individual" compromise weakens the entire church.

The Anger of Love

Now we come to verses 14-15, and they're hard to read:

Judges 2:14–15 NIV

In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

Does this description of God surprise you? Does it make you uncomfortable?

We like to talk about God's love, God's mercy, God's patience. But God's anger? That's not very seeker-friendly, is it?

But here's what we need to understand, and Tim Keller puts it beautifully: God's anger is not opposed to His love—it's the expression of it. It's because He loves His people and cares about His relationship with them that He responds with righteous anger when they turn from Him.

Think about it like this: If you saw your child playing in traffic, would you calmly say, "Sweetie, when you get a chance, could you please consider moving to the sidewalk?" No! You'd probably yell, you'd run, you'd grab them—maybe roughly—and pull them to safety. Your anger at their dangerous behavior would be motivated by your deep love for them.

That's what's happening here. God sees His children playing in the traffic of idolatry, running toward destruction, and His anger burns—not because He's vindictive, but because He's heartbroken. He knows what those false gods will do to them. He knows where that path leads.

The Mystery of the Judge

But just when it seems hopeless, we read verse 16:

Judges 2:16 NIV

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

Compare verse 14 with verse 16. In verse 14, God "gave them into the hands of raiders."

Judges 2:14 NIV

In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

In verse 16, He saves them "out of the hands of these raiders." The same hand that disciplines delivers. The same God who allows the consequences rescues from the consequences.

Who were these judges? They weren't elected officials. They weren't self-appointed warlords who seized power through violence or cunning. They were chosen by God—divinely appointed leaders who ruled Israel spiritually, politically, and militarily. They saved Israel from their enemies by leading armies, and they saved them from their idols by teaching them about God.

The judge is God's grace with skin on. They're the personal manifestation of God's mercy toward His people. And here's what amazes me: God keeps sending them. Over and over, the cycle repeats, and over and over, God raises up another judge.

Dale Ralph Davis captures this beautifully when he writes:

"The One who 'gave them into the hand of the plunderers' also 'saved them from the hand of the plunderers'; the hand that is against them is nevertheless mysteriously for them. Here is the fundamental miracle of the Bible: that the God who rightly casts us down should—without reason—stoop to lift us up."

Dale Ralph Davis

Look at verse 18:

Judges 2:18 NIV

Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them.

God was "moved to pity by their groaning." The same God whose anger burned against them couldn't help but rescue them when they cried out. That's our God—the One whose mercy triumphs over judgment, whose compassion never fails, whose love never lets go even when we keep letting go of Him.

Verse 19 says,

Judges 2:19 NIV

But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

Breaking Free from Our Cycles

Now, you might be thinking, "That's a great history lesson, Pastor, but what does this have to do with me?" Everything. Because every one of us has our own cycles of sin.

Maybe yours looks like this: You commit to reading your Bible every day. You do great for a week, maybe two. Then you miss a day. Then another. Pretty soon, your Bible is gathering dust again, and you're spiritually starving. A crisis hits, you cry out to God, you recommit to daily devotions... and the cycle continues.

Or maybe it's that anger problem. You lose your temper, you hurt someone you love, you feel terrible, you apologize, you promise to do better. Things go well for a while, but then the pressure builds, and boom—you explode again.

Or perhaps it's that secret sin you can't seem to shake. The one you've confessed a hundred times. The one you've promised God you'd never do again... until you do.

We're just like those kids on the playground, running in circles, exhausting ourselves, getting nowhere. And we're just like the Israelites, stuck in a pattern that's destroying us and dishonoring God.

The Judge Who Breaks the Cycle

But here's the good news—and this is where the gospel breaks through like sunrise after the darkest night. God didn't just keep sending temporary judges who would die and leave Israel vulnerable again. He sent the ultimate Judge, the final Deliverer, the One who breaks the cycle forever.

Jesus Christ is the Judge who never dies. He's the Deliverer who doesn't just rescue us from the consequences of our sin—He destroys the power of sin itself. He doesn't just save us from our enemies; He transforms us so we're no longer slaves to the cycle.

The book of Judges shows us judges who could only provide temporary relief. But Jesus provides permanent freedom. The judges of Israel could lead the people to military victory, but they couldn't change hearts. Jesus does both—He defeats our spiritual enemies and gives us new hearts that actually want to follow God.

And here's the key difference: The judges of Israel had to wait for the people to cry out before they could act. But Jesus? Romans 5:8 tells us,

Romans 5:8 NIV

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He didn't wait for us to get our act together. He didn't wait for us to cry out. He saw us in our cycles, in our slavery, in our stubborn rebellion, and He came anyway.

Fixing Our Eyes on the Cross

So how do we avoid getting stuck in the cycle? How do we break free from these patterns that have plagued humanity since the garden? The answer is surprisingly simple, though not easy:

Keep your eyes fixed on the cross.

When Peter walked on water, he was fine as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. The moment he looked at the waves, he began to sink.

The Israelites fell into cycles because they took their eyes off God and looked at the nations around them.

Fixing our eyes on the cross means remembering daily what Jesus did for us. It means preaching the gospel to ourselves every morning. It means not just knowing about Jesus but knowing Him—having that personal, transformative relationship that the generation in Judges 2:10 lacked.

It means when temptation comes, we don't just try harder—we remember that Jesus already won this battle. When we fail, we don't just feel guilty—we run to the cross where forgiveness flows like a river. When we're stuck in our cycles, we don't just make another resolution—we surrender to the One who has the power to break every chain.

Conclusion and Call to Action

Friends, the cycle of sin in Judges is a mirror showing us our own hearts. We see ourselves in Israel's compromise, their forgetfulness, their rebellion, their crying out, their temporary repentance. We're all recovering Judges chapter 2 people.

But we don't have to stay in the cycle. We don't have to keep running in circles like those children on the playground. The solution is right in front of us—not turning around and running the other way, but stopping altogether and resting in what Christ has already done.

This week, I challenge you to identify your cycle. What's the pattern you keep repeating? What's the sin you keep returning to like a dog to its vomit? Name it. Confess it. And then—this is crucial—don't just try harder. Instead, fix your eyes on Jesus.

Every time you're tempted to take another lap around that familiar track, stop and remember: Jesus died to end this cycle. He didn't just die to forgive you when you fail; He died to give you the power to overcome.

The Israelites had judges who provided temporary deliverance. We have Jesus who provides eternal freedom. The question is:

Will we keep running in circles, or will we fix our eyes on the One who broke the cycle forever?

Let's pray.