Judges

Intro

Welcome to our Wednesday night service

We are walking through the story of the Bible

last week we looked at the story of Joshua

the man who took over after Moses

we talked about how God was preparing Joshua to lead the people tomorrow, by telling Joshua to follow God today

Today we are going to be talking about the book of Judges

lets read this passage

Judges 2 CSB

Previously, when Joshua had sent the people away, the Israelites had gone to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua. They had seen all the Lord’s great works he had done for Israel. Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. They buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel. The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals and abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They angered the Lord, for they abandoned him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths. The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies. Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them and brought disaster on them, just as he had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly. The Lord raised up judges, who saved them from the power of their marauders, but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods, bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. They did not do as their ancestors did. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, the Lord was with him and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. The Lord was moved to pity whenever they groaned because of those who were oppressing and afflicting them. Whenever the judge died, the Israelites would act even more corruptly than their ancestors, following other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them. They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate ways. The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he declared, “Because this nation has violated my covenant that I made with their ancestors and disobeyed me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I did this to test Israel and to see whether or not they would keep the Lord’s way by walking in it, as their ancestors had.” The Lord left these nations and did not drive them out immediately. He did not hand them over to Joshua.

So we see something happen here

God brought the people to the promised land, and the people honored Him

then a new generation was born, and they forgot what God had done

then they didn’t worship God, and they actually worshipped other religions

Then God responded by allowing them to be overtaken by their enemies

life was bad, and the people cried out to God

God hears the cries of His people, and he rescues them

they praise Him for saving them

then they get comfortable, forget what He did, and turn from him

This cycle happens several times in the book of Judges

a few things to note here

when I say judges, you guys probably think of bad things

you think of people judging other people, you probably think that the judges in this book are people who come in, judge Israel, and say that they have done bad things and then bring the punisment

that is not what the judges do

the judges are the people who do the saving

they defeat the evil army, they rescue the people of Israel

now of course they do say that Israel has done wrong things, but that is not their main point

their main point is fixing what has been broken

The judges are not here to shame israel, they are here to save Israel

this plays into the way that we see God and our relationship with Him

A lot of us see God as our judge

he is up there watching us mess up, and He is going to punish us when we do

God does hate sin

but that is not the way that we should view Him

God is our judge, and He is seeking to fix what has been broken

He is seeking to save those who are hurting

He is seeking to save us not shame us

This plays out in the way that we view the story of the book of Judges

this cycle that we talked about is a really common thing to be taught about the book of Judges

the cycle of Israel getting worse and worse and worse

most of the times that I have heard this taught, they call it the sin cycle, and the focus is on Israel

but what if our focus was not on the cycle of Israel’s sin, but it was on the cycle of God’s redemption

what if we read this story not as a story of the people getting wrong time and time again

what if we read this story as a story of God’s love and patience with His people

This story is either super depressing because the people never get it right, or it is super encouraging because God is so good

When you think of your story with God, when you think about your life

do you first think about your sin and the ways that you have let Him down, or do you first think about how Good He is and how much He loves you?

Here is the deal, we are no better than the Israelites

we forget about what God has done, we turn from Him and give our attention and affection to other things, we fail to trust Him, we treat other people that He loves poorly

Each of us falls short of the glory of God

there is not one person here who hasn’t let God down

we can build our relationship with God on how much we love Him

when we sin, we will feel distant from Him

when we get distracted, we will feel like He isn’t there

when we get scared, we won’t trust Him

or we can build our relationship with God on how much He loves us

Even though we have failed Him time and time again, He is ready to forgive us and lead us to a better life

even though we sin, get distracted, and get scared, God is there loving us and being patient

we can find great comfort in the fact that God loves us so much more than we will ever love Him

The freedom that you can feel when you see God through that lense is the freedom that God made us to live in

We must remember what god did and not be like the Israelites who forgot

Now of course we still hate sin

we still have consequences to sin, we don’t just say that God is going love me no matter what so I am just going to do whatever I want

God is endlessly patient with those who are seeking to follow Him

for those who are knowingly living opposed to Him, God will not be so patient

But what I see a lot of is people genuinely trying their best to follow Him

If that is you, then I want you to find comfort in the love of God

God loves you so much more than you will ever love Him, and we should find comfort in that

just like we can see the story of judges as a story of sin or a story of salvation, we can see our own lives as a story of our sin or a story of God’s salvation

I encourage you, accept the salvation that is offered to you by Jesus, and live in it, God is worth it