Judges 1-2
Judges: The Trouble With Doing It Your Way • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 41:39
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Intro: "I did it my way." Who knows more; you or God? Who is in the future as well as the past and present; you or God? Who do you consistently follow and trust for insight and direction; you or God?
Judges 17:6 (NASB95)
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 21:25 (NASB95)
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Disobedience is not a sudden uncontrollable urge, but a gradual and subtle pull. Just as obedience is not a sudden action but a "die-cast decision beforehand".
I. Israel's continued victory from God after Joshua's death. (1:1-15)
A. Judges 1:1-2,7 Judah inquires of the Lord and is victorious against Adoni-bezek.
Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the LORD, saying, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”
The LORD said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.”
Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I in turn will go with you into the territory allotted you.” So Simeon went with him.
Judah went up, and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek.
They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” So they brought him to Jerusalem and he died there.
B. Judges 1:8 Jerusalem is taken.
Then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.
C. Judges 1:13 Judah is victorious against the Canaanites in Hebron.
Afterward the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the Negev and in the lowland.
So Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.
D. 1:11-15 Othniel & Achsah and the Debir victory and the field and springs. (this is the first appearance of Othniel the first Judge in the book)
II. Israel's long slide of disobedience. (1:16-2:5)
A. Judges 1:16-26 Each tribe failed to drive out or completely destroy the Canaanites in their areas.
The descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the city of palms with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people.
Then Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah.
And Judah took Gaza with its territory and Ashkelon with its territory and Ekron with its territory.
Now the LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots.
Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had promised; and he drove out from there the three sons of Anak.
But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
Likewise the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.
The house of Joseph spied out Bethel (now the name of the city was formerly Luz).
The spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city and we will treat you kindly.”
So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go free.
The man went into the land of the Hittites and built a city and named it Luz which is its name to this day.
B. Judges 1:27-35 Notice the progression from "failed to drive out" to Dan not being able to take possession.
But Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; so the Canaanites persisted in living in that land.
It came about when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.
Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer; so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.
Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites lived among them and became subject to forced labor.
Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, or of Achzib, or of Helbah, or of Aphik, or of Rehob.
So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.
Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.
Then the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley;
yet the Amorites persisted in living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim; but when the power of the house of Joseph grew strong, they became forced labor.
C. Judges 2:1-5 God directions given by the Angel of the Lord re-establishing God's promise at the beginning of Joshua and leading the people to regret at their disobedience.
Now the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,
and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed Me; what is this you have done?
“Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they will become as thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.’ ”
When the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.
So they named that place Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the LORD.
III. The Reason for their Disobedience...The SOP of Destruction (2:6-3:6)
A. Judges 2:11-19 The failure of Isreal due to the presence of Canaanites still in the land. This is the very thing God had warned them of.
Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals,
and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the LORD to anger.
So they forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.
Wherever they went, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had spoken and as the LORD had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.
B. The cycle of oppression, crying out to God, Judge, deliverance, disobedience, oppression, etc.
C. Judges 3:5-6 Final statement of the condition of Israel. Key verses: 5-6.
Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan;
only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly).
These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.
They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses.
The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites;
and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
IV. The final act of disobedience is never a momentary action, but always a gradual decent.
A. Judges 21:25 "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
B. Doing what was right in their own eyes does not mean they purposely disregarded God's command and blatantly disobeyed. They decided that what they saw and their assessments were right over what God had told them. They know more than God.
D. As you look at that first chapter you can see two consistent mistakes that led Israel down the slippery slope of disobedience:
1. the second was the lack of the exercising of faith. ("The next Generation did not know God" Judges 2:10)
All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.
2. the first was compromise. They made little compromises. Judges 1:19; Judges 1:21-26; Judges 1:33
Now the LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots.
But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
Likewise the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.
The house of Joseph spied out Bethel (now the name of the city was formerly Luz).
The spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city and we will treat you kindly.”
So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go free.
The man went into the land of the Hittites and built a city and named it Luz which is its name to this day.
Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.
Conclusion: Proverbs 12:15; Proverbs 14:12; James 1:22-25 NLT
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.
There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;
for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.