Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

The Vicious Downward Cycle

Introduction

A father had won a toy at an office game.

He called his three kids together to ask which one should have the present.

“Who is the most obedient?” he asked.

The children all stared back at him in silence.

Then he asked, “Who never talks back to mother?”

Again the kids appeared to be mystified by the question.

Then the father asked, “Who does everything she says?”

With that question, the kids were finally able to come to a conclusion.

The three small voices answered in unison, “Okay, dad, you get the toy.”

A middle-aged woman has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital.

While on the operating table she has a near death experience.

During that experience she sees God and asks if this is it.

God says no and explains that she has another 30 years to live.

Upon her recovery she decides to just stay in the hospital and have a face lift, liposuction, breast augmentation, tummy tuck, etc.

She even has someone come in and change her hair color.

She figures since she's got another 30 years she might as well make the most of it.

She walks out of the hospital after the last operation and is killed by an ambulance speeding by.

She arrives in front of God and complains, "I thought you said I had another 30 years."

God replies, "I didn't recognize you."

There was a man named Mike that was recruited into the army, and he was very young.

He joined the military because he thought that is what he must do.

Now Mike was a well behaved man but he had an awful time at listening to orders.

This really came to bite him in the backside one afternoon when he and his squad were going to carry out a mission.

The commanding officer briefed the squad on their mission and what each and everyones job was.

This was meant to be a very easy in and out task, they were going into Iraq to retrieve some vital information from the enemies base.

Now the goal was to parachute in and follow commands.

One person was going to keep watch, another was going to cut the wire to the fence on the outside of the camp, a pair was meant to cut the power at the same time so all power would be out during the few minutes that a person would be extracting the package.

Now Mike was part of the pair that was going to cut the power for one of the other men to grab the package.

When the time came everything was going fine but there was a problem with Mike.

Mike believed that cutting the power the way his officer told him was not the correct way to do it.

Mike decided to try it his way even though his partner was not doing it different.

What end up happening is Mike turned on the alarm and half of the camp’s power went off and it was not even the side that the information was located at.

They ended up having to change their plans and they snuck around during a hectic situation of people trying to figure out why the alarm is on.

They all got in the building and got the information but when they turned around there was a group of men with Ak’s.

They got caught and were thrown into a prison, luckily a squad of army men came later and with the guidance of the commanding officer.

They saved the men and end up getting the documents they needed.

Even though it took a while they completed their mission.

There was a problem that they had to deal with.

That problem was Mike.

If Mike disobeyed would someone get hurt next time?

This story remind me of when Israel did not obey God and God had to go in and save Israel.

It all worked out according to God’s plan but it made it such a hassle.

The history of almost two centuries is here summarized, indicating the principles behind the Lord’s dealings with Israel.

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.

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.

Keeping God’s Commands

The Time of Peace was when Israel was keeping God’s Commands

Israel ever since the beginning of the nation always was going through their vicious downward cycle and this cycle always began with Disobedience then God was furious and made them pay the consequences for their actions which was usually having them be held captive/be slaves for another nation.

They were oppressed.

Then after they would repent, and start following God’s commands and would cry out to God, God would save them.

This happened over and over again.

The vicious cycle is a three part scenario that we can get a glimpse of in today’s passage.

The first part of this three way cycle is disobedience.

The history of almost two centuries is here summarized, indicating the principles behind the Lord’s dealings with Israel.

judges.

In English the term judge is used to describe an official who maintains justice within the established court system.

The Hebrew term used in the context of this book describes an individual who maintains justice for the tribes of Israel.

This justice comes in bringing protection from foreign oppressors.

Maintaining international justice was often the role of the king.

What made these judges unlike kings was that there was no formal process for assuming the office, nor could it be passed on to one’s heirs.

There was no supporting administration, no standing army and no taxation to underwrite expenses.

So while the actual function of the judge may have had much in common with the king, the judge did not enjoy most of the royal prerogatives.

Just as a king also judged civil cases, the judges may have had some of that responsibility (see 4:5), but this would have been a minor role.

The judges did not serve as heads of government in general but did have the authority to call out the armies of the tribes.

Prior to the monarchy, no one from any one tribe would have been able to exercise such authority over another tribe.

God was the only central authority.

Therefore, when a judge successfully rallied the armies of several tribes, it was seen as the work of the Lord through that judge (see 6:34–35).

Only the establishment of kingship assigned a permanent human central authority over the tribes

Matthews, V. H., Chavalas, M. W., & Walton, J. H. (2000).

The IVP Bible background commentary: Old Testament (electronic ed., ).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Baal, the son of El in the Canaanite pantheon, was the god of the storm and the rains and therefore the controller of vegetation.

He was the great active god, El being a somewhat nebulous figure, and Baal worship was widely diffused in the Ancient Near East.

Cundall, A. E., & Morris, L. (1968).