Success Laced With Disobedience: Judges 1:1-2:5

Introduction: B Horror Movies

1. Matters that must be discussed

◦ Why Judges?

◦ Where are we in the story of redemption?

◦ God’s righteous judgment of the Canaanites and the false defeater of nonbelievers.

▪ Deut. 9:4-6: God bring about his promises through judging the nations of Canaan. It is not due to Israel’s greatness that they are chosen and the people of Canaan are not, but because of God’s good pleasure he decided to redeem one nation and not the other. Both are unworthy of anything good and deserve the wrath of God. Yet, God in grace chose to show grace to Israel.

▪ Deut. 18:9-14: The wickedness of the nations of Canaan.

▪ Deut. 7:1-5: Israel was commanded by God to exterminate the people, for they would cause God’s chosen people to stumble.

▪ We conquer the world by the proclamation of the gospel and not Holy War.

2. The Questions to ponder:

◦ Is God sufficient?

◦ Is man sufficient?

◦ What are the consequences of disobedience?

◦ How should we respond when we have been disobedient?

Transition:

Body

Point 1: Consider the great sufficiency of Yahweh: 1-26

1. God is Sufficient in the Midst of tragedy and uncertainty: Vs. 1

◦ The death of Joseph

◦ Application: Whenever the going is rough or uncertain you can rest assured that God is in control and when you are in Christ the God who is in control is going to work all things together for good.

2. God is Sufficient in the Selection and Sending of Judah: Vs. 2-21

◦ Judah is successful in all of these endeavors and even its failure is minimized.

▪ Where has God placed victory? In Judges we see in the intro that the tribe of Judah was God’s chosen vessel to bring victory to the people of Israel. However, Judah only brought temporary victory and pointed to on from the tribe of Judah who would bring eternal victory to God’s chosen people. In this account of Judah’s success we see the forshadowing of a great salvation to come. In Jesus this great salvation has arrived.

◦ Benjamin fails where Judah had previously succeeded.

3. God is Sufficient in the Details: Vss. 5-7; 11-15; 22-26

◦ Adoni-bezek loses his big toes and thumbs

◦ The romance of Othniel and Achsah

◦ The tail of Spies

◦ Application: God is even in the midst of the details of your life. He uses circumstances, your jobs, your sports, and even your marriages to bring about His redemptive purpose. Let us be a people who realizes that every moment in our life is sacred and an opportunity to worship the God who has purposed himself to save you.

Transition:

Point 2: Consider the false sufficiency of man: 27-36

1. Failure to drive out the inhabitants (27, 29, 30a, 31, 33)

2. Subjection to forced labor (28, 30b, 33b,)

3. Dan is stopped (34)

4. Application/Illustration:

What is successful in the eyes of man is not always what is pleasing in the eyes of God. In the prosperity gospel you have droves of people attending. You have people giving grand amounts of money to what they believe to be the causes of God. Yet, God abhors the prosperity gospel, the teachers of it, and the churches that worship temporal prosperity over a covenant relationship with Him. They have confused the love of money for the love of God. Israel was in a position of strength with the ability to enslave these nations, yet God had demanded their extermination. Do not have the appearance of success or be successful in man’s eyes. Measure your life by what God deems good and seek to be faithful to what he commands.

Transition:

Point 3: Consider the consequence of disobedience: 1-6

1. God comes and speaks to the people of Israel

◦ God states that He will bring about the curses He promised to Israel in the wilderness.

▪ The peoples will be a snare to them

▪ Application/Illustration: Befriending nonbelievers and apathetically not sharing the gospel with them.

2. The people respond in sorrow

◦ Application: A word about grief and repentance.

◦ Illustration: My inability to cry.

Transition:

Conclusion: B Horror Movies