Chasing Normal 2.0 - Judges 2:11-19

Introduction

Megan and I started dating back in 2002. So, that’s crazy. My life with her has been longer than my life without her. And, you know how you do when you’re high school. You kind of throw around “I love you” because it’s just the thing that you do. Maybe you mean it and have some concept of it, and maybe you don’t. But, I can remember us awkwardly mumbling it out the first few times, but, yo, not if my boys were around, or anybody else for that matter. But, the truth is that we didn’t really know if we loved each other then. It’s time that proves love, not words. Love is a commitment, a resolve, a dedication and devotion; it’s not a sentence. Now, 19 years together (14 married), 3 kids, 4 surgeries, and 6 houses later, I know what love is. Megan has taught me that. It’s a dedication and affection that perseveres.

This is certainly true of our faith in Jesus, too. Time reveals where we really stand, who we really are, whether or not we actually love him. You'll remember the parable of the Sower. Some of the seed falls on rocky ground. The seed sprouts up quickly but then withers away just as quickly. Other seed falls among the thorny soil, but the thorns choked out the seed, and they eventually all die off. But then, some seed falls on good soil and it produces again and again. What’s the point? Time will tell who the disciples of Jesus really are. Suffering will tell. Endurance will tell. I wonder if COVID might be a sifting. Many are worried that people will not come back to church, but I tell you those in whom Jesus’ seed has found good soil, those who love Christ, they will return. Time will tell.

God’s Word

This is the thought that should be in our minds as we turn from Joshua to Judges.

Joshua 24:21 ‘We will serve the LORD.’ Time will tell. The renewal of the covenant at Shechem leaves us hanging as to what will happen next. Will they actually serve the LORD and the LORD only?

It’s Joshua 24:21 we’re supposed to have in our minds when we read Judges 2:11: ‘And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.’

This is the thrust of Judges. Judges 2 = overview of the book - a pattern is being established that will rule over the whole book. This phrase occurs 12 times in the first 13 chapters of the book. Time was revealing what was really in Israel’s heart and who they really were. But, it’s time that reveals God’s character, too. In Judges, time reveals a pattern of what God has to overcome for us (headline).

We chase “normal.”

Judges 2:12-13And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

Verses 12-13 tell us what evil Israel has done in the eyes of the Lord. The main idea is abandonment. You’ll notice that it bookends the explanation. So, the main problem is that they abandoned the Lord, and the middle section explains how they abandoned the Lord. It says that they went after other gods and the LORD viewed that as abandonment. For Israel, this wasn’t an either/or, it was a both/and. They wanted the LORD, and they wanted the other gods, too. That is, they had found other gods they wanted to share their lives with.

Why is this a big deal? Notice what it says “the gods of the peoples who were around them.” They wanted what the other people had. They wanted to be like Canaan. Sinai = God calls them to monotheism. The very first incidence of monotheism in the history of the world. A radical concept and an uncomfortable one. What all am I missing out on? Who am I making angry? (Deut 6 - The LORD is one — Love him with all of your heart, mind, strength) You see, God had chosen them to be special, but they just wanted to be normal.

ILL: "I just want to be normal” — I must’ve said that to my parents 1000 times when I was a teenager. Grades — ACT — College prep — Clothes. It’s another way of say, “I don’t want to be left out. I want what everyone else has.” For many, they fear above all else not being ‘normal’ however they define it.

APP: We’re chasing after normal, not after God. Notice that it repeats that they ‘went after’ the other gods in 12, 17, and 19. Notice also that they didn’t ‘know’ him in verse 10 (intimate like Abe ‘knowing Sarah). Supposed to be satisfied with their intimacy with God but whored after other gods (like open marriage). They wanted God, and they wanted everything else. But, God says to go after everything else is to abandon him. They were like us. They conceived of their lives as a pie chart to be divided. So long as God gets a slice (of whatever size - draw) of the pie then God is pleased with us. Just enough God to get you by but not so much that you can’t be normal, not so much that you’re weird.

But, the Bible doesn’t conceive of your heart as a pie to be divided. It says that your heart is a sacrifice to be offered. That’s the thrust of monotheism. My job and my family and my marriage and my health and my golf game are not pieces of a pie of which God gets some. Rather, those are all avenues by which my heart can express, demonstrate, and magnify the complete satisfaction that I have in god. You see, to merely include God in your life is to fundamentally misunderstand him. God doesn’t want to be included in your life; He wants to be offered your life. But, when you offer him your life, when you stop chasing normal and start chasing Jesus, you enter into the dimension of the divine. It’s abnormal. It’s supernatural. It’s special.

Normal is “slavery.”

Judges 2:12-13And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

Three descriptions of God followed by three descriptions of their abandonment of God. A contrast between God’s goodness toward them and their unfaithfulness toward Him.

Pictures of God going after them and setting them free.

Pictures of Israel going after other gods and enslaving themselves.

Irony is this: By chasing normal they were actually chasing slavery the whole time. They thought they had found more opportunity, more freedom, more happiness when they found the other gods. But, here’s the truth: Now, they didn’t know how to make everyone happy. How could they appease all of the gods? They would all have different rituals and different requirements and different responsibilities.

ILL: Reminds me of the first time I was hiking on the AT. Started snowing at about 3000 feet, and we had to climb to 5000 feet. It was like the top of the mountain kept moving. You see, that’s the thing about chasing after normal. It’s a subtle slavery. You keep finding that one thing that’s missing from your life only to discover one more thing that’s missing and then another. You need a relationship and then you need a better job and then you need a new truck and then you need more friends and then maybe you need the church and then you need a kid. And, the truth is, if you’re honest, not that you’re chasing after God and seeking more satisfaction in him, but you’re chasing after what you believe normal to be. But, every corner you turn is just another switchback keeping you climbing up the mountain. And, it just sucks the life out of you. Every turn, every commercial, every fitness class, every job opportunity seems to offer you the top of the mountain only to end up adding to your burden.

But, just as it was to Israel, God’s call is a call to freedom. It was a call to rest from all of that striving. Remember back to the renewal of the covenant in Josh 24. It was a call of singular focus instead of trying to appease every god you happen across. It was a calling to know the God of gods, the Lord of Lords, the One to whom they all answered. God had set them free to serve him and him only, but they were into chasing dead gods, gods made out of wood. You see, normal is chasing comparisons. How do I compare with the people around me? But, the comparisons never end. Freedom is having a relationship with the Living God and realizing nothing can compare with that.

v. 14 “So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel” v. 15 “And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies.”

He sold them into the slavery they were chasing. It was assumed the people with the mightiest gods would win the battle, and so the LORD was allowing his people to taste the pain and the distress of being ruled over by the gods they were chasing. He let them taste the bitterness of slavery to dead gods.

APP: How much of our misery and anxiety and exhaustion is the LORD allowing us to experience the bitterness of chasing normal? How much is it God showing us the misery of comparing ourselves with the people of the world rather than being satisfied with him? Could it be that in his kind discipline God is bringing to our attention how dead all of these gods really are? Could it be that He is calling us back to concern ourselves only with Christ and him crucified so that we can rest from the burden of all the other gods?

God “redeems” you from the “slavery” of normal.

But, as painful as the LORD’s anger may be, here we’re supposed to see that it’s wonderful. It means He really loves. Who loves you more parents who discipline you when you show destructive behavior or parents who are indifferent as you destroy your life?God is not indifferent to his children. God is not indifferent to your rebellion. He loves you. He’s called you to be his special, set apart people. He has delivered you from slavery. He’s not okay with you going back.

Judges is meant to bring us to the work that God had begun but would ultimately accomplished in Christ. (a pattern of redemption)

The Promised Land = Eden

Israel = Adam

Slavery = curse

Judges = saviors

The primary work ascribed to the judges is not judicial, but deliverance.

12 cycles - Israel does evil —> God allows them to be conquered —> Israel groans —> God sends a deliverer (judge)

v.16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

v. 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.

God sold his people to the gods they wanted, but He didn’t leave them enslaved. He raised up redeemers to buy them out of a self-made slavery.

You see, it’s the groanings for Christ we read in the last verse of Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” All of these redeemers were only shadows of the One to come. But, now, He has come. The price of our redemption has been paid. We have been delivered from our self-chosen slavery. Jesus has redeemed you from normal.