Sermon Tone Analysis

In 1979 a passenger jet carrying 257 people left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica and back.

Unknown to the pilots, however, there was a minor 2 degree error in the flight coordinates.

This placed the aircraft 28 miles to the east of where the pilots thought they were.

As they approached Antarctica, the pilots descended to a lower altitude to give the passengers a better look at the landscape.

Although both were experienced pilots, neither had made this particular flight before.

They had no way of knowing that the incorrect coordinates had placed them directly in the path of Mount Erebus, an active volcano that rises from the frozen landscape to a height of more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

Sadly, the plane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing everyone on board.

It was a tragedy brought on by a minor error—a matter of only a few degrees.

Experts in air navigation have a rule of thumb known as the 1 in 60 rule.

It states that for every 1 degree a plane veers off its course, it misses its target destination by 1 mile for every 60 miles you fly.

This means that the further you travel, the further you are from your destination.

If you’re off course by just one degree, after one foot, you’ll miss your target by 0.2 inches.

Trivial, right?

But…

After 100 yards, you’ll be off by 5.2 feet.

Not huge, but noticeable.After a mile, you’ll be off by 92.2 feet.

One degree is starting to make a difference.

If you veer off course by 1 degree flying around the equator, you’ll land almost 500 miles off target!

Last week we saw in Judges chapter one that the Israelites were experiencing blessing and victory in the land!

But we also noticed that little by little there were what may seem like small compromises here and there, incomplete obedience to the command of the Lord, and by the end of the chapter we had a string of statements about various tribes failing to drive out the inhabitants of the land.

As we come into chapter two, we find the fruit of those failures.

Though perhaps it might have seemed like a small issue, those small failures have led the Israelites severely off course. 1 degree off course doesn’t seem like much, but it sets the trajectory that, if left unchecked, will ultimately lead to destruction.

Here is what we are going to see today: though the people have drifted off course and are increasingly becoming like the Canaanite world around them, God’s faithfulness remains on full display.

though the people have drifted off course and are increasingly becoming like the Canaanite world around them, God’s faithfulness remains on full display.

How has God shown his faithfulness despite the Canaanization of the people?

His faithfulness is on display through his confrontation, his punishment, his deliverance, and his testings.

First,

1. God’s Faithfulness in Confrontation

Remember how chapter one ends.

Each tribe has failed to drive out the Canaanites.

They have gone off course.

They are off target.

That is the backdrop.

Let’s begin to work through our text

The angel of the Lord.

Most theologians believe that this is none other than a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.

The word “angel” might better be translated “messenger” or “envoy”.

In any case, it is clear that he speaks for Yahweh.

The messenger summarizes what God desires from his people and how they have failed: I told you, don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land.

Don’t join in with them.

This is not merely a prohibition against geopolitical alliances.

It may start there, but it eventually leads to spiritual integration.

Notice the flip side of making a covenant: Don’t make a covenant with them, instead, break down their alters.

This is a spiritual charge.

Refusal to enter into a covenant necessitates the removal of the false gods.

This is to preserve spiritual fidelity in the land.

But have the people obeyed?

No.

They did enter covenant with the people.

They failed to remove the false gods.

God says, “You have not obeyed my voice.”

It seems to me that the people have begun to walk down the Romans 1 road:

Israel has a God who parts the seas, topples walls, rains manna from heaven, brings water from a rock....and now the people want to play make believe with the false gods of the land.

Their gods don’t even talk.

But there the Israelites go.

So God says, fine.

If that’s what you want, have at it!

I won’t drive out the Canaanites any longer!

They shall be a thorn and snare for you!

Even though there will be successful battle sought in the book of Judges, it is never taking new territory.

It is always throwing off oppressors.

Even with this pronouncement of judgement, God is showing his faithfulness to the people.

The people are in sin, and so he confront them with it!

He shows them from His word the commands that they were violating.

I have spoken, says the Lord.

Here is what I have commanded you, and you have not obeyed.

Friends, being confronted with truth from God’s word is never comfortable, but it is always an expression of God’s grace.

When we are shown from the Word of God how our lives are at odds with His revealed will, that is a grace from God!

And God shows that grace to the people here.

And the people repent!

They weep!

They call the place “Bokhim” which literally means weepers.

They sacrifice to God.

This seems like a positive thing, right?

We’re back on track!

Course correction made!

Right?

Sadly, it seems as though this repentance was not genuine.

No real changes were made.

No real reforms were put into place.

The false gods were not forsaken, there was no renewal unto the Lord.

It seems that this may be what Paul described as a wordly repentance in 1 Cor 7

It seems as though the people had outward showings of repentance, but clearly their hearts were still far from the Lord.

Look at verse 6.

Now, verse six seems like a strange insertion.

Didn’t we already have a report about the death of Joshua at the end of the book of Joshua and here in Judges chapter one?

Yes.

Much of this paragraph is actually taken word for word from the end of Joshua.

So why is it here?

What the author of Judges is seeking to do is to provide a level of continuity of story by interrupting it and hearkening back to themes already present in Scripture.

He’s interrupted the flow in order to remind us of past details that bear relevance to the moment.

It’s like if someone is telling a story and gets to important details, they might break off for a moment by saying something like “I was fishing and there I was, hey you remember that one time back two years ago when we went fishing together and we caught that big fish in that one place?

It was like that, except this time....”

The narrator is tying in the history.

The people served the Lord for as long as there was a godly leader.

They saw what God had done!

They saw “the great work the Lord had done for Israel!”

But after that generation died, the next generation didn’t do well.

They did not know the Lord.

They did not see his work.