Hope in the Chaos, Judges

Quickly I’d like to give a little information about the book of judges. The book of Judges takes place after the death of Joshua (early 1300’s BC) and continues until Saul was crowned king of Israel in 1051 BC. Approximately 300 years.

Judge =’s military leader, defender, or deliverer. This is not like the judges of our modern society. The men and women referred to as judges were raised up by the Lord to deliver His people and defend His name.

The book of Judges is likely not in complete chronological order. What I mean by that is the end of the book, Judges 17-21 provide an overview of the culture in the days of the Judges. The days of the judges were filled with a progressive moral decline and the continued rebellion and repentance of Israel. In fact, you could say that Judges reveals a cycle of rebellion, repentance, and deliverance in the nation of Israel.

As Chuck Swindoll points out, "The pattern of behavior in the book of Judges is clear: the people rebelled through idolatry and disbelief, God brought judgment through foreign oppression, God raised up a deliverer—or judge, and the people repented and turned back to God. When the people fell back into sin, the cycle started over again.”

This cycle of Israel’s rebellion and God’s continued deliverance undergirds our main point for the message today…

No matter how dark or chaotic things get, there is hope.

The book of Judges is filled with some of the most gruesome and disturbing images in all of the Bible. The 300 years of Israel’s history that is contained in this book are terrible and awful. Israel spirals morally and progressively declines in its commitment to the Lord from one generation to the next.

Even though God has given them explicit instructions to be faithful to Him and pass faithfulness down from one generation to another… they fail at it over and over again. The book of Judges is a perfect test case for the depravity of man.

The book of Judges proves that you can give someone everything they have ever wanted and more, but it will never be enough. Judges demonstrates the truthfulness of our sin nature and presents the consequences of Adam’s fall. Israel has been led into the Promised Land by God. He has given all of the land to them and promised to drive out their enemies if they stay faithful.

But, with the presence of God in their midst and the Promised Land surrounding them Israel turns from God, intermingles the religion of their enemies with the Word of God, and defies God with rebellion against His ways over and over again. What other explanation for their rebellion is there than the reality of sin?

But, the point of the book of Judges is to aim our hope heavenward by showing us how far from God Israel rebelled.

Through the book of Judges Israel’s rebellion is progressively worse, but each time the Lord sends them a deliverer or a judge to free them from their consequences and point them back to the Lord.

When our sin is dark, when we are surrounded by the chaos of a culture that rebels against God we are reminded in Scripture that there is hope. Our hope is not found in the people around us, our hope is not based on our ability to overcome our situation and do enough good to make things better for ourselves and others. Our hope is found in the promises of God to deliver mankind from the clutches of sin and give us life by the power of His mighty hand.

One of the most prominent markers of a dark and chaotic culture is seen in Judges and experienced today. We find in the book of Judges,

When everyone is right, morality has been lost.

I say this seen in Judges and experienced today because our culture is very similar to the one that is described in this book.

One of the major themes of the book of Judges is that everyone did what was right in his or own eyes. It is repeated a few times in the book. The first time it is mentioned is Judges 2:11 (CSB) which says, “The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.” Or as it is written later in Judges 17:6 (CSB), “6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.”

We will look a little later at the significance that there was no king in Israel. But, first I want to point out that the book of Judges is most likely written in a few sections. The first few chapters of Judges present the situation at hand.

In Judges 1-2 we see the failure of Israel to follow through with God’s commands. As the angel of the Lord tells the Israelites in Judges 2:1–4 (CSB), “The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land I had promised to your ancestors. I also said: I will never break my covenant with you. 2 You are not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You are to tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed me. What have you done? 3 Therefore, I now say: I will not drive out these people before you. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you.” 4 When the angel of the Lord had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly.”

The Israelites had chosen to defy the Lord by letting the idols and religious ways of the nations they were conquering to continue. The end result of intermingling religion and morality was that the people of God moved from doing what was wrong in the eyes of the Lord to doing what was right in their own eyes.

As long as they were measuring themselves against what God had said there was some moral compass or foundation. When God’s Word serves as the standard or plumb line that we are judged against then there is still a right and wrong.

But, when they moved away from the idea of wrong in relation to what God said they lost their compass and foundation for morality. The only way that everyone can be right in his or her own eyes is for no one to be wrong in relation to an absolute truth or foundation.

As a nation Israel progressed from bad to worse. In fact, the last line of the book of Judges is Judges 21:25 (CSB), “25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.”

The book doesn’t end with a portrait of great people who love the Lord and live faithful to Him. The book doesn’t give us a happy finish that justifies God’s commitment to Israel. The book doesn’t end with all the good things Israel did to deserve God’s deliverance then, or in the future. No, the book of Judges ends with God still keeping His covenant and Israel in the generational and individual cycle of rebellion, consequence, deliverance, repentance, and renewal.

The depravity or sinfulness of Israel helps us to see the truth that…

God doesn’t save and deliver the good people; God saves and delivers because He is good,

When we get to the end of the book of Judges things are as bleak as they have ever been. Israel is a dumpster fire of defilement and defiance. Like we mentioned earlier, the book ends with the declaration, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what whatever seemed right to him.”

So why then does God send all of these deliverers to Israel? And by these delivers I mean:

Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair. Jepthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and Samson.

Over the course of 300 years God delivered His people through these 12 leaders. And the reason God delivered His people was because He is good.

The Israelites were not good people. Judges 2:16-17 says, “16 The Lord raised up judges, who saved them from the power of their marauders, 17 but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods, bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. They did not do as their ancestors did.”

This means that the Israelites consistently rebelled against the same God who had delivered them.

The reason God doesn’t save and deliver the good people is because there aren’t any people who meet that definition.

Romans 3:23–24 (CSB)says, “23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Every single human being falls short of being good when compared to God. As a result there are no good people for God to save… but God saves! Why?

Romans 3:24 says that sinners are “justified freely by the grace of God through the redemption that is found in Jesus Christ” And the basis for the redeeming and delivering power of God is his commitment, character, mercy, and grace.

Judges 2:18 (CSB) says, “18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, the Lord was with him and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. The Lord was moved to pity whenever they groaned because of those who were oppressing and afflicting them.”

God delivered Israel because of His compassion and covenant with them, not because of their good works. Israel was not better than those around them, but they were called to bear the good and holy image of God to the nations that neighbored around them. It was the loss of God’s glory in their midst through their idolatry and sin that resulted in discipline, and it was God’s grace that fueled their deliverance when they cried out to the Lord in repentance.

The same is true for us today… God delivers sinners and saves them because He is good. The love that we have for Him is the result of His love for us. God has gone so far as to demonstrate His love for us through Christ on the cross. God has secured our forgiveness and purchased our lives through the cross, tomb, and resurrection.

God made a covenant and promise to deliver His people and to rule them with a king, and Jesus is that that savior and ruler that was promised as far back as Deuteronomy.

I mentioned earlier that we would come back to the first part of Judges 17:6 (CSB), it says, “6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.”

The book of Judges mentions that there was no king in Israel because they people of God were looking for the fulfillment of God’s promise that they would have a king. You see…

God promised a King who would be faithful and true; and we know that King is Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy 17:14–20 (CSB) says,

14 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, take possession of it, live in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,’ 15 you are to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. Appoint a king from your brothers. You are not to set a foreigner over you, or one who is not of your people. 16 However, he must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire many horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’ 17 He must not acquire many wives for himself so that his heart won’t go astray. He must not acquire very large amounts of silver and gold for himself. 18 When he is seated on his royal throne, he is to write a copy of this instruction for himself on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to observe all the words of this instruction, and to do these statutes. 20 Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, he will not turn from this command to the right or the left, and he and his sons will continue reigning many years in Israel.

God promised them a king, but during the 300 years after Joshua they didn’t have one. They are about to get one at the end of this book, but they don’t have one yet. And, the purpose for the king God will give them is so that the people of God will be faithful to the Lord and not to their own sinful and fleshly desires. This is why the King is described as being one who will learn to fear His God, and who will observe all the words of this instruction… the reason is so that he will lead the people of Israel to do what is right in the eyes of God.

God’s plan is for His king to lead them away from what is right in their own eyes, to understanding what is wrong in the eyes of the Lord, and then to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

As we move from this book into the next era of Israel’s history they receive kings. They had Saul, David, Solomon, and many others. But, none of the kings fully measure up to the promises God made. Each of the kings, just like each of the judges points us forward to Jesus Christ.

Jesus is our deliver and He is our King. Because of Jesus we can say

No matter how dark or chaotic things get, there is hope.

There is hope because God is the hero

It would be easy to read through Judges and focus on the flaws and failures of the leaders and the people of Israel. I don’t think we should shy away from the truly deplorable behavior and sin of the people of God and most of the Judges.

But, the point of Judges is for us to find our hope in God and not in man. God is so good and God is so powerful that He can deliver us no matter how broken and sinful we are. In fact, God uses broken and sinful people to crucify Jesus for the forgiveness of their sin and our sins. That’s how powerful and good God is. He saves sinners through the unjust and undeserved death of his holy and righteous son.

Remember that when everyone is right morality is lost.

Another way to say this is that unchecked sin progressively leads to a culture of death and chaos.

In our culture where the individual is allowed to define or redefine everything from morality to biology we must admit that the moral compass of our society is lost.

The foundation of generations past has been lost and the only way forward to a future with morality is to rebuild what has been torn down.

The moral foundation of our country is eroding if not eroded all together. But, this doesn’t have to be true for the church and it doesn’t have to be the future of our country. But, there will be no moral foundation in our country if there is not a vibrant and healthy church. And there won’t be a vibrant and healthy church if there aren’t vibrant and spiritually maturing members in the church.

This leads me to a closing thought…

Strive for faithfulness to God and know that He will continue to be faithful and true to you.

Israel was called to be strong and courageous in the name of the Lord. According to the book of Joshua to be strong and courageous is to be faithful to the Lord.

The Israelites got into trouble with the Lord when they lost their personal faithfulness to God. The fought the battles he gave them, but they weren’t faithful to Him in all the ways He commanded them.

They left idols, tolerated other religions, intermarried with the inhabitants of the land, etc.

Too many people today think that if they do the public things for the Lord then they are being faithful.

Striving for faithfulness means being a godly man or woman, marriage, child, parent, friend, neighbor, co-worker, boss, employee, etc.

Being strong and courageous is not just about speaking up and speaking out on behalf of the Lord. It is also, and maybe even more about killing the idols of your heart and life and striving to be godly in your actions and obedience to the Lord.

Being faithful is hanging on to the truth that…

No matter how dark or chaotic things get, there is hope.

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