Prayer: Father God, we thank you for your word, even those parts that we sometimes find difficult to understand. Guide us by your Holy Spirit as we begin this series on the book of Judges. May we keep our eyes on you and your love, your justice and mercy. Thank you for Jesus, in his name I pray. Amen.
What picture comes to mind when you think of ‘Judges”? A courtroom, funny wigs, and gowns? Someone with the authority to make legal rulings and hopefully ‘just’ decisions.
What do we think of when we consider the book of “Judges” in the bible? Possibly not a lot; how many of you have read this book? It’s not the most favourite or common book people will turn to read to be encouraged! It’s a dark time in the story of Israel, it is sometimes confusing and difficult, but it is part of the whole story, our story. It shows the frailness of humanity, turning away from God and his ways. It shows the faithfulness of God, while allowing them to suffer for a time, he always delivers them with mercy. He lovingly seeks to correct them. It’s a story that points to our need for a saviour, who comes in the form of Jesus to redeem us for all time.
There are twelve ‘judges’ in this book that God raises up to rescue his people. Don’t worry we won’t be looking at each of them! I thought a 5-week series on this book was enough. There is a repetitive pattern in the book. But it is a book worth delving into, there is a message for us. About us and about God.
There are well-known bible characters that you will have heard about from Sunday school. While many of you may not have read the book of Judges recently, you have probably heard of Deborah, Gideon, and Samson. Yes?
The judges in this book have a bit of a different and bigger role than the judges in our courtrooms.
The majority of the judges functioned as temporary warrior leaders raised up by God to get Israel out of the mess they had got themselves into. Most of these Judges were not even good role models. But God used them anyway. He was the one doing the rescuing. They were his instruments. Just like he uses us with all our imperfections. Still these judges have been remembered as heroes of faith as noted in Hebrews 11, Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, ones whose weakness was turned to strength.
The Hebrew word for judge shophet, in the context of this book, is best understood as a ‘governor’, ‘deliverer’ or ‘heroic leader’. Under God, a judge led the Israelites and delivered them from their hostile enemies.
The Hebrew word shophetim is derived from a word meaning, ‘to put right’, and so to rule, and this is what these judges did, as God enabled them.
For God himself is of course the Judge and ruler over all.
Let’s do a quick re-cap of the story of God’s people up to the time of Judges.
If you’ve been at St Luke’s for the past few years, you might remember that each year we have devoted a sermon series to journey through the Old Testament beginning of course with Genesis.
In Genesis we learn of God’s creation, man and woman being made in his image to reign over the earth. We hear how they choose to disobey God in the garden and consequently they must leave the garden of Eden. The people continue to choose to follow their own ways and desires rather than God. There is sin, immorality, idolatry. God sends a flood to start over with Noah and his family. At the end of that time, he places a rainbow in the sky as a promise to never flood the earth like that again.
God’s people continue to turn away from him. But there are some who are faithful and seek after God. God calls Abraham and Sarah. He chooses them to be the Father and Mother of a new nation, set apart to be God’s holy people. He makes a covenant and promises them many descendants and land for them to live in.
We journeyed through Genesis with the many stories of Abraham and Sarah’s offspring. Isaac, Jacob and his twelve sons. Joseph who ends up in Egypt, a chosen one God used to save the Israelites from starvation during a time of famine.
The next year we read Exodus. We heard how the Israelites had become so numerous in Egypt that Pharoah made them slaves. Again, God raised up his chosen one Moses to rescue his people from slavery.
God led Moses and his people out of Egypt towards the land he had promised to Abraham. But they were a stubborn and stiff-necked people and God punished them and they wandered the desert for 40 years. Even so, God always provided for them, giving them daily manna and water.
Moses did not get to cross into the promised land, but his successor Joshua did.
Last year we studied the book of Joshua, from the crossing of the Jordan to the walls falling in Jericho. God was their leader and warrior.
But they did not follow God’s commands to completely drive the people from the land. God knew that the people would be a thorn in the Israelites side. The other nations living in this land served other small g gods, they followed sinful, greedy desires, seeking wealth, indulging in sinful immorality, not caring for one another.
God was not merciless and those who chose to trust in him were adopted into his family. Remember Rahab who hid the spies in Jericho? She and her family were saved. Rahab is mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy in the line of King David, as is Ruth. Both women were foreigners who chose to follow God.
However, in the main, intermarriage with foreigners led to the Israelites compromising their faith and joining in the religious practices of the nations they allowed to stay in their land.
That is the situation as we come to the book of Judges.
The first chapter summarizes the taking of the land that happened in the book of Joshua and it clearly spells out that the twelve tribes of Israel did not completely drive out the nations.
At the beginning of chapter two we read that the Angel of the Lord visited them and reminded the Israelites of how the Lord had rescued them from Egypt and led them into the land promised to their ancestors. He swore to never break his covenant. However, there were conditions. We read at the beginning of Joshua that the people were to obey the law as given by Moses, not turning to the right or left. If they did this God would be with them and they would see success.
Did they obey the Lord? No, they turned away from his law and began worshipping other gods. God was angry and he is a just God. His people chose to ignore him, so he says to them “I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.”
From verse 6 of chapter 2, we have another introduction it seems, with a repeat of the words from the end of Joshua, when he dies at the age of 110.
Without their courageous and holy leader Joshua, it seems the Israelites really lost their way. When Moses died, Joshua was the appointed leader to take them into the promised land. When Joshua died, no-one was their appointed leader.
Why did God not raise up a new leader at that stage?
Maybe because they had arrived in the promised land where they were meant to be living as his holy people, with God as their leader. The plan had been that all the people had been driven out, and they would be living in peace.
But…that had not happened.
While Joshua was alive, the people served the Lord. But after his death and the elders who outlived him, we read that the next generation did not know the Lord nor follow his ways! I don’t think this means that they didn’t know him at all, for the stories of the Exodus and how God saved and led his people were passed down from generation to generation. We also know that despite those that didn’t follow the Lord, there were always some who did. The book of Ruth is written during the time of Judges, we studied this a couple of years ago. And we know from that book that there were faithful God followers like Boaz.
However, it seems there were many times when the majority of the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. (v 11-13)
I think they had head knowledge of God, but they didn’t know him in their hearts. They turned away from him. They did not remain committed to the covenant God had made with his people. They committed adultery as it were, right in front of the one true God who had brought them out of Egypt to the promised land. They chose to ignore him and worship the gods of the people on the land they had not driven out.
Why would you trade a personal, real, living God for a false god of human imagination? The Canaanite idol Baal was thought to be the god of weather and nature, the god of agricultural success. They worshipped Baal, believing they would have abundant crops and flocks and therefore personal wealth.
And Ashtoreth? Well, she was thought to be the goddess of love, sex, and fertility. Usually honoured with the practice of ritual sex with a priestess-prostitute.
You can see why the Israelites were tempted to worship Ashtoreth, they probably thought they were missing out on fulfilling some of their sexual sinful desires if they followed the God of Moses and Joshua. In its extreme forms, worship and religious practices to Ashtoreth included child sacrifice.
No wonder God’s anger was aroused!
What small gods or idols do we worship? Money, sex, power, materialism…
So, what does God say he will do? He hands them over to their enemies; he hands them over to their sinful desires.
This reminds me of the passage in Romans, written many centuries later. Listen to this from Romans chapter 1;
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
And this is still relevant today!
But in his great mercy, God does not leave us in our sin. In the dark times following Joshua’s death until the day Israel had their own King, God raised up judges to save his people. Over the next few weeks, we will delve into the stories of some of these judges. We will see how God has mercy, but sadly we will see an ongoing cycle of sin. From verse 18 we read;
18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
Sometimes we might feel that we get stuck in a cycle of living for God, then turning away, then turning back and repenting, being forgiven, then turning away and putting worldly idols first, then repenting, being forgiven and so on.
The good news is, that God sent Jesus to be the judge to break the cycle of sin and death. He is the only leader who can rescue us from judgement and guarantee God’s mercy. At the end of Judges 2, God says he will use the nations to test Israel to see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.
The Israelites did not pass the test, though God continually showed mercy.
But in sending Jesus, we do not have to pass a test. Jesus passed the test for us, and we just need to put our faith and trust in him. Jesus listened to and obeyed God in his life and in his death and God then raised him from the dead. Jesus lives forever and is the eternal leader who reigns in peace and with justice.
Will we turn from worthless idols and follow him alone? One day he will return to judge the living and the dead. Those who choose Jesus are shown mercy and will reign with him in God’s kingdom forever.
Let’s pray: Thank you, God, for sending Jesus. Forgive us when we turn away and follow our own selfish desires and worldly idols. Help us to walk in your ways and shine your light in the world. Amen.