Sermon Transcript:

I think every American should visit the battlefield at Gettysburg at least once in their life.You can just go up there and drive around looking at the various monuments and plaques but what you will soon realize is that the battlefield is massive and you will not be able to comprehend the overall battle from any one part of it. So, I always tell people before they do anything else, to go to the visitors center. They have diagrams and models that help you understand the overall picture and once you have that, you will get far more out of your time on the actual battlefield.

The book of judges is a bit like that. Last week, we looked at chapter 1 which is the history from the perspective of the people. There were lots of place names and geography and the like. This week we will look at chapter 2 which is essentially God’s interpretation of that history. It is like the visitor center for the book. The key point I hope you see today is,

Faithfulness is demonstrated not by past professions, but through continued devotion. 

And the devotion and faithfulness that is most clearly displayed is God’s. He is the hero of this chapter and the book. Salvation comes not from the devotion of people to God, but God’s devotion to his promise to save them. In contrast, the chapter presents us with the unfaithfulness of Israel. Our material is divided into 4 main parts dealing with Israel’s unfaithfulness.

1. The roots of unfaithfulness 2:6-10
2. The reality of unfaithfulness 2:11-13
3. The results of unfaithfulness 2:14-23
4. The revealing of unfaithfulness 3:1-6

We will begin at verse 6 with the roots of Israel’s unfaithfulness.

6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land.

At this point, the narrator goes back to the beginning and covers the story from a different perspective. As we saw last time, they start out pretty well. Although the conquest wasn’t complete, it was moving forward. Verse 7 says,

7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.

Under the leadership of Joshua and those original elders the people served the lord. You will recall, this didn’t mean they were perfect, but they continued to worship Yahweh and did not serve the gods of Canaan. But eventually, Joshua and those early leaders died. 

8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. 9 And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. …

These were faithful men. Joshua is called the servant of the Lord, which is a title only given in the bible to a few men, such as Moses and David. By God’s grace, they led the people well. Remember last week, that the people wept and sacrificed when God confronted them. But that repentance apparently did not last long because verse 10 continues,

And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. 

The next generation did not know the lord. This doesn’t mean that they did not know about the lord but the gap between knowing about the lord and knowing the lord is as large as the gap between heaven and hell. They were unconverted. Whatever they saw of the worship of God never penetrated their hearts.

Verse 7 says that the earlier generation had seen all the work the lord had done. They experienced a relationship with God that this next generation did not. They didn’t know the work he had done. They may have heard the stories but it didn’t mean anything to them. It did not define them.

It is rightfully said God has no grandchildren. You cannot inherit salvation. Our children need to know the work of God in their heart. They need to be converted. It is our responsibility to tell them of God’s mighty works and his promises and to pray the Holy Spirit would draw them to saving faith and living union with God through Jesus Christ. Our first mission field is our children. 

But there arose another generation after them that did not know the lord and that brings us to the reality of her unfaithfulness.

11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 And 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. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 

The people did not know God so they did what was evil in his sight, meaning they served other Gods. They abandoned the lord. Now that probably doesn’t mean they abandoned all the outward forms of Yahweh worship but they did not worship him as the one true God. In order to turn toward a false God, you have to turn away from the true God. You can’t have both because one is true and the other is a lie.

In worshiping what is false, the people deny what is true. Rather than being a holy people they became a compromised people through their idolatry. Last week, we talked about Molech and the child sacrifices but there were many Canaanite deities and two of the major ones were Baal and Ashteroth which are mentioned here. Both of these were widely worshiped in the ancient near east in various forms and under various names. 

Baal was a storm god associated with rain, earth, and fertility. In an agricultural society good weather and abundant crops and flocks are directly connected to wealth and personal abundance. 

Ashtoreth was a fierce warrior goddess associated with sex and fertility. It was thought that the seasons of renewal in the land were the result of the sexual union of these two gods and she was worshiped, in part, by engaging in sexual acts with cult prostitutes. 

Essentially, the attraction in the idolatry of these Canaanites was the worship of wealth, sex, and power. It is easy to look upon these ancient people as crude and primitive. Their morality was not shaped by thousands of years of Christian influence and they lack modern conveniences. They are raw and shockingly unrefined. But although they are packaged differently, they worshiped the same idols that enslave the world now.

The thought of any mother offering her children in the flames of Molech, seeking divine protection and blessings, fills us with horror. Yet, in our own nation, 60 million unborn babies have been sacrificed for the self-interest of their parents. We are insulated from the horror of the process by clinical procedures but these infants, unseen and unheard, meet a brutal end just the same.

The world has allowed the fires of Baal's altars to go out, but are still ensnared by the same desires for wealth and prosperity that once fueled those flames. The temples of Ashtoreth may have crumbled, but the world still offers time, treasure, body, and soul in the ceaseless worship of pleasure.

What does it mean when the echoes of ancient rites resound so clearly in our contemporary experience? It shows us that the human heart has not changed. It shows us that though we may become more sophisticated in the packaging of our sin, the ugliness of our fallen hearts remains the same.

When we get down to it the world and the desires of the flesh now are not any different from what they were then. It is right that we are disgusted by the depravity of the Canaanites, but we should be disgusted not only by their depravity but by how much we are like them. The Hebrews were supposed to be a holy people, set apart from the sin of the Canaanites, but they forgot God and became indistinguishable from the nations around them.

As believers, we have been called out of the world, redeemed by God and set apart for his glory. We are to be separate and distinct from the world, a holy people. I trust none of us would ever enter the temple of a false god or offer sacrifices to demons. 

But friends, that is what we do when we pursue the sinful desires of the flesh. When we engage in deceit and cruelty for financial gain and enthusiastically endorse godlessness in the pursuit of prosperity we enter into the temple of a false god. When we give ourselves to pornography and promiscuity in the pursuit of pleasure, we offer worship to an idol. We have to be careful that our pride and arrogance does not lead us to think we are by nature any more godly than the Canaanites.

There is a danger as Christians that when we read the Bible that we put ourselves into every story on the side of the good guys when the point is often that we are often more like the bad guys. We are the ones who need to be warned and reminded about the consequences of forgetting god and turning to idols because apart from the grace of god we are just like them. 

They forgot their God and the reality of that unfaithfulness had consequences. We have looked at the roots and the reality of Israel’s unfaithfulness and now we come to the results of their unfaithfulness.

14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. 

If the people were faithful, God promised to fight for them. Since they were unfaithful, God is now using those same Canaanites to discipline them. We see God’s sovereign power in how he is dealing with these nations. It says God gave them over to plunderers, God sold them into the hand of their enemies. God was against them.

It is important to understand this doesn’t mean God somehow changed his mind. God’s response is the result of his unrelenting commitment to keep his word. Notice it says “as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them.” God’s anger comes not from unfaithfulness to his promise, but the exact opposite. When it says that he is against them for harm that is not because God has changed but because their faithlessness put them in a different relationship to him, which he had warned them about.

Think of it like this. Suppose you have a group of people outside at night time near a light post. That light pole is immovable. It is strong and stationary. But although the pole never moves, the people do move around. When they close, they receive more light and as they move away they move increasingly into darkness. The relationship of the light to the people changes although the light is immovable. God didn’t move, but the people did. 

We have a foreshadow of this back in Joshua 5:13–14 which says,

13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. …

If we read the whole story you will see that this commander is divine because Joshua worships him and the ground on which he stands is holy ground. When Joshua meets him he asks him, “are you for us, or for our adversaries?” The answer is that he is for God. We want God to be on our side, but the important question to ask is, are we on God’s side? 

There are consequences for the people’s failure to keep the covenant but God does not abandon them. He continues to pursue them, but now he is pursuing them in discipline. His affliction of them is not intended for their destruction, but for their repentance. That is who he is. This shows us something remarkable about his grace. Look at verse 16.

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

Knowing what these people have done in rejecting God, we should find this astonishing. When we highlight the main clauses in the flow of this passage we have a startling sequence. Look at this…

14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. …

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

With these two statements the Holy Spirit is pointing us to a magnificent truth about the character of God and it is a truth that lies at the heart of the gospel itself. Theologian R.C. Sproul observed,

The grand paradox or supreme irony of the Christian faith is that we are saved both by God and from God.

We read in Judges that the one who gave them into the hand of plunderers is the one that saves them from the hand of their plunderers. The hand that was against them is the hand that delivers them. We naturally expect there to be something in between to bridge these truths. We expect it to say something like, God judged them, then they abandoned their idolatry and returned to God, and THEN he delivered them. But that isn’t what it says. 

We are not saved because of our obedience, but because of the perfect obedience of Jesus. The just and holy God who rightly casts us down in judgment is the same God that stoops to lift us up. Not because we are faithful, but because he is merciful. Even as believers, we are tempted to read the Bible as though the salvation of God is a reward for obedience but in the Bible God's grace always precedes the obedience of the sinner. In every case, God acts first.

Even in the midst of Israel's disobedience, God raises up judges to deliver them because he is compassionate. Even when his judgment brings us to our knees, it is not to destroy us but to save us. The groaning of his people in judges wasn’t the groaning of repentance but of misery. This isn’t God responding to their faithfulness, it is God pouring out his abundant mercy.  

These judges and the temporary salvation they bring ultimately point us to Jesus, the ultimate and final deliverer that God sends to rescue fallen people. As with them, grace precedes obedience and mercy precedes repentance. The apostle Paul says in Romans 5:8,

8 … God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Friends, had God not promised a savior nobody would have been looking for one. Jesus did not come to reward those who were good, but to rescue those who were evil from hell. If Jesus did not come no person would be saved from God’s righteous wrath. But in an act of amazing grace and incredible love, God sent his only beloved son to give his life to rescue sinners.

Jesus lived a perfect life and then he died as a sacrifice for the sin of everyone who will ever put their faith in him. He was tortured and killed, hung on a cross, and then three days later, he rose again, proving that the price was paid in full. We cannot add anything to that and we cannot do anything to deserve it. All we can do is trust that it is enough and accept it by faith. 

The salvation God brought through the judges was only outward and temporary. Verse 17 says,

17 Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. 

But the salvation God offers through Jesus is complete, eternal, and built on better promises. Jeremiah 31:31–33 says,

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jesus is able to do what Moses could never do. Not only does he reveal all that God requires, he accomplishes it and his Spirit applies it to us. Speaking of Jesus, Ephesians 1:13–14 says,

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Believers, let us lift our hearts in worship to our glorious and merciful God who is mighty to save! This chapter shows us over and over the gracious and compassionate character of God. Verse 18 tells us,

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. 

It was the goodness of God that gave these sinful people rest. The lord was moved to pity by their groaning. It was the groaning of anguish rather than the groaning of lasting repentance.

19 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. 20 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,

We should marvel and be grateful for the patience of God! Repeatedly God delivers them but they do not turn to him. Instead, after the death of each judge they renew their passion for worshiping false gods. If this were you or I we would probably wipe them out after a couple of times. Verse 20 says the anger of God was kindled against them. We would not be shocked if verse said “and they were utterly destroyed.” but that isn’t what happens.

Rather than obliterate them, God is patient and inflicts a light judgment. He doesn’t abandon them but he will not drive out the Canaanites for them. He gives them yet more opportunities to repent and show that they will serve him. Verse 22 says he leaves the Canaanites in place,

22 in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.”

This is more grace. Rather than pour out the fullness of wrath to punish them, his motive is to give them an opportunity to respond in faith. Each generation had the opportunity to return and be obedient to the command their fathers failed to keep.

 23 So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua. 1 Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. 2 It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. 3 These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.

God tested them and the result was that they too failed. 

4 They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.

A moment ago I said that we should look at this and be grateful for the patience of God. The reason is that the patience of God to these sinners was not only mercy to them, but to us sinners too. 

God promised Adam and Eve just after the fall that he would provide through her line a savior. That promise came to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that through them God would restore his kingdom and bless the world. The promise then came to Moses emphasizing that the new nation of Israel, brought out of Egypt by the power of God were God’s chosen people who were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for the benefit of all humanity and that through them would come the Messiah, who would be savior and king of the whole world.

Israel stumbles, but God continues to work out his plan of salvation. The promise then comes to David who is told that the Messiah would come from his household and rule in righteousness forever. Psalmists and prophets continued to appeal to the promise God had made to bring salvation, calling the people back to the Lord. It is this promise that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and to which the entire New Testament bears witness. That God freely offers salvation not as a reward, but everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ.

When we read this chapter we come to understand the utter devotion of God to his word. When we focus upon the people, we wonder what is going to happen but when we focus on God, we know. He keeps his promises. The entire history of sinful humanity is a testament to the unspeakable mercy of the grace of God. Satan and his demons did everything they could to cut off this line of promise, but God kept his word. He always does.

If you put your faith in Jesus, he will keep his promise to you too. If you have not yet accepted Jesus Christ, this same promise is offered to you now. Please see me if you would like to know more about that.

I would like to finish this morning with the words or the apostle Paul as he reflects on these truths of God’s grace and faithfulness in 1 Timothy 1:15–17,

15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.