Those who know me will know that not only do I find the Old Testament fascinating as a history of the Israelites (God’s chosen people), but there are many practical lessons to learn from the ways of God’s dealings with His people that still hold good for us today.
The Book of Judges relates the history of Israel during the times of fourteen judges. It portrays a series of relapses into idolatry by God’s people, followed by invasions of the Promised Land and oppression by their enemies. It covers a period of around 400 years from the death of Joshua.
After the death of Joshua, the Israelites repeatedly fell into apostasy, which followed by oppressions as invading nations exploited them economically.
Turning to God in repentance they experienced deliverance through leaders divinely called to repulse the enemies.
The central characters are the judges who were raised up to be deliverers of Israel. The dark side of the picture is especially emphasised.
We do not know who wrote the book. Jewish tradition attributes the writing to Samuel. The fact that the Jebusites were living in Jerusalem (1:21) indicates that it was written before 1004BC when David drove them out (2 Samuel 5) and indicates it was written in Samuel’s lifetime. If not Samuel it was written by one of his contemporaries.
The book of Judges stands in stark contrast to the book of Joshua. Joshua, a godly man led a largely obedient and faithful people and conquered the land through trust in the power of God. In Judges, however, a disobedient and idolatrous people suffered defeat time and time again because of their rebellion against God. One writer has said that initially they are under the rule of God (theocracy) by the end they are under the rule of nobody (anarchy) and this leads them to desire a King (monarchy). The book shows how Israel set aside God’s law and in its place everyone did that which was right in his own eyes – the result was corruption from within and oppression from without.
The book can be divided into three periods –
Chapter 1:1 to 3:6 Events immediately after the death of Joshua. Compromise.
Chapter 3:7 to 16:31 Seven apostasies, six servitudes and civil war; history of the judges. Conquered.
Chapter 17 to chapter 21 Period of confusion and anarchy. Spiritual and moral decline. Corruption.
Spiritual Messages:
1. Human failure, Divine Mercy and Deliverance.
2. The power of prayer – real crying out to God
3. Sin unconfessed results in chastening: we cannot sin with impunity.
4. Worldly associations produce unrighteousness.
5. The fruit of our unfaithfulness tests us.
6. The Bible is our guidebook.
7. We have nothing in ourselves in which to glory.
Background.
We need to look at Exodus 34:1-28
Moses had gone up the mountain at God’s invitation to receive the Ten Commandments for the second time and God said He would write them on the tablets of stone. God renews the Covenant -And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images(for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice,and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods…. v23“Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the LORD, the LORD God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year…. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
There are some amazing statements in those verses. God said that He was going to drive the occupants out, but the Israelites must not make any allegiance with the occupants otherwise it would become a snare to them They were however to destroy the alters, break the pillars and cut down the idols, nor make marriages with their sons or daughters. Then in v 23 they were instructed that the men should appear before The LORD three times a year and that whilst the men were away God would cast out the nations.
To complete the picture, we need to consider the life of Joshua from the book with his name. The opening verses of Joshua tell us that God had given the Israelites all the land as an inheritance. It extended (1:4) from the desert in the south, from Lebanon to the River Euphrates, all the Hittite country and to the Great Sea (Mediterranean) on the west. Hittites – these were the large race of giants which the spies saw and were afraid of. God was giving them all their land and they would need to conquer giants.
It was a massive area. Sometimes we tend to think that it was simply crossing the Jordan River and going westwards to the Great (Mediterranean) Sea. It extended from the Lebanon in the North and Northwest, to the desert in the south (Negev); from the Mediterranean (Great) Sea in the west to the river Euphrates in the East and Northeast which flows into the Persian Gulf.
However, never in their history did the Israelites achieve God’s intention – they have never actually possessed all that God intended for them.
In The LORD Jesus Christ is our heavenly inheritance which God purposes for us to enjoy. Our inheritance is not part of Christ, but all of Him. All that there is in Jesus is God’s purpose for you and me. Jesus Christ in His entirety is ours, but we struggle on and are easily satisfied with but a little of all He wants to give us. One writer has said that “Before we can know what it is in fullness to possess Him; we must first be possessed by Him – Philippians 3:12 “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
Are we satisfied with less than God’s will for us? His will – none should perish, to be saved, to serve Him, to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. We can never reach a stage of Christian experience in which we exhaust all the possibilities of Life in Jesus. None of us have won every battle we have fought. As we recount our experience, we cannot help but admit that we bear the scars of many a defeat. And, sad to say, we have not fought every battle that we should have fought, for there have been many times when we have evaded the enemy and chosen the easier path. The old hymn says, ‘LORD lead me on to higher ground’. It is the experiences of defeat followed by the thrill of picking oneself up again and finding that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses, and that He is at hand, and by our side, and in our hearts to lead us on with Him – it is this that keeps us pressing toward the goal. Christ never leaves us nor forsakes us, but there is much ‘land’ yet to be possessed. It is not much good having an inheritance if you will never be able to enjoy it. 1 Peter 1:5 says, “We are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Another writer encourages us to grasp hold of that word ‘kept’. “When God says He will keep something, He means it. God’s credibility is at stake if He doesn’t. Psalm 23 says, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” His name is behind it, guarantees it. If He has the power to lead, He has the power to keep.”
The Christian life is a battle – but through Jesus Christ we have the victory. 1 Corinthians 15:57 “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory though our Lord Jesus Christ” and 2 Corinthians 2:14 “…. who always causes us to triumph”. We are on the victory side, we used to sing many years ago, but if you do not know Christ as Saviour and LORD then you are bound for defeat. It requires –
(i) Surrender
(ii) Consecration and
(iii) Appropriation – in that order.
The method of setting out to possess the land was – (a) survey it (b) apportion it among the several tribes, and (c) leave each tribe to appropriate that which was allocated to them. All the parts were listed in Joshua chapters 13-19.
In Joshua 22:4, after the battle over the occupants of Jericho and other ensuing victories, Joshua thanked them for being faithful and sent them home to the lands allocated to them. In verse 5 he advises them to be very careful to –
(i) Keep the commandments,
(ii) to love The LORD your God,
(iii) to walk in His ways,
(iv) to obey His commands,
(v) hold fast to Him,
(vi) serve Him with all their heart and soul.
In chapter 23 he encourages them to be strong and very courageous, to follow God’s ways and reminds them of all that God has done for them and warns them of the dangers of turning from Him. There will be snares, traps, thorns and whips (23:12). In the final chapter (24) before his death, Joshua gathered the elders, judges and officers of the people together and gave them a reminder of the works of God for them and through them in their history.
He sent every man to his inheritance (v28). He died (v29) and was buried (v30). In verse 31 we read, “Israel served The LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived him which had known all the works of The LORD that He had done.”
These words are repeated in Judges 2:6-9 and a very sad commentary is evident for we shall see that the people were very fickle and forgetful. Their service was only as long as their leaders lived. They had failed to carry out God’s instructions (Deuteronomy 6) because in 2:10 we read, “There arose another generation which knew not The LORD, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel.”
Are we living in a generation such as this? Are we bringing up a generation such as this? We are living in a degenerate civilisation and must do something about it. We must tell them of the love of God for fallen mankind and we must demonstrate the work of God in redemption and show that being born again really does bring about a change.
We are living in a day when even the church is failing in its task to evangelise and make disciples of all. Just what are we doing or not doing as the case may be?
Their parents and leaders of that generation failed to tell them. Woe unto us if we fail!
Little wonder, (v11,12) they forsook The LORD and worshiped false gods. Because of that God handed them over to raiders who plundered them (v14) and sold to their enemies who they were no longer able to resist. Disobedience leads to disaster (v15). They became weak – low resistance – great distress.
After a long introduction, we come to the book itself.
The Book.
We will refer again to the Spiritual Messages listed at the beginning.
1 and 2 will be obvious as we go through the book.
3. As Christians, God does not punish us for our sins, that punishment was laid on Christ at Calvary, but as His children, He chastens us. Sometimes it can be very hard, but it is always for our good. The Bible goes so far as to say that if are not chastened we are not His children at all. We cannot sin with impunity.
4. The sin of idolatry was the greatest sin of Israel during the times of the judges. Probably in their quest to be rich, they made friends with the Canaanites, who they were told to drive out. Soon they adopted their idolatrous practices. The same happens today when Christians make their associations with the world in order to better their position.
5. Chapter 3:1 tells us, “Now these are the nations which The LORD left to test Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan.” They had been commanded to drive out entirely the depraved inhabitants of Palestine, but they did not obey. God used these very nations to give His people such a hard time and so much trouble that they turned back to Him in repentance and faith. Numbers 33:55,56 reminds us “They shall be irritants in your eyes, thorns in your sides to harass you.”
6. Israel was to follow the word of God just as we are, the Bible. We must be sure that when we are talking about Jesus, we are talking about the Jesus Christ of the Bible. It has been rightly said that “Whatever anyone says or does that is contrary to the Scriptures though under the profession of the immediate guidance of The Holy Spirit, must be reckoned and accounted a mere delusion …. There can be no appeal from The Word of God to any other authority.”
Israel was, and we likewise are, dependent for guidance from the Word of God.
7.We have nothing in ourselves in which to glory. “It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says The LORD of Hosts.” Zechariah 4:6. Periodically God raised up special men and women to be judges or local leaders. Not one of them, by modern standards, was a person of unusual gift or stature. They received what power they had from God.
They illustrate 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confuse the wise, and the weak things to confound the mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, has God chosen, yes and things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh should glory in His presence.”
