Day 90: Judges 3-5

Welcome to five minute Bible your daily guide for your daily reading today is

March the 31st and we'll be looking at Judges 3 through 5 Now yesterday we saw how compromise begins today

We're gonna watch what that compromise actually produces Judges 3 through 5 is where the pattern introduced in chapter 2 finally comes alive and not just as a theory

But as history not as warning but as a lived reality and in that way Israel turns from the

Lord and they're handed over to their enemies and they cry out in Distress and then God raises up a deliverer and at first glance

It looks like a system that works sin oppression rescue repeat But as we move through these chapters a deeper question begins to emerge.

Is it actually working or is something fundamentally broken? Judges 3 opens by explaining why the nations remain in the land and it's not an accident

They're tests. They're there to reveal what is really in the heart of Israel They're an

MRI machine to see what's inside of them And the result is immediate the people forget the

Lord They serve other gods and they're handed over to oppression. And then what does God do? He raises up a judge named off nail and through him comes deliverance and then the land has rest and Shalom But that rest doesn't last because the people fall again this time

They fall under Moab. So God raises up another judge He who'd an unlikely deliverer who strikes down the mighty king egg lawn and brings another season of peace

But again, it doesn't last in judges 4 & 5 the scale Increases Israel is crushed under Jabin and Sisera and God raises up Deborah and Barak and the battle is won and not by human strength but by divine

Intervention Sisera even falls in an unexpected and humbling way having a tent peg

Drilled through his skull by a woman and the victory is celebrated with song

Now these are three deliverances three rescues and three seasons of peace and yet there's no lasting change

What we see is not progress. It's repetition and in that way as you read these chapters today

I want you to ask the following question if God keeps delivering his people Then why do they keep returning to the same sin?

Judges 3 through 5 forces us to wrestle with this reality that external rescue does not produce

Internal transformation the pattern here is not just a cycle of sin and grace, but it's the cycle that doesn't fix itself

Israel sins and God gives them over and they cry out and God delivers them then they return again and again and at first That might look like it's just God being merciful on repeat

But as it continues it begins to feel like something deeper that there's a human

Inability here to follow God that the problem is not just that Israel lacks opportunity to change they're given

Deliverance again and again, but the problem is that nothing inside of them is changing because it can't

Because peace doesn't produce faithfulness. It produces forgetfulness Pain doesn't produce lasting repentance.

It produces temporary Desperation and even the judges themselves can't solve this off Neal brings rest

But only for a time he who brings victory but not transformation Deborah needs triumph, but not renewal the deliveries are real

The victories are real the peace is real But the change is not and that is the tension that's pressing through these chapters if every rescue leads back to rebellion

Then rescue alone is not enough and that is exactly where the book of Judges Begins to aim our eyes beyond itself

The problem is no longer just enemies in the land The problem is a people who can't remain faithful even after they've been delivered and that means that the solution

Cannot be another temporary judge must be the kind of deliverer that will set them free forever

And that kind of deliverer comes in Jesus Christ. He doesn't simply rescue his people from external oppression

He goes after the root of it sin death the enslaving power that is fueling the cycle in the first place

Where the judges bring temporary relief Christ brings decisive victory where the judges interrupt the cycle

Christ Breaks the cycle and even more than that. He does what the judges could never do

He transforms the heart of the people so that they get out of the cycle and so that they follow him

He establishes a new covenant not one written on stone But one written within the hearts of men and he gives us his spirit not to manage behavior for a moment

But to renew the person from the inside out what judges exposes as the endless loop of total depravity

Christ resolves as a finished work on the cross that will begin and will continue until it reshapes the world

Not a cycle that spins in place, but a kingdom that moves ever onward and ever forward

So as you read judges three through five today I want you to watch exactly how the cycle resets and how little actually changes and tomorrow

We're going to see that cycle not only continue But it's going to intensify as both the sin and the deliverance begin to grow darker and even more complex

And with that read your bible carefully devotionally and joyfully And may the lord use his word to sanctify you completely and we will continue our journey tomorrow.