Judges 2 Bible Study / Podcast

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The story of Joshua's death & Israel's disobedience -Recorded live on radio 97.3FM WLPV out of Greenfield Massachusetts

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So this is a Bible study. I realize being on the radio and Internet some people will be listening while they're driving or Listening while they're doing other things but Let me encourage you if you're just sitting there listening if you can
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It is helpful to have a open Bible and maybe a notebook or a piece of paper with a pen to take notes
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Read along compare what is being said to what the Bible says and this is important for several reasons number one
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It just helps your mind to stay engaged It helps you to pay attention number one number two.
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It helps us To be reminded that God's Word is the authority
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God's Word is the authority, you know There's a lot of modern teachers that can speak for 30 minutes to an hour and never open the
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Bible once Maybe they make passing reference to it here and there
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But I've noticed oftentimes, you know people and this is the temptation for any
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Preacher I suppose to talk about what you want to talk about and then you find a verse or two to support what you want to say
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But as a pastor, I want this program To be one where people receive teaching from God's Word.
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I Figure if I'm teaching chapter by chapter Through the Bible then at least
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I'm accomplishing something. So with that said Let's begin by going through all 23 verses of the book of Judges chapter 2 then the angel of the
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Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokim and Said I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which
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I swore to your father's and I said I Will never break my covenant with you
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And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land You shall tear down their altars
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But you have not obeyed my voice Why have you done this
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Therefore I also said I will not drive them out before you
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They shall be thorns in your side their guts Shall be a snare to you
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So it was when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel That the people lifted up their voices and wept then they called the name of that place
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Bokim and they sacrificed there to the Lord and When Joshua had dismissed the people the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land
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So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived
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Joshua Who had seen all the great works of the Lord which he had done for Israel?
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Now Joshua the son of Nun the servant of the Lord died when he was 110 years old and They buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres in the mountains of Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gash When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers
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Another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the
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Lord and served the Baals and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and They followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them
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And they bowed down to them and they provoked the Lord to anger They forsook the
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Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreth and The anger of the
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Lord was hot against Israel So he delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them
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And he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer stand before their enemies
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Wherever they went out the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity as the
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Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn to them and They were greatly distressed
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Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them
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Yet they would not listen to their judges But they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down to them
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They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the
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Lord They did not do so and when the
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Lord raised up judges for them. The Lord was with the judge and Delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge
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For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them and It came to pass when the judge was dead
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That they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers By following other gods to serve them and bow down to them
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They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way
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Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel Because this nation has transgressed my covenant which
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I commanded their fathers and Has not heeded my voice. I Also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which
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Joshua left when he died So that through them I May test
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Israel whether they will keep the ways of the Lord to walk in them as their fathers kept them or not
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Therefore the Lord left those nations without driving them out immediately
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Nor did he deliver them into the hand of Joshua? Okay, so one
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Significant event we see in this chapter is the death of Joshua So if you've been following along you can see that sometimes the
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Bible does not flow in chronological order Joshua's death was recorded in the 24th chapter of the book of Joshua and last week if you remember when we started judges chapter 1 in verse 1 it began
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With talking about now after the death of Joshua it came to pass so whoever wrote the book of Judges, they're jumping around a little bit because in chapter 1
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Joshua's dead and now in Chapter 2 it's he's alive and it records his death.
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So this is normal, you know when we tell a story we might In order to make a point we might flash back to a former time or jump ahead and give details and then
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Come back. And of course the Bible Is in that way like many other books many other stories
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It's chronological to a large degree. I mean it starts with Genesis and ends with Revelation But things here's the point things are not always in Chronological order and we see that here in judges chapter 1 and then in chapter 2
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So whether it's the Old Testament books and how they're listed or when we read through the books like we're doing here
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It's helpful to keep this in mind so the Bible is generally Chronological but not always so Joshua's death is recorded here in judges chapter 2 and this kind of marks the end of an era and Then it will be in the next chapter chapter 3 that we get into the ministry of the first judge
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Who is a man named Othniel? So Joshua leads the people into the promised land
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They are commanded to drive out the Canaanites But like we talked about last week they fail in doing this
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So the Lord asked the Israelites in verse 2. Why? Have you done this?
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And what's he saying? Why you know, why haven't you done this? Why haven't you done what I told you to do?
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Why have you disobeyed and then verse 11 It says that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the
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Lord and served the Bales Which Bale is false god of the
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Canaanites then verse 14? Tells us the result of the children of Israel serving the
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Bales When the Israelites worshipped false gods Verse 14 says then the anger of the
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Lord was hot against Israel so he delivered them into the hands of the plunderers or into the hands of their enemies and then verse 16 nevertheless the
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Lord raised up judges who Delivered them. So we're basically getting something like an outline of what to expect going forward
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There is this transition That is happening from the book of Joshua to the book of Judges This is how it's going to go
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Israel went through a very wonderful time where they walked by faith in the book of Joshua, but once Joshua dies things change now
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Israel disobeys the Lord The Lord will punish them they cry out for mercy God sends a judge to deliver them and then once peace is restored after a generation
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Passes or that generation's gone the next generation comes and they forget all about God.
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They slide back into their old Ways and the cycle just repeats over and over and over again so chapter 1 of judges
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Advances the narrative from the book of Joshua I'm using the
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New King James version of the Bible and chapter 1 of Joshua Chapter 1 is titled the continuing conquest of Canaan.
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So that's what we looked at last time. It was kind of a continuation Advancing the narrative and the story
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The continuing conquest of Canaan, which is what Joshua was about. So that's The way the book of Judges begins
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But once Joshua dies Now you're transitioning into a new period and we mentioned last time how
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Israel was successful in taking the land Under Joshua's leadership. They did what was right in the sight of the
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Lord. They possessed the land They walked by faith, but remember it was up to each individual tribe to complete the task
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So they drove out the Canaanites to a large degree But each individual tribe once they received their land they had to drive out the remaining stragglers
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Which they ultimately failed in doing that and the people they left
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That stayed in the land. They influenced the Israelites and the the Israelites fell back into this pattern of disobedience
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So now in chapter 2 We see Joshua's death is acknowledged the
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Lord recognizes their failure and how this is a violation of the Covenant You know, it's like we made an agreement
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This is what God is saying to the children of Israel. We made a we made a covenant We made an agreement and you broke it
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God basically says to them I am faithful He says I always keep my covenant.
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I always keep my promises. I always keep my word and isn't that true? God always keeps his word, but you don't
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That's what the Lord is saying to the nation, so let's go through these verses Joshua chapter 2 verse 1 then the angel of the
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Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokom and said I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land
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Which I swore to your fathers remember back in start Starting in Genesis 12
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God made the promise to Abraham and then gave more details and as time went on So God swore he made a promise
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He made a covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob to give them their descendants the land
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Which he did so I the land that I swore to your fathers and then
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God says in Joshua chapter 2 verse when he says I will never Break my covenant with you
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So what do we learn God is faithful? The Lord always keeps his promises, you know when we say that God Is faithful it's not just something we repeat.
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This is one of the major themes of the Bible God is faithful but mankind isn't and Mankind when he cries out to God then
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God is merciful another theme in the scripture So God always keeps his promises now in verse 1.
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It says that the angel of the Lord came up So who is?
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This angel of the Lord because it's the angel of the Lord who's speaking So it's important to understand that the angel or the messenger of the
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Lord that's what the term Angel means Malik in Hebrew and then Angelos in Greek.
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It just means messenger so sometimes an angel is like a an angel we would think of a heavenly being with You know may or may not have wings they when they appeared to men on earth
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They didn't have wings but in heaven some of the angels the cherubim the seraphim have wings. So there's that type of angel
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Sometimes though an angel is just a man Sometimes he's a heavenly being
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Appearing as a man, but sometimes in the Bible an angel is just a messenger So that's what the term angel means.
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It means messenger. So who's the angel of the Lord? Well, we could call him the messenger of the
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Lord And it doesn't mention him by name. It doesn't say it was
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Gabriel. It doesn't say it was the archangel Michael Instead we see it's the angel or we might say the angel of the
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Lord and Here's something important very important to understand the angel of the
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Lord in the Old Testament Is the pre incarnate? Christ Commentator Matthew Henry writes this it was the great angel of the covenant
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Or remember in other words the great messenger of the covenant The Word the
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Son of God Who spake with divine authority as Jehovah himself and now called them to account for their?
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Disobedience, so the angel of the Lord here that comes up from Gilgal. I Believe he's appearing as a man talk about that more in a moment
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But this is Jesus Christ before he became incarnate at Bethlehem, so that's the first thing we need to get straight.
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This is the pre incarnate Christ Who appears in the Old Testament as the messenger of the
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Lord? So this is one of three appearances of Christ in the book of Judges These are often referred to as either a theophany or a
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Christophany that is a manifestation of God in the Old Testament The Lord also appeared to Gideon in chapter 6 verses 11 through 18 and then to the parents of Samson in chapter 13
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Verses 3 through 23 remember the angel of the Lord went up in the fire ascended into heaven and Manoah Samson's parents were afraid we've seen
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God they thought they were gonna die So the pre -incarnate
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Christ appears at least three times in the book of Judges and remember He's already appeared in the book of Joshua as the commander of the
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Lord's army in Joshua chapter 5 So let's spend a moment on this subject
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Jesus or the pre -incarnate Christ as the angel of the Lord I think it's easy to get confused because we typically think of an angel as a
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Created being and of course the angels are created beings like the angel Gabriel, right?
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There's three angels mentioned by name in the Bible There's two holy angels
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Gabriel and Michael and then there's of course Lucifer who fell and became Satan and the devil
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But the angel of the Lord is not he's never identified by name as Jesus, but He appears as a physical manifestation of Jehovah.
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And of course Jesus is God Manifested in the flesh according to the
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Apostle Paul when he wrote to Timothy So people get confused Well, wait,
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Jesus isn't an angel Well, no, he's not an angel in the sense of the angels created beings, but he is the messenger of the
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Lord here So Jesus is the Son of God He is God in human flesh
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So then how is he an angel? He is God's messenger for example in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1
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Jesus is also called the apostle and high priest of our confession an
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Apostle is an Emissary an ambassador a messenger an apostle is one who is sent, right?
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So Jesus sent his apostles Peter James John. They were apostles of Jesus Christ They were messengers of the
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New Covenant, but Jesus don't miss this Jesus is
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God's Apostle Say no. No Jesus had apostles. He's not in a pot. Yeah. No, Jesus is an apostle
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He is the Apostle of God the Father or another way you can put it
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Jesus is the messenger of God the Father he is the angel of the
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Lord. So hopefully that clears up any confusion remember how it was the
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Lord who spoke to Moses in the burning bush and at that time he gave his
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Personal name or his memorial name. I am that I am Jehovah or as people say today?
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Yahweh Well, who did Moses experience at the burning bush?
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He experienced God at the burning bush and yet Exodus chapter 3 verse 2 says that it was the angel of the
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Lord who appeared to Moses in the flame of fire from the midst of the bush and Then in Exodus 3 verse 6 just four verses later.
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The angel says to Moses I am God. I am the God of your father.
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So the angel of the Lord is the Lord he is a physical or a visible
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Manifestation of God and then Moses hid his face because he was afraid what to look upon God So the angel of the
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Lord is called both God and the messenger of God He is
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Jehovah, but he's also Jehovah's messenger I want you to think about it this way. God is too holy
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To interact with men directly you cannot look directly at God So what men saw in the
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Bible is they saw the messenger of the Lord? The point is you can't see you can't see
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God, but you can see his manifestation The angel of the
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Lord or the Lord Jesus Christ So God is too holy to interact with men
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Directly, he must do it through a mediator How do we know this well first Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 tells us that there is one
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God in one mediator between God and men The man
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Christ Jesus so the angel of Jehovah came up it says from Gilgal to Boke him and he said so he's speaking.
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He says I led you from Egypt now remember when the children of Israel were led in the wilderness they were led by God's presence as Manifested in the cloudy pillar by day in the pillar of fire by night
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So that was people call it the Shekinah glory of God it's a manifestation of God in some way
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Well, that's what we're seeing here, but it seems to be a man From what
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I can tell he walks from Gilgal to this place where the Israelites are and remember back in Joshua chapter 5 a man appeared to Joshua wasn't a
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Cloud of you know smoke or just an appearance of fire God again did manifest himself with smoke and with fire
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When God came down on Mount Sinai, what was it? He came down with smoke and fire but in Joshua chapter 5
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It's a man who appears to Joshua and he identifies himself as the commander of the
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Lord's army So when it says that the messenger of the Lord came up from Gilgal in Judges chapter 2
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I Certainly get the impression that a man Walked from Gilgal to this site and he is talking to them man to man and I believe it's the same man the pre -incarnate
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Christ the commander of the Lord's army and what's he doing? He's checking in he talked with Joshua all those years ago, and now he's
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He's checking in he gave Joshua the marching orders and now he's asking the
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Israelites Why have you not carried out my orders? So after reminding
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Israel of his faithfulness He reprimands them for their lack of faithfulness.
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So again, this is one of the major themes of the Bible. God is faithful Men are not
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So he reminds them of his covenant he is faithful and keeping his promises verse 2
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Then he tells the Israelites you Shall not make any covenant with the inhabitants of the land, which of course they've already done that He says you shall tear down their altars
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But you have not obeyed my voice why have you done this and Then because of this in verse 3 he says
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I will not drive them out which Suggests one of the reasons why the children of Israel were not able to defeat the
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Canaanites is because God was no longer Fighting for them, you know if God isn't on your side, you cannot accomplish
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Anything if God determines that you're not going to be successful doesn't matter what you do.
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You're not going to be successful So they have an agreement with God God is faithful they break the covenant and God says well
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I'm not gonna I'm not gonna fight for you then Remember in the book of Joshua when
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Joshua asked the commander of the Lord's army he said are you for us or are you for our enemies and He's like neither
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Rather as the commander of the Lord's army. I have now come in other words You know, it's not that I'm on your side.
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You need to be on my side and that's what we need to understand It's not think I know there's in Romans God is for us
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If God is for us who can be against us There is a sense you can say that God is on the side of the righteous.
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The Bible does say that But it's not so much God being on our side
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We need to make sure that we are on his side Amen, in other words, you need to be on my side and when
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Israel disobeyed and That was their posture going forward
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They clearly lost God's favor You know, it's always easier to do nothing
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God in his word he gives us positive commandments and he gives us negative commandments
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There's things that we are told to do things we are told to avoid as far as the positive
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Commandments go things that God expects from us. It's always easier to leave those things
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Undone or to do it, you know halfway. Well, I'll I'll do it to an extent but not fully
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It's like when a little kid used to okay clean your room and then they just take all their dirty clothes and trash and Shovel it under their bed or something
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Well, I mean, yeah, they did it to an extent but that's not really what you wanted them to do And that's the way people are we either disobey
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God or we? Obey God to a certain degree Obeying God fully is hard Doing the right thing at times can be difficult.
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It's always easier to not do it What's one of the things that the
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Lord told Israel to do tear down the pagan altars That's an unpopular thing to read today, can you imagine if that was the commandment it is it's not by the way and We're not living in a theocratic society.
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So we're not Christians are not commanded to go around and tear down Pagan worship sites, but imagine if that was our job
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Wow, that that would bring some Adversity wouldn't it? By the way, that is what
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God told the Israelites to do tear down the pagan altars and It was a lot easier not to do it and even
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Israel would have faced resistance So what did they do? Well, I mean,
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I'm sure they tore down some pagan altars, but they didn't tear all of them down these shrines and temples erected to false deities the the
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Asherah poles, you know, it was like a Pole or a tree or a log
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Planted in the ground where they carved out this feminine figure with all the curves, but she had no arms
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It was just a pole in the ground Asherah pole to the the false goddess and then they worship the bales which was another type of idol
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God told the Israelites go and tear these things apart cut them up smash them get rid of them all
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That was a lot of hard work and they'd have to fight some battles to make sure that was done. So it's easier just Don't do it
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So again, we don't live in a theocratic society where we're called to go down and tear down the the
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Buddhist temple or anything like that But what are we called to do? You know, we're living The Israel was a physical nation.
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So they were called to fight physical battles. We are a spiritual nation to church We are called to fight spiritual battle
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So we need to keep the false religions and the dangerous ideologies out of our churches out of our homes
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We need to protect the minds of our children and in order to do that. We need to teach them
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We need to teach them what's right and we need to teach them what's wrong. But sometimes when we teach what is wrong
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We get some blowback from that so people in order to avoid
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Difficulty or in order to avoid resistance it's always easier to just not do it because if you do do it and take my word for it because I know if You do the right thing if you do the hard thing and you speak some of the hard truths
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The things that need to be said you will face Resistance and adversity and not just from the people that are wrapped up in that stuff
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I mean you expect that from the atheists and the communists, but you don't Necessarily expect it from people within God's covenant community.
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And yet that's sometimes what you'll face You know, there's always a hundred reasons to not do the right thing
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But none of them are valid So Israel here in Judges chapter 2, what do they do?
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God's talking to them about it They break their agreement with God this is
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There is the unconditional covenant made to Abraham But there is the conditional covenant of the law that God made an agreement with The nation through Moses if you obey me,
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I will bless you. I will fight for you I will prosper you but if you disobey me you will be cursed and Now because of their failure to do what was right
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The Lord tells them that the Canaanite tribes, which they failed to drive out now
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I'm not gonna fight for you anymore. Now. They're gonna remain and they are constantly going to be a thorn in your side
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Is that God's fault? No, it's their fault. That's what they chose and God is basically telling them
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Well, you made your bed now you're going to lie in it verse 4 So when the angel of the
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Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel The people lifted up their voices and wept and they called the name of that place
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Bokim which means weeping so the place was not called Bokim until after this and that's often
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The Israelites would name a place depending on what happened there. So it's called weeping and it says
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After they wept that they sacrificed there to the Lord. That's Capital L capital
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O capital R capital D. So when you see the Lord in all capital letters, that's the name of God Jehovah The covenant name of God when it's capital
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L lowercase or D. That's the term Adonai meaning master So he uses the covenant name of God they sacrificed to Jehovah and their sacrifices no doubt contained an
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Offering for their sin But that's a good thing, right? They they recognize their sin.
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They they cry out to God. They offer a sacrifice and While God did prescribe these sacrifices, you know what the
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Lord really wanted See we have the idea that well God yeah, God wants sacrifices and offerings
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Actually, what God really wants is them to obey David wrote in Psalm 40 verses 6 through 8 sacrifice and offering you did not desire
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So David is writing this psalm speaking or addressing God.
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He's saying you don't actually desire sacrifices and people
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Stumble over that. Well, wait a minute. I read it that God is telling them to offer these sacrifices and Then David says a sin offering you did not require
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And again people say yeah. No God did require that. Yeah, but what's David's point? He says in verse 8
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I Delight to do your will. Oh my god in your law is within my heart
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You see that is what God really wants. He wants his people To let you say well, he wants us to love him, right?
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And Jesus said if you love me Keep my commandments so what
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God wants above all above all the Sacrifices and offerings and rituals and things that we go through what
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God wants most is for his people to obey him Just to put this in a way everyone can understand
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Apologies are nice you know when somebody acknowledges they're wrong and You know, we all know those people that are never wrong
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They never apologize they're always right. It's always somebody else's fault But when somebody does acknowledge they are wrong or they've wronged you it is nice when they apologize
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But it's far better when they don't offend you in the first place Let's say you have a mother and her five -year -old son and the child says something very
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Mean and cruel to his mother An apology is certainly an order and that needs to happen and maybe the apology even helps a little bit but the mother would much rather have had the child not say that hurtful thing in the first place and That's the way it is with us in our sin
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If we sin God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
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That's what the Bible says in 1st John 1 9 There are offerings that the children of Israel were to Give to the
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Lord, but God wants above all he wants us to love him and to demonstrate that through our obedience and Then take somebody going back to the mother and the child, you know
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If that child throughout the day and the next day just keeps doing it over and over again, you know
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It's like people say well, I'm sorry and then they do it again Well, I'm sorry, and then they do it again and again and again and again and after a while that apology doesn't mean much
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It doesn't mean anything a matter of fact the apology can become an offense itself if the person doesn't stop with their behavior in Isaiah chapter 1 verses 13 and 14 the
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Lord tells the Israelites how their sacrifices and offerings their feasts and their sacred assemblies were like The Lord calls it an abomination to him
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Even when a New Testament Church and you of course in again who talked about this last time in New England You see this all the time you actually have
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Churches people who would call themselves Christians they gather together They assemble they sing hymns that are glorifying to God and then they may celebrate the
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Lord's Supper But then somewhere during the sermon time or somewhere during the church service they bring out a flag and they celebrate sin
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What a stunning act of hypocrisy God is not pleased with that assembly.
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God is not pleased with their songs of praise God is not pleased with the fact that they put money in a plate and give lip service to him
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God wants His people to obey him Not to persist in rebellion and then somehow try to sanctify it
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Well, that's what's happening in Israel. They were rebelling against God Disobeyed God at times they were even worshiping false gods and they were
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Remember with the golden calf. What did they do? They were blending pagan idolatry with the worship of Jehovah God God calls that type of thing an abomination
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So the Lord says back to Isaiah 1 13 and 14 how you know
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Sacrifices and offerings the feast sacred assemblies. He was not pleased with them he said that because they were committed in their rebellion and Then they try to keep they kept up this religious act
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And it was a stench in the Lord's nostrils. You know, I try not to speculate too much but instead of weeping
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Going back to Israel here in Judges chapter 2 when they you know
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They they hear this word from the messenger of the Lord. They they cry out and then they sacrifice to God what if instead of weeping and crying and Offering a sacrifice
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What if they simply resolved that day? To do the right thing what if that day they wholeheartedly sought
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God and Started to obey him fully wouldn't things have been different. I think so, but instead
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They said sorry they offered their sacrifice, but they kept on doing the wrong thing and Then they expected a different result
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You know, isn't this what they say this that's the definition of insanity I don't know that it's actually the definition of insanity but doing the same thing over and over again in Expecting a different result.
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This is what you see throughout the book of Judges These are lights keep doing the wrong thing and the cycle happens again and again and again and they never learn from them
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You know people keep making the same mistakes over and over and over They're committed to doing the same sins over the same bad decisions over and over and they just can't understand why things never get better Well, the
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Israelites knew the right thing to do they had God's law and They ignored it and they ignored it in favor of doing whatever they thought was best
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Well, hey if we enslave the Canaanites we get some free labor. Nope. That's gonna come back to bite you
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Well, you know, it's hard to do this. Maybe if we just leave them alone, they'll leave us alone wrong there is never a substitute for obeying
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God and We have God's law too, you know, we shouldn't look at this as well. This is a story long time ago and Same type of thing is happening today.
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We have God's law too. It's called the Old Testament It's true.
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We're not under the law But God's Word is still true and I've noticed many
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Christians do the same thing. They ignore the law of God instead of getting the proper definition of what love is or what
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Any term in Scripture mean we kind of Take a practical approach and we try to figure out what's right.
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What's wrong? What we should do shouldn't do based on whatever we think No, we always need to go to God's Word Old Testament Again, not everything applies
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But God's moral law doesn't change the principles you see in the
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Old Testament are still true for us today The ethics of the Old Testament are in line with the ethics of the
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New Testament despite what some people would say and Just to prove that remember the verse
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Where Jesus talks about loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself, you know where Jesus got that from?
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He got it from the book of Leviticus So as an my point to you this morning is as a
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New Testament Christian you can learn something We can all learn something From the book of Judges so just as Israel had a word from God, so do we a blessing will either come or Be prevented based on how we respond to God's Word.
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I Talked with a guy a while back who was dealing with some things at his church
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I don't know if he sat on the board of the church or whatever it was And they were going through a struggle he said half of his church wanted to accept the whole gay pride agenda and the other church didn't and He knew
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I was a pastor. So he said well, what do you think? and you know,
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I And I knew that church was sort of on the liberal side of things I I didn't want to quote the
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Apostle Paul because I knew that Maybe he or that church would likely not accept the words of Paul Although they should accept the words of Paul.
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So I quoted Jesus, you know, I had to think about it for about half a second
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I What what do I think? Well Let's see what Jesus says.
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So I told him I said and well in Matthew 19 Jesus defines marriages between one man and one woman and he seemed to receive that but I told him, you know you can't straddle the fence on an issue like this because really what you're saying what you're asking is
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What do you think should our church obey God or disobey God? well, that isn't how they would frame it, but that's what it boiled down to and Then the church he said was considering sort of a halfway measure to sort of please both sides
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Well, that's what's happening in the book of Judges They drove out the Canaanites do a degree but not completely and I say you can't do that You can't please both sides.
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First of all the other side. They're never gonna be happy until they get their way You know, they're implacable.
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So you can't just Compromise halfway to try to appease them.
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It's not gonna work Only right thing to do is to look at what the
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Bible says What did Jesus say about marriage?
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What does the Bible say about whatever issue you're going through what does the scripture say that's always the right response
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Hey, what do you think about this? Well, what does the Bible say? So you need to do what the scripture says obey
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God Because if you don't like we're seeing here in the book of Judges if you don't obey
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God or you only obey him halfway it's gonna come back and get you and And The Canaanites the
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Lord tells Israel they will be a thorn in your side If you don't deal with this now
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It's gonna be a constant issue going forward and I know doing the right thing
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Here now, it's difficult, but it's your only good option Going back to that story
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I don't know a decision they made or if they made a decision at all But by not making a decision that itself is a decision
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Remember, it's always easier to do nothing Or it's easier to do things halfway
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Full obedience to God is difficult, but it's the only right thing to do
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Look at Joshua chapter 2 verse 6. It says when Joshua had dismissed the people so after all this
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Joshua dismisses the people And the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess
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The land verses 7 through 10 deal with the death of Joshua again He died at age 110 and before Joshua died.
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He gave this challenge to Israel Joshua 25 or excuse me 24 verse 15
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Remember he told the people choose for yourselves this day Whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the
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Amorites and whose land you dwell and then Joshua said to Israel, but as for me and My house we will serve the
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Lord and here's something we need to remember Just because everyone else is doing the wrong thing that doesn't mean you can't do the right thing and Be blessed by God Okay, the nation of Israel as a whole they fell into patterns of disobedience the nation received a curse
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But Joshua and his house were blessed His descendants were blessed the nation is going to be judged by God You know, it's like our nation
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You know God some would argue God is already judging our nation, but it's going to happen. God is going to judge our nation
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Just like he judged Israel, but it doesn't mean that you can't be blessed by God It doesn't matter if everybody else is disobedient as for me in my house
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We will serve the Lord so the application for us no matter what everyone else is doing
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You do the right thing So Joshua and his house were blessed
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Joshua lived a long life 110 years old and then Joshua the servant of the
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Lord Died verse 10 and when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers
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Another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel Then verse 11 the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the
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Lord and served the Baals and they forsook the
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Lord God of Their fathers. So this is what Joshua was saying before he died because I think he knew this was going to happen instead of worshiping the
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Lord The children of Israel fell into Baal worship Joshua knows these people he remember remember the golden calf.
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He was there Joshua remembers all this he knows what's gonna happen. I Notice it says they serve the
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Baals plural There are several false gods mentioned in the Old Testament.
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There's Molech Milcom Dagon Right, but Baal is the most common and there were multiple
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Baals There are many Baal's many false religions different variations Maybe of the same thing, but each region had their own deity in Baal could be translated as Lord.
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So hey Israel serves the Lord Well, yeah, the Philistines or this other group the Canaanites they served the
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Lord too, but they had a different Lord By the way, there are some people when they talk about God you have to realize this when some people say
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I believe in God They're talking about a different God That even happens with the name of Jesus be oh,
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I I'm a follower of Jesus Yeah, well the Jesus they're talking about is not the Jesus of Scripture even the
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Apostle Paul talked about those who preach another Christ in a different gospel and it causes them to receive a different spirit
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So you have to watch out for this sometimes will sometimes people use the same terminology, but they redefine it
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So there were many Baal's there were many Lords when Paul talks about that to the
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Corinthians. There are many Lords That is many false gods. So each region had their own deity
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There's a Baal for this tribe a Baal for that nation a Baal for this tribe over here
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The nation of Israel, of course was to be what? monotheistic meaning they were to only serve one
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God Jehovah and Israel was to only believe and really the faithful Israelites only believed that there was one
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God So while there were polytheists back then that is someone who worships many gods the tribes in and around Canaan were typically not monotheist they were not polytheist they were henotheist, so this is
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H E N O T H E I S T S henotheism or they were henotheist
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Which isn't the worship of chickens? it's the idea that you believe many gods exist, but you only worship one in particular and This is where Baal comes in Baal Which either means possessor or Lord Baal was their master
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But there were many different Baal's because each region had their own version of Baal and Then his wife or his consort was the false goddess
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Asherah or ashtoreth and This is what we see the children of Israel doing in verses 13 and 14 some judges chapter 2 verses 13 and 14 says they forsook the
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Lord and served Baal and the ashtoreths And the worship of Asherah again, there's like this log or this pole
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Maybe they would take a tree and just cut off the top Cut off all the branches and then they would carve a woman's figure and that was an
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Asherah pole and that was part of their Their pagan religion there they worshipped in the groves, right?
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there is this spot of trees where they worshipped on the high places, but they worshipped the
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Baal's and the ashtoreths Verse 14 says in the anger of the
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Lord was hot Against Israel. Well, what are we here today? Oh God is
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Oh God is a God of love. God just loves people. So God Love love love love love love.
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Well, it's true. God is a God of love. Amen But God has anger When God sees his people his covenant people worshiping false deities and persisting and sin and celebrating sin
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Hey, don't believe me believe the Bible Judges 2 14 in the anger of the
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Lord was hot against Israel So he delivered them into the hands of the plunderers who?
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despoiled them and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer
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Stand before their enemies. How did Israel this tiny family that grew into a nation?
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They were slaves and they go and what one generation they go from being slaves
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To conquering the land and to say how did they do that? There's only one explanation because God was fighting for them
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But now they can't stand before their enemies. They can't defeat anybody why? Because God's no longer on their side because they
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By Promoting and celebrating sin and worshiping false deities and having idols they lost
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God's favor and Then we see this statement in verse 19. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way
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Don't think that God just saw them mess up once and God just lost his temper.
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That's not what's happening Israel didn't just make a mistake and God's coming down hard on them.
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No, they willfully and knowingly chose to do the opposite of what
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God said and They persisted in that behavior.
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They were stubborn They were stiff -necked and they paid the price.
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So in conclusion, what's the takeaway? How did the chapter begin by God reminding them of his faithfulness and we can never forget that God is faithful men are not and maybe everyone around you seems that the whole world is gone insane and people are just not faithful to God and And it discourages you well, remember
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God is still faithful and You can be faithful Don't worry about what everyone else is doing you worry about you
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Let's worry about us our church. We want to be faithful to God me in my home
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We want to be faithful to God Israel had a choice as does every person today either walk in the ways of the
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Lord and receive his blessing or walk in the ways of the world and Receive what
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God has in store for this world. It's our choice I'll close with what verses 21 through 23 say the
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Lord speaking to Israel says I also Will no longer drive them out before you of all the nations which
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Joshua left when he died so that through them I may test Israel whether they will keep the ways of the
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Lord to walk in them as their fathers kept them or not Therefore the