Sunday Morning Service

Judges 2

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“Truth And Consequences” • 6.15.14 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- We entered the book of Judges, recognizing that God had miraculously delivered the people of Israel into the land of Canaan.

- The enemy has been vanquished generally, though a few pockets of resistance remained. It was incumbent upon the people of Israel to drive the remaining inhabitants out.

- They did not. They failed. One tribe after another failed to complete their God given task. Some settled for taxing their enemies, while others were driven back by their enemies.

- Today, we begin to see the immediate consequences of those choices and are reminded that their historical journey correlates to our spiritual journey.

- Last week, we looked into what factors influence our choice to sin. This week, we'll note the consequences of those choices.

Text

• Judges 2:1-3 : "Then the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: 'I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you. And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.’" : This is the 5th appearance of the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament.

- He appears in Genesis 16:7ff, Genesis 22:11ff, Exodus 3:2 and has an extended visit with Balaam in Numbers 22:22ff.

- In each appearance, the Angel of the Lord speaks authoritatively, making promises and statements that can only be attributed to God. As you have just read, this account is no different.

- Is this God the Father taking on a visible form, otherwise known as a "Theophany" or is this pre-incarnate Christ, a "Christophany?" Either consideration is valid.

- The Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal which is the place where Israel first stayed upon coming into Canaan.

- Gilgal was a place of victory and excitement. Bochim, which means "weeping" is a place of rebuke and sadness.

- That is the track that we experience when we do not choose sin. We go from victory to defeat, joy to sorrow. Whatever gain a Christian experiences in sin is temporary and fleeting.

- The Angel of the Lord reminds them of the covenant that He had established with them since taking them from the land of Egypt.

- According to one commentator, this conforms precisely to the language employed by Kings in the ancient near east.

- God had done His part in leading them out of Egypt and bringing them into Canaan. He had kept His promise to them and would never have broken it!

- In the case of the Israelites, they received a covenant that required them to keep to their promises as well, but they had not.

- They were not to enter into a relationship with the inhabitants of Canaan and they were not to tolerate their false religious beliefs. They were to tear down the altars in their path.

- God owns the land and He can give it to anyone He wants. He is expelling the Canaanites and using the Israelites to do it. They are failing in their task.

- What is the key issue? What does it boil down to? Was it a lack of capability? God diagnoses the issue clearly: "You have not obeyed my voice!"

- The people knew that this was the case. It's not that they were unable to clear out the land. It's that they were disobedient and chose not to!

- The consequences for them was that the Lord would no longer drive their enemies out.

- As a result, their enemies would become thorns in their sides and their worship would trap them and lead them deeper into sin.

- God will allow them to live with the consequences of their chosing and yet, even coming to them at all is a grace which reminds them that there is a better life to be had!

- If all you hear in this section is deep rebuke, you have not understood the heart of God.

- God is not simply venting disappointment. He rebukes, chastens, convicts us on account of His great love, in the hopes that we will repent. How did Israel respond? Look at verse 4.

• Judges 2:4-6 : "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 Bochim; 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." : God spoke to them and there is no argument. God sees clearly and declares to us what is true about our condition. He is never wrong.

- Look at their response. They made loud noises, they let out all of their emotion, so much so that they named the place for their display and they sacrificed. It all sounds so good, so hopeful.

- From there they went back out toward the business of possessing the land. Keep this in mind as we move forward.

• Judges 2:7-9 : "So 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 works of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was one hundred and ten 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 Gaash." : Bochim seems to have reformed and refocused the people of God. The rest of the days of Joshua and the elders were good.

- The leadership kept reminding them that God had established them. They told the stories of what they had seen in the wilderness and lived out the example of people who knew that.

- In a sense, the people of God rode the coattails of the men who had a direct spiritual heritage from the Lord. Their strength of character kept the people going in the right direction.

- Joshua died at 110 years old, a good old age, but this was the true beginning of the end.

• Judges 2:10-13 : "When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, 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 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, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths." : Notice the condition of this congregation, post Joshua. First, they did not know the Lord. The NLT uses the word "acknowledge," which accurately carries the sense.

- Certainly, they could not have been ignorant of God's activities on their behalf. They would have had intimate trivial knowledge, but it was not experiential.

- What a dangerous thing it is to know everything about God, but not know Him personally!

- This tells us a little something about Bochim and the display that was made there. There was public sorrow, but not sorrow toward private repentance and that translated toward the kids.

  - They heard what they supposedly believed and they saw them honor the sacrificial system, but they discerned that this was more a cultural act than a heart felt response to God.

- There is more to the Christian life than passing down information and culture. There must be a call for our kids to comprehend that they have been created to have a relationship with the Lord.

- None of the generation kept in mind the work that the Lord did on their behalf. Consequently, they did evil in the Lord's sight by choosing to serve Baal.

- Nobody is ever neutral. Everyone worships at an altar. Israel chose to worship at Baal's!

- In one sentence, the people of Israel deserted their inheritance. They left the God that delivered them and followed Canaanite gods.

- I do not say this to be manipulative, but the text itself makes this impossible not to say: If our kids don't see reality, don't expect them to adopt your hypocrisy!

- That second bowed before and served Baal, rousing the Lord to anger as their service debased them further and further away from the redeeming hope that lay within them.

- The Canaanite worship system was built around the chief god "El" whose son was Baal. His name is associated with lightning and is thought to be lord over storms and thus agriculture.

- In their mythological belief, a continual battle was fought between he and the sea god Mot. If Baal was victorious, it was believed that the crops would prosper for seven years.

- The Ashtoreths likely refer to the groves of stumped trees, carved in the form of phallic instruments that represented the goddess counterpart to Baal.

- Ashtoreth herself was thought to be the wife of Baal, the "Queen Of Heaven," and helped to bring the fertility of the land and the cattle to the forefront by temple prostitution rites.

- In essence, given that the land's economy was based on agriculture, Baal was the god of commerce. To worship Baal was to worship money.

- Ashtoreth, because of what she represented and how she was "worshipped," is essentially the deification of sex. Money and sex. Perhaps you have heard of those gods!

- This was what the people of God left their God to pursue, to worship, to value. Consider for a moment the type of person who is living for money or sex.

- What is their commitment like to their loved ones? How are their actions either noble or praiseworthy? What sort of character is demanded from them and is demonstrated by them?

- Most of us understand that when you worship such things, when they are the matters of most importance to you, this will yield a life that is not worth the price! Note the Lord's response.

• Judges 2:14,15 : "And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed. " : The anger of the Lord burned hot against Israel for their choice. Why? Wasn't this their prerogative? Not at all! They were in covenant with the Lord!

- They had made an agreement with God to be His people, to represent His Name. Aside from the spurning of that love, giving themselves to this worship resulted in a debased lifestyle.

- The sexual nature of the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth removed the lid from any taboo that you and I would point to as extreme and excessive by even the low standards of our day!

- His anger burned against them because they were settling for far less than He was offering them! To worship the Lord lifts you and I to greater heights. Any other worship diminishes us!

- The consequence of their choice meant that God's protective hand would be lowered and raiders would come to rob them.

- Their choice meant that they were sold as slaves to their enemies and would be conquered by them.

- God's hand was against them for calamity, destruction. This had been God's promise to them. And as promised, the people were greatly distressed.

- They were bound up, forced into a corner by their own actions. The people, because of their conscious decision to forsake the Lord, have put themselves in a bad way.

- Every decision for sin opens the door to unintended consequences. The pleasure gained is long forgotten when the trust of a mate is gone or when a job is lost.

- I think of how many are taken advantage of when they are under the influence. Some are robbed, some are raped. Is it ever worth that?

• Judges 2:16 : "Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them." : Listen to that first word in verse 16: "Nevertheless!" In many ways, this is the gospel message!

- The people of Israel are thoroughly lost in their idolatrous worship. They have alienated themselves from God and have begun to store up His rightful wrath toward themselves.

- "Nevertheless!' God in His abundantly rich mercy reached down to this infinitely ill deserving crowd and raised up heroes, deliverers, judges who delivered them from out of the hand of raiders!

- You and I were hopelessly lost. Nevertheless, while we were yet sinners, Christ, our hero, our deliverer died for us and took us out of the hand of Satan and the power of our flesh!

- Here, God demonstrates a tremendous love that isn't returned as the people of Israel continuously rejected His kindness. That's what happened with us!

- While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! That His goodness, His faithfulness towards us!

- With Israel, His faithfulness to His own reputation and to His redemptive promise was at stake. His gracious activity should cause us to marvel and praise the God of Jacob.

• Judges 2:17-19 : "Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so. And when the 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; 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, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way." : For the most part, this section sums up the book of Judges. They would not listen to their judges, turning quickly from their message.

- The voices crying out for allegiance to God were largely ignored. Far from repenting, the played the harlot, a word speaking of prostitution, with other gods.

- God viewed the people of Israel as His own wife. When they worshipped other gods, they were being unfaithful to Him.

- For all intents and purposes, the description that Samuel gives provides the outline of the next chapters of the book of Judges.

- First, there is the trouble. God's people turned from the way that their Fathers walked and disobeyed the Lord's commands.

- This led to travail. Their enemies oppressed and harassed them continuously! Israel could not stand before them, but gave in to their power each time.

- This leads to triumph, as the Lord raises up and deliverer, a judge and the people follow that leader until their passing. This leads to the final step: They turn back!

- With each successive generation, there is that much more degeneration, as they found ways to behave worse than their predecessors!

- In all the time of the Judges, their turning to God was simply a step toward temporary relief from their struggles. They never truly repented!

• Judges 2:20-23 : "Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He said, 'Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.' Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua." : God's anger led to His refusal to drive out the nations of Canaan.

- He left them specifically to test them, to prove them, that they might have the opportunity to live for the Lord.

- God keeps His hand out, hoping that the difficult circumstances will turn them back to Him in genuine trust and covenant love.

- He wouldn't deliver them but He would also not shut the door on them! They had a chance to turn and to call upon Him. Sadly, it seems that most did not.

Conclusion

- Sin will always take you from victory to weeping, from joy to sorrow! That sin will never remain isolated. It will spill out, over onto your family, your children.

- The unintended consequences are greater than the pleasure affords. The difficulty that you would invite into your life is far worse than the temporary joy you would gain.

- Thank God today that He has left you with another warning. Thank God that Jesus is your Deliverer. He has defeated the enemy. He calls you to walk with Him!

- He calls you and I again and again, to repent from our sin. Turn away from it now. Get rid of the phone numbers, the subscriptions, the website bookmarks. Be clear of it!

- Set your heart upon the One who has loved you when you were at your worst, who died for you when you would rather have died in your sin!

- It's HIs love that leaves us this record. I pray we will receive it as such.