Riding the Spiritual Roller Coaster
Judges 2:6-3:6
Essential 100 Series
February 10, 2008
Morning Message
Introduction
Have you ever ridden a roller coaster? There are some that I love and some that I hate. I loved the Batman Knight Flight at Six Flags and I hated the Tomb Raider at King’s Island. My absolute favorite coaster was not really a roller coaster but an indoor hang glider at Disney World called Soarin’. The ride used a partial wrap around screen that displayed images of a flight combined with corresponding movements to give the sensation of flight. The ride was so authentic that it created wind to blow in your face and even had the scent of oranges as you flew over an orange grove. The experience was amazing.
Roller coasters can be fun when we are at amusement parks but having a roller coaster experience in other areas of life is anything but fun. It is an experience of peaks and valleys, ups and downs and highs and lows. Some people seem to ride roller coasters when it comes to their spiritual walk with God. They experience extreme highs and bottom out with severe lows. Their relationship with God just seems to go up and down, up and down. I am not saying that there are times when we all go through this kind of thing. The problem is that when people have their entire spiritual life like this, they lack stability and consistency.
The book of Judges seems to be a spiritual roller coaster ride for the nation of Israel, highs and lows.
The Cycle of Israel’s History
From bondage to spiritual faith From spiritual faith to great courage
From great courage to liberty From liberty to abundance
From abundance to leisure From leisure to selfishness
From selfishness to complacency From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependency From dependency to weakness
From weakness back to bondage
From the overview of Judges in Living Insights Bible p 234
Over and over again we see Israel ride the peaks with God on their side and the dive in to valleys of pagan worship. The sad cycle presents itself in vivid fashion in the book of Judges.
Notice the massive contrast between Joshua and Judges
Joy and success Sorrow and suffering
Strength Weakness
Victory Defeat
Unity – Mission Disunity – Meaninglessness
Freedom Bondage
Obedience Disobedience
Following God Running from God
6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. 7 The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Just as they had buried Moses, so they buried Joshua after a life well lived. Look at the legacy of Joshua. The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua. When Joshua led the nation, not only were they prosperous, they were faithful to God. What an amazing statement of spiritual leadership. Joshua led the people in a living and amazing faith in God. Joshua raised up leaders who also followed God and God blessed Israel through them.
When the people of Israel had strong spiritual leadership, they thrived in their relationship with God. The truth of life is simple, when we have a thriving relationship with God, the rest of life comes together for us.
10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
As I read these words I want to weep. Somewhere along the way, these great spiritual leaders failed Israel. Let me be clear here: while they lived the people followed God. Let me ask you an important question: do you want your children to only follow God while you are living? Of course not! At some point the need to raise up spiritual leaders was taken for granted.
Look at verse 10: After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. How can this be? Here was a generation that did not know God or what He had done for Israel. Had they not been taught the basics about God? Had they not heard the stories of what God had done? The answer may surprise you, absolutely they had been told and they knew what God had done for them.
The word here for know: means to have knowledge but it also means to acknowledge, recognize or accept. The problem was not a lack of knowledge but instead was a lack of acknowledgment. The problem was that they no longer accepted God as their Lord. These people knew the Truth but chose to turn their backs on it.
We need to remember that this could be the last generation of the church. I am not saying that church is no longer relevant or has no place in society but without a strong evangelistic presence there will be no church of the future. Christianity is only one generation away from extinction. In fact, the church is always one generation away from being extinct.
16 Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD’s commands. 18 Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
God in His infinite mercy made the decision to rescue His people by raising up leaders called judges. The judges were not legal authorities but were leaders over the nation of Israel, often of a military fashion. They led Israel through the period of history following Joshua and prior to the reign of King Saul. Here are just a few examples of some of the judges.
Lesser Known Judges
Othniel, nephew of Caleb saved Israel from the King of Aram
Ehud saved Israel from the Moabites
Shamgar saved Israel from the Philistines
Well known Judges
Deborah saved Israel from the Canaanites
Gideon saved Israel from the Midianites
Samson saved Israel from the Philistines
God saved His people even when they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. It would seem that the people Israel knew what they were doing was wrong but decided to keep on doing what they wanted. The issue boils down to self. I have said many times that the biggest idol that many people worship is self. We build an altar to I, me, my, mine and myself and can’t wait to fall down in worship. We belt out mi mi mi mi like it is the only note we know how to sing.
20 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did." 23 The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.
God grows angry over the disobedience of Israel. Over and over again Israel breaks their covenant with God. Remember that when one person broke their agreement in a covenant that they were forfeiting their life. God had every right to take the life of everyone who broke the covenant. However, God allowed the pagan nations to remain in the Promised Land as a test. The test was essentially to see if the people would return to God.
3:1 These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses. 5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6 They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
God leaves the pagan nations in the midst of Israel for the purpose of testing them. After Israel had turned away from God and followed idols, there were going to be some hard lessons that would have to be learned. The problem becomes that the people allow their beliefs to be mixed with the beliefs of pagan religions.
Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Life Lessons from Israel
Surrender every area of your life to God
Many times we make to choice to try to live life on our own terms. The only problem with this is that we are not meant to live life our way. Over and over again we see the results of self centered living and the book of Judges shows us in vivid example of this.
When we surrender to God, we gain His strength and His support in the daily grind of life. When we give our lives over to Him, we are allowing Him to have the control. We are allowing Him to have the authority and we are allowing Him to determine the results. If we are ever going to break the cycle of misery in our own lives, we must begin with surrender.
Develop a no compromise attitude toward sin
When we allow known sin to enter and take root in our lives, how can think we can follow God? We try to live for ourselves at the same time we try to live for God. We cannot serve two masters, we will either live completely for ourselves or we will live completely for God.
When we compromise with sin, we are telling God that His way and will do not matter to us. When we compromise with sin, we are allowing our lives to continue down a cycle of personal misery. Most miserable people allow sin a foothold in their lives.
