Today, we are going to look at several hundred years of tragedy. It is found recorded for us in the book of Judges. turn with me to Judges 2. If you are using one of the bibles in the seat racks, it is on page _____. Today we pick back up in our journey through the Old Testament. We learned that
Genesis is a book that gives us the “beginnings” -
Exodus teaches about “redemption” Leviticus teaches about “holiness” -
Numbers teaches about “testing” Deuteronomy teaches us about “instruction” and “wisdom” in obeying God’s word. Joshua is a book that teaches us about “faith in conquest” or “stepping out in faith.” God chose to work through the line of Abraham, leading his descendants out of slavery in Egypt and unto a land he would give to them. In Joshua we saw the people cross the Jordan River, and step out in faith to follow God in claiming the land that was given to them. But in Judges the key idea is “Chaos” because the phrase we find repeated over and over again is “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” There is a lack of consistent leadership and a lack of commitment in following God.
As we ended the book of Joshua, we saw a people who for the first time were in a position where they were able to enter a land that was their and where they could follow God’s leading completely. They were possessing the land, facing opposition, and the people are at a crossroads as to whether or not they will follow God.
Back in Genesis 12, God promises Abraham two things: a land for his descendants, and that his descendants would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Here in Judges they have entered the land, but we see today their FAILURE to impact their land with their faith.
In Judges 1 we read of the failure of the tribes to follow God and drive the idol-worshiping peoples out of the land. We see 19 Judah and Simeon fail; 21 Benjamin fails; 27 - Manasseh fails; 29 Ephraim fails; 30 - Zebulun fails; 31 Asher fails; 33 Naphtali fails; 34 Dan fails. So we come to the book of Judges and see the failure of the Jews to impact their world. Instead of following God completely, no matter what the cost, the Jews gave up because the battle seemed too hard. They wanted to follow God if it was convenient, but they failed to follow him completely. And we often are the same way. We talk a good talk, but when the going gets tough, we often want to quit.
Look with me in Judges 2:10-15 and we will see the pattern the Jews followed.
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. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 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. 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.
The biggest mistake, and the initial mistake the Jews made, was a failure to teach their families the truths about God. So the next generation grows up not knowing about God. As a result of not knowing about God, there is a failure to follow God. And when people do not follow God, they will find someone or something else to follow. We see the Jews adopt the idols of the pagan culture they live in. In verse 14 we see they forsake God. And in verse 15 we see judgment is sent from God to show the Jews their need of God.
The book of Judges is a record of how God used “judges” to deliver his people from judgment and lead them in following the Lord. Judges 2:16 tells us “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.” A judge was not a “court official” as we think of a judge in our society today. Rather, he was a political leader, military leader, and spiritual advisor all rolled into one. Probably one of the best examples of this was Ulrich Zwingli, one of the leaders of the Presbyterian church during the reformation, who led the church, led the society, and led the armies in battle. God uses these spirit-empowered political military leaders to free his people from bondage.
But throughout the book of Judges, we see a cycle repeats itself over and over again.
1. Peace 2. Complacency 3. Sin 4. Pain 5. Crying out to God
6. God sends a judge/deliverer 7. Peace
We see this cycle illustrated in Judges 3:5-11
The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.
And the book of Judges is a record for us of the continual cycle of complacency, sin, and judgment. Today, we look at ourselves, and we realize that each of us also struggles with cycles of sin. Each of us struggles in an area that seems to keep recurring in our lives. And when we fail to follow God completely, we find ourselves falling back into patterns of sinful living. But the time to break those cycles of sin is TODAY. We can’t think we can wait and change later in life. Actually, the more we follow the cycles of sinfulness, the harder it is to break out of the cycle. Actually, when we look at the cycles recorded in the book of Judges, we find 12 Judges:
Othniel Ehud Shamgar Deborah Gideon Tola Jair Jephthah Ibzan Elon Abdon Samson
And then actually there is a 13th judge, the last one, is Eli, found in the book of 1 Samuel.
But it is interesting, that following Gideon, the cycles no longer have a spell of peace. The cycle goes from deliverance right back to complacency. The longer we tolerate sin, the harder it is to rid it from our life. Today, we want to learn some lessons from the book of Judges. We want to look at 6 signs of drifting away from following God. And we want a renewed commitment to follow God totally.
Let’s pray together: Prayer for God to help us identify signs in our own lives.
So, here are 6 signs of drifting from God.
1. We fail to pass on our faith. We already saw this idea in 2:10 - 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. The tragedy of this is that the Jews had specifically been commanded to teach their children. It’s not like this is just a skill that was not taught; rather this was to be the very center of life for the Jew. Back in Deut. 6:6-12 God has specifically warned the Jews not to forget this:
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates. When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
This has been a pattern of societies ever since. Remember in the days of the Kings of Judah, Josiah finds the book of the law, which had been completely forgotten. Back in the Middle ages, there was a great loss of learning and commitment to follow God. It took the Reformation to bring back to the common people the truths about God. In America, there was a time called the Great Awakening, where God used the preaching of His Word to call people to repentance. Over and over again societies fall away from following God. Let’s realize that Christianity is never more that ONE generation away from extinction. All it takes is for one generation to completely fail to pass on their faith for the cause of Christ to be defeated.
My mother took very literally the commands of Deut. 6, whether she was consciously thinking about it or not. Whether we were wallpapering, weeding the garden, or washing dishes, my mom always singing about the Lord and talking about the Lord. She took every opportunity to have visiting missionaries into our home so we would be exposed to the work of God. We had a nightly devotional time and prayer time. I saw her live out her faith before me day after day after day. And that is what we need in America today.
*We need to make a commitment to take spiritual responsibility for our families.
It is easy to look at the Jews and say, “How could a people who saw God part the Red Sea, and provide Manna every day, and knock down the walls of Jericho fail to tell their children about it.” But in the same way, how can we who have been delivered from hell and been set free from the power of sin fail to tell others about it. Think about it - when is the last time you talked with someone about the Lord? this week? This month?
The buck stops here! We can’t say it’s good enough just to go to church and put our kids in SS, and youth group. Our children’s ministry is one of the most important ministries here at Bethel; but we can’t rely on others to teach our children. We need to decide that WE are going to tell them about the Lord in all the circumstances of daily life. If we can be committed to getting them involved in sporting programs and we actually volunteer, in the same way, we need to be committed to getting them to church and youth group and service activities. Let’s teach them by personal example.
I wonder if I asked for a show of hands, how many of you could say, “We have a family altar - a regular devotional time as a family where we share and pray together.” I’m afraid the lack of hands would be overwhelming. From the time Jacqueline was an infant, we had a nightly time with her when we would pray over her. As she and Joy grew, we continued to have a nightly routine of Bible reading or Bible story and prayer. We model for our children the importance of following God.
To keep from failing to pass on the faith, we need to make a commitment to take spiritual responsibility for our families.
The second sign of drifting from God is that
2. We follow impulses: Our passions and desires and impulses rule our lives instead of the Holy Spirit. We see that displayed over and over again in the book of Judges. We see Jephthah making a rash vow that destroys his daughter’s future; we see priests going with renegade bands because they want a priest in the house; we see Jews turning against their brothers and killing them for greed. But maybe the best example of this is the man Samson. He is the strong man who couldn’t be stopped.
He attacks the Philistines over and over again. He kills more in his death than he did in his life. But what really destroyed Samson was his reckless indulgence in his passions. He did whatever he felt like doing. Look with me in Judges 14:1-3:
Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.” His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.”
Samson saw a woman and wanted her, so he took her. And that is the same thing that happens hundreds of times a day in Owosso. Rampant, unchecked, unbridled sexual activity. It’s why there is such a high unwed pregnancy rate in Shiawassee county. We might expect it from the unsaved, but when Christians give in to their desires simply because they are pleasurable, something is very seriously wrong.
Look in Judges 16:1 - One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. This man chosen by God to lead his people is a man who gives in to his passions repetitively. Later in chapter 16, we see the story of Samson toying with Delilah, until finally he betrays the secret of his strength.
Instead of giving in to whatever passions we face, we are called to a higher standard. We are told in Galatians 5:16 - So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Ephesians 2 reminds us All of us also lived . . . gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. . . . But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. We are told in 1 Peter 4 that a Christian does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
When we start following our desires and impulses, we are bound to end up in a sinful lifestyle. Because our sinful cravings will never be satisfied.
But instead, Luke 9:23 calls us to a different lifestyle: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” A sure sign of drifting from God is when we start giving in to our passions and desires.
A third sign of drifting from God:
3. We break commitments to our God - we see this over and over again in the book of Judges. In the first chapter we saw the Jews fail to take the land as God told them to. In Joshua, the people all made commitment that they would follow the Lord completely. Yet, in Judges, we see them time and time again turning to worship of idols. Again, looking at the example of Samson, we see broken commitments. When Samson is born, in Judges 13:3-5, we see that “the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” According to the OT Law from Numbers 6, a Nazirite could drink no wine, not touch a dead body, and not shave his head. Yet it appears Samson broke each commitment. In Judges we see him take honey from the dead body of a lion. We see him throwing week-long parties. We see him telling the secret of his strength and having his head shaved.
The book of Judges reminds us over and over again of the danger of not keeping our commitments to follow God. Let’s remember that following God is not tedious or miserable or troublesome. Following God is a joy and a delight. Many times we choose to follow God but we think it is a great hardship for us. We feel we are giving up so much and it is just so hard to follow God.
The truth is that following God is our privilege and blessing. When we start breaking the commitments we have made, we find it easier and easier to sin. We make a commitment that we are going to go on a diet, and we work for days to eat right. But once we mess up, and have a bad day, we say, “What’s a few more cookies!” We guard our purity carefully, but once we make a mistake, we think “Why bother anymore.”
Let’s guard our commitments to God very carefully!
A fourth sign of drifting from God:
4. We adapt to the secular culture. Those who follow God look to God’s word as their authority and their source of right and wrong. When we drift away from following God, we end up adopting the secular culture of those around us. We do those things that are “politically correct.” The phrase that repeats itself over and over again is “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” In our culture today the same idea is present: There is no standard of truth. Whatever a person believes is truth is truth. We have no absolute standard of truth. Bill Clinton showed this clearly to America.
We are in a very dangerous situation in America, where the basis of the scriptures in forming our laws is being repudiated. Liberal judges and media sources are saying that whatever “we” decide is right, then becomes right. But that has never been the standard we have followed. God’s word must be our standard.
This adaptation can come in very subtly. It happened that way with Gideon. In Judges 8, after leading the Jews in the overthrow of Midian, the Jews want Gideon to be their leader. He says, in verse 23, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you.” He made the right choice. But then he asks everyone for a gold earring, and then he forms a gold ephod, or mantle or cloak, and in verse 27 it tells us All Israel prostituted themselves by worshipping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.
Be careful what you indulge in, because it just may end up ruining your life. It may seem harmless today, but tomorrow it may destroy you. A thought reaps an action, an action reaps a habit, a habit reaps a life, a life reaps a destiny. For Gideon, who wanted everyone to follow God, an indulgence in a golden jacket leads all israel into idol worship.
To overcome this danger of drifting, we need to throw out our idols. Whatever is keeping us from following God completely, we need to rid it from our life. If it’s a pack of cigarettes, throw them out - today can be the last day you smoke. Actually, you never smoke, it’s the cigarette that smokes, you’re just the sucker! If it’s a bottle of beer, go home and dump it down the drain. If it’s a magazine or book you’ve been reading that is feeding your passions, throw them in the trash, and find someone to hold you accountable to make sure you don’t buy any more. If you’ve been indulging in gambling, remember that the money is not yours, but God’s.
Start using it to honor him. Whatever we have been doing to adapt to our culture, we need to stop! Jesus said we would not be loved by society. Instead we would be rejected, mocked, persecuted.
1 John 2:15-17 reminds us, Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.
The fifth sign of drifting is when
5. We focus on our own strength instead of on God’s power. It is very dangerous when we look at our situation and think what WE can do to fix our problems. We see Gideon teaching us this lesson. When the angel comes to him and tells him he will deliver the Jews, Gideon simply looks at his own strength. He says, in Judges 6:15, “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Gideon looks at the situation based only on his own strength. God answers him in verse 16 - “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
Far too often we live our lives not looking for the power of God to be needed. We set goals based on sight, not based on faith. We don’t look for what God can do, we look at what we think we can do. 2 Cor. 5:7 reminds us, We live by faith, not by sight.
God teaches Gideon a lesson he will remember. He takes Gideon’s army with odds of 4:1, reduces the army so the odds are 13:1, the again until the odds are 450:1, and when there is no hope of winning, God provides the victory.
We drift from following God when we cease to turn to him every day. Kefa Sempangi, a pastor from Uganda in the reign of terror of Edi Amin, tells of the massive genocide that took place in his country. He says every day he would pray simply to honor God and to be alive at the end of the day. But once he left the country, he found himself praying in the nice terms of “Christianese”. It is only when we realize our need that we cry out to God desperately. Which leads us to the last sign of drifting from God:
6. We want relief, but not repentance. We cry out to God because we are in pain, but not because we are sorry for the wrongs we have done. The Jews do this time and time again in the book of Judges. Look with me in Judges 10:10-14.
Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, “We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals.” The LORD replied, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!” But the Israelites said to the LORD, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.
The Jews cried out for deliverance, but their repentance is shown when they get rid of the idols in their lives. Many times we do the same thing. We cry out because we have a problem, but it is only when we see the sinfulness that got us into the problem that our lives start to change.
I’m sure each of us could come up with a problem that we have. But if we really want God to keep us following closely to him, we don’t need to solve our problems, we need to renew our love for God. We need to get rid of the sins in our lives and truly change the way we think about sin. Sin is not trivial or innocent. It is deadly and will destroy us. Let’s learn from the book of Judges.
Judges is an account of terrible people who have a good God. This powerful God chose to use these awful people to do world-changing things. In the same way today, God can take us, full of weakness and struggles as we are, and change Owosso and the surrounding community, if we will choose to follow closely to Him. But we need to get down to business and get rid of the sinful behaviors, attitudes, and ways of thinking that cause us to drift away from God. Let’s Pray.
Altar Call - musicians play softly “All to Jesus, I Surrender”
