Signpost #3.
Israel has been delivered from Egypt, they have wandered in the desert for 40 years, Moses has died and passed his leadership on to Joshua, Joshua has led them into the Promised Land and led them to conquer many of the inhabiting nations, and with the many miracles and wonders and victories that this small nation has achieved, that God is the God of Israel.
When we get to the book of Judges, we see that Joshua passes away at the age of 110 years old and then we read some very disturbing words in Judges 2:10-11 - after that generation, a generation grew up that did not know the Lord and the did evil in the eyes of the Lord, giving themselves to idols. Not far removed from Joshua and miracles and the handing over of nations to them, the people of God forgot that they were the people of God and began to give themselves to false gods.
This is sad. You might be like me and wonder who’s to blame - is it the previous generation who didn’t do their job of mentoring or passing along the faith? Did they not live out Deuteronomy 6 where God tells them to keep His commandments in front of them at all times and to teach them to their children? Is it because that sometimes after times of great success, that we can begin to believe our own press clippings and think that it is all about us? In playing basketball in high school and college, something my coaches would always tell us when we would start playing well and the papers would start commenting on our play, they would say, “Don’t forget what got you in the papers in the first place,” or “Don’t believe the hype.” Is this what happened? Or is it just that the generation that came after was just an obstinate generation that just wanted to do what they wanted to do?
The answer is probably, “yes.” It is probably all of these issues or parts of each one. The people served God through the life of Joshua and the elders of his time, but after that it seems like the ball was dropped - that there wasn’t a great job of passing the faith down the line. Mentoring or discipling doesn’t appear to have happened. Also, people of faith tend to fare better during times of oppression or hard times - it is during seasons of success that we generally find ourselves complacent or unaware of the provision of God in the first place and we begin to think it is about us. And, sometimes generations (especially when you factor in the first two) just don’t want anything to do with the faith of their parents or grandparents.
Whatever the case or reason, the people of Israel have forgotten God and no longer know Him. The results were not good for them, either. God’s anger turned against them and the victories that used to come easily were now defeats. And so the generation that did not know the Lord, cried out to the One they did not know for deliverance. And because God is a faithful God, even to His faithless people, He sent judges to rescue them. And it is this pattern that we see in the book of Judges occurring time and time again. People forget who God is and give themselves to idolatry, they begin experiencing hardships and cry out to God, God shows compassion and sends a judge to rescue, the people are delivered, and then the cycle repeats.
All throughout the book we see this. Starting in chapter 3 and running through chapter 16, we see it happen again and again. It begins with Othniel, younger brother to Caleb and ends with Samson - the Japanese Electronic Maker Judge. In between we see: Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah (and Barak), Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. There are some amazing stories in these chapters. Whether it is Ehud and him losing his sword in the fat king Eglon, a tent spike being drove through the temple of Sisera, Gideon and the fleece and the army of 300, or the story of Samson (which growing up was my favorite Bible story - violence, feats of strength, and pretty girls, it’s all an 9-year old boy could ask for).
Amazing stories of deliverance. Over and over again, God remained faithful to His faithless people. And yet, we still see this refrain seven times in the book: Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. As generations had come and gone, this story was in some sort of sick, repeat cycle. Like a record that was skipping or a CD that has a scratch in it, we keep hearing the same thing, over and over. Why? A couple of reasons: 1) they never rid themselves of the sin of Peor and 2) Someone greater than a Judge was necessary.
The Sin of Peor
Way back in the book of Numbers (chapter 25) the people of Israel - under Moses’ leadership still - joined in worshipping Baal of Peor, a false idol. The result was terrible for them. Because of their worship of a false god, the True God caused a plague to come on the people and 24,000 were killed. The plague was lifted when Phineas, a Levite, found an Israelite man with a Midianite woman and caught them in the act and he drove a spear through both of them. The plague was lifted, but the giving themselves to idolatry was not cured. Joshua, in Joshua 22:17, says to the people, “Up to this very day, we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell upon the community of the Lord!” The attraction to idolatry and the worshipping false idols had not been cleansed from the people of God and when the people of God give themselves to idols, they cannot give themselves to God. This sin would be entrenched in the Israelites and they would not be free from it until the Babylonian captivity.
Here’s the obvious question for us today: are we guilty of the sin of Peor? Are there idols that we have given ourselves to? Do we worship false gods instead of the true God? I know that probably most of us don’t have Asherath poles in our houses that we worship or little, fat gold men sitting on our mantle that we pray to, but is there idolatry in your life, in my life?
Colossians 3:5 says: “covetousness is idolatry.” Covetousness means, desiring something other than God in the wrong way. Now that might color idolatry in a different light, no? Is there anything that we desire other than God in the wrong way? Idolatry is the wanting of things other than God in wrong ways.
Theologian John Piper has a list of 12 different ways that covetousness can rear it’s ugly head in our lives, and thus cause us to give ourselves to idols. Let me highlight a couple of these.
When we have a great desire non-great things, we are in danger of idolatry. Whether it’s the pursuit of stuff or pleasures or whatever, if we feel like we can’t live without them, we are in the sin of Peor.
When our enjoyment is starting to feel like a right, and our delight is becoming a demand. It may be that the delight is right. It may be that another person ought to give you this delight. It may be right to tell them this. But when all this rises to the level of angry demands, idolatry is rising - we are in the sin of Peor.
When what we want to do that brings enjoyment keeps us from the responsibilities that we need to do. When we find that this pursuit is keeping us from the people or things that should be getting our attention. Dads, if whatever it is that you do for enjoyment is continually pulling you away from your wife and kids and your role as spiritual leader in your house, you are in danger of slipping into idolatry. Whether it is your job or a hobby or a way of relaxing, if it keeps you away from your primary responsibility of leading your household and being an example of Jesus to your family, it is idolatry - we are in the sin of Peor.
There are so many ways that we find ourselves in the sin of Peor - worshipping the god of materialism, the god of self-esteem, the god of gossip, the god of saved by works - there are false gods that are entrenched into our culture and in our individual lives.
And what we find from the sin of Peor is that if it is not dealt with radically and removed and purged from us, we and future generations are in danger of falling to this sin and in worse ways than we do as it will get progressively worse. We need to be cured of our idolatry. But what we learn from the book of Judges is that we are in need of a Great Deliverer who is greater than the Judges.
Someone greater than the judges
The solution of the Judges was an incomplete solution. These men and women were not enough to solve the problem – there was something much more needed. In regards to signposts, the Judges aren’t pointing to Jesus so much as they are showing that mere human effort is inefficient to truly save the people of God. Yes, they were men and women sent by God to deliver His people, but they were just men and women and they did not have the power to deal with the sin problem of the people of God. There was a need to deal with the root issue and the solution had to come through God Himself, dwelling with us, taking up residence amongst us, and becoming the redeeming, atoning sacrifice that we needed. Israel needed more than just a man to help them with their problem. We need more than just a man to help us with our problem. We need more than just live a good, moral life and follow a set of rules and then God will be happy with you. We need to be saved by the only One who can save.
Whether you have been brought up in the church since you were born or this is the first time you have ever stepped foot into a church for a reason other than marrying or burying or Christmas or Easter, we all are in the same boat: in need of God to intervene for us and to deliver us and there is not a mere, mortal man who can do this for us. And so the call is to the church and to those outside, put your faith, hope, and trust in Jesus and in Him alone.
Let’s look at the last verse in the book of Judges (21:25). This is such a sad and depressing verse to me. The people of God have seen wonder upon wonder, and yet the last words recorded are the same refrain: Once again, they did evil in the eyes of the Lord and each man did what was right in his own eyes.
Don’t miss this truth: If we do not deal with our idolatry or if we put our hope in mere men, we will find ourselves returning to the same refrain or doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and everyone doing what is right in their own eyes. This is true corporately as a body of followers and at the individual level too. Sin has to be dealt with and our hope has to be in someone greater than men.
If there are idols in our lives - in our life as a body - then they need to be dealt with and recognized for what they are - false gods that pull us away from the true God and that cloud our understanding of what it means to be His people.
We need to remember that good, godly, moral men and women are not enough to save people. This signpost is pointing in the direction of what NOT to look for. We don’t just look for godly, moral people like Othniel or Deborah – they cannot save. We don’t look to just be godly, moral people – that alone cannot save us. If we place our trust in these things, we will hear the same refrain over and over: they did evil in the eyes of the LORD.
The only way we can avoid this refrain in our lives, in the life of our church, is to put our hope not in a man or mere human, but place our hope, allegiance, trust, faith, in the Risen King Jesus. Because, when you put your hope in mere men, they will let you down and will never be enough. Because they are not perfect. As hard as it is to believe, I’m not perfect – I will let you down – mark this. I am just another person who is clinging to Jesus as the source of my hope and all I’m trying to do is point others to Him and not to me. As a leadership, we are not trying to get you to put your faith and hope in salvation in us or that somehow knowing us will get you extra credit in the end – we want you to put your faith and hope in Jesus because we know that it is through Him and loving Him that you will find what you really need.
The Judges point us to our ultimate need for a God who is a jealous God and desires our ultimate allegiance and who saves us through Jesus. When we as a people of God live lives that our first and foremost allegiant to God and who realize that it is Jesus who saves us and not our selves our other men, then we will be the light shining bright in the darkness. We will be a people who love because God loves. We will be a people who lives differently because God loves and is worthy of our lives. When we live lives that are so radically transformed - not through morality through following rules, but holiness through an appreciation for what God has done - Jesus will be lifted up and draw others to Himself.
