Get off the Sin Cycle
Judges 3:7-11 (Othniel)
Romans 6:15-23
INTRODUCTION:
For the next 7 weeks, we’re going to be focusing on a book of the Bible that doesn’t tend to get a lot of attention. It is a book that is not that easy to preach. It gives unvarnished history of a tumultuous time in Israel’s’ history.
The book of Judges begins right after the death of Joshua. After wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, Israel has finally moved into the Promised Land. They’ve defeated several Kings and the 12 tribes have each been given a portion of the land to call their new home.
This book is full of action and adventure. It’s a book full of unlikely heroes. It’s a book where the villains are really violent, and many of the heroes are far from perfect. And it’s a book that illustrates the amazing grace of God toward his people.
Over and over in this book, you see a repetitive Cycle of Sin. Again and again you see the sad and monotonous cycle of Sin – Slavery – Sorrow – and Salvation. Even the amazing Victories are local and short-lived --- and every time the people return to sin which plunges them into another period of slavery to yet another enemy.
Each time His people cry out to Him for help, God raises up a hero to rescue the people from oppression. You’ve probably heard of some of them, like Sampson, and Gideon, and Deborah. But how many of you have heard about Othniel?
Othniel was the nephew of Caleb. Caleb and Joshua together were the ones who led the Israelites into the Promised Land. And Othniel lived up to his uncle’s example. We first hear about Othniel in Judges chapter one when he defeated a ruler in Negeb and moved into that region. Othniel settled in the land of the Negeb (south of Judah) and he and his family farmed the land in peace for several years. The battles were over and life was good … but then the people took their first turn on the Sin Cycle.
We read this in Judges 3: 7: The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
1. Turned to sin (and turned from God)
These were the two main deities of Canaan – Baal was the farm god ---and his “wife” Asheroth was the goddess of fertility. To sum it up, the people looked to Baal for prosperity and to Asheroth for pleasure. The forms of worship are somewhat different these days, but what do people tend to “worship” today? Isn’t it the gods of prosperity and pleasure?
A couple of weeks ago one of the men in our Pueblo told about a time when one of the executives in his company made the statement: “This company is our life.” He said he couldn’t help but speak up. He said, “I’m loyal to the company, but it is NOT my life. God is first in my life … and after Him would be my family. The company comes after that.” He commented that putting your career before everything else seems like a type of idolatry. I think he’s right about that!
I wonder, sometimes when I see the things we are suffering in our failing economy, if this isn’t a time just like when Israel turned away from God into sin and idolatry. Is it possible we are watching our wealth evaporate, our job’s disappear, even our land dry up because we are living the same way Israel lived … turning FROM God and to idols? If that is the case, then the book of Judges has a timely message for us.
2. Enslaved by sin
8 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.
The name Cushan-Rishathaim means “doubly wicked blackness.” A far cry from the prosperity and pleasure they were going after! That’s the way sin always is. We think we’re taking the easy road when we sin, but it always leads to slavery that feels like “doubly wicked blackness.”
I find that 8 years under the thumb of this evil Mesopotamian thug seems to have an interesting corollary to something that happens in our own country. With a few exceptions, we generally have our presidents and their regimes for eight years … then, finally we get a reprieve because term limits enable us to vote in someone with another agenda.
Invariably, after 8 years of living under one administration, a good portion of our electorate knee-jerks their way into something else. Then we have to put up with the other party’s foolishness for 8 years. What I’m saying is just this: Here in America, we all know what 8 years under one President feels like. It seems like it goes on forever.
Imagine eight years under someone who calls himself “doubly wicked blackness!” It sounds like 7 years and 6 months too long to me. No wonder, the next verse says this: 9 But then they cried out to the LORD …
3. Turned to God
Here’s where God’s amazing grace shows up. When these idol-worshiping people finally cried out to God, He was willing and ready to rescue them. And in the book of Judges, God does this over and over and over again. Most of us might have let that happen a time or two, but then we would be more inclined to say. “Ok, buddy, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me! You don’t deserve any more chances!”
Verse 9 goes on to say… … God raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them. 10 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.
4. Delivered by God
The name Othniel means “the power of God.” So we see a clear word picture here: the power of God wins out over doubly wicked blackness.
Notice that verse 10 says, The Spirit of the LORD came upon him. We’re going to see that sentence repeated over and over in the book of Judges. These courageous Judges don’t act in their own power. They are only able to prevail over the enemy BECAUSE the Spirit of the LORD is working through their lives.
God uses these Judges to set Israel free from bondage. But the power all comes from God. We see this over and over in the book of Judges, and if we have the eyes to see it, I think we see it in our time, too. I believe God still raises up heroes to help His People when we cry out to him. Often they are obscure people … like Othniel was. But they are people who have the courage and faith to let God use them. And when God’s Spirit works through his people, the result is always a time of PEACE.
Verse 11 says, 11 So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.
5. Lived in Peace
Because the Spirit of the LORD worked through Othniel, the people were able to LIVE in PEACE for 40 years. After enduring 8 years of oppression, God saved repentant Israel and gave them nearly two generations of peace. Of course, that peace might have lasted even longer if only they had stayed connected to God. Sadly, Othniel’s death was the end of Othniel’s peace.
When they got used to a life of peace and safety, the people, drifted back into waywardness. They gave their sons and daughters to marry pagans, and mixed back in with the sinful culture. And they set themselves up for the next round on the Sin Cycle.
These historical stories from Judges are much more than entertainment. In Judges we’re going to see a lot of truth … truth about who God is and who we are. We see how God responds when a nation turns away from Him … and how God responds when His people cry out to Him for deliverance.
We also see how God works in our individual lives … because all of us have had a few turns on a Sin Cycle of our own making. If you’ve been around very long, you know what it’s like to turn away from God --- to get yourself tangled up in sin --- and to finally realize that you have actually become a slave to that sin. We often call it Addiction. Addiction feels like slavery … and just about every sin can become an addiction.
In John 8:34 Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
Here’s how our own sin cycle works:
* First we turn to sin (and in the process we are turning away from God)
The funny thing about sin is that none of us ever intend to be trapped by it. We only intend to taste it once, and then walk away. But that is the deceitful nature of sin. It always promises something it can’t deliver (satisfaction), then takes us farther than we ever intend to go, and keeps us there longer than we ever intend to stay.
* Then, before we realize what’s happening, we become Slaves to that sin:
There is an amazing thing about addiction. Absolutely no one ever intends for the addict to be them. No one decides to become an alcoholic, or a drug addict, a slave to pornography, a sex addict, a child molester, a rage-o-holic, an over-eater, a gambler, a work-a-holic, a spend-a-holic ---
You name it. No one plans to claim it. But so many of us fall into its grip before we even realize what happened to us. Romans 6 warns us about this: 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?
How many times do we see a prominent person get caught in a sin … like theft or adultery or pornography … and their lives are ruined. We wonder, why did they do it? How could they risk everything … their job, their family, their reputation, even their freedom … just to indulge in that sin? Couldn’t they stop themselves? The answer is No. Even though they had to know they were risking everything, they couldn’t stop themselves.
Just like the fish caught on a hook, we can get snagged by sin … with no hope of escape. Sometimes it’s not until we get caught that the realization sets in … and then we get really sorry (in one way or another) If we’re just sorry we got caught, we’ll stay in slavery. But if we are truly sorry that we left God behind … and if we can admit that it’s our own fault we ran “pell- mell” into a life of sin … than THAT kind of sorrow always gets God’s attention.
* The only way we can be freed from the slavery of sin is to genuinely and humbly Turn to God:
You’ve got to know, that God can’t be fooled by false repentance coming from godless remorse. God will never be the victim of a snow job by a mere human. He knows if you mean business. He knows if you really want freedom from slavery to sin or not. Funny thing about wholehearted obedience. There is no alternative for it. No amount of tears will substitute for it. Turning to God is no easy thing for anyone who lets his own pride delude him into thinking he can call the shots.
Oh, the humiliation of admitting our own waywardness, of allowing sin to be called sin, perhaps for the first time, of agreeing with God that He was right all along and I was a fool.
* But Oh the JOY of finally being Delivered by God:
When we repent and come humbly before God, He does what he does best. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon us and sets us free. Romans 6 tell us: 17-18 "Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living."
Take another look at verse 18: Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living
Yes, slaves. The point is that we give up one kind of slavery which leads to death, and give ourselves over to a new and better slavery that leads to righteous living and peace. Some people don’t like the idea of being a slave to anything, but the truth is that you will be a slave to what ever you give yourself over to. Slavery to sin is a hopeless slavery, but slavery to Christ is a satisfying slavery, that leads to life.
Bob Dylan wrote a song about Romans 6 with this title, “Everybody gonna serve somebody!” (Play the song?)
Take your pick. God will deliver you from slavery to sin and become your master (which is what the word “Lord” is all about) Interestingly, the Word “Baal”, that false god to which Israel turned when they left God also means “Lord.” So you can serve God or Baal, either one of them will take you and be your master, but you can choose which one of them you will serve.
CONCLUSION:
The difference between being slave to sin and slave to God is summed up in the words from Judges 3:11: “so the land had peace for 40 years…”
God raised up Othniel as a hero who would defeat doubly wicked blackness and set Israel free and bring 40 years of peace. Our hero is much greater. Jesus came to set us free from the wages of sin so that we can live in God’s perfect peace for all eternity. Romans 6:22, "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Since everyone will be slave to what ever they give themselves to, what, or rather who will you give yourself to? Going after Baals, and the sin that goes with them leads to hopeless slavery, but Coming back home to God leads to peace, holiness, and eternal life. The way I see it, this one is a no-brainer.
