If you haven’t figured it out by now, I truly enjoy preaching through entire books of the Bible. I know a lot of people believe that this is due to laziness or an unclear sense of what God wants to do in a service (in other words, the pastor doesn’t have to figure out what he or she is going to preach because the texts are already placed before her or him in book form. Yet, there are several reasons why I do so and I think it is good to reiterate them once in a while: 1) preaching through an entire book reaffirms that we believe the entire Bible and that all scripture is suitable for teaching, preaching, planning, counseling, and inspiration; 2) preaching through an entire book means that the pastor isn’t free to ignore difficult or troubling text; 3) preaching through an entire book means that the congregation doesn’t have to worry if the pastor has pulled out a text to meet a particular crisis in the church (like “She just preached that because we’re having money problems!” or “I know he preached that because he’s upset at something I did!”); and 4) preaching through an entire book keeps the pastor from simply preaching her or his favorite sermons over and over again.
The only disadvantages I see to this kind of preaching is when members read ahead, spot a familiar passage, and decide not to come because “Oh, yeah! I got that. I’ve heard that one before!” as well as when people simply want some variety. Well, before you think I’ve gone completely bonkers, I want to share with you that this month’s shift to the strange and peculiar Book of Judges is an intentional diversion. It is an uncomfortable book to preach because of some of the unsavory, bloody stories within it (of which, most people only know about Gideon and Samson). I believe it is still relevant to us as we seek the identity God wants us to have in this church. Indeed, last week we considered the need for more leadership within the church from the sixth chapter of Acts. This week, we are considering the result of the failure to follow God’s leadership and the need for strong leaders in Judges 2. We could have dealt with the immediate aftermath of Joshua’s death in Judges 1, but since we’re only going to be in Judges for the month of August, I wanted to get right to the theme of the book. Judges is about failure, leadership, and restoration. I believe these few messages before we come back to the Book of Acts will challenge you, surprise you, and even make you feel less discouraged about the low attendance numbers you’ve had over the last few years.
Today’s sermon is entitled “Who Ya’ Gonna’ Call?” because I sometimes have the old Ghostbusters theme play on my mental stereo of unreliable memories. I can just imagine Daniel whaling away on that (pardon the expression) haunting bass line while I remember lines like, “When there’s somethin’ strange in your neighborhood, who ya’ gonna call?” I think that’s a valid question. When things aren’t right, when things don’t add up, when you can’t figure out what you’re going to do, who ya’ gonna’ call? You see, the answer to that question will show you where your priorities are in life. Are ya’ gonna’ call your attorney, your doctor, your professor, your mentor, your shrink, even your pastor, or are ya’ gonna call God? The problems experienced by Israel in this short series of sermons from Judges could have been avoided by calling upon God, but they had other priorities. How about you?
In today’s text, we see the pattern for the first part of the Book of Judges. Let’s start with 2:11-15. I’m going to use Robert G. Boling’s translation from the Anchor Bible today. “Israelites did what was evil in Yahweh’s sight and served Baal. 12) They deserted Yahweh, their fathers’ God, who led them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples all around them. They fell prone before them! They vexed Yahweh! 13) They deserted Yahweh and served Baal and Astarte! 14) Yahweh’s wrath blazed against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of plunderers who plundered them. He sold them into the hand of enemies on all sides; they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15) Whenever they ventured forth, Yahweh’s hand was with them—for evil!—exactly as Yahweh had said, exactly as he had assured them on oath. They were besieged!”
There is a definite pattern here and I want to demonstrate it before we get too far in the exposition of the text. First, notice this line about doing evil in God’s sight and serving Baal, the fertility god. It gets echoed very quickly with only slightly different wording in Judges 3:7 and several times with very similar wording in Judges 3:11, 4:1, and 6:1 as this phrase starts off the stories of Ehud, the left-handed judge, Deborah, the female judge, and Gideon, the judge known for his surprise attack. It’s used in the middle of the book (prior to the Ammonite threat) in 10:6 and again before introducing Samson and a major emphasis against the Philistines.
Second, notice that the result of Israel’s abandoning of God in favor of other considerations was a series of punishments. Yahweh’s anger blazed against Israel in 2:14, 2:20, 3:8, and as we’ll see later in 10:7. Instead of strengthening Israel, God strengthened the King of Moab in 3:12. In the fourth chapter, the very One who had freed Israel from slavery in Egypt sells them into slavery to Jabin, King of Canaan. The same meaning underscores the idea of being subjected in 6:1. And we see both the idea of God’s blazing wrath and selling into slavery in 10:7. We see Israel again sold into slavery just before the introduction of Samson in 13:1.
But I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that you don’t worship statues. You know the real God, so you don’t have to worry about idolatry. But just remember, Baal (and his consort, Asherah) were supposed to be fertility gods. This meant that people worshipped them in order to have good crops and good crops meant prosperity. They were the prosperity gospel of the ancient world. If you could keep Baal pleased and get him excited, you’d have rain, water, survival, success! We definitely DO have fertility gods in our world today.
Those, including God’s people if they get unfocused, who are more concerned about getting rich quick than about ethically doing business and those, including God’s people, that are more concerned with reputation and power than about doing the right thing, those are today’s worshippers of Baal.
In fact, here’s a little statistic published in 1998 in The Economist that I use in my Ethics class. According to the article, “Superhuman Heroes,” a survey of 198 top athletes conducted in 1995 had more than 50% stating that they would be willing to take a drug that would help them win every competition in a five year period, EVEN…if they knew it would kill them at the end of five years. Now, there’s worship of Baal, the god of success. What would YOU do for that Klondike bar of success?
And also, even though we’re uncomfortable about discussing it, these fertility gods were the gods of sensuality—sexuality. We live in a culture where we are bombarded by sexual symbols, images, and language. With head knowledge, we see the wisdom of adhering to God’s commands for chastity and purity until God provides that blessed relationship in marriage, but with body hormones we want to experience relief and we don’t realize how weird and uncomfortable our ad lib relationships can make us, how they can destroy rather than enhancing lives.
Even when we’re relatively innocent, we can give into sexual longing enough to allow it to crowd out God’s working in our lives. I remember an evangelistic crusade we had at my home church when I was in high school. It was the same week that we were closing out our Physical Education unit on ballroom dancing. Four of us from the youth group were in the same PE class, including myself and my high school crush, my best friend and my high school crush’s best friend. I’m going to confess to you that I had it bad for this young woman and failed to realize that her best friend was actually attracted to me. During that week, I danced almost exclusively with Gloria all through our “exams” in various dances. And all I could think about was Gloria. Little did I realize that Kathy resented this. Much less did I realize that there was tension in the air among the entire youth group because I was focused on Gloria, Gloria wasn’t really all that interested in me, Kathy wanted my attention, and Kirk was trying to figure out a nice way to tell me how dense I was. As a result, nothing real positive happened among the youth that week. We weren’t really open to God’s leading. We were focused on our feelings. We could have had the greatest preacher of the day in as our evangelist that week and nothing would have happened. Why? Because we were, perhaps unwittingly, worshipping the Baals.
Now, I’m also pretty concerned about some other wording in this passage and, as we’ve already seen, in some of the other thematic verses in Judges. I’m concerned about the idea of “deserting” God or “forgetting” God. Now, I don’t think this is necessarily a conscious decision, either in the ancient Israelites or in modern believers, but it amounts to deserting, forgetting, or neglecting God out of disinterest. I’m reminded of a story once told by Charles Swindoll. He said he had a friend who was teaching high school English and had a class full of students who just didn’t care. One day, in frustration, he wrote the following letters on the board (A-P-A-T-H-Y), followed by an exclamation point, and underscored with a chalk-squeaking urgency. To his dismay, he overheard one student mispronounce the word, saying, “a-PAY-thee, what’s that?” and the other student respond, “Who cares?”
Sadly, this happens far too often in our churches. Who’s coming to church today? Who cares? What are we singing today? Who cares? What will the pastor preach about? Who cares? What are we studying in small group? Who cares? What are you reading in your quiet time? Who cares? Who have you shared about Jesus with this week? Who cares? What’s happening in your life that God can transform? Who cares? Who have you invited to church? Who cares? We could spend the rest of our time together with such questions. The tragedy is that our lifestyles answer more of those questions with “Who cares?” than we should be comfortable with. The tragedy is that, like ancient Israel, we’re tempted to let society dictate our loyalties—tolerance over conviction, compromise over commitment, convenience over dedication, and pleasure over purpose.
So, what can we expect? I believe we can expect God to put us in a “fix” to “fix us” just like God did to Israel. Verses 14-15 tell us what kind of a fix God used with Israel. First, God gave them over to the plunderers. God let the sheep be fleeced, cheated, and victimized. In the ancient world, this probably referred to military-style raids or gang-like plundering, but in today’s world, I would suggest that God allows the chosen to be cheated by those unscrupulous scam artists, shoddy contractors, dishonest advisors, and greedy merchants. Not always, but a lot of times when we have economic problems, that is God’s “fix” to get our attention so that we can be “fixed.”
Second, God deliberately allowed them to experience the helplessness of being enslaved by and surrounded by their enemies. If economic hardship doesn’t fix us, God sometimes has to allow us to find ourselves in situations where we not only don’t control our situation, but we are being coerced and threatened by those who are opposed to what we believe in and don’t want what we want for ourselves, for our situations, and for our world. We may not have overt slavery in our society, but we do have authorities who demand our complacency when wrong is being done or who manipulate us just because they can. A bad work, school, or home situation isn’t always God’s “fix” to “fix you,” but it very often is.
Finally, I think the saddest part of this first section is that God’s hand, God’s mighty power and will that usually is manifested on behalf of God’s people now rests upon Israel FOR EVIL. Think of it! The hand that could wield the power to defeat Israel’s enemies, the hand that could reach down and pull Israel out of the ravines of self-interest in which she found herself, and the hand that could dispense tangible benefits was now actively raised against Israel. In a crude way, it’s like all of those horror stories about soldiers being shot by so-called “friendly fire” or an individual being shot with his/her own gun. It just seems wrong.
The text underscores this “friendly fire” aspect by using the word “hand” in a lot of different ways. The old Akkadian (essentially Old Babylonian) language often used “given into the hand” to emphasize the idea of being conquered and handed over to a foreign general and/or king as a possession. Israel, of course, was supposed to be God’s possession but is handed over to those who would plunder her (v. 14) and those who would threaten and endanger her (v. 14), as well as losing the power of God (v. 15) so that it worked against her instead of for her. But we finally get some good news. God intended to give judges, leaders to Israel in order to bring the people out from under the hand of the plunderers (v. 16). As long as they followed the leadership God provided (literally, “caused to stand” in their midst), there would be deliverance. But this is mitigated by the final use of “hand” in the chapter when we are told that the expected victory at the “hand of Joshua” was not to be (v. 23). Israel was full of “wasted potential” and did not achieve the full blessing that God had for her.
Yet, I want to remind you of something. God is not only powerful, but God is holy. Would we respect God if He were to allow His holy presence to be contaminated with no response? I’m afraid that if God ignored Israel’s sin and indeed, if God ignored our sins, God would no longer be holy. We wouldn’t respect God anymore than students respect a teacher’s authority when she or he never expects obedience or cooperation; we wouldn’t respect God anymore than writers would respect an editor’s deadline when she or he always lets them submit material later than the deadline. But the teachers don’t need authority just to make their students’ lives miserable. They need authority to facilitate the learning environment and experience. The editors don’t need deadlines just to make writers’ lives miserable. The deadlines are there to ensure that the publication gets out on time. And God doesn’t punish just to show that God is God. God punishes in order to put the people of God back on the pilgrimage to blessing and victory. As you’ve probably heard me say too many times, “God puts you in a fix to fix you and if you get out of the fix before you get fixed, God has to fix another fix to fix you.” The purpose of punishment is to restore purpose and power within the people of God.
But that isn’t the end of the story. Let’s look further in our text (again reading verses 16-23 from Boling’s translation in the Anchor Bible):
“On the other hand, Yahweh raised up judges, and the latter saved them from the hand of their plunderers. 17) Still they did not listen to their judges; indeed, they prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed themselves before them. They promptly turned aside from the path that their fathers had followed—obedience to Yahweh’s commands! That is exactly what they did not do! 18) So long as Yahweh was elevating judges for them from their enemies’ power throughout the days of a given judge, for Yahweh was moved to sorrow by their moaning, because of those who oppressed them (and those who harried them). 19) And when the judge died, they turned and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, following other gods, serving them, falling prone before them! They did not discard any of their practices. They did not turn aside from their obstinacy. 20) Yahweh’s wrath blazed against Israel. He said, ‘Because this people have violated my covenant, which I commanded their fathers, and have not obeyed my voice, 21) I will not continue to evict anyone for their sake from the communities which Joshua left when he died, 22) so as to test Israel with them.’ Would they be careful about the ways of Yahweh, walking in them as carefully as had their fathers, or not? 23) Yahweh let those communities remain without evicting them at once, since he had not surrendered them to Joshua’s hand.
What about this idea of judges? The Hebrew root, שפט, offers the idea of being an arbiter, settling a dispute. Of course, the fact is that it is impossible to settle a dispute without having the power to enforce your decision. The Chinese Communist leader, Mao-Tse-Tung, is reputed to have said that “Political power comes at the point of a gun.” That may sound cynical to the ears of western democracies, but neither laws or commands have any power unless there is a power of enforcement. So, we see that these “judges” were leaders who could make decisions, but who could act decisively as well. These are judges who were more likely to cut the proverbial Gordian knot than to untie it. These are leaders who aren’t afraid to act as assassins (as we will see during the next two sermons) or generals (as we will see in all of the sessions).
And I want you to see that God CAUSED these judges to stand in the midst of God’s people. It isn’t an accident. God’s people (as nations like Israel or churches like the New Israel) NEED leaders. Without leaders, we are apt to meander around, lose our focus, and lose our momentum, just as Israel did. In fact, I came across an interesting study from another denomination that might explain what’s happened in our congregation and might make some of you feel less guilty.
Out of 155 US churches surveyed after pastoral vacancies, note what happened. Even those where the pastor was replaced within six months suffered at least a 2% net membership drop. Under the new pastor, the church was able to gather back in about 3%, but it still averaged to a net loss. Yet, look at how much worse it became with a 6-9 month vacancy. Now, the church gathered back less than 2% and the net loss was more like 9%. Move that period up to a year and, even though there might have been a honeymoon period when about 4% of the lost 16% came back, look at that net loss of 12%. Go longer like our congregation did and you see that less than 3% of those going A.W.O.L. come back from that average loss of 21% and you end up with a net loss of about 18-19%. Does that sound anything like what’s happened to our fellowship?
The obvious implication is that churches, like ancient Israel, need leaders who are attuned toward God. Without strong leaders, churches start to disintegrate. And the obvious question for all of you is whether you are going to be one of those strong leaders or not. And the obvious question for me is whether I can provide the kind of leadership that God can use to both restore some of the lost ground/congregation and help guide us into a new period of both spiritual and numerical growth. And frankly, with the lack of interest we’re seeing among some of our small congregation of late, the jury is still out and (at least as of the time of writing this manuscript) doesn’t seem any more inclined to a favorable verdict than the Blagojevich jury. I’m both alarmed at the apathy level in our congregation and the consequences of seeing you go through another vacancy period if I need to leave. But, at least, I hope this survey of what happens in a vacancy period will help you see something of where we lost momentum as a congregation and why it is vital to coalesce between a new sense of identity as a church with a vision and a promise.
But I’ve digressed enough from the heart of our text. I want you to notice that as strong as Joshua was as a leader, he left a lot of work undone. From the perspective of Judges, the conquest of Israel was NOT complete. And I suppose that it should be emphasized here that as unified as this congregation was under Pastor Tae and as many terrific accomplishments as you made under his leadership, he left a lot of work undone. I hope you’ll always remember, respect, and love him as your Joshua—the one who brought this English Ministry into the land of promise, a vision for outreach and a vision for being the church of the future. But his memory will be as bittersweet as this obituary to Joshua is in the Book of Judges if you don’t continue the work.
If you’re going to gripe and whine and prioritize your convenience, your interests, and your preferences in other generations, guess what’s going to happen to this congregation? It’s going to dry up and go away. Instead of being a spiritual oasis, it’s going to be a sand dune. But before I pound this sand too long, I want to share something exciting with you.
Some people see the theme of this passage and similar passages in the Book of Judges to be Disobedience followed by Punishment leading to Repentance (leaving a brief period of peace and prosperity). This perspective perpetuates the stereotype of God FORCING God’s people to do things God’s way. I’m uncomfortable with that imagery of God as a bully or at least as a stern, unbending parent.
Instead, I see the emphasis here as being God acting in grace. After all, God is the one who is raising up the leaders. I see these passages as Punishment (God allowing Israel to reap what she deserves) followed by Leniency (God allowing Israel to receive the relief she doesn’t deserve). In both approaches, the result is to have a period of blessing and grace, but the latter approach recognizes that God wants to bless the People of God. Even the tough times, the punishment, is allowed to “test” the people of God.
That’s the same verb that we saw in Genesis 22 when God “tested” Abraham with the idea of sacrificing Isaac. At the end of that “test,” Abraham not only received a good grade, but received his son back in an extra special way. God’s testing of Israel was for the purpose of teaching them to depend on God instead of upon other things—success and human accomplishment. And I believe that the tough times we are going through are for precisely the same purpose.
Let me close with a short testimony from Dr. Cho, the founder of Full Gospel’s mother church in Korea. Dr. Cho shares about going through a period where he was working to fulfill his own ambition of having a congregation and building larger than Yong Nak Presbyterian Church. He told of trying to do everything himself, so much so that at one time, he collapsed on the stage while interpreting for a guest preacher from the US and at other times when he only preached eight minutes and five minutes respectively before collapsing. In 1981, he testified that it took ten years to break “The Great Cho” as he seemed to consider himself.
At one point, he heard God speak to him in saying to “Let my people go from the kingdom of Yonggi Cho, but let them grow.” When he prayed for clarification, God told him in uncertain terms: “Help them to stand on their own feet. Help them to carry out ministry.” Notice that God didn’t tell him to have the most entertaining worship service in Seoul. Notice that God didn’t tell him to have more healings than could be displayed in any other congregation. Notice that God didn’t tell him to have a great Singles Ministry, Homeless Ministry, Rehabilitation Ministry, Youth Ministry, or any other specialization. God told him to disciple others so that they could minister.
Brothers and sisters, whether you’re entertained, personally growing, or even happy being in this congregation while I’m serving you, you need to know that God used divine influence to get me here and that God has a purpose in having this white-haired old Caucasian in your midst. I don’t believe God wants us to duplicate the numerical success of Full Gospel Central, but I don’t believe God wants us to be complacent either. The danger is that we’ll follow our hobbies, follow our worship preferences, follow secular wisdom, follow secular ambition, and follow cultural prejudice in determining where we place our priorities. God has put us all here in this fellowship for a reason. God isn’t through with us, yet.
I’m not going to force my plan of discipleship down your throats, but discipleship is a priority for what God wants to do with us. And, if we are to have effective ministry, it’s going to be the result of those who are growing spiritually learning to grab hold of opportunities to minister. To be sure, we have a congregation of people who are hesitant to volunteer. To be sure, we are victimized by being part of a culture where we’re hesitant to jump to the front of the crowd and accomplish things; we’d prefer to be humble (or, at least, LOOK humble).
But the bottom line is that the only cure for apathy is inspiration, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and the only cure for our spiritual depression is tapping solidly into God’s direction. That’s the only way we’re going to experience the period of grace and blessing God has for us. But notice the difference between this final slide and the one before it. The more we surrender to God’s inspiration and God’s direction, the longer, larger, and more lasting is the period of blessing. Are you ready to enter a new era in this fellowship? If so, I urge you to come forward and commit yourself now—no songs, just people standing up beside me to say that they’re going to fill up with God’s power and find out what God wants them to do instead of waiting for someone else to fill their plate. Won’t you come forward and take your symbolic stand beside me right now.
