About this time four years ago (Spring 2016), 23 total strangers bid farewell to the modern world as we know it. They took their hunting equipment, along with their wiles, into the remote Scottish Highlands with the aim of creating a new community from scratch. It was a new reality show on Britain’s Channel 4. The stars had agreed to cut themselves off from the wider world in order to “challenge everything about modern living, raising questions about what we need to be happy, what we want from our communities, and how we are all influenced by society as a whole.” They included medical professionals, a fisherman, and (of course) some camera people. Take a look at the trailer for the show (show www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz3yM4NtELg).
The producers aired four episodes that summer and then stopped. After that, the wider world no longer had even a glimpse of what happened in their 600-acre patch of would-be paradise. They even stopped posting updates on Twitter and Facebook that fall. What happened?
Well, according to a local newspaper, the Aberdeen Press and Journal, all but 10 of the participants had quit, and the remaining group “resorted to smuggling in junk food and booze.” One local resident reported that “some of the participants were even seen in the dentist at Fort William needing treatment after eating chicken feed grit.” (“The Reality Show No One Was Watching,” NPR.org, 3-23-17; www.PreachingToday.com)
People start off with good intentions; but all too often, the hardships of life overwhelm them, and they quit.
How do we keep that from happening during our present hardship? How do we keep from giving up when life gets hard? How do we keep from slipping into ruin in difficult times? Well, perhaps we can learn a few things from the Children of Israel after they conquered much of the Promised Land.
They started off so well, but it wasn’t long before they began their slippery slide into ruin. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Judges 1, Judges 1, where Israel shows us what to do at first, but then fails to do it later on.
Judges 1:1-7 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the LORD, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” The LORD said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. Then Judah went up and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. (ESV)
After asking the Lord what to do, Israel defeats and humiliates the enemy. Cutting off the thumbs made it impossible for a king to hold a weapon. And cutting off his big toes hindered his footing in combat. He was therefore disqualified from serving as king, since leading his country in battle was a major function of kings in Bible days (cf. 2 Samuel 11:1). In dependence upon the Lord, Judah defeats and humiliates the enemy, and they continue to do so.
Judges 1:8-15 And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the Negeb, and in the lowland. And Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba), and they defeated Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai. From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher. And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife.” And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife. When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. (ESV)
After the tribe of Judah captures much of their territory, Caleb (from the tribe of Judah), offers his daughter in marriage to the one who captures Kiriath-sepher in the south. Caleb’s nephew captures it, so the cousins get married and the new bride does something very unusual. She asks for the upper and lower springs to the city. Usually, the groom offers the bride’s father a gift, but here the bride asks her father for a gift, and he grants it! It’s a very significant gift, since the city depends solely on those springs in the dry season for their water supply. This is a wonderful love story in the midst of war, and the victories continue!
Judges 1:16-18 And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad, and they went and settled with the people. And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction. So the name of the city was called Hormah. Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. (ESV)
The tribe of Judah, with help from Kenites and the tribe of Simeon, defeat the Canaanites and devote one of their cities to destruction. In other words, they completely destroy the city and everything in it as an offering to the Lord.
It’s a powerful story of triumph with the humiliation of enemy kings, the winning of fair maidens in battle, and the total devastation of the enemy. Israel starts well, because they depend on the Lord. They look to Him for guidance; they rely on His power; and they praise the Lord for all their victories. And that’s what you must do if you want to keep from slipping into ruin these days.
DEPEND ON THE LORD.
That means look to Him for guidance, rely on His power, and give Him all the glory! Now, more than ever, trust the Lord to see you through.
G. K. Beale, in his book We Become What We Worship, talks about the time when his two daughters, Hannah and Nancy, were two- or three- years-old. At that time, he noticed how they imitated everything he and his wife did. They cooked, fed, and disciplined their play animals and dolls just the way his wife cooked, fed, and disciplined them. They gave play medicine to their dolls just the way their parents fed them medicine. Their daughters also prayed with their stuffed animals and dolls the way mom and dad prayed with them. They talked on their toy telephone with the same kind of Texas accent that his wife uses when she talks on the phone…
But the imitation doesn’t stop there with most people. Beale says, “Most people can think back to junior high, high school, or even college when they were in a group, and to one degree or another, whether consciously or unconsciously, they reflected and resembled that peer group…” He says, “All of us, even adults, reflect what we are around. We reflect things in our culture and society…”
Here’s the point. He says, “What we revere, we resemble, either for ruin or restoration. To commit ourselves to some part of the creation more than the Creator is idolatry. And when we worship something in creation, we become like it, as spiritually lifeless and insensitive to God as a piece of wood, rock, or stone.” (G. K. Beale, We Become What We Worship, InterVarsity Press, 2008, pp. 15 & 307; www.PreachingToday.com)
He’s right, so in these days, continue to revere and rely on the Lord. Don’t rely on your money, your peers, or anything else in God’s creation. Depend on the Lord: look to Him for guidance, rely on His power, and worship only Him.
If you do that, just like He did for Israel, He will give you victory even in the hard times. In order to keep from slipping into ruin, depend on the Lord. And then...
KEEP DEPENDING ON THE LORD.
Keep looking to Him for guidance and strength. Keep trusting the Lord especially after some victories.
That’s what Israel failed to do. They started well, because they relied on the Lord, but then they began to rely on themselves.
Judges 1:19 And the LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron. (ESV)
And so begins Israel’s slide into ruin. God had told them that He had given them the land in verse 2. In fact, Joshua had told them before he died, “You shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron” (Joshua 17:18). The Canaanites were in the IRON AGE while Israel was stuck in the BRONZE AGE. Even so, God assured Israel the victory if they would only depend on Him.
He was with Judah, but Judah failed to drive out the enemy. Why? It’s because Judah was afraid of the chariots of iron. The tribe of Judah lost their faith in the Lord, and operated out of fear. So the slide into ruin begins for Judah and all the other tribes of Israel.
Judges 1:20-21 And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said. And he drove out from it the three sons of Anak [the giants]. But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. (ESV)
Caleb, in his 80’s, drives some giants out of the land, but the tribe of Benjamin doesn’t drive out the Jebusites.
Judges 1:22-26 The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them. And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.) And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the way into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.” And he showed them the way into the city. And they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go. And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz. That is its name to this day. (ESV)
Joseph’s descendants, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, conquer Bethel, because they depend on the Lord, who is with them. They start well, but as they continue, they too, like Judah, do not drive out all the enemy.
Judges 1:27-28 Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, for the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely. (ESV)
Eventually, Israel enslaves the enemy, but they do not drive them out as God commanded.
Judges 1:29-33 And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol, so the Canaanites lived among them, but became subject to forced labor. Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Ahlab or of Achzib or of Helbah or of Aphik or of Rehob, so the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, so they lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them. (ESV)
Most of the tribes of Israel do not drive out the enemy as God commanded. Instead, they enslave the enemy at times, but the enemy begins to push Israel out.
Judges 1:34-36 The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor. And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward. (ESV)
The Amorites push the Israelite tribe of Dan out and persist in dwelling in the land. The enemy now occupies the land that God gave to Israel, because Israel stopped depending on the Lord. Even though God was with them (vs.19 & 22), they didn’t look to Him for guidance and strength. Instead, they depended on their own strength and ingenuity and failed.
Please, if you don’t want to slip into ruin like Israel did, don’t stop depending on the Lord. Instead, keep on looking to Him for guidance and strength especially after some initial victories.
You see, when things start going well, you forget your need for the Lord; so if you’re not careful, you stop depending on Him.
Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, once referenced what he called the “counter-intuitive phenomena of Jewish history.” Sacks wrote, “When it was hard to be a Jew, people stayed Jewish. When it was easy to be a Jew, people stopped being Jewish. Globally, this is the major Jewish problem of our time.” (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Future Tense: Jews, Judaism, and Israel in the Twenty-first Century, Schocken Books, 2009, page 51; www.PreachingToday.com)
The same could be said for Christians. When it’s hard to follow Christ, people keep following Christ, because they realize their need of Him. But when it’s easy to follow Christ, people stop following Him, because they don’t think they need Him anymore.
Right now, many of you are feeling your need for Christ, so you’re staying close to Him. But when this current crisis ends, as it will, that’s when you really need to stay close to Christ; that’s when you really need to keep depending on Him, for the slide into ruin begins subtly and slowly when you stop looking to Him for guidance and strength.
Tim loved his brand-new house. The architect, who had supervised the entire building project, designed it as a big, open building. The walls were massive windows and the ceiling had a huge skylight, so the whole house was full of light. He also put a little flowerbed in the middle of the house. And in the middle of the flowerbed he put one little plant as a gift to the homeowner. The architect also installed a fully plumbed-in, automated watering system in the flowerbed, so the homeowner didn’t have to pay much attention to the plant. All the homeowner had to do was prune the plant a little from time to time to keep it from getting out of control. Those were the architect’s instructions.
But Tim's friends weren't so sure about this low-maintenance approach. They encouraged Tim to water the plant regularly just to make sure, so he did. The magazines Tim read were full of ads for different types of artificial fertilizer recommended for that kind of plant, so Tim tried those too. And the TV gardening programs said it really wasn't a great idea to prune those plants – they needed to be able to grow naturally – so Tim followed that advice too.
Within weeks, the little plant was shooting up and its leaves were thickening. Soon it was much bigger than a normal-sized houseplant. Tim didn't notice the out-of-proportion growth until the architect came for a visit. When Tim invited him in for a cup of tea, the architect was shocked at what had happened. By then that little plant had started to take over the entire house. Its roots had spread all over the floor, and to get around them involved stepping over some branches and ducking others with some pretty impressive acrobatics.
The plant had come to dominate everything. The foliage was so thick that it blocked out most of the light. In fact, if you looked closely, you could see a pale tinge around the edge of some of the leaves. The plant was dying, and instead of the house being full of light, it had become a dark green – certainly NOT the architect’s original design. (Orlando Saer, “Big God,” Christian Focus, 2014, pp. 28-29; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the way sin works its way into a person’s life. It starts when you ignore the Architect’s instructions and do what you think is right or what your friends tell you to do. You stop depending on the Lord; and before you know it, sin has taken over and your life is ruined.
Adrian Rogers put it this way: sin will take you farther than you want to go; sin will keep you longer than you want to stay; and sin will cost you more than you want to pay.
So in good times and bad, stay close to the Lord: look to Him for guidance; rely on His strength; and revere only Him. If you want to keep from slipping into ruin, depend on the Lord; and then keep depending on the Lord.
However, if you’re already on that slippery slope to ruin, don’t despair. As long as you’re still alive, God can deliver you. All you have to do is...
REPENT.
Turn from your sin back to the Lord. Stop trusting yourself and start trusting God again. That’s what Israel fails to do even though God warns them.
Judges 2:1-3 Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” (ESV)
The angel of the Lord was God Himself, who appeared in bodily form throughout the Old Testament (Gen. 32:24–32; Ex. 3:4; Josh. 5:13–15; Jud. 6:11–24; Zech. 3;). Here, He appears to announce judgment because of Israel’s disobedience. Their resistance to driving out the enemy becomes the result of God’s judgment.
Sometimes, when God judges people, He doesn’t deal out some new punishment; He just lets them continue down the path they have already chosen, a path which ultimately leads to their ruin. Romans 1 describes God’s judgment in terms of God giving people up to what they’ve already decided to do. Romans 1:24 says, “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies.” Romans 1:26 says, “God gave them up to dishonorable passions.” And Romans 1:28 says, “God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done,” all of which leads to “death” (Romans 1:32). Here, in Judges 2, God gives Israel up to their own decision not to drive out the enemy.
Michael Wennig, pastor of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, California, talks about growing up in South Africa, where his uncle owned a bakery and pastry shop in Pretoria. When he hired new employees, many of them couldn’t resist filching the chocolate cakes.
So Wennig’s uncle decided to let the new employees eat as much as they wanted. He told them, “One of the perks of this job is you can eat all the chocolate cakes, all the tarts, everything you want.” Sounded like heaven. They couldn't believe their ears.
They did eat everything they wanted, and they got sick of it. They never stole again. (Michael Wennig, pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian Church, Bel Air, California, from sermon, “Under Security;” www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s often how God deals with people. He lets them have whatever they want until they get sick of it. That’s what happens to Israel. They get sick of the enemy occupying their land, and it brings them to tears.
Judges 2:4-5 As soon as the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim [which means weeping]. And they sacrificed there to the LORD. (ESV)
Their sorrow moved them to make a sacrifice; but, as we’ll see, it did not move them to change their ways. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” Israel’s sorrow was a “worldly sorrow.” They were sorry they had been caught. They were not sorry they had spurned the God who loved them dearly. They were not sorry enough to turn away from their sin back to Him.
Please, don’t do what Israel did here. Don’t let the consequences of your disobedience just move you to tears; let it move you to turn from your sin back to God Himself. Give your life back to God; so that no matter how broken you are, He can restore the broken pieces into something beautiful.
Cyd and Geoffrey Holsclaw, in their book Does God Really Like Me, talk about the City Museum in St. Louis, which is entirely made of junk. The whole museum is composed of pieces of St. Louis that had been demolished, abandoned, or thrown away as useless. Concrete, rebar, rusty gears, cinder blocks, ceiling panels, broken tiles, shards of pottery, empty beer kegs, broken bottles—all things that had been tossed aside as worthless or unusable. Everything was tossed aside because it didn't belong anymore. But the builders of the City Museum didn't see it that way.
They transformed this trash into a beautiful, eclectic playground for children and adults. One room transforms scraps into a swampland forest people can swing through. Another room is a maze of bank safes and mirrors. Another is full of ladders and slides—one slide is ten stories tall! Outside people can climb high into the air through “gerbil tunnels” made of rebar, into a broken airplane suspended in the air, or onto a dilapidated school bus hanging off the side of the building.
Cyd and Geoffrey say as a family they have spent hours—actually days—exploring the different rooms, finding secret passageways, and delighting in unexpected treasures. And the whole thing is not only fun to play in, but it's also surprisingly beautiful. The whole place is a work of art.” (Cyd Holsclaw and Geoffrey Holsclaw, Does God Really Like Me?: Discovering the God Who Wants to Be With Us, IVP, 2020, page 203; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what God wants to do for you, no matter how broken you are. Please, no matter how much you have wrecked your life, turn back to Him, and let Him turn the broken and worthless pieces of your life into something beautiful and valuable.
If you want to keep from slipping into ruin, depend on the Lord; and then keep depending on the Lord. But if you’re already on that slippery slope to ruin, repent; turn from your sin back to God, and let Him bring you back to the top again.
When you check into a hotel, you can call the front desk and say, “I'd like a wake-up call for 7:00 am.” They could say to you, “Are you kidding? Why should we give you a wake-up call? We put an alarm in your room, dummy. Just set the alarm!” But they don't. Why? Because they like you as a customer.
In the same way, God doesn't have to give you a wake-up call. He's given you His Word and a conscience as an alarm to wake you up when you need it. Even so, there are times when God gives us all a wake-up call, and I believe this is one of those times. The Coronavirus pandemic is God’s way of saying, “Wake up! Turn your life around and come back to me, because you're on the wrong track.” He is doing it, because He loves you.
Matt Woodley says, “In his goodness God is always trying to get our attention. Sometimes it's a whisper; sometimes it's a heart-to-heart talk; sometimes he shouts to us through the megaphone of pain.” (Matt Woodley, “It’s Not How You Start; It’s How You Finish”, www.preachingtoday.com)
Please, don’t ignore God’s wake-up call today. If you’ve wandered away from God, come back to Him. And if you’re close to God, get even closer still.
