Category: Bible studies

Did you ever pass through a time in your Christian life where you were so busy, so intent on your goals in life, that you barely had time to include God? If you are like most believers, you would have to sadly affirm with a “Yes!” Unfortunately, followers of God through the ages have, from time to time, been deceived into thinking they could live their lives successfully in their own strength. For some, it is their natural state – a sort of godless Christianity that is self-directed.

Judges 6 offers the record of a time when God’s people held blessing at an arm’s length and pushed off conscious daily surrender to God in favor of trying to “do life” on their own. The first part of the story reminds us of how tough life is when we try to pull it off with God pushed out to the edge. The second part shows that when God intervened, even the believer He chose to work through tried to give God hoops through which the Holy One should jump. Today’s lesson is taken from the first part of the chapter. I want to take a few moments on my way to Judges 6 to challenge the idea behind the passage, because it is so familiar in our lives, we may miss the power of the lesson.

The scene was simple and perhaps all too familiar: God wanted to work in His people. He wanted to supply their needs, answer their prayers and walk with them through their daily lives – just as His Word makes clear He desires to do with us. Yet, it didn’t happen. They knew God was their God. They knew much about Him from their history – but they didn’t really choose to walk through life daily with Him. As a result, they didn’t experience the blessing of a daily work of God in and through them. The question is: ”Why did they make that choice?” The answer isn’t complicated: the people resisted actively inviting God on their daily journey and consciously yielding to God’s holy presence because they thought it too difficult. I suspect many simply “dropped the habit” of conscious submission. In doing so, they held Him away from them, and God obliged and let them struggle without Him.

Let me offer a simple example. For most of us, we have learned to thank God for our food. For some, it is almost superstitious. They seem to project a feeling they will perhaps be sickened by the food if they don’t “say grace” – a habitual little prayer of thanks. Yet, by doing so, they are daily reminded of two things: God’s goodness and their own constant need of His provision. Some push back and say that because it is often habitual and not always heart-felt, it is of no value. They seem to miss the point: even a habit can help renew in our minds a truth.

In building a routine of daily and deliberate calling upon God to walk through the day with us, we renew in our life the simple truth that God waits to be wanted. He shows Himself profoundly where He is bidden and desired, and where we are watching and waiting for His help. James 4:8 makes it clear that God will “draw near to us” – but only when we “draw near” to Him. We must understand something about God – His only role on the dance floor of life is the leader. He doesn’t play as a second – ever. When we try to “tack” God on the end of our self-shaped and busy lives, He stands back at the edge and allows us to struggle. Only when we are intentionally prepared to acknowledge Him as God, Creator and Master, will He pour out the fullest blessing inherent in His continual and abiding presence. This is an essential part of the meaning behind God’s statement in Hebrews 11:6:

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

• First, God can only be pleased when we see Him as His Word proclaims Him to be. Without seeing Him through what the Word says of Him – it is impossible to please Him, because we won’t understand enough about Him to know what He wants.

• Second, if we desire to know, love and obey Him, we must come to Him recognizing the terms of reward are two: sincere effort to walk with Him and honest acceptance of what His Word reveals about Him.

If I resist His revealed truth, I will embrace lies. If I repel His stated requirements, I will design my own list. My self-made religion will replace His Word in my heart and that won’t get me the result I am seeking. I won’t please him.

We have many examples in the relationships of our daily life of missing blessing because we refuse to recognize what is required of us.

• Our boss may have been watching us progress for a time on the job, and wanted to see us get a raise – but our attitude went negative over the last few weeks and we haven’t been performing near our best for some time. He isn’t able to review us in glowing terms, and the company won’t offer an increase unless he does. We can insist they are unfair, but our rate won’t go up.

• Mom has two children in the car that are fussing with each other. She wanted to stop at the ice cream stand on the way home from the ball game, but the children started a fight in the back seat of the car, and she can’t reward them for terrible behavior.

It isn’t that hard to understand the concept that God wants to bless us, but His blessing comes with an acknowledgement of His manifest presence and a heart invitation for Him to walk with us today.

Don’t misunderstand me. God is always in your life – when you acknowledge Him and even when you don’t. We don’t live anywhere where God isn’t. We aren’t talking about His presence as much as we are talking about His blessing – but the terms we use are limited by our inability to truly describe all that God is and does.

Clearly there is a difference between times we walk with God and times we walk with Him at an arm’s length. Here is what we will learn from Judges 6:

Key Principle: For every moment we walk in defiance of God, we place ourselves outside the position to receive the blessings He desires for us, for God will honor our request delay it.

If the blessing of God falls like rain, rebellion is the umbrella that robs us of the joy of wet shoulders. Perhaps the distinction between one who is seeking to walk in obedience can be seen this way: God responds to your recognition of Who He is in relationship to you, and He begins to “fill” your day with a specific sense of His presence. You will experience a “walk” with God when you acknowledge God as God and seek to follow Him. Look at the given example from Judges 6…

The Problem of Distance from God (6:1-6)

Judges 6:1 Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years.

Like many believers today, the people knew God from history and believed God theologically, but they weren’t walking daily with God in power. He was being held out away from their lives while they tried to live life on their own. God responded by withdrawing. They pulled away, and He obliged, giving them over to a life they weren’t intended to face.

What exactly did “giving them over” look like? What is the lack of active submission like in a practical way?

First, distance from God showed overtly because they lacked power.

They kept trying to move forward in life, but didn’t have the necessary strength to get free from the bondages around them. The writer noted:

Judges 6:2 The power of Midian prevailed against Israel.

We have carefully noted that the believer who resists God’s daily mastery rejects the blessing that comes with God’s daily presence. They know the distance exists inside. Yet on the outside, one aspect is that life is harder to pull off and temptation is harder to thwart when we are walking in our own strength. The simplest reason for that is that God isn’t in the business of empowering people to be more self-sufficient. When a self-willed believer prays for greater power, God often simply says “no” because it won’t help that person truly grow in Him. Think of it as the Mathematics teacher supplying the proper answer without pressing the student to work the problem in a proper way. It is counterproductive for God to empower wrong thinking and poor behavior.

Second, on a personal level, life became very insecure, so they sought alternative security to insulate themselves.

Look closely at verse two and how it finished:

Judges 6:2b :…Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

People couldn’t live normally because they were under a bitter bondage. Yet, they didn’t stop and seek God – rather they figured out another way to pull off life. This isn’t as unusual as you might first think.

Stand in a supermarket on any given day and watch the people enter. Some come in the door, haggard by life and obviously under extreme financial pressure. You can tell who they are because of the smoke rising from their exhaust pipe in the parking lot. The car has issues, but they cannot do anything about them because they are flat broke. In they come, filling a cart with groceries for the family. Now observe the “check-out” line. Out comes the plastic card – for there is no money left to buy the food they need.

There are obvious problems with the illustration, but don’t get lost in it. What I am saying is this: people find a way to do things even when those ways don’t make any long term sense. Credit Cards are often a good illustration of this problem.

The people found caves, but a cave isn’t a place to raise a family; it is a place to house sheep at night. The people fled from villages and headed for any place they could get through the night. Instead of turning to God and recognizing the cause of their despair, the people plodded onward. In fact, they had LESS time to think reflectively because of their plight. The enemy delights in lack. He dances over the hungry and hurting. He hopes they will become at least impatient with their Creator and at most despise His holy name. Where the enemy has prevailed in lives for a time, all thinking seems reduced to short term meeting of the next need. Mere subsistence living has the devil’s fingerprints all over it –and you can observe it in many communities in our day.

Third, there was a systemic way to keep them down – because the results of their monumental efforts were constantly and systematically squashed.

The tribesman didn’t simply take the food; they destroyed it and left Israel desolate. The people couldn’t become stronger.

Judges 6:3 For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them. 4 So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza,

Don’t look at the defeated believer and think he or she didn’t try hard enough – that isn’t the problem. The central issue is most often the same: they tried and tried and tried – but in their own strength and for their own purposes. They were consumed with meeting their “needs” when the real need was to seek first the Holy One. It was Jesus Who told us in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Do you recall the context of that statement?

• Jesus made plain that in the absence of seeking God first, we will find ourselves serving some other objective to feel our needs will be met (Matthew 6:24)

• He reminded His followers that worry overtakes the ones who find themselves in that state – but worry won’t help meet needs (Matthew 6:25).

• He told the people on that Galilee hillside that God knows how to care for His own, but we must seek Him, rather than the things we want (Matthew 6:26-32).

In the end, we can seek God daily and walk with Him closely, if we choose to do so. We will, when we do that, receive both confidence in our daily steps of life, and a special intimate sense of His watch care over us. For many, we choose rather to strive and strive and strive and end up expending all our energies without inviting God to go with us on the journey. This is one of the simplest lessons to understand, but one of the hardest lessons to truly live out daily, because the default setting of the old man within is “self-oriented.”

Isaiah, seven hundred years before Jesus, made the same invitation to seek God and not simply work to get things in life…

Isaiah 55:2 “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. … 6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.

Clearly, God has offered a repeated invitation to His people throughout the centuries – and now is no different. We can try to fix our nation instead of seeking God. We can work at our marriages, labor at our factories; protest at our rallies – all to no avail apart from the key. If we do not, as His people, seek Him first – the other things will appear to supplant Him and our needs will not be “added to us” because we didn’t simply seek Him first.

When we refuse to seek Him first, the temptation will always grow inside us to cite our lack as the central issue, but the opening verse made clear the issue was between God’s people and God Himself. The rest of the problems were merely symptomatic.

Fourth, God “giving them over” could be dramatically seen in the distended bellies of hungry children.

They simply didn’t have enough to cover their needs. Those families who fled to wilderness areas and tried an alternative like shepherding, found their enemy would find and take their livestock.

Judges 6:4b”…and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it.

Think about it for a moment: Look at how heavy life is when we try to do it on our own:

• We face a fallen and aggressive world,
• We deal with the old man within and stand alone at the plow.
• We may drop into bed at night feeling accomplished because we sowed – but we will watch our labors dry up when another reaps the greater part of our labors or our crops are burned by injustice.

Look with horror at how unfair the world was as they drove God’s people to starvation and devastation. Don’t forget that prophet after prophet of God’s people made clear that when a society has no regard for God, routine injustice increases. Stand back and watch in our own time as we disregard our past and our sense of justice evaporates. It is time for the people of God to seek Him first, and take His Word seriously. Repentance begins in the house of God.

The summary statement of all the misery was this:

Judges 6:6 So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.

Godless men would see the problems as geopolitical, economic and military – but the core problem wasn’t any of those things.

The central issue, the ultimate issue was the people who claimed to be God’s own were walking in mutiny to God. He WANTED to bless them. They placed themselves in a position that made blessing impossible. Do you recall our key principle?

For every moment we walk in defiance of God, we place ourselves outside the position to receive the blessings He desires for us, for God will honor our request delay it.

Did you ever find yourself there? Some problem, person or situation is overpowering you. You can’t get ahead. It seems like everything you worked for is slipping away. If the car wasn’t falling apart and eating your checkbook, house repairs were overwhelming you. Perhaps it was a sickness that swept in and behind it were unending doctor bills and unbearable stress.

It isn’t always because of our sin that such things happen to us – but the problem is that far too often it IS sin, and we know it. Yet, somehow we don’t turn and seek Him first.

We probably know the area in which we are in rebellion and for many we have decided to withhold that area from God. We know what we want, and we have no desire to give it up. Look honestly at the central problem. Don’t skip by God’s analysis of the real problem.

Dear ones, when God’s Word reveals the heart of a problem – you are getting the straight scoop on it. Heaven doesn’t spin news.

Keep reading in Judges 6, and note how God spoke through a prophet to drive the message home more clearly. In the face of confusion and misdirection, God’s Word offered clarity.

God’s First Response: Truth (6:7-10)

God met the heartbreaking cries of His people FIRST with truth. Without that, filling their bellies would have truly taught them little. The writer explained:

Judges 6:7 Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian, 8 that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them,

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery. 9 I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land, 10 and I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed Me.”’

As you hear God’s Words echoed from long ago, stand back and listen to the fact that God didn’t even mention the Midianites – not once. THEY were incidental to the real problem; the defected hearts of the people of God. God didn’t want to talk about the economy, politics, injustice or anything else – until He was first in their heart.

The Christian artist LAUREN DAIGLE rightly reminds us of that truth in her song “First.” Her voice echoes:

Before I bring my need, I will bring my heart. Before I lift my cares, I will lift my arms. I wanna know You, I wanna find You, In every season, In every moment, Before I bring my need – I will bring my heart… And seek You First!

Before I speak a word, Let me hear Your voice. And in the midst of pain, Let me feel Your joy. I wanna know You, I wanna find You. In every season, In every moment. Before I speak a word, I will bring my heart. And seek You First.

More than anything I want, I want You First. You are my treasure and my reward. Let nothing ever come before. You are my treasure and my reward, Let nothing ever come before. I seek You First!

Those are good words, and they echo the prescription for the illness that prevailed in Judges 6.

Looking back at what the prophet said, stop and note the MERCY OF GOD in spite of the wrong diagnoses that were widely accepted by the hurting crowds. The people cried out because of the troubles, not because they longed to have God’s presence in worship, or felt the seriousness of their sinful departure from God. Even though they didn’t honestly seek Him yet, still He offered mercy.

Let’s be honest: Somehow we learn to accommodate godlessness in our lives. We can go days without thinking about God at all. We are busy people with big agendas.

Perhaps when we get too sick or frail, when the number of days grow small – maybe then we will get more serious about an intimate walk with Him (we may think). Until then, we seem to easily “get over” the fact that God isn’t happy with us – even though our distance from Him and our rebellion is very costly to us. The people in Judges 6 surely did, but a merciful God met them in their pain in spite of the fact they weren’t honestly looking for HIM as much as RELIEF!

The simple line: “You have not obeyed Me” made clear that God expected obedience based on the fact that He redeemed them from slavery. It is so easy for us to victimize ourselves, and to believe that “someone else” caused our pain. When God spoke, He cut right to the heart… but that wasn’t His only response. He was at work on another level…

God’s Second Response: A Leader (6:11-16)

In addition to the direct answer through prophetic truth that framed the problem for all the people to see, God quietly met with a man and began working a plan to bring tailored relief from the symptomatic issues that caused people to cry out. God was off on “stage right” bringing a leader out of hiding and placing Him in the front of God’s people. The writer explained that once again the choice of God was counter-intuitive but clear:

First, God can choose a person in the wrong place to build His rescue plan.

Judges 6:11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”

It was all well and good to call Gideon and valiant warrior, but the man was hiding in a hole at the time! Nothing about him appeared to be what God pronounced him to be. Why? Because God doesn’t see me as I see me. We evaluate people based on their past performance and present appearance – God looks to the end of the story and sees what He will make of you. He chooses the unlikely to do the impossible, because God is the One Who will bring the victory. On our best day, we are merely USED by the Master.

Second, God can use someone with wrong thinking – someone who doesn’t have all their facts straight.

It isn’t when “you know it all” that you can get started for God. He called Gideon, but listen to the man’s response:

Judges 6:13 Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

Cut it any way you want, Gideon was just plain wrong about what he said. God wasn’t only with His people when things were going well – even though he thought that way. He wasn’t only with them during overt displays and vast miracles. God didn’t abandon Israel – she abandoned Him through mutiny and rebellion. In other words, Gideon offered three sentences to God’s messenger – and ALL three were wrong. We should be impressed, however, with his consistency! As funny as it sounds, he was going to be God’s man of rescue… but it wasn’t because of him, it was in spite of him.

Third, God can choose someone who seems in the wrong position to do His work.

Judges 6:14 The Lord looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” 15 He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”

You wouldn’t begin a grand expedition by choosing the youngest member of the smallest family – it is an entirely backward choice. Yet, that is EXACTLY what God was doing. He doesn’t work from the top down, and doesn’t care about the ranking of men. The smallest can be the greatest with His touch. The youngest can be the wisest if they will allow Him to be their constant companion and guide. Stop telling God that you don’t have what you need to in order to walk with Him. You sound just plain foolish making excuses to an All-knowing God.

If the secret to God making a servant something useful in a time of crisis is NOT:

• A place which shows great promise.
• Consistent, clear and right thinking about God.
• Someone positioned in the place of natural advantage.

What IS the KEY to God making much of one who would serve Him?

The Position of Blessing in God (6:16)

The writer continued and offered the answer:

Judges 6:16 But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.”

Look at what God offered:

• In His presence, there is victory – found in the certainty of the words “you SHALL defeat”.

• In His presence there is unity – found in the words “as one man”.

A deeply divided country hiding in hovels and holes would stand together and overcome an innumerable foe. How? The presence of God would be in their midst.

The daily presence of God in our lives follows our honest invitation from our heart, the authentic understanding of our mind, the true choice of bowing down in our will and the genuine trust in what God has promised. Someone has said:

“Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.”

Here is the truth: For every moment we walk in defiance of God, we place ourselves outside the position to receive the blessings He desires for us, for God will honor our request delay it.

Years ago George Blondin, the great acrobat and entertainer, walked across Niagara Falls on a tight wire pushing a wheelbarrow in front of him. Having completed the harrowing journey above the churning white water of the rapids, Blondin was hailed as the crowd burst into a thunderous applause. Finally, Blondin spoke to a boy who stood in the front of the crowd: “Son, do you think that I could push you across the falls in the wheelbarrow?” Without hesitation, the boy said, “Sure!” “Fine,” drawled the acrobat, “Now you get in, and I’ll push you across”— whereupon the nervous lad quickly pushed toward the back of the crowd and the security of his mother’s apron. When it comes to trusting God, many of us are like that boy. We believe God can get us across the angry waters of life’s Niagara Falls, but we are not sure we want to take the ride. Belief? We have that. But we are short on trust, and without trust your faith is incomplete. –Sala, Harold. When Your Heart Cries Out to God (pp. 126-127). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Have you seen a picture, then had someone instruct you about the story behind the picture, and then you saw it again in a whole new light? Let me offer and example:

For several hundred years, people have seen beauty in the detail of the art masterpiece known as “The Praying Hands.” Behind this work of art is a fascinating story of love and sacrifice.

The painter, Albrecht Durer, lived in Europe in the last part of the 1400s and the first part of the 1500s. He left us with paintings, etchings and some “books” of human proportion still studied by art students today.

As two struggling young art students, Albrecht Durer and Franz Knigstein worked as laborers to earn money for their art studies. But the work was long and hard and it left them little time to study art. Finally they agreed to draw lots and let the loser support them both while the winner continued to study. Albrecht won, but he agreed to support Franz after achieving success so his friend could finish his studies. After becoming successful, Albrecht sought out Franz to keep his bargain. But he soon discovered the enormous sacrifice his friend had made. As Franz had worked at hard labor, his fingers had become twisted and stiff. His long, slender fingers and sensitive hands had been ruined for life. He could no longer manage the delicate brush strokes so necessary for executing fine paintings. But in spite of the price he had paid, Franz was not bitter. He was happy that his friend Albrecht had attained success. One day Albrecht saw his loyal friend kneeling, his rough hands entwined in silent prayer. Albrecht quickly sketched the hands, later using the rough sketch to create his masterpiece known as The Praying Hands. (Taken from http://sermonsillustration.blogspot.com/2010/10/story-of-praying-hands.html. When we add the story behind the picture, the meaning behind each movement of the artist’s hands creating this pen and ink drawing becomes more significant. There is an emotional expression of gratitude and care that adds to the beauty of the picture.

In the same way that a picture may look better when you know the story behind, sometimes a story takes on even greater significance when you know the events surrounding it. Our lesson today is about a brutal struggle during a terrible war. The events cannot be understood properly sitting on padded seats in an air-conditioned church. This is a story of gore, brutality and bitter war. It comes from a field of blood and sweat, misdeeds of evil men who faced a day of reckoning when God worked through a smaller number of warriors given word that God was about to set them free.

In all that, it isn’t the story you may think it is. It isn’t just a celebration of how God worked in His people during a dark time. There is a story behind the picture we are left in Scripture. This is a story about the kind of person on whom God bestows honor. It is a warning not to throw off your armor and look for another to shoulder your responsibility to follow God’s call in YOUR LIFE.

Today we are looking at the story in Judges 4 and 5. It won’t be clear immediately, but if you listen to the whole story, you will hear this warning…

Key Principle: To be fully honored by God we must choose to fully obey Him in our called work.

When God calls you to do something, you must take that responsibility very seriously. That call may be to be an example of Christian purity in your dating relationships at college. It may be to show relentless patience at work to people who need to know Jesus Christ. Your call is personal and layered – and each part is a “God-revealed” set of goals in your life.

Here is the truth: When we decide to withhold obedience, we forfeit the special blessing God affords those who will obey Him in spite of the appearance of how it will “work out.” God may call you to do something hard, but He will never call you to do something useless. If He wants you to do it, it is because He is working a plan. Let me take you to the text of Judges 4 and show you how this works…

The Story

Israel fell backward into sin and rebellion that angered God once again. Note the opening verses. The text revealed:

First, they walked away from God.

Judges 4:1 “Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord…”

Second, they lost their godly leader.

Judges 4:1b “…after Ehud died.”

Third, God showed them graphically what happened spiritually.

Judges 4:2 “And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; and the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. “

Fourth, Israel was bound under a power with superior technology.

Judges 4:3 “The sons of Israel cried to the Lord; for he had nine hundred iron chariots, and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for twenty years.”

Now we find the people in a time of terrible bondage. The scarcity of words in the text may make you think it wasn’t all that tough. Stand back and watch as a tribal chieftain drags off your beautiful daughter to rape her because you have no power to stop him and you will understand those times. Work and labor all year long to reap a harvest, only to watch men from a neighboring city come by and steal your harvest and burn the remainders of your field. These were not uncommon events in antiquity for those under occupation. Times of bondage under a bitter hand were nothing short of terrible.

Do you get enraged when you watch the news and see injustice in our government? You are getting only the briefest taste of the oppression of this text…

Note that the cry didn’t make God offer immediate deliverance. Hard bondage is the result of heart mutiny – and that should make us think about our obedience to the Lord in our choices…Our choices have consequences, and that should make us choose more carefully.

Also bear in mind the enemy didn’t just have a technological advantage, they had an overwhelming advantage. God placed them against an awe-inspiring opposition to ensure they recognized their bondage. Israelite foot soldiers standing before chariots would have looked like a man or woman in 1989 at Tianen Men square, standing before a tank. The mismatch was astounding!

Yet, God wasn’t silent. The text continued…

Judges 4:4 “Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment.”

It may seem irrelevant for God to position a woman under a palm tree on a distant hill, singing and seeking God – but it wasn’t. God was about to speak and that distance from God that started the whole problem – because of the choice of rebellious people – was about to be solved, IF a man named Barak listened to the call of God and made a specific choice to do what he was told. Listen as the writer tells the story:

Judges 4:6 “Now she sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, “Behold, the Lord, the God of Israel, has commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun. 7 I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon, and I will give him into your hand.’”

God closed the gap. He wasn’t distant while they languished. He was speaking. Barak appeared on cue. He listened to the prophetess, and all was set to go, to fight and to win. Yet, that isn’t the whole story. Our designated hero had a reservation about the marching orders he was given. Look closely:

Judges 4:8 “Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” 9 She said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up with him; Deborah also went up with him…”

Barak didn’t just obey God’s call – he wanted to MODIFY the terms a bit. Perhaps he didn’t believe people would follow him based solely on what Deborah prophesied.

Has the Word of God said something that challenged you to think differently about how you should live than the world around you? It isn’t so hard if that challenge is personal and private – but what if the challenge was in an area that would require you to overtly stand out for God? It is easy to criticize Barak, and then turn right around and do exactly what he did. “God” you may say. “I will do exactly what you have asked, but I need something else from you first.”

Deborah was willing to go with him – but she warned him that compromise on simple obedience came at a price. When we bargain with God about our obedience, we are playing as though we have equal standing and knowledge with Him. We are acting like His command was offered for collaboration rather than for simple obedience. With some reflection, that isn’t a very bright idea. Keep reading…

Judges 4:14 “Deborah said to Barak, “Arise! For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hands; behold, the Lord has gone out before you.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. 15 The Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not even one was left.”

The story seems clear enough. God told Deb to pull aside Barry and gather forces, because God was going to throw off a yoke of bitter bondage. Barry’s men had an edge in the fight from God’s promises through Moses long before under the shadow of Mt. Sinai:

Leviticus 26:7 “But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword; 8 five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 9 So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you.” (Leviticus 26:7-8).

Barry had God’s promise and God’s call to be obedient. Yet, his force was smaller and less technologically advanced. Why would the attendance of one woman tilt the scales?

First, it is important to note that God wasn’t asking Barak to stand in front of the chariot firing squad – God had a plan. It was to use Barak and his men as the LURE to draw out the chariots into the fields of the Jezreel.

Judges 4:7 “I will draw out (Hebrew: “maw-shak”) to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his many [troops] to the river Kishon, and I will give him into your hand.”

The men of Sisera and Jabin needed room to maneuver, and the flat lands were perfect – unless the unthinkable happened… and God stepped ined. You cannot see God’s fingerprint in the battle of Judges 4, but you can in the song of Deborah in the recount of Judges 5. She sang about a storm and the quaking of the ground:

Judges 5:4 “LORD, when You went out from Seir, When You marched from the field of Edom, The earth quaked, the heavens also dripped, Even the clouds dripped water. 5 “The mountains quaked at the presence of the LORD, This Sinai, at the presence of the LORD, the God of Israel.

Many Bible scholars read this to mean that God interrupted the normal weather patterns with a “desert storm” like the one recorded in Habakkuk. This storm came off the normal pattern from the southern desserts and not from the Mediterranean. The accompanying earthquake may have dislodged some hills and made a tremendous show of God’s powerful interruption. For an ancient fighter, it was surely a sign that God was with Israel.

Wasn’t that what Barak wanted? Didn’t he agree to go with Deborah because it would show that GOD WAS WITH HIM. Look at how SMALL his thinking turned out to be. He wanted a prophet, but God scheduled an earthquake and a desert storm!

Those who study World War II are always impressed by the might of the tank invasion of Russia by Nazi forces. The tanks were formidable and menacing, but they had two weaknesses – the need for a constant flow of fuel to keep going, and the problem of operation in the extreme conditions of the Russian winter. What was a mud pit gave way to a frozen tundra. Russian fighters were fierce, to be sure. Yet, any analyst of that conflict will tell you the Nazi forces were as defeated by the Russian landscape as by the Russian people. Sometimes even the most menacing force can be stopped by the Father of our natural world.

Let’s think about what happened in northern Israel on that occasion. The text carefully completes the scene in Judges 4 of the battle in a little nearby tent, where a woman with a tent peg murders a sleeping general.

When the rain came down and the landscape shook, the iron chariots got stuck in the mud. It was apparent the God of Israel was not on the sidelines in this conflict, and Sisera’s forces jumped from their iron boat anchors and were slaughtered while on the run. They didn’t run alone. The general took off on foot as well. He found a tent in an encampment of a family who wasn’t known to be hostile to the Hazorites, got a warm glass of milk and lay beneath a heavy carpet to rest. Unfortunately, he got a pounding in the head by the woman of the house. He fell asleep and Yael took a mallet and drove a tent peg through his temple, killing the general. At that very spot, Barak would be shown his dead body later in the story.

Let’s face it, the story offers some challenges to our understanding:

• The challenge of the story is that it is told in two ways – once as a narrative (Judges 4), and the second as a lyric poem (Judges 5). Only by combining the two can you get a real sense of the story. You wouldn’t know the weather or earthquake played a role without the song.

• Another problem was the story told of two heroines and a reluctant hero. In days where roles of women are on the minds of many in the world, the story adds questions to those who want to walk with God in propriety. Does the story somehow endorse women as leaders of God’s people? Some argue it does. In fact, every time I hear someone who wants to argue for a woman Pastor, they invariably refer to Deb and Yael, and I am reminded not to “nod off” in their presence.

• Another challenge is the fact that the story offers a gory scene of premeditated murder, which makes telling the story difficult to those who are sensitive of the Biblical norms. My answer to that became clear when I spent time in war on a battlefield and learned that life is surreal in that environment. I hope the few words I offered on the pain of those days helped make this a little clearer.

• Those problems are significant, but they aren’t the real problem of understanding this story. The real issue is the story is related from one culture to another. The world of the Near East is an honor and shame based culture – and ours is not. That is why the “main point” of the story to my Arab or Israeli students is not the same “main point” often discovered by students in the west.

We don’t all approach the Bible from the same world view, and that can get in our way. Let’s take a few minutes to overcome the obstacles if we can. Let’s answer some questions that will help us unpack the challenges:

First, why tell the story twice?

The story in chapter four is meant to help clarify the well-known anthem of chapter five. The song was well-spread, but the story behind it – like the praying hands – was likely less known.

Why does the story seem so strange to the normal tone of the Bible?

Perhaps it helps us, first, to unpack differences in the way we think from the Biblical person.

• For instance, we think of judges as those in long black robes that sit behind a wood desk with a gavel, and pass sentence on the guilty.

• We think of prophets as those wild-eyed men with long beards that look Heavenward and say profound things of God.

Biblically speaking, we are wrong on both counts. Neither were “locked images” in the mind of the Biblical person.

Look at what the people of Israel actually saw: A woman was sitting beneath a tree composing songs and helping people solve their disputes. She helped people find God’s solutions to their problems with one another in a fallen world. She wasn’t an elder at the city gate, but rather a wife under a palm tree perched in the hill country of Ephraim, north of what is now Jerusalem.

Keep looking. This woman was a prophetess. This wasn’t a depressed Jeremiah or prophetic voice like Isaiah. She was a composer and singer of songs. Does that sound strange? It wasn’t that unusual. In truth, many early prophets were composers and singers. We KNOW she was, because we have the “hot hit” she wrote. The Biblical Commentator Adam Clarke noted something that may have escaped your notice in Bible study: “prophesying often implies singing”. Other commentators like Jamieson, Fausset and Brown noted that “instrumental music is called ‘prophesying’” in texts like 1 Samuel 10 and I Chronicles 25.

1 Samuel 10 told of the young Benjamite named Saul and his journey toward becoming king over Israel. The Prophet Samuel told him to approach a procession of prophets, and then identified them:

1 Samuel 10:5 “Afterward you will come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is; and it shall be as soon as you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and a lyre before them, and they will be prophesying.”

Other passages like 1 Chronicles 25:1-5 remind us that prophesying was often accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals. You may recall Miriam’s song in Exodus 15, and then note that she was called a prophetess.

The bottom line is that Deborah was a woman in touch with God, used by Him, and very wise. She learned God’s song and her constant communion with Him made her voice different. The same will happen to you if you spend deep and rich time with Him this week.

God offers only good words about her. There is not a single word of condemnation – nothing but praise for her faith and service. She was:

• A prophetess – Judges 4:4
• A judge – Judges 4:5
• A woman who was used by God – Judges 4:6
• A self-described “mother in Israel” – Judges 5:7
• And the writer of lyrics – Judges 5.

Does the story offer a basis for women in leadership of the church?

Don’t lose perspective and overplay what is in the text. She was not the head of the nation. She was not called to lead the battle. She did not become the High Priestess of the Tabernacle, or a “Pastor-in-chief.” She was a woman of God to whom the Master spoke. She was not afforded a fixed office, but deeply used by God to encourage a man to lead the nation in war. This isn’t a “Joan of Arc” story. She didn’t don armor to lead the fight. Her work of encouragement, like the work of literally millions of insightful women in history, was invaluable – but doesn’t overrule God’s expressed call when it comes to a modern church and its pulpit. It simply doesn’t apply.

The story is not a nod to feminism or some attempt to stop men from missing the value of women – that is often taught but never really the point. The Bible is clear on the equal value of both men and women, and the different assigned works God has for each of them.

In the home, a woman was not allowed to take a vow before God without the confirmation of her father, or later her spouse. It wasn’t because her mouth was defective. It wasn’t because she was silly-headed and couldn’t think straight about serious things. It was to establish the need to cover her by the men God put in her life. It was more about THEIR RESPONSIBILITY as about HER ABILITY.

Nowhere are we left in the Bible with the blanket impression that women are stupid, under-developed, or unequal. We do, however, acknowledge that there ARE created differences in our bodies. Men who know God and His Word want to protect our women – not abuse them. We want to cherish them, not trample them.

Godly men are ashamed of a nation that would send our women into battle beside our men. Godly men appreciate the voices of godly women. We KNOW God speaks through them, and we learn from them, and feel nothing but gratitude to God for giving them wisdom.

When the Bible says that women should not teach or have authority over adult men, it equally gives her a work of supreme importance in relation to other women and to the precious children God provides to us. The veil of leadership and responsibility for decisions in the spiritual work of the church is a job God designed men to do. When godly MEN do that job, our churches grow stronger and are better protected. When they don’t step up and do their job… the church suffers.

Here is the truth: wise women in the church won’t simply sit back and let that happen. They will encourage the men to get busy, lead and protect. Godly women have always been willing to push men forward.

Another question we need to briefly consider is this: Why the gory presentation of a “death by tent peg?”

As strange as it sounds, this is intended to be a reminder of some simple ironies that should encourage you:

• The height of man’s warfare technology was defeated by a simple pouring of God‘s well-timed gentle rain drops and a mixture of field mud.

• The highest ranking man in the field – a Field Marshall – was taken out by an angry momma with a tent peg.

We should be taking encouragement from this. God doesn’t need an army – just an obedient servant who will act when and where He directs. He isn’t befuddled by the high technology of men who promote their anti-god agenda – He is in charge of vast, quiet, waiting forces that can be employed when necessary. Ask the angry and rebellious Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16) – the earth can open. Watch when the evil one surrounds His people and try to drown them – the thirsty earth can drink the flood (Revelation 12). God has at His disposal massive and limitless power.

God knows that evil has increasingly and powerfully grabbed our educational institutions, our media outlets and our governmental halls. They look big and He looks passive. Never count God out. On a lonely hillside at a gathering of tents is a woman setting up tents for her brood of children – and God is about to use her.

The story may be gory, but the story recounts a terrible moment of warfare, strength from an unlikely source, and man’s ingenuity defeated by God’s powerful simplicity. That’s why the author needed to include the story.

That nasty note brings me back to where we began…the point of the story. Here again, we find ourselves outside looking in to another culture. As western moderns, we want to celebrate the WIN. As near easterners, my students would be consumed with the issue of the passage found in Judges 4:9.

Why is the major issue of the passage “honor” and not “victory?”

Before a single sling is fired or spear tossed, there was a “battle” in the passage. It wasn’t in the field of war – but in the heart of a leader. That’s where battles often have to be put down first.

God told the man what to do through Deb’s voice. He wasn’t ready to do it without an outward, physical sign of God’s presence. God planned one, but Barak couldn’t yet see it and he wanted something more immediate before agreeing to follow the call of God. It isn’t that he disbelieved the call was from God – or her presence would have meant nothing. It is because he wanted to negotiate terms of obedience.

In the end, the central idea of this story is truly about honor. Remember our key principle? To be fully honored by God we must choose to fully obey Him in our call.

Barak had God’s promise and God’s call. Rather than do what God said, he wanted a physical helper. Moses did it with Aaron, his brother in Exodus 4, only to regret that after the golden calf of Exodus 32. Refusing God’s call unconditionally, led to later problems – and the honor that God wanted to give was bestowed on another.

Think about God’s call in your life. If you don’t know what it is, you need to seek it. If you do, you need to follow it.

Why? Because very soon, you will stand before the Savior and see Him face to face.

Some of us will be called home in death. For the rest…HE’S COMING BACK…The greatest man in history, had no servants, yet they called him Master. He had no degree, yet they called him Teacher. He made no medicines, yet they called him Healer. He led no army, yet kings rightly feared Him. He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today. His name is Jesus. He is calling you to live for Him.

Soon He returns. When He comes, the Bible says we will all stand before Him. I will know if I followed His call for my life. I will be measured.

He will know, and so will I. What honors have I forgone wasting my life on self-ambition and dead-end projects that won’t last beyond the few years of my sojourn here?

Unless you have lived under a rock or hate all professional sports and don’t hang out with people that like sports, you probably know the name Lance Armstrong. Lance Edward Armstrong (born September 18, 1971) is an American who became famous as a professional road racing cyclist. He was the 1993 Elite Men’s Road Race World Champion, and won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. He has an interesting story… At age 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990. In 1992, he began a career as a professional cyclist. He had notable successes along the way between 1993 and 1996, including a World Championship. In 1996, he was diagnosed with cancer. After his recovery, he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation (now the Livestrong Foundation) to assist other cancer survivors. With a champion’s story, you would think that was the ending newsreel of a life of discipline and training that paid off in incredible dividends. The problem is that Armstrong had been the subject of doping allegations ever since winning the 1999 Tour de France. In 2012, a United States Anti-Doping Agency investigation concluded that Armstrong had, in fact, used performance-enhancing drugs over the course of his career in spite of his full throated denials. They named him as the ringleader of “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.” He received a lifetime ban from competing in all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Agency code and was also stripped of all of his achievements after 1998, including his seven Tour de France titles. In the aftermath of his fall from grace, a CNN article wrote that “The epic downfall of cycling’s star, once an idolized icon of millions around the globe, stands out in the history of professional sports.”

Isn’t it sad that his career of apparent success was left in ashes?

Let me ask you something.

If Jesus came, right now, and you were brought before His Bema seat as a Jesus follower, what would the end of your time with Him be like?

The Scriptures in 1 Corinthians 3 and 2 Corinthians 5 say that if you know Jesus as Savior, you will not face hell, but you will face a performance judgment. Maybe you look to us like you have it all together. So did Lance. Will your Jesus career end as a pile of ashes? Let’s be clear: To be fully honored by God we must choose to fully obey Him in our call.

Many years ago, as I was facing graduation from High School, I thought I wanted to join the Marine Corps. In fact, I walked into the recruiting office and signed up. It was clear they offered the best training I could find in the fields of my interest, and they accepted me pending my placement on several cognitive tests and a physical. Strangely, I really enjoyed the battery of tests and did very well, gaining some great pointers from others in testing program concerning how to gain better placement opportunities. In the end, it was at my physical where things fell apart. God used a hernia to disqualify me, and a hospital stay to move me from my path to one of Bible study and ministry.

The Tests

The tests I took were a battery of examinations that included mechanical adeptness, psychological stability and even basic moral understanding. Bear in mind I was very young, and hadn’t yet considered many “life or death” scenario questions. I have a distinct memory of sitting in that old “one piece” high school classroom chair at the recruitment center in Philadelphia agonizing as I read some of the test questions over and over, trying to figure out the desired response of the creators of the test. I wanted to do well, and I wasn’t sure what all the answers were supposed to be. I wasn’t really giving answers based on my convictions, since I didn’t have many yet. I was just trying to tell them what they wanted to hear. It was frustrating, and it was the wrong way to handle the test – but it is what I did. Let me ask you something: Did you ever overanalyze a test to try to figure out what the teacher was truly trying to get from you? That is the subject of Judges 3:1-8, the passage of our study for this lesson.

In the early days of Israel’s settling the land, the author of the Book of Judges revealed that God set up a test. Though it appeared a simple “obedience test” it was much more. It is completely true to say the choice was simple – do what God commanded or don’t. Yet, that is just the surface issue. Let me explain:

A few years ago I got the crazy idea to remodel a bathroom in our home with furniture purchased from IKEA, which I have come to understand now is the Swedish word for “impossibly difficult assembly.” I marveled as I took out of the box the one thousand seventy-seven pieces to assemble a medicine cabinet. OK, maybe it was a few hundred pieces less, but it might as well have been more than a thousand. I followed the directions (sort of…) and assembled the cabinet…several times. Here is what I discovered: Every piece affected the whole assembly. If I left out a piece somewhere, it may not have seemed like a big deal – but later I discovered why that missing piece was essential, and disassembly began. God’s specific directions from the Word are just like that.

The depth and breadth of unintended consequences (when you look at it from the point of view of the Israelites) was vastly more than the people could see at the time of their disobedience. In fact, some of the effects weren’t spotted until generations later. So it is with important tests structured by God.

That is the beginning point of Judges 3. God told Israel to drive out the inhabitants of the land and not mix with them. He told them the source of their strength was not their technology, nor their warring ability – it was their dependence upon Him and obedience to His commands.

Setting the Story

Before we get into the test and its significance, let’s recall from our last study the fact that there is no real way to understand times of national moral, economic and political mayhem without hearing God’s perspective on it all. God was at work in the nation, and God still is at work in nations around the world today. We will never discern the times apart from His revealed truths. Life won’t make sense without His Word – but thankfully, we have it. He pointed to our destination, and then provided a map for the journey.

Let’s quickly set the story of the test in three facts that will become more and more relevant as we study our way through the pages of this book.

First, the account was originally three books. One has been peeled off, and the two others are stuck together in this account in our lap today.

1) Chapters 1-16 recount the period for the “wars of deliverance” beginning with initial defeats of the Canaanites by Judah and ending with the death of Samson. There are seven cycles we will study of God’s rescue and the people’s repetition of failure. There is much to learn from each account, and we will take our time there.

2) Chapters 17-21 are often understood by scholars to be an “appendix” that is apparently unrelated to the historical timeline of the previous chapters, and marked by the recurring phrase “when there was no king in Israel” (see Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). These look like collected accounts of the period put onto the record at God’s direction perhaps by Samuel the prophet.

3) Interestingly, the third book, the “Book of Ruth” was originally collected as a part of the Book of Judges (but later removed c. 450 CE). The small four chapter book was probably included in the scroll because it was set in that time and collected as a memoir of God’s work in one family that became central to the later Bible story – that of King David.

In the end, it is important to see the “meat” of the story as Judges 1-16. In those chapters you will find seven cycles of disobedience and delivery – all pressing the same basic point – disobedience brings disgrace. You may want to mark the chapters in your Bible that way: 1-16 “Seven cycles”; 17-21 “Appendix”.

Second, the people of the book are the Israelites.

The book records a bit more that a 300 year history of the extended family of Jacob, which became the “nation of Israel” as they settled the land during the days of Joshua. After his death, Israel faltered, declined, and backed away from God. The story is a national warning, but it is also tailored to a people who had a history of interactions with their Creator. Just as in our country in our own time, Israel offered a foreboding example of a nation who began with a great heritage of belief and deliverance became increasingly and institutionally hardened against the God that formed them as a nation. The God that had, in days past, been openly acknowledged as the Deliverer and Establisher of the people was now being systematically marginalized. If you are observant, you may feel the same today about your own country.

The fact was that Israel was established by God, and she was given His commandments and covenant, and in our story, she stood on the threshold of taking all the land granted to her ancestors by God. In all of that, God required only one thing in return—her faithful service to Him. In response, she denied the Lord, she defied His law, and they, in turn, she defiled the land – so God let judgment fall.

Is it so very difficult to spot the parallel in our own time and place? After incredible beginnings literally marinated by a Biblical world view, our nation has left little place for God’s recognition, God’s Word or even principles attached to that foundation. We are yet another people who have denied, defied and defiled – and the early results are showing in the fabric of the land. Yet, those who take the time to understand God’s Word and especially those who recognize the pattern from which human parenting is derived, know that even God’s spankings are the function of His love and care. We who study His Word become aware of the reality that people CAN walk with God in the midst of the turmoil that comes from a national turning from Him.

Third, God was still at work in people.

The most encouraging part of diving into this record is the recognition that God didn’t need the nation to do right for God to bless some profound individuals. The book of Judges recorded God elevating individuals to offer temporary deliverance to their nation – most as they listened to His Word. Several brought revivals to the people. All brought hope.

Let’s grab that truth as we look at the test God set up for them. Let’s smile and remember that although we cannot change the nation, we can change our lives to please Him. We cannot change our capitol, but we can impact significantly our little town for Jesus. Let’s let God run the world while we faithfully manage our homes, our offices, our community and our church family!

Look with me for a few moments at the beginning verses of Judges 3.

Judges 3:1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them ([that is], all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; 2 only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly). 3 [These nations are]: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses. 5 The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; 6 and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. 7 The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. 8 Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

Though we are only looking at 3:1-8, much of our time will be consumed on the opening verse. The testing of God is the significant subject. Here is the truth that oozes from the verses…

Key Principle: God’s call for obedience is more significant than it first may appear. We mustn’t forget that disobedience has unintended consequences.

Israel probably couldn’t truly understand the power of obedience to the Lord and what that would produce. In most cases, people don’t. They don’t recognize that following the Lord closely in the raising of your children in one humble tent at the edge of the camp can change a nation for decades.

Let’s make this perfectly clear. Should the Lord tarry and our nation continue, someone is raising a future President. Some Sunday School class may be training a future Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of the Armed Forces. What happens in small places can have huge rippling effects.

Take a quick look at the first eight verses of chapter three and divide the passage into three simple thoughts:

• First, there is “What God did” (3:1-4). Essentially, God left nations to test His people – and did not assist them in driving them out. If they had obeyed and followed Him, He would have done for them things they could not have done on their own. They didn’t – so He didn’t.

• Next, there is “How people responded” (3:5-7). The mid-point of the passage showed a slide into rebellion. It began in verse five with “living among” and by verse six that gave way to “lived with and married” and finally “served their gods”.

• Finally, there is “How God staged a new learning situation” (3:8). The final note of the section set up the cycles of disobedience we are going to look at more closely in coming lessons. Essentially it was “God’s anger” that caused a “sale” of the people into the hands of hostile pagans.

What God did

God back to the beginning and look at what God did. I count three actions God took that set up the test. Do you see them?

• In the first action, God removing His hand of protection, marked in verse on with the words “the Lord left”.

• In the second action, God turned the perils into a classroom in verse two, marked by the words “Israel might be taught war”.

• In the third action, God staged specific tests found in the words of verse four “They were for testing Israel…”

It is the first action that warrants an even closer look, because it offers a warning that is easy to forget.

God removed His hand of protection. God did not assist the people to drive out the nations before them. He allowed the people to be introduced to struggles they were not, up to that point, prepared to face.

3:1 Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan;

When we don’t walk with God, even as His people, we learn that disobedience has a bigger price tag than it appears. Sometimes God’s judgment is not an action He takes, but rather a protection He withholds. Obedience to His Word brings blessing and protection – but disobedience brings more than simple judgment. It brings the perils of other situations we never even considered before When people violate God’s commands, standards and principles, they lose “a protection fence” that very command placed around them. Often, the fence protected not just ONE thing, but MANY things.

Among the various pieces of the “armor of God” that were mentioned by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-20, Bible students read of the “breastplate” – a leather cover over the chest. That protective covering must be deliberately placed over our heart for the purpose of guarding the heart. That breastplate is one of “right choices.” In other words, right choices guard the heart as we move through the battlefield of life in a fallen world.

The Rain Forest Problem

One of the common mistakes people make is what I call the “rain forest” problem. In my lifetime, many a rain forest has been stripped from our planet, as people looked to “tame” the landscape and harvest timber from it. It was only after many plants were gone and habitat disrupted that we came to recognize the number of species we drove to virtual extinction. Why did this matter? One of the unintended consequences of the decision to strip the land was the elimination of many plants, for instance, that had once provided medicinal values that have not been fully tested. What if that stripping eliminated the one plant that could bring the cure for leukemia or heart disease? We won’t know now. One guy’s choice on one afternoon with a backhoe and a personal dream of prosperity may have made the whole world pay a price of a lost cure.

Israel didn’t understand the long term damage involved in their decision making, so they assumed if nothing immediately perceptible that was “bad” happened – the decision wasn’t that problematic. Believers still do this all the time. Nations do it too. Wise is the nation that looks down the road. Wise is the follower of God who heeds this word.

Most of the real pain of disobedience isn’t what you see in the immediate. Unintended consequences of rebellion are often the cause of the greatest grief. Let me ask it this way: “What was involved in the “fence of protection” God set up for them in the desert that was about to come down by mixing with the people?”

I mean, after all, what was so bad about not driving out the inhabitants of the land? What I am really asking is this: ‘Why would “getting along” with the world system be so devastating?’

Don’t dismiss the question – because it isn’t some arcane history reference – you and I are dealing with this right here, right now.

The Importance of Distinctive Living

The answer to the importance of the separation lies in two simple concepts.

First, there is the concept of obedience to the Creator. When God directs, the debate is supposed to be over for the believer. How we feel about God’s standard isn’t the issue – only that God knows what we don’t – so we obey. He knows what we don’t know about risk, and we must learn to trust His Word more than our own rationalization.

Have you ever watched a movie and found yourself siding with the adulterer and not with the faithful partner? I have. Hollywood is great at weaving a tale that can easily draw you into a compromise of any value. Rationalization is often the fruit of such a “set up.”

In fact, whenever I read some compassionate sounding article that tries to get me to feel sympathy for someone who has a lifestyle that is in open rebellion to God’s Word, I recall a famous quote by Alexander Pope:

Vice is a monster, of so frightful mien
As to be hated – needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”

This is the method of the enemy.

First you notice the rebel and their way repulses you. When you see enough of them (say on show after show, night after night) they become a common part of the landscape. Soon your mind accommodates those who rebel. Then you sympathize with those who feel like they don’t quite “fit in” with you. Some critique your “stand-off-ish” behavior, and you respond by embracing them out of compassion. Eventually, you accept the premise of their ideals – even though at first you would have been able to see through the truth. Slowly, you drop your objections that were rooted in God’s Word. For a time, you feel like you all have unity… until the national ship sinks, or until the next generation is so tainted by the picture that rebellion begins to seem acceptable.

I know mentioning this is counter to our culture – because “unity” always seems a kind word and “distinctiveness” sounds like a divisive one. Here is the truth: obedience to God will often be framed as the “problem” by a world in rebellion.

King Ahab thought Elijah the Prophet was the problem of Israel – not his sinful marriage and pagan practices.

When God told them to separate from the tribes and be a distinct people, He meant not emulate, accommodate or try to comfort the tribes in pagan revelry around them. He meant not to learn to “hum their hot hits”, sing their sensual songs and laugh at their course jokes.

I don’t know another way to say this: God is less interested in a believer fitting in to the world than the modern church appears to be.

Israel could walk in humility before God – and that would produce a loving and faithful testimony. They didn’t need to be harsh to be distinct – and we don’t need to be either. Here is the key: When a believer is more worried about offending the world’s sensitivities than offending the God they claim to serve – they are off track. This isn’t about the world and their natural fallen desire to get us to conform – it is about disobedience in standing against being “pressed into the mold of the world”.

God told them not to accommodate the world, because they couldn’t handle their presence long and remain distinct. He told them to remain separate – but the pressure to be like the world around them was powerful and profound. Ask any believer… it still is!

Are we really any different? What is the price tag of laughing at the world’s degraded humor on a sitcom in our living room? What is the total bill? When and how will it be paid in the lives of our children and our nation? Can you predict the outcome of the lack of separation we have allowed in our homes?

Let me be clear: We raised some of the most anti-god legislators in our own lazy, indistinct churches and colleges.

We must recognize that God’s Word warned the believer that a lack of separation from the world would launch a barrage of unintended consequences.

The World’s Mold Press

The Bible refers to the system operated by fallen men who do not know God in simple terms; it is called “the world.” This fallen system of influence currently dominates the planet because of the agenda of a wicked prince of the air. It wasn’t like that in the beginning. When God created the world it was “good”, but that was before the rebellion in the Garden. The cosmos was radically altered when sin marred the perfect design. For that reason, Paul wrote in Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

Even in the current state, some part of God’s original design can still be seen in the world’s design. God’s finger prints are still there. Again in Romans 1:20 we read: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” In addition to fingerprints of the Creator, God’s Word reveals that He retains ultimate power over the fallen world. The Apostle John wrote of Him: 1John 4:4b “… because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

To be clear: In its fallen state, the world system has developed an opposing sense of wisdom to God’s truth and is easily inclined to misunderstand and even hate those who trust God – because they live in a state of rebellion against God and His standards. Scripture abounds with reminders like: 1 John 3:13 “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you”. Other similar reminders warn: Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”

In other words, the system of the world is both temporary, and bound for destruction in hostility against God. They dream of things that won’t matter and won’t last. Believers are told in Scripture, therefore: 1 John 2: 15 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

The fallen world is constantly pressing you to be in its mold. People increasingly demand that morality be established by popular vote.

Can we honestly say that we live in a generation of believers that do not love exactly what the world loves? Do we live distinctly?

Perhaps it is time for us to remember that our salvation was (in part) to pull us out of the world system and empower us to walk in a way pleasing to our Heavenly Father.

Galatians 4:3 says were WERE “in bondage under the elements of the world” but through our salvation Jesus (Galatians 1:4) “gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father”. Paul described God’s salvation as (Ephesians 2:10) “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Though the current status of the fallen world is operated under Satanic dominion (Ephesians 6:12), our real problem is that it is possible for a believer to show greater allegiance for this fallen world then for the things of God by their walk, as Demas did in 2 Timothy 4:10.

It isn’t impossible for believers to please God while in this world, but only if we intentionally walk in the distinctiveness of living according to the instruction of His Holy Word.

As surprising as it sounds to some – that isn’t a message of works, but the very essence of the message of God’s grace. Listen carefully to the words of Paul to Titus:

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of [h]our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. 15 These things speak and exhort and reprove with all [i]authority. Let no one disregard you.

Paul said: Grace appeared and delivered salvation – but that isn’t all it did. Grace also instructs us to deny ungodliness in our lives as believers. It doesn’t provide license, but rather calls us to walk away from making our lives about what the world values. We are called by grace to live with sensitivity toward God’s desires for us. We anticipate, not the lauding of the world, but the coming of the Lord. Jesus saved us to remove us from living a life of rebellion. He is working in us to purify us and make us hungry to do what pleases Him. That is at the heart of our message.

Indistinct living brings calamity.

Mixing our walk with the world’s values will bring immediate popularity – but long term disaster. The world doesn’t want a distinct church. It wants a harmless, toothless, pablum-filled, sentiment-based church. It wants a church of happy thoughts and hapless behavior that offers reinforcement to any popular sin. Look down at verse 8, and you will see the calamity… God’s anger and man’s enslavement..

Judges 3:8 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

God’s call for obedience is more significant than it first may appear. We mustn’t forget that disobedience has unintended consequences.

What will be the consequences to a nation that defines its core unit of family on the whim of those who act in flagrant rebellion against the Bible? How will parades look in the coming years when sensuality and vulgarity are openly accepted? What will our nation look like when open hostility to believers is widely accepted as justified?

Get a bit more personal for a moment. What will your children grow to be like when they emulate the TV shows you have watched and the movies you have talked about? Listen to the lyrics of the songs you have stored in your heart from the world. Do you want your children to live out those values? People often make the mistake of thinking they can see ahead clearly:

The term cobra effect stems from an anecdote set at the time of British rule of colonial India. The British government was concerned about the number of venomous cobra snakes in Delhi. The government therefore offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially this was a successful strategy as large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. Eventually, however, enterprising persons began to breed cobras for the income. When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped, causing the cobra breeders to set the now-worthless snakes free. As a result, the wild cobra population further increased. The apparent solution for the problem made the situation even worse.

Are you SURE you know what your compromises of obedience truly cost?

The problem in today’s lesson can be boiled down to one of “selective hearing.” Do you know someone (or are you perhaps married to them?) who hears only part of what you say?

Let’s admit it. Sometimes we don’t get the whole story, but we think we did! Consider for a few minutes the truth involved in hearing part of the Word…

All the way back to your classwork at school, you learned to grasp the concept of “outcomes.” If you studied hard, you probably got a better grade. Later, you entered the working world and got a job, so that your faithful labors entitled you to a paycheck. This is simple effort and benefit, work and outcome. In my lifetime, the idea of “outcomes” was applied to education (called OBE, or “Outcome-based education”). This was a learning theory floated in the public educational system beginning with the generation that graduated from college in the 1960’s, amid the turmoil of that period. It was an “equality” based idea that many paired with the desegregation movement of my youth.

The idea was this: education should provide an experience in which each student should have an achievable goal presented, and each should be able to attain that goal through their individual learning style. The role of the teacher was reduced from authoritarianism to more of a trainer or facilitator and/or mentor. In light of the rebellion of our youth, some thought it necessary to apply more “reasoning apparatus” to help students draw their own conclusions and reduce the sense of gap between authoritarian teacher and student. By the early 1990’s, the United States formally adopted OBE programs and it has been somewhat adapted over the years.

The American people seemed eager to accept drastic surgery on our public education system and state departments of education seized the opportunity to press acceptance of OBE as the cure. The theory collided against parents across America who were even more agitated than they were about explicit sex education. Thousands gathered in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio in reaction. For many, it felt like the schools were “dumbing down” information to help those who were slowest to gain some mastery of the fundamentals. One parent expressed it this way: “If OBE were applied to basketball, the basket would have to be lowered so all could score equally.”

This is not an attempt to evaluate OBE education, but rather to explain the term “outcome-based” as it applies to a community and standards. In this lesson, I would like to apply the term to an elemental understanding of how God works with people. It will take some time and patience to grasp this idea, but I believe it will be well worth your time.

Let me set up the subject this way: I believe immature followers of Jesus struggle because of a wrong concept that was, and is, often unintentionally taught from the Word in an incomplete way. One of the chief places where that wrong understanding is derived is the book we are studying, the Book of Judges.

Think of it this way: Many believers learned a form of “do right to get right” thinking. The idea is this: If I obey God, my life will go well. An offshoot of this can be found in the faulty giving strategy” “Give a dollar and God will give back ten-fold.” The problem is, while these things may happen, God has NOT guaranteed them to happen in every believer at every time as some teachers seem to claim. In fact, the Word is filled with people like Job, Daniel and early Christian Apostles who “did right” but received in response either trouble, persecution or pain.

The truth is more complicated than just “do right and get right” because life is measured by God in eternal terms, not temporal terms. The outcome we should be expecting for choosing obedience and placing our trust in God’s Word should reflect that thinking. Here is the truth for the mature believer’s understanding…

Key Principle: The prize of life isn’t material blessing, but a walk confident of the presence of God.

To understand this concept, let’s first explore where this “outcome-based” obedience thinking came from in the text of Scripture – because it IS represented in Scripture, but is not the whole picture. Knowledge of partial truth is often dangerous.

Knowing that a car needs fuel is only part of the story. Knowing which type of fuel must also be a part of that knowledge. Recognizing you need a tank with you to dive into the depths of the ocean is important, but having it filled with oxygen is also an important part of the survival puzzle.

Look at a few verses that set up a pattern for much of the Book of Judges. The chapter (Judges 3) offers two of the “seven cycles of sin” presented in Judges 3-16. Remember, that is the core teaching section, because after Judges 16:31, the rest of the “book” contains unlinked stories in what could be called an “Appendix section.”

The First Sin Cycle Illustrated: Othniel delivers Israel from the Mesopotamian domination (3:7-14)

Watch for the pattern that will unfold in seven repetitions through chapter 16. First, note the sin that set the cycle in motion (3:7):

Judges 3:7 The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

• They did evil (3:7) – or they “actively performed works that dishonored God.”
• They forgot God (3:7) – they lived life on their own and didn’t walk with God deliberately and daily.
• They served Baals and Asheroth (3:7) – they diverted their devotion from God to better accepted expressions of religious fervor that were more publicly accepted by those around them.

When sin’s seed took root, the Lord responded. Note that His response was the distance they seemed to want. It is hard for people to understand that God is not pushy. He waits to be wanted. The sadness is that many live life without the understanding of how much they need Him. In our distance from Him, it is our life that withers; our vitality that slips away…

Now observe how their spiritual servitude of another was illustrated in physical bondage (3:8):

Judges 3:8 Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of [j]Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

• The anger of the Lord was kindled (3:8). Don’t forget two important Biblical concepts we have studied in the past:

First, because God does something doesn’t mean we can justify doing it. God can boast, because the truth is that He is the highest and best – we cannot. He can be angry and respond with perfection –we cannot. Jesus could hang out with the dregs of society and yet not sin – we need to be very careful about thinking that licenses behavior on our part unless the Word explicitly invites that behavior.

Second, remember that emotional terms when applied to God often have very different meanings than when applied to men. God is not a man. He is also the only One Who is what He is. Every descriptive term applied to God needs to be examined as “God the One and Only!”

• He sold them into hands of foreign king (3:8). The “sale” on earth was a symbolic symptom of what their hearts already did. People were designed to serve God. Absent that truth, they will fill their hearts with the gods of fortune, fame, power or pleasure – and try to find solace in these others. Instead of freedom which comes from living out the truth, they will find the substitutes to invariably lead them into slavery.

Only when the world around us falls apart and our enslavement is apparent to us, do we begin to seek God for relief. In that moment, we don’t actually want God – just relief from the physical struggles. Yet, God listens and uses that broken heart as an opening…Watch for their cry or “supplication” to God (3:9a):

Judges 3:9 “When the sons of Israel cried to the LORD…”

Enter the strong hand of the Saving God. Note God’s rescue, deliverance or “salvation” (3:9b-11):

Judges 3:9b”…the LORD raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.10 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went out to war, the LORD gave Cushan-rishathaim king of [k]Mesopotamia into his hand, so that [l]he prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.

The outcome of God’s hand is a time of rest from the struggles. As God’s rescue stabilized the people, they experienced national security and stability (3:9b-11):

Judges 3:11 Then the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

Security can easily lead us to complacency about our walk with God – even though the security is derived from our walk with Him. Watch as the forty years of peace gave way in a new “slide” away from God (3:12-14):

Judges 3:12 Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD. 13 And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and [m]defeated Israel, and they possessed the city of the palm trees. 14 The sons of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

That’s the pattern, and it will be repeated six more times:

• Sin: walking outside the expressed commands of God’s Word.
• Servanthood: invariably sin leads to a penalty of enslavement and bondage, a heightened insecurity.
• Supplication: the bondage leads even the hardened believer to cry out in pain and promise to walk straight!
• Salvation: the Lord responds to the call of the wounded heart, in an effort to teach us His faithfulness – even in our disobedience!
• Security: the people enjoyed a time of national freedom and external stability.
• Slide: the problem is, when relief comes, we slide back to old habits.

In the end, there is a clear and unmistakable truth that Godly leadership in national life brings peace. The lack of it produces increased tension and strife both at home and abroad. In addition, it should also become clear that Israel’s servitude of other nations was meant as an illustration of the loss of privilege of serving God!

How do I know that is what God intended us to grasp from this historical account?

That’s a fair question. The account is a history, and God uses history to teach us deeper lessons. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul spoke about Moses and the children of Israel coming through the heat of the desert grumbling and disobeying God. Paul made the specific point that” 1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” If you intensively study the Word, it appears this is not an unusual feature of God’s use of history in the Biblical text.

Let’s look at it in this case…

First, remember the pattern teaches something important:

• Cycle One: The sin of Israel started the problem of the first cycle of learning (3:4). Eight years of servitude to Cushan-rishathaim of Mesopotamia followed (3:8). The cry (supplication) of God’s people in 3:8, resulted in God providing Othniel, nephew of Caleb, to bring about 40 years of stability and security (3:11).

• Cycle Two: The sin of Israel started the problem of the second cycle of learning (3:12). Eight years of servitude to Eglon of Moab followed (3:13). The cry (supplication) of God’s people in 3:14, resulted in God providing Ehud, son of Gera (3:15) and Shamgar, son of Anath (3:31), to bring about 80 years of stability and security (3:30).

• Cycle Three: The sin of Israel started the problem of the third cycle of learning (4:1). Twenty years of servitude to Jabin of Hazor followed (4:3). The cry (supplication) of God’s people in 4:3, resulted in God providing Deborah and Barak (4:4-5:31), to bring about 40 years of stability and security (5:31).

• Cycle Four: The sin of Israel started the problem of the fourth cycle of learning (6:1). Seven years of servitude to Midian chieftains followed (6:1). The cry (supplication) of God’s people in 6:1, resulted in God providing Gideon, son of Joash (6:7-8:27), to bring about 40 years of stability and security (8:28).

• Cycle Five: The sin of Israel started the problem of the fifth cycle of learning (8:33-35). Three years of internal national servitude to Abimilech’s tyranny followed (9:1). The cry (supplication) of God’s people in 9:22, resulted in God providing Tolah, son of Puah (23 years) and Yair the Gileadite (22 years, 10:1), to bring about about 45 total years of stability and security (10:2-3).

• Cycle Six: The sin of Israel started the problem of the sixth cycle of learning (10:6). Eighteen years of servitude to Philistines and Ammonites followed (10:7). The cry (supplication) of God’s people in 10:8 (cp. 10:14), resulted in God providing Jepthah (six years), Ibzan (7 years) and Abdon (8 years, cp. 12:7ff) as part of His plan to bring about 31 years of stability and security (12:7-14).

• Cycle Seven: The sin of Israel started the problem of the seventh cycle of learning (13:1). Forty years of servitude to the Philistines followed (13:1). The cry (supplication) of God’s people in 13:1, resulted in God providing Samson, son of Manoah (13:24ff), to bring about 20 years of stability and security (16:31).

It is clear, then, the cycles are quite consistent and offer the same picture over and over. One may extract from that pattern this is THE ONLY THING WE NEED KNOW to recognize the hand of God at work – and that would be WRONG.

Second, carefully identify how forsaking God was highlighted as the key reason for trouble and an end of internal and peace and external stability.

You see the terms “forgot” and/or “forsook” God at the beginning of each problematic time in places like 3:5-7; 3:12; 4:1; 6:1; 8:33-35; 10:6 and 13:1. The physical bondage of God’s people was illustrative of their own choice.

That’s worth remembering. People often highlight “bad things” that happen to them, but not the choices about their walk with God that led to the circumstances. Very often, tough circumstances are symptoms of something more. Most often, they are unintended consequences of spiritual hardening. Others cannot see our heart, but we know that was often at the center of the problem if we have learned to be sensitive to God’s Spirit.

Third, note how Scripture identifies an example or leader as the pivotal issue in following God’s way.

Don’t neglect another important issue God wanted to be clear to the nation. Most every cycle from the second to the seventh began with a note of the leader or rescuer’s death. We read: “Othniel died in 3:11; Ehud “died” in 4:1; Gideon “died” in 8:32; Jair “died” in 10:5 and Abdon “died” in 12:15. If you follow the cycles, the death was linked to the forsaking of the people. Let’s say it again so we are clear: Godly leadership in national life brings peace. The lack of it produces increased tension and strife both at home and abroad.

If you are godly and engaged in leadership – your example matters. Your testimony may be holding back the enemy in the lives of your children and grandchildren. Your prayer is not wasted and your example is not superfluous.

It is clear that God intended the nation to recognize the need for leaders, the need to walk with Him, and the need to resist a slide into spiritual bondage that would end up in physical bondage. But there is a problem if that is all we learn from our study of God’s Word in this section.

Young followers in Jesus take the lessons of the nation and unconsciously transfer them to a formula: “Do right and get blessing.” By that, they mean blessings of peace and prosperity in this life. The Sunday School version of Judges can be reduced to this: “When the people walked with God, the Lord brought them peace.”

That’s fine in itself, but that lesson must be matched by other lessons in the Word to offer the whole picture, or we will fail to identify other ways God works with us. That “truth brick” must be fit into the wall with other truth bricks of the same value taught elsewhere. If we fail to place this vital lesson in the context of other places in the Word, we are likely to be frozen into a “give to get” mentality. Many believers end there.

They say: “Do you want prosperity and happiness? Simply obey God! It is a guarantee.” The problem is: if your prize is temporal – it may not work. That doesn’t always work, because it isn’t a whole picture, and it doesn’t measure things the way God does.

• With Job, God’s lessons to the angelic world were more important than Job’s comfort.

• With Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah God’s testimony through the men before the godless government was a more important agenda than their apparent safety.

• With Peter and John, God’s call for standing with Him, against the authorities that were calling them to abandon obedience to God’s call, was more important for the growth and testimony of the early church than the Apostle’s freedom of movement.

• With the first century carriers of the message of the Gospel, it was more important they showed absolute trust in God’s Word for the spread of the faith, then that their lives be spared.

• In the history of the church, a great many were martyred because God saw fit to increase the message of the church through the sacrifice of their lives.

Here is the mature believer’s understanding: Individual obedience doesn’t guarantee material peace and prosperity but does guarantee confidence and the sense of God’s presence as we follow Him.

Outcome-based thinking is about a “pay off” for the effort. Heaven becomes a “paycheck” for “good living” and obedience in cases like that. The problem is, the prize isn’t Heaven – it is unending time with God.

A more accurate way of looking at the truth is this: Obedience brings confidence in God’s continued presence with us. It bolsters our sense that He is guiding us as we walk through the darkness of a fallen world. The reward will be the full manifestation of the presence of God in a perfect and eternal habitation. It will be time enveloped in Him and surrounded by continual light.

What then, is the purpose of this record in Judges? There is a consistency of God’s Word in this regard: Whereas individual obedience doesn’t guarantee peace and prosperity – but rather the presence of God, collective national obedience seemed to do both. Nationally, the Bible is filled with examples of God’s call to His people to walk closely with Him (as a national entity) and receive a measurable series of blessings along with a sense of His presence.

Since we don’t really have “Christian nations” in this time, and since most of the history of the world has not had them, how does this lesson help us?

First, we have seen what happened when God’s Word was, to some greater extent, upheld as the basis of justice. Because our following of it was incomplete, so were the blessings of it. At the same time, how can one ignore the results?

Second, without a Christian nation, we are not fully exempted from the national plan of obedience. There are still things for which believers remain in charge. To that end, 1 Peter 2:9 appears to transfer the need to seek God among the “nation” of the believers, regardless of what the national entity under which you are living does.

These truths, then, set the tone for the rest of the study of this book. We “guard the paths” of the nation when we exemplify Biblical understanding, Godly justice, Spirit-filled compassion and holy fires of righteous desire as His people. When we apply that, we live it in the church, and lovingly persuade for it in national life where we are given opportunity.

• To be clear, we teach, study, examine and follow God’s Word in the church. Our main objective is not to attract the world by what we do, but to grow the believer and allow the attitudes and community produced by the results of that teaching in transformed minds to attract others. If we “lift up Jesus” by teaching and showing “Cross life” service and selflessness – others will be drawn.

• In public life, we can indicate the Biblical truth that “the works of the flesh” as enumerated in Galatians 5 bring about increased pain and peril to the cohesiveness of the community. We can show a sharp point to the contrast of the ethic of deliberate obedience (even with its human limitations) to God’s Word as a nation, and show how the increasing departure from those points have weakened the nation.

When the church is focused and growing and the world begins to feel the fragmentation is too great in their society, the soil becomes ripe for a revival of the land. Revival has been based in the past on the concentration of believers on two objectives: careful following of Jesus among the believers and confident testimony before the world. The final ingredient is the variable – the will of the Spirit of God. Again, doing right will give the church confidence and an inner sense of peace in God’s presence, not necessarily a revival. Careful obedience invites God to work in us and our national home while it offers the greater guarantee of His pleasing smile on our efforts. God is happy with His will done His way.

The prize of life isn’t material blessing, but a walk confident of the presence of God.

It is only in obedience and constant, deliberate surrender to God’s direction that we have enduring confidence about life’s circumstances. Troubles in such a life become opportunities to sit at the Master’s feet or cry in His arms. Victories become joyous occasions of dancing with the Master.

Can we not admit that we simply don’t understand the lessons of God in this life? Often we think God isn’t giving us what we need, when He is giving us all we need by standing beside us and walking through life with us.

I read recently the story of a 10-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident. The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training, the master had taught him only one move. “Sensei,” the boy finally said, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?” “This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei replied. Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be over matched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened. “No,” the sensei insisted, “Let him continue.” Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion. On the way home, the boy and the sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind: “Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?” “You won for two reasons,” the sensei answered. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.” The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength. When he trusted his master and listened to his voice – he was able to attain victory.

• More than wealth, you want to walk with the Maker of all the things wealth can buy.
• More than fame in the eyes of the fallen world, you want your Creator to inscribe your name in His book.
• More than command of thousands, you want to hear the commendation of the One Who alone can say: “Well done, good and faithful servant!
• More than comforts of this life, you want to stand in Heaven at home with the God Who brought you to Himself.

Don’t focus on the mirage of now. The prize is there. The prize isn’t streets of gold. It is unending, intimate time with the God Who made you.

Here’s the good news. You don’t have to wait until you die to begin to experience a taste of the prize. You can invite God into your daily walk, your business meetings, and even your quiet walks in the woods. You may look alone to others, but you will know that you are not. You are nibbling at the prize that will one day be your total reality.

There is an old saying: “There are two sides to every story.” The saying persists, because though it is not always true – it is often true. In our modern world of two political narratives and a divided nation, it has become the “go to” explanation of things…

This week in our nation, that old saying could easily have been employed when a man selling CDs in front of a convenience store was shot and killed by a policeman. Was the man reaching for a gun? Were the police on the scene overzealous or biased against him? The hope for the truth is being placed in the number of cameras that recorded the events, and on the testimony of policeman and the handful of bystanders. Scanning the TV, you will find two very different stories here. One will tell of the man’s many egregious violations of the law throughout his life; the other will speak mainly of his skin color, statistics of police brutality, and counting the number of shots fired. Americans have two narratives to follow, and two framings of the same tragic story… and many aren’t sure what to believe, or what truly happened. The ones who are surest are the ones who don’t need the evidence to draw a conclusion.

During the same week, an FBI Director went on camera and described a series of security lapses and mistakes performed by a former Secretary of State of our country. The fact that the Secretary’s mishandled email included classified materials is clear to all but to the Secretary herself. The fact that these materials were handled in ways that have gotten other citizens terminated from secure positions and (in some cases) even jailed is not under dispute. The issue outlined by the FBI was this: it didn’t appear intentional and the Secretary probably didn’t mean anything wrong by it – for the technology was evolving and there was bound to be some misunderstanding in it. Americans were left with two sides, both with their respective pundits and media outlets. Some will trace a trail of her statements that don’t seem to line up with what we have been told; others will dismiss the record as strictly a political attack over a simple lapse in judgment and move on. We have two tales about the emails.

We can all agree it is getting harder to see what is really going on in one story after another.

It seems the right time to begin our series called “Guarding the Path” from the Book of Judges. It seems we can identify a time when “everyone did that which was right in their own eyes.” Yet, the series is designed to encourage you, not itemize the problems of our time.

If you look closely at Judges… God was mightily at work in a few, while the nation was passing from one tumultuous time to another. Consider for a moment that God explained why the times were so bad and His deliverance seemed largely withheld. He said:

Judges 2:21 I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, 22 in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not.” 23 So the Lord allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

Did you notice the Lord’s hand for the advancement of the nation was removed?

It was an intentional act of God. I do not know if that is happening to our nation – all I can say is that it appears as though that may be the case. I will not fixate on that part of the story – because that is God’s part. Rather, let’s look, as we follow the series, for the ways we can pass the test. In Judges 2:22, the purpose of the failures, reversals and struggles of the nation were for God to test His people and see if they would guard what He called “the way of the Lord”. Let’s make that our focus. Let’s seek to find ways to walk with God in the midst of the tumult.

The truth is, we can’t change the guardians of our country in Washington much, but we can change our guardianship of the truth in our homes, in our church, and in our life. We can’t make people recognize how many lies we have come to accept in our society, but we can know truth and lovingly but stubbornly communicate it in the forums where God places us.

Look at Judges 1 and 2 for a few minutes. I want you to consider the record we have as a view offered when God folded back the curtain from Heaven and made clear the second view of the story of a sliding nation. I want to persuade you to recognize a truth that I believe can be uncovered from a careful study of these chapters…

Key Principle: The upheavals and struggles of national political, economic and social strife cannot be understood without recognizing the spiritual battles raging behind them.

The first two chapters of Judges tell the same story two times. There are two stories of what happened in the generation that followed Joshua.

• The first one is the “Nightly News” perspective that could have been told by any reporter, found in Judges 1.

• The second was a more delicate perspective – that of the “spiritual realities” behind the moral and political slide by those who walked away from God.

What the world noted in a strange string of events could only truly be understood in terms of their underlying spiritual reality.

The News View

Drop your eyes into the first chapter, as we read about a vulnerable time in their national life, because there had been a hole in their focus as they entered and conquered the land.

Judges 1:1 Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”

With all the victories, the most noticeable lack was that of leadership. They took the lands and settled the hillsides, but neglected to look more deeply at the children that were coming behind them to eventually lead God’s people. When the training of the children was allowed to drift away from God because so much emphasis was placed on public leaders and symbols, the hearts of the children weren’t intentionally tenderized toward God.

This is an essay for the country that addresses its economy, but not its moral instruction. This is a cautionary tale for the church that raises money and builds buildings and packs programs, but doesn’t look to constructing leaders who will take over in a few short years.

As we keep reading, we see that at the time when the people were vulnerable, it was the Word of God that empowered them…

Judges 1:2 The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.”

Prayer and listening to God filled in gaps that should have been planned by “prayer-soaked” leaders. They should have been intentionally building their leaders – but they weren’t. The good news was that God still spoke, and His Word made clear what they needed to do next.

By verse three, we can easily recognize the empowering that came through an obedience pattern. When God called out the objective, the leaders looked to build a team to execute God’s plan…

Judges 1:3 Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I in turn will go with you into the territory allotted you.” So Simeon went with him.

Judah had God’s promise, but he also had a family to help him accomplish God’s work. So it is with believers who are called to walk in victory during times of tumult and uncertainty. We live in days when the government will increasingly move from not identifying the need of the church to actively seeking to overtly curtail our work and even weaken the church – and I believe the intentional teaming of believers will emerge as the only pattern that will bring success. You will watch as churches fold or grab hands with other churches to rebuild and remain in the strong winds of our time. Judah reached out to Simeon – because teams are necessary.

The next few verses offer some initial words of success that are encouraging as God gave them victory over the enemies… We read in Judges 1:4 Judah … defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. We read of a pursuit against a chieftain: 1:6 But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

The thumbs and toes were not a macabre collector’s item – they were the symbolic ways of removing their method of stringing a bow. In other words, they broke the leader’s ability to reform an army and attack later. The Israelites knew that living in harmony with those who wish you harm is impossible if you don’t eliminate their potential to do more harm.

Even more encouraging than the immediate victories was the notion that God gave them a testimony before the lost world… Judges 1:7 reminds that Adoni-bezek said, “…God has repaid me.” So they brought him to Jerusalem and he died there.

Don’t miss the import of what the captured king said! He noted that GOD did to him what was done. This wasn’t just an admission of how strong the people were, but how strong God is! The victory was a striking testimony to the lost.

More encouragement followed…There was another victory…

Judges 1:8 Then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.

And another….

Judges 1:9 Afterward the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the Negev and in the lowland. 10 So Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.

And though the army experienced victory, there is a note about at least one prominent family, and the attention they gave to an entitled child.

Judges 1:11 Then from there he went against the inhabitants of Debir (now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher). 12 And Caleb said, “The one who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will even give him my daughter Achsah for a wife.” 13 Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for a wife. 14 Then it came about when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. Then she alighted from [h]her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” 15 She said to him, “Give me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

I find it ironic the first negative record in the text began with a child of the next generation who had these opening words in the narrative: “Give me!” The words that followed were: “So he gave.” It is clear from verse 1 there was not enough intentional training of the children, but here it seems they learned how to get what they wanted! Mark that in your text – it is the first smudge in the string of victories. After that strange note, the victories continued for a time…

Judges 1:16 The descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the city of palms … and they went and lived with the people. 17 Then Judah went with Simeon … struck the Canaanites living in Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah.

With even greater family support, Judah continued to win victories. The Kenites joined the house of Judah and added it strength – and the results were obvious.

A second negative record sneaks into the narrative if you keep reading it. As they continued they ran into some places where they found themselves lacking the technology to drive out the inhabitants.

Judges 1:18 And Judah took Gaza with its territory and Ashkelon with its territory and Ekron with its territory. 19 Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots.

The writer makes clear “The Lord was with Judah” but leaves open the question of technology and why God wasn’t routing the people from the valley on behalf of His people. Remember, in the “nightly news” view – this is merely a leftover curiosity! In Mount Judah, the people continued to advance…

Judges 1:20 Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had promised; and he drove out from there the three sons of Anak.

The third negative record came into the story of the tribes settling to the north of Judah and Simeon: Benjamites, Ephraim and Manasseh (the tribe of Joseph), Asher, Naphtali. Note the repeated compromises…

Benjamites tried to coexist with the Jebusites in contradiction of God’s command to drive them out. In Judges 1:21 But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

Bethel was taken, but the man who gave up the intelligence was allowed to live and move on. In Judges 1:22 Likewise the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them. … 24 The spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city and we will treat you kindly.” 25 So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go free. …

Key junctions that connect the land were left in the hands of those who were to be routed, and that became a huge source for future trouble. The sad record revealed in Judges 1:27 But Manasseh did not take possession 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; so the Canaanites persisted in living in that land. 28 It came about when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.

Four more times, we are left with the simple phrase: “the Canaanites lived among them” – a sad portent of the troubles to come.

• Judges 1:29 Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer; so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

• Judges 1:30 Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites lived among them and became subject to forced labor.

• Judges 1:31 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. 32 So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

• Judges 1:33 Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the final note of chapter one concerned the Danites who found themselves subjected to the strength of the Amorites, rather than routing them from the land as instructed.

Judges 1:34 Then the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley; 35 yet the Amorites persisted in living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim; but when the power of the house of Joseph grew strong, they became forced labor. 36 The border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

The first chapter, then, brought the following news:

• Without intentional developing of the next generation of leaders, the people found themselves in a quandary at the death of Joshua.

• When they sought God’s Word and followed it, they succeeded in moving forward to settle the land God told them was theirs.

• Some of the children began to exhibit an entitlement attitude, and they were appeased by their parents.

• The victories and strength seemed remarkable early on, but as the time passed, the nation started to face reversals and some were even routed.

• By the end of the chapter, a forced labor scenario was developed by Israel that God never instructed. God told them to make no agreement. They modified that idea to “make an agreement that works for you economically.”

What you didn’t see by the mid-point of chapter one was PRAYER or SEEKING GOD. That isn’t what the “Nightly News” called people to do. They worried, fought and fretted – but they didn’t seek God.

Now look at what Paul Harvey used to call “the rest of the story”…Let’s tell the whole story again, this time from the spiritual standpoint…

The Two Instructions of God

It started with God’s Word, freely given, and heard by those who made their way into the land of Promise…

Judges 2:1 Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you, 2 and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed Me; what is this you have done? 3 Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they will become as thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.’” 4 When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5 So they named that place Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the Lord.

Note very closely what God told them THEY were to do.

First, they were not to try to harmonize with the people – there was to be no covenant with them. Obviously, they were to come in and take possession of the land in a way that was uncompromising.

Second, they were not to tolerate, not for a moment, the false gods of the people. They were to remove the altars and establish their God as the One and only God of that land. Every effort to tolerate another God brought disaster. Every time they accommodated another false place of worship, they lived in disobedience.

While we easily recognize this was a specific call for that group at that time, the Bible is FILLED with calls of God’s people to remain distinct from the world and the false gods of fortune, fame, power and pleasure that are everywhere worshiped by lost men and women. No one is arguing that we should use these verses to violently disrupt our plural society.

At the same time, we have entered a time when the pervasive lie has been embedded that plurality of belief makes our nation stronger.

Let me say it clearly: It does no such thing. I am not speaking of race, ethnicity or national origin – but rather of belief.

Let me be clear: There is a multitude of evidence that the west is buckling because we refuse to stand up and make truth claims that were once held as obvious. We have allowed and funded a rise of cultural enforcers of secular humanism and moral relativism so that they are now becoming the great thorn in our side – and may pull apart our very existence.

The pluralism has served their purpose – to suggest that many paths are equally right when it comes to religious understanding.

We have stood by as out government forced us to accept that life in the womb is not sacred, and when born, a baby cannot be proclaimed the same sex as their biological assignment represents.

Now, in the name of tolerance we are called bigots for believing the most basic Biblical notions about human life and relationships. I tell you this clearly – Those who have called for tolerance are gunning for our pulpits – and we are passing into a time of danger. Chad Vegas, Reformed Baptist pastor in Bakersfield, California and leader of the important school board in Bakersfield CA wrote about an important event this week:

“As you know, CA has mandated this [school transgender policy] for the whole state. I have served on the largest high school board in CA, and the nation, for 12 years. I basically lead that board. Our board voted to adopt the new law into policy. I voted against it. I was breaking the law for doing so. I could be personally sued and our attorney tells me the board insurance won’t cover me because I am breaking the law and I am a bigot. … Thousands of parents filled our board room in protest of the law. Thousands are pleading with me to reconsider and keep fighting. My elders are still considering what to have me do…. [T]he board and administration, and even some leaders in the liberal teacher’s union, are asking me to reconsider.

Carl Trueman, a commenter added: “There you have it: A popular, longstanding, and effective member of a schoolboard has had to stand down—not because he does not enjoy the confidence of the community, but simply because he does not accept the latest demands that every knee must bow to whatever the political taste of the moment has decided is non-negotiable.”

“That’s not in the church!” You may say. “True!”

But at the same time, in Iowa this week, Christianity Today reported:

“A pair of Iowa churches are challenging a new interpretation of their state’s civil rights act, which prohibits Christians from making gay or transgender people feel unwelcome and from restricting church bathroom use to a person’s biological gender. A 2007 amendment to the Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, among other factors. Religious institutions are exempt, but only when they are doing something “related to a bona fide religious purpose.” The language is vague, and no churches have been disciplined for discrimination. But the newest explanation from the Iowa Civil Rights Commission (ICRC), a law enforcement agency commissioned to end discrimination in Iowa, wrote that “a childcare facility operated at a church or a church service open to the public” would be subject to the regulations.”

Kim Davis, the Rowan County Clerk in Kentucky who became nationally famous for her refusal to sanction a same sex marriage, is back in the news. This time she is being sued for not issuing a license to a man (Mark Sevier) who wants to marry his laptop computer. “Ridiculous!” you say. Stay tuned. When objective truth is denied, anything goes…

Go back to the weeping point at Bochim in Judges 2:5, and look at what happened from God’s perspective.

First, Joshua sent the people to settle the land as God told them to do:

Judges 2:6 When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land.

Second, the people followed Joshua and the leaders who knew God, and served God while they were on the scene, but that didn’t last.

Judges 2:7 The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. 8 Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died …

Third, concentrating on settling the land, they didn’t focus on the true interaction of their children with the Lord – and all their work was imperiled by them in short order.

Judges 2:10 All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

Skip down to the end of the chapter, and see what happened next…God weighed in. He explained the troubles they faced from the view of Heaven. He said:

Judges 2:21 I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, 22 in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not.” 23 So the Lord allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

Can you see it?

The upheavals and struggles of our political, economic and social strife cannot be understood without recognizing the spiritual battles raging behind them.

Now, don’t leave low. Don’t leave worried. Think about what God said about the end. The troubles were specifically allowed by God with purpose. They were a test.

What exactly was the test?

• It was a test of trouble to see how the people of God would react when posed with the proposition they had to choose between being God-followers or worldly successful.

• It was a test of individuals to see who would stand out for God when the culture not only didn’t laud them, but called them names and hung criminal epithets on them.

This is a time like no other in American history. It is a time when people who believe truths accepted for generations are called delusional, while others simply create complicated scientific sounding theory with the flimsiest of data to enforce social changes they want. Free speech is curtailed in schools if it doesn’t fit the enforced view of the state. A court simply overturns votes of the citizenry because they know better than our founders and powerful politicians seem to walk above the law.

These are challenging times for the believers… but you must not be deceived.

The real test you face is not from other people. It is not political tension or racial division. Those are distractions. The test is designed by our Maker for each of us planned to live in OUR generation.

Will you follow Jesus when it costs you? If there would be no cost, why did the Master proclaim: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.? (Mt. 16:24)”

If our stand would allow all families to live peaceably in this time, what did Jesus mean when He said in Luke 12:51 “Do you suppose that I came to bring peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.””

He further describes the family division that would occur: “I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.””(Matthew 10:35-36).

He says that when people come to Him to be His disciples, the result could be division between their values and that of their family. Turmoil will come when one turns to Christ and others refuse to hear the Word of the Lord.

Are you ready to be tested?

To reckon the tests, look into the Word. 1 Peter 3:10-12 admonishes six important ones in the context of believers in troubled times. Peter wrote:

For, “The one who desires life, to love and see good days,

• Learn Restraint: Must keep his tongue from evil
• Live Integrity: Must keep his lips from speaking deceit.
• Walk with Direction: Must turn away from evil
• Apply Effort: Must do good;
• Demonstrate Desire: Must seek and even pursue peace

12 “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

One final encouragement… God gives His grace when troubles roll in. Look for it. Celebrate it. Share it. Speak of His goodness more than any hardship. God is good. Life is a gift. Every moment we can choose to complain or celebrate.