Upon Further Review
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
June 14, 2015
I want to start with a short survey which requires some audience participation (this idea came from Steve Mathewson’s article on preaching Judges at The Gospel Coalition, February 27, 2011, here). I hope you’re up for this. I never do things like this, but I think it will be helpful. So, would everyone please stand up? I promise I will not embarrass you. I’m going to say something, and if it’s true of you, I’d like for you to sit back down. Again, this shouldn’t be embarrassing at all.Okay, here we go. If you have never heard a sermon from the Book of Judges in the Old Testament, please sit down. (Remember, if you were here last week, Jason did preach from Judges!)Next. If the only sermon you have heard from Judges was last week, please sit down. In other words, stay standing if you have heard one or more sermons on Judges.Next. If you the only sermon you have heard from Judges was on Gideon (not counting last’s week), please sit down. If you are standing, that means you have heard a sermon from Judges on someone other than Gideon.Next. If you the only sermon you have heard from Judges was on Samson (not counting last week), please sit down. If you are standing, that means you have heard a sermon from Judges on someone other than Samson.Next, and this is the last one. If you have never heard a sermon series through the book of Judges, please sit down. If you are standing, that means you have heard a sermon series through the book, say 5 for more sermons.(If anyone is still standing, “Okay, you may sit down.”)Now, I didn’t ask the question whether you have read the book or not. That would perhaps be too personal and, as I said, I didn’t want to embarrass someone.But the results are as I suspected. If the book in question was, say, Ephesians, it would have been different. It appears that for most of us, this will be the best sermon series you have ever heard on the book, but, of course, also the only one. So we are setting out on an adventure. We are going to a foreign land, a land largely unvisited by modern Christians. And that’s a shame. The land, while precarious, is filled with vistas from which to behold the grace of God. And each week all summer long, were going to behold the gospel in this book. I hope you join us.
Scripture Reading
This morning I’m going to read Judges 2:6-3:6 and then pray. These verses function as a second introduction to the book. I’m going to read all of our passage but focus the preaching mainly on Chapter 2.6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. 9 And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. 19 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. 20 So the anger of the Lordwas kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, 22 in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.” 23 So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.Chapter 31 Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. 2 It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. 3 These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.
Introduction
This last winter, while on vacation my family was playing this board game that involved a buzzer. My brothers and sisters, and my parents, and my grandma, and a cousin, where there. The game was one of those games where you have to say a many things as you can before the buzzer rings and the goal was to be the last one to contribute before the buzzer went off.The problem was that sometimes it was just too close to call. If you have a competitive family, then you know what I’m talking about. So at one point, we took out a phone (and when I say “we,” I mean “I”), and began to record the game so that when a question came up about “who said what and when,” we would could take a closer look.I can tell you this, that while the second look did solve the ambiguity, the actual results, the actual evaluation, the truth, was not easy to swallow. Upon further review, sometimes the truth was not what people wanted to hear.You can see this each week in professional sports, especially now that many of them have adopted so from of review when an official’s “call” on the field is challenged and the official can then walk over to a camera or a TV monitor and review the play. And they do it because, while painful to hear at times, there is great value in having an accurate analysis, having the truth.But the problem is this: by nature, we are blame shifters. We might be content with a superficial analysis, at least as long as it doesn’t incriminate us. The problem is that we can see the symptoms of our sin, but won’t acknowledge the real cause.I said at the start that the Book of Judges is a book with two introductions. If you take your finger and put it on 1:1 and 2:6, you can see what I’m talking about.
1:1 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel…2:6 When Joshua dismissed the people of Israel…
First it says, “After the death of Joshua” then it says, “When Joshua dismissed the people…” Can you see what the issues is? First, Joshua is dead, and then in the next chapter he is alive. Did the author make a mistake? No. He is circling back around one more time, to go deeper, to push through a superficial analysis. For God’s people, something tragic has just happened, and is happening now, and will happened in the future, and this second introduction explains why it happened, is happening, and will happen in the future. But more importantly, it explains what God is going to do about it.If you are looking at your outline, that’s where we are going. We are going to cover two questions. The first thing we will do is take a closer look at why the conquest failed, and the second is what God is going to do about it.
1. A closer look at why the conquest failed
Let’s start with this first point: a closer look at why the conquest failed. But to do that, we have to be reminded of what’s going on in this time period and for that matter, what the author covered in the first introduction to the book.At this time in Israel’s history, Israel is between two eras. The Book of Judges is a bridge between the times after the people of God came out of slavery in Egypt but before the time of the monarchy, the time when kings ruled Israel. It’s a period of around 300 years. And it’s a time, as we will see, when Israel was ruled by tribal, military generals—which the book calls judges.And these judges were supposed to continue what began in the previous book, the Book of Joshua. And what was that? God was using Israel to set up an outpost of his kingdom on earth. Israel was to display to the world the beauty of what it was like to be ruled by Yahweh. And to do that, they needed a land, The Promised Land.But that didn’t happen, at least completely. Let me read a few verses from last week.
19 And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron… 21 But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem…27 Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean… 28 When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely. 29 And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer… 30 Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron… 31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco…
And on and on it goes in Chapter 1. But in the first introduction to the book, we do not have much, if any, evaluation of why the conquest failed. It is hinted at. For example, the phrase “because they had chariots of iron” (v. 19). Or it’s hinted at when it says “When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor” (v. 28). These suggest reasons by the conquest failed, as Jason pointed out several reasons last week. But these things are only hinted.What I mean is this: if you were a reporter at this time working for the Judah Tribune, and you interviewed people asking the question, Why is this not working? Why have we not pushed out the Canaanites? Why are they still here?I think you would hear things like this: “Well, they have tanks and we don’t.” Or, “They are better fighters on the plains than we are.” And, “They have better generals, better kings.” And, “Maybe God isn’t as strong as he used to be. I mean, we have heard the stories of old, but we don’t see that now, so maybe Yahweh changed.”You see why there is a need for a second introduction. We have to go deeper. Look at vv. 10b-11.
10 …And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. 11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.
What’s the problem? Has God changed? No. The problem is that the people are forgetful and they are faithfulness.We see they are forgetful in the phrase, “there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” This is a key verse in the whole book. When we taught this book with the youth group in the fall, it was our theme verse: there arose another generation. And the forgetfulness, not surprisingly, results in manifold faithlessness.But let’s be more specific about what this verses says and doesn’t say. Tragically, this verse says that the problem was not that they didn’t know about the Lord. They did know about the Lord, but that’s the problem. They knew about the Lord, but they didn’t know the Lord. They knew about Egypt and Pharaoh and the Red Sea and the walls of Jericho, but they didn’t know the God who did all of that. They had no faith (cf. 1 Sam. 2:12 with Ex. 6:7-8). No fire. No passion.They had only awareness. They knew about, but they had no commitment. For them, they had clichés and platitudes but not substance. They knew of the Lord, but they didn’t know the Lord. That is danger.It’s not that they couldn’t have a conversation about God. They could. I’m sure there were many conversations taking place. The problem was that they were conversant while being unconverted. And that’s a huge problem. And America is bloated with this same problem: people able to have a conversation about God, but who are unconverted. Whole denominations subsist in this way.And notice that sin-across-the-generations is highlighted as the cause. You see, the failure to take possession of the land of Canaan is a symptom not the cause. The cause is that the Gospel was not passed across the generations. We don’t know why. Maybe the older generations tried to share the gospel and the younger generation wouldn’t have it. Or maybe the younger generations desperately wanted to know this God, but those did know him, the older generation, well… they just didn’t get motivated. They were content to sit on the sidelines and talk a big game. We don’t know what happened. Maybe some of both.But let’s not let it happened here. Let’s be a church that knows the gospel, talks about gospel and shares it between generations. In fact, as we prayed for the workers at Vacation Bible School, which starts tonight, I’m sure there were many generations represented. That’s a good thing.I’m sure this chapter was difficult for Israel to swallow. Deep analysis of our sin is not pleasant. We, by nature, are blame shifters. It’s easier so say we failed because the other guy was stronger than us, than it is to say we failed because we were faithless.If I were to ask a man who had recently been divorced, “How did you get here?” And the man said, “Well I got a lawyer and, and you know, we did it.” That’s not good enough is it. I’m asking, how did you get here? It’s unpleasant, but this chapter pushes us to go deeper.Friends, if you are angry all of the time, it’s not because your work is stressful and the kids are out of control. They may be, but that’s not the issue—primarily. It’s you. If you look at pornography, it’s not because you are unmarried and, “Well, by now, well, I should be,” and it’s not because you are married to the wrong person and if you had married the “right” person you wouldn’t do that. And if you are perpetually struggling with body image issues—your identity wrapped up in how you look—I can tell you this, losing two pounds won’t change that. What you need— what I need, we all need—is to know God, the real God.And that’s the next point in this introduction.The first point was a closer look why the conquest failed. And now we’ll look at what God is going to do about it.
2. And what God is going to do about it
Here, Israel has failed. They have gone after other lovers. That’s the imagery used in the passage. The author casts their faithlessness in marital, sexual imagery. They have, in the words of the passage, “they whored after other gods and bowed down to them” (v. 17). They haven’t just failed to fight well enough against strong enemies. They have had an affair. And now what is God going to do?Well, God, the real God, is a jealous lover. Thus, we’ll see two thing. First, he is angry, as a lover should be when his bride is unfaithful. But we’ll also see that it doesn’t end there, the real God won’t end in anger towards his people. His anger moves to compassion.First, notice that God gets angry. We see this in vv. 12b-14.
…And they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. [I won’t explain much about them now, maybe in a later sermon; for now I’ll just say that they were male and female Canaanite gods of storm and fertility; and notice they are plural, sort of the way we might say, the Donald Trumps and Lady Gagas] 14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel…
This anger is the anger of a jealous husband in the convent of love to a bride. God loves his people. He had redeemed them and his love now requires him to feel a certain way when what he loves is damaged. If I love something, if you love something, you feel angry when what you love is damaged.Now, here is where this gets good. Here is a vista from which we behold the beauty of the God of the Bible. God’s his anger moves him to pity. His anger moves him to compassion. His anger moves him to save. We have a gospel.Look in v. 18.
For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.
Notice that word “groaning.” You might not know this, I didn’t know this, but this specific Hebrew word is not a very uncommon word in the Old Testament, used only 3 times, once here and 2 elsewhere. That other place is in Exodus (2:24 and 6:5; also Ez. 30:24; see Davis, Judges, 39-40).The thing is, the Book of Exodus is, perhaps 300 years before this time. And in Exodus, the people of God are in deep distress. They are desperate. But God was moved to compassion by their distress and groaning. And what the author of Judges is saying, is that this same God—our God, the real God—is still passionately listening for the cries of his people, even in their sin. His love has not cooled. The honeymoon is not over. His love still burns for his people.And look what happens when you put v. 14a and v. 16 together (see Davis, Judges, 38). Look at this.
14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel…
16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them…
God was angry (v. 14a), so he saved (v. 16). This is the story of the Book of Judges. And the story of the Bible. Yes his people sin, but he saves them, if they would acknowledge their sin and cry out to him in faith and repentance.Perhaps you are thinking, “Okay, but where does God’s anger actually go? I mean, his bride is faithless, and he just saves them?”I want to close with a verse in the New Testament. It comes from Ephesians 5, a passage that has much to say about husband and wives and marriages, but also has much to say about God’s sacrificial love for his people.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
That little phrase “gave himself up for her” says so much. It’s saying that on the cross, Jesus went to die for the sins of his bride. That’s the gospel. In the gospel, Jesus absorbs the anger of God for the Israelites in the OT, the believing ones, and he does it for you and I, that is, if we believe.
Conclusion
After President Kennedy was assassinated, the Warren Commission, dug deeper and issued their report. After 9/11, there was another report commissioned. And most recently, the know of the report on Ferguson and Michael Brown and officer Darren Wilson. Whether you buy in to these reports, and whether there are deep flaws in them, or you find issues with them, is not my concern. My concern is will you allow God’s evaluation of you to stand. Upon further the review, the problem is not outside of us, but within is. And if the problem is within us, we need a savior from outside of us, and O, do we have a savior.That’s what Judges Introduction Part II is about.
