Forsaking the Lord

Judges 2:6-3:6

February 22, 2004

 

Have you ever contemplated how amazing it is that you have heard and received the gospel message?  Our study of church history on Wednesday nights offers a case in point.  After the church emerged through the horrors of persecution and brutal oppression under Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, and Diocletian - all the way from 1st-3rd centuries - it seemed that Christianity would be crushed.  But, by God's grace it survived.  The blood of the martyrs was indeed the seed of the church.

 

Yet while persecution could not crush the church it seemed that the lavish reception under Constantine would.  Though widespread persecution all but ended in the 4th century, something even worse took place: assimilation.  The church was assimilated into the world.  A thousand years of the church being the basis for citizenship only distorted any sense of New Testament Christianity.  Corruption, greed, immorality, superstition, and doctrinal error came like tidal waves upon the eroding shores of the church.  Would it last?

 

But by the grace of God, and His constant intervention, we would not be here tonight worshiping Christ the Lord.  That is the reminder found in the book of Judges.  It is not a historical essay on the greatness of religious men.  On the contrary, Judges shows the weakness of men and the extraordinary mercy of the Lord in preserving a people for the sake of His name through the ages.

 

This section serves as a second introduction to the whole book.  The two cycles - one human, one divine - are stated and then illustrated in the balance of the book.  The cycle of Israel was: 

            Apostasy

            Servitude - bondage

            Supplication - groaning           

            Deliverance - (Cundall, TOTC, 67)

 

On the part of the Lord we find:

            Anger

            Punishment

            Change of mind - mercy

            Deliverance (Block, NAC, 135)

 

Judges highlights two truths that we must never allow to slip from the forefront of our minds:

(1) The incredible bent and grip of sin in the human heart, and

(2) The extraordinary miracle of divine mercy and grace shown in delivering us from sin through Christ

 

As Ralph Davis has stated so powerfully:

"And until the church gets a proper view of sin, we will never see salvation as much more than a moving religious charade rather than as an act of holy, vicious violence by which Christ wrenches his people out of the clammy clutches of the prince of darkness (cf I John 3:8) [Davis 43].

I. Lashed to the mooring, 2:6-10

 

This paragraph shows the great contrast between the record in Joshua and that of Judges.

 

1. Godly influence, vv. 6-7

He has a flashback of Joshua

-  Strong, godly leadership

-  Successfully pursuing God's direction

-  Faithfulness on the part of the people

-  Seriousness with purity, holiness, obedience, and being identified as God's people

Those who served with Joshua maintained the same legacy (70).

 

Notice the emphasis - It was not Joshua they served but the Lord.  It was the Lord's work that caught their eye; they did not consider the conquest of Canaan a work of their own hands.  They saw what the Lord did for Israel.  Here is a proper view of life:  to see God's sovereign, gracious, purposeful work in our lives; to acknowledge His hand and glory in Him.

 

A transition in vv. 8-10a

 

2. Another generation (10b)

 

It was not that the Lord was unknown among them but they did not know Him in relationship.  They knew about Him but did not know Him.  Religion was a secondhand experience.  They heard the stories of old but had their eyes more on the gods of the land of Canaan.

 

They also didn't acknowledge the Lord's work in Israel.  They failed to grasp the breadth of grace upon which the nation was founded and sustained.  This begs some important questions which we must consider in our own day:

 

(1) What responsibility do we presently bear for the next generation?

(2) Could it be that the last generation referred to in 10b presumed their children knew the Lord?

(3) Could it be that they had grown comfortable and complacent, failing to press spiritual issues upon their children?

(4) Were they busy in activity but let slide the doctrine, law and historical accounts of the Lord among them?

(5) Where was the practice of Deuteronomy 6:6-9?

(6) Where were the priests?  Had they drifted into ritual, but failed to reiterate the teachings that Moses and Joshua had laid out before them?

(7) What had happened to the festivals and holy days that were to serve as constant reminders of their sinfulness and God's redemptive mercies?

 

II. Moorings cut loose, 2:11-15

 

Here the recurring pattern is observed with the emphasis on the Lord's anger and heavy hand against them.

 

1. Forgetting and forsaking the Lord, vv. 11-13

 

"Evil" in the Old Testament usually denotes "moral and/or spiritual malignancy" (Block 123).  There was rampant spiritual disease among them, afflicting every part of their being.  If you ever doubt the doctrine of our depravity, just read through Judges!  Idolatry, immorality, murder, greed, stealing, dishonoring parents, and hedonism of every kind characterize the whole book.

 

Alexander Solzhenitzyn, in a noted address, reflects on the tragedies that have overtaken his country.

Over half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia:  "Men have forgotten God; that's why all of this has happened."  Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval.  But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat:  "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."

 

Verse 12 explains how such evil can swallow a people that had such a wonderful heritage:  "they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers."

- They forgot that God created them and rules as sovereign.

- They forgot that He sees everything.  Sometimes we think that if only a relative or friend or fellow 

   church member doesn't see our sin that we've escaped notice (v. 11). 

- They became intrigued with other gods and thus turned away. E.g. The grave danger we face is 

   seeing how closely we can flirt with the world and its allurements without being held captive.

The God of love and compassion can be provoked to anger!

 

2. No vacuum, v. 13

 

We are created to worship.  Either we worship the Lord or we turn to other gods.  The human heart is not satisfied unless it acknowledges sovereignty in some being or thing or concept.  E.g. Anthropologists find primitive tribal people worshiping something.  Block points out that a contrast exists in these verses.  On one hand, there's "the lofty theology and the austere morality of Yahwism. God is a God of holiness.  The whole work of redemptive love is a vindication of God's holiness.  On the other hand, "the Canaanite religious system offers exciting and often erotic cult rituals" (129).

 

Here was the snare:

 

(1) Baal was the Canaanite god of weather and agriculture.  He was one of 70 offspring of El, the supreme Canaanite deity that they hardly acknowledged.

 

(2) Ashtoroth (or Ashtart) was the goddess of fertility.

 

In Canaanite theology, agriculture - their livelihood - was tied to the relationship of Baal and Ashtart.  Baal was happy and pleased to give rain and good crops only when he "consorted sexually" with Ashtart.  So the Canaanite theology involved attempts to stir Baal and Ashtart together!  And in their thinking, just like the modern philosophy of the media world, what better way to entice Baal to consort with Ashtart than by demonstrating the same practice with sacred prostitutes? "So the fertility act in Canaanite worship was meant as a cue for Baal to catch on" (Davis 32).  So when Israel began settling in among their Canaanite neighbors they found that the fun and frolicking of Baal worship appealed more to their natural inclinations than the moral purity and holiness involved in worshiping the Lord.

 

3. Divine anger, vv. 12b-14

 

He reiterates the divine anger.  But how do we characterize His anger?  It is no temper tantrum but the anger out of righteous jealousy for His own people.  "Yahweh's hot anger shows his faithfulness to his word.  It is a faithful anger," writes Davis (38).  E.g. Marital unfaithfulness to a faithful partner.  There is no sense of que sera sera.  In this sense, "jealousy is love burst into its proper flame" (38).

 

God's action in anger demonstrates His grace.  For what Israel deserved was destruction, but instead the Lord pursued Israel with grace.  Davis adds, "Here is the fundamental miracle of the Bible:  that the God who rightly casts us down to the ground should - without reason - stoop to lift us up" (39).  Can we explain such love?  God's providential works were all meant to be hedges of thorns about Israel just as Hosea prayed for Gomer.

 

III. Divine mercy, 2:16-23

 

1. God raises up judges, v. 16

 

Note the emphasis on divine action.  Did any of the judges feel a moral compunction for action without first being directed by the Lord?  Here was mercy for the unworthy demonstrated over and again!  But the whole book is meant to show that judges were not the answer - the answer is the Lord and faithful relationship to Him.

 

2. Temporary obedience, 2:17

 

A judge might inspire them for a brief time, but the real issue was the condition of the heart.  A spiraling decline in their religion and morals demonstrated their heart condition.  Their restraint was temporary, a "foxhole" religious act.  The transformation of the heart in true conversion is the only change that lasts.  That's why Jesus declared, "You must be born again!"  Moral reformation is temporary.

 

3. Testing, vv. 18-23

 

Note the cycle in vv. 18-19.  Why do some young people, children, or adults cycle around and around in behavior and obedience?  Recall the cycles:  apostasy, bondage, groaning, deliverance; recall anger, punishment, mercy and deliverance.  The problem of not heeding the covenant and not listening to the Lord's voice (the Word) is no old thing.  It is still a problem.  So the Lord tests them - not for divine information but for personal revelation.  What was in their hearts came out by the squeezing of tests.

 

IV. Three failures, 3:1-6

 

(Block 140-141)   Israel failed the tests over and over.  Note Deuteronomy 7:1-6 and its instruction.  Now consider where they failed.

 

1. Coexistence

 

Israel settled down with the people of the land, choosing coexistence over obedience.  E.g. Ships don't sink by being in water - that's natural for ships.  But they sink when water gets in the ship.  Even so, we are in the world - that's normal.  There is no call for a new monasticism that withdraws from the world.  But the world with its bent away from God is not to be in us (Davis 34).

 

2. Intermarriage

 

Israel intermarried with the Canaanites!  "Through intermarriage distinct people become one people."  There is a critical warning here that is echoed in II Corinthians 6 in the New Testament.  The impact at the level of the family ultimately crumbled Israel.  Union with pagans in marriage typically only increases paganism's hold.

 

3. Other gods

 

Israel served other gods.  Psalm 106:34-43 assesses the behavior and the Lord's anger.

 

Conclusion

 

Psalm 106:44-48 is a fit closing.  God is a God of compassion who pursues us until He accomplishes His purposes in us - grace, grace, grace!  And so we must humbly pray for His saving power and blessing among us!

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