Living in Times of Divine Judgment (Judges 2:11–3:6)

Last week we looked at what Judges 1:1–2:10 had to say about the situation in Israel after Joshua and his fellow leaders had passed away. Instead of continuing to enjoy ongoing success, the tribes of Israel encountered opposition from the inhabitants of the land and chose not to obey God and remove those people from the land. Eventually the Lord passed judgement on them, and the judgement was that he would not remove those people groups. Whatever else he would do for Israel, those other peoples would remain. Israel would have to live in a situation in which there would be long-term judgement. A case can be made that the problems of false religion connected to those people groups was not finally sorted until the Babylonian captivity centuries later.

The fact that this long-term judgement was in place did not mean that God would not provide times of spiritual blessing. The details in this chapter show that he sent several periods of spiritual recovery, each of them after a period of strong declension, and each of them connected to a judge that God raised up to lead his people. We will look at some of those judges and what they did in later studies.

As we noted in the previous sermon in this series, there are two ways by which we should look at Old Testament passages. The first is described in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and there Paul reminded Timothy that a proper use of the Old Testament will equip a servant of God for understanding his roles. The other was described by Jesus when he told the two disciples on the way to Emmaus that he could be found in Old Testament passages. So what lessons can we see in this pass that will help us serve God and have fellowship with Jesus?

Reality of spiritual warfare

An obvious lesson from this passage is that it is not normal to expect times of spiritual growth to last a long time without interruption from the enemy kingdom. In order to understand this point, we need to ask ourselves who was in charge of the Canaanites and other groups and the false religions connected to them. We know the answer to that question – the devil was active in Canaan before the Israelites came there and he remained active after they arrived. An important deduction that we must make from the story of Israel is that we should not leave an inch of space in which he can operate and cause havoc.

Many times in the New Testament we are told to be alert regarding the tactics of the enemy of our souls. Paul reminded the Ephesian Christians that they had to put on the whole armour of God, otherwise they would not be able to overcome the devil and his wiles. Jesus told his disciples to pray that they would not be led into temptation. James warned his readers that they could be enticed by temptation. Paul was afraid that the devil had beguiled the Galatians. Just as with Israel in Canaan, we are engaged in a constant spiritual warfare and we need to ensure that we use the spiritual weapons God has provided. The Israelites did not do so and therefore found themselves defeated often.

The danger of idolatry

Second, we must note that the people of Israel were attracted to the false worship systems of the Canaanites and others. The writer tells us that the Israelites worshipped the Baals and the Ashteroth. So we need to think about them a bit in order to see why the Israelites followed them.

Ashteroth is probably connected to Astarte, who was the goddess of war. Right away we can see why they wanted to worship her because they imagined she could provide success in war and safety in battle. The Baals were gods that were perceived as connected to various natural phenomena such as the annual harvests and good weather for the crops to grow. They were regarded as responsible for what can be loosely called the powers of nature such as storms and sending rain – it may have been the case that the storm god was seen as the most powerful. Both the Baals and Ashteroth were perceived as enabling fertility. The way to please those gods was to worship them.

How did the Israelites descend into idolatry? Several answers can be given to this question, but I would mention three. One would be the simple desire to have multiple forms of security. In those times, the only security on offer was supernatural figures, so we can easily see why people would regard it as a good thing to have as many sources of security as possible.

Another answer to the question of descending into idolatry is that the Israelites engaged in contrasting their God with the local gods. The God of Israel was invisible whereas the gods of the peoples could be made to order and people could have them on their shelves at home. This meant that their gods could be carried about with them, and could be treated with a superstitious respect.

A third answer is that the Israelites ceased to remain true to the God who had been so good to them. His goodness was known by them historically and personally. Historically they could look back to the promises given to Abraham about his descendants and the providing of a land as well as the deliverance from Egypt. Personally they were now in the land in which God had promised to bless them. In a sense we could say that they were in the land of salvation, but they were not living as delivered people should.

We can easily see similarities between the idolatry of the Israelites and some of the outlooks and attitudes that we can have. First, in what do we trust for our security? We do not depend on idols of wood and stone. That of course is not the issue. Instead what is important is whether or not we are depending on God or are we building our security on things that cannot ensure we will have it from them? Some of the things that we used to depend on are becoming very shaky, including our society’s commitment to Christian values, our laws, our educational systems, and the toleration once given to Christians. If we depend on them, we will be relying on ineffective sources of security.

Second, how do we regard things that are connected to God? It is possible to treat them in a superstitious manner, after all. One such object is the Bible. There are many places in which the Bible is read in a selective way, as if only some of its words are relevant. That approach is little more than superstitious. In other places, the Bible is found and never used, which means that its benefits are not experienced. Yet it is assumed that somehow it will protect people from trouble. It is important to remember that the Word of God refers to the words of the Bible and not to the type of material on which they are found.

Third, we can be living in the location where salvation’s blessings should be experienced and yet not experience them. What are the blessings connected to salvation? Our Catechism 36 lists them: ‘What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification? A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.’ We must ask ourselves if we are experiencing the blessings of salvation. If not, it could indicate that we have spiritual idols that displease God.

The author of Judges reminds his readers here of the link between repeated sin and the anger of God. What were the signs of the Lord’s anger? At least three can be identified – defeat, disappointment and distress. It is important to note that the defeat was not caused by the skill of the enemies, but because the hand of the Lord was against the Israelites. The hand that could have protected them was now turned against them because of their sins. The hand that could have guided them was now leading them into defeat.

Inevitably defeat brings disappointment and distress. The way of transgressors is hard, and that is true for anyone who turns away from the Lord. This is what happened to Israel. Instead of freedom they found themselves in bondage. As far as we are concerned, we can lose a sense of inner liberty as our souls become captive to whatever has ensnared us. Do we not often say with Cowper,

Where is the blessedness I knew

When first I saw the Lord?

Where is the soul-refreshing view

Of Jesus and his word?

What peaceful hours I once enjoy’d!

How sweet their memory still!

But they have left an aching void,

The world can never fill.

One of the strange things about today from a spiritual point of view is the lack of distress that Christian people have because of the spiritual poverty in which the church is. It is not a sign of hope to find such distress missing. Instead it would indicate that we are in danger of developing the spirit that marked the church in Laodicea that Jesus addressed so firmly in Revelation 3.

I was thinking of these lines from another hymn:

If I could tell of Jesus as I know him,

My Redeemer who has brightened all my way,

If I could tell how precious is his presence

I am sure that you would make him yours today.

I don’t know who the authoress was, but she did describe a spiritual state that is not missing out on the blessings of salvation.

The good thing is that, sooner or later, we will find ourselves crying out to the Lord for his help and recovery.  He let the Israelites go as low as was necessary before he led them to call out in repentance for mercy. We see in this list of historical recoveries in the history of Israel a picture of how the Lord restores his churches.

Repeated grace and the pity of God

The author of Judges then informs his readers of the way that the Lord repeatedly raised up deliverers for his people. He describes a cycle of declension, restoration and declension. This feature of God’s dealings is very encouraging and we can think about a few such aspects as we come to a close.

First, we see that the Lord does not despise repentance nor withhold his grace from those who confess their sins. The fact that he knew about past and future failings did not mean that he would deprive those in the present of blessings if they repented.

Second, the writer wants to give us a window in the heart of the Lord and what he thought about his sinning, chastised people. Towards them he had a heart of pity yearning to restore them to their privileges. We see this divine attitude revealed repeatedly throughout the history of Israel.

Third, we are not to idolise the past. True there have been good times in the past, but what can be said about those periods is that their successors sinned away the privileges they had inherited. Instead of dreaming about living in the good periods of the past we are to repent of the wrong practices and attitudes of the present and ask the Lord to restore us if we are not what we should be.

Fourth, we are to view the presence of opponents not as signs that we are about to be defeated. Instead we are to see them as tests as to whether or not we will be obedient. The changes in our society should not be seen as how much we can go along with, but whether or not we want to be wholeheartedly obedient to the will of God.