Listen to Part 1 Here Listen to Part 2 Here
Today, we pick back up where we left off in the Old Testament some four months ago. I’m glad we went through a series on discipleship. I see that the Spirit led us to that, and used that time to refresh our vision and our desire to radically follow Christ and help others to do the same. But, I’m excited for us to get back to the Old Testament as well, so as a church we have an overview about the entire Bible.
Today, we’ll start Judges 1 and once again pick up the story of God’s people. To recap so far, God called Abraham out of his own country to go to a land that God would give him. He blessed his life, and because of Abraham’s faith, God promised to Abraham descendants that would be so numerous they would be like the stars in the sky. God blessed Abraham with a son, Isaac, and Isaac was blessed with two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob, through deceitful means stole Esau’s birthright and blessing. Jacob was then blessed with many sons, among whom was Joseph. Despite Joseph’s bragging ways about dreams God had given him, God used Joseph in great ways, and during Joseph’s life, God’s people found themselves living in Egypt.
At first, things were favorable for them, they were given the choicest land to raise their flocks, and had the favor of Pharaoh because of how God had used Joseph to save Egypt and Israel. Things went well for them. Then, a Pharaoh came into power that didn’t know about Joseph and all he had done for the Egyptians.
God’s people were abused and mistreated and enslaved. They cried out to God and God raised up Moses to go in and deliver His people from slavery. Moses confronted Pharaoh several times and eventually the Israelites left Egypt to go to the land God had promised Abraham. God gave them a code of commandments to live by, and we had an interesting episode where the people made a golden calf because they thought God had forgotten about them.
But, they got to the Promised Land and it was amazing, but there were already a mighty people living there and the leaders of the tribes were afraid and told the rest of the people that they wouldn’t be victorious, even though God had already told them He would give them the land! So, God told them they wouldn’t enter the land, and they wandered around the wilderness for forty years.
Finally, through the leadership of Joshua, after 40 years, the people got to go into the Promised Land and they went in, just as God said they would, and they drove out the Canaanites who were living in the land and took the land.
So, that leaves us at the book of Judges. Let’s open with a video about the book of Judges. (Video Handout Here)
The book of Judges starts with Joshua’s death. Unlike when Moses passed away and left Joshua as his successor to lead Israel, when Joshua passed away, he didn’t name anyone as the leader to lead the people. Let’s look at Judges 1:1, “After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Canaanites?”
Joshua passed away and left no leader. Obviously this presents a problem, especially in this time in history, people groups without a leader became more susceptible to attacks from other people groups. Without a leader, there’s no one to cast a vision for the people, no one to organize the people. People groups at this time needed a leader to survive.
Not only did they not have a leader, but they had no direction as a people. They had a little bit of an issue too, because although Joshua had driven the Canaanites out of the cities, there were still pockets of Canaanites in the Promised Land, and after Joshua died, these groups began to rise up against the Israelites because they had no leader. And with no leader, they had no one to give them direction on how they should go against the Canaanites.
But…what does verse 1 say? Joshua died, and the nation was uncertain of their future, but the Israelites asked the Lord.
See, when we closed the book of Joshua, Joshua charged them to not forget Who they served. He reminded them about all that God had done for them throughout the years, and urged them to choose who they would serve. They hadn’t forgotten that charge, and so, even though they were facing uncertain and confusing times as a nation, they knew exactly who to go to. They went and asked the Lord.
Judges 1 gives us sort of a preview of what’s going to happen throughout the bulk of the book of Judges, and what I want to focus on this morning is this pattern that the people fall into.
It starts with the tribe of Judah. See, in Joshua 15, God had chosen the tribe of Judah to go into the Promised Land and be the first to obtain their inheritance. Of all the tribes, God had started to single out the tribe of Judah for special consideration. Maybe because the man Judah had spared Joseph’s life when his other brothers wanted to kill Joseph, Judah suggested they simply sell him into slavery.
When Jacob was near death, he called all of his sons to him and he blessed them, and his blessing for Judah was that from Judah’s line, Judah’s ancestors, would come kings who would rule over the nation of Israel until all nations became obedient to one king from Judah. This was a prophecy about King David in some ways, but ultimately, it’s about Christ coming from the line of Judah.
So, we need to understand that this is what God had in store for the tribe of Judah when He began to set the tribe of Judah as the leader for the nation of Israel in the book of Judges. God had planned for the Messiah to come from that tribe.
Look at Judges 1:2, “The Lord answered, “Judah shall go up; I have given the land into their hands.” Look at verse 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.”
See how, when the people were without a leader, without a direction, and they asked God what they should do, He told them that it would be the tribe of Judah that He would work through. In fact, verse 19 even says that the Lord was with Judah. That’s your first blank as well, the LORD was with Judah.
Just like when Moses led the people to the Promised Land and God told them to go and take the land, He told them He would be with them. He told them He had already delivered the people into their hands. The same is true here, God was with the men of Judah, the tribe of Judah, and because He was with them, they could go into the land with confidence and drive the remaining Canaanites from the land. All they had to do was do what God had asked them to do.
Now, what was that? What was it God asked them to do? Look at verse 2 again, “The Lord answered, “Judah shall go up; I have given the land into their hands.” He wanted them to take the land from the Canaanites still living in the land. They were meant to drive the Canaanites out from the land entirely so they didn’t come back, and so the Israelite people didn’t co-mingle with the Canaanites and turn to idol worship. That was the most important thing, is that God didn’t want His people worshiping other gods.
The command was take the land. What did Judah do? Verse 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.”
Here’s your next blank in your bulletin if you’re following along, they took the mountain, but not the VALLEY. This is unusual because, in ancient times, if you wanted to build a city that was strong and well-protected, a city that could stand against invaders, you built it on a hill, a plateau, in the mountains. This way, you could use the landscape to help defend the city. So if you were attacking an enemy, it would be wiser to attack the valley, where the people were spread out and defenseless, than to attack the mountains where the people were protected and fortified.
At first, the men, the tribe of Judah, knowing that God was with them, He was on their side, and He had already given the land to them, with that confidence, they attack a mountain fortification, and they take it. They attack the hardest place to attack and they are victorious.
But then, for some reason, they looked at the people of the valley, and their iron chariots, and they were afraid, maybe? They forgot God was on their side, maybe? But they don’t drive the people out of the valley, and they don’t completely follow through with what God had told them to do.
This sets off a chain of events that you can read about in Judges 1:21-36, but I’m going to sum up for you. Judah didn’t completely obey what God had told them, and then this happens:
The sons of Benjamin did not drive the people out.
Manasseh did not take possession of the land.
Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites.
Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants.
Asher did not drive out the inhabitants.
Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants.
Do you see the pattern? Judah, the tribe that the Messiah is supposed to come from, the tribe God chose to work through to finally get rid of all the Canaanites in the Promised Land, decided for whatever reason, not to be completely obedient to God, and they set off a whole chain of events as six of the other tribes followed their lead.
This sets the stage for disaster, as the people do just what God didn’t want them to do, they co-mingle with the Canaanites and they choose not to serve the Lord and to worship the false gods of the Canaanites.
And the tribe of Judah doesn’t recover its special position amongst the tribes until David becomes king.
All of this starts the cycle of idol worship and sin that takes centuries to break. All of it starts here, with partial obedience.
We know how this turns out for the Israelites, but what about us? Do we ever only partially obey God? Have you ever thought, “Well, I might not be perfect, but at least I don’t do this or that…” or “At least I’m not as bad as so and so?” The point is that partial obedience is still disobedience.
Whatever it is that God has asked us to do, or asked you to do, to not do it completely, or to only do it partially, isn’t mostly obedience, it’s disobedience. The point isn’t to be better than someone, or not be as bad as someone else. The point is to do what God has asked of us.
The thing that we need to pull away from what happens with Judah and ultimately the nation of Israel, is that not only is partial obedience disobedience, but also, that when we aren’t obedient to what God has asked us to do, it doesn’t just affect you, it affects everyone around you. Just like we saw with Judah and the tribes that followed Judah’s example, when we’re not completely obedient to the Lord, we set a poor example for other Christians to follow.
Our questions for this week are designed to help you dig into this message even more, and to examine areas of your life where you might be living in disobedience to what God has asked you to do by being only partially obedient:
1. God was with Judah and the whole nation of Israel, yet they chose not to operate in His power and favor. Can you think of ways that you choose not to operate in His power when He has promised to be with you?
2. Judah was given a great charge, but due to their partial obedience, they led much of the nation astray. What are some areas of your life that need to be surrendered to complete obedience? Be specific. Do you see how God might use your obedience as an example to others?