Sermon Tone Analysis

Text:

The Folly of Editing God

Text:

Theme: The Folly of Editing God

Theme: The Folly of Editing God

Date: 06/11/2017 File Name: Judges_02wpd ID Number:

Date: 06/11/2017 File Name: Judges_02wpd ID Number:

The Israelites made a wonderful beginning in entering the Promised Land, but soon lapsed into disobedience.

The first part of chapter one chronicles the adventures and failures of Judah (vv.

3-20), punctuated with the courage of Caleb (vv.

11-15).

Almost in a verse-by-verse march through the rest of the chapter, excuses increase as disobedience increases.

The final segment of the chapter plunges us into a downward tribe-by-tribe spiral of defeat (vv.

27-36).

The Israelites made a wonderful beginning in entering the Promised Land, but soon lapsed into disobedience.

The first part of chapter one chronicles the adventures and failures of Judah (vv.

3-20), punctuated with the courage of Caleb (vv.

11-15).

Almost in a verse-by-verse march through the rest of the chapter, excuses increase as disobedience increases.

The final segment of the chapter plunges us into a downward tribe-by-tribe spiral of defeat (vv.

27-36).

Israel is a nation that begins going in the right direction, but ends up heading in the wrong direction.

If you’ve ever been through one of the nation’s larger airports you’re familiar with their “people movers” — long stretches of automated walkway that enable travelers to get from one terminal to the next either with more speed (as they walk “double-time”) or with more comfort (as they relax while being moved).

Now, imagine that you are walking the wrong way on one of those people-movers.

Its movement is slow enough that you can make progress in the direction you are headed.

But if you stop, you don’t progress, nor do you stand still; you regress.

In some ways the Christian life is like that — it is often described as a “walk” in Scripture.

It’s not a climb up a hill, not a coast down a hill, but simply an ongoing walk.

The bad news is that “the world, the flesh, and the devil” are all flowing against you, impeding your walk, and there are time when you are tempted — not to turn away from the Lord — but to take a break, and put your spiritual walk on pause.

The problem is, if you’re not moving forward, you’re going to be moving backward just as if you’d stopped on that people-mover.

This describes Israel by the end of chapter one.

I. TOTAL OBEDIENCE: STRAIGHT AND NARROW 1:1-2

1. after Joshua’s death God’s people had a task to complete — finish the occupation of the land God had promised them

the land God had promised them

a. the Book of Joshua closes the Joshua gathering all the tribal leaders at Shechem where they renewed their covenant with God

where they renewed their covenant with God

1) Joshua reminds them of all that God had done for them beginning with Abraham and recalling all of the major events in Israel’s life up to the crossing of the Jordan river and their victories over the people’s inhabiting the land

and recalling all of the major events in Israel’s life up to the crossing of the Jordan river and their victories over the people’s inhabiting the land

2) he ends with that famous challenge

“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.””

(, NIV84)

b.