Sermon Tone Analysis

Greet One Another: Before you sit down, say, “Good Morning” to the people around you. (Dismiss Children)

Welcome to North Village Church.

My name is Michael.

It is great to see you.

This morning we are going to start a new series in the book of Judges in your Old Testament.

Tablets: We do have a system to stay in touch with people.

We have these tablets that we pass through the audience.

We ask everyone to fill it out every Sunday, and if you are new, there is a place for you to provide more information so we can get in touch later.

If you don’t have a bible grab one in the back, because we are going to be in the book of Judges the next 4 months, which is why we probably need to ask everyone to put your hand in the air if you have heard a sermon on any part of Judges at any point in your life.

Now, how many of those hands have heard sermons on Judges that didn’t have anything to do with Gideon or Sampson?

Handout: That’s why we provided a trusty handout for our message this morning.

Be sure to grab one of those around you.

That is also why we are focusing this year on connecting to Jesus through His Word.

Do you remember we started off with Giant White Binders on Malachi?

We all went home for Christmas and Thanksgiving showing off all our new insights from Malachi.

Then, we did a deep dive into .

Wasn’t that great way to prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate Easter?

Now, we are going to study through Judges and we are going to touch on every chapter in Judges, and it is possible you are thinking, “What does the book of Judges have to do with my life personally?”

Illustration: You know those moments where you look at your life and wonder, “What happened?”

It might be a relationship goes wrong, it might be an unforeseen shift in the career, it might a broken part of our character being exposed, but something happens to bring those things to the surface, and we have this prevailing thought, “What happened?

What went wrong?”

In the book of Judges we see this pattern in the life of Israel where everything was trending upward, and the something happens in the book of Judges so that by the end of Judges the people of Israel are in a downward trend.

In fact, if you look at the previous book, Joshua you see a description of a people who are zealous in their faith, optimistic about life, and encouraged.

Lets look at : (SLIDE)

, “16 The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.”

Joshua is giving this great charge to the people of Israel to be faithful to the God of Scripture, and the people respond, “Far be it from us…” It is almost like, “I can’t even imagine why you would need to ask us this question.”

Big Picture: I don’t want to lose you.

If you are new to Scripture there is , in the beginning God creates everything.

Then, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

Remember Joseph gets sold into slavery by his brother, ends up in Egypt, and eventually Moses leads Israel out of Egypt.

(Chart)

Then, Joshua steps in as a mighty warrior who leads Israel into the Promised Land, and in we see Joshua standing before the people of Israel and reminding them of God’s provision and protection throughout life, and the people respond, “We will be faithful.”

Look at verses 20-21, : (SLIDE)

, “20 Then Joshua said to the people, “If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.”

21 The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.”

At this moment the people of Israel are in a sweet place with the Lord.

They are confident in His provision.

They are encouraged in their faith.

In we see three times the people of Israel promise to love God, serve God, and obey God the whole of their lives, and they are in one of those places where you are thinking, “This is going to last forever!”

But, then we flip to the last verse in Judges.

Look at : (SLIDE)

, “25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

What happened!

To be clear, in verse 25 there is a king ruling on the throne of heavens, but in the book of Judges the people didn’t want the God of Scripture to be their king, so they end up doing what was right in their own eyes, which means they are doing the opposite of , so that you have to ask yourself the question, “What went wrong?”

The book of Judges is going to be really practical to our lives today.

The book of Judges is going help us take an inside look into the life of Israel, and we are going to see some parallel’s in their lives that still apply to our lives today.

You with me?

Lets look at Judges chapter 1, verse 1: (SLIDE)

, “1 Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”

In verse 1 we see the reference to Joshua’s death, which is a loss of a leader, but the people rally together before the Lord and pray, “How do we fight these Canaanites?” Look at verses 2-3: (SLIDE)

, “2 The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” 3 Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I in turn will go with you into the territory allotted you.”

So Simeon went with him.”

Side Note: This isn’t the primary objective of our discussion this morning, but it is easy to read Judges and think to yourself, “How could the God of Scripture send in Israel to conquer a people?”

This is hard.

This is why people don’t teach Judges on Sunday morning, but we can’t just pick parts of God’s Word that make us feel comfortable.

This part of Judges is hard because it isn’t like Israel is defending themselves from the Canaanites.

The Lord is leading Israel to take this land and kill these people.

That’s the 6th and 8th Commandment, “You shall not kill and you shall not steal.”

What’s going on?

Therefore, we need to remember a few things when we are studying Judges: (SLIDE)

First, and you are going to want to write these down in your notes to help you remember.

These wars described in Joshua and Judges are NOT ethnically motivated.

It isn’t as though the God of Scripture hates a race or an ethnicity in the world, and He is using Israel to attack a specific race or ethnicity.

In fact, there are Canaanites in the Scriptures like Rahab who play a pivotal role in the history of Israel.

Second, the wars described in Joshua and Judges are NOT for the expansion of Israel all over the world.

These are not imperialistic purposes ordained by the God of Scripture.

The description in Scripture is over one specific piece of land that is given to Israel by the God of Scripture ultimately to be a blessing to the world.

Third, the wars described in Joshua and Judges are carried out as God’s judgment toward the wickedness of humanity, and this is going to be hard to understand, but throughout history the God of Scripture does use people and governments as an extension of His judgment.

The God of Scripture knows the hearts and minds of all people, and one day Jesus will return to bring judgment against all wickedness throughout all of humanity, and the wars in Joshua and Judges are moments in history when He brings that judgment early.

Again, our response is to say, “So can we just walk around claiming to be an early gift of God’s judgment upon the wicked?”

No, Joshua and Judges is a unique point in history.

The Scriptures make it really clear if anyone makes these claims today to bring judgment against the wickedness of humanity is either lying, or mentally unstable.

Listen, I know this is hard.

We are going to touch on this subject most Sundays, but we need to remember we are living in a completely different perspective of civility in history, which puts us at an extreme disadvantage.

We have democracy, law enforcement, court systems, and city structure that are not perfect, but they create a measure of civility that these people didn’t have at this point in history, so hang on to these three points and we will keep coming back to this subject, but lets look at verses 4-5: (SLIDE)

, “Judah went up, and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. 5 They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.”

In verses 4-5 the people of Israel are winning, and everything looks really positive from Israel’s perspective.

Yes, Joshua has died, but the people are turning to the Lord in prayer, the tribes of Israel are working together, and throughout chapter 1 we see phrases, “The Lord gave them victory and the Lord was with His people” repeated over and over, so that our focus is on the faithfulness of God.

Write that down in your notes, “There is nothing wrong with the promises of God.”

Another Side Note: When you study Scripture on your own it is always easy to get swept up in the drama of the story that we exalt some people and villainize others, so that in the church we end up saying, “Be like these people, don’t be like these people.”

But, really it is better to ask, “What does this passage teach us about God and what does this passage teach us about humanity?”

In Judges chapter 1 we see God is providing, and God is faithful to His promises.

Now, lets look at verses 19-21: (SLIDE)

, “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.

20 Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had promised; and he drove out from there the three sons of Anak.

21 But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.”

In verse 19 we see the people of Israel go into battle, but the people had “iron chariots.”

In the ancient world iron chariots would have been like tanks rolling over Israel, therefore, in we see there isn’t anything wrong with the promises of God, but we see the people of Israel doubting the promises of God.

The people of Israel are looking at the iron chariots and saying, “Well, maybe the Lord didn’t really understand how difficult this would be?”

Remember ?

Isn’t this the God of Scripture who led Israel out of Egypt?

Isn’t this the God of Scripture who dried up the Red Sea? Isn’t this the God of Scripture who tumbled down the walls of Jericho?

Then, how come the “iron chariots” would give the people of Israel any problems?

The people in Israel were looking at these “iron chariots” and thinking to themselves, “Maybe we don’t need to fight all these Canaanites.”

Remember our question, “What does the passage teach us about God, what does the passage teach us about humanity?”

The people of Israel were doubting the promises of God.

In fact, if you look at verse 27 you will see, “Manasseh did not take possession (these are tribes of Israel), verse 29 Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites, verse 30 Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants, and verse 31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants.”

What happened?

Do you remember Judges chapter 1, verse 1, “Who shall go up first?”

In verses 2-3 Judah and Simeon are working together.