Another Generation - Judges 2:1-23

Greeting

Thank you for making your way here tonight.

welcome

Thank you for making your way here tonight.

It’s a tremendous privilege to be able to be here with yall and to open the word of God with you.

It’s a tremendous privilege to be able to be here with yall and to open the Word of God with you.

Now if you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, please open them to the book of Judges with me.

We will begin tonight by reading , but first let me set the scene for our reading-

· The Israelites have come out of Egypt by the hand of God and were brought to the promised land but were not permitted to enter because of their lack of faith.

· The Israelites have come out of Egypt by the hand of God and were brought to the border of the promised land, but were not permitted to enter because of their lack of faith.

· After wondering in the wilderness for 40 years, all the generation that doubted and were led into wondering had died with the exception of 2 men, and who are they? Joshua and Caleb.

· After wondering in the wilderness for 40 years, all the generation that doubted and were led into wondering had died with the exception of 2 men, and who are they? (Joshua and Caleb.)

· As you move into the book of Joshua this new generation begins to move into the land, but they are not faithful to drive out all the inhabitants as they are instructed, which we see as we come to the book of Judges, as a report of what has been accomplished is given in chapter 1.

· As you move into the book of Joshua this new generation begins to move into the land, but they are not faithful to drive out all the inhabitants as they are instructed which we see as we come to the book of Judges as a report of what has been accomplished is given.

· As you move into the book of Joshua this new generation begins to move into the land, but they are not faithful to drive out all the inhabitants as they are instructed, which we see as we come to the book of Judges, as a report of what has been accomplished is given in chapter 1.

And this is where we pick up in and we will read through verse 17 (read)

Now if you will, join me in a word of prayer. (pray)

Here at Temple we are intentionally seeking to develop disciples and thus discipleship is being emphasized in many ways.

Tonight as we look at this, and a few other texts we will be doing so with a focus on discipleship of the most important form.

And this is where we pick up in and we will read through verse 23 (read)

·

And this is where we pick up in and we will read through verse 23 (read)

Now if you will, join me in a word of prayer. (pray)

Here at Temple we are intentionally seeking to develop disciples and thus discipleship is being emphasized in many ways as you have hopefully picked up on.

Tonight, as we look at this, and a few other texts, we will be doing so with a focus on discipleship. And the aspect of discipleship we will be looking at is of the most important form.

Tonight, as we look at this, and a few other texts, we will be doing so with a focus on discipleship. And the aspect of discipleship we are looking at is of the most important form.

Tonight, as we look at this, and a few other texts, we will be doing so with a focus on discipleship. And the aspect of discipleship we will be looking at is of the most important form.

Let’s begin in verse 1.

We have the angel of YHWH here speaking.

· Just a quick word of clarification- if you have heard me speak before, and specifically from the first part of our Bibles, commonly referred to as the Old Testament, you will have heard this before but let me take a moment to explain something in our English Bibles.

o When you see the word ‘Lord’ with a capital ‘L’ followed by the letters ‘ord’ in lower case form this is the word ‘Adonai’ in Hebrew.

o This carries the meaning of a master, a highly respected person, a patriarchal family member, or in English from a few generations ago – a lord.

o This carries the meaning of a master, a highly respected person, a patriarchal family member, or in English from generations past – a lord.

o In distinction, when you see ‘Lord’ in all capitals this is the Hebrew word YHWH. This is the name given by God when asked by Moses in exodus chapter 3 along with the familiar ‘I Am’.

o In distinction, when you see ‘Lord’ in all capitals this is the Hebrew word YHWH. This is the name given by God when asked by Moses in exodus chapter 3 along with the familiar ‘I Am’ language.

o In distinction, when you see ‘Lord’ in all capitals this is the Hebrew word YHWH. This is the name given by God when asked by Moses in exodus chapter 3 along with the familiar ‘I Am’.

o This is the covenant name of God used in the Old Testament no less than 6828 times.

o This is the covenant name of God used in the Old Testament over 6000 times.

So, in verse one we see the name of this covenant God and then at the end of the verse we see His proclamation that He will never break His covenant with them.

He reminds them of the promise He made to the fathers of the people of Israel and then in Verse 2 He reminds them of what they were to do.

Look at verse 2- they were not to make covenants with the peoples of the land and they were to tear down their altars – their places of false worship.

They were given a ‘do not’ and a ‘do’.

They didn’t uphold either as the end of verse 2 shows.

As a result, in Verse 3 God pronounces judgment on Israel.

The people will not be driven out.

God in His sovereignty is able to drive the people out from before the sons of Israel – He is also able to keep them from being driven out.

The people will be a constant irritation to Israel and what does it say about their gods? (a snare to them)

As we look at Verses 4 & 5 we see the sons of Israel’s response: (read 4&5)

They did 4 things in response to what God said to them:

1. They lifted up their voices

2. They wept

3. They named the place as a reminder

4. They made sacrifices to YHWH.

When is the last time you heard the word of God and responded like this?

They have been called out- humiliated- their sin is undeniable.

They do not look around for someone doing the same thing to aliviate their guilt.

They do not look around for someone doing the same thing to alleviate their guilt.

They offer no defense.

For anyone who thinks hard preaching is not useful what would you have to say about these verses?

Look at the response of the people:

· They lift their voices and weep.

o They are confronted with their disobedience and it crushes them.

§ Let me ask a rhetorical question- when you are confronted with your disobedience what is your response? Denial? Blame-shifting? Justifying yourself? Or… are you convicted? Are you repentant? Does it crush you?

· They named the place.

o They named the place they were at bochim which in Hebrew means ‘weepers’

§ They did something that would be a reminder for the future. They didn’t want to forget this.

· They sacrificed to YHWH.

o After they are confronted with their sin they respond in grief, but it does not stop there.

§ You may have heard it said before that the Gospel is on every page of the Old Testament. Here it is again.

Ø The people have failed to uphold God’s standard

Ø They are confronted with their sin against God

Ø They are grieved unto action – this is repentant grief.

Ø They seek atonement.

Ø This is the Gospel. There is no difference for us today.

Ø They made sacrifices to God, which was a foreshadowing of what was to come

Ø We look to the true sacrifice – Christ’s death on the behalf of all who would ever believe – both those in the Old Testament and those after.

In Verse 6 the assembly disbands and the people go their allotted portions of the land.

As we move into Verse 7 we see that from that point forward those who were alive and present at bochim served YHWH for the rest of their lives.

Then in Verses 8 & 9 Joshua dies and is buried.

Then in Verse 8 & 9 Joshua dies.

Now we reach Verse 10, which is the pivot-point in this chapter.

Joshua and the other leaders have died and now the rest of that generation has died as well.

The ones who took their place have a disturbing description given of them: they did not know YHWH.

This is not speaking of simply not being aware of what God has done or who He is, that’s a different concept altogether as we see in the last words of verse 10.

On a much deeper level this is speaking of knowing God on an intimate level.

This is actually the same word used to speak of the physical relationship between a husband and a wife.

These people did not have a meaningful, committed relationship with YHWH and as the end of the verse says they hadn’t even heard about Him.

This points to a few different issues that we will discuss.

First it is impossible to know God in an intimate way if you have no knowledge of Him.

We see this in “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?”

While it is certainly possible to have knowledge about God without knowing Him, it is impossible to know Him without possessing knowledge of Him.

That’s why the expression you may have heard before “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” Is so off base.

No one will come to a saving knowledge of the Gospel by you changing little old ladies’ tires, or feeding the hungry.

Am I saying we should let the hungry starve and drive by someone’s grandma on the side of the road? No.

But if you do these things and do not call that person to repent and believe the Gospel, you have not shared the Gospel.

Look at Verse 11.

They did evil in the sight of God.

They served the baals.

Remember verse 3? Just as God had said, the Gods of the people that were not driven out have become a snare.

Look at Verse 12.

They forsook YHWH. Some translations say “they abandoned YHWH.”

What terrible words.

Notice the next words- “the God of their fathers”.

Not their God – their fathers God.

They follow false gods and in doing so they provoke God to anger.

The God of the Bible gets angry. You have probably heard the term ‘righteous indignation’ before.

Unlike us God’s anger is not unjust.

He is the Creator of these people- according to the 1st chapter of Romans that alone demands that they worship the true God.

Beyond their creation and their being sustained by God, He has delivered them from Egypt.

But look at Verse 13 – again we see the words they served the false gods- and forsook God.

in Verses 14 & 15 God brings punishment on Israel as He said He would, then in Verse 16 God delivers them again.

Let’s look at Verse 17 now.

They quickly turn again to the false Gods.

They turn aside from the way of their fathers. They did not do as their fathers.

Now the gut reaction here may be to say “that dagum generation! They didn’t keep the commandments like their fathers did! They didn’t love God like their fathers did!”

What does the text say though?

This generation didn’t even know what God had done for them- they didn’t know God in an intimate way- they couldn’t.

Look at Verse 20- the covenant that I commanded their Fathers…

Who directly received the covenant? Their fathers.

Does this mean this generation is not accountable? No, not at all, but their fathers did them a huge disservice, to say the least.

Let’s move backwards in time a little bit.

We read of the death of Joshua here in Judges chapter 2, lets flip back to the book of Joshua and look at chapter 4.

Here Joshua is leading Israel through the Jordan river on dry land because God has stopped the flow of the Jordon river.

Read with me

Now go down to verses 20 -24

So, they were instructed to set these stones as a reminder of what God had done-

In verses 20-24 God speaks of this being something to use to teach the next generation.

Look at the last part of verse 24 (fear forever)

What a contrast from what we read in Judges- who remembers what it said in Judges? “They ___ YHWH.” Forsook or abandoned Him.

Let’s look at another example- flip a little further back- to Deuteronomy chapter 6

Let’s look at verses 1-25 (with emphasis on the related verses)

There are obviously some strong links between this chapter and what we read in Judges.

Here in Deuteronomy and in the passage we read in Joshua we see that there is the expectation that the parents will teach these things to their children.

When we began tonight, I mentioned discipleship, and what we see here is the consequences for the failure of parents to disciple their children.

Who was the responsibility given to?

It doesn’t say “when your kids go to school, they are to learn these things”

It doesn’t say “just drop them off with someone else and hopefully they will get what they are supposed to”

It doesn’t even say “it’s the elders and church leaders’ job to make sure they learn these things”

Who does the responsibility belong to?

Have we let this way of thinking infiltrate our lives?

Were the people in the last days of Joshua’s life sitting around complaining that the new generation hadn’t gotten around to following God?

Whose responsibility was it?

I’m certainly not implying that if they had done better every single one of them would have come to know God.

But flip back over to .

What does the end of verse 10 say? They didn’t even know what God had done.

There is no greater ministry than the family.

What even is a church? It’s a body comprised of family units for the part.

And to be clear - who specifically is given the command? The fathers.

If your translation doesn’t say “fathers” id highly recommend finding a more literal translation.

In the New Testament this pattern continues.

Fathers, which implies the title husband by definition, are to be the heads of their households.

So, to close I ask; “concerning the next generation – specifically your own children – are you discipling them?”