Judges

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0:00 The rest of us were continuing reading this story. We passed out several of these books called The Story, which is a, they summarize, they put the Bible story in chronological order and then take large sections from the NIV. And so you can read through the whole story of scripture chronologically in like 30-something weeks. So we're on week seven.

0:30 And we're in the period of the judges. And one of the things I've been trying to follow for us in this story of scripture, as we're running through the story really quickly, is this idea that the premise of the story of scripture is that there is a God and the God makes humanity and earth. And these three characters, God, humanity and earth, are designed to be in the right relationship with each other. And everything goes right when these three characters are in right relationship with each other,

1:01 God, humanity and earth. And what happens at the very beginning of the story is that the dynamics between those three characters, God, humanity and earth are broken in such a way that everything goes wrong. Earth that is designed to produce what humanity needs ends up not producing, ends up producing thistles and toils. And humanity is designed to be completely vulnerable with one another and safe, feels shame, guilt, fear,

1:32 anxiety, and everything is broken. And the question that drives the story of scripture is, will the God figure out how to get humanity, earth and God back in right relationship with one another? And the point we are at in the story is, God has miraculously brought Israel out of Egypt after 200 years of plenty and then 200 years of enslavement in Egypt. He brings them out across the Red Sea,

2:04 demolishes the Egyptian army, brings them to Sinai, describes for them what life will look like, takes them through the desert. And last week we talked about how they crossed over the Jordan River to take possession of the land that God had promised their family some 500 years before. I mean, this is like a long held hope and promise. And one of the takeaways for me from last week,

2:35 we talked about the story of Joshua. One of the takeaways for me from last week, in Joshua chapter one, he says something like six or seven times to Joshua, be strong and courageous. Haven't I told you to be strong and courageous? And the image in my head from last week that kept coming back is like, you have the presence of God standing in front of you, inviting you to courage and strength. And it takes more than one time,

3:07 like how either afraid or daunting is the task to which Joshua has called, that the observable presence of God has to beseech him six or seven times, get up, arise, be strong and courageous. And what's been sticking with me is that the call of God is to adventure, to press in through fear and apathy

3:37 and into a life that matters. And so Joshua will need strength and courage on the road that God has called him to. And where we pick up the story now, Joshua has gone to be with the Lord, they buried him in his inheritance in Ephraim. And the people of God very promptly forget God again, which is like kind of a bummer.

4:12 They forget God if you look in Judges chapter two, Matthew, no, that's Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Judges chapter two. One of the most interesting things for me at this point, when I was reading through this chapter, one of the things that jumped out to me immediately

4:44 is how much the angel of the Lord is running around in Israel. Now, remember, like just to set the context, because we're going through this really fast, but humanity is in the garden with the God and walks in the cool of the day. And then when everything breaks, he ushers them out of the garden. And it seems like Adam and Eve still have some like conversation with the God, though it's not really clear.

5:16 And then there's generations, right? Noah talks to God, but then there's whole generations through Babel, so like hundreds of years before Abraham comes on the scene. The first time we see this Malak Yawe, the messenger of God, there's angels in the story of scripture. But when you read the Old Testament carefully, you realize that all angels aren't created equal. And there's one that's always called the angel of the Lord.

5:48 In Hebrew, it's a fun word, the Moloch is the messenger. And then Yawe, we know it's the personal name for God. So when these two Hebrew words are grouped together, the Moloch Yawe, we know that there's something special going on. Because when you follow the angel of the Lord in different places in the story of scripture, you find that the angel of the Lord speaks from the first person as God. Like we'll look at one place in Judges where it's actually transposed. The angel of the Lord shows up

6:18 and then it just says the Lord speaks. At other places, the angel of the Lord receives worship. So a lot of people think the angel of the Lord is God, coming down wherever, out of wherever God dwells infinitely to try and like hold people's hand and get them into the right place at the right time. The first time the angel of the Lord shows up is to Hagar. Remember Hagar? Sarah's maid servant and Abraham's concubine that has a baby ishmael.

6:49 She gets pregnant and Sarah gets mad at her. And so she flees. And the angel of the Lord comes to Hagar. It's like where are you going? And Hagar's like, I'm running away from Sarah. She's very mad at me. And the angel of the Lord is like, I'll protect you. You're gonna have the baby. The name is gonna be ishmael. Go back to the camp. And this is what the angel of the Lord does on lots of occasions throughout the story of the scripture shows up at just the right point and tells people very tactically, this is what you'll do.

7:22 And it's where God is orchestrating and instead of hanging back out of the scene, directing off the scene, the angel of the Lord is God coming down into the midst of things to try and get the thing moving in the right direction. Quit doing the wrong thing. Start doing the right thing. Comes to Joshua right before the battle of Jericho and tells him exactly how to defeat the Jericho-nans. Jerichites?

7:54 Well, I'm up there. And judges chapter two verse one, the angel of the Lord is on the scene again. And so it says, now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Boshim and said, I brought you out of Egypt. I brought you into the land that I swore to your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you and you shall make no covenant with me with the inhabitants of this land. You shall not, you shall break down their altars.

8:28 You shall, but you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your side and their God shall be a snare to you. As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept and they called on the name of Boshim and they sacrificed to their Lord.

8:59 Remember, I told you that Joshua was strong and courageous and conquered much of what he was supposed to, but not all. He left tribes and people and small nations. And after Joshua dies, the angel of the Lord, this is the only time I know of where he speaks to a whole group of people. It says, the angel of the Lord came down and addressed Israel and said, because you have not done what I said to do, meaning you walked into places that I gave you,

9:34 walked into cities with walls you didn't build, homes with kitchens you didn't set up, vineyards that you didn't plant, which I miraculously gave you and then worshiped the gods of the people that were there instead of the one who gave it to you. And since you did that, I will not drive these rest of these out in front of you. You're gonna have to deal with them. And what happens throughout judges is consistently, they're having to deal with these other groups of people that are raiding them and subjugating them

10:07 and conquering them over and over again, right? And the angel of the Lord said, you're gonna do it. But what I wanted you to see here first is that in order that they don't miss it, the angel of the Lord comes down and tells them all, this is why you're gonna have this problem. This is the great promised land. This is what was murmured to Abraham late at night. This is what was prophesied to Jacob as he laid his head on the rock, right?

10:41 This is what was told to Joseph as your people will go back and take the land. This is the great promised land. This is what Moses laid his eyes on as he stood up on the mountain and looked over the river Jordan. This is what Joshua crossed Jordan and put stones. This is the promised land and it will not be peaceful for you because you just don't trust me to give it to you. He wants them not to miss it. And then look at in Judges 6, if you're following along

11:12 with me, Judges 6 verse 11, what happens is then they repent, God gives them someone to deliver. This happens over and over again. And then as soon as they deliver, while they have the judge, things are fine, then after the judge, things go bad again. In Judges 6 verse 11, now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terribinth at Orfa, which belonged to Joash.

11:48 He sat under a tree and he starts to talk to him. While his son of giving was beating out the wheat in the wine press, he hid it from the Midianites and the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor. And Gideon said to him, please sir, if the Lord is with us, what's happening is the Midianites are persecuting the Israelites. And what I want you to see is how casually God comes down

12:22 in the angel of the Lord to talk to Gideon. The angel of the Lord comes and sits under the terribinth. He's like, hey, strong man and Gideon did not understand himself as a strong man. He was like the youngest and the smallest in the family in the smallest of the tribe. Classic God stuff, right? He always goes to the weakest, to the least, to the last, to the lost, right? He goes to Gideon, calls him a strong man and says, defend Israel, punchline, Gideon does.

12:58 One more time here, the angel of the Lord appears up in Judges 13 if you want to flip forward with me. Judges 13, verse two, there was a certain man of Zora of the tribe of the Danites who was Manoa and his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, behold, you are barren and have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.

13:28 This is Samson. She goes to the angel of the Lord, appears to a barren woman and says you'll have a kid, again, classic God stuff. How many times has he done that? He likes to do it that way. That way everybody knows this is the product of the God. But what I want you to see is the angel of the Lord in this period after Israel, he's finally made good on the promise and given them the land, which the question of the story is, will humanity find themselves in a land

14:02 with the capacity to let God be God? Then everything will be right. And God brings them into the land, flowing with milk and honey. He's delivered them miraculously. They have the honeymoon period in the desert where he's feeding them in the morning and in the evening and he's leading them with pillar of clock and then he walks them into the land and they take hold of the land and then thank other gods for it. It's like such a bummer.

14:32 It's right there, land, humanity and God. All the things are right. And consistently things go wrong. The angel of the Lord is so persistent. He'll come down and talk to all of them. And then within a generation, they've forgotten God or worshiping all the people and they're subjugated. And then when things get really bad,

15:03 they're like, wait a minute, aren't we Israel? Don't we have our own God we can appeal to? They appeal to their own God and then the God comes and rescues them, gives them a judge, delivers them, kicks off their enemies. And this is what's very interesting to me. I hadn't thought it. Judges is a weird book. If you ever read it, it is a brutal time to be alive in the ancient Near East. Crazy stuff happens in judges. But one thing is consistent, when they have a good judge, after he's kicked off or she's kicked off the subjugators

15:36 because there are men and women judges, after they've kicked off the oppressors, right? Then it says they had peace while the judge was alive. I think that's fascinating. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, Christ and the church, is not some imperialist megalomaniac.

16:08 He's not trying to become Nebuchadnezzar. He's not encouraging them to become the first Assyria or Babylon or Rome and take over the whole world. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of creation and life, just wants people in the land that'll let them be God. And he knows if ever that would happen, all the world would be drawn to it.

16:38 So he doesn't set up Israel and then say, now conquer everyone else. This is fascinating to me. When the angel of the Lord comes down in the place and calls, say Gideon, right? All right, Gideon, the Midianites are brutal to you guys, man, they're taking everything you got, they're killing you wantonly. Let's get rid of them. Call together the men of Israel and Gideon is inspiring.

17:09 Call together the men of Israel, right? And then God comes and talks to Gideon, he's like, dude, you got way too many people here. These guys are too fired up to fight. Get rid of them. So he gets rid of part of them and then he's like, man, you still got way too many here. I don't, this is more than I need, guy. Get rid of them again. And so he goes with 300 against thousands. Because God's like, the point isn't the violence or the conquering, the point is the peace in the land.

17:40 Let's just get rid of these violent other people so that we can carve out a space where you can be people, I can be God in a land that works. There are 12 judges in the book of judges. Some of them are better than others. All of them bring peace for Israel until they're gone.

18:10 And consistently, within one generation, they've forgotten God, left them behind, and they're in trouble again. I mean, I don't want to blame them too much. But, in one generation to forget God,

18:42 somebody is like, they're not, feels like they're not even trying. In one generation, they forget God. I try to count one time how many generations we are removed from Christ.

19:12 I don't know, I get it. How long is the generation even? I feel like they're getting shorter or longer. I don't know. A lot, more than one. When you read this story chronologically, I don't want to say that, I don't want to say that God is learning as though he didn't know what he was doing at the beginning, but definitely the strategy seems to evolve. There's a point where I was reading this story of judges,

19:45 and you see the molecule coming down and going, okay, here we go. We're going to do it like this. Okay, do it, just get it, fewer people. Okay, and then he tells them exactly how to go defeat the Midianites, they go defeat the Midianites, he accomplishes peace in Israel, and then in one generation, it's a mess again. You get the feeling, you remember the phrase, if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. And so you get the feeling that the God of the universe is like, oh my gosh, we need something altogether new.

20:23 We need something altogether new. So, it's true, the God of the Old Testament is interested in peace, not war, though there's a lot of war in the Old Testament. As evidenced by when they trusted them, they had peace. What's interesting there, of course, is that the peace of God is like equal to peace in Israel amongst the people in the country. If there's no war, then God is a God of peace, that's the point.

20:55 In Christ he does it different. Christ is like, forget this, we're going to go and make all things new. The promised land is not enough anymore. We need a whole new place. We need a whole new set of people. This is why when Pilate pulls Jesus next to him, and he's like, don't you know, I have the ability to protect you. And this is like Pilate going, dude, I'm tired of these Pharisees,

21:28 they're so frustrating. Do you mean you want to handle this? All I got to do is keep peace here. And if you and I can keep peace, then that's fine. And Jesus looks at him and says, dude, my kingdom is not of this world. We're going to some place that is better. I got to start, I got to get a whole new place populated with a whole new people. This is why Paul says, oh my gosh, when you come in Christ, you are a whole new creation. The old is gone and the new has come because God the Father realizes in the person of Christ,

22:04 he has the capacity to create a new place for new people, to go live and be in a land and let God be God. So this is why Paul says in Philippians. You can't believe it.

22:34 There are several places in Paul's letters where you realize he's encountered something completely different under the lordship of Jesus than he had as a Pharisee under the laws of Israel. There are a couple places where you realize he almost can't contain in his letter how excited he is, how different the experience is of following the laws of Israel or living under the reign of Christ. But one of them is in a letter to the Philippians when he says, oh my gosh,

23:07 I have encountered a peace that surpasses all understanding, that transcends all understanding. He says, I have encountered a peace when the world says I should be in turmoil and heartache, when the world says I should be anxious and afraid, when the world says that there is no protection and provision, I feel internally a complete sense of peace, of provision and protection, of purpose and hope.

23:40 Because the God of creation and life is a God of peace, but the work of Christ now is to move that peace into your heart and your mind. It's no longer associated with nations. So battles will rage, wars will continue, and the lordship of Christ will win out in the end. In the meantime, we get to experience peace under his reign now as we navigate these crazy places of all these other kings rising and falling, coming and going.

24:12 We live under the Judge Christ, the King Christ, who sets up a reign of peace now that never ends. In the story of Judges, it's almost like you can see that working out. You can see the commitment of God. Though Israel fails over and over again, God continues to come back, bail them out, set them up for peace.

24:43 So it gives me hope. Because I don't know about you, but if I audit my life, there are little promised land, Moses moments, that I could not have manufactured or anticipated. Little experiences of provision or protection or purpose or hope that I could not have expected or manipulated or got to on my own.

25:19 If I audit my life, I can see little promised land moments, and I can also see the repetitive nature of the way I forget and move on. Oh man, things are really nice here in the land. I'll just enjoy that. I deserve the land. I've worked hard for the land. And so God's persistence with Israel in Judges assures me he will be persistent with me.

25:58 And the little tastes of promised land of peace that I know now will amplify and grow forever. Because that's who he is. He's committed to me. Let me pray that we might awaken now and then to our need for Christ the good judge. Hey Lord, thank you for the story of Judges.

26:28 Teach us how to find ourselves there and what we learn from you in it. Be with us as we, Lord, consider now. Remind us of the promised land moments you've given us in life. And teach us to repent of our haughtiness and pride in each of those times. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.