Scripture Introduction
We could summarize the book of Judges with one word: “Forgetting.” Here appear some of the Bible’s most colorful characters and interesting stories, but the theme of “forgetting God” unites all.
In his departing messages to Israel, Moses warned of this very real temptation. He mentions it explicitly at least six times:
Deuteronomy 4.9: “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children….”
Deuteronomy 4.23: “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you….”
Deuteronomy 6.12: “[T]ake care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
And three times in Deuteronomy 8 (verses 11, 14 and 19): “11 Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes…. 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…. 19 And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.”
After these sermons, Moses dies, leaving Joshua to take the people into the promised land. Joshua does so, and then Judges picks up the narrative. Unfortunately, the people do not heed Moses’ warning; they forget the Lord who bought them, and they find the suffering of rebellion a great misery.
As we look toward a new year, God challenges us, in this passage, to remember him in all things.
[Read Judges 2.6-3.6. Pray.]
Introduction
On Friday we watched the film, Glory Road, the 1966 story of how the integrated Texas Western basketball team defeated Adolph Rupp’s all-white Kentucky Wildcats. At a time when schools in the Southeastern Conference refused scholarships to black students, Don Haskins shook up the world by coaching the first team in NCAA history to win a title with five starting black players.
Young Haskins had seen racism first-hand when his teenage friend, Herman Carr, was denied a chance to play college basketball simply because he was black. Recalling the event that forged his understanding of 1940s racial realities, Haskins said, “When I left and went to college at Oklahoma A&M, Herman couldn’t go anywhere. I felt bad. We worked together at the feed store. I drank out of the white water fountain, and he drank out of the other one. It bothered me.” When Haskins arrived at Texas Western in 1961, the school already had some history of recruiting black athletes. Former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, a holdover recruit, was on Haskins’ first team. Still, Haskins intensified the issue by intentionally recruiting and starting many more black players than had ever been done.
As a result, the game between staid and traditional Kentucky and upstart Texas Western provided a chance for Haskins to both win and make a statement. He played only black kids on a day when bigots still said publically that people who were not white were inferior. Now, many historians say it was the most important basketball game ever, a key turning point in integration and increased equality in athletics.
If we knew in advance what events were pivotal, which moment would be our most important, we could prepare, get ready to do the right thing. But it does not work that way. Haskins knew the issue was important, certainly, but it was only retrospect which revealed that night as the turning point in the fight for respect for black athletes.
None of us know what turning points 2009 will reveal. So how do we prepare so that we respond well when the situation presents itself? I believe God provided this passage in Judges to help us do just that.
1. We Must Remember that God is Good (Judges 2.6-7)
Samuel (who is traditionally thought to have written this book) wants us to reflect on the goodness of God. He signals that by directly connecting the events that happen in Judges with those of Joshua. The book of Joshua tells of God’s faithful promises fulfilled. Let’s go back a couple of generations from the time of Judges and get our bearings.
Moses was the greatest leader Israel had ever known. He was the redeemer from Egyptian slavery and the Lawgiver from the hand of God. So when Moses died, we naturally wonder what will happen to God’s people.
Then we find, in the book of Joshua, that God is still alive, and God leads Israel into the promised land by raising up a new leader, Joshua. But now he dies. Are the promises still good? Is God still faithful? Does he still love his people? These questions would be asked around dinner tables and in the marketplaces – especially during the time of the Judges, when God’s displeasure is evident and his favor withdrawn.
So Samuel, in introducing the story of the Judges, reminds us that God is good, and his faithfulness endures. He does so by repeating some of the very words that end the book of Joshua. (I have already read the Judges verses, but note how they parallel Joshua 24.)
Joshua 24.28,31: So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance…. Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the LORD did for Israel.”
Judges 2.6-7: When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel.
Samuel reminds us that the problems we are hearing about are not due to God’s unfaithfulness. God does exactly what he promised in Deuteronomy 28. As long as Israel remembered the Lord and served him only, they drove out their enemies and took possession of the land. But (as we will see) Israel soon forgot God and his mighty works.
So God wants us to remember his goodness, his great works of redemption and his favor.
I went to seminary in Jackson, and while there I worked at a PCA church which partnered with a inner-city, mostly black congregation. We lived and modeled the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace by working together on mercy projects and evangelism ministry, as well as having joint worship services. The folks at New Horizon Baptist Church taught me something interesting about evangelism. Like us, they had trained with Evangelism Explosion, but they had tweaked it for their needs. When they went out they always asked this question: “Has God been good to you?”
In the inner city, in places of poverty and crime, in good times and bad, virtually everyone said, “Yes, God has been good to me.”
The New Horizon’s Evangelism Teams asked that question to bring to the surface a remembrance of God’s goodness. Samuel does something similar. God would have us do the same.
Has not God been good to us? Do we not have the Word of life in our laps? Do we not know freedoms and wealth sufficient for our every need? Have we not know joys and friendships and family loves which thrill our hearts? Do we not have here, at The Church of the Covenant, a solid foundation upon which to build a healthy and dynamic church that is a light for Forest Park and Fairfield? Have we not felt through Whiz Kids and Angel Tree and the ministry of the deacons the privilege of serving others in the name of Jesus?
Psalm 77.11: I will remember the deeds of the LORD.
Psalm 105.5: Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered….
Psalm 143.5: I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.
This is but a sample of three from the worship songs of God’s people – remembering the goodness of God is the first step to deliverance from a cycle of defeat, and for being prepared for the turning points we will encounter this year.
2. We Must Raise a Knowing Generation (Judges 2.8-10)
Joshu dies, and also all the people who had personally seen God’s glorious provisions. Then these sad words: “there arose another generation, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done.”
Here is an often repeated curse: the new generation tries to live off the successes of the former. Instead of knowing God and experiencing his great works personally, our children man know about God, having only heard the stories.
Samuel Ridout (Commentary, 43): “How easy it is for the second generation of any movement to have truth in the head, but not in the heart. You have all these truths on your bookshelves. You can buy them for a few dollars, but it is one thing to pay for a thing out of your pocket, and another thing to pay for it out of your soul. It is one thing to get it into your head, and another to get it into your heart. And it was one thing for Joshua, and the elders, men of living personal faith, to take hold of things, and quite another for the generation that followed them to do the same thing.”
It is good for us to have heroes from the church’s past. But some of us may be living in the past, so that, rather than passing on a living faith, we only speak of those who are dead. Each generation must enter its own living experience of Christ. Passing on the faith is not simply teaching our kids about God or telling them the words of the confession. Discipling requires that we walk with others as they practice the faith.
• Not only bringing your children to worship, but make sure they are preparing for it and fully participating.
• Not only saying that we should do evangelism, but standing beside your kids as they present the gospel to a friend their own age.
• Not only teaching your kids what the Bible says, but helping them prepare and present Bible lessons to the whole family.
• Not only praying for and with your children, but having them pray for you and your needs.
• Not only bringing food for the city gospel mission, but allowing your kids to buy some groceries out of their own money, contributing to the needs of the poor.
When I read this, my question was: “Why is this verse in the Bible?” It is not simply so that we can criticize Israel of old, but so that we will be proactive and intentional in giving the next generation a personal and real experience of God’s grace. It is good for us to know our history – we should know and speak of how God worked at the time of the Reformation. But raising a knowing generation requires that they known how God has worked in their lives too.
3. We Can Be Rescued from a Cycle of a Graceless Religion (Judges 2.11-3.6)
Judges 2.11-3.6 is a theological summary of what happens through the rest of the book. Bible students call it the “cycle of the Judges,” a repeating pattern of: disobedience, defeat, distress and deliverance. Once you see the pattern, reading Judges is something like seeing again a play where every time you get to a certain part, even though you know what will happen, you say, “Please do not do it this time!”
Juliet visits the Friar and he offers her a drug which will put her into a death-like coma for “two and forty hours.” A message is sent to inform Romeo so he can rejoin her when she awakens. On the night before the wedding, she takes the drug and, when discovered apparently dead, she is laid in the family crypt. The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo. So when he seeks his beloved Juliet, apparently dead, he drinks poison. Every time I see the play I want to grab Romeo and say, “Wait, she is only asleep.”
The cycle of Judges begins with disobedience: a people who forget God fall quickly into sin. God therefore allows their enemies to defeat them, bringing great distress. So they cry out for help, and God graciously delivers. Then they forget again, and we say, “No, not this time, Israel, trust the Lord.”
Now clearly, it is a gracious work of God to rescue again and again his people. Each Judge is a Savior and deliverer, undeserved and unmerited. Judges tells the story of how God rescues the undeserving.
Yet when the leader is done, they fall back into our old ways, they again take the poison of disobedience and die. We need a Judge who lives forever, one with no flaws or failings, one who saves eternally.
The New Testament tells us that Judge is Jesus. God sent his son to be the judge of all the world. He judges with righteousness; he rules with wisdom; he delivers faithfully. Each of us is in the cycle. We all have failures; we all experience divine discipline; we all know the misery of disobedience. The difference is that there is now a judge who rescues his people from the cycle.
As we look forward to the new year, many people are afraid that our nation (even our world?) is entering a downward cycle like happened during the time of the Judges – a time of disobedience that will end in defeat for our nation, like what Carl Henry called “The Twilight of a Great Civilization.” Maybe we are; I certainly do not know.
What I do know is this: we cannot solve the nation’s problems on our own. We can do this: we can make a commitment as a people, individually and as a church, to be a people in 2009, who remember God’s goodness, who personally experience God’s grace, who disciple a new generation in the knowledge of God and the works that he has done, and who cry out for God’s help and favor. Then when our turning point arrives, we will be a light and hope for all people. You think about that.
