The Book of Judges chapter two
and verse 10. And we've been thinking, of course,
about Joshua, and last week we spent a little bit of time thinking
about the death of Joshua, and so here we're now thinking about
that generation that died with Joshua and those of his age. And verse 10 says, And also all
that generation were gathered unto their fathers. And there
arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord,
nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children
of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Balaam. So here the children of Israel
are in Canaan, Joshua is dead, that generation have died and
we discover that the people have forgotten the promises that they
made to follow God. and they did evil in the sight
of the Lord. And then verse 12 says, And they
forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out
of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the
people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto
them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord,
and served Baal and Ashtaroth. and the anger of the Lord was
hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers
that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their
enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand
before their enemies. Whethersoever they went out,
the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had
said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them, and they were greatly
distressed. Nevertheless, the Lord raised
up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that
spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken
unto their judges, but they went a-whoring after other gods and
bowed themselves unto them. They turned quickly out of the
way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments
of the Lord, but they did not so. And when the Lord raised
them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge and delivered
them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For it repented the Lord because
of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and
vexed them. And it came to pass when the
judge was dead that they returned and corrupted themselves more
than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and
to bow down unto them. They ceased not from their own
doings, nor from their stubborn way. And the anger of the Lord
was hot against Israel. And he said, because that this
people have transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers,
and have not hearkened unto my voice, I also will not henceforth
drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left
when he died. and that through them I may prove
Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein
as their fathers did keep it or not. Therefore the Lord left
those nations without driving them out hastily, neither delivered
he them into the hand of Joshua. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Today we're going to begin to
look at the Book of Judges, which gives an account of around 300
years from about 1400 BC, before Christ, to 1100 years before
the coming of the Lord Jesus. And the Book of Judges extends
for a period in the history of the children of Israel from the
end of Joshua's life until the times of Eli and Samuel. Now, Samuel is perhaps a prophet
that we have heard of in the past, but between the time of
Joshua to the time of Samuel and the Kings. So Samuel was
at the time of Saul and the time of David. This is the period
known as the Times of the Judges and it's a period of about 300
years. It was a period of unrest in
Canaan in the land of Israel and a period of instability due
to the failure of the tribes of Israel to rid their land of
the remaining Canaanite nations and also they were prone to attacks
from enemies on their borders like the Philistines and the
Midianites. It was a period characterised
by a lack of faith and a lack of trust and a lack of obedience
to the things of the Lord. periods in the life of the nation
where there was sinning and there was idolatry and the different
tribes as a consequence of that were brought into slavery by
their neighbours. Now in this book of Judges there
are 13 judges identified. Although sometimes we think,
or sometimes you might see written 14 or even 15. The difference
being that sometimes Eli is called a judge and sometimes Samuel
is called a judge. But in the book of Judges primarily,
there are 13 and then it's Eli and Samuel as well. And some
of these judges we know very little about, mostly just their
names really. Some we know a little bit more
about. And then there are a few like
Gideon and Ehud. and Deborah, and perhaps best
known of all, Samson, that are famous and their stories are
well known. These judges, we learn from our
reading today, were raised up by God when the people cried
out to him for help from the persecution that they were suffering
enduring. Persecution that had been brought
on as a result of their sinning and so the people sinned, they
went into idolatry, they disobeyed the Word of God, they were punished
for that by the Lord and we discover that the neighbours and the tribes
and the nations round about dominated and brought them under duress
and then the people cried out for help and the Lord raised
up a judge to deliver them. And while the Holy Spirit has
caused this book to be written and preserved for the teaching
of the church, It is not known who actually wrote the Book of
Judges. We don't have any evidence as
to who the writer was in the history of the church. Some think
it may have been Samuel, or indeed, would you believe that it's even
been suggested that it was King Hezekiah, the very king that
we've been thinking about in the Book of Isaiah. Be that as it may, probably Samuel
is the one who is thought of most likely to have been the
writer. The judges that God raised up were not rulers over the whole
country. They were not governors or magistrates
in the way that we sometimes think about a judge in a court. It wasn't that they made decisions
or, as a general rule, divided or decided between different
cases. nor did they have the authority
that Moses or Joshua had had in previous generations. And
actually, the speed with which the children of Israel sinned
and the tribes fragmented following the death of Joshua shows us
the great strength and power that God had given to these earlier
leaders to be able to hold the nation together for so many years
and to bring them into the Promised Land. Now in the promised land
we find that the people go after the gods of their neighbours. Some of these judges that we're
going to be thinking about only had their role and their service
in one particular tribe. They were men who were temporary
special deliverers sent by God for a specific reason at a specific
time, generally. And they came to save the people
from their oppressors. Their power only extended over
portions of the country. and some of them were actually
contemporaries one of another, which means that they lived at
the same time in different parts of the country and served their
people in different ways. The principal lesson that we
glean from the opening of the Book of Judges is that Israel
failed to rid the land of their enemies. And on a occasion they
even entered into pacts or agreements with their enemies in order for
them to co-mingle and co-marry and dwell together. Now if you
remember this was against the explicit command of God and it
was also against the direction of Joshua and it was the source
of many of the nation's troubles. just as Joshua had feared the
children of Israel did not continue in the things of the Lord despite
the promises that they had made to follow in God's way. What
we do notice from these earliest chapters, however, is the emergence
of the tribe of Judah as a leading tribe in the nation. And we might
remember that this was according to prophecy and reflects the
words spoken by Jacob when he blessed the brothers, the 12
brothers back in Egypt prior to his death. Judah, of course,
was a large tribe and it would be the tribe from whom David
arose to rule over the combined nation of Israel in years to
come, some 300 years later after the time of the judges. But more
importantly, it was the tribe from which the Lord Jesus Christ
would come. whose name is called the Lion
of the Tribe of Judah. And this leads me to say something
that I have mentioned before, but it's important for us to
remember these things. That while this book contains
many interesting and indeed even exciting narratives and stories
and histories and accounts of the lives of people of that age,
The real value for us as The Church of Jesus Christ is to
keep in mind two principal lessons. First, God's people Israel, despite
being greatly blessed and privileged, do not conduct themselves properly
or in accordance with God's will. The heart of man is deceitful
and desperately wicked, and we are all prone to fall into sin
and idolatry and false worship. The second principle lesson is
how gracious the Lord is to show himself to these people as merciful
and gracious and forgiving for their good despite their sin,
according to the promises that he had made to their forefathers. God gave these people the law
and they broke it. And when God gave them blessings,
the people abused and misused them. And when God brings judgment,
the people cry out for help, only to repeat the cycle when
the Lord delivers them by the hands of a judge. And what we
will find in the next few weeks as we're looking at some of these
characters and their exploits is that these judges, there are,
concerning these judges, there are many types and pictures of
the Lord Jesus Christ in this book. Gospel shadows that are
to be uncovered as we look at these passages together. The
true value, the lasting purpose of the Word of God for His Church
and for His people is to teach us about the Lord Jesus. The
Judges are interesting, the history is interesting, but it is the
spiritual lessons about Christ that are to be seen in these
passages. by those who have an eye of faith
that is the real source of blessing for the Church of God. And we
will find that the Holy Spirit has been pleased to leave many
references to the great events of salvation. There always was a spiritual
people among the children of Israel and in this book we find
that there are men and women of true faith that remained dedicated
to the ways of the Lord despite the apostasy around about them. And several of those whose history
is given in this scripture were eminent types of the Lord in
himself, as well as being the servants of the Lord. And the
writer to the Hebrews in the New Testament highlights some
of them, such as Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, whose
testimonies are given as bright examples of faith for you and
for me. So we will read about some of
these people and in the coming studies we will be speaking of
ancient men and women but we will be on the lookout for the
Lord Jesus Christ and we will be sure to find him because he
told his disciples that he has spoken of in all the scriptures
And I just want to give you one brief example and then we're
done. In the verses that we read, we
find that the people forsook the Lord and they turned to worshipping
idols. Nevertheless, we're told that
the Lord was willing to hear their cries for forgiveness when
they turned to him for help. And we read that the Lord raised
them up judges Then the Lord was with the judge and delivered
them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judges. These judges, the people that
we're speaking about, the people of whom this book is about, were
men and a woman whom God raised at a particular time for a particular
purpose, to deliver and bless his people. But despite having
the boldness of a Gideon, and the strength of a Samson, and
the cunning of an Ehud, these judges were only frail humans
like us. They followed the Lord, but they
lived and they died as we all must do. And here we see the
need that we all have of a greater deliverer. A judge who will deliver
not just for a little time, not just for a few people in one
place, but forever and ever. Not just a single nation or over
a single land, but over all his people worldwide to establish
an everlasting kingdom, a spiritual kingdom that will never fade
and will never fail. This great deliverer, this person
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
a man, but he is also God. And it is he who fully delivered
and saved all God's chosen people. It is the raising up of Christ
that these Old Testament judges typified and pointed to. And in the coming weeks, we shall
find more examples of Christ's work foreshadowed in the lives
of these men and women of faith. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.