The book of Judges obviously takes
its name from its contents, which are devoted to the period of Israel’s
so-called “JUDGES” and to certain of the Judges themselves. We may say that it covers roughly the first
350 years of Israel’s history in Canaan.
This is the period of the Theocratic regime, in which Jehovah Himself is
Israel’s “King Invisible”.
The central lesson of the book of
Judges is FAILURE THROUGH COMPROMISE!
The exploits of the Judges teach the lesson that a return to the true
faith brings renewed victory; yet in their teaching of this they but accentuate
the main stark reality that all the failure is due to compromise. Israel plunges into a 35 year period of
national deterioration. A monotonous and
deadly pattern develops: 1. The people fall into sin 2. God disciplines them
with foreign oppression 3. The people cry out in repentance 4. God raises up a
deliverer 5. Peace is restored. The
cycle of sin repeats itself a total of seven times in the book. But God, ever faithful to His covenant
people, extends His grace again and again by sending such leaders as Deborah,
Gideon, and Samson.
In Chapter one, we are told that the
9 ½ tribes which settled in Canaan did not destroy or even drive out the
Canaanite nations, as God had commanded.
The other 2 ½ tribes had already sadly compromised in choosing to settle
in Gilead on the eastern side of the Jordan.
In the one chapter we have 8 incomplete conquests. Incomplete mastery of an evil at the outset
always means constant trouble from it afterwards, and often defeat by it in the
end.
In our individual lives, we can
realize the folly of grabbing a cactus with our tender hands. In the same way, it is ruinous folly to try
half-measures against sin.
Israel makes leagues with their
undefeated enemies…a thing which God had prohibited. Then they intermarried…another prohibited
thing! After mixed blood in marriage,
Israel descends to their ways, bow to their idols, forsake Jehovah and serves
Baal and Astaroth. The stages: incomplete mastery, military leagues,
intermarriage, idolatry and complete apostasy…followed by humiliating
captivity. Judges raised up to
deliver…stopped the rot for the moment, but it set in again worse than before
as soon as the grave silenced each Judge’s voice. “When the Judge was dead that they returned
and corrupted themselves MORE THAN THAEIR FATHER, 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.” (2:8-9)
This is the tragic story of the book
of Judges – FAILURE THROUGH COMPROMISE.
Let this thought burn into your mind and burn out an easy-going
toleration of the unholy or questionable thing.
We can never enjoy God’s promised rest for long if we tolerate only
partially crushed sins to continue with us.
If we make league with questionable things because they seem harmless,
we shall soon find ourselves wedded to the desires of the flesh again and down
from the heights to which God had lifted us.
Oh, that Israel had heeded the
message of the Book of Judges. We must
not be a compromising Church today…God’s word to His people of today is still
that of II Cor. 6:17 – 18.
Israel’s servitudes were not just
accidents. They were punishments. This is a point for serious
consideration. God may confer special
privileges on certain persons and nations, but He is no respecter of persons I
any sense of indulgence to favorites.
Those who sin against extra privilege bear heavier responsibility and
incur heavier penalty. God may give many
privileges, but He never gives the privilege to sin. We must be cautious that a sense of privilege
should beguile our hearts into the sin of presumption. “IT is possible to be moral without being
spiritual; and it is even possible to be spiritual without being moral!” Have you not known people who know deeper and
higher truths of the Christian life, converse freely in a most spiritual vein,
and nevertheless could stoop to behavior that the average non-Christ might
shrink from in disgust? It is only too
easy for familiarity to engender callousness, and then for callousness to be
hypocritically covered with an outer garment of seeming spirituality. We must watch and pray, lest we ourselves
enter into this temptation.
A task half done is as useless as a
task never begun. The skydiver who
almost pulls the ripcord in time…the architect whose bridge almost spans the
mighty Mississippi…the chef who almost bakes the cake long enough…each
experience the agony of an unfinished task.
God intentions and careful workmanship count for very little if the task
is never completed.
“Incomplete obedience is disobedience
wearing a mask.”
Over the book of Joshua could be
inscribed the epitaph: They almost
finished the job. But tragically the
conquests of Joshua gave way to complacency in the time of the Judges. God demanded nothing less than extermination
of Canaan’s false worship. Israel
settled instead for toleration and in the process forfeited God’s fullest
blessing.
What area of your life needs follow
through? Don’t allow incomplete
obedience to separate you from the full enjoyment of God’s presence and
power. Meditate on Psalm 1:1 and be sure
to notice the blessing God promises for those who don’t walk, stand, or sit
where they shouldn’t!
God never changes James 1:17 and Heb.
13:8, but His methods do! They are as
unpredictable as the weather. Warfare
takes on a whole new perspective when the God of Israel is fighting on your
side. How do you conquer an enormous
army? Man’s method…get a bigger
army. God’s method…get rid of most of
your army…arm the rest like children at play and have them stand still.
God’s methods are infinite in their
variety, but His goal is always the same…to bring about victory in such a way
that there can only be one explanation…God did it!
But God takes that unlikely candidate
for greatness, confirms his will through the twin miracles of the wet and dry
fleece, equips Gideon’s army with trumpets, pitchers, and torches and sends him
out to rout the Midianites—without a single weapon.
Gideon, the 5th Judge of
Israel, is rightly counted as one of the outstanding heroes in Israel’s early
history. Yet we need to realize at the
outset that his heroism was not a product of his natural make-up, but the
outcome of a transforming spiritual experience.
It is this which gives him a living significance to ourselves today.
After briefly describing the lives of
5 minor judges, the narrative focuses on Gideon… God’s instrument of salvation
against Midian. Gideon is introduced in
a way that is both humorous and pathetic…cowering in a winepress as he threshes
out a handful of wheat…trying to escape the all-seeing eye of his Midianite
oppressors. When first we see Gideon he cuts a pathetic figure of unbelief
(6:11-23) He is a furtive, nervous young
man secretly threshing wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the marauding
Midianites. What pathetic exclamations
of unbelief escape his lips when the Lord suddenly appears as a Mighty One of
valour!
Gideon spoke the negative and was met
each time with a positive response! His
last is a stammering IF…If now I have found grace in Thy sight, the show ma a
sign. Gideon’s was a vocabulary of
unbelief. Unconverted Gideon presents a
sorry picture of the paralysis which always accompanies unbelief. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him and
said, Mighty soldier, the Lord is with
you!” Gideon was identified CALLED as
what He would make him to be!...”I will make you strong…But I, Jehovah, will be
with you!
The Angel of the Lord’s visit was a
transforming experience for Gideon…he became convinced of the true God of
Israel. V.24 Then he built an altar…the
place where God and man meet. It is the
outward symbol of an inward transaction between the human soul and God. By building the altar, he turned his back on
the false gods and became a worshipper of the one true God. He named the altar a name meaning “Jehovah my
peace.” For the 1st time in
his life, this young Hebrew came into a sense of peace. That is always a first product of true
conversion.
Gideon went further…he became
consecrated. He yielded his own will to
the will of God. V. 25-27 He was asked to tear down the altar to Baal. Israel’s religious leaders were modernists
and had caused the people to err. To
wreck the altar was to run counter to the popular will and to invite death, But
Gideon did it. V. 28 – 32 … Gideon’s
father became converted too. How often
do we miss having such an impact on our relatives and friends?...we are not
prepared to go the length of full consecration to the will of God.
Gideon became controlled…v. 34 He became at once a leader and a savior of
his people. The people recognized the
transforming power of God in him and flocked to him when he sounded his
clarion. A suggested translation might
read “The Spirit of Jehovah clothed Himself with Gideon.” Gideon’s personality became, so to speak, a
garment in which God moved among men.
Gideon’s experience is such a sermon
to us personally today. We may know this
soul-saving, life-changing, character-transforming experience through which
Gideon passed…not in the same circumstances but in its inward essentials. We may become truly converted to God, truly
consecrated to His will, and really controlled by the Holy Spirit. And we may be taken up and used by God as
definitely as Gideon was. Converted,
consecrated, Spirit-controlled! God
grant that it may be true of you and me.
We must get our eyes away from doubt-provoking circumstances, and fix
them on the Word of God Himself.
“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.” I Thess. 5:24
Doubt sees the obstacles, Faith sees
the way.
Doubt sees the darksome night, Faith
sees the day.
Doubt dreads to take the step, Faith
soars on high.
Doubt whispers, “Who believes?” Faith answers---I
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