Hey Bible Readers! I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble and
I'm your host for The Bible Recap. [Music] Judges is a book
full of bloody and wicked stories. I tell you that not only
so you can prepare your own heart, but in case you're concerned
about little ears or eyes nearby. Depending on who's counting this book covers anywhere from 160-410
years in its 21 chapters. Some people think some of the judges overlap,
so this is just a high level account of what happened with each of the twelve
judges in this time period. By the way, we have to
reframe our understanding of the word "judge" in accordance
with this book and time period. For the most part these aren't courtroom
judges, these are civil and military leaders, more like a very hands-on president,
who enacts laws and commands the army. Of all the judges in the
book, the one who sticks the closest to what God has ordered
is a woman named Deborah, but you're probably more familiar with the bad judges like Samson or the
mediocre judges like Gideon. At this point in history,
Israel is still a theocratic nation-state. Being a theocracy means God
rules the country, not a king or a president. There is no separation of church and state. This kind of system may sound like a great idea, but having God as your
leader doesn't mean you follow Him. The problem is the human heart - it doesn't respond to laws;
it responds to what it loves. And if you don't love God, you will find His rules repugnant
and irrational, and you'll rebel against Him. You may recall from yesterday that even though
Israel is dwelling in the Promised Land, they still haven't completely conquered the land - there were pockets of Canaanites
throughout the land and in major cities. This was the result of Israel's sin and their
failure to obey God's covenant and commands. And God warned them repeatedly
about the consequences, which are: the Canaanites will
become a snare and lead them away into apostasy and then they will become
oppressed and dragged away. So today we set out
for a long ride on the Apostasy Express. For the Israelites, this train runs
in a loop and it looks something like this: Israel sins, they fell into oppression, then they cry out to God who delivers them,
then they repent and enjoy peace for a while, before deciding again that
they like sin more than peace. You'll see this pattern pretty often in this book. The Israelites were enticed
by the sophistication of the Canaanites. Think about it - their parents
had lived in Egypt as slaves, so they came from nothing, and they'd
spent their entire lives in tents in the desert. Now here they are in cities - with art and architecture and
literature and ports of trade. This was an aspirational lifestyle for them. Not only that, but it seemed like
the way the Canaanites acquired this lifestyle was by worshiping their
gods through having sex with the so-called sacred prostitutes of the temple
of Baal. So according to the Canaanite culture, all you have to do is sleep around
and you'll become rich and powerful. Oh, and worship a god besides Yahweh
and also sacrifice your children. The Israelites made concession after concession
until their hearts had fully turned away from God. Here's an interesting question to
ponder as we read through this book: Does Israel fall away because they have no strong leadership or because they're
among the Canaanites? Moses' concern was always about them being among the Canaanites, because
he knew their hearts. But they rebelled even against
him, and he was considered one of Israel's three strongest leaders of
all time No matter which way you slice it, whether it's sinful neighbors or poor
leadership, it's still a heart issue. We follow what we love. We're about to find out what the Israelites love. In Judges 1:1, Israel starts out strong
after Joshua's death by inquiring of God! And they want to eradicate
the Canaanites, just like God commanded. Hooray! We're off to a great start. God tells them that
the tribe of Judah, the largest tribe, should lead the charge in trying
to drive out the Canaanites. Judah calls on the tribe of Simeon for help - possibly because they were
their closest relatives, or maybe because Simeon's land was in the
middle of Judah's land, kind of like a donut hole, so it made sense that they would fight together. They had some initial victory, even in Jerusalem, but as the chapter progresses,
we see that it was short-lived. By the time we hit
verse 21, they've lost the city again. and even though we see mostly victories in chapter 1, we
see tiny hedges here and there where they allow the Canaanites to remain
for one reason or another. It only takes them 19 verses to get off track. By the time we wrap up chapter 1, 9 of the 9.5 tribes in the original
Promised Land, west of the Jordan River, still have Canaanites living among them. The only exception is Issachar. We also see that they kept some of the
Canaanites alive and made them into slaves, which was expressly forbidden by God. In chapter 2, God shows up
in the form of the Angel of the Lord to rebuke them for not driving out
the Canaanites and tearing down their altars, as they had agreed to do in response to
His command and His covenant with them. He tells them the
consequences of their actions: the Canaanites will be a thorn in
their flesh and they will fall into idolatry. The people are devastated by this news
and they weep and offer sacrifices to God. But their repentance is short-lived. There were two points in today's reading where we had flashbacks to the
previous readings in Joshua - the death of Joshua and the
allotment of the springs to Caleb's daughter and her cousin Othniel
when he won her hand in marriage. Don't let those flashbacks confuse
you. The books of Joshua and Judges were written by different authors, so to them it didn't feel redundant or confusing, they were just giving important details that applied to what they
were currently explaining. In chapter 2, when we flash
back to Joshua's death, it's a reminder of the time
when Israel was following God more closely, but even that great generation failed as leaders, because they
didn't appoint new leaders. And they didn't tell
God's story to the following generation. They only led with the present
in mind, and their legacy failed to continue. So the people begin to worship the gods of Baal and Ashtaroth, male and
female gods of the Canaanites. God is furious, of course,
and He brings the very thing He promised - discipline in the form of
being plundered and conquered. At the end of today's reading
we get an overview of the whole book: God raises up judges
from among them, to help lead them, but they reject the leaders and
Yahweh Himself, and continue in wickedness. So God promises not to drive out
their enemies since they've broken the covenant - and it will serve as a test to them. Would they repent?
Would they turn back to Him? Stay tuned to find out. Where did you see God's
character on display today? What was your GOD SHOT? I saw so many things: I saw His
faithfulness to His covenant with Him, which included both blessings
for obedience and curses for rebellion. I saw His patience with them, His willingness to forgive,
His compassion toward them, but above all, I see how much He loves them. He's not just trying to force obedience
without relationship, He's after their hearts. Nothing changes unless hearts
change. Yesterday we saw Joshua tell people to incline their hearts toward God, and today we see that
His heart is inclined toward them as well. I'm so grateful His love for me has prompted my heart to love Him
back, because He's where the joy is! One of the themes we see in scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is the theme of idolatry and how it distracts our hearts from
engaging with God at a deeper level. Idolatry doesn't just refer to statues. Ezekiel 14 says we can take idols into our hearts. So we built out a PDF with more
info on how to identify idolatry in your own heart and we'd love to share that with you. If you want to get this PDF for free, all you have to do is go
to thebiblerecap.com/idols and submit your email address. That's thebiblerecap.com/idols. [Music]