Transition
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Today we’re going to begin a series titled ‘Here Comes the Judge’ going through the time period in which the book of Judges covers.
This is a very interesting and unique time in the history of the COI. It bridges the gap between Slavery and Monarchy.
But in order to properly set this series up, we’re going to use this time to lay the foundation on what life and society was like leading up to the time of the Judges.
So part of this message today is a History lesson with a common theme throughout. That theme is that though we go through transitions in life, God is always constant in the life of the believer.
I don’t want anyone lost as to what is going on.
That being said, the first point we’ll use to bring us up to speed is titled: ‘The Status Quo’
I. The Status Quo (v1)
I. The Status Quo (v1)
Jg. 1:1 “Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?”
We’re not going to go all the way back to the start of the COI with Abraham, however we’re going to go back through the course of Joshua’s life who has since died at the start of the book of Judges.
We’ll look first at the time of ‘God’s Mighty Deliverance’
God’s Mighty Deliverance
Deliverance from Egypt
At some point in his adult life, Joshua was a slave in Egypt. In fact, the Children of Israel had been slaves for over 400 years prior there in Egypt.
If you were to read the Book of Genesis, it concludes with the COI being guests in Egypt as they had sojourned for a time there during a famine in the promised land. At the end of Genesis, Joseph had died (who’d held great power in the land)
As you open up the next book Exodus, you’d see these words (Read Ex. 1:1-8)
Because of this, they looked on the COI differently. Instead of a people who lived in peace with them - as it was Joseph the Jew whose Godly wisdom spared Egypt from the famine - they saw them as a threat and made them slaves there in Egypt.
Over 400 years they would remain slaves until God provided a man who would one day lead the COI from their captivity.
(Story of Moses) He was born & miraculously preserved in the ark of bulrushes. He was taken by Pharaoh’s daughter to raise in the palace and for 40 years that’s where he’d remain.
Then Moses would kill an Egyptian and spent the next 40 years in exile.
Then at 80yo, God would call Moses out from the midst of a Burning Bush and convince Moses to go and lead the COI out of Egypt.
God would then by the hand of Moses bring down plagues upon the land. One after another!
Water to blood, frogs, lice, flies, pestilence, boils, hail fire, locusts, darkness.
Then the final one: the Death of the firstborn in all the land. Jew & Egyptian alike were under this Judgment. NO ONE WAS SAFE! But thank God He provided a Lamb!
So at this, God’s People spoiled the Egyptians, they got up & left Egypt that very night! After a bit, Pharaoh, who had finally let them go, began to regret his decision & he set out after them. God had led the COI to the Red Sea, God would open up the Red Sea, dry the land & the COI would cross safely through the midst of it. The Egyptians weren’t so fortunate. God would confound them in the midst, then the waters would come back together & crush the pursuing army!
So the COI would find themselves free, they were out of Egypt - and into the wilderness. God proved that He was still with the COI - as God had promised unto Abraham, Isaac, Jacob & Joseph
This was God’s Mighty Deliverance - but then it led to God’s Mighty Discipline
God’s Mighty Discipline
Time in the Wilderness
The COI at this time were a stubborn rebellious people. (Much like the church today). They’d been delivered out of Egypt, but Egypt was still very much alive in them!
As they were in the wilderness,
They’d murmur about the lack of water - so God provided them water from a rock.
They’d murmur about lack of food - so God provided them manna from Heaven
Then they’d cry about the lack of diversity in their diet. They were just a hard-headed bunch!
So God brought them through the wilderness and on the cusp of the land of promise! That same land that God had promised unto Abraham 500 years earlier! So instead of entering right in, God directed them to send out spies into the land - 12 spies, one from each tribe. (This is where we’re introduced to Joshua and Caleb. They were 2 of the twelve). The 12 spied went in and scouted the land for 40 days. When they returned they’d brought grapes, figs & pomegranates (Num. 13:23) and they said ‘man what a land! It’s a land that floweth with milk and honey!’. All of them said that. But them 10 of them said: Num. 13:28-29; 31-33. Joshua & Caleb protested (Num. 14:6-9), but the voices of the 10 won out. Because of their lack of faith, they would not go into the land.
So if you were to read on, you’d see God’s pronouncement: Num. 14:28-35.
So we see God’s Mighty Discipline. The COI would wander for 40 years in the wilderness as punishment for their lack of faith. Only two over the age of 20 lived to enter the promised land - Joshua and Caleb.
But through it all, God proved that He was still the God of the COI - even though they were disobedient and God had to chastise them. The Bible tells us: Heb. 12:6 “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”
So after 40 years of wandering, it brings us to God’s Mighty Disposition
God’s Mighty Dispossession
God’s Conquering of Canaan’s Land
Once that generation left this earth - Moses included - God would place Joshua in His stead as leader of the COI. God would do for him as he did for Moses. Jos. 3:7 “And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.” (Parting the Jordan / like the Red Sea). God was not done with the COI! He was still with them! Even through their disobedience, God still loved them & had a plan for them!
I called this the great Dispossession because God - through the COI under Joshua’s leadership - wrested possession of the land from the inhabitants and placed it under the COI.
In the first half of the book of Joshua, it tells of the conquest of the land, then we see in Jos. 11:15-17 “As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same; Even from the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them.” Jos. 11:23 “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.”
In the next chapter it lists the 31 kings that the COI conquered in Joshua’s day. The remainder of the book speaks mostly of the division of the land to the tribes of the COI. But there is one verse that really sets the stage for the book of Judges: Jos. 13:1 “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.”
At the time of the death of Joshua and the beginning of the book of Judges, the COI owned all of the promised land, BUT THEY DIDN’T POSSESS IT ALL. (Ill) You see church, you can have something, yet not possess it. God has promised His Children peace - He’s given us perfect instruction to have it - right in Php. 4:6-9. However, so many of God’s children do not possess peace. God as you can see was still with the COI in the days and conquest of Joshua.
God had taken possession of the land and given it to the COI - yet there were still some enemies of God that inhabited the land
So that’s the Status Quo. These are the events that transpired over the previous 75 years during the life of Joshua. Next we’re looking at the Surety of God
II. The Surety of God (v2-18)
II. The Surety of God (v2-18)
Moses is dead, Joshua is dead. God was with the COI in Egypt, in the Wilderness and in the conquest of the land, but what now?
The Prescript of God (v2)
The COI ask essentially that question - ‘What now?’ in v1. They were seeking direction from God - and God gives them that direction in Jg. 1:2 “And the Lord said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.” (Judah being the tribe and not the man).
Hey, guess what? God was still with them! God was still guiding them! God had not forsaken them! And guess what? He won’t you either!
God said unto them: De. 4:31 “(For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.” De. 31:6 “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
God was still with them, all they had to do was trust God and GO!
The Prescript of God
The Providence of God (v4-18)
v4 - Defeated the Canaanites & Perizzites in Bezek.
v10 - Fought the Canaanites in Hebron & slew 3 sons of Anak - Sheshai, Ahiman, & Talmai
v11-12 - They fought & took Kirjath-sepher
v17 - They destroyed the Canaanites in Zephath
v18 - They took Gaze, Askelon & Ekron
God came through for the COI! He provided victory after victory!
God proved Himself that He was still with them!
The Providence of God
The Proclamation of Adonibezek (v5-7)
Within these victories, I wanted to examine a few specifics given, the first is the Proclamation of Adonibezek.
Adonibezek was a Canaanite king that God - through Judah - had overthrown. This was no two-bit king, this king had conquered 70 kings of his own. Yet notice what he says: Jg. 1:7 “And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.”
Israel’s enemy testified that it was the hand of God that defeated him!
This is exactly the purpose of the COI - they were to be used as a light to the gentiles! It was through them that God would shew Himself unto the world!
God had not forsaken the COI - He was using them to reach the world!
The Proclamation of Adonibezek
The Preparation of Othniel (v12-13)
In the midst of all this, we see an introduction to a man by the name of Othniel.
Othniel is a man used by God to give Israel the victory at Kirjath-sepher.
For just a moment I want to look at what it took for Othniel to win the victory:
He had to be Courageous
He had to Trust God
He had to Volunteer - ‘Here am I’
Then he had to Go
Now church I tell you this because this point is titled ‘The Preparation of Othniel. The reason is, is because Othniel would go on to do even greater things than these!
But you’ll never do great things for God unless you:
Have Courage
You have that by Trusting God
In Moses’ Farewell address he said: De. 31:6 “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
Volunteer to Serve - Surrender to His Will
Then simply Go.
We see the Preparation of Othniel
Conclusion
Conclusion
This is how the book begins. It’s really a great beginning.
The constant theme that we see in this text and the previous foundational work that we’ve examined today is that God is CONSTANTLY, CONTINUALLY THERE FOR HIS CHILDREN. He’s there in the good times & there in the bad times. He’s there to give them victory or there to correct them when they are going astray.
Now I don’t know what’s going on in your life. We could have 100 people here and 100 different situations. But the fact is, if you’re a child of God, God has not & will not leave nor forsake you! He will provide what you need. He will Prepare you for your calling.
We often fail Him, but He’s never failed us. Maybe you have forsaken Him? If you are distant from God today it’s not because He left you… Maybe you need to come back unto the goodness of the Father’s house!