Through the Bible - Judges

In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)

When everyone does what is right in his own eyes, only the King and His Word can break the cycle of failure.

A Book of Failure in the Promised Land

We come tonight to the book of Judges, another favorite of mine. This is the period right after the conquest of Canaan. The book begins with Joshua still alive, but it doesn't get far before Joshua the son of Nun dies, and we find Israel in the promised land but without a perfect experience there.

Last week in Joshua we saw that the promised land pictures not the heavenly experience but the victorious Christian life—the life of rest in the land of victory, the land flowing with milk and honey. We talked about the milk of the word and the honey of the Scriptures, through which God wants to produce in us the fruit of the Spirit.

But this is perhaps one of the saddest books in the Bible. For those who read it this week, you know it is filled with failure and defeat—and yet the people are in the promised land. Just being in the promised land does not mean you will be successful. In Joshua 1, God told Joshua to meditate on the word day and night, not turning to the right or left, that he might have good success. But if the people turned away, the curses of Deuteronomy 27 and 28 were very real.

Written for Our Admonition

This book applies directly to us. As we read in 1 Corinthians 10:11, all these things happened to them as examples and were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. I keep quoting that verse every week, assuming you'll eventually remember it. God recorded these 39 Old Testament books that we would learn from the failures, defeats, and victories of Israel and walk in righteousness in the land of rest.

Joshua was a book of victory because they had a great leader—a type and picture of Jesus, who even shared his Hebrew name, Joshua. God won the battles for them. But in Judges there is no leader like Joshua, and that is one of the key problems of this book.

No King in Israel

At least four times the author—some believe it was Samuel, though we aren't sure—tells us, "In those days there was no king in Israel" (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1). Israel thought they were failing because they had no king. But who was to be their king? God was. God told Joshua to follow His word; His word was to lead and guide them.

The theme verse of the whole book is Judges 21:25: "In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Whenever you do what seems right in your own eyes, it turns out to be evil in the sight of the Lord. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is death.

The Cycle of Failure

Judges 2 sets the pattern. A generation arose after Joshua "which knew not the Lord." Israel did evil, served the Baals, forsook the Lord who brought them out of Egypt, and followed the gods of the people round about them. The anger of the Lord was hot, and He delivered them into the hands of their spoilers.

Yet here is God's grace: "Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them" (2:16). A judge in this period was not a man in a black robe, but a leader and deliverer who judged rightly by the law. When Israel departed, they were oppressed; they cried out; God raised a judge; they returned—but only as long as that judge lived. When Ehud died, when Gideon died, when Samson died, Israel again did evil. The cycle runs continually through the book: serving God, doing evil, being delivered to their enemies, crying out, being delivered by a judge, then falling again.

One reason Israel fell is that they never fully drove out their enemies. Judges 1 lists tribe after tribe—Judah, Benjamin, Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali—who "did not drive out" the inhabitants. Because the enemies remained, Israel began to bow to their gods.

Why God Leaves the Enemy

God gives the reason He doesn't fully remove the enemy: "that through them I might prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord" (Judges 2:22). The Lord left those nations to test Israel.

The same happens in our lives. Even walking in the land of rest, experiencing the fruit of the Spirit, we still sin. We all fall. There are sins that so easily ensnare us, strongholds, thorns in the flesh. God has the power to remove them instantly, but He doesn't simply take them away, because He is using them as a test—to drive us to Him. He doesn't want us to keep being tripped up, but He leaves the enemy in the land to prove whether we will walk in His way.

We can divide this book into three parts: the deterioration of Israel (chapters 1–3), the deliverance of Israel (3:5–16), and the depravity of Israel (17–21).

Ehud and the Two-Edged Sword

The deliverance section is full of great stories. We already met Othniel, the lion-like man of Judah who took a city and won a bride. Then comes Ehud—a left-handed man. That mattered, because soldiers held the shield in the left hand and the sword in the right, so a left-handed man was often considered useless in battle.

Moab, with the Amalekites and Ammonites, oppressed Israel. Remember that Moab and Ammon came from Lot's daughters in Genesis 19—products of the flesh. Amalek too pictures the flesh. So when these enemies come against Israel, we are dealing with the flesh, and these stories show us how to defeat it.

Israel cried out, and God raised up Ehud. The first thing we must do when we want deliverance is cry out to God. Ehud fashioned a two-edged sword—which should remind you of Hebrews 4:12, "The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword." Eglon, king of Moab, dwelt in the city of palm trees, Jericho—the first city Israel took, and now the first they lost.

Eglon was a very fat man, and Israel brought him gifts year by year—food, no doubt, to appease him. Here is the lesson: if you feed the flesh, he only gets bigger and stronger. Ehud came with a secret message, went in alone, and thrust the dagger into Eglon's belly. The King James says the fat closed around it and "the dirt came out." You only deal with the flesh with the two-edged sword. "How shall a young man cleanse his ways? By taking heed to the word of God" (Psalm 119). First, stop feeding it.

Shamgar and the Ox Goad

Next, God raised up Shamgar, who slew 600 Philistines with an ox goad (Judges 3:31). An ox goad was a long pole, about twelve feet, with a pointed metal tip, used to prod a stubborn ox along. Shamgar had no sword or shield—only the tool of his trade as a farmer, and he used what was in his hand for victory.

Here is great encouragement. Many people lose sight of the fact that the trade and job God gave them is the ministry He's given for victory. They think, "If only I could work at the church, life would be great." No—God has given you a trade and the tools of your trade. Use what is in your hand to bring victory in His kingdom.

Deborah, Barak, and Jael

After Ehud died, Israel did evil again, and the Lord sold them to Jabin, king of Canaan. God raised up Deborah, a prophetess and judge. She summoned Barak and said God commanded him to lead the army, for the Lord would deliver Sisera into his hand. Barak wasn't strong and courageous; he said, "If you go with me, I'll go." Deborah agreed but warned him the honor would not be his—the Lord would sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. When we have great victories, we must recognize the glory belongs to God alone.

Sisera came with chariots of iron—fearful weapons, some fitted with blades that jutted out to cut down soldiers like people-mowers. Yet when Israel obeyed, God delivered them. Sisera fled to the tent of Jael, wife of Eber the Kenite.

Sometimes we have a Sisera hidden in our closet—some sin we've held onto in a dark recess of the heart. Notice how Jael dealt with him. First he said, "Give me water," because hidden sin always wants to be fed. She gave him milk instead—thick, warm, curdled milk that made him drowsy and covered him. Then he said, "If anyone asks, say no man is here"—because hidden sin wants you to lie for it. Feed me, and lie for me.

How does she deal with him? She took a tent peg—about eighteen inches long—and a hammer, and drove it through his temple into the ground. Consider the picture: the milk (1 Peter 2:2, "the pure milk of the word"), the hammer (Jeremiah 23:29, "Is not my word like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"), and the nail (Ecclesiastes 12:11, "The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies"). The word of God—milk, hammer, nail, goad, two-edged sword—is how we deal with the Canaanite in our closet. It is the only way.

Gideon and the Step of Faith

Gideon was a coward, hiding from the Midianites, threshing wheat in a winepress—a poor place to thresh, since you need wind, but he was hiding from those who came every harvest to steal the fruitfulness of the land. There are things in our lives that steal our fruitfulness too. If you are lacking joy, peace, kindness, or love, perhaps the Midianites are coming to steal it.

The angel of the Lord called him "thou mighty man of valor." Gideon answered, "If God is with us, why are we in this trouble?" We think that sometimes—if God were really with us, we wouldn't go through this. God told Gideon to go in his might. But Gideon's army of 30,000 was too big; with that many, the people would take the glory. So God sent home all who were afraid—22,000 left. Still too many. At the water, only 300 lapped from their hands; the rest were sent home. With 300 men God defeated 120,000 Midianites. It had to be a step of faith, trusting God, not our own strength.

That night God even encouraged Gideon by letting him overhear a Midianite's dream of a barley loaf tumbling into the camp and flattening a tent—a sign that Gideon's sword would destroy them. Strengthened, Gideon's 300 beat back the host.

Samson: The Grace and Power of God

Samson is the most well-known judge, a picture of the grace and power of God. God gave him phenomenal strength and called him to be a Nazirite—wholly consecrated, touching nothing dead or unclean, never near the fruit of the vine. The angel of the Lord—I believe the pre-incarnate Christ—appeared to his barren mother, for when asked his name He said, "Why askest thou my name, seeing it is wonderful?" Samson would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines, that longest-running enemy. We all have that one besetting sin—maybe unbelief, maybe pride—and those are the Philistines in our lives.

But Samson toed the line, walking close to the world. He went down to a Philistine city, saw a woman, and told his father, "Get her for me to wife." On the way he came to the vineyards of Timnath—where a Nazirite should never be—and a lion roared against him. When you walk where you ought not, the lion who seeks to devour you will be there. The Spirit came on him and he tore the lion apart—but he told not his father and mother. He was unaccountable.

Later he turned aside to the carcass of the lion, took honey from it with his hands, ate it, and gave it to his parents—again touching what was unclean, again telling them nothing. Walking where he shouldn't, touching the forbidden, and refusing accountability—that is a recipe for great problems.

Samson loved riddles and was arrogant and proud, easily enticed. Delilah pressed him repeatedly for the secret of his strength. Three times he gave false answers—new ropes, fresh bowstrings, weaving his hair—and three times broke free and beat the Philistines. You'd think he would learn. But finally he told her the truth: cut off his hair and his strength would go. She cut it, called the Philistines, and "he knew not that the Lord was departed from him" (16:20).

The Philistines put out his eyes, bound him with bronze fetters, and set him grinding in the prison house. Notice three things about sin: it will blind you, it will bind you, and it will grind you. Yet grace remains: "the hair of his head began to grow again." Brought into the temple of Dagon before 3,000 to be mocked, Samson cried out, "O Lord God, remember me... strengthen me only this once." He bowed with all his might, and the house fell, so that he slew more at his death than in his life.

But it was a wasted life—one that could have been so great for the Lord. Many Christians live like that, given so great a salvation and so many gifts, yet content to mess around with the things of this world. God may still use them, but often only at the very end.

The Depravity of Israel

The final section, chapters 17–21, shows the nation's depravity. It isn't in chronological order; these things span the whole period. In chapter 17 Micah builds his own house of gods and hires his own Levite—personal idolatry. In chapter 18 the tribe of Dan takes Micah's gods, and an entire tribe is given over to idolatry. Dan, the northernmost tribe, was first to depart from the one true God; you can still see the ruins of their great altar to the golden calf today.

In chapter 19 a Levite's personal immorality spreads until the entire tribe of Benjamin is consumed and nearly annihilated in civil war among the brothers. Personal idolatry led to corporate idolatry; personal immorality led to a tribe's immorality; and these led to civil war. Remember Paul's words: a little leaven leavens the whole lump. This same infighting marks the rest of Israel's history—and sadly, the church as well, with bickering among Christians and denominations. It does not glorify the Lord, and we need to depart from it.

The Encouragement of the Book

This may be the saddest book of Israel's history, full of the people constantly turning from God. Yet there is encouragement here: we too fail, and God is able to give us a deliverer. But first we must cry out to the Lord, and He will deliver, coming with strength and power.

God has allowed certain things to remain in your life. He has the power to remove them—if He can raise the dead and raise us to newness of life, He can remove these things. There is coming a day when this mortality puts on immortality and we will be as He is. But here and now, God allows us to battle the flesh, to prove us, to test us, to drive us to Him. And when we come to Him, we find the deliverance we need.

Closing Prayer

Lord, here in this book we read that there was no king in Israel, and yet their name, Israel, means "governed by God." You have called us to that same existence—that we would be governed by You, that we would have You as our king. I pray that everyone in this room would recognize You as Lord, as Master, as the King of our lives tonight, and that we would yield and submit to Your word and the way You desire us to live and walk. You have given us all we need for life and godliness. Help us to take up the armor You've given to stand against the wiles of the devil, to follow hard after You and experience victory daily in this rest You desire us to have. And when we do fall, when we trip up, help us to take note of the deliverers in the book of Judges, and to take up Your word like a hammer, like a goad, like that two-edged sword, and use it against the enemy that comes against us. In Jesus' name. Amen.