The Consequence of Compromise | Sunday, February 11, 2024

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served the Baals... When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals... Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. (Judges 2)

How did things get so bad—and is there any hope they could get better? The Book of Judges answers both questions.

How Did Things Get So Bad?

Have you ever found yourself—personally, or looking at the lives of people you know or the culture around you—asking, "How did I get to this place? How did things get so bad?" And the follow-on question is usually, "Is there any hope that things could get any better?"

Having served as a pastor for 25 years, I've heard those questions many times. Sometimes it's parents with a teenager completely out of control. Sometimes it's a couple whose marriage is falling apart, or a young man with an addiction destroying his life, or a family strangled by debt, or a husband who through a series of bad decisions has led his family into a place of resentment and anger. They come and ask: How did things get so bad? Is there any hope?

When you have those conversations, there's usually a little deconstruction that needs to happen, because it didn't happen overnight. There's a backstory to every situation. And sadly, when you start asking what turns were made along the way, the answers are often hard to wrestle with—because they were decisions made step by step that brought you to where you are.

A People Who Pledged Obedience

The children of Israel find themselves in a wildfire of a situation in the Book of Judges. The framing verse we'll return to often says, "Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served the Baals." That word Baal means "master"—it was a Canaanite god the people of that region worshiped and bowed down to. Israel was to be a people set apart unto their God, serving Him faithfully and reaping the blessings of obedience. Instead, they bowed down to idols.

How did they get there? It wasn't even a century before this that Israel stood at Mount Sinai, and Moses came down with the tablets. The Ten Commandments open very clearly in Exodus 20: "I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before Me." Rule number two: "You shall not make for yourself any carved image... You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God."

How do you get from those opening words to just a few chapters later in Exodus 24, where the people pledge, "All that You have said we will do, and be obedient"—and then within a century, the children of Israel did evil and bowed down to idols? These are the people of God, the descendants of Abraham, the chosen and beloved people who entered a covenant with God. How did it get so bad? It didn't happen overnight.

The Multi-Stage Path of Compromise

As I said last week, the long path to destruction and exile begins with minor degrees of compromise. It was a multi-stage process. In Judges chapter 1, it started with Israel not driving out all the people who occupied the promised land—the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hittites. They did not completely drive out the inhabitants.

From there, they began to dwell among those people. As they intermingled, they entered into business relationships, putting them under tribute. Then they entered into agreements about territory. Then they began to enter into marriages with those people—exactly what God told them not to do. Why? Because He said these relationships would turn them to serve other gods. And that's exactly what happened.

Any sin that is allowed to remain will inevitably become a snare. It will trip us up—not only the children of Israel, but us as well. They drifted, and it's easy to drift. We live in San Diego, minutes from the beach. You enter the water in front of lifeguard tower number 10, and a few hours later you're in front of tower 16. You don't have to do anything to drift—you just drift. That's what happened with Israel.

If We Are Not Moving Forward, We Will Fall Back

Point one: if we are not moving forward, we will be falling back. Before his death, Joshua cautioned Israel about this very thing. Judges 2 begins after Joshua's death much as the Book of Joshua began after Moses' death, and Judges 2:6 actually calls back to Joshua's final exhortation.

In Joshua 24, Joshua gathered all the tribes at Shechem and gave his final message—much like Deuteronomy was Moses' final exhortation. He reminded them of their history, going all the way back to Abraham, even to Abraham's father Terah. He said their fathers "dwelt on the other side of the river" in Mesopotamia, and notice the end of verse 2: "they served other gods." Father Abraham himself was once an idolater, until God called him out, set him apart, and promised him the land.

Joshua does this because, when you're wondering how things got so bad, you sometimes have to go all the way back to the beginning to figure out the steps that got you here. He reminds them of all God had done—calling, setting apart, choosing, redeeming, and rescuing them. In verse 13 God says, "I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build... now therefore fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods of your fathers."

Even a short time after entering the promised land, Israel was already being tempted back into idolatry. The inclination toward idolatry was strong in Israel—and we see it throughout Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. And it isn't only Israel. The proclivity toward sin in us is far greater than we are often willing to honestly acknowledge.

The Hillside of Red Sand

About a year ago I was with some friends in the Middle East—David Guzik, Lance Ralston, Chuck Musselwhite—and we took a tour through Wadi Rum in Jordan, the red desert where movies like Dune and The Martian were filmed. At one stop there was a steep hillside, maybe a 45- to 50-degree incline, and tourists were climbing it for no real reason. So we tried it too.

Here was the problem: the hillside was powder-fine red sand, ten to eighteen inches deep, nearly impossible to climb. And here's the crazy thing—if you stopped climbing, you immediately started falling. There was no maintaining your footing. You were either moving forward or falling back. I didn't know why we climbed it, but it gave me a great illustration a year later.

The temptation toward sinful disobedience is strong—it was strong for Israel 3,400 years ago, and it's strong for us. And here's the bigger challenge: not only is the temptation strong, our flesh is weak.

Arrogant and Ignorant of Our Weakness

Point two: the fastest way to fall back is to be arrogant and ignorant of the fact that we are weak. This is why the New Testament says, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Many times we are arrogant, thinking we stand, and ignorant of how weak we actually are. It would not be a bad thing in 2024 to commit that verse to memory and meditate on it, so we might apply ourselves to humility. It is better to enter a situation humble than to be humbled.

Solomon adds in Proverbs 16: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud." And Micah says, "He has shown you, O man, what is good... but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Those three things would keep us from a lot of problems.

One of our problems is that we love mercy for ourselves and justice for everyone else. You're driving down the freeway and someone flies by at 90, cuts you off, and nearly causes an accident—what's the first thing you think? "Where is the highway patrol?" You want justice. But when it's you doing 90 and you cut someone off, you'd say, "I'm sorry, it was an accident—mercy, please." To have an honest assessment that you are far weaker than you realize is an important thing.

The Pledge and the Outcome

Knowing the weakness of his people, Joshua said in Joshua 24:20: "If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good." Blessings are found in God's presence; if you depart from His presence, there is no blessing—the blessings are the overflow of His presence.

The people answered, "No, but we will serve the Lord." Joshua said, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord." Then he said—and this is the famous passage—"Put away the foreign gods which are among you." Even then they had already been seduced toward idolatry. This is where we find the verse on the plaque outside my front door: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

How did that work out? Judges 2:7 says the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and the elders who outlived him. But when that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose "who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel." And then the children of Israel did evil, served the Baals, forsook the Lord, and bowed down to the gods of the peoples around them. How did it get so bad? One small compromise after another.

The Passive Judgment of God

Point three: small steps of compromise lead to devastation and destruction. Judges 2:14 says the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of plunderers, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

Here we find what I call the passive judgment of God. God's judgment falls into two categories. There is the active judgment of God, seen less frequently—the flood in Genesis 6, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, the plagues on Egypt. But here, and throughout Judges, we have the passive judgment of God: He no longer intervenes to protect His people, but allows them to reap the consequences of their own sinful actions.

This is the law of sowing and reaping. Paul says in Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." It is the Deuteronomic principle of chapter 28—blessings in obedience, curses in disobedience. So much of the hurt and pain we go through is, at its core, avoidable. We look back and say, "Maybe I shouldn't have done that, said that, gone there." Israel's distress was the just punishment for their idolatry, the expected outcome of their rebellion—and because it was expected, it was avoidable.

Nevertheless

Then the person, like Israel so often does, cries out, "How did things get so bad? Is there any hope?" Look at Judges 2:16. In my New King James Version the first word is nevertheless: "Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered the children of Israel out of the hands of those who plundered them." That word is worth underlining, because it reminds us that God is gracious. I love the grace and mercy of God.

The children of Israel did evil and bowed down to false gods. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges to deliver them. I think of Exodus 34, when Moses asked to see God's glory. God revealed something of His presence, and as He passed by, He declared not only His name but His nature: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth."

In a theology class you might list out God's attributes—holy, just, loving—and ask which is highest. Some say it must be His holiness, His justice. All of those are true. But notice that God Himself leads with mercy. If He had introduced Himself as "the Lord God, holy," He might as well have destroyed the people in the valley below, who had just made a golden calf. But He leads with mercy and grace, and that is what makes it possible for you and me to be saved. He does add, "by no means clearing the guilty"—He will not overlook sin—but He leads with mercy.

His Compassions Fail Not

Centuries later, in one of the saddest books of Scripture, Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:22, "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." We didn't plan it this way, but the last song the worship team sang before I came up was based on those very words. I am so thankful the compassion of God does not fail—because I fail a lot. I fail constantly, and I'm grateful His compassions do not fail.

As we go through Judges, we'll see Israel move from one dumpster fire to another, not always responding well to God's mercy. Yet God remains compassionate. Judges 2:17–18 says they would not listen to their judges, but played the harlot with other gods. "Nevertheless, when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge... for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning."

God Remains Merciful and Gracious

Point four: in spite of our failures and unfaithfulness, God remains merciful and gracious. Some of you need to hear that this morning. You may be reaping the consequences of your own dumb decisions, or praying for a family member or friend who is, wondering, "How did things get so bad? Is there any hope?"

Our tendency, when we see someone fail, is to think the right response is a harsh call to repentance: "How dare you, you wicked, vile sinner—repent!" But we forget that it is God's kindness that leads to repentance. It's God's kindness that led many of you to turn to Him.

Isaiah 30 says, "The Lord waits, that He may be gracious to you." What is He waiting for? For His people to turn back to Him in repentance. It's the picture of the prodigal son's father, who waited every day with arms open wide, longing to be gracious. Romans 2:4 says, "Do you despise the riches of His kindness... not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?"

The Cycle of the Judges

Unfortunately, in Judges we'll see a constant cycle: Israel backslides into idolatry, reaps the consequences, is oppressed by enemies, cries out to God, and God in compassion sends a judge to deliver them. They return to the Lord—until that judge dies. Then, Judges 2:19 says, "they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers."

Some of the stories in this book are so disturbing there's even a temptation not to teach them on a Sunday morning. You think, "Could it really get that bad?" Let me tell you, it can. It's one sad dumpster fire after another. But it's also a sobering reminder of the danger of sin. Sin will destroy your life. That's why it's so bad—not just because God says "thou shalt not," but because that disobedience will kill you if it's allowed to remain.

Judges 2:20–23 tells us the Lord left those nations without driving them out, to test Israel—whether they would keep His ways or not.

God Is Compassionate to Those Who Repent

Judges is a heavy book. Why go through it? Because all these things happened as examples and were written for our instruction. It is far better to learn from the mistakes of others than to go through them ourselves. We live in a time not so different from the time of the judges—a time when people do what is right in their own eyes, with no recognition of God or His word. We desperately need His delivering power and grace.

Point five: God is compassionate to those who repent and return to Him. Over the years I've talked with people who started attending our church before they were believers. Some told me they were afraid to come in the first time—afraid they'd be exposed for how sinful they are and might die on the spot. They wondered, "What might God do to me if He's actually real?" Well, if He's actually real, He is compassionate and gracious to those who repent and return to Him.

We Are Not the People of the Judges

When we read these stories, we can begin to wonder, "How can we have any hope of not falling into the same cycle?" Let me encourage you: the one who can rescue us has already come. Here's the awesome difference between the Christian and those who lived during the time of the judges—"if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

As Ezekiel predicted, God gives us a new heart and puts His Spirit within us. He enables and empowers us to walk in the Spirit, not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Does that mean we never sin? I wish it did, but it doesn't. Yet He enables us to walk in the power of the Spirit and to reap the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

Ezekiel 36:26 says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you... I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes." That promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who promised in John 14 and 16 that the Holy Spirit would teach us all things and guide us into all truth. We are not the children of Israel in the Book of Judges. Though we fail and fall as they did, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us.

Leaders to Deliver

I believe God wants to use you, His church. If you're a believer today, He wants you to be like a judge in the Old Testament to the culture in which we live. When we hear "judge," we think of someone who brings condemnation. But that's not what we see in this book. A judge was a leader who delivered. And what do we deliver? We deliver the gospel of Jesus Christ to a world in desperate need of it. We can be that light shining in a dark place.

So let us prayerfully examine ourselves: "God, is there anything in my life keeping me from walking rightly before You, anything keeping me from shining light to a dark world? Remove it. Renew my mind that I may know You and walk in Your ways. Help me to be salt and light." This culture desperately needs it—we all know that, just looking around Southern California. Would to God that He would use us to be a bright, shining light in a dark place. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I thank You for Your word. It is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and it cuts deep into our hearts. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts, and it reveals the areas of our lives that need to be removed. Lord, You have the power and ability to remove those things, to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, so that we can be a people set apart unto good works.

God, would You forgive our iniquities? Would You cleanse us of our sin? Would You pour out Your mercy and grace upon us in abundance, and help us to overflow with mercy and grace to others, because we live in a culture that is in desperate need of Your transforming grace and mercy. God, do a work in us first, and shine brightly through us to a world that is in desperate need. We ask it today in Jesus' name. And all those who agree said, Amen.