An Introduction to Judges

So I, cause I built his faith So I, he's changed Ever, he's faithful Say, say, yes I'm gonna His built home is my foundation So I, Lord God you are Peace that outlasts darkness And hope that's in the blood There's future grace that's mine today And Jesus Christ has won So I can face tomorrow For tomorrow's any and all Just like you always have There's mercy in the And manna for today And when it's gone I know and stay And when the sea is raging Your spirit is mine He'll fix my eyes On Jesus Christ I'll say that it is well Oh, I die, I die Peace like a river Wash over me Immerse me in water As deep as the sea Your healing is like a river Wash over me As I worship your majesty I worship your holy Jesus Christ Jesus my everything Break open the heavens

And drench things As I pour out

Worship your majesty Worship your holy Jesus my Like you've done it Lord Come now

Like you've done it before Would you do it again? Take out Take out Come now Like you've done it Lord's in revival Oh, come now Lord God, we just thank you for the day, Lord Thank you for who you are And how much you love us, Lord And God, we just thank you for the day, Lord Just want to come to tell you here tonight, Lord That we need you We need you every day We need you every hour, Lord Lord, we just ask you, Holy Spirit Just to come through here tonight, Lord God And just do something awesome And mighty in this place Lord's in revival Lord's in day Oh, come now Like you've done it before Would you do Lord, tonight I just pray that you would Just prepare our hearts To receive the word That you've prepared for us Lord God

Come and move in this mighty place, Lord We invite you We ask that you speak through Pastor Ryan mightily, Lord Give him the words to speak Give us ears to hear In Jesus' name, amen Oh, yeah, there it is Good evening If you would, open up in your Bibles to the Oh, you're the man To the book of Judges Chapter 1 Did you lose a pick? I'll just leave it there in case I get an inkling to play Judges, Chapter 1 Tonight we're going to cover Judges, Chapters 1 and 2 And the title of the message is just simply An introduction to Judges Because not only will we discuss a little bit of background But really the first two chapters Of the book of Judges do just that They give sort of a They paint the background, if you will For exactly what's going to take place

Throughout the book of Judges Interestingly enough, Judges is In my opinion, one of the most Interestingly tragic books in all of the Bible Right? Because Judges does not paint the picture Of a fallen world Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? paint the picture of a depraved Unsaved humanity Judges paints for us the picture

Of the failure of the chosen people It paints for us the compromise Of God's people And so I think of all of the books For us to study, Judges is a really Important one for the church Because, again, Judges is not written About the unsaved world It's not written about the rest of the world That had no knowledge of God It's written about the world who had all the knowledge of God knowledge of God. It's written about the chosen people who had the law, who had seen God's promises, who had seen what God had done and yet still had failed and ended up stuck in the cycle of sin. And so there's a lot of lessons for us to learn here. Now, the book of Judges, tradition states, was actually written by Samuel because Samuel actually comes in at the very tail

end of the Judges. As a matter of fact, Samuel was the last of, if you will, the Judges or the prophets before they had a king. And it covers a span of roughly 400 years. So historically, it bridges the gap between the book of Joshua, which is what we just finished, and the time of the kings, which we'll come to actually ultimately in 1 and 2 Samuel. It sort of bridges that gap.

But morally speaking, it details the decline of the nation. And the decline of the nation as they turn from their unseen power to the desires of their own hearts, to do whatever everyone felt like was necessary to do. As a matter of fact, the theme for the book of Judges is actually given in Judges chapter 21, verse 25, where it says, in those days, there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And I do think that that's kind of an interesting commentary, not only on the time of the Judges, but kind of an interesting commentary on the time that we live in right now as everybody's doing that which is right in their own eyes and not even just in the world around us, even within the

church. And so there's an overarching theme throughout the book of Judges though. And I stole this out of the Schofield Study Bible, but I thought it was brilliantly stated. And the theme is this. The theme is defeat and deliverance. And there's a little bit more to that. And I'm going to to that cycle, but that's the theme that kind of runs throughout the book of Judges, is that

they are defeated because of their sin, because they've done that which is right in their own eyes. But as they cry out to God in their time of judgment, God always delivers them. And in that way, not only do we see the sinfulness of man, but we actually see the faithfulness of God more clearly in the book of Judges than in a lot of other books in the Bible, because we see that no matter how many times God's chosen people run from Him, no matter how many times they fall into sin, when they cry out to God, He always delivers. And so, with that being said, we'll look at these two chapters. In chapter 1, we'll see the failure to obey, and in chapter 2, we will see the cycle

of sin. If we pick up in chapter 1, verse 1 of the book of Judges, this is what it says. Now, it came about after the death of Joshua, the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight them? The Lord said, Judah shall go up. And behold, I have given the land into his hand. Then Judah said to Simeon,

his brother, come up with me into the territory allotted me that we may fight against the Canaanites, and I will in turn go with you into the territory allotted you. So Simeon went with him. Now, the first thing that we take note of in verse one is that this is after the death of Joshua. Now, once you think about something that's taken place with the children of Israel, they've always known one central leader. Moses delivered them out of Egypt. God delivered them out of

Egypt, but Moses was the leader that led them out of Egypt. Moses was the one through whom the Ten Commandments was given to them, and Moses was the one who had led them through the wilderness. They knew that central leader. Well, right before they came into the Promised Land, Joshua took the place of Moses. God said, you need to appoint someone to take over for you, and so Joshua was the one who

was appointed. And so in their time of the conquest of the land, they always knew one central leader. That one central leader was Joshua. And so throughout the history, really, of the nation of Israel to this point in time, they've always known one central leader. But you know as well as I do that where can our faith sometimes be when there's just one central leader?

One central leader. It can be in that one central leader, right? And now it was time for their faith to grow. Now it was time for them to stop looking to a man to be the one that would lead them and ultimately look to God alone to be the one who would lead them. This would be the ultimate test that Israel would face, a test that they're not going to do real great with, but the ultimate

test that they would face. Would they be able to follow God without there being that one central leader, that one person that they were putting their faith in? And I have a question for you. Who is your faith in today? Because sometimes we put our faith in a leader, right? We put our faith in an individual and we say as long as that person's in charge, we know everything's going to be okay. As long as they're the one that's

leading, we know everything's going to be fine. But maturity says, I will follow God no matter what any man does. Maturity comes to the place where I don't own my relationship with Jesus Christ because a leader told me to own my relationship with Jesus Christ. Maturity says, I will own my relationship with Jesus Christ because I look to him and to him alone. Now, the children of Israel are starting off really well. They are consulting the Lord.

They're starting off really sharp. Joshua has died and it's time for them to go in and take the land that has been allotted to them. And so what do they do? Well, they cast lots and they say, who's going to go first? And God said, Judah shall go first. Now, John Corson in his commentary pointed out something fascinating. He's great at pointing out things like this.

He said, remember what the name Judah means. The name Judah means praise. And the way that they were to lead the conquest, the way that they were to lead the battle was in praise. And isn't that kind of fascinating? Praise sort of sets the tone for the way that we fight the rest of our battles, right? If we can go into battle praising God for who he is and the victory he's already promised,

how much easier is it to win that battle? It's not that you don't still have to face things, but you're facing things with the knowledge of the God that you are serving, with the knowledge of the God who has already brought victory. This has actually been the theme of them taking the land. Who was it that went first over the Jordan River? Well, it was the priests who were leading them in praise because they were

taking God before them. Who was it that led when they marched around Jericho? Well, it was the priests who were leading in praise, right? Because praise would be the way that they would start their battles. So I have another question for you. How do you start your day? Every day is a battle, right? Praise Jesus, right? Every day is a battle. Testify, brother. And I don't know if you've noticed this already, but already in 2024,

every day is a battle. You want me to tell you about my New Year's Day? Here was my New Year's Day, okay? So we get up in the morning and we find out the drama in Ark City. Anybody heard about the drama in Ark City? That the shelter over at Parris Park was burned? Drama, right? We were like, ooh, let's go drive by and see what happens. We were like, ooh, let's go drive by and

see what happens. Because we're Ark City people, it's what we do, right? Small town people have nothing else to do. They go see what's happening with the drama. So we drive through the scooters because it's always best to start with coffee. So we drive through the scooters, we get ourselves a coffee, and we go drive by and we're like, ooh, who would have done that? We begin our

investigative work. We haven't come up with anything just yet, but we'll let the police know when we do. And so we go back home. Now, before we had left, we were responsible and we started the dishwasher, right? This is going to be great. And so I come home and what happens? My entire kitchen is flooded. My entire basement is flooded. It was awesome. I started off the

year 2020, just to give you a little bit of perspective here, I started off the year 2020 by hitting a deer, right? So if I'm starting off 2024 with my house flooding, we all know what happened in 2020. You better brace yourselves because we don't know what's coming, okay? Anyway, so it turned out, a long, long story, but it turned out I had to replace my garbage disposal so I...

Anyway, suck it up. Everything up with the shop vac and get everything all cleaned up. Well, we're going to Lowe's. So we go down to Lowe's, we buy a garbage disposal, I come back, I put that in. Everything works like it's supposed to. But all we could think was, yep, there it is. Every day's a battle. But you know what I had done to start off that day? I did my one-year Bible reading. And you know what? It

really did kind of change my perspective. When you start off with the right things, it changes the perspective of how you face the battles. And we need to understand something, kids. Every day is a battle. And if you decide that going into it, and you start the day off with praise anyway, it will prepare you for the battle ahead. So they say, who's going to go first? Judah's going to go first.

And so Judah goes, hey, Simeon, why don't you go with us? Two's better than one. And then we'll go with you when it's time. So Simeon said, that's a great idea. Now, everything's starting off great. They have sought the Lord. They've got a great alliance, and they're going to go into battle. Look at verse 4. It says in verse 4, Judah went up, and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they

defeated 10,000 men at Bezek. Everything's going great. They found Adonai Bezek in Bezek, which makes sense. That's the right place to find Adonai Bezek. And they fought against him, and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Side story, verse 6. But Adonai Bezek fled, and they pursued him, and they caught him. And they cut off his thumbs and big toes. Ooh, what a terrible thing to have happen. Wait,

notice what it says next. Adonai Bezek said, 70 kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table. What a random thought. Every day he eats, and there's just 70 dudes with no thumbs or big toes gathering up scraps. We'll talk about this in just a minute. It says,

and he died there. It was a common practice when you captured a warrior that that's exactly what you did. You cut off their thumbs, and you cut off their big toes. Why? Because without your thumb, you can't grip anything, let alone a sword. And without your big toe, you're not getting very far very fast. And so they did this to sort of show their dominance over them. Now,

it's interesting because this Adonai Bezek says, I've done this to 70 other kings, and now God has done it to me. We cannot run by this without making a point. We are told in scripture, and it's a theme that runs throughout the entire Bible, that we should not think that God would be mocked, because whatever a man sows, that will he reap. Do you remember what Jesus told Peter when Peter started cutting off ears and stuff? He said, Peter, those who will live by the sword will die by the sword.

We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. We read that. What are you sowing to? Because if you sow to righteousness, then of righteousness, you will reap a peaceful reward. But if you sow to the flesh, then of the flesh, you will reap

corruption. We will always reap what we have sown. And so they've defeated this king. And then in verse 8, it says, then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and they captured it. They struck it with the edge of the sword, and they set the city on fire. And afterwards, the sons of Judah went to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in

the Negev and in the lowland. So Judah went against the Canaanites who live in Hebron. Now Hebron was formerly Kiriath Arba and struck Shishai and Ahiman and Talmai. No idea if I pronounced those correctly. And then from there, he went against the inhabitants of Debir. Debir was known formerly as Kiriath Sefir. And Caleb said, the one who attacks Kiriath Sefir and

captures it, I will give him my daughter Aksa for a wife. Now Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, captured it. So he gave his daughter Aksa for a wife. It came about when she came to him that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. And she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said, what do you want? And she said to him, give me a blessing, since you have

given me the land of the Negev. Give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper and the lower springs. So Caleb, of course, that great man of faith, continuing to live even after Joshua died. Isn't that amazing? Because Caleb had a different heart than everybody else, right? Remember when it was time to alight the land? And Caleb said, give me the land with the giants.

I want the giants. And so that's exactly what he did. And he did a little bit of distribution there. And Othniel, who we're going to find is going to be one of the other judges, defeating part of it for him. But Caleb's not done. Jump down real quick to verse 20. I want you to look at something. It says, then they gave Hebron to Caleb as Moses promised, and he drove

out from there the three sons of Anak. Caleb was a man, wasn't he? Old dude out there just driving out giants. So that was the victory that Caleb had. Jump back up to verse 16. It says, the descendants of the Kenite, Moses's father-in-law, went up from the city of Palms with the sons of Judah to the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad. And they went and they lived with the people. Then Judah went with

Simeon, his brother, and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. And Judah took Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. Now, I bet at this point in time, you're going, I thought this was a sad book. I thought that they were defeated a lot. Everything

seems to be going perfect so far. Everything seems going great. They are kicking rear end and taking names, right? Things are going awesome until we get to verse 19. Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country. Yay! But they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had iron chariots. And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had promised,

and he drove out the three sons of Anak. But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin, in Jerusalem, to this day. Now wait a second. What happened here? Things just went south really quick, right? They were defeating people. This king that had, you know, lopped off the thumbs and big toes of 70 other kings,

they worked him over, killed 10,000 guys. God was with them, and they took the hill country. Caleb is kicking rear end and taking names. But all of a sudden, you find, they took the hill country. Yay! But they couldn't take the valley. Why? Because they had iron chariots. Now you can imagine the scene in heaven, right? The angels are like, oh no, God, look, iron chariots.

And God's like, oh man, I hadn't planned for that. What are we going to do about the iron chariots, right? Do you think that was hard for God? Now listen, I want us to think about something. Because we need to realize, and not give them too hard of a time for just a moment here. Because you and I don't think too much about iron chariots, because quite frankly, in my entire life,

I've never actually seen an iron chariot driving down the road. I suppose if I did, I would go, son of a gun, there's an iron chariot, right? And so I've never really seen that. And it doesn't seem all that scary to me, because they're driven by horses. I could just jump in a truck or a car, and I could get away from them, right? Probably not too big of a deal.

But back then, that was a huge deal. That was the foremost military technology of the time. Now, if a guy comes riding up my driveway to try to take me over, and he has a horse and an iron chariot, I have ways I can deal with that. I'm not too worried about it, right? But if a tank comes rolling down my driveway, I start getting a little bit nervous. A, why is there a tank in my driveway?

Because that's weird, right? B, I don't have any way of defeating a tank. That's pretty intense military technology. And quite frankly, the military technology I have will not do anything to that. So before we give the children of Israel too hard of a time, let us put ourselves in their shoes in realizing that what they were facing was a real, intensely difficult enemy to take.

So let's not give them too hard of a time and say, they should have just known they can take it because they had God. Look, it was still hard, right? Some of you have things that you deal with that the children of Israel would go, that's not hard at all, but for you it's a really big deal, right? And so what they were facing was difficult, but the God that they were facing it with was not scared.

It was no big deal for God. Do you remember some of the things that God did, right? God made the sun stand still. God made walls fall down just by a bunch of people shouting and some horns blowing. I'm thinking...