Breaking Badly 4: The Book of Judges

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Speaker 1: So this is breaking badly podcasts for the generations that forgotten. Today we arrive at the second prologue in the Book of Judges. The structure of the Book of Judges is fascinating. The book begins with two prologues which set up the problem, then come the stories of the judges themselves, and finally the book ends with two epilogues which show just how badly Israel ultimately breaks. Today's passage explains how the unraveling begins. So welcome to Gospel Ran podcast and Doctor Bill Senored YouTube channel. I am your host, Doctor Bill Sinyard. We're free wherever you get good podcasts, of course on YouTube as well, and please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below if you're watching on YouTube, or contact to me at Bill at gospeldesshap dot com. Thank you sincerely for that. I love feedback. I loved Also thanks for making Gospel Rant one of the top ten percent in the world. Thank you for listening every week. We hope that it helps you regularly hear about God's love, the one that loves the unlovable, the one that loves the unloved, unlovely and worthy, unlikely, the hurting. And look that's all of us, me too. On any given day, we were just a little bit more honest. I want to get right into this. After a brief word from our sponsors, I'll be right back. So the faithful Generation passes Judges. Chapter two begins with the summary of Israel during the lifetime of Joshua. And here's what the scripture says. The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua, and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. Close quote. Joshua was a man of faith. Humanly speaking, he understood the assignment. He listened to God, he obeyed, and through him got accomplished remarkable things. Even Joshua's name tells the story. The Hebrew name Yashua comes from the word yasha, which means God saves. Joshua Yashua trusted that. But then he died. Leadership passed to the next gen, and something tragic happened. Here's what scripture says. Quote another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel pretty fast, right, astonishing. The generation removed from the Red Sea, removed from the conquest of Jericho, removed from the miracles of the wilderness, and they already no longer know the Lord in today's lingo, they had no idea where to find their sense of worthiness, identity, name, lovability, a father in a word, they were lost spiritual entropy, and it happens fast. The Bible repeatedly shows us something that we do want to call spiritual entropy. I think it's helpful and physics, entropy describes the tendency of all systems to break down over time. Energy disperses, order collapses into disorder. If you've seen my closet, leave a hot cup of coffee on a table and it slowly cools, generations do the same thing, right, And that happens spiritually as well as relationally and emotionally. Faith does not sustain itself. You know, I was talking to someone the other day. You don't just become a believer and feel like you love God the rest of your life or feel God's love the rest of your life. It needs to be sustained. You're saved. But faith, this active process, this active accessing power from God has to be done daily if you want it to grow. Heaven sourced faith. Heaven sourced faith must be accessed regularly without the ongoing injection of God's power through the Holy Spirit in us, of God's power right the Holy spirits, and as He not more in us sometime and less in us some other time, but funneling God's power. If esould three, that takes effort, That takes asking and prayer and leaning into and opening up empty hands and saying I can't do this on my own because faith drifts. You can see this if you walk through many European cities today. Magnificent cathedrals stand in the center of town, beautiful towering monuments to past faith. Many of them are empty. They're museums, they're historical artifacts. It's well for tourists, spiritual entropy. It's the responsibility of the previous generation. Ultimately, in Israel, the responsibility for passing faith to the next gen belong to the leaders, priests and parents of president gen. Their calling was not simply to teach ideas about God. Their calling was to model a life centered on God, a life that regularly needed Him, sought him, and manifested that They found their source of identity and value from him actively, so much so the next gen saw that, I wonder do we do that. They lived a life that brought questions, conflicts, and decisions before him visually, a life that prayed, not my will, but your wills be done in the presence of next gen. They were meant to show the next gen that nothing is more important than knowing God, meaning experiencing his unimaginable pursuing eternal love for themselves. But that kind of submission and ongoing practice just doesn't happen automatically going to church. That's not it. That's just not it. The natural direction of the human heart is towards independence, doing our own thing, even good things, towards doing what seems right in our own eyes. That's judges. And so God provided Shiloh for President Gen. God knew this, so he established powerful structures to keep Israel connected to him. At Shiloh, the tabernacle stood, the Ark of the Covenant was there. They had a high priest, Eliezer there, and three times a year, not too much to ask three times a year, all of the people scattered around that New Jersey size slip of land were commanded to gather there. It's doable for worship. It would have been hard, I get that, but doable not just for president Gen but for our next gen. Shiloh was meant to be the spiritual center of Israel's life. There that's where their source of identity dwelt. There could there they could re experience the only person in the universe who was a rationally crazy about them. No one else was. This wasn't a one time decision like a covenant ceremony they had at Gilgal at the beginning. This was meant to be an ongoing rhythm of dependence, day after day, year after year. But there was a problem. You know, there is the geography problem. Israel's geography actually worked against this kind of centralized worship. You have to go back, and they didn't have cars or ubers, right, and unlike Egypt, where everything was concentrated along the Nile, I mean, you just jump on a ship, right and you're somewhere else, Israel was mountainous and fragmented and very few really good roads. So okay, travel wasn't easy. You didn't just drive by the temple on your way to work. So going to Shiloh required intentional effort. I think that's intentional, right, And intentional effort requires perceived need. Hey, family, we actually need to go to Shiloh because I need to experience the love of God. I need to be reminded who I am. So when people began to feel self sufficient, I've got this. What do you do well? No judgment, I mean they stopped making the trip. We wouldn't God prefer that I stay here that week, that I traveled and worshiped and actually made money or built crops or took care of things or guarded sheep. If we are honest, yes, that happens today too. In many parts of the world, especially places like the United States, our success and independence can quietly undermine or displace our sense of need for God. Knowing about God versus knowing God is part of the problem that brings us to a crucial distinction. There is a difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. So Israel could say, of course we know God. What Israel the priests are serving him at Shiloh. We have all the rituals. I've seen it, but they were living like orphans in the land Hesian three. We need to personally get God's power regularly, not just at church. You know, the Higher staff me not just be part of a certain denomination or not a belief system without personally experiencing God's presence, his favor, his love for the unlovable. They scattered across the land and quickly absorbed the culture around them. Again, we all do, and soon something tragic happens. In the word of syncretism, the God of Israel began to blend with the gods of Canaan. Historians have found inscriptions from ancient Israel showing Yahweh pictured alongside the goddess Asherah. Yeah, syncretism, it's a mixing of belief systems makes sense. And one, you know, I mean, so we worship Yahweh. The tribes around here they have this Ashurra, this woman. So look, we're gon We're gonna leave Yahweh on his throne on a column, and you know what over here, smaller, smaller, We're gonna put Ashra and it'll awoard lots of conflicts. Syncretism, I'm mixing up belief systems. The God of Torah begins to look suspecially like bail capricious, a little demanding, manipulative, distant, and once that happens, the gospel itself just becomes distorted. So why is idolatry so attractive? Why does it so easily happen? Tim Keller once described idolatry mindset this way. Idols never demand full surrender. Instead they invite negotiation. Yeah. I love that. You give an idol what it wants. The idol gives you what you want. It's a transaction. It's a manipulation, and the worshiper stays in control. But that's very different from the worship of the true God. Because God demands your heart, not partial concessions, not negotiation, full surrender. And honestly, I can feel terrifying close quote. I just think that's great. It's a vending machine God. Really, another way of looking at it. Many people approach God the way we approach vending machine. You insert the right coin, the right behavior, the right prayer, the right ritual, and then you expect a desired sugar coated chocolate filled caramel result or a cheesy one. And if the results didn't appeared, you just get you complain, and eventually you stop going to that vending machine. You find a vendomte scene that you like, but true faith does it work that way? Heaven sourced faith from God spirit through the Holy Spirit makes us, that helps us, makes us trust God even when the outcome is unclear, even when things aren't going our way because we can't see things. And if God really does love us, the Father loves us as much as the Father loves his son. And we get something. Faith says, that's something coming up, and it's good. My brain goes, I want a snickers bar. Right, So what does God do to restore discipline? That's what happens, dex and judges. God will discipline Israel, and well, let me keep going. Scripture says, the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered them. Now this discipline is not random punishment. It's a form of loving pursuit. Again, this is faith talk. Our brains go, they didn't go to Shiloh. They did things their own way, and so God is punishing them time out so that they go, oh, my goodness, we messed up and they repent. Right. Yeah, that's just well, that just doesn't work. I don't know if it works with your teenagers either, but it certainly did work with Israel. This is a form of loving pursuit. So pause and take a beat and think about that. God makes Israel, allows Israel, invites Israel whateveryone, which everyone you're most comfortable with, to experience the consequences of the gods. They chose, the bales they trusted, the alliances they pursued, and just as Romans One says, sometimes God gives people over to the things they insist on pursuing, the Greek and Romans one is that gives. God gives them over to what they asked for, and the result is distress. The text says Israel was in great distress. The Hebrew words suggest strangling, a suffocation. They were greatly bound, suffocated, snarared, duct taped wrapped around their mouth, and the land that was to unleash a powerful salvation for the world. It will. This is God's plan and freedom from the present evil age, Paul says the Galatians one, the people were tied up and made absolutely frustrated and helpless. You know, we want to read into this and they were sorry for their infidelity and compromise and really wanted to return to the Lord. But no, that's not what it says. There is nothing of the sort. There is no repentance in that language. The biblical God never forsakes his special people. He only pursues, and they only do spiritual entropy on their own. So constriction being trapped in the land they're supposed to bring freedom, Israel feels bound and helpless, but interestingly, they're ever sorry. They don't repent. It's not in them, this godly sorrow that Paul talks about in Second Corinthians. They're suffering, but not transformation. Again, this is not just them, this is me, this is you, it's our tendency. In many ways were the same. So God raises up judges as part of his plan. So the idea is okay, So the people can't get it. How about if we raise up judges who lead the people, and the judges rescue Israel miraculously from their specific oppressors time and time again. We'll look at them, but notice something important. It doesn't change the people's hearts. As soon as the people are gone, there's temporary relief, but there's no desire to pursue and worship God. There's no desire for this next gen to run to Shiloh to experience God's love for them. It's just not in their heads. The judges free Israel from immediate crisis, but the deeper problem remains. They're not experiencing the love of God anymore, empty cups, cracked, empty cups, and for that people would need to return to Shiloh, which they just don't want to do because if they did want to do it, they would have, and they didn't, not until Samuel the next book. So the Judges won't relieve Israel's distress a little bit, but not totally. They don't don't provide deeper salvation that Israel truly needed. They don't have the capacity to motivate the people to go to Shilah, to go to God, or either they don't believe it themselves and don't go themselves, which is likely the case except for perhaps one or you know, they're kind of feeling good about how they're being looked at as God's by the people. So something else was required, something different, something special, was required, and that's where the story begins, pointing forward forward to Samuel, forward to David, ultimately forward to Jesus, but even beyond that, to Jesus's spirit that within regular people like me and like you can motivate me to run to God and find my sense of worth and value and identity. They didn't have that, right. Jesus doesn't simply The Holy Spirit doesn't just simply rescue us from temporary oppression. He does something far greater, His Spirit, who sources heaven born faith. That's how we get it daily, which has the power to make us feel worthy, make us feel loved and lovable and special, and then and removes guilt and removes shame. The Holy Spirit has that power. Offerings don't have that power Hebrews ten and eleven. But the Holy Spirit does. Have you been set? Have you been told that the Holy Spirit can do that? Shiloh in you? You don't even have to get in your car. Shiloh in you. He gives us a sense of righteousness, not my righteousness, Jesus is righteousness. He adopts us into God's family and makes us feel like more than an orphan. And that kind of salvation, that kind of rescue, that kind of resurrection, that kind of empowerment changes everything about how I feel about myself and about you. But okay, I'm jumping way into the future because in Judges Israel refuses to return to God like I do it on their own. The pattern repeats over and over. God rescues them, they drift away, they've become more corrupt than before, until the finally the nation collapses into chaos and God sighs. One more image from the chapter is deeply moving Chapter two, verse eighteen. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as that judge lived. For the Lord had compassion on them as they groaned under those who were pressed and afflicted them. The Hebrew text describes God as sighing over his people. The Hebrew word naham has a root connotation we translated compassion, but the root connotation is a deep sad oh. It's not a judgment thing. I guess that one sounded kind of judgment little bit. It's a deep oh. There, that's better. And if you can hear it, you can hear God himself sigh, because that's not what he wanted for them, a deep, painful sigh. If God humanly speaking for his grossly unfaithful, adulterous, lonely, underachieving people that he loved, He's not separating for them, he's in Shiloh. They're separating from him. Not sighing in anger, not sighing in disgust. That first one that I did, God has sounded like that, but sighing in sorrowful love, a deep longing for his people to come back into his arms. That's God. And that same longing exists today when he sees you, when he sees me pursuing other things, which I just do habitually, and you can almost hear, you know, and God still sighs and calling his wandering people to himself. It's not distant. Remember, it's his spirit in my inner being, and he wants us to come back to his embrace, his presence, his smile, his face, so we see in his eyes just how delighted he is in us me as I am, to bring me back to life. And when we finally return, we discover something surprising that God's there and he's he's not ticked off at me, He's not crossing his arms and shaking his head. He's been waiting. Yeah, I hope that's good news. We're going to get into the judges next time, right, what's next? Federal word? After this brief work of our sponsors So God's not done that, even in the darkness of judges, God's not finished. First Samuel one to three. That's the next book. Year after year, Elkanah went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord God Almany at Shiloh. So this is kind of a pre book introduction to the Book of Samuel, and you'll see where it goes from there. So God's not done. His size is never passive. He's not waiting for his word to fail. He's got a plan. The new Joshua right Sah is raised up the prophet Samuel, who's going to ordain a king David from who will come the faithful Yeshah or Jesus, who alone will not submit to the mindset of idolatry, who alone can rescue straying people like me from the yatsar strangling constrictions of this fallen world. God's gonna have salvation and he's gonna have redemption representatives from every tribe, every people group at the heavily banquet. He's going to make that happen. And for the moment he's sighing with a plan, it's going to come a savior from Judah Jesus who's going to save the world in spite of the failures of Israel, and we too now can experience freedom from idolatry through power through His spirit in us. We just have to ask say more about that? Why? Because God sighs over you and me and Jesus paid all the requirement. God's favor for us is that it's immeasurable. It's unchanging. You can't mess it up. And if you were quiet enough today, he might hear your adoring, heavenly father's sigh and the stuff you're doing, and it's what I'm doing and what you're thinking. And looking at Jesus side on the cross, it was the same side, no doubt. His sigh became action. He became lonely, afflicted, oppressed in your place. He sighed, bokem, remember so that you and I don't need to So how do you experience that look? Get on your knees, throw up empty hands a mid your yacht, sar the constriction, don't you feel it? And your need for God's powerful presence, his smile, his smile at you. Ask for heaven born faith to really get yeshah that freedom. God, make me feel this today or else, I'll just keep running into the same things that have oppressed me so far. Is conditioning Okay? Well, I have a new book. It's out Good Enough parent. Parenting is hard, and it's, by the way, the same thing you look at your child inside. Too often Christian parents feel like you're messing up right, doing a poor job ruining your kids. Did you know that there are two subconscious questions that your kid's brains no matter what age they're asking twenty four to seven. Wouldn't it be amazing if you knew those two questions because you could answer them, you could be the answer to them. Check it out. Good Enough Parent eighteen Biblical neuroscientifically informed, very doable tips, no shaming, no lecturing. Take two or three tips that you think work in your contacts and run with them all right. Bottom line, you're going to see parents. You're going to focus on you. If you're feeling the love of God for the unloveable, the unlovely, the unworthy, unlikely, particularly shamed and frustrated parents, your child is going to notice a difference. Yep. Check it out. Get copies to your church and Bible study the nursery at your church, book club and they will thank you. Next time, we're going to be getting a look at the opening prologue of Judges, where the unravelings begin, and here we're going to see once again what happens when God's people begin to do what is right in their own eyes. Thanks for listening to breaking Badly. We'll see you next time. Take heart, child of God.