Read Judges 4

So far in Judges we have seen unusual characters and means of victory. An ordinary, God-fearing man. A left-handed man. An outsider. All of these have demonstrated the different ways God uses different people, often those the world would not choose, to fulfil his plan.

Judges in Chapter 4 God further demonstrates his use of unusual means to save his people; two women. Where the men are weak, fearful, and cowardly, two women are brave and courageous, striking a blow for freedom.

Ehud’s victory over Eglon brought peace to Israel, but that peace was imposed and when Ehud died, Israel reverted to its wilful, disobedient ways (v.1). Again, God disciplined Israel by placing under the yoke of Jabin, a king in Canaan, and his general Sisera (v.2). And true to the pattern, Israel cried out to God, asking for deliverance again (v.3).

The men of Israel appeared to be weak and incapable of providing spiritual or physical leadership, which is apparent in this passage. Leadership of some sort is instead provided by a woman named Deborah, whom God has called as a prophetess and provides some sort of magistrate role (vv.4-5).

Deborah called Barak to take leadership of Israel’s military in the north (around Galilee), and defeat the pagans who oppressed God’s people (v.6). Barak was instructed by God to assemble an army of ten thousand at Mount Tabor, and from there march out to where God would deliver them into Barak’s hand (vv.6-7).

Unfortunately, Barak feared Sisera’s chariots (v.3), thinking he and his men would be slaughtered. He would only go if Deborah came with them, as a sign of God’s presence (vv.8-9). Barak abdicated his leadership.

To emphasise Barak’s cowardice, it would be a woman who delivered the blow for God, not him (v.9).

The Israelite force, with Barak and Deborah, gathered at Mount Tabor, while Sisera and the chariots gathered nearby in a valley to smite the upstarts (vv.10,12-14). Meanwhile, a certain Kenite (with family links to Moses) and his wife had relocated to the area (v.11).

While strategy, force of arms, and tactics may win battles between nations today, it is God that grants victory for his people. “the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword” (v.15). The 1200 BC equivalent of a tank was no match for God, defeated by God sending a rainstorm to flood the valley and bog down the chariots (5:21). 

Mighty general Sisera fled the area on foot, leaving his troops to be slaughtered to a man by the suddenly emboldened Barak and troops (vv.15-16).

Ordinarily Barak as leader would bag the prize of Sisera, but God was clear through Deborah that an unlikely vessel of victory would deal to him (v.9). That woman was Jael, wife of the Kenite who had moved to the area (v.11) and who apparently was in league with Jabin and his rule over Israel (v.17).

Thinking that he was at a place of refuge, Sisera was easily deceived by Jael’s invitation and provision to think he was safe (vv.18-20). He lay down to sleep, weary from his flight and the pursuit of Israel.

At this point, Jael took a tent peg (a large wooden peg) and smashed it into Sisera’s head! Unfortunately for Sisera it seems that Jael was no fan of him or Jabin’s acts, and she much preferred God over her husband’s alliances. The mighty warrior, who brought fear to Israel for his king was killed by a woman (shock horror), not the leader of Israel’s resistance (v.21). All Barak was there to do was to confirm the kill (v.22).

On that day, God overcame the enemy of his people through two unlikely vessels; two women who respectively led, and bled a general (v.23). From that blow, Israel was able to drive out and destroy Jabin and his rule over them (v.24).

Clearly, no mighty warrior of Israel conquered Sisera and Jabin. It was God who was victorious, sending the rain which made the chariots useless, and sending Sisera to Jael’s tent, where he met his judgement.

The message of this passage is that it is God who delivers and saves. Two women are the unlikely vessels by which God raised an army and drove a tent peg. 

In our lives, it is God who delivers and saves through having taken human flesh. And, in unlikely fashion, being born in a lowly cattle stall, living a humble life, and dying a criminal’s death on the Cross for us.

This passage is not about women’s roles in church life, though in it women play a big role due to their men’s weakness. And all women certainly have a role to play in many parts of church life. Instead, this is a passage about how God saves despite manly weakness, through what the world sees as unlikely heroes called to a special role, as vessels of salvation for God’s People.

Read Judges 3:31

Sometimes in the Bible, just as in our everyday life, there are people who play a significant role but only in passing, then fade away. Someone who provides support in our time of need, then is only a memory, or a person whose actions save many only to fade into obscurity.

Shamgar, a judge whose account is sandwiched between the account of Ehud and the account of Deborah and Barak, is just one of those important but passing characters. We do not know much about who he was, where he came from, what he did, and what effect it had on Israel. He only rates a one verse mention. But he is still important, because the Bible points him out.

Shamgar’s account, brief as it is, reminds us that God works through the ordinary and the transitory, just as he works through the dramatic. It also reminds us that the issues God’s People face can be issues faced later, even if the times seem unique. And it also reminds us that sometimes God’s salvation plan is advanced by those who seem to be outsiders, but have come to sympathise with us.

After Ehud defeated the Moabites, Israel rested for eighty years (v.30). But this was not the end of their troubles. Other foreign nations would arise and cause problems.

Ehud’s successor was a man named Shamgar. We know very little about Shamgar. His name is likely not Israelite, which suggests he was either a foreigner whose acts helped Israel, or more likely (in my view) a foreigner who became a follower of God and sympathised with God’s People.

Shamgar is named as a son of Anath. This may mean he was a worshipper of Anath, a Canaanite goddess of war associated with Baal. Or perhaps Shamgar lived in a Beth-Anath in the area of Judah in the South of Israel and was thus one of its sons, like a rugby player being the “Paekakariki Express” or another title; there were places named such in north and South Israel (Judges 1:33, Josh. 15:59).

We also do not know if Shamgar acted alone, or with a few friends, or with a local militia. What we do know is that he “killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel” (v.31). 600 is a sizable number to kill. Perhaps it was a raiding party or a scouting party looking for easy prey; their lack of return suggested it was unwise to send more troops.

What we do know is that Shamgar used an oxgoad as his weapon. This was essentially a large spear, about two metres long. One end contained a sharp prick to goad the oxen where they would otherwise not like to go, thank you. The other end had a spade for cleaning the plough that oxen often pulled. This tool of animal husbandry could serve as a useful spear or bayonet as an improvised weapon, or an effective club.

We also know the enemy that Shamgar vanquished – the Philistines. The Philistines were mentioned in Chapter 1 with their iron chariots, but otherwise have not appeared until now in Judges. Later, they will become Public Enemy Number 1 by the time of Samson, and a problem even into King David’s reign. But before Samson, Saul and David battled the Philistines, Shamgar defeated them and set them back in their plans for a time, and thus saved Israel.

Shamgar must have been a public figure of his day, because Deborah knew of him (5:6). But by the time Judges was compiled, Shamgar was relegated to a footnote of history. Someone to mention, but not to expand on.

Shamgar, in other words, for all his past deeds, was another transitory figure God worked through to advance his plans. God used Shamgar, but the lesson of Shamgar is that God uses all sorts of people to advance his plans. Even people who are reduced to minor players in Judges. Even people who never get a mention.

In the same way, God uses us to advance his plans. Not just the Big People of history (most who will be forgotten in enough time anyway), but ordinary everyday people. Whatever our gifts, our place, and what we have to hand, God uses us to advance his plans. Others may not know, but God knows.

We also see that the Philistines, who still troubled Israel hundreds of years later, were Shamgar’s foe. Likewise, many of the issues the church faces today, whether moral, spiritual, or physical, are issues faced by the church throughout the ages. We can take comfort that just as God delivered his people in the past again and again, so too he will deliver us today from the same issues facing us.

Finally, Shamgar was an outsider who God used to deliver his people. Sometimes, outsiders deliver God’s people from their troubles. After all, what greater outsider is there than the Creator of Creation, God the Son? He became human like us, sympathised with us, and delivered us from our enemies of sin and death.

Read Judges 3:12-30

Sometimes laughter is the best medicine. Laughter reduces stress, and can make difficult situations bearable. It can bring perspective to sometimes scary and serious problems, and can reduce the lofty ideas of this world to the parody they are.

Judges 3 contains a story which holds plenty of comical relief, along with an element of personal gorishness which surprises and shocks our sensibilities. But along with the comical relief, the story describes a different type of relief; a relief from oppression.

Despite the gore of the story, the story of Ehud the Judge parodies the attempts of the world to grow wealthy through oppressing God’s People. Eventually, judgement comes. Ehud is a saviour for his people, who restores their peace for a time. He points forward to Christ, who in defeating the world will give his people rest for all time, with a down payment enjoyed today.

After Othniel died, “the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” and God once again sent foreigners to test and discipline Israel for their sinfulness (v.12). Eglon of Moab, together with the Amalekites and Ammonites defeated Israel, and subjected Israel to Eglon’s rule for eighteen years (vv.12-14).

This service came in the form of tribute (v.17), likely substantial amounts of food and the crops of the land. In that situation, the people of Israel would have become very thin, while their conqueror “Eglon was a very fat man” (v.17). Think Jabba the Hutt fat, likely off the sweat of the Israelites.

When Israel came to their senses and cried out to God, he again raised up a Judge to save them (v.15). Ehud was left-handed (v.15), a distinctive from God which would come handy. Assigned to deliver the tribute to Eglon, Ehud made a sword and fastened it to his right thigh, which would not draw attention from guards (expecting a right-handed man with a sword on the left; vv.15-18).

After dismissing the tribute-bearers, Ehud convinced Eglon that he had a secret message, so all Eglon’s guards and attendants would leave them alone (vv.18-19). Ehud then presented “a message from God for you (v.20) in the form of the sword embedded in Eglon’s belly, who was so large that his body swallowed the sword whole (vv.21-2).

To make his escape, Ehud closed the doors behind him, as if Eglon had wanted some privacy (v.23). His servants waited around embarrassingly longly as they assumed he was using the conveniences, until concern overcame hesitance and they discovered Eglon dead (vv.24-5).

In the meantime, Ehud had escaped and rallied the troops at Seirah (vv.27-8). Ehud then led the Israelites down to attack their oppressors “for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand” (v.28).

The Israelites seized the strategically important fords over the River Jordan and blocked the oppressors off from reinforcements, before defeating the 10,000 garrison troops to a man (v.29).

From that point on, Moab no longer oppressed Israel but in a classic reversal of fortunes, Moab fell subject to Israel (v.30). As with Othniel, Israel again enjoyed a period of peace and rest, this time for eighty years (v.30). 

Of course, the fact that this peace was only for eighty years highlights that it was only a temporary peace. Israel had peace because they had turned to God in repentance and God had delivered them, through Ehud. But they would squander the opportunity given them again, and the cycle would begin again.

While this story is messy and certainly gory, it does remind us that God works in all sorts of situations to achieve his purposes. Even scenarios involving deceit, messy deaths, and an almost satiric retelling and recording into history. Even the absurd is under God’s control, achieving God’s purposes. If God was willing and able to work in the messiness of Eglon’s downfall, God can surely work in the messiness of our own lives.

It also shows that there is a judgement for the world in oppressing God’s People. While Israel’s subjugation was God-ordained because of their sin, it was still oppression of those God loves. Eglon literally grew in largesse through stealing from Israelite mouths. But despite this worldly success, his excess was his downfall. 

In the same way, while it may seem today that the oppressors of this present evil age are winning, their success will end and they will be humbled before Christ, as every knee bows and tongue confesses he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Ehud’s left-handed stroke brought relief for Israel from its foes. But that relief was only temporary. It eventually ended, because Israel failed to take the opportunity God graciously gave them. 

One day, Christ will return to bring permanent rest to all the earth, not just a part. On that day, there will not be any more fresh chances. Today and every day is until then is the day to trust in our own Saviour, Jesus, for freedom from our oppressors.

Read Judges 3:7-11

Every Christian has a story of their salvation. Some are quite dramatic, with a series of events leading to their conversion. Some of us have boring salvation stories, involving growing up in the Church and growing to believe over time through the faithful teaching of parents, pastors, and older believers.

Whether dramatic or boring, each story has certain repeated elements. A recognition of our sinfulness. God’s revelation of salvation through Christ to us. Hearts that are made flesh to respond to that offer, and peace with God. The details of how that plays out are what makes the difference.

In Judges there are exciting salvation stories, and boring ones. The first example, that of God’s saving Israel through Othniel, falls into the boring category. But boring is often good. And the lack of excitement in Othniel’s judging allows us to see the cycle of salvation: sin and wrath, oppression and crying, and deliverance and rest.

Firstly, Othniel’s story reveals sin and wrath. Israel “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” by abandoning worship of God for the Baals and the Ashteroth; the pagan false gods of the Canaanites that Israel should have driven out (v.7).

This sin brought about God’s wrath. God “sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia” (v.8). God acted to punish and discipline his covenant people by sending outsiders to rule over them. Israel served the Baals and the Ashteroth, so they got to serve a foreign oppressor.

Secondly, we see Israel’s oppression and crying. Israel served under occupation by Cushan-rishathaim for eight years. The arrangement was not pleasant. Cushan’s name translated into English means “Cushan the double-cursed”, probably a curse name given by Israel for their new ruler (based on the part of Mesopotamia he came from, “double cursed from the double rivers”). The result was Israel crying out to God for deliverance, presumably in repentance for their earlier apostasy (v.9).

Israel’s cries are not left unheard, and God sends deliverance. God “raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother” (v.9). Othniel, mentioned in chapter 1 as a good solid God-fearing guy, but also technically a foreigner (via Moses’ father-in-law) who settled with and became part of God’s covenant people. 

Othniel has no stated questionable character flaws. He is an ordinary, boring guy, for a boring story of a dramatic deliverance. Dramatic, because God is the deliverer, using Othniel as his instrument: “The Spirit of the LORD was upon him, and he judged Israel” (v.10).

Previously, God placed Israel in Cushan’s hand. Next, God places Cushan in Othniel’s hand when Othniel went out to war and his “hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim” (v.10).

Under Othniel’s hand, God delivered Israel from their oppression. They had an opportunity to start again under “boring” Othniel’s spiritual and physical leadership. “The land had rest forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died” (v.11). Under the rest of Othniel, they enjoyed forty years without war or oppression. Forty years of the goodness of God expressed to them through Othniel’s leadership.

That forty years of goodness could have extended for much longer, had Israel remained faithful to God beyond the days of Othniel’s leadership. Sadly Judges shows further apostasy and decline to come. But that period of rest demonstrated to Israel the benefits of God’s love and goodness in their faithfulness, just as their oppression demonstrated God’s anger and discipline at their unfaithfulness.

The rest reminds us to rest in God’s goodness towards us as his children because of our own salvation stories. Whether dramatic or boring, those stories allow us to experience the goodness of God in our lives as we enjoy rest from the anger and wrath of God for our sin. We should seek to live our lives as much as we can in faithfulness to God, to avoid his discipline.

While we see the rise and fall of countries as the result of various causes and factors, this passage again makes clear that God is sovereign over events and ordering them for his own purposes. Israel was oppressed because God sent them into Cushan-rishathaim’s hand as punishment for sin and to draw Israel back to God. Then they were delivered, because God handed Cushan-rishathaim into Othniel’s hand. 

There is no reason we should not view any other event of history through the same lens, even if we do not know the specific inner workings of God’s mind. God is in control of who does the ruling and who does the ruled. God does this to advance his purposes and plan, to fulfil his promises, and to bring about his righteous reign. In all the evil and uncertainty of this world, we can take comfort that God is in control.

The boringness of this salvation story, through a boring ordinary God-fearing guy, highlights that it is God who saves. Not us. Whether our salvation story is dramatic or boring, it is God who dramatically rescued us from our sin. Sometimes, boring is dramatic enough.

Read Judges 2:14-3:6

Easter is a time that for many of us means a long weekend break from work, hot cross buns, and too much chocolate. But while these things are individually good (and together better), they are nowhere near as important as the reason for the long weekend, hot cross buns, and chocolate bunnies/eggs: the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus’ death and resurrection is the hinge of history. It is the point all of history builds towards, and it is the point of all history we look back towards as we progress to history’s end – when Jesus returns and is given all glory. It demonstrates at once the judgement of God on sin – borne by Jesus – and the deliverance by God we have from our sin – through Jesus.

In the Old Testament, there were pictures of this judgement and deliverance which point towards the great fulfilment at the Cross. The Book of Judges is no exception. In the introductory passages of Judges, we have seen the decline of Israel from their days under Joshua to their indulgence in sin, and failure to keep covenant with God. Despite this, while God still visited judgement for sin, he also sent deliverance for his people.

Israel abandoned God by worshipping the false gods of the land of Canaan, encouraged by the inhabitants they had subdued rather than driven out (vv.11-13). God’s response to this abandonment was anger and judgement. God gave them over to “plunderers who plundered them” and sold them into the hands of their surrounding enemies whenever they invaded, instead of helping them (vv.14-15).

This act was something Israel should have foreseen, as it was just as “the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them” (v.15). God was faithful to his word, both for their good and ill. As they had abandoned them, he judged them as threatened. This was no light punishment; Israel “were in terrible distress” (v.16).

But despite the judgement which God sent on Israel, which they justly deserved, that was not the end. “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them” (v.16). The people did not deserve deliverance from their oppressors, but God gave it anyway out of his grace.

The structure of this section of Judges makes it clear that despite the message of judgement in the verses surrounding, the central theme of this section is God’s grace and deliverance shown to his people.

Sadly for the people of Israel, God’s contemporary grace was just as quickly ignored as God’s grace and deliverance in years’ past. They quickly turned away from the message of the judges and the ways of their fathers, committing apostasy against God (v.17).

God’s love for his people melted his heart of anger and he rescued them time and again, but they still were not faithful and progressed in a downward spiral (vv.18-19). So God no longer permitted Israel to drive out the nations but left them to test Israel as a form of disciplinary judgement (vv.20-23).

This act demonstrates God’s patience with his people. God did not immediately write off Israel but sought through acts of judgement to discipline them back to him. The God who heard the crying out of Israel in Egypt and delivered them is the same God who heard the groaning of Israel in Canaan under his discipline, and raised up Judges to deliver them again and again.

Thus the nations which God in his sovereignty permitted to remain amongst the Israelites to teach them war were not because God failed to keep his promises, but because God saw the need for Israel to receive his discipline, to recognise their sin, and to receive his grace and forgiveness anew (3:1-6). The nations which were the indulgence of so much of their sin were also the means by which God proved which of his people would repent and turn to him.

The patient and longsuffering God of grace demonstrated in these verses is the same God whose patience and longsuffering for our sins was satisfied by Jesus’ death on the Cross. On the Cross, the judgement due to us all for disobeying God was poured out on Jesus, that we might be delivered from the enemies of death and sin that had subdued us.

We also see that the consequences of sin, in our own lives and that experienced by us because of the sins of others, is a way in which God is patiently disciplining us to leave sin behind and instead serve him.

We do not just experience God’s grace and mercy in the past when we became a follower of Christ, but every day as we experience God’s continued grace to us by forgiving us of today’s sins. All of this is not because of anything special about us, but because of God’s love, patience, and mercy for those he has chosen to love.

It is through Jesus, the greatest Judge, that we are delivered from the oppression of sin and death.

Read Judges 2:6-13

There is a somewhat well known statement (in various forms) that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (George Santayana). The great British leader Winston Churchill expressed a similar idea.

All of these quotes in some form describe the truth that forgetfulness leads to failure. Forget your past, and you will make the same mistakes as your ancestors, or some other fool from back when. 

Forgetfulness leads to failure in another way. Forget God, and you will fail into sin and apostasy. If you do not, your children will. After Joshua died, that is what happened to Israel. They forgot God. They did not follow him. They failed. This passage emphasises the importance of not forgetting God in our lives, and teaching and encouraging the next generation to trust in Jesus, their saviour too.

After the ominous warning of God to Israel and their weeping non-repentance at Bochim (vv.1-5), the author of Judges winds back the clock to diagnose the failure of Israel.

To contrast the generations which Judges will discuss, the author reminds us of Joshua’s generation. After the united campaigns to subdue the land of Canaan, Joshua dismissed Israel’s tribes to take possession of the lands which God had given them as an inheritance (v.6).

While we know from reading the Book of Joshua that there was plenty of sin and unbelief, in comparison to later Israelites “the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua” (v.7). 

This service was because they “had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel” (v.7). Unlike their faithless ancestors, they had seen God’s great acts as the walls of Jericho came tumbling down and armies took to flight before them, and saw God’s hand working behind it. 

That experience affected their hearts and minds, and they served God. It was not just because of Joshua’s leadership, but all the elders who outlived Joshua kept Israel on the straight and narrow.

Joshua, who faithfully served God and Moses and watched his contemporaries die in the wilderness because of unbelief, entered into the Promised Land and was buried in the land God gave him and his family to possess, at the ripe age of 110 (vv.8-9). All those that Joshua led, and who trusted God, likewise went the way of all people and passed away (v.10).

Sadly the next generation were not faithful. “And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel” (v.10). This is not a reference to bad teaching, but unbelief. The previous generation knew about what God had done. They just did not see practical application in their lives. Much like High Priest Eli’s dodgy sons who served in the sanctuary but did not know the LORD (1 Sa 2:12), you can learn about someone and yet not know someone.

The result of this forgetfulness was failure. “The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals” (v.11), the local Canaanite fertility deities who demanded discussing sacrifices and unchaste “red light district” “worship” practices. Handily, they had not wiped out the local populace as commanded, so had good instructors.

Israel abandoned God, the “God of their Fathers” for foreign deities who had not saved them from Egypt, provoking God to righteous and jealous anger (v.12). They forgot God and failed, abandoning God for the Baals and Ashteroth who could not do anything for them (v.13).

The failure of the new generation demonstrates how faith requires more than just knowledge of facts and events. You must also agree that those events have meaning, and place reliance on them in a way that changes how you live. We have no reason to believe the old generation failed to pass on the knowledge of what God had done, but the new generation did not come to experience it as a part of their everyday life; to trust in it.

This shows how important it is to not just teach our kids of God and his rescue mission to save us all through Jesus, but to let them see God working today. Ultimately, it is God who changes our childrens’ hearts to desire a relationship with him, by his Holy Spirit and through the means of grace. We must pray for them to see and believe.

But how does God work today? Through the preaching of his Word. Through prayer. Through the sacraments administered to those entitled to receive them, reminding us of what God has done for us all through Jesus. 

How else do we experience God? Through changed hearts, repenting and believing in Jesus. Through lives which become more Christ-like and grace-filled as thanks for God’s forgiveness. When that same love and grace pours out from us to others, including our children.

All these examples show how we can experience God today, tha we and our children do not forget God.

Read Judges 2:1-5

It is probably my cynicism which means when I hear of criminals expressing remorse at their sentencing I am not convinced. I do not doubt that the words were written by them, or perhaps as coached by someone helping them, but I am far more likely to believe they are remorseful that they were caught and face punishment, than that they regret their crime. 

Ultimately what proves the truth or lie of their words are their actions. Whether they make better choices, seek restoration (where this is possible), or perhaps encourage others to avoid their mistakes. That is a sign of remorse, repentance, and a changed heart. And it’s wonderful to see!

In the first chapter of Judges, we have seen sin and disobedience in Israel’s life. Despite God’s command to drive out the pagan nations of Canaan, the Israelites tolerated their idolatry and immorality in their midst. In the first five verses of chapter 2, God announces judgement on Israel and warns them what will happen because they have failed to keep his commands. Sadly, God receives weeping, not repentance, as Israel’s response.

While Judah, who God appointed as leader of Israel after Joshua’s death, was relatively successful in the South, the North was a different story. Initial success was followed by failure and setback. Eventually, though Israel grew strong, they did not fulfil God’s commands but reduced the pagan Canaanites to servitude. Instead of cleansing the land of idolatry and immorality, they laid the foundations for it to easily seep into the lives of their children and grandchildren, and bring God’s judgement on them for failing to keep the covenant made at Sinai.

The theological message underneath this failure seems to be unbelief leading to a failure to trust in God’s divine presence and leadership. Sin and disobedience followed that unbelief. 

But God was not absent from his people. While God is present everywhere, and sees and knows all things, God also makes a point of clearly surveying the scene. “The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim” (v.1). Just as God walked in the Garden of Eden after the fall and called out to Adam and Eve, God walked among his people.

God then reminded Israel of his goodness, as the one who “brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you” (v.1). God had kept his end of the bargain. He reasonably asked of them “you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars” (v.2).

Israel was not to make accommodations with the inhabitants. They were to bring judgement on them. They weren’t to allow worship of false deities, they were to cleanse the land and devote it solely to worship of the only true God.

The Israelites had not met his commands. “You have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?” (v.2). Like a parent surveying a broken lounge, God asks Israel what they thought they were doing. He knew. They knew. And they should have known that he knew.

Since they had not obeyed, God announced the discipline and judgement they would face. “So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you” (v.3). While disobedience was practical, the punishment was both physical and spiritual. Physical oppression, and spiritual straying after the idols they tolerated.

As soon as God announced this, the Israelites realised they were found out. The people wept (v.4). They named the place of God’s announcement Bochim, meaning “weepers,” to remind them of their sadness (v.5). They offered sacrifices to God there too (v.5); so far so good.

And then… that is it. Nothing in Judges about repentance and renewed commitment to following God. Instead, more decline. Just weeping, and sacrifices.

God desires obedience, not sacrifice (1 Sam 15:22, Hos 6:6, Micah 6:6-8, Matt. 9:13, 12:7). Weeping was not enough. Sacrifices without faith and a repentant heart, which seeks to do God’s will in future, are not enough.

If they were not enough for Israel, they are not enough for us either. Being sorry because your sins have been discovered is good, but not good enough. Doing the publicly accepted rites of penance are good, but not good enough. A repentant heart does more. It acknowledges sin, receives forgiveness, and sets out to do better and put things right.

Of course as sinners, we still keep falling short. But in Jesus we have a perfectly faithful and obedient man who stood in our place, and accepted judgement for us. Where we fail, he succeeded. 

Through Jesus, we can repent in the knowledge of God’s forgiveness. But that repentance involves more than tears and outward acts, it requires returning to God with all our hearts. Let’s turn to God with open hearts, not with empty tears.

Read Judges 1:22-36

I think it is fair to say that in our country, we generally tend to be easy going when it comes to the way people live their lives. For the most part. Except if they are too successful (outside sport), or believe or act in a way which our “elites” do not like. While that easy going nature can be a good thing, it can also be a bad thing, especially if we extend it to ideas and actions which undermine our values, or the wellbeing of society as a whole.

While in the south of Israel the military campaigns were largely successful, because they followed God’s leadership, the north of Israel was not as successful. The ultimate failures in the North laid the seeds for much of the later oppression experienced by Israel recorded in Judges, because of a tolerance for sin and disobedience. The Northern Tribes failed to follow God’s lead and command, and tolerated pagans and their ideas in their midst. Their failure is a warning to us, not to become comfortable with sin and worldly ideas in our lives.

The latter part of Judges chapter 1 describes a progressive failure to conquest and subdue the territories of the Northern Tribes. At first, we see initial success. Ephraim and Manasseh, the “house of Joseph” (who were given the status of tribes through adoption by Jacob in his old age), “also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them” (v.22).

Through a stratagem similar to the conquest of Jericho many years before, the house of Joseph gains access to the historic city of Luz through sparing one of its inhabitants and his family (vv.23-5). Luz and its occupants fall to the sword, with Luz becoming Bethel (v.25). 

But in a departure from the story of Jericho, the man and his family do not become believers in God as Rahab and her family did. Instead, they depart to the land of the Hittites and re-establish their old way of life, even to the extent of naming their settlement Luz (v.26). Perhaps an indication of problems to come.

Those problems arrived quickly. Manasseh failed to “drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages” (v.27). These names-on-a-map to us were geographically strategic, fortresses and key points which would have allowed Israel to defend themselves against invaders.

More concerning though was the outcome of failing to drive out the inhabitants of these villages, as God had previously commanded. “The Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land” (v.27). While Israel eventually grew strong enough to subdue them, they did not drive them and their pagan practices out but “put the Canaanites to forced labor” (v.28).

This failure kept playing out. Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali failed to drive out the inhabitants of their territories, instead subjecting them to forced labour (vv.29-33). While perhaps pragmatic for economic output, this was sinful disobedience of God, and toleration for pagan practices and influences on the Israelites which God clearly did not want.

Even worse, the Tribe of Dan were pushed back in their attempts to conquer. The Amorites denied their attempts to conquer the plains, pushing them back into the hill country (v.34). 

While Israel eventually grew strong enough to subjugate the Amorites as well (vv.35-6), their pragmatic military and economic success did not translate to obedience to God. Instead, they tolerated the evil pagan religious practices of the Canaanites, ensuring that their children and grandchildren would be influenced by those values.

While this could be interpreted as a call to Culture War, the reality is that we are not called to the battle flesh and blood, we are called to spiritual warfare (Eph. 6). We may desire our society to adopt more consistently Biblical morality and ethics, but we cannot call the nations to remove the log of rebellion and disobedience of God from their eyes if we are not willing to remove the speck from ours.

Instead, this passage reminds us of the call to purity and faithfulness in our own lives, and that of the Church. Outward success does not demonstrate inward success, just as the success of Israel in ultimately controlling the land did not demonstrate their disobedient failure to God, which laid the seed for apostasy.

Instead, unlike the failure of the Northern Tribes to root out the sources of idolatry and disobedience among them, we need to root out the sources of idolatry and disobedience in our lives. Our sin. Our captivity to the world’s ideas. We should not grow comfortable with either, nor try to put them to our own use.

We should pursue holiness and faithfulness. In our lives. In our Churches. In the big things, but definitely in the small things too. Christ rescued us at great cost; his life. Faithfulness and devotion to Christlikeness show our loving thanks for God’s covenant faithfulness to us.

Read Judges 1:1-21

After God came to dwell in the tabernacle which Israel built him, the people eventually, after many failures and forty years of wilderness wandering, made it to the Promised Land. There, God was with Israel when they listened to him, as they campaigned to subdue the land of Canaan as their possession and bring God’s judgement on the wicked inhabitants who dwelt there. During those days, the people were led by Joshua, Moses’ successor. 

But who would lead after Joshua died? Was it every tribe for itself, or would one person or tribe stand in the gap and lead the people against their foes, and hopefully toward God?

The Book of Judges chronicles the leadership of Israel after Joshua’s death, showing how when they sought to rule themselves, they descended into immorality, chaos, and judgement. True leadership comes from trusting in God’s Divine Leadership, and following those whom God appoints to shepherd his people.

In the first verses of Judges, we see this principle applied. Joshua, who led Israel in its conquest of Canaan had died, leaving no obvious appointed successor unlike when Moses passed (v.1). In this leadership vacuum, Israel turned to God and asked him “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them”?

God’s answer was clear: “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand” (v.2). The Tribe of Judah were to take over where Joshua left off. God directed Judah to take the lead, and promised that they would be successful in doing so.

Judah responds in faith, enlisting Simeon to join the fight (v.3). Victory swiftly followed. Judah and Simeon fought, and “the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek” (v.4).

This victory was not one of brutal aggression like that happening right now in Eastern Europe, but one of Justice. Adoni-bezek (that is, the King of Bezek) who fled his defeat was captured and punished through losing his toes and thumbs (vv.5-6), which while cruel by today’s different (double-)standards of war, was symbolic. 

It ensured he could no longer fight and certainly could not lead in the false and disgusting religious practices (cf. Exodus 29:20) which was a standard part of Canaanite kingship (in a way, not much has changed). Adoni-bezek acknowledged this justice, since he himself dished it out to seventy kings (v.7).

Judah’s leadership, blessed by God, brought further victories. Judah conquered Jerusalem, the place which would become the symbol of God’s People in God’s Place under God’s Rule (v.8). They won in the hill country, in the desert (the Negeb), and in the lowlands (v.9). They captured Hebron, first capital of King David (v.10, 2 Sam 5). Caleb received Hebron as his possession, just as Moses promised (v.20).

Othniel, later the first Judge, leads the conquest of Kiriath-Sepher (renamed Debir) to win the hand of faithful Caleb’s daughter (vv.11-15). There he settles down with his wise wife and starts a family. Faithful to God’s direction.

The Kenites, related to Israel through Moses and his wife, join with Judah and Simeon to drive out the evil Canaanites from the Negeb (vv.16-17). Judah swept through Gaza (later home of arch-enemies the Philistines, v.18). The hill country of Israel firmly rested in Israel’s hands, because Judah listened to God (v.19).

But the first signs of what may become a future problem appear. Judah “could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron” (v.19). They would have to continue to trust in God over time, to then overcome.

Another sign of failure appears, but not because of Judah. Benjamin, entrusted with holding Jerusalem, failed to do so and instead lived with its inhabitants (v.22). Judah’s leadership brings success, but Benjamin will bring disaster again later, unfit to lead.

The theme of this passage is the importance of trusting in God for leadership. Ultimately, God is the one in charge, appointing earthly leaders to direct and shepherd his people. Whether Moses, Joshua, or Judah, all of these are appointed by God.

When we trust God, success follows suit. Judah and those who joined them were successful. There was still some left to do – the lowlands were still not decisively cleansed for God – but God blessed and fulfilled his promises for those who trusted him.

The success of Judah highlights that it was through Judah God intended to bless his people. Ultimately, that success found its truest fulfilment in Jesus, descendent of King David, descendent of Judah. The Lion of Judah. Jesus conquered our true enemies, sin and death, and one day will return to complete the judgement of the wicked nations who worship sin and evil deeds.

Until then, we should trust in God’s Divine Leadership, expressed through his Son Jesus, and through those God appoints to watch over us: his Church Elders. Though fallible like us, still driving out “iron chariot” sins, they lead us to God, and blessing.