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Introductory Study: Triumphs Over Failures — A Study in Judges

Let God be in Control

Do you have problems in your life which seem impossible to resolve? Are you tempted to do things which you know are wrong and find it very hard to resist? Do you sometimes feel a failure? Just not able to cope? Or are you simply living the Christian life on such a low level that you no longer get excited about it?

This is not the way God means you to live!

Look up Hebrews 4:9-11. The key verse is verse 10: ‘for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work.’ What does this mean? It means that trying to find a solution to your problems by yourself, trying desperately to resist temptation, trying to make yourself cope with life, or trying hard to be a ‘good Christian’ ... is NOT God’s design for your life. His plan for you is that you should have victory in every situation. But the only One who can live a victorious Christian life all the time, is the Lord Jesus. So, what we have to do is rest, stop trying in our own strength, and let God be in control. Let Him fight our battles for us. Now read Hebrews 4:9-11 again. Does it make more sense this time? The key thought of the book of JOSHUA is that God gave His people the land which He had promised them many years before. It was to be occupied by conquest, not in their own strength, but by faith in God. That land was a picture of the ‘life in all its fullness’ that Jesus promised to all believers (John 10:10). In our lives also there are continual spiritual victories to be won and we cannot win them in our own strength. The extent to which we‘ enter into God’s rest’ depends on how much of our lives we hand over to Jesus, so that He can rule as our King. The book of JUDGES carries straight on from Joshua. In fact, the first few words are really the title for the whole book: ‘After the death of Joshua’. As an introduction, chapter 1 summarises the entry into the Promised Land during Joshua’s lifetime, indicating where each tribe settled. Now read chapter 1. The Israelites did fail to enjoy God’s rest and the blessings He had promised, and failed to overcome their enemies. Only when they were really at rock bottom did they realise they were totally ineffective in their own strength, and then they cried out to the Lord. The Lord then caused them to triumph over their enemies. The cycle of events becomes almost monotonous as we read:

3:7 The people of Israel turned away from the Lord. The Lord let the king of Aram rule over them for eight years. They cried out to the Lord. The Lord raised up a deliverer, OTHNIEL. Peace for forty years.

3:12 The people of Israel turned away from the Lord again. The Lord let the king of Moab rule them for eighteen years. They cried out to the Lord. The Lord raised up a deliverer, EHUD. Peace for eighty years.

4:1 The people of Israel turned away from the Lord again. The Lord let the king of Canaan rule them for twenty years. They cried out to the Lord. The Lord raised up deliverers, DEBORAH and BARAK. Peace for forty years.

6:1 The people of Israel turned away from the Lord again. The Lord let the Midianites oppress them for seven years. They cried out to the Lord. The Lord raised up a deliverer, GIDEON. Peace for forty years.

10:6 The people of Israel turned away from the Lord again. The Lord let the Philistines and the Ammonites oppress them for eighteen years. They cried out to the Lord. The Lord raised up a deliverer, JEPHTHAH. Peace for six years (see 12:7).

13:1 The people of Israel turned away from the Lord again. The Lord let the Philistines rule them for forty years. They cried out to the Lord. The Lord raised up a deliverer, SAMSON. He led Israel for twenty years.

In the final chapters of the book of Judges we read of some shocking incidents which were the result of the debased religious and moral standards of the times.

Judges 17:6 says: ‘In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did what was right in his own eyes.’ Judges 18:1 repeats: ‘In those days there was no king in Israel.’ Judges 19 tells a terrifying story, beginning with the words: ‘In those days there was no king in Israel.’ And the last verse of the book sums up the whole story: ‘In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did what was right in his own eyes.’

Consider these questions together:

1. Has our nation turned away from the Lord? What evidence do you have to support your answer? What should be the Christian’s role in our society?
2. Is there ‘a king’ in your life? Or do you do your own thing — whatever seems right to you? (Take a few minutes with your eyes closed, and be honest with yourself about this question.)

What does it mean for Jesus to be ‘king’ in a person’s life?

Study 1: The Broken Covenant

Questions

DAY 1: Judges 2:1-5; Exodus 34:12, 13.
a) What solemn promise had God made to His people?
b) How had the people broken the covenant? (Also Josh. 24:24)

DAY 2: Judges 2:6-10.
a) During what period of their history did the people truly serve the Lord?
b) Yet where did they fail with regard to their children?
c) Are you obeying the Lord’s command in Deuteronomy 6:6-9?

DAY 3: Judges 2:11-15.
a) What was the first downward step given here?
b) What further evils followed?

DAY 4: Judges 2:16-19.
a) What actions did the Lord take for His people, even though they had forsaken Him? (Compare with Rom. 5:8.)
b) What does the attitude of the people show us about them?

DAY 5: Judges 2:20-23.
a) What two reasons are given here as to why God did not drive out the other nations in the land?
b) ‘The Lord was angry.’ What kind of things make Him angry today?

DAY 6: Judges 3:1-6: Exodus 34:10, 11.
a) Give another reason why God did not drive out the nations.
b) What blessings did the Israelites miss out on by disobeying God?

DAY 7: Hebrews 8:8-12.
a) What are the blessings of the New Covenant that God makes today with those who belong to Him?
b) Look up Hebrews 9:15. What is the future blessing awaiting the Christian?

Notes

‘If God is a God of love, how can He send people to hell?’ Perhaps the book of Judges will help us to answer that question.

Yes, God is a God of love. He is Love. We must learn all we can about the character of God, and in this week’s study we see how longsuffering He is (1 John 4:8).

• He loves His people and waits patiently for them to turn to Him.
• He looks on them with compassion and pity.
• He yearns over them with infinite longing.
• He is ready to respond when they cry to Him.
• He is merciful in delivering them from their enemies.

Does He send people to hell?

No. God has never sent anyone to hell. A person chooses, of his own free will, to reject God forever. This leads to hell. When the people of Israel turned away from God and stopped worshipping Him, things went from bad to worse. They ended up oppressed by their enemies and degraded by religions which sought to appease their gods by prostitution and human sacrifices. They were living in a hell on earth. The Bible says they were in great distress.

What makes people reject eject God today?

• They are ignorant of what He has done (v. 10).
• They want to be independent of Him (v. 17b).
• They are ungrateful (v. 12).
• They love doing what is wrong (v. 17a).
• They are stubborn (v. 19).

Human nature doesn’t change much, does it? Jeremiah wrote, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure’ (Jer. 17:9).

What, then, is our only hope?

At certain periods in their history, the Israelites cried out to the Lord. As soon as they called, He was ready to answer. It is the same today. Each person needs to acknowledge that he has been living his life independent of God, doing his own thing. The Bible calls that ‘sin’. So he needs to cry out to the Lord for forgiveness. God has made a new covenant whereby His laws can be written on our hearts. He can change us into people who love and obey Him, and who delight to do His will. Jesus called this change, being ‘born again’. Forgiveness of sin and entry into the new covenant have been made possible by Jesus’ atoning death on the cross, as we have seen in Hebrews 9:15. That is what He meant when He said to His disciples, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many’ (Mark 14:24). The book of Judges shows us the misery of people who turned away from a holy God and broke His covenant. It contrasts the sinful lives they lived with the blessings God was waiting to shower upon them. These blessings were available during their lives here on earth, yet they refused them. But anyone who rejects God in this life also misses out on an eternal inheritance, an everlasting life of joy and peace, in the presence of a loving Heavenly Father.