A Sermon on Judges 1:16-2:5 has been lightly edited.
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Please turn with me in your Bibles if you have them, and I hope you do. Please turn with me once again to the book of Judges. We are in Judges chapter 1. We’re going to begin in verse 16 and read through verse 5 of chapter 2.
It is Easter time, it is Resurrection Sunday time, and many times during this time of the year we will hear people online on social media talking about how just supposedly like Christmas we have hijacked a pagan holiday in order to make, in order to celebrate the resurrection.
Specifically a holiday celebrating the goddess Eostre or something like that. Please know that it’s a lie from the pit of hell and it smells like smoke. We know very much nothing about the Germanic tribes and their celebration of the goddess Eostre other than one paragraph in a Middle Ages historian talking about a month named after her.
But the church has celebrated the resurrection of Jesus since its founding in the book of Acts and in the first and second centuries. And yes, it was made official what Sunday it would be back around 325 AD, but we have celebrated this Sunday coming up as Resurrection Sunday throughout the history of the church because it is our hope, it is our glory, it is our joy that Christ has raised from the dead. In many ways we celebrate it every Sunday, but we will celebrate it specially next week as we consider the resurrection of Jesus.
As we turn our attention now to the book of Judges, Judges chapter 1 and verse 16, I want you to keep your ears out as we read through this particular passage. There is one phrase repeated over and over and over again throughout this passage and when a biblical author repeats a phrase or a word over and over again in a passage, it is important.
And we will look at the importance of that phrase. I’ll give you a little hint: It is, “did not drive them out.” But just pay attention and listen as we go through this word. Please follow along as I read from Judges chapter 1, beginning in verse 16.
“And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of Palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies near the Negev, near Arad. And they went and settled with the people. And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction.
So the name of the city was called Hormah. Judah also captured Gaza with its territory and Ashkelon with its territory and Ekron with its territory. And the Lord was with Judah and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron.
And Hebron was given to Caleb as Moses had said, and he drove out from it the three sons of Anak. But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel and the Lord was with them. And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel. Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.
And the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, please show us the way into the city and we will deal kindly with you. And he showed them the way into the city and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go. And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz.
And that is its name to this day. Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth She’an in its villages or Ta’anak in its villages or the inhabitants of Dor in its villages or the inhabitants of Iblim in its villages or the inhabitants of Megiddo in its villages. For the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land.
When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely. And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.
Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalal. So the Canaanites lived among them, but became subject to forced labor. Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Alav or of Akzib or of Helba or of Afik or of Rehob.
So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth Anoth. So they lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land.
Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and of Beth Anoth became subject to forced labor for them. The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down into the plain. The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres in Eijalon and in Sha’albim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor. And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Achrabim, from Selah and upward.
Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and he said, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land. You shall break down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this that you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your side, and their God shall be a snare to you.
As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept, and they called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed their lives there to the Lord.
Let’s pray. God and Father above, we stand humbly before your word. We ask that your spirit would show us what you would have us to hear and to see in this word. Speak to us through this. Change us, O Lord, according to your word and to your will. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
In many ways, chapter two, verses one through five is the center portion of this particular passage.
It’s a section of verses that looks back to chapter one while also looking forward to chapter two. It is actually God’s commentary on the actions of the nation of Israel. After Joshua has died, after they have entered the promised land, it is God’s commentary on what really went wrong.
As we look through this passage, we’re going to see that they fail militarily and politically, if you will. But God gives his commentary in chapter two, verses one through five, on what it was that really went wrong in the nation of Israel. And we’ll see also Israel’s response to God’s commentary and God’s discipline or judgment upon them because of what they did.
So what did the nation of Israel do? Well, as we began to see last week, they entered into the promised land, they sought God’s face, and they began the rest of the conquest, what was left over to settle the land after the land had been conquered. But we began to see some cracks show up in their actions, and those cracks widen. And actually, they become full, wide open rebellion and failure on behalf of the Israelites as we look through the rest of chapter one today.
ISRAEL’S FAILURES
Now, the Kenites, we’re going to meet them a little bit later in the account of Barak and Deborah. But the Kenites are related to Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, and they go and they settle. But the point is that they settle with the Canaanites.
And then we shift once again to Judah. Judah is keeping its vow to Simeon. They are now following Simeon into the area. They defeat Zaphoth. They put it to destruction, and then they move to other parts of the territory, and they have great success. Why do they have great success? It says in verse 19, the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country.
That word there, took possession of, is actually the same word in the original language that “drive out, did not drive them out,” is rooted in in the rest of the passage. And what the author is saying here is the Lord was with Judah, and Judah was able to drive out the inhabitants in the hill country. But they also failed, even though God was with them, because it says they were not able to drive out the people in the plains because they had chariots of iron.
Judah, even though the Lord was with them, even though the Lord had promised to give them possession of the land, they saw the military might of the people in the plains, and they were afraid. And so they stopped, and they settled with the Canaanites.
We see in verse 22, or we see in verse 21 that Benjamin did not drive out, did not take possession of Jerusalem, and settled with the Jebusites in Jerusalem. Now we do need to go back to last week’s passage, because we were told in last week’s passage that Judah had defeated and driven the inhabitants of Jerusalem out. During this time, Jerusalem was a city that sat on the border of Judah and Benjamin. The lower portion, or the southern portion, would have been like the suburbs of a city, and the upper portion, or the northern portion, would have been a fortified fortress.
And likely what happened was Judah took care of their portion, but Benjamin did not take the fortress. And the Jebusites lived in the fortress, and we know from biblical history that’s not until the time of David that Jerusalem is finally defeated and taken under Israelite control.
In verse 22, we see that the house of Joseph goes up against Bethel, a very important city in the history of Israel, as Jacob slept one night at Bethel. He met God there. He saw the angels ascending and descending upon the ladder between heaven and earth, being sent from God’s throne to do God’s work upon the earth. God promised him there that not only would Bethel, but the rest of the land of Israel, would belong to him and to his descendants.
And so when the descendants of Joseph come to Bethel, they compromise, they actually covenant with a citizen of Bethel and let him go as they defeat the city of Bethel. And then what does he go and do? Well, just a few miles away, the citizen of Bethel goes and sets up another Canaanite city just down the road from where they had set him out.
Now, why do I say they set a covenant with him? Well, in verse 24, it says that, please show us the way into the city and we will deal kindly with you. That phrase, “deal kindly,” is that hesed, God’s covenant, steadfast love, God’s covenant, faithful love. And so they are showing a covenant faithfulness to this man by allowing him to develop and settle a Canaanite city just down the road.
Well, let’s move on to Manasseh. How did Manasseh do? Well, they did not drive out, we’re told, the inhabitants of Beth She’an, the villages of Taanakh or its villages, but they were strong enough to put the Canaanites to forced labor. We see the same thing happen with Zebulun. We see the same thing happen with Naphtali. They do not drive out the Canaanites, but what they do is they put them to conscripted slave labor.
Ephraim does not drive out the Canaanites, and not only do they not drive them out, they leave them in a position of power because the city that they left them in, Gezer, sat right at the crossroads of the north to south and the east to west trade routes within the nation of Israel. And so not only did they not drive them out, they left them in a place of economic and military power.
It gets worse. Not only did Asher not drive out the inhabitants of Acco or the other inhabitants in the land that they had, the Asherites actually says that they lived among the Canaanites rather than in the other passages where it says the Canaanites were allowed to live among the Israelites. The Asherites had to ask permission of the Canaanites to settle in their midst.
And as if it’s not bad enough, Dan does not settle at all. In fact, as we come to chapter 16 through 18, at the end of the book of Judges, we will see that Dan is still traveling around trying to find a place to settle in the land of Canaan.
We have gone from the success of Joshua and the success of Judges chapter one to utter failure on behalf of the Israelites.
And the failure is compounded by this. That word translated “took possession of” or “drive out” is translated in the book of Joshua as “receive your inheritance.” The Israelites did not receive their inheritance. This land was theirs. God had said, “I will be with you. You go in and conquer it and settle it. And I will make sure that everything happens that needs to happen for you to be successful.”
Let’s say you’re an only child and you have a parent who was wealthy. Maybe they started a business or they’re a large landowner in the area and they have a lot of wealth. They’ve accumulated a lot of that wealth. And when they die, their will is open. It is read and you receive the wealth of those parents.
Is that wealth yours? Yes. But don’t you also have to do something to receive that wealth? Sometimes you just have to show up to the lawyer’s office and get the check. Other times parents will put stipulations when they have a lot of wealth and they don’t want their children to be too spoiled. They’ll put stipulations in the will.
God says this land belongs to me and I have given it to you as your inheritance. It is yours as long as you go get it.
Brothers and sisters, we are called much like the Israelites. We are called to expel the influences of the world from our lives, from our church, from our hearts. We’re called to pursue holiness as church, as a church and as individuals.
The truth is that holiness is ours. And God says, “I am with you in that pursuit of holiness. I have made you holy by the work of my son, Jesus Christ. I have set you apart as holy by the work of the Holy Spirit. I have called you to live lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control. And I have given you those things. I am with you to grow, to develop, to cultivate those things, that holiness in your heart.”
Brothers and sisters, sometimes we get afraid of that, much like Judah was afraid of the iron chariots. They put their hope in their own military might.
But as the psalmist said, we do not put our hope in the strength of man. We put our hope in God. And so we must remember, brothers and sisters, that the Lord is with us.
He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. My Holy Spirit is with you, walking with you through the difficulties of this life, walking with you through the hardships, walking with you through the process of dying to yourself on a daily basis, taking up that cross and following him.”
And so like the Israelites, we are tempted to forget that the Lord is with us. We are tempted to stop short of what he calls us to do and what he has given to us. And yet the message here is to follow him.
GOD’S COMMENTARY AND JUDGMENT
And so God gives us his commentary on the Israelites in verses 1 through 5 of chapter 2. It says, “Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and he said, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you.” A couple of significant things here as we begin.
Who is the angel of the Lord? Well, an angel is an envoy, a messenger, an ambassador for somebody more powerful. And we know that this messenger, this ambassador of the Lord speaks as if he is God himself. And so more than likely, this is some pre-incarnate physical manifestation of God, of Jesus, of the second person of the Trinity who comes in the form of an angel and who is speaking the words of God.
Why does he come from Gilgal to Bochim, which we find out a little bit later that they named the place where they were, Bochim, based upon the tears that they cried, tears of repentance. Well, Gilgal was the place where Israel first camped after they crossed the Jordan River. It’s where they purified themselves to get themselves ready for the work that God had in the conquest of Israel.
It is the place where the captain of the Lord’s armies gave Joshua the battle plans for the defeat and the destruction of Jericho. It was a significant place. It was a place where God’s presence was first manifest with the Israelites in the promised land.
And so that’s where the angel of the Lord enters the promised land and he travels through the promised land to see the Canaanites still there until he meets them in the northern part in Bochim. And he says, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give your fathers.”
It’s probably the most important thing here. God is getting ready to remind them of the covenant laws that he had given to them. But what does he remind them of first? He says, this is what I have done for you. God calls us to be holy, but he only calls us to be holy after he reminds us that he has made us holy.
He has set us apart by the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God never commands us to do something unless he first tells us what he has done for us on our behalf. What has he done for the Israelites? We brought them up from Egypt.
He brought them all the way to the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And he promised them, I will never break my covenant with you. That’s the key here to this book, brothers and sisters. God’s relentless grace will never fail his rebellious people.
I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give your fathers. I preserved you throughout all of your trials, all of your rebellion, all of your wanderings.
I defeated all the people before you, and I will never break my covenant with you.
Feel the peace and joy of that, brothers and sisters. No matter how chaotic this world gets, God will never break his covenant with you.
Romans 8 chapter verses, the end of Romans chapter 8 ends in verse 39, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus. We may stumble, we not may, we will stumble, we will fall. We will not pursue holiness the way we should, and yet God will never break his covenant with us.
We cannot lose the salvation that is ours in Christ Jesus. So after reminding us of what God has done for the Israelites, he summarizes his covenant stipulations, his covenant laws with these two statements, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land, and you shall break down their altars.
You shall make no covenants with the inhabitants of this land. God is bringing the Israelites into Israel to punish the Canaanites for their sin, for their horrific sin, sacrificing of children, horrific sexual sin, just treating each other poorly and a lack of justice. He says don’t make any kind of agreement, keep their sinful influence away from you. This is a “be in the world but do not be of the world” moment for the Israelites.
You know, we have to live in this world, we have to move in this world, we have to work in this world, but we can’t compromise with this world. Where the world says do this and we’ll treat you a little bit better, if that’s a compromise of God’s law, we can’t do what the world tells us to do. We must stand on God’s truth.
But the second thing he tells them to do, “he says go and break down their altars.” Why would he tell them to go break down their altars? Well, in short, failing God’s law is a worship issue.
Who do you worship? Do you worship the gods of the Canaanites who promise you what God promises you and they promises that it will be easier on you? Or do you worship the God who created all things, who designed all things?
The Canaanite gods promise them the fun of illicit sex. It promises them the flashy show of the temple festivals. It promises them that if you work hard enough, the god will bless you. But idols always let you down.
The gods of this world cannot keep their promises. Brothers and sisters, when we fall short of that call of God’s holiness upon our lives, it’s a worship issue as well. The gods of our culture are sex, sex or love, power and money.
We will compromise. We will be tempted to compromise to get the security of a decent-sized bank account or a decent-sized retirement fund. And yet God says rest upon me for your security. And even if you have a decent-sized bank account or retirement fund, use that for my kingdom. Use that for my good. Use that for my glory.
Power. It’s hard to be the church in our culture today. It is hard to be accepted in our world and stand upon the holiness that God calls us to. Try to be honest in a workplace. Try to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, being a diligent employee. And people will make fun of you because you’re making them look bad.
And so we want acceptance. We want the power of being accepted in our world. And so we’re tempted to compromise the law of God.
And yet God says don’t worry about the world’s power and the world’s acceptance because in Christ I have accepted you as a child. And nothing can change that.
And what about sex and love? The world promises us that if we just let go of our inhibitions and live the way they tell us to, we’ll have all the love we want in this world. And yet God says love has boundaries. And if you violate those boundaries, then that love will fail you. And when you violate those boundaries, that love will fail you.
And the main problem is here, brothers and sisters, is whether we’re pursuing money, whether we’re pursuing power, whether we’re pursuing sex or love, this is ultimately a worship of ourselves. Because I want what God has promised, but I want it my way. I don’t want to go through the hard work of doing it his way. I want it my way. I want it the easy way.
Satan presents us with the same choice he gave to Jesus. Satan comes to Jesus in the wilderness. He says, look, God has promised you all the nations of the world, and right now they’re mine. If you’ll just bow down to me, I’ll give them to you and you won’t have to go through all the pain and suffering that awaits you at the cross.
That’s the offer that Satan gives us. It’s the offer that the world gives us. It’s the offer that our flesh gives us. It says all these benefits that God promises can come through compromising what God has called you to do.
And yet what did Jesus do? He not only answered Satan with scripture, he went through the suffering so that when we’re presented with that same choice, we can have the strength to resist because he resisted and that sinful flesh has been crucified with him.
And so God is telling Israel, destroy all their altars because your sin is a worship issue. And if your worship is not pointed in the right direction, there’s a problem.
Well, not only does God examine what the Israelites have done, he also offers his judgment on it. He says, you have not obeyed my voice. What is this that you have done? 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.
You ever heard the saying, “be careful what you wish for; you just might get it.”
Michelle will be impressed by this. Jane Austen in her novel, Pride and Prejudice, writes about the Bennett family. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have what, four daughters? And they have five daughters.
And in the late 1800s or late 1700s, early 1800s, daughters were in trouble if they didn’t have a man. And so the Bennett’s were trying to get their daughters set up with everybody.
And a very eligible, very, a man of integrity, a man of wealth is interested in Elizabeth. He’s a little shy. He’s a little awkward. And Elizabeth sees that shyness and awkward as pride and prejudice in his life.
I think it’s a reflection of the pride and prejudice in her own heart, but that’s me. Mrs. Bennett thinks that this would be an excellent marriage. And so she pushes Mr. Bennett to go talk to Elizabeth and to get over herself and to marry Mr. Collins.
Mr. Bennett doesn’t want to. Mr. Bennett just doesn’t want to go talk. He gives all these excuses and she just badgers him and badgers him and badgers him until he finally goes and gives Mrs. Bennett what she wants.
Well, you know why Mr. Bennett didn’t want to give Mrs. Bennett what she wants? Because he agreed with Elizabeth. He didn’t think she should marry Mr. Collins. And so now Mrs. Bennett is even more upset because she got what she wanted.
That’s often how God disciplines his people. If you pursue worship of yourself and the things of this world long enough, God will put obstacles in front of you. And if you climb over those obstacles, at some point God will put a wall in front of you and you find your way through the window.
And then God puts like a city wall like was around Jericho or Babylon. Babylon, you could run four horses along the top of the wall and God will put that wall in front of you. And yet you’ll continue to find your way through the walls and the obstacles that God puts in front of you to keep you from your sin.
And as an act of discipline, sometimes God says, “Fine, go for it. Have what you want for a time. But there will be consequences. It will trap you, it will snare you, and you will find yourself in the mire of your choices.”
That’s what he does to the Israelites here. He says, “You want to worship the gods of the Canaanites? You want to worship the gods of this world? You want to do things your way? Fine. Go do it. I’m here when you come back. I’m waiting for you. I’ll even protect you to a point in the midst of your sin. But my discipline will be the consequences of your actions.”
And that’s what we’ll see throughout the rest of the book, brothers and sisters.
We’ll see this cycle of the Israelites turning their back on God, wanting to do their own thing, forgetting that he is with them, forgetting that he is the power behind what he has called them to do, them being oppressed, them being rescued. But thanks be to God, the passage doesn’t end there. Verse four.
“As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim. Bochim means weepers or those who weep. And they sacrificed there to the Lord.”
Commentators are really split on whether this is genuine repentance or just show. I think it’s genuine. I don’t think it’s enough, but I think it’s genuine. I think they see the weight of their sins. They see the weight of what they have done.
They see the weight of their idolatry and they go to God. They weep for their sins and they sacrifice, seeking the atonement of God. But it’s a little sad in the book of Judges because this is the last time Israel repents. This is the last time that they weep over their sin. This is the last time that they offer sacrifices to the Lord as a people.
CONCLUSION
You know, God saves us from our sins. Repent and believe and you will be saved. The apostles tell us throughout the New Testament, and that’s true.
But repentance is not a one time thing. Martin Luther, when he nailed his 95 theses to the door, was not trying to reform the entire church theology at that point. Basically, he was saying you have repentance wrong. And this is how to repent rightly.
Repentance is a day by day, moment by moment thing. God will leave us to our sins at times as his discipline.
And yet when we come to our senses, we are called to repent and turn to him. What do I mean by repenting? It’s asking God to work that strength that’s already ours because of Jesus to turn our eyes away from the idols of this world, away from the idol of our self and turn to him.
We need to be overwhelmed by the glory of God. We need to be overwhelmed by the weight of our sin. And we need to be overwhelmed by the depth of God’s grace. And repentance is saying to God, “Lord, I’ve asked you once, I’ve asked you twice, I’ve asked you 10 times, I’ve asked you a million times to take this sin from me, this idol from me, this this this false worship from me. And yet in your will, you’ve left it here and I don’t want it. Or take this from me. You’ve killed this in me already at the cross. Take it from me.”
And seeking his glory, seeking his face, we don’t just do that once, brothers and sisters, we have to do that day in and day out throughout our life. And here’s the glory.
“I will never break my covenant with you.” Your past sins were forgiven at the cross. Your present sins are forgiven at the cross. All of your future sins were forgiven at the cross.
Holiness is yours in the power of God and with his help. Go get it.
Let’s pray. God above, we do thank you for this reminder that we are your children. We are the sheep of your pasture and nothing can ever change that. Strengthen us to repent. Strengthen us to pursue holiness. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Take God’s blessing with you:
“Grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”
He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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