Judges: Seeing through Lesser Loves

Well good morning.

We are in our second week going through the Old Testament book of Judges, which is probably one of those books that you have been skipping your entire life, if you've even heard of it at all.

But it has some interesting stories in it, has some really ancient stories for us to pull a lot of wisdom from.

And the story, like all Old Testament books and stories, points us toward God's grace to us that we know perfectly in Jesus.

So here's a story if you weren't here last week, just to set up real quick.

The people of Israel, they were enslaved in Egypt, and Moses, this leader, he rises up, he leads them out of Egypt, he leads them out to the desert, they wander around in the desert.

Then Joshua, the next leader, he steps in, he leads the Israelites into Canaan, which was their historic land.

That was their land.

But while they were gone in Egypt, other people groups have settled into the land.

And so they come back to their land and they begin, like we talked about last week, they move into the offense to push these people out of their land so they can get back their land.

And we get this story in the midst of this because the people of Israel don't perfectly push all the people out.

There's an intermingling, and some people stay.

And what happens is the people of Israel begin to adopt the idolatry of these people.

So naturally, what that did for me this week is I just became sort of like hyper-aware of ways that I overuse different things in my life for self-worth or secure identity or even like a like an inner peace or something like that.

For me, um, like many times it started with a catalog I got in the mail.

It was Monday, a perfectly fine Monday, I might add.

Got home from work, great Monday, and I get the free fly catalog.

So I buy these bamboo-infused hoodies from Free Fly, because bamboo infused apparently is um like really great when you're wearing it on the beach.

And so I I own a certain number of these hoodies.

I won't disclose publicly how many I own, but I'm on the catalog list and I get the catalog, and on the front uh is um they're they're bone fishing in the Bahamas.

And I was fine until I saw that picture.

And then all of a sudden, my first thought, right, and you've had this moment, my first thought was my life is not that great.

I mean, I'm just I mean, surely, I I really just my life is incomplete.

I've never been bone fishing in the Bahamas.

I'm not whole.

I'm not at peace.

I thought I was at peace like two minutes ago.

I'm not I'm not at peace.

But, but if I if I was on that crystal clear, flat casting out in front of a bone fish, now all of a sudden, now then I could be at peace.

Right?

Just like a little way that we have idolatry in our lives, where we use something else to try to give us peace.

And you know what would happen.

Like, I would be on the boat in the Bahamas, and it'd be like three degrees too hot, and I'd be to want to go back to the pool.

Right?

I mean, that's what would happen, right?

I mean, you know what, like you get the thing you want, and then it's never enough.

It's what happens.

Here's what we said last year when we studied idolatry.

A little bit of review here.

Uh, idols are anything we love too much that end up holding power over our hearts being at peace.

Because as soon as we love them too much, we hand the power, I hand the power over to the bone fishing, and now the bone fishing has power over me, and the bone fishing holds no power, no real power, it's just a thing, but I've handed over power to him.

Tim Keller in his great study workbook, Bible study, gospel and life, he says this.

Idolatry in our hearts begins with, and this is part of our review also from last year.

He says this life only has meaning, or I only have worth.

So I like that.

Life only has meaning.

I only have worth if I have power and influence over others.

So that would be power idolatry.

I only have worth if I have some power over somebody.

I only have worth if I am loved and respected by, fill in the blank, your father, some person who you think has prestige, some person that you adore.

I only have worth if I have this kind of pleasure experience or a particular quality of life.

That would be a comfort idolatry, right?

I mean, that that's that's me, that's me on Monday.

That's my situation.

I only have worth if I am highly productive and get a lot done.

So you might have a really unproductive day and you just need to check something off.

So you like you're gonna vacuum the den, you're gonna clean the dishes, like you've got to find something productive, and then you will feel like you have worth.

I only have worth if I am being recognized, I'm excelling in my word.

Achievement idolatry.

I only have worth if I am fulfilling my religious moral codes and accomplishing what is expected of me.

That's a religion idolatry.

See, idolatry is us placing our infinite needs, which is what our hearts have, infinite needs of love and acceptance.

And we place them on a finite resource.

Bone fishing, work, romance, all that has is finite.

It cannot solve our heart issues.

And as soon as we do that, we are set up in an idolatry relationship where that finite thing can't solve our real problems.

All right, Judges 2, here's our text.

That sets us up for our text.

Judges 2, uh jumping in halfway through verse 10.

And there arose another generation after them, so this is the generation after Joshua's generation, after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baal's.

And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.

They went after other gods, little G, notice that, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger.

Right?

The Lord will be angry toward our idolatry, not because he is angry at you as a child of God, but he is angry in the way in which we're living our lives because we're not honoring him, we're not living in the freedom he wants for us.

So that even the anger is inside the love of God to us.

So, verse 13, they abandoned the Lord and served the Baals in Ashtaroth.

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunders who plundered them, and he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so they could no longer withstand their enemies.

Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were in terrible distress.

Point number one is this our idolatry begins with a refusal to remember God's faithfulness to us.

That's where it begins.

It just rem begins with a forgetfulness.

So we tend to think about idolatry, even what I just set up for us in our review, we tend to think of it as sort of like one thing over the other, right?

Like bone fishing, your work, your marriage, and something incredibly immoral could be here as well.

And then God should be over that.

Like, and then idolatry would be where we put uh the other thing over God.

We think of it in terms of that way.

And it and it works that way.

I mean, that's a good framework for us to think about it.

But there's another way to think about it, too, that this week I learned.

And I read this in on the Mockingbird blog, an article entitled Modern Origins of Anxiety, Reflections on Idolatry by Will McDavid.

And I read this sentence.

One definition of idolatry would be failing to see through to the reality behind something, but to stop with the thing itself.

So we realize we're overly depending on things.

Um, and some of these things would be incredibly destructive and immoral to begin with.

Some of these other things could be moral things and legitimately okay things that we over-exalt.

And in that way, idolatry is us stopping with the thing itself.

We don't see through it.

We're stuck, it's an end in of itself.

But the other way to think about this is to think about it in terms of when we're walking with the Lord and not in idolatry, but holding God as the supreme peace for our hearts and justification for us, that we're able to see, we're able to see through things.

So we're able to see through the empty promise something gives us, whether it be our work or a power idolatry or romance idolatry or religion idolatry, that you were able to see through that for what it is, that it is a thing in and of itself, but we can see through it that the promise it's showing us is not actually gonna work out.

And so we can see through it to the creator of the created.

That God created that, and we can see through the created to the creator.

And so my prayer for us is for us to continue to have our hearts so enriched and deepening in our identity in Christ and God's love for us, that permanent love for us that is infinite for our infinite needs, that we can become so secure that we can risk, we can risk awareness and confession of all of our idolatry.

So we can move into greater freedom.

For these people and judges, Joshua had died, that generation passed.

And this next generation, it says they forget.

They didn't remember.

Like that was the beginning of their idolatry.

They didn't remember the Lord's goodness to them.

And Baal is this God that is dominant out of all these little g gods, and Baal is the god of thunder and lightning.

It's actually incredibly uh sexual and perverted.

And it, I mean, you can Google it, but buckle up.

I'm just gonna tell you, buckle up for that ride, what's coming for you.

Now, it's easy to think we're we're so modern.

Like, oh, that incredibly perverted sexual worship of little g god from the ancient times.

We're so modern and sophisticated.

We, I mean, that's so far from our lives, this idea of idolatry and little g gods, it's so far away, so easy to think this.

But then I read this week, and I love the way of thinking about it this way, is the gods have simply changed their clothes to fit into our culture.

And the reason why is because we're the ones who create the little g gods.

Right?

Like in ancient times, like that little g god didn't exist, it didn't exist.

The people created it and handed their power for their own peace over to it, and we do the same thing today.

That's why it changes their clothes.

And you could go into a third world country and the little g gods change their clothes because those people, human beings, are creating these little g gods.

The story teaches us in verses 10 through 13 that first we forget.

Verse 10, they knew neither the Lord nor what he had done.

So this word know, it probably doesn't mean that they didn't know at all.

It's more that it means that it quit being precious to them.

They no longer had any astonishment for God's supremacy, him as creator of all things, and for his faithfulness to them.

They stopped seeing through all the created around them to the creator.

Then we get verses 14 and 15 that teach us that ongoing oppression from various people groups just wore them down.

Now, I'm not a us them type of thing where like all the evil is like everybody else, and like I'm like, I'm good, but everybody else is bad.

I'm not that at all.

I mean, I think there's enough sin in me to lead me astray like for the rest of my life.

But there is this aspect of oppression from other people groups that are doing other things that are not healthy ways of life or godly ways of life.

And for these people living in a very pluralistic society, much like us, they get led astray by that.

They accept it.

And part of our calling, as we live in a pluralistic society, part of our calling is to slow down more.

I really think it's just for us to slow down more.

Right?

The first thing they did is they didn't remember.

I mean, it's just to slow down, or to have diligence and grace to spend more time reflecting, more time remembering.

That we're already beloved, we're already forgiven, we're already righteous in Jesus.

We don't have to go out and create a little gig God and hand power over to it and get put to work by it.

Verse 16.

Then the Lord raised up judges.

So these judges were uh pretty much like military leaders that became leaders of the people, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they hoard after other gods and bowed down to them.

They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.

Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.

But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them.

They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

Now, when we read this, I think it's good for us not to read it as these ancient people that were nothing like.

We should be reading this as like, oh, that that's me.

Like, I do that.

I'm incredibly stubborn, and I return back to idols that have never fulfilled me, and I do that over and over again, and yet God is continually pursuing me, even in that stubbornness.

Here's a few of the points we get from it.

Point number two is this idols can be anything we add to God as a means for being whole.

That we just think we need to add something else.

And I love that list that I went through that Tim Keller has in his Bible study because it's so good for us to see that this can be anything from religion to work to achievement to approval.

This is anything we add to God for us to become whole.

And when we do that, like I've been saying, we're giving over power, and as soon as we do that, now we're at work for it.

We're performing for it.

And the Israelites did this, and they did it over and over and over again because they're incredibly stubborn, just like us.

So, point number three, we get we return to idols because idols place us in control.

That's why we love idols, that's why we love idolatry, it's because of control.

So our hearts are miserable, and we're never really getting peace from this thing, and yet we go back to it because our old Adam, our flesh, loves control.

I don't want to live in a receiving posture in my flesh.

Like I want to be in control.

I want to be sovereign.

I want to be the creator.

I want to live in a controlling posture.

Right?

Like we're grace needy and yet at the same time we're grace allergic because we love control so much.

But the good news is, is God is committed to us, even while we are trying to do this so futile.

A quick gospel application before we get to our final point is this that what we see in the stories, we see one generation that was faithful, and then the next generation is not.

So there was some breakdown from one generation to the next generation.

And that generation, they knew the great commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and that's in Deuteronomy 6, and then we can get these words, Deuteronomy 6, 6 through 9.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently, and that word also can be impressed.

Teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise.

I love the ongoing relational nature of that language.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.

So the idea here of passing the story of God's faithfulness from one generation to the next, from you to your children, or from you to our children in our church, if you don't have children, is not force.

That's not what it is.

That's not gonna work out.

Like either we're gonna get compliant children who are resentful, or we're gonna get rebellious children.

Like that's all that's gonna happen if we do force.

It's an impression over time.

And I love that that's the word is this idea of teach them diligently, and then all this relational, ongoing language.

The idea here is it's not like pounding a lump of clay once a week on Sunday morning.

It's just that very slow, ongoing pressing of your palm into a lump of clay.

Constant relational contact.

Just telling the story of God's faithfulness and vulnerability and care, not performance, but teaching your children and our children the same thing that you need to know, and I need to know that we're fully known and fully loved by God, and that this is settled in Jesus.

That He is enough for us.

And then guess what?

And many of you have learned this.

Guess what happens?

Your children?

They have their own wills.

Right?

This is not an equation, right?

And some of you would say, yep, learned it, I know it.

And in a community our size and in a town our size, what we need to know and hear is that we are going to have children who walk different paths.

And some of our children are gonna walk destructive paths for a season.

Some of them are gonna walk destructive paths for 30 seasons.

And some of our children are gonna walk like really upright paths and have like a whole bunch of hidden stuff they're going through.

Right?

And none of that is, it's not always a commentary on parenting.

Not always.

And it's certainly not a commentary on the parent as a beloved child of God.

Godly parenting just simply isn't an equation.

That's not what this is laying out for us.

It's an ongoing relationship through highs and lows.

Verse 18 gives us the gospel in this passage that God sent rescue to them when they were groaning, like out of their misery.

That's when he steps in.

So he drives them to a point of breaking, which is what we all need.

I mean, it's at the end of our rope that we find God's office.

That's the point where we finally have our eyes open to see that this idolatry just doesn't work.

The self-justification by these things, it just doesn't work.

So finally, these people are at the end of themselves and they're groaning, and that's where point number four we get this great good news.

God pursues us even when we are at our least.

So salvation by groaning, not that's not performance.

That's the opposite of performance, right?

Like that that's your nothingness.

That's our nothingness.

And that's our story.

That's the story of the Bible.

God helping people see that they have to have God's grace to them, his grace to them, his pursuit of them.

In our nothingness, we are found and we are free.

It's when we finally give up trying to earn love and self-justify to see that we're already fully free and accepted in Christ.

This week I found myself, I kept thinking back to the story in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

And I think probably because the woman who's kind of set up in this situation in this story, she people think she could have been a prostitute.

We don't know if she was a prostitute or she was just a woman having adultery.

Either way, the Pharisees, these religious guys, they set her up as they want to discredit Jesus.

You probably remember the story.

We don't know where the man was, by the way.

You ever thought about that?

They didn't bring the man, right?

Didn't bring the man, probably their buddy.

That's probably how it worked.

They catch the woman, they bring her in front of a crowd of people and in front of Jesus.

She has to feel incredibly exposed and ashamed at this point.

They don't care about her.

They're just trying to get their thing accomplished in this setting.

And we don't know her story, but you know she has one to be in this situation.

I mean, she has to have a pretty large amount of hurt, devastation, maybe abuse.

We don't know any of that.

But she's there.

And these religious leaders, they want to stone her.

For the law says that if someone commits adultery, they should be stoned.

And we would say, well, adultery is wrong.

And that's what the law is trying to say.

The law is saying adultery is wrong, and we would say adultery is wrong.

We agree with that.

The good news here is that Jesus fulfills the law in himself.

So he can pour out acceptance, he can uphold his justice, and he could pour out acceptance and compassion to her.

And in the story, we get that great scene, you remember where Jesus he stoops down, he starts to draw or write or something in the dirt.

Because all the attention had to be on her at that point.

I mean, these guys are about to throw rocks at her.

She's about to be stoned to death.

And then all of a sudden, Jesus begins to stoop down, odd behavior, it makes no sense.

We get no explanation of it.

And all of that attention had to go from her to him.

If you've ever felt exposed or at the end of yourself or ashamed, to know that that attention of condemnation is not on you, but it's on God's grace to you.

And then he says, you remember it, let the first one among you who has no sin cast the first stone, and then from the oldest to the youngest, they drop their stones, and all these religious, self-righteous, judgmental leaders, they just leave.

And she's been found.

But I do wonder, does she know she's loved at this point?

I don't think she does.

Because she's not quite, she's still not quite sure what's going to play out here.

And then that's where Jesus looks at her and says, Who's left to condemn you?

Like, is there any condemnation left for you?

Who's left to shame you or belittle you?

Right?

It's Jesus' way to try to get her to comprehend and rest in his sufficiency for her.

That he's not there to condemn her, but to receive her and rescue her and free her.

And then he tells her, go and leave your life of sin.

Because that's God's call for us.

It's not to behave in these incredibly destructive and pointless and toilsome and futile and silly ways of idolatry.

He never condones her sin, but yet he rather pursues her in her sin.

And that's the same story that we have.

It's a story we see in Judges, it's a story we see throughout the Old Testament.

That God is pursuing his people, he's pursuing you in all of your sin.

Because he is sufficient for you.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that you are a God of acceptance and welcome and love, no matter where we are at today, no matter how hard we are trying to work to earn your love within religion, or no matter how far and fast we're trying to run from you.

No matter where our idolatry lies and how hard we're at work before that idol, that you are in greater pursuit of us.

And your welcome and acceptance and love is better than life.

Help us to see that in a greater way this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen.