Israel’s Spiral | Judges 2:6-3:6 | 10/04/26

James 1:es 2-4

says, "Count it all joy, my brothers,

when you meet trials of various kinds,

for you know that the testing of your

faith produces steadfastness.

And let steadfastness have its full

effect, that you may be perfect and

complete,

lacking in nothing."

This verse has an obvious but very hard

to believe implication.

Whenever you encounter a trial in life,

it's an an opportunity for your faith to

be tested.

It doesn't matter if it's a car accident

or cancer. Doesn't matter if it's a

broken bone or a broken heart. It

doesn't matter if it's losing your job

or losing your spouse.

It's a test for your faith.

And what is a test besides something

that authenticates or proves what's

really there.

If you want to test something, generally

you have to put it through something

arduous. You have to stress it.

If you want to test your mind to prove

what you know, you take an exam. If you

want to test your body to prove how

strong you are, you compete in an

athletic competition.

If God wants to test your faith,

he sends you suffering.

He sends you pain.

That suffering, that test will expose

your faith as authentic or fake,

as strong or weak. It will reveal where

where you need to grow or where you need

to change. It shows you whether you

should be encouraged by what you see in

your faith or if you need to repent by

what you see because of what you see.

The main point this morning of our text

is this. God brings hardship into our

lives in order to test us. God brings

hardship into our lives in order to test

us.

Now, you might naturally be asking, as I

did, why would he need to test us?

Doesn't God know everything?

Doesn't he know the quality of my faith

better than I do? The answer is yes. He

does know the quality of your faith

better than you do, better than I do.

But we also demonstrate our faith or our

lack thereof by our responses to his

tests.

A test is more about us seeing the

results [snorts] than God seeing the

results.

And so when we fail a test or maybe we

see weak faith or a poor attitude or

even rebellion against God, the test

reveals that

And now we have a chance to change. We

could say it like this. What if God

looks at my faith and says, "Jason, you

have poor faith. You have weak faith.

His faith is fragile. I need him to grow

in this area. I need him to conquer that

sin." Well, God knows all of that. I

don't know that. Not yet. But God does.

I don't know that until God sends a

massive trial into my life and I

collapse as a mess of a person. That's

when I begin to see, oh, this is what's

really inside of me.

And I'm forced to ask the question, will

I change or will I stay the same?

See, God tests our faith not for his own

education,

but for the sake of our enlightenment.

When God introduces trials into the

lives of his people, the Bible calls

that discipline,

he's introducing pain for the sake of

our growth. And this is one area where

Christians and non-Christians massively

differ.

As Christians, we should look at our

suffering or resistance in our lives as

opportunities, as tests that are

revealing where we need to grow. But for

non-Christians, suffering is only ever

something to escape. That's its only use

is it's just something to run away from,

something to avoid. Suffering is random.

It has no higher purpose. But for those

who love Christ, our suffering is

working for our good. It's doing

something in us and for us. As James

says, what I already read, it's

perfecting us. It's making us complete

so that we lack in nothing. Does anybody

here want to lack in nothing?

Then welcome the trials. [snorts] Count

them as joy.

Why do we spend our whole lives trying

to avoid suffering?

Today in the book of Judges, God is

going to reveal his master plan behind

this dark period in Israel's history.

The period of the Judges is a period of

testing for Israel.

God's hand of discipline falls hard on

his people in Judges. I'll show you that

in a moment in our text. But before I

do, let me just give you some more of

the context of what we're talking about.

Our text this morning functions as the

second introduction to the book of

Judges.

The first introduction was what David

and Elliot covered in the last two

weeks, but that was an introduction to

the book of Judges from Israel's

perspective. It was their version of how

the story went. It's how they remember

it.

The way that it started was from

Israel's perspective that Joshua died.

They tried their best to drive out the

inhabitants of the land, but they made

some compromises. They made some

mistakes.

And so they ended up having to settle

among the people of Canaan because they

failed to drive them out.

and they ended up putting the Canaanites

to forced labor instead of destroying

them completely. They even admitted,

"Yeah, that was probably not a good

idea. Probably a mistake."

But there are some things that they

failed to mention in their introduction

in the last two weeks. But God will

mention it in his introduction today.

Now, when I say his introduction, I

don't mean that God did not inspire the

last two weeks of texts and that he only

inspired today's. I don't mean that he

did inspire it. Most conservative

scholars believe that Samuel wrote the

book of Judges.

I believe that. So if Samuel wrote the

whole book, why did he write two

different introductions? One from

Israel's perspective and then one from

God's perspective.

I believe Samuel under the inspiration

of the Holy Spirit was trying to convey

something significant about the way that

he structured this book.

Have you ever heard two different people

tell two sides of the same story?

It's remarkable how different they can

be, isn't it?

I think Samuel is trying to say Israel

has their version of the story,

but God has his version. And it's so

much worse. It's so much worse than

Israel is letting on.

Today, the book of Judges kind of starts

over and God gives his version of what's

been going on in Israel. Just like

Israel's side of the story started in

Judges chapter 1 verse one with the

Judges 1 · chapter mention

death of Joshua, God's version of the

story, his introduction is going to

start over with the death of Joshua.

He's going to redescribe it from his

point of view.

This is also probably a good time to

point out that yes, the the book has two

introductions. It also has two

conclusions.

These introductions and conclusions are

kind of the book ends of the book of

judges. In the first conclusion towards

the end of Judges in chapter 17 through

18, we see Israel at the bottom of their

downward spiral. And it tells the story

of a single family in Israel that is

living in rebellion against God. And it

describes the chaos that ensues because

of that rebellion because they're acting

wickedly.

That's the story that Israel would like

to tell at the conclusion of the book.

They're like, "Yeah, there's there's a f

there's some families, some families

are not following the Lord. They're

serving false gods. Some of them do

that."

That's their conclusion to the book. But

then the second conclusion to the book

is in chapters 19- 21. God's conclusion

to the book shows that the entire nation

of Israel is in rebellion and is

actively trying to destroy each other.

Instead of Canaan,

they've turned on one another and

they're trying to destroy themselves in

civil war. God's like, "It's not a

family. It's the nation. It's all of

you. It is so much worse than they're

describing it."

So hopefully that's enough context for

us to start reading our text this

morning. If you've got your Bibles, go

ahead and open them to Judges chapter 2.

Judges 2 · chapter mention

We're going to be reading verse 6

through chapter 3 verse 6.

Judges chapter 2, starting in verse 6.

Judges 2 · chapter mention

When Joshua dismissed the people, the

people of Israel went each to his

inheritance to take possession of the

land. And the people served the Lord all

the days of Joshua and all the days of

the elders who outlived Joshua, who had

seen all the work, the great work that

the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua

the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord,

died at the age of 110 years. And they

buried him within the boundaries of his

inheritance in Timnath Herz in the hill

country of Ephraim, north of the

mountain of Gaash.

And all that generation also were

gathered to their fathers. And there

arose another 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

the bales.

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 from among the gods of the

people who were around them, and bowed

down to them. And they provoked the Lord

to anger. They abandoned the Lord and

served the Baales and the Asher.

So the anger of the Lord was kindled

against Israel, and he gave them over to

plunderers who plundered them. and he

sold them into the hand of their

surrounding enemies so that 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.

Then the Lord raised up judges who saved

them out of the hand of those who

plundered them. Yet they did not listen

to their judges, for they horded after

the 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. So the anger of the Lord

was kindled against Israel. And he said,

"Because this people have transgressed

my covenant, that I commanded their

fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I

will no longer drive out before them any

of the nations that Joshua left when he

died in order to test Israel by them

whether they will take care to walk in

the way of the Lord as their fathers did

or not."

So the Lord left those nations, not

driving them out quickly, and he did not

give them into the hand of Joshua.

Chapter 3:1. Now these are the nations

that the Lord left to test Israel by

them. That is, all in Israel who had not

experienced all the wars in Canaan. It

was only in order that the generations

of the people of Israel might know war

to teach war to those who had not known

it before. These are the nations, the

five lords of the Philistines and all

the Canaanites and the Sedonians and the

Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon from

Mount Baal Herman as far as Libo Hamath.

They were for the testing of Israel to

know whether Israel would obey the

commandments of the Lord which he

commanded their fathers by the hand of

Moses. So the people of Israel lived

among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the

Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,

and the Jebusites.

And their daughters they took to

themselves for wives, and their own

daughters they gave to their sons, and

they served their gods. This is the word

of the Lord.

God's version of the story sounded a

little bit different than Israel's.

This sounds so much like the stories we

like to tell.

When we fail, when we sin, we'll admit

some faults. We'll be like Israel. It's

like, yeah, we we compromised a little

bit. I I I made a mistake.

We'll admit some faults. Israel's

version of the story was, "Yeah, we made

a few compromises. We didn't do exactly

what God told us to do by driving out

the inhabitants. Like, maybe we didn't

follow his instructions to a tea, but we

tried. We tried our best.

But God's version is so much worse.

He's like, "Israel, I'd left those

nations unconquered in the land in order

to test you. And it's not just that you

compromised in not conquering them. You

married their daughters.

You gave your daughters to them to

marry. You made them family. You bowed

down to their demon gods. You sacrificed

your children to those gods

and I kept delivering you and you kept

going back. It's so much worse than

Israel even thinks. And here's the

underlying problem for Israel. They did

not know God. They did not know God. One

generation knew him. It was great. But

then every subsequent generation got

progressively worse.

We saw this in Judges 2:es 8-10. And

Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of

the Lord, died at the age of 110. And

they buried him within the boundaries of

his inheritance.

And down in verse 10, and all that

generation were also gathered to their

fathers. And there arose another

generation after them who what? Did not

know the Lord.

They did not know the Lord or the work

that he had done for Israel. Israel's

fundamental problem was that they did

not know God. And the purpose of these

tests, these enemy nations rising up

against Israel was to reveal their

problem, that they didn't know him.

That's what God was trying to do. He's

like, "Look, I'm I'm raising up nations

so that you will understand that you

don't know me."

Now, this begs the question, why didn't

they know the Lord?

I read a lot of scholarship around this

over the past few weeks. And some

scholars think that this generation did

not know the Lord because Joshua's

generation failed to teach them. That

they just didn't impart the law of Moses

and the stories of what God had done.

They failed to tell them the stories of

their childhood, the the stories of

God's plagues in Egypt. They failed to

tell them about the mana in the

wilderness and the bronze serpent that

saved their lives. They forgot to tell

them the stories. And so the the next

generation forgot God.

They grew up not knowing these stories

and therefore not knowing the heroes of

these stories. That's what some scholars

think. But I don't think that's right.

I think Joshua's generation did try to

teach their children about the Lord.

Remember Joshua's generation was

faithful to obey all the commands of the

Lord. So, we were told one of those

commands, a very serious command in in

the book of Moses in the Torah is to

teach your children about the Lord,

to tell the stories, to show them the

Ebenezer, the monuments of God's

faithfulness.

They should have known him

more than just being taught by their

parents. They saw him.

They saw him. They saw the angel of the

Lord in in our text last week. And if

the angel of the Lord appeared to them

in last week's text like he appeared to

them in Egypt or in Exodus, that that

means he showed up as a pillar of cloud

and of fire.

They saw him

and he scolded them and they still

didn't know him. Not only that, but he

left

where he left from was uh in in uh

Gibian where the the the Ebenezer was.

That's where they had the encounter with

the angel of the Lord.

Gilgal, not Gibian, sorry. He left

Gilgal, the place of the Ebenezer

to show up to them at the place of

weeping.

The angel of the Lord was visible to

them. The Ebenezer was visible to them.

They had these encounters. They were

taught by their parents. So how is it

that this generation did not know him?

The answer is

they knew him intellectually

but they didn't know him.

They knew about God but he was not their

king and they were not his servants. The

same thing happens today.

We know people like this.

Christian parents who love the Lord

serve him with their whole lives and

teach their children to do the same. And

then their kids grow up knowing every

Sunday school answer.

But when you grow up, you must choose

whom you will serve. Everyone, no matter

how your parents raised you, everyone,

every generation, every individual must

choose whom they will serve.

Will I tr serve the one true God or will

I serve the gods of this world?

Now, our text doesn't tell us why Israel

chose to serve the gods of the

Canaanites instead of Yahweh. So, I'm

going to speculate for a second here. My

theory is that as they entered the land

of Canaan, they saw giants, the demon

offspring of the Nephilim. They saw the

wealth and the prosperity, the fertility

and the military might, the advanced

technology of the Canaanites, and they

thought, "Whatever the Canaanites are

doing, it's working.

I want that, too.

I I want that." How did they get those

large families? How did they get those

healthy crops? How did they get those

chariots of iron? How did they get those

massive warriors? Oh, they did it by

worshiping the bales and the ashroth.

Let me do that, too.

Maybe we should try it the Canaanite

way.

And because

they didn't know the Lord, they had no

loyalty to him. And it was easy for them

to abandon him once they got to Canaan.

And what did they do? Because they

didn't know the Lord. Judges 2:es 11-13.

And the people did what was evil in the

sight of the Lord. and served the Bales.

And they abandoned the Lord, the God of

their fathers, who brought them out of

the land of Egypt. And they went after

other gods from among the gods of the

peoples who were around them, and bowed

down to them, and they provoked the Lord

to anger. They abandoned the Lord and

served the Bales and the Asher.

At some point in this series, we're

going to unpack for you a little bit

more the religion of the Canaanites, the

worship of Baal, and the worship of the

Ashra. It's extremely dark. There is no

modern equivalent

to what the Israelites were doing.

Can I speak prophetically for a second?

And I don't mean prophetically in a

weird way. I mean, can I talk about the

future for a second?

Young people,

if you don't know the Lord, if you don't

serve him, if he is not your king, if

you don't treasure him,

and then you leave your Christian home

and you go away to college or you start

your career, you start your family.

But if you don't know him,

you have no reason to stay loyal to him.

You have no reason to stay loyal to him.

When the gods of this world seem to have

so much to offer

when they can offer you pleasure and

wealth, success, a name,

you have no reason to stay loyal to

Christ if you don't know Christ and what

he has to offer.

But what the gods of this world will

actually bring you is misery. Their

promises will all turn to ash in your

mouth.

Every generation

must choose. Every individual must

choose whom they will serve. And if you

don't choose before you leave your

Christian home, it will seem fun at

first and it will be extremely miserable

in the end. That's what I'm saying is in

the future

misery.

Betrayal by the gods of this world.

Empty promises.

They sound so enticing. I mean, some

kids grow up dreaming of what they'll do

once they leave their parents' house.

It's a lie.

It will not satisfy

and it will betray you.

Because Israel does not know God. Even

though their parents tried to teach

them, even though they saw him,

even though they saw their Ebenezer and

remembered the stories, they still

abandoned him because they did not

really know him. They knew him

intellectually

and that was all.

And what did God do because of their

rebellion?

Because they abandoned him, what did he

do in response? He put them in terrible

distress. Our text says Judges 2:es

14-15. So the anger of the Lord was

kindled like a fire is starting to burn

and kindling. It's kindled against

Israel and he gave them over to

plunderers who plundered them and he

sold them into the hands of their

surrounding enemies so that 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.

Sometimes Christians like to say God

doesn't cause suffering.

That's not true.

Sometimes sin causes suffering.

Sometimes we deal with the natural

consequences of the fall. Sometimes we

deal with the consequences of our own

sinful choices. But then sometimes God

actually opposes us. Sometimes he

actively disciplines us. Sometimes he

puts his hand against us to cause us to

fail.

He doesn't tempt us to sin. He never

does that. But he does bring hardship

into our lives.

The author Samuel is giving us God's

roadmap for the rest of the book of

Judges. He's showing us the cycle.

Israel sins. God gets angry. He sends a

nation to invade them. They steal from

them. They oppress them. So then rather

than getting rich is what which is what

they thought they were going to do in

Canaan. Rather than enriching themselves

and becoming prosperous, what's

happening? They're becoming

impoverished.

Rather than having more power, what's

happening? They have less power.

The gods of the Canaanites tricked them.

They fell right into their trap.

It was a betrayal.

So rather than getting rich and

prospering by worshiping the gods of the

Canaanites and cohabitating with them,

they're growing weaker and poorer and

more vulnerable.

So are all the empty promises of all

false gods. You serve money, you will

find your life absolutely miserable. You

serve sex, you will find your life

absolutely empty. You serve power, you

will find your life absolutely

meaningless. The gods of this world have

not improved in 3,000 years. Not at all.

They're still full of empty promises

that bring misery.

So, their worship of these false gods

not only doesn't lead them into

prosperity as they hoped for, it also

earns them the discipline of God. God

repeatedly puts them in distressing

situations.

But notice God's heart. Did you see this

when we read the text the first time?

Notice God's heart. He has pity for them

even while he's disciplining them. We

see this in Judges 2 16-18. Then the

Lord raised up judges who saved them out

of the hand of those who plundered them.

Yet they did not listen to their judges

for they hed after the other gods after

other gods and bowed down to them. They

soon turned aside from the way in which

their fathers had walked who 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 that

judge. For the Lord was moved to pity

by their groaning because of those who

afflicted and oppressed them. The Lord

was moved to pity because of their

groaning. I love what this reveals about

God's heart. Did you notice that they

didn't repent?

It's not like God was like, "Oh, they're

repenting because of my heavy hand of

discipline. Let me reach out and rescue

them." No, he doesn't do that. They

don't repent. They don't acknowledge

him. They don't pray. They don't cry out

to him for rescue. They don't even ask

for help.

They just groan.

And he hears the groan. And he his heart

breaks with compassion and pity for his

beloved people.

He loves his people.

But every time he delivered them from

their enemies, what did they do? They

grew worse. Somehow they grew worse

again. Chapter 2 19. 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. They just kept getting worse. They

they were not in any way repentant. And

so the cycle starts over. Every time God

brought a new trial to Israel, a new

enemy invaded, it was a new test. It was

a chance for them to be exposed as those

who do not actually know the Lord. It

exposed the fact that they were not

obeying him. Each time Israel gets to

this point in the cycle, it's an offramp

for them. They have an opportunity to

evaluate, we have not been following the

Lord. This is a chance for us to change,

a chance for us to repent. And what do

they do? They just jump right back into

the cycle. They say, "Nope, not taking

that off-ramp. We're staying the course.

We're staying the course." They're

stubborn.

They wanted to try these gods again.

They double down on the false gods,

though they have been failed by them

over and over again. Back into the cycle

they go. And this is Samuel's outline

for the rest of the book of Judges.

But but most of Judges is just

individual stories

fleshing out this cycle

showing specific tribes that are jumping

back into this cycle.

And so now as we come to the end of

Samuel's second introduction to the

book, this this is like the abstract or

the summary of the entire book of

judges.

We see this in chapter 3:es 1-6.

Now these are the nations that the Lord

left to test Israel by them. That is all

in Israel who had not experienced all

the wars in Canaan. It was only in order

that the generations of those people of

Israel might know war to teach war to

those who had not known it before. These

are the nations, the five lords of the

Philistines and all the Canaanites and

the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived

on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Herman

as far as Libo Hamath. They were for the

testing of whether Israel would obey the

commandments of the Lord which he

commanded their fathers by the hand of

Moses. So the people of Israel lived

among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the

Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,

and the Jebusites.

And their daughters they took to

themselves for wives, and their own

daughters they gave to their sons and

served their gods. So this is Samuel's

summary. He says, "God sent these

nations to test Israel in two different

ways. first to teach them war

and second to expose whom they serve to

see whether they will follow the

commands of the Lord. I see God test his

people in the same two ways today.

3,000 years later, God is still testing

his people.

When God introduces trials into our

lives, it's for the same two reasons. To

either toughen us up

or to expose

whom we serve.

In either case, it's to help us grow, to

help us change.

This is exactly what James is referring

to when he said, "Count it all joys, my

brother, when you meet various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith

produces steadfastness, toughness.

And let steadfastness have its full

effect, that you may be perfect and

complete, lacking in nothing, that you

may grow." In other words, trials make

you tough. They produce grit in you,

tenacity in you. And as a result, you

will grow and eventually you'll become

complete.

How many of us look at hardships this

way?

When suffering comes, don't we just

frantically try to escape it?

That's our MO.

That's why we stockpile resources so

that we can avoid suffering when it

comes. So we can buy our way out of it

when it comes. And yet God has this

incredible way of bringing trials into

our lives. No matter how much buffer or

cushion we have built for ourselves, he

still breaks through. Have you noticed

that?

And we should rejoice

at that fact.

We should count it pure joy to meet

these trials because God is testing us.

We're about to be tested.

Something amazing is about to happen.

Something incredible is going to take

place in us or to us or for us. We are

either going to prove that we are

faithful in the trial and be massively

encouraged

or we are about to fail in the trial,

crumble under the pressure, demonstrate

weak faith, failing faith and that is

still an opportunity.

If you go through the trial and poor

faith is revealed or disloyalty is

revealed or sin is revealed, God is

giving you an off-ramp

to break the cycle in your life.

A chance to become more perfect, to be

more complete, a chance to shed off the

sin that has been entangling you. A

chance to repent and be restored in your

communion with God once again.

Trials and suffering have this unique

ability unlike anything else to wake us

up when we've been spiritually lazy.

I can't tell you how many times I've

been tolerating or toying with a sin in

my life

and just not even really caring that

it's there. Making peace with it like

Israel makes peace with the Canaanites.

Like, oh, I'll cohabitate with this sin.

It's not too bad. It's a little

compromised.

without even noticing that I'm growing

colder and more distant from God and not

even noticing or caring.

Then he smacks me awake with a trial.

He slaps me and shakes me awake and I

realize, oh yeah, I need him every hour.

I need him.

The trial is God's way of driving me to

my knees to repent.

Now, a quick word about repentance. We

learn a valuable lesson from our text

about repentance. When we sin, we need

to own God's version.

Did you hear that? God's version of of

reality.

We like to give our version of reality.

We like to say, "Well, there's reasons

why I sin. There are reasons why I'm

making these choices.

so and so tempted me.

It's just not that big of a deal. We We

give excuses. We give caveats. We don't

like to name all of our sin. We're

usually good at naming parts of it, but

we don't like to name all of it.

But if you don't own all your sin, the

full extent of it, the totality of it,

the ugliness of it, if you don't own it

all, how can you repent of it all?

If you partially own your sin, then you

can only partially repent.

So when the discipline of God comes into

your life, when trials come into your

life, embrace it as a chance to make

some major changes.

We should be evaluating,

taking stock of our hearts when we meet

trials of various kinds.

Do an evaluation.

It's a chance to make some major

changes. See it as an off-ramp for some

habits that need to die. Look at it as

an on-ramp for communion with God again.

Remember that sweet communion. Haven't

you been missing that?

Have you felt like your prayers have

been just hitting the ceiling?

Or even when you're living in rebellion,

isn't it hard to pray at all?

It's almost impossible.

You're like, "Why would he even listen?

I'm not listening to him. I'm not

obeying a thing that he tells me to do."

So, you just don't even pray.

So when that trial comes,

he's giving you an off-ramp because he

loves you.

He's giving you a chance to get out of

the cycle and return to him, to that

sweet fellowship that you know you miss

somewhere deep down inside. You know you

miss it. You know it's better for you.

Do not despise the tests of the Lord.

Rejoice when they come because your life

is about to change.

If if you choose to serve God,

one thing our text teaches us

that we can count on when we are in the

midst of trials, even trials that are

sent by the very hand of God, we know,

we can know for certain that God pies us

in the midst of our suffering. that he

sees us there. Even if he has imposed

this trial, he sees it and he feels for

you and he has compassion for you. He is

full of compassion. He is full of pity

for Israel and for you. He is so full of

pity for Israel that when 12 rounds of

judges doesn't break them out of this

cycle and when 42 kings over 500 years

doesn't break them out of this cycle.

doesn't keep them from spinning out in

rebellion. Finally, when the judges

don't work and the kings don't work, God

himself steps down and says, "I will do

it myself."

And Yahweh becomes a man.

And he walks among the people of Israel.

He was so full of pity for Israel's

miserable condition. Israel, who was

meant to be holy as he was holy, and yet

had fallen so far, had spiraled so far

down that when God arrived in their

country, they did not worship him. They

murdered him. That's how far they had

fallen by the days of Christ.

They crucified him on a Roman cross.

But trials reveal who we really are.

And it did that for God as well.

Suffering is a test and the cross was a

kind of test for Jesus. It exposed who

he really was to the Jews.

And because Jesus rose from the dead,

proving that he was the God of Israel,

the very same God who plagued Egypt and

the God who tested Israel with the

Canaanites, he was with them in person

and he was alive again. And when he rose

from the dead, he offered a new kind of

opportunity to Israel.

another chance, another off-ramp,

an escape from the downward spiral. In

fact, he offered it not only to Israel,

but to all the world, to anyone who

would believe. All you had to do to get

off this merrygoround of madness, this

off-ramp, it was just so simple. Choose

this day whom you will serve. That's all

it took.

and 500 people who saw him alive chose

whom they would serve and they followed

Christ and they became the church which

has been growing for 2,000 years.

Millions have taken the offramp and

still have to take it because we still

get back into the cycle. So choose this

day whom you will serve church. Will it

be Jesus or money? Will it be Jesus or

sex? Will it be Jesus or power? Will it

be Jesus or yourself?

For all who choose Christ, he forgives

their sin. He gives them his own

righteousness. He makes them worthy to

be called children of God. And he breaks

the cycle.

Now, you know, if you've been a

Christian for a while that we have this

incredible capacity to get back into the

cycle again,

right?

Somehow we manage to get back into the

downward spiral even though Christ died

to break us free.

This is again why God brings trials to

give you another offramp and then

another one and then another one and

then another one and then another one.

all your life.

He's giving you chances to get out.

And sometimes we take them and sometimes

we don't.

If you're in a cycle right now, take the

offramp. Repent today while you have an

opportunity to repent. There may come a

day when your heart is too hard that you

can't do it. So the book of Hebrews says

happened to Esau. Though he sought

repentance with tears, he found no

opportunity for it because his heart was

too hard.

If you harden your heart another day, it

may be the last chance that it's soft.

It may be the last day.

Take the offramp.

The next time you see a trial come your

way, consider it pure joy. Take it as

God's loving care for you. That he's

giving you an opportunity to grow in

toughness or grit.

He's deepening your dependence and

strengthening your faith. If the trial

reveals that you're in a sin, then this

trial is meant to lead you to

repentance. Take the offramp. Break the

cycle. Jesus died to give you that

opportunity.

I had to really put this passage to use

this week.

Earlier in the week, I had to confront

someone who is living in unre

unrepentant sin. It's part of my job as

a pastor. You have to reprove and rebuke

and correct people.

It's part of our job as Christians to

try to restore people to repentance,

restore them to community. So, I

confronted this person, which made them

very angry. And then they threatened me,

which isn't unheard of, but it's not

super common either. And so, as I laid

in bed that night, that threat ringing

in my ears, I was wrestling with God.

And the thought of this threat was just

kind of looming in my head. It was

robbing me of my joy. It was making me

anxious. I couldn't sleep.

And then the verse came to mind. Count

it all joy.

When you encounter various trials,

knowing the testing of your faith

produces steadfastness.

And let steadfastness have its perfect

results that you may be perfect,

complete, lacking in nothing. And I had

to ask myself, do I want to lack in

nothing? Do I want to become more

perfect? Do I want to become more

complete? Yes, I do. Intellectually, I

do.

Do I want that to affect my whole life?

Yes, I do. And so, I begin to cry out to

the Lord and surrender the whole

situation over to God and say, "Lord, if

this trial comes, if this threat comes

to fruition,

you are going to do something in me that

I want to happen.

Even if it's painful, I want it to

happen. I want to grow. I want to become

more complete. I want to lack in

nothing. I want to be steadfast. I want

to be tough. I want to be full of grit

and tenacity. So help me treat this

threat with joy.

And the anxiety began to vanish, to

slowly dissipate,

and excitement for what God was going to

do began to increase.

God tested Israel. God tests me and God

tests you.

We choose how to respond to our tests.

If it exposes sin, do we repent or do we

rebel and continue with the cycle? If it

doesn't expose sin, if it's just

teaching you toughness, can you rejoice

that you're growing

and that God is changing you? that

you're becoming more perfect, more

complete, and do you believe that you

will lack in nothing one day? Let's

pray.