I do thank the Lord for giving me another opportunity to see you, dear brothers and sisters.
When I was here last time, I think it was July last year. At that time, we shared on the Book of Joshua. Now, this time, God willing, we will learn together the lessons in the Book of Judges.
So I do hope that you brothers and sisters will read the Book of Judges during these days. That will help us to understand what we are going to learn.
Now, in the Book of Joshua, we find that God brought His people into the Promised Land. Under Joshua’s leadership, they fought battle after battle. They won victory after victory, and they were able to overcome their enemies and possess much of the Promised Land.
Towards the end, we find how Joshua divided the land among the twelve tribes of Israel. So it was really a very happy history.
But when you come to the Book of Judges, you find that it is very, very different. The children of Israel were already in the Promised Land. They had already occupied some of the land, and they were supposed to possess all the land because God had promised them the whole land.
Yet, when you come to the Book of Judges, you find another story. They were not able to wipe out all their enemies. Instead, their enemies dwelt among them. A number of times, the enemy oppressed them, and so it was a very sad story.
In the Book of Joshua, we find victory; but in the Book of Judges, we see defeat. In the Book of Joshua, we find progress; but in the Book of Judges, we find declension.
In the Book of Joshua, we find how the children of Israel had faith in God; yet in the Book of Judges, we find their unfaithfulness. In the Book of Joshua, we hear the song of victory; yet in the Book of Judges, we find crying and mourning.
And yet we find both books are in the Bible, and both are given to us that we may learn the lessons.
Now, brothers and sisters, even though the Book of Judges is a very sad story, it is very, very relevant to us today. We know that the history of the children of Israel is a type of God’s people today.
So we are not just studying history. The Bible tells us that the things recorded are for our admonition. They are types, that we may learn precious lessons from these types.
What happened to the children of Israel, we find, is actually happening to us today.
We find how God promised the children of Israel a land flowing with milk and honey, and how God led them into the land. Now, brothers and sisters, this happens to us today.
We were like the children of Israel when they were slaves in Egypt. Before we knew the Lord Jesus, we were slaves to sin. We were dead in sins and transgressions, and we were slaves to sin.
In other words, we could not help but sinning. Sometimes we tried not to sin, but we found that we were bound.
When the children of Israel were in Egypt, Pharaoh put them into hard labor and made their life very hard. Not only that, but he gave the order that all the male children born must be thrown into the River Nile. So there was no hope for the children of Israel.
This is a picture of us too. Before we knew the salvation of the Lord Jesus, we were actually in slave labor. We were serving the world, serving mammon, wealth, money, and serving sin. Our life was very hard, and there was really no hope for us, because the Bible says the wages of sin is death.
Now, if we sin, we will receive a wage, and the wage is death. There is physical death, but after that there will be judgment, and under judgment there will be eternal death. So we were really in a very pitiful situation.
As a matter of fact, it was even worse, because with them it was merely physical, but with us it is eternal.
But thank God, He led the children of Israel out of Egypt. He delivered them, and He brought them into the Promised Land. Now, this has happened to us too.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, God has not only delivered us out of this world, out of sin and death, but He has also led us into a Promised Land.
Now, what is our Promised Land? Our Promised Land is not a physical land. Our Promised Land is a Person: our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, He is not only our Savior. He died on the cross, He shed His blood to cleanse us from our sins, and He gave us His own life. As a matter of fact, He also put us in Himself.
The Bible says that by God we are in Christ Jesus. So we have not only received the Lord Jesus as our Savior; God has also put us in Christ Jesus.
He is like a land flowing with milk and honey. The Bible tells us of the riches of Christ. Christ Jesus, whom we believe in, is so rich.
Now, how rich is our Lord Jesus? How full is our Lord? We know a little bit. We know that He is our Savior, that He loves us, that He forgives our sins, and that He gives us eternal life. We already know these things.
But remember, our Christ Jesus is the Promised Land. He is flowing with milk and honey. Everything that we need is in Him.
The Bible tells us that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, and ye are complete in Him. Now, who can measure the fullness of the Godhead?
He is so rich. We cannot measure His life, because His love is beyond measurement. We do not really understand His righteousness, because He is righteousness.
We do not know His purity. We do not really know that He is the light, that He is holy, and that He lives in light which no man can approach.
Our God is all-powerful, all-wise, and everywhere. So, brothers and sisters, we cannot comprehend the fullness of God. Yet that fullness dwells in Christ Jesus. Everything that is of God is in Him.
He is God. He is the Son of God. Everything that you can think of God dwells in Him, and God has put us in Him.
It is like the children of Israel when they entered into the Promised Land. All the riches of the land were before them. They could possess all their possessions. There would be a lack of nothing.
In the same manner, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, God has put us in Christ Jesus so that all that Christ is, is ours. It is for our possession.
But like the children of Israel, after they entered into the Promised Land, they had to take the land inch by inch. Wherever the sole of their foot stepped, it was theirs.
In other words, the whole land was promised to them, but to enjoy the land, they had to put their feet down. They had to overcome their enemies so that they could enjoy their land.
Now, the same thing is true with us today. God has already put us in Christ. Everything that is in Christ is before us. It is not God’s will that we live a very poor and weak spiritual life.
God’s will is that we may live a victorious life, that we may live a glorious life, because all that is of Christ is ours.
But every day we have to learn to know Him more. We have to put our faith in Him, and by faith we inherit our inheritance.
But we also have our enemies. Like the seven tribes of Canaan that occupied the land, the children of Israel had to wipe them out in order to possess their possession.
Now, who is our enemy? Remember, we who are believers have only one enemy, and that enemy is Satan, the adversary of God.
He is our enemy because he is in this sinful world, and he is trying to hinder us from possessing Christ. He does not want us to enjoy the riches of Christ. So there is a spiritual warfare going on.
But we do not need to be afraid, because our Lord Jesus is the Captain of the army. He has already overcome.
When He was crucified on the cross, the enemy thought that he had defeated Christ. He did not know that when Christ was crucified on the cross, by His death He put the enemy to defeat.
On Calvary’s cross, the Lord has already overcome the enemy. He has cast out the enemy. So today we are under His leadership.
We are going from victory to victory. No enemy can stand before us if we follow the Lord, because He promised us that no enemy can stand before us.
He promises that we will possess all our possessions. That is what you find in the Book of Joshua: no enemy could stand before them. This should be true with us.
So, brothers and sisters, we are in Christ, and we are supposed to overcome all our enemies. We are supposed to enjoy our inheritance in Christ, because this is the will of God.
But when you come to the Book of Judges, you find this is not the case. So that is something we would like to learn from the Bible.
Now, in the Book of Judges, you can easily divide the whole book into three parts.
From Judges 1:1 to Judges 3:6 is the first part. It gives us a general idea of what happened to the children of Israel in the land. We may label it with one word: declension.
From Judges 3:7 to the end of Judges 16, it tells us of the revivals that happened in their history.
There was declension, and there was oppression by the enemy. When they suffered, they cried to God. As they repented of their sin, God gave them a judge to deliver them from the enemy, and there was a period of rest.
Then, after the judge died, they sinned again against God. God judged them, and again they were under oppression. Then they cried unto the Lord and repented again. God, in His mercy, sent another judge to deliver them from the hand of the enemy, and again there was a time of peace.
This happened again and again and again. So we will call the second part revival.
Then, from Judges 17 to Judges 21, we find the inner history of their failure. We find the comments of the Holy Spirit upon their condition.
Now, this is the Book of Judges. I hope you will read it at home. That will help us to understand what it is all about.
Now, this evening we will go into the first part, from Judges 1 to Judges 3:6. We will just read a little of it. Please turn to Judges 2.
And Joshua sent the people away, and the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.
And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord, that He had wrought for Israel.
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, that knew not the Lord, nor yet the work which He had wrought for Israel.
And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baalim.
And they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them: and they provoked the Lord to anger.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of spoilers that despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had spoken, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were sore distressed.
And the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those that despoiled them.
And yet they hearkened not unto their judges; for they went a-whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned aside quickly out of the way wherein their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so.
And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the Lord because of their groaning by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.
And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their doings, nor from their stubborn way.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel; and He said, Because this nation hath transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto My voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died; that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.
So the Lord left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered He them into the hand of Joshua.
Now, after Joshua died, the children of Israel in the land were still in good condition. We find in Judges 1 how they began to go to their own land, and how Judah went to conquer the land, because at that time they still had faith in God and still obeyed God’s commandments.
But after Joshua died, and the elders of that generation all passed away, a new generation arose. Those who had passed away were people who knew God. They had seen the works of God.
When God led them in the wilderness, they saw the hand of God. They saw how God provided for them, how God led them through the wilderness, how He led them through the River Jordan, and how He led them into battle.
That generation knew God personally. Because they had experienced God, they had faith in God.
But after that generation died, a new generation arose. This new generation was in the Promised Land, but they had no knowledge of God.
They had heard about God because they had heard from their fathers. They had heard what God had done for them, but they had no personal experience. Their knowledge of God was mental; it was not personal.
Their knowledge of God’s work was by hearing. They did not personally experience the hand of God. Because of this, very quickly they began to leave God and to absorb the customs and habits of the nations around them.
But this declension came gradually. In the beginning, they were able to overcome their enemies.
Especially in Judges 1, the Holy Spirit purposely relates what happened to Caleb—how Caleb overcame the giants and how Caleb obtained the land of Hebron for himself.
In other words, in the beginning they had the spirit of Caleb with them, because Caleb had an excellent spirit. He believed in God. He was not threatened by the giants. He believed that God had promised and that God would give.
He was able to wipe out the giants and occupy the land. So in the beginning, there was a good spirit with the children of Israel.
But gradually, in the first chapter, you find that when they went out to possess their land, they were not able to wipe out their enemies, and the enemy dwelt in their midst.
Not only did the enemy dwell in their midst, but they dwelt in the midst of the enemy. In other words, they were weakened.
Now, why were they so weak? God promised to give the land to them, and God also promised that no enemy could stand before them. Why could they not drive out the enemy? Why did they dwell among the enemy?
It was because the second generation did not have personal knowledge of God. What they knew of God was by tradition. They lived by tradition; they did not live by personal experience. So they did not have that faith in God.
Because they dwelt among their enemies, and the enemy dwelt among them, they began to intermarry. They gave their sons to the daughters of the nations and their daughters to the sons of the nations.
Gradually, they followed the customs of the nations. These nations worshipped idols and false gods. So the children of Israel left the true God and worshipped false gods. They went down and down and down.
Now, brothers and sisters, in our situation we have the same problem. According to God, everyone has to have firsthand experience of Christ, because Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is Christ.
You have to have a personal knowledge of Christ. You may hear about Him, and you may receive teaching from your fathers, but that is not enough, because there is no power there.
Everyone has to have a personal experience of Jesus Christ. This is what God desires.
Suppose we come from a so-called Christian family. Of course, we hear about God. We hear Bible stories, and we have all this knowledge in our minds.
We may even have heard that Jesus is the Son of God. We have heard that He is our Savior. We have heard that He died on the cross. But do we really have faith in Him? Do we really know that we are sinners?
Sometimes it is just a tradition. It is a Christian tradition. So we are the second generation. If we are the second generation, then you will find there is no spiritual power.
We cannot stand against the enemy. We are not able to possess our possession, and we will be enticed by the nations. We will even follow their customs and habits.
So this is a real problem, especially for those who come from Christian families. Not because your parents are believers are you a believer. Not because your parents are Christians are you a Christian.
You need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You need to see your own sin. You need to repent yourself. You need to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
You need personally to experience how real, how powerful, Jesus Christ is. As a matter of fact, in spiritual life there is no second generation. Everyone has to be the first generation.
Everyone has to know the Lord and have a relationship with the Lord. If they live by Christian tradition, even if it is a good tradition, you find there is no power. Sooner or later, declension will come in.
When you come to Judges 2, you find there is a very important incident. When the children of Israel were in that kind of situation, the Angel of the Lord came to them.
The Angel of the Lord came from Gilgal to Bochim and told them that because they did not obey God, God would not drive out the enemy.
God is faithful. He is faithful to His promise. He will do whatever He has promised. He will defeat all the enemies, and He will allow the children of Israel to possess all their possessions.
But because of their unfaithfulness, God said that He would not drive out the enemy. He would allow the enemy to be in their midst, to prove whether they would trust the Lord.
When they heard about it, they wept. So that place was called Bochim. Bochim means “weepers.”
They were already defeated, and when God told them why they were defeated, they wept. They still realized that they had done wrong, but unfortunately, they only wept. They did not return to God.
Gilgal is a very important place. You know, in the Book of Joshua, when God led the children of Israel across the River Jordan, they came to Gilgal.
At Gilgal, they circumcised the people, because circumcision is a sign of the covenant between God and His chosen people.
But the children of Israel who were born in the wilderness were not circumcised. So, after they crossed the River Jordan, the first thing they did was to be circumcised at Gilgal. The knife was applied to their flesh, and the reproach of Egypt was rolled away from them.
Gilgal was the headquarters of the children of Israel in their battles. It was their base. They went out from Gilgal to fight, and after their battle they returned to Gilgal. Then from Gilgal again, they went out.
Now, spiritually speaking, there is a lesson for us today. In spiritual warfare, we need a base, and our base is Gilgal.
Gilgal is a type of the cross. It is the subjective side of the cross. In other words, it shows how the cross is applied in our life to cut off our flesh so that we may be able to follow the Spirit and enter into spiritual warfare.
But when the children of Israel left Gilgal and stayed in Bochim, they were only emotionally touched. They did not go back to the dealing of the cross with their flesh.
There will be no victory. This is a lesson for us: we need to stay at the foot of the cross. That is our base.
We need to allow the cross to cut off our flesh. It is not physical; it is spiritual. We need to allow the cross to deal with our flesh, and then we will be able to fight the good fight.
Because they did not return to Gilgal, they were sorry for themselves, but they did not repent and return to God.
So you find that those enemies were left there so that the children of Israel might learn lessons. Thank God, when God disciplines, it is because He loves.
The Bible says that discipline is from the father. Because the father loves the child, he disciplines the child. If the child is not his son, he will not discipline him.
As children of God, when we drift away, God disciplines us because He loves us. Now remember, when God’s discipline comes upon us, it is not because God does not love us or because God hates us. No, He loves us.
Because He loves us, He disciplines us so that we may grow up to be sons and daughters of God.
When they were under the oppression of the enemy, sometimes they cried unto God, and they repented. God showed mercy to them, and they had a time of rest.
This is what you find in the first part of the Book of Judges: God’s faithfulness and man’s unfaithfulness.
God is always faithful, but unfortunately, man is not always faithful. But because of God’s faithfulness, He will try every way to restore us.
If we submit ourselves under the disciplining hand of God, in due time He will exalt us.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for giving us the Book of Judges. Even though it is tragic, yet Thou dost want to teach us a lesson.
We do acknowledge that we are no better than the children of Israel. Thou hast already put us in Christ Jesus, and Thou hast already promised us all the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
Yet, Lord, we acknowledge that we have not been able to possess our possession. It is because of our unfaithfulness.
So, Lord, we just pray that Thou wilt use Thy word to enlighten us, that we may really repent of ourselves and allow Thee to work in us.
We cry to Thee for revival. We cry to Thee for recovery. We pray that Thou wilt remember mercy.
May the Spirit of the Lord continue to work in us. Let Thy word continue to work in us until Thy glory is revealed.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus.