Will you please turn to the Book of Judges, chapter 2? We will begin with verse 14.
And the anger of the Lord was hot 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 down 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 hot against Israel; and He said, Because this nation hath transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and hath 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.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee because Thou hast promised us, “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Lord, we do gather unto Thy name. We do put ourselves under Thy authority, and we believe that Thou art here with us.
We are standing on holy ground. We want to remove our shoes. We want to bow down before Thee and say, “Lord, what hast Thou to say to us? Thy servants hear.”
May Thy Holy Spirit open Thy Word to us, and open our hearts to Thy Word, that we may really hear what the Spirit saith to the churches; that we may repent and return to Thee, and Thou wilt turn to us.
We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Last night we mentioned that this time we will be on the Book of Judges. The Book of Judges is the continuation of the Book of Joshua, but it is also a contrast to the Book of Joshua.
In the Book of Joshua, we find that the children of Israel entered into the promised land. Under the leadership of the Lord, they overcame their enemies, and they were able to possess their possessions. Eventually, the whole land was apportioned to the twelve tribes.
It gives us a very glorious picture. It is a picture of victory. It is a picture of progress. There is the song of joy.
But when you come to the Book of Judges, you find an entirely different atmosphere. The children of Israel were already in the promised land. They had already overcome some of their enemies, and they already possessed some of the land.
God promised to give the whole land to them, and the land was apportioned to the twelve tribes. What they needed to do was just go ahead and possess all their possessions. God said that no enemy could stand against them. God was with them, and surely He would cast out all their enemies. They would possess all the promised land.
But strangely, when you come to the Book of Judges, after Joshua, the servant of God, died, and after that whole generation passed away, a new generation came up. This new generation did not know God. They did not know the works of God.
Now, that does not mean that they had not heard about God. They must have heard from their fathers about the works of God. They must have heard a lot about God and a lot about the works of God. They themselves were in the promised land, which was evidence of what God had done for them.
And yet they did not have a personal experience of God. Their belief in God was traditional. It was handed down to them by their fathers. What they knew about God was by hearing. They did not have personal experience of the works of God.
Even though what they heard was true, and every doctrine they received in their minds was true, they did not have firsthand experience. Therefore, the truth did not seem to have power in their lives.
Very soon, you find these people could not overcome their enemies. When they went to possess their possessions, sometimes they could not drive the enemy completely away. The enemy remained in their midst. Later on, they even had to dwell among their enemies.
That was evidence of weakness—not because God was not faithful to His promise, but because of their lack of faith in God.
Because they dwelt among the nations, very soon they began to imitate the habits of the nations. They began to intermarry with the nations and to follow the customs of the nations.
Instead of worshiping the only true God, the God who had led them into the promised land, they began to follow the nations and worship idols. There was declension in their lives.
Because of this, God was not happy with them, and God began to discipline them. We mentioned last night that whom God loves, He disciplines. Because they were God’s people, and because God loved them, when they drifted away from God, God began to discipline them.
God allowed their enemies to rise up against them. They were under the oppression of their enemies—sometimes for eight years, sometimes for eighteen years, sometimes for three years or five years. God allowed the enemies that were in their midst and around them to oppress them.
Their lives became very difficult. They began to cry unto God, and they began to repent of their sins. God was so merciful to them that He raised up judges to deliver them from their enemies and give them a time of rest, a time of peace.
Sometimes that time of peace lasted twenty years, sometimes forty years, and sometimes longer. Israel was able to enjoy life again and enjoy the promised land that God had given them.
But unfortunately, even while the judges were living, they did not really listen to the judges. Especially when a judge died, they departed from God and began to sin again.
Again, God disciplined them. God allowed the enemy to come against them, and after several years under oppression, they could not stand it any longer. So they cried to God again, repented of their sins again, and God, in His mercy, raised up another judge to deliver them from their enemy and give them a time of peace.
This happened again and again and again. The Book of Judges covers about four hundred and fifty years.
For four hundred and fifty years, these people of God were in the promised land, but they did not seem able to enjoy what God had given them. There was declension, oppression, repentance, revival, and then the cycle came again and again throughout those four hundred and fifty years.
The Book of Judges can be divided into three parts.
The first part is from Judges 1:1 through Judges 3:6. It gives us a general picture of the children of Israel and shows us their declension.
The second part is from Judges 3:7 to the end of chapter 16. In this section, God raised up judges to save them. We may say that this section is revival.
Then, from chapters 17 through 21, we find the condition of the children of Israel at that time, together with the comment of the Holy Spirit.
This evening we will be in the second part. God is merciful and faithful to His covenant. In spite of the sins of His people, when they repented, God gave them relief by raising up judges. That is why this book is called the Book of Judges: God raised up judges to save His people.
We must remember one thing. When God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, remember God’s challenge to Pharaoh:
Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
In other words, God considered these people His people, and He wanted to be their King. God Himself was the King of the children of Israel.
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, after they crossed the Red Sea, they sang a song of victory in Exodus 15. At the end of the song, it ended with these words:
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.
The Lord reigns over His people forever and ever. God brought the children of Israel to Himself, and when they came to Mount Sinai, God gave them the Ten Commandments because God was their King. They were to be under God’s authority.
We must remember that, with the children of Israel, it was a theocracy. It was not a democracy. It was a theocracy because God was their King and they were God’s people.
They were to listen to God, keep His commandments, and be His loyal people. Then they would be under the blessing of God. This was God’s will for His people.
But when they departed from God and sinned against God, they rejected God as their King. They did not heed His commandments. They violated His covenant.
Under that abnormal situation, judgeship was a temporary arrangement. It was as if judgeship was God’s emergency, temporary measure in dealing with His rebellious people.
God temporarily raised up this system of judges to give them temporary relief. It was not the permanent will of God, because God’s will is kingship: God Himself being their King.
Only when He was rejected by His people did God raise up judges to give them temporary relief. Even though it covered four hundred and fifty years, as far as God was concerned, it was only an emergency measure.
That is the reason why this arrangement was not perfect. No judge actually ruled over the whole nation of Israel. Some judges judged only part of the land, and some judges were contemporary. They judged in different areas of the land at the same time. It was not permanent at all; it was temporary.
Even though you find revivals under the judges, no revival is everlasting. That is why another revival is needed. Revival is not God’s permanent measure.
Now, what is revival? Revival simply means that you have fallen. You have departed. Therefore, you need to be revived.
Revival really looks backward. Because you have fallen, you need revival in order to redeem the past situation. There is revival so that you may be restored to what you were before.
Remember: revival is only an emergency measure with God’s people.
When you apply the Book of Judges to us today, you will find that it fits our story perfectly. When you think of Christianity and church history, what happened to the children of Israel in the Book of Judges also happens to the church in the New Testament.
In the beginning, when the children of Israel entered the promised land, they were almost invincible. They defeated enemy after enemy. They occupied land after land. They followed God in faith. It was a glorious beginning. That is the Book of Joshua.
But when you come to the Book of Judges, you find weakening there—a gradual declension—until they were so weakened that the enemy came upon them and oppressed them.
If you read the Book of Acts, we know that it covers roughly thirty-three years. The Gospels tell us the story of our Lord Jesus while He was on earth, and our Lord lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years.
After our Lord died, was buried, rose again, and ascended to heaven, the story of the church began. That is the Book of Acts. From Pentecost until the end of Acts, when Paul was imprisoned in Rome for two years, it also covers about thirty-three years.
When you read the first few chapters of the Book of Acts, what do you see concerning the condition of the church? In the beginning there were only one hundred and twenty people, but they gathered together in the upper room in Jerusalem. They prayed and waited upon the Lord.
On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down upon them, and they began to witness to the glory of God. On that one day, three thousand repented and turned to the Lord. That was the beginning of the church.
They persevered in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. How they loved one another! Nobody said, “This is mine.” They gave to one another, and they shared their lives with one another.
God added to them daily. They had such a good testimony before the world that people looked at them and said, “See how they love one another.” It was a glorious beginning. They really possessed their possession.
Then, within thirty-some years, the gospel spread over the whole world of that time. It had already come to Rome, then into Asia, and then into Europe. This is like the Book of Joshua.
But even at that time, you find that they had problems. In the beginning, problems were really no problem, because problems were opportunities. By solving these problems, they grew stronger.
But toward the end of that period, when you read the writings of Paul, John, and Peter, they all began to mention that there was some declension.
At the end of the first century, John the apostle was the only one of the twelve apostles still living. When he received the revelation and passed on to us the Book of Revelation, we find in the seven churches the spiritual conditions that existed there.
They were declining. The Lord was calling for overcomers and calling for repentance. That was the situation in the first century.
During the second and third centuries, of course, the church was under Roman persecution. During persecution, the church was really purified.
But when it came to the fourth century, Constantine the Great became the Roman emperor. He declared Christianity a legal religion, and he endorsed Christianity. Many flocked into Christianity, and great buildings were built.
Christianity became very popular and very wealthy, but corruption entered into Christianity. Gradually, not only were the teachings of the Bible being changed, but the world began to take over the church.
The church became a big organization instead of a living organism. It became a huge organization.
Under the Roman Catholic Church, you find that truth was buried under superstition. People at that time did not even know justification by faith. They were not allowed to read the Bible, so they knew nothing about the truth. It was all superstition, thinking that they had to accumulate merit in order to go to heaven.
But thank God, during those centuries, even in the Dark Ages, God raised up here and there some people who were faithful to God. There were revivals here and there.
Whenever a revival came, these people returned to God. But they were persecuted by the official church at the time. Even before the Reformation, there were revivals here and there under certain leadership, but they were persecuted. Many were put to death by the church.
Then came the Reformation. God raised up Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, and others in the sixteenth century. We began to have an open Bible and to recover justification by faith.
Brothers and sisters, you do find that the history of the church has an analogy with the history of the children of Israel. We also have revivals. We began to decline in faith, we were oppressed by the world, we repented, and God raised up spiritual leaders to bring us back to God.
There were revivals here and there, but you find that they never lasted long. They did not cover the whole world, because revival is God’s temporary emergency measure.
What God is really aiming at is recovery. What is the difference between revival and recovery?
Revival is looking backward, that you may be restored to what you were before. But recovery is looking forward. It is not only to recover what has been lost, but to go forward to God’s perfect way.
Whatever God has ordained for His church will all be recovered. I mention this simply for you, brothers and sisters, to consider before the Lord.
Now we go back to the Book of Judges. In the second section of the book, there is a cycle: declension, oppression, repentance, and recovery.
Altogether, you find there are seven cycles. During those four hundred and fifty years, the history of the people of Israel went through this cycle seven times. God raised up altogether thirteen judges.
We do not have time to identify the seven cycles, so I leave it with you to find them. But anyway, you find that the Book of Judges is just going around and around and around.
The children of Israel went around in the wilderness for forty years, but here in the Book of Judges, they went round and round for four hundred and fifty years.
Tonight, we would like to mention something about those who oppressed them.
First of all, you find that they were oppressed by the king of Mesopotamia, and he oppressed them for eight years.
Mesopotamia, as we know from the Book of Genesis, is where Nimrod established his first kingdom in the world. So Mesopotamia here represents the world.
Remember, the children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt, and Egypt represents the world. In other words, they were out of the world and belonged to God. But when they were unfaithful, even though they were in the promised land, God allowed the king of Mesopotamia to rule over them.
Applying this to us today, God has delivered us out of the world. That is what baptism testifies. Why were we baptized? We left the world behind us. We now belong to our Lord Jesus.
But if we are unfaithful to God, you will find that the world will renew its hold upon us. We should be above the world. We are not of the world, just as Christ is not of the world.
Even though we are in the world, we are not of the world. The world is under our feet. We despise the world. Yet among God’s people, the world seems to come over them with renewed strength.
It is because of our unfaithfulness to God. If we are faithful to God, the world will have no power. But when we are unfaithful, you will find that the world is still very powerful.
The Bible says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” To be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God.
What a sad story it is that many of God’s people are still under the grasp of the world. That shows spiritual declension.
After they were delivered from the king of Mesopotamia, they rebelled against God again. Then they were under the oppression of the Moabites.
The Moabites were related to the children of Israel. The children of Israel came from Abraham, and the Moabites came from Lot.
You remember how Lot came out of Sodom and hid in a cave with his two daughters. They sinned against God, and through their father they bore children. There was Moab and Ammon. Thus, Moab was related to the children of Israel.
But God said that even to the tenth generation, a Moabite could not enter into the congregation of God.
What does Moab represent? If you read Isaiah 16 or Jeremiah 48, Moab was known for its arrogance, the pride of Moab. That shows the pride of the flesh.
We are supposed to be delivered from our flesh. We are supposed to walk according to the Spirit. But when we are unfaithful to God, you find that our flesh begins to rule over us. One symptom of our flesh is arrogance and pride.
The children of Israel were oppressed by the Moabites. It is very interesting to find that the Moabites were very arrogant and proud of themselves. But thank God, God delivered Israel from them.
Then, because there was declension again, God raised up the Midianites to oppress Israel. The Midianites were also related to the children of Israel because the Midianites came from Keturah.
Abraham, in his old age, married another woman, Keturah, and from Keturah came Midian.
What did the Midianites do to the children of Israel? Whenever the children of Israel sowed, the Midianites came and swallowed up all their food.
The Midianites also represent the flesh. They represent the indulgence of the flesh. When we indulge ourselves, it brings us into spiritual poverty.
Thank God, when they cried unto the Lord, God raised up Gideon to deliver them.
After Gideon died, the children of Israel rebelled against God again. Then they were oppressed by one of their own. That is in chapter 9.
Abimelech was the son of Gideon. He killed the seventy sons of Gideon, and only Jotham escaped. He tried to rule over Israel.
He ruled for three years over part of Israel. This tells us of the ambition of the flesh. You find that our flesh is really ambitious.
He wanted to rule over Israel, and he was willing to use any means to get what he wanted, even killing all his brothers. That is the ambition of the flesh.
Then the children of Israel rebelled against God again, and God raised up the Ammonites.
The Ammonites came over and tried to claim the land that belonged to the children of Israel. They claimed, “This land belongs to us.” But God raised up Jephthah to defeat them.
Again, you find here the lust of the flesh—the flesh lusting after things that do not belong to it.
Finally, you find the Philistines. The Philistines came over and oppressed Israel, and God raised up Samson to deliver the children of Israel.
Who were these Philistines? The Philistines came from Africa. They were descendants of Ham, but they came into the land of Canaan by land, not through the Red Sea.
They were actually in Canaan before the children of Israel, but they had not crossed the Red Sea. They came by land.
The Philistines represent the undisciplined flesh. They had not gone through death, and yet they entered into Canaan.
Brothers and sisters, when you read the Book of Judges and see how it applies to us so perfectly, we who are in Christ Jesus are supposed to be above the world and above the power of the world.
We are supposed to be delivered from our flesh because the cross has done its work. But when we are unfaithful, when our faith to the Lord is weak, you find that the world has power over us.
You find that all these expressions of the flesh become real in us. How we need to be delivered from our flesh! How we need to see, as Paul said, “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.”
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
You will find that God raised up these judges. When you look into the lives of these judges, you find that they were all different. Othniel, the first judge, had the same spirit as Caleb.
When you come to Samson, even though he was a Nazarite, he was unfaithful to his Nazarite calling. You find that God can use all kinds of vessels.
It was not these judges who saved the people. It was the Spirit of God who moved them and gave them power, because of the mercy of God.
Brothers and sisters, you cannot give glory to any man. God can use anybody. It is all His sovereignty, and the reason is that God loves His people.
I think we will stop here.
Dear Lord, we do bow before Thee. We acknowledge that we have sinned. We confess how the world has power over us, how our flesh disturbs us and leads us away from Thee.
Lord, we pray that Thy Spirit will search our hearts and deliver us from the world. Deliver us from our flesh, that we may follow the Spirit of God and allow Thee to perfect Thy work in us.
Mayest Thou be glorified. We pray that Thou wilt continue to speak to us, and do not let us go until Thy will is done.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.