Will you please turn to the book of Vegas? Judges, chapter 2.
Judges 2; we will begin with verse 6.
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 a hundred and ten years old.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill-country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.
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 down unto them: and they provoked the Lord to anger.
And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
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 played the harlot 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.
But 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 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.
Let us pray.
Our Father, we have read Thy Word. We ask that Thy Holy Spirit will quicken Thy Word to our hearts, that it may not be just letter to us, but that it may be spirit and life to us.
Lord, whatever Thou dost desire to speak to Thy people through this Word, may Thy voice be heard. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
In the book of Joshua, we see how God led the children of Israel into the promised land, and how God broke the backbone of the enemies that were in the land. So the land was finally apportioned to the tribes of the children of Israel.
The book of Joshua ended on a glorious note. Before Joshua died, he gathered the children of Israel together, and he announced to them that, as for him and his house, they would serve the Lord. And the children of Israel answered that they also would serve the Lord.
Now, the book of Judges follows the book of Joshua. Joshua died, and the elders who were with Joshua, who knew God, also passed away. A new generation came up, and they did not know the Lord.
The children of Israel were now in the promised land. The backbone of their enemies had been broken through Joshua. They were given their portions. All they needed to do was go ahead and possess their possession.
They started out to do just that. If you read the first chapter of the book of Judges, you will find that they fought it out pretty well. Judah, with the help of Simeon, went to their portion. They were able to dispossess the Canaanite and the Perizzite. They were able to possess their possession.
But toward the end, we find a certain weakness there. They were able to drive out their enemies in the mountains, but they were not able to overcome their enemies in the valleys, because the Canaanites who lived in the valley had chariots of iron. They were not able to drive them out.
Then you find the children of Benjamin. They went forth to possess their portion, but they were not able to dispossess the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, and the Jebusites dwelt among the children of Benjamin.
The house of Joseph went forth to possess their portion. Again, you find that they were able to defeat certain of their enemies, but they were not able to dispossess all their enemies, and their enemies dwelt in their midst. This happened to Zebulun too; the Canaanites dwelt among them.
When Asher went forth to possess his possession, he was not able to dispossess the enemy. The result was that the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites. Naphtali was the same. He was not able to dispossess his enemy, and he dwelt among the Canaanites.
When you come to the tribe of Dan, you find that the Amorites would not allow the children of Dan to come down from the mountains. They were driven into the mountains.
So here you find, in the first chapter, that when the children of Israel started to possess their possession, they started out with strength, but their strength gradually weakened until finally, instead of dispossessing their enemies, they dwelt among their enemies.
Now, what was the reason? Did not God promise to give the whole land to the children of Israel? Did not God promise that no enemy could stand in their way? Did not God promise that all the enemies would be destroyed and that they would possess their possession fully?
Certainly God could do it. But God did not do it. Why? Because the children of Israel were unfaithful to God. After Joshua passed away, and after the elders of that generation passed away, the new generation did not know the Lord.
They began to mix with the people of the land. They began to worship their gods, which God had forbidden them to do. Because of their unfaithfulness, they became weak. They were not able to overcome their enemies, and they were not able to fully possess their possession.
God sent an angel to them, from Gilgal to Bochim. God argued with them: “I brought you out from the land of Egypt. I gave you the land. But you are unfaithful.” Therefore, God said that He would not drive out their enemies. Their enemies would remain in their midst as thorns in their sides and as snares.
When the children of Israel heard that, they wept. They even built an altar to God, but they did not repent. They continued in their stubborn way. The result was that God allowed their enemies to oppress them.
For over three hundred years—the period recorded in the book of Judges—God allowed their enemies to oppress them from time to time. Sometimes the enemy came from the north: the Syrians and the Mesopotamians. Sometimes God allowed enemies to come from the east: the Moabites and the Ammonites. Sometimes they came from the southeast: the Midianites. Sometimes from the west: the Philistines. And sometimes from their midst: the Canaanites.
For over three hundred years, the children of Israel were under oppression and under pressure. They were under the discipline of the Lord. God would not wipe out their enemies; He allowed the enemies to remain there in order to try them, to test them, to see whether they would walk in the way of the Lord.
When they were deeply oppressed, they groaned and groaned and groaned. God heard their cry, not because they had changed, but because God could not bear it anymore. So God raised up a judge to them, a saviour to them. God was with the judge, and because God was with the judge, their enemy was subdued and the children of Israel had a time of refreshing before the Lord.
Sometimes they had a time of relief for eighty years, and sometimes only for a few years. But when the judge died, the children of Israel went back to their old way. They rebelled against the Lord, and God allowed another enemy to rise up and oppress them.
When they were oppressed again, they groaned again before the Lord, and the Lord raised up another judge to deliver them. Again they had a time of revival. But the revival never lasted long. When the judge died, they became even worse; sometimes even before the judge died, they went back to their stubborn way.
This happened again and again and again for over three hundred years. God raised up a number of judges during that time. Altogether, in the book of Judges, you find twelve judges mentioned—one was questionable, because he made himself a judge. But the book of Judges records the history of the children of Israel in the promised land.
It is a continual cycle of unfaithfulness, oppression, groaning, revival, and then the cycle turns over again. It was a continuous process in this manner for over three hundred years.
Brothers and sisters, before we go on, we would like to see the application to us today. Are we not God’s people, redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb? Are we not today in the promised land? Our promised land is Christ.
By God, ye are in Christ Jesus. Has He not blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus? In other words, brothers and sisters, we who are the Lord’s are in the promised land today.
Our promised land is not in the future. We are already in the promised land, because our promised land is Christ. God has already apportioned the land to us. He has already given Christ to us in all His fullness. We have been given our portion in Christ.
But look at the situation. How do we enter our possession?
When you open the book of Acts, you find that on the day of Pentecost one hundred and twenty believers were together. They were praying with one accord for ten days. Then, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured forth, and they were all baptized in one Spirit into one body.
That was the beginning of the church. On that same day, three thousand were added to that body. They persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in prayer, and in the breaking of bread. They were all together.
Their self-possessive spirit was gone. They were delivered from their self-possessive spirit. They shared everything with one another, and they were one—a testimony of Jesus on earth. Within a very short period, more and more were added. What a testimony they had on earth. They started out beautifully.
Within forty years, the gospel had already spread throughout the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire used all its imperial strength to wipe out Christianity, but the result was that the Roman Empire was wiped out.
That was how the people of God, the church of the living God, started out to possess their possession. But, dear brothers and sisters, even toward the end of the apostolic age, weaknesses had already crept in.
During the second and third centuries, they were not too evident because Christianity was under persecution. But when it came to the beginning of the fourth century, when Constantine the Great accepted Christianity and made it official, then all the weaknesses began to be manifested.
There was no more separation. The church and the world were joined and mixed together. Because of the lack of separation and the lack of faithfulness to God, the church of God was weakened and weakened and weakened.
Until you come to the time of the Middle Ages, we call it the Dark Ages. Why? Because even the Bible was changed, and even justification by faith was unknown. People tried to buy their way to heaven, doing penance and buying indulgences.
As you read the history of the church of God, you find how God put the church under discipline. From time to time, the church was under oppression. Sometimes the church was oppressed by the world; sometimes the church was oppressed by sin and ignorance; sometimes the church was oppressed by carnality; and sometimes the church was attacked by the devil, the enemy.
Through the history of Christianity, it is almost like reading the book of Judges—especially when you come to the history of the Protestant churches. It is just a replica of Judges.
We are supposed to subdue all our enemies. We are supposed to possess our full possession in Christ. But instead of doing that, you find that through the twenty centuries, the church has never been able to fully possess her possession. Instead, the enemy often seems to be on the ascendancy.
When we cannot stand it anymore—when God cannot stand it anymore—He sends us a revival. A revival may come in one country, in part of a country, or sometimes it may cover a continent. When revival sweeps over the world, the people of God have a time of refreshing. How we praise God for revival.
But revival never lasts too long. Therefore, we need another revival. As a matter of fact, most of the sects in the Protestant church are the result of revivals. God gives a revival, and when the revival is over, you have a denomination.
I remember when I was newly saved, back in China, how we prayed for revival. When God’s people came together, we prayed, “O God, send us a revival.” We sang choruses on revival. We felt that we needed revival because we had lost something. We had lost our ground. We were under oppression, and we needed a revival.
Thank God, from time to time God does send revivals to His people. We thank God for these revivals. But the problem is that revival never lasts long. That is the problem. One revival after another, and the result is that the situation seems to go downward instead of upward.
When you read the book of Judges, you find that even the last judge recorded there was Samson, and even Samson the judge himself was a failure.
Do we really need revival? Is God really interested in revival? In the order of Judges, was revival God’s permanent order? Not at all.
God raised up judges for the children of Israel as a temporary emergency measure. It was never God’s permanent order. It was to rescue an emergency. God raised the judges, but it was not God’s original design that the order of judgeship should deliver the children of Israel and bring them into fullness. The judges could never do that.
God’s permanent order is kingship. Again and again, you find in the book of Judges that everyone did what was right in his own eyes because there was no king. The secret was in the king.
God’s original purpose for His people was a king—kingship—not judgeship. Judgeship was only a temporary emergency measure. Nothing was perfect or complete under the order of judgeship.
So, dear brothers and sisters, revivals are good. We thank God for all the revivals in Christian history. But remember: revival is not God’s original design. God’s original design is recovery, not revival.
What is the difference between revival and recovery? Revival links us to the past. Some ground has been lost, and you need to have it revived. Recovery is always going forward to the future—that is to say, to the realization of God’s purpose.
God’s purpose is to bring in the King. It is only under the King that God’s people will be united into one, all the enemies will be subdued, and their possession will be fully possessed.
In the book of Judges, you see the order of judgeship, which is a temporary emergency measure of God. God sends some relief to His people, but it never arrives at God’s full purpose.
For forty years, the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness—actually, thirty-eight years. What does it mean to wander in the wilderness? It simply means that you are going in circles.
You are just going in circles. Sometimes it seems as if you are going a little forward, but the next moment you find that you are going backward. After you have wandered for thirty-eight years, you are in the original position. You have not moved ahead at all. That is wandering.
The book of Judges covers over three hundred years, but during these three hundred years the children of Israel wandered in the promised land. They were still wandering—not in the wilderness, but in the promised land.
Sometimes they seemed to go forward a little bit, but the next moment they were back where they were before. After three hundred years, they were not ahead one bit from where they were when they first started. Is that not a tragic thing? A tragic thing.
Are we better than the children of Israel? For two thousand years, the church of God has been moving. But what is the direction?
The church of God has moved through twenty centuries. Sometimes it seems as if it moves forward, but at the next moment you find that it moves backward. For two thousand years, the church has been moving in circles.
Are we moving forward, or are we just moving in circles? Do we enter into the full purpose of God? Are we involved in the recovery of God, or are we merely involved with revivals that come and go? This is something for us to really consider before God.
The book of Judges is divided into two parts. The first part, from chapter 1 through chapter 16, gives us the historical part of the book. Then, from chapter 17 through chapter 21, it gives us the moral part of the book of Judges.
In other words, the second part of the book of Judges tells us the spiritual and moral condition of the children of Israel under the judges. If you know their spiritual and moral condition, then you will understand why, under the judges, they never moved forward but moved backward.
Aside from their unfaithfulness to God, their mixing with the inhabitants of the land, and their following the inhabitants of the land into idolatry and abomination, you find two specific things mentioned in the latter part of the book of Judges.
First, in Judges 17, you find that in Mount Ephraim there was a man named Micah. Micah stole eleven hundred pieces of silver from his mother. Think of that: a man stole money from his mother.
When his mother discovered that the money was gone, she cursed. When Micah heard the curse of his mother, he was frightened. So he told his mother, “I stole the money.” His mother said, “Oh, son, it is all right. I intended to give the money to you.”
When the money was returned, she took two hundred pieces of silver and made a molten image and a graven image. They set up the images, with an ephod and teraphim, in their house. The Bible says that in the house of Micah there was a house of gods.
Micah set apart one of his sons to be priest to the gods, and they called the god Jehovah. Yet at that time, the house of God was in Shiloh, where the ark of the covenant of God was and where the priesthood stood before God.
But here was a man who set up a house of gods in his own house. He made graven and molten images and called all these images Jehovah.
It so happened that a Levite came out from Bethlehem-judah. This Levite was travelling. Why was he travelling? He was looking for a place. To put it more clearly, he was going around looking for a job.
While he was travelling around, he came to Mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah. Micah saw that he was a Levite, so Micah said, “Why do you not stay with me? I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and food to eat. Stay here and be my priest.”
It sounded good to that Levite, so he stayed with Micah and became priest to his house of gods. Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will bless me, because I have a Levite as priest.”
Everything was rather religious, but how superficial it was. It was self-centred. It was profiteering. They called upon the name of the Lord, and yet it was an idol worship. The whole thing was confusion.
But the confusion did not stop there. The tribe of Dan did not yet have a place, so they sent out five spies to spy out their inheritance. The spies came to the house of Micah and saw these gods and saw the Levite. They asked the Levite to pray for them, to ask the Lord whether God would prosper them in their way. The Levite said, “God will prosper you.”
They found a place, and they went back and told the tribe of Dan. Six hundred soldiers, together with the five spies, went into the land. Again they passed by the house of Micah. The five spies said, “There are gods in this house. What will you do with them?”
They went in and took the gods. When the Levite said, “What are you doing?” they said, “Do not say anything. Do you want to be a priest of one household, or the priest of a tribe?” He gladly took the idols and went with Dan.
Dan became the first tribe in Israel to set up rival worship in the land of Israel. That rival worship remained there for a long time. And do you know who the Levite was? That Levite was Jonathan, the grandson of Moses.
Brothers and sisters, aside from worshiping other gods and idols, they reduced the worship of the Lord into idol worship, into selfish religion, into a profiteering proposition. Even the priest sold his service for money.
God is looking for true worshipers. God is Spirit, and He is looking for true worshipers—those who worship Him in spirit and truth.
Certainly, we worship the same God, the same Father. We worship Him in spirit and truth, and this is the most sacred thing in life. But look at worship today.
How God’s people are divided in worship. How God’s people set up rival worships. You worship in your way, and I worship in my way. Even worship becomes self-centred, a matter of rivalry, a matter of profiteering.
You find this among God’s people today. We are no better than the children of Israel at that time.
Then, in Judges 19, you find another incident. A Levite had a concubine. While he was travelling with his concubine, they came to a city of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeah.
The wicked men of Gibeah abused that woman until she died. So the Levite cut the body into twelve pieces and sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel, saying, “Look what the Benjamites have done.”
The children of Israel gathered together and came to the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “Deliver to us the men of Belial, the wicked evil men.” But instead of delivering the evil men, the tribe of Benjamin gathered together to fight against the rest of the children of Israel.
The children of Israel vowed that they would not give their daughters to the tribe of Benjamin. The result was that the tribe of Benjamin was almost wiped out. Only six hundred men were left.
When they discovered that they had almost wiped out one of the twelve tribes of Israel, they repented. But what could they do? They could not give their daughters to them as wives. So they found a city that had not sent soldiers to fight against Benjamin, destroyed that city, and gave the virgin daughters to the tribe of Benjamin. But there were only four hundred women, so two hundred men were left.
You remember the story. If you do not, read the book of Judges. But you find that the moral condition at that time was so low. People were shameless. Brothers fought against brothers, even to the point of annihilation.
Brothers and sisters, what do you find among God’s people today? Not to say that people are shameless, but our brothers devour brothers. We are no better than the children of Israel under the judges.
With that kind of situation, how can you expect the children of Israel to overcome their enemies and fully possess their possession? They did not.
In reading the book of Judges, sometimes you feel a little depressed. For over three hundred years, God raised judge after judge, but nothing seemed to reach the goal. You find they were worse than they were at the beginning, and you feel a little depressed about it.
If this is the condition of Christianity today, where is our hope? Is there any hope? Should we just go in circles? Should we just wander and wander and wander, and never reach the end? Is that to be our portion?
Certainly not. After the book of Judges, you find 1 Samuel. In 1 Samuel, the king was brought in. Under David the king, all the enemies were overcome, and for the first time the children of Israel fully possessed their possession.
Of course, he speaks of Christ. When Christ becomes King to His people, then we will be united into one. No enemy can stand in our way, and we shall fully possess our possession.
But that is going too much ahead. Before we close, we cannot close on a negative note. Even before God raised up the first judge, there was one name that stood out: the name of Caleb.
Caleb was not a judge, but his name stood out even before God raised up any judge. Why? I believe God wants us to see that the spirit of Caleb is the spirit of fully possessing the possession.
If all the children of Israel had the spirit of Caleb, they would have had no need of the judges. They would have been able to subdue all the enemies and fully possess their possession.
God puts before us the spirit of Caleb. Dear brothers and sisters, what God is looking for today among His people is the spirit of Caleb. If, by His grace, we have the spirit of Caleb, then we will be able to possess our possession.
What is the spirit of Caleb? The very name Caleb means bold. But not bold in a presumptuous way. He was bold because he trusted the Lord.
Caleb was born in captivity. He was born in Egypt. He was born a slave, just like the rest of the children of Israel. He was redeemed by the paschal Lamb, just like the rest of the children of Israel. He crossed the Red Sea, just like the rest of the children of Israel.
He went through the wilderness and saw the mighty works of God, just like the rest of the children of Israel. When they had nothing to eat, God gave manna to them. When they had nothing to drink, God opened the rock and gave them water to drink.
In other words, Caleb was no different from any of the children of Israel. Yet there was one difference. The children of Israel saw the acts of God, and that was it.
They saw the mighty acts of God. They cried unto the Lord; God rained manna upon them; they gathered the manna, and they forgot God. They were thirsty; they murmured; God opened the rock and gave them drink; they drank to the full and forgot God.
But Caleb was different. The Bible says that Caleb had another spirit. He had an excellent spirit. When he saw the mighty acts of God, he began to ponder upon them.
The mighty acts of God did not just come and go. The mighty acts of God penetrated into his heart. He began to see God. He began to know that God is a gracious God, a merciful God, a mighty God, a faithful God—One who overcomes and provides.
That is why, when he was sent out as a spy, he stood differently. When the spies came back from spying out the promised land, the ten spies gave the bad report. But Caleb stood up.
If you read Numbers 13 and 14, you find that in the beginning only the name of Caleb was mentioned. Later, Joshua was mentioned together with Caleb. It shows that at that time Caleb was really strong. He was the first one who stood up and said, “We are well able to go in, if it pleases God.”
“If God is pleased with us, we are able to go in and possess the land, and our enemies shall be our food.” He trusted in God. The Bible says that he followed the Lord. He followed the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the spirit of Caleb. We who are redeemed of the Lord, we who have witnessed many mighty acts of God, are we merely people without heart? Do we ponder over these things?
Through the mighty acts of God, do we come to know God in a real way? Do we know that He is God, and that nothing is impossible with Him? Do we have an excellent spirit, trusting Him and following Him all the way?
If we do, then we have a holy boldness in us. On the one hand, God’s people should not be presumptuous—that is, trusting in the flesh. Sometimes we are so confident in ourselves, as if we are very courageous and very bold, but that is fleshly.
We ought to know ourselves. There is no good in us. There is no power in us. Whatever is from us is nothing to God. We can only spoil the work of God; we cannot help a little bit.
But, dear brothers and sisters, on the other hand, there needs to be a holy boldness. That holy boldness comes as a result of knowing God. We know Who He is. Because we know Him, we trust Him; because we trust Him, we follow Him.
This spirit of Caleb is a spirit that overcomes. It is a spirit that possesses our possession.
Caleb had to wander with the rest of the children of Israel for thirty-eight years. He had to enter the promised land with the new generation. He had to fight through. When he entered the land and fought for the land, he was eighty-five years old.
He came to Joshua and said, “Give me my portion. God promised that wherever my feet had trodden, it should be mine. So give me my portion.” At that time he was eighty-five years old, but he could go in and come out as he could when he was forty.
What was his portion? His portion was Kirjath-arba. In the book of Judges, chapter 1, Kirjath-arba was his portion. Kirjath-arba means “the city of the giant”—the city of the giants.
What frightened the spies? The giants. They saw the giants in the promised land, and they said, “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” The giants frightened them away.
But Caleb went and took the city of the giants. He destroyed the three sons of the giant, and he made that city Hebron—fellowship, communion with God.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the spirit of Caleb. How we need the spirit of Caleb today. We do not need to be discouraged.
If only God will raise up many Calebs, if only God will give us the spirit of Caleb, we will be able to subdue all our enemies and fully possess our possession. We will be used of God to bring in our King.
This is the principle of overcomers. When the church fails in her mission, God calls for overcomers: “He that overcometh.” Let everyone who has ears hear what the Spirit of God says to the churches: “He that overcometh.”
It is through the overcomers that the enemy will be defeated and the possessions fully possessed. So let us end with a word of prayer.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast given us Christ, and all that is in Him, as our portion. There is nothing that can stand in the way if we are given the spirit of Caleb.
So, Lord, raise up many Calebs. Give us that holy boldness, that we may enter in and possess for Thy glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.