The Cycle of Disobedience

INTRO

We just wrapped up Joshua, the first of the historical books, and now we’re moving into Judges. The first verse of Judges explains Joshua had died, so Judges presents a new season for the Israelites. The book of Judges feels a little chaotic. Mindy’s new painting is a little dark with a snake and a skull, but that’s what we’re talking about in the book of Judges. Judges is about multiple leaders, or judges.

The author of the book is believed to be Samuel (1 Samuel 10:25). Nelson’s Commentarysaid Israel’s judges “did not normally hold court, listen to complaints, or make legal decisions (except for Deborah). Rather, they were political leaders who delivered Israel from foreign threat or oppression.”¹The book was probably written after Saul had been anointed king but before the reign of David.²Interestingly, Judges can refer to both the book of the Bible, or to the period of about 300 years in which the judges were in place when chaos reigned in Israel. The book of Judges was a sequel to the book of Joshua. Within this book, 15 judges are named.

Chuck Swindoll suggests these reasons for the period of Judges in which there was great apostasy in Israel³:

1. There was tremendous political and religious turmoil because the tribes of Israel were continuously trying to obtain the rest of the Promised Land they hadn’t completely conquered. There was a halfway obedience to God’s commands.

The tribes of Israel began fighting against each other. In fact, the tribes of Manasseh (Judges 12) and Benjamin (Judges 20–21) were almost wiped out.

A cycle of sin, punishment, repentance, and forgiveness took place. God’s people rebelled through idolatry and disbelief, so God brought judgment through foreign oppression. Then God would raise up a deliverer or judge who brought the people back to God in repentance. However, within a couple of chapters, the people fell back into sin and the cycle started over again.

The image is of one who came to save the people, not hammer them into obedience. This is a picture of the coming Savior. In her painting, Mindi used the bitten apple to represent the Israelites’ cycle of sin that we all have from the fall in Genesis; the snake to represent how sin is always coming after us; and the skull represents death. Each supports the theme of the book—God will not allow sin to go unpunished.

The book of Exodus explains how Israel became God’s people and followed Him in the wilderness. In the book of Joshua, He led them to conquer the Promised Land, and the book ended with Joshua’s speech warning against forgetting what God had done (Joshua 24). And in Judges, God had to discipline His people for following other gods, for disobeying His law, and for immorality.

TEACHING

Judges 1:1–18: Leadership was turned over to Judah and Simeon (vv. 1–3). In verses 4-5, the Israelites were still trying to conquer the rest of the Promised Land (Joshua 3:10). They pursued Adoni-bezek, captured him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes so he could no longer hold a sword or run in battle. Nelson’s Commentary explains that “the practice of mutilating vanquished enemies is recorded in ancient sources . . . and was practiced by Adoni-bezek himself.”⁴Adoni-bezek died from the wounds (vv. 6–7). They seized Jerusalem, but not everyone died (v. 8) (Joshua 15:63). Judges gives a picture of Jerusalem that is incomplete without the information in Joshua. Then, Judah struck down the three giants in Hebron—Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai (v. 10). Remember that Caleb used marriage to his daughter as the prize to whomever delivered the land, which was Othniel (vv. 11–14). She asked for and received the double portion of springs of water (upper and lower) on the Negev Desert (vv. 15–16). Othniel became the first judge. In verses 17–18, several towns were captured.

Judges 1:19–34: They took possession of the hill country but could not drive out the people in the valley who had “iron chariots” (v. 19). They failed due to a complete lack of faith on the Israelites’ part. Joshua 1:3 says the Lord would drive the people out. In Joshua 1:3–7, God said that everywhere they stepped, He would be with them and would give them the land. Failure didn’t just happen to Judah. Several tribes failed: Benjamin (v. 21); Manasseh (v. 27); Ephraim (v. 29); Zebulon (v. 30); Asher (v. 31); Naphtali (v. 33); and Dan (v. 34). These tribes failed because they didn’t trust God. They were told to completely destroy the inhabitants of the land so their faith would not be pulled away from God, but they failed (Deuteronomy 20:16–18). When they didn’t obey wholeheartedly, Deuteronomy 20:18 came true (Joshua 6:17; 11:14; Judges 2:11–12).

CLOSING

In Judges 2:1–4, the Angel of the Lord (Christ Jesus) came and told the people not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. Even that was not enough to save the Israelites from the cycle of disobedience and rebellion (Judges 2:16). That leads us to our word for this study—Judge. These God-appointed judges in the book of Judges lead to the Judge.

The function of our Judge is found in Colossians 1:13–14: “He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.”

If you want to get off the cycle of sin, just look to the Judge—Jesus Christ.