Living With An Incomplete Victory

Study of the Book of Judges

Sermon # 1 

“A Life of Compromise: Is A Life of Defeat”

Judges 1- 2:1-5 

“The cartoon said it all. A sophisticated college student was speaking to a missionary … Bewildered the student asked, ‘But what do you do when you can’t take the superstition and violence and immorality any longer?’ ‘Simple,’ came the reply. ‘We get on a plane and go back to the mission field!’” [Gary Inrig. Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay. (Chicago; Moody, 1979) p. 9]

          This morning we are starting a new study in the Book of Judges. The book of Judges describes the moral, spiritual and ethical decline of a society without standards. The essence of this society is captured in the thoroughly modern phrase found in Judges 21:25, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” As one commentator says, “It would be difficult to find a section of Scripture that speaks with more relevance to our times, for we find ourselves living in a generation that has in large part rejected God’s absolute standards.”[Donald Campbell. Judges: Leaders In Crisis. (Wheaton, ILL: Victor Books, 1989) p. 12]  

      When everyone does what is right in their own eyes, there is no standard anymore. Lies and truth, right and wrong are indistinguishable from each other.

       Dr Paul Saltman a professor at the University of California at San Diego declared: “We must demand, not just of scientists but of every human being on the earth, that they begin to understand that we cannot replace the Ten Commandments with the first ten Amendments, or with ten principles of physics, and somehow come out whole. We have to demand that each person begin to understand the nature of the values and words and ethics by which he or she lives in society.” [Paul Saltman. “Point of View”. The Chronicles of Higher Education (Dec 8, 1982) as quoted by Donald Campbell. Judges: Leaders In Crisis. (Wheaton, ILL: Victor Books, 1989) p. 12] 

The book of Judges exposes the downward spiral of a culture that had turned its back on God. Historian James Hitchcock argued that from his comparative study of civilizations, that cultures follows a predictable pattern in moral decline.  

       First, unthinkable thoughts are expressed. Second, ‘respected people’ take such ideas seriously. Third, ‘respected people’ publicly accept these new ideas as viable. Finally, ‘respected people’ publicly acknowledge they are adopting these ideas as their own.”

[as quoted by W. Gary Phillips. Holman Old Testament Commentary: Judges & Ruth. (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2004) p. 2]

Judges is a graphic reminder of the cost and consequences of living in partial obedience and compromise.  

The book of Judges opens with the people coming to the Lord for guidance. In verse one of chapter one we read, “Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, "Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?"

Joshua’s last exhortation to the nation of Israel was to obey God’s word and serve Him (Josh 24). In Joshua 24:16 we read, “So the people answered and said: "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods.” Unfortunately Judges 3:7 reveals, “So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.”

       In book of Joshua the people are aggressively driving out the inhabitants of the land. In the book of Judges the command of God began to fade. They were not doing what God had said to do, they had become have half-hearted in their efforts.          

This morning I want to examine five principles that apply as much to the world we live in as the society to which it was written.  

First, What God Command’s He Will Enable Us To Obey (v. 2)

“And the LORD said, "Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand."

They asked which tribe should take the lead and be first to go up and fight against the Canaanites. Not only did God answer but the response contained an affirmation that God had already given (not “will give”) Judah the victory.

What God Command’s He Will Enable Us To Obey and… 

Secondly, When God’s People Assist One Another They Can Expect God’s Help.  (vv. 3-4)

 “So Judah said to Simeon his brother, "Come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory." And Simeon went with him. (4) Then Judah went up, and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand”

            The Lord’s people thrive on mutual assistance; God has given us one another as channels through which his power and strength can flow. Paul says in Ephesians 3:16-18, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, (17) so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, (18) may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”

   When God’s People Assist One Another They Can Expect God’s Help and … 

Third, God’s People Should Never Draw Their Standards From the World (v. 6)

“Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.”  

       They conquered the city and captured the king. They cut off his thumbs and his big toes. This was a very effective way of ending his military career, because there was no way that he could ever handle a bow or a sword again. But this action is disturbing for a couple of reasons. First, this is disturbing because mutilation was a pagan practice. They were drawing their standards from the people around them. They were beginning to act just like the nations around them.

       When you enter a Christian bookstore today you can not help but be struck by the overwhelming number of volumes devoted not to apologetics (impacting the world for Christ) but with books designed to help us cope with how the world is impacting us. But this is not how it is suppose to be. In Romans 12:2 the Apostle Paul says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Secondly, this is disturbing because this action will send the distorted message to any outside observers that the God of the Israelites is no different than the gods of the Canaanites!

God’s People Should Never Draw Their Standards From the World and…  

Fourth, Partial Obedience Leads To Incomplete Victory.  (vv. 21-36)

       Let’s settle one thing right now! What is partial obedience? It is disobedience, right? When you give one of your children a job and they do not complete it, then we call that disobedient and so does God!

The people of God were called to occupy the territory, to take it over, to expel and exterminate those who were in opposition to them. Some people are put off by God’s command to butcher innocent Canaanites. But there is a vital point that needs to be made. The Canaanites were not innocent (Lev 18:6-30, Deut 18:9-14). Besides the Bible does not claim that conquest will be pleasant, but it does insist that it will be just.

       But look at the record of their half-hearted attempts to do what God had said!

Benjamin did not drive them out  (v. 21)       

Manesseh did not drive them out (vv.27-28). “However, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants … for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. (28) And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites under tribute, but did not completely drive them out.”

       The only reason given is that the Canaanites were determined – that is the Canaanites were more determined to stay than the Israelites were to obey God!!! In fact they never drove them out. Later when the Israelites were stronger they did not drive them out but used them as forced labor.  

Ephraim did not drive out them out (v.29).

Zebulon did not drive them out (v. 30). 

Asher did not drive them out (v. 31)

Naphtali did not drive out them out (v. 33)

The motivation for driving the Canaanites out was not only pragmatic but spiritual. The remaining Canaanites would not prove to be as great a military threat as they were a spiritual cancer. Living with Canaanites led to worshipping with the Canaanites. Tolerate Baal’s people and sooner or later you bow at Baal’s altar. Their failure to remove the Canaanites was like a surgeon who finds cancer in his patient but decides not to remove it all because ‘even cancer has a right to grow and find fulfillment’. Is that ludicrous, of course it is.

       Christians today are not tempted to worship gods like those of the Canaanites. But some Christians are tempted to put their trust in winning at Tunica or winning a lottery instead of depending on God to meet their needs. Some Christians are tempted to get something for nothing by slight of hand financial deals. Some Christians are tempted to find substitutes for God in drugs or alcohol of sex.

Partial Obedience Ends In Incomplete Victory and …  

Fifth, Compromise Leads To Bitterness and Tears (2:1-5)

       The opening five verses of Chapter two tell how the angel of the Lord spoke to the people. We will examine this more in depth next time. But for now I want you to note that the angel of the Lord reminded the people of the faithfulness of God and the unfaithfulness of their choices.  

“Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, "I will never break My covenant with you. (2) And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? (3) Therefore I also said, "I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you."'

       It is as if God says, “All right. You would not obey me and drive out the Canaanites. That was your decision and you will have to live with the results.” You are going to experience the consequences of compromise.

       So what are the steps that lead to compromise? “Sherman and Hendricks have  identified a seven-step process that, if left unrecognized, could lead to moral compromise:

1. A failure to commit ahead of time to do the right thing. 

2. Underestimating evil and flirting with dangerous temptations, thus being exposed to far more powerful evils. 

3. A failure to recognize the numerous forms of compromise lurking at every corner of life. 

4. A failure to recognize the smooth flatteries and enticing fantasies of temptations. For example, overstating expenses on your expense report. After all, you company has a large budget and you’ve been a loyal employee who works overtime. 

5. Succumbing to slick rationalizations.  

6. A sudden, deliberate choice to give in to sin. 

7. A failure to consider the costly consequences of sin. [New Man, November/December, 1994, Page 74]

If as Christians today we decide to walk the tightrope of compromise and partial obedience we will know will not know spiritual victory and God’s blessings. We will know defeat and frustration in our Christian lives.  The most miserable people in the world are professing Christians who refuse to commit themselves completely to the Lord Jesus. They do not have the best of both worlds but the worst.

When it seems either too dangerous or too difficult to do otherwise, we make choices to compromise. We choose to do less than God is calling us to do. We pad an expense account. We live with prayer lives that are mediocre, intermittent, and shallow rather than learning to pray in any depth. We experience thought lives that have all sorts of inappropriate fantasies in them, and we never attempt to judge them or turn to God for help. We let our temper explode and overwhelm us and assume there is no help for this temper problem that we never seem to be able to get over. We don't do the hard work of going back and confronting what needs to be confronted and being freed from it. 

Application