As we move back into the Old Testament, we’ll take some time to walk together through the book of Judges. This is a very interesting book; it has some stories we all know, as well as some that we are unfamiliar with. We see in this book that God can use anyone to accomplish His will, but we also see the danger that comes when we become too enmeshed in the world. Judges is our warning to be in the world, but not of the world.

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Well, good morning. It’s good to be back. I’m now back from some traveling, and my voice is, not a %, but it’s it’s better than it was last week. It was last last week in the latter with pretty touch and go. So I’m back with us, back in the land of the living, pretty much over the crud I had, which was if you’ve had the crud this year, it’s but it it hadn’t been fun.

So I’ve still got a little bit of a cough, so don’t whatever you do don’t make me laugh because I will start coughing and it will hurt. So we don’t wanna do that. So it is gonna be back with Rooted, today. We finished out we didn’t do all of our, resurrection accounts, but we saw we did a good many of them last week. I wanna move back into the Old Testament after, a good bit good bit of time in the news.

I wanna go back to the old, and I didn’t really know where to go. I was I was torn. I looked at a couple options. Almost did Daniel, just because Daniel’s an interesting book. And I probably will do Daniel in the not too distant future, but we’re currently doing revelation in my Sunday school class that I’m teaching on Sunday mornings.

And I thought, I don’t know if I wanna be teaching on Daniel and Revelation at the same time. That’s a lot of apocalyptic literature that I don’t know that I’m smart enough to teach at all together at the same time. So some of you are big Daniel fans, so just know Daniel is probably coming in a couple, probably our next rotation back to the old testament. So I thought about Daniel. Thought about Job?

Just because Job is, to me, is is an interesting book that we can learn a lot from, but Job’s also long. It’s a long book long book. And a lot of it we may do Job at some point, but I’ll probably do a little truncated version of it because Job tends to beat the same horse, beat the dead beat the same dead horse a lot. So I didn’t really wanna do that. So I well, landed on is kinda where I thought I was gonna start, and that was Judges.

Judges is a very interesting book, and Judges, it’s a book that has some stories we’re familiar with and some stories we’re not familiar with. So I thought it’d be fun for us to walk through Judges together. So today, we will, we will, read a we’ll we’ll we’ll start with Judges one today. And judges one is an interest it it it really sets the tone for what we’re gonna see throughout the rest of this book. So we’re I’m not gonna read all of judges one because it’s 34 verses, but, yeah, I wanna give you an overview of what’s happening here and and what judges is.

Judges follows Joshua in the history of the of the Old Testament book of history. Basically, Israel, for most of its history thus far, has been led by one strong and godly and faithful leader. You had Moses in the Exodus and following the Exodus. Then after Moses, when Moses died, you had Joshua. And Joshua took the mantle from from from Moses, and he led well and led in much the same manner that Moses led.

He was a very strong, faithful, godly leader for the people. Joshua to me is one of the more underrated, characters in all the Bible, because he he followed, it’s one thing to follow somebody who’s not particularly good at what they do. It’s another thing to follow somebody who’s good. And Joshua followed Moses. And so, there’s kinda like we say in the South, you don’t you don’t wanna follow Bear Bryant or now you don’t wanna follow Nick Saban.

You don’t wanna follow Moses. But Joshua did a good job. After Joshua died though, the people did not have a singular leader. They in fact, they fell into a pattern we’re gonna see over and over again in judge in Judges, which is a pattern of sin, captivity, repentance, and freedom. If all this pattern and during this time, god would raise up local leaders called judges who would free the people.

So, the book of Judges is the story of many of these judges that we’re going to see. One of the things you’re going to see across the board with the judges is some of them are really awesome and and faithful and godly folk. And some of them, like, wait till we get to Samson. How long do you learn about Samson? Samson’s the worst.

He he is he’s the worst. Samson’s the worst. And if god when we read Samson’s story, you see that if god can use Samson, then y’all. God can use any of us. So Samson leaves a lot to be desired.

A lot of them do. And that’s I think we’ll find in this book of Judges is we’ll find a a a pattern of God using imperfect people and using them for great acts of faithfulness. And so, chapter one starts off with the fact that Israel, when they conquered, when they, they crossed the Jordan, they, they, they, they, Israel, the conquest of the holy Land was from east to west. They started, they crossed the Jordan and that was in the in in in the eastern part of the whole land, and they conquered Israel from east to west. And so what happened is every one of the 12 tribes are well, I guess everybody except for the Levites, were given land.

And what happened was that they the the each of the tribes had a responsibility to, you know, to to to conquer that land, to make it their own. And and so I’ll read to you. Let me let me read I’ll read chapter chapter one. We’ll read one through one through, verse 10 or so, because you’re gonna see a pattern emerge here. After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquire inquired the lord, who should go up first for us among the can against the Canaanites to fight against them?

Lord said, Judah shall go up. I hereby get the land to his hand. Judas said to his brothers, said, Simeon, come with me in this territory, a lot of it to me that you may fight with me against the Canaanites. And then I too will go with you into your territory allotted to you. Simeon went with him, and Judah went up, and the Lord gave the Canaanites, the Perezites, in their hand.

But if he had 10,000 of them at Bezuk, they came upon and and Adonai Bezuk at the Bezuk. And thought against him and defeated the Canaanites, the Perizzites. Adonai Bezuk fled. They pursued him and called him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. And by the way, you’re gonna see some of the most bizarre violence in Joshua.

Yeah. I mean, judges rather. You’re just gonna see some weird things. They cut off his his toes in in his in his thumbs. Why?

Thumbs can’t pull the bow. Toes can’t run. And he said 70 kings with their thumbs in big, those cut cut off used to pick scraps under my table as I’ve done till God has paid me back. They brought him to Jerusalem and he died there. The people of Judas fought against Jerusalem and took it.

They put it to the sword on the city and set the city on fire. After the people of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country. And then it says how they went. And what what what what what happened over and over again though is that, they did not drive out all the inhabitants in these villages. Every tribe, did not complete the work God had in front of them.

And what happened is as as they they moved into the promised land, they never fully were able to disentangle themselves from the idolatry of their neighbors. And there is a tension that we face repeatedly and often as Christians. It’s how do we live in this world? How do we live in the places we find ourselves? How do we live among the people we live with?

How do we live here in this culture and not become too entangled with the culture. How do we love our neighbors? How do we serve our cities? How do we work for good all around? And yet how do we refrain from taking the the the values of the world?

How do we refrain from taking on the idolatry of the world? How do we refrain from being stained by the world? What did when we just read in James, to keep yourself unstained by the world, in a culture, in a world that seems to find itself, you know, cold and mean and dark and divided and full of all manner of hate, How do we remain peacemakers? How do we remain meek? How do we, keep our identity in Christ above all else?

Judges is gonna show us the dangers that happens when we don’t do that. Because one of the things you’re gonna see over and over again in judges is each man each one did what was right in their own eyes. They focused more upon what they wanted to do, and they did what god wanted them to to do. They focused more upon their on their stuff than on god’s stuff. They focused more on what Galatians called the works of the flesh versus the works of this of fruit of the spirit.

So judges, I think, will provide an interesting story for us to consider. How do we live amongst the world? How do we be good neighbors? How do we live in the cities we live in, the place we live in, and yet remain different, remain holy, remain set apart? The Israelites did not do that.

We see they we see they became entangled very early on with their neighbors. How do we love yet be faithful and be, holy? So that’ll be what judges can show us. So looking forward to reading this book with us with you. The very interesting stories, some stories you’ve heard and seen.

I bet you know we’re getting my big toes getting cut off, though, did you? So, there you go. Good stuff. Joe Judges has a lot of these type things. So, hey, thanks for being with us.

Tomorrow, we’ll pick up with, Judges chapter two. See you in the morning. Thanks.