The Rise of the Judges

I don't care who you know, how much money you have, what influence you carry. Dr. Tony Evans says when you push God aside, someone or something else will take his place.

So when you leave the God, you're going to wind up with some God that is dictating your worldview. Culture will be in control. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. We live in a world where truth has become whatever people decide it is.

But that humanistic outlook isn't new. It's the same kind of mindset that pulled God's people off track in the book of Judges. Today, Dr. Evans explains how Israel's spiritual compromise led to cultural collapse and why returning to God's truth is still the only way to reverse the consequences. Let's listen.

We ended last time. With verse 10. All that generation of chapter two Also, they were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord. nor yet the work which he had done Four.

Israel. Parrots had failed. to transfer the faith. to their children. There was a generational spiritual breakdown.

And the generational spiritual breakdown that took place. brought about decline in the culture. One of the things that the end of the book of Malachi says Is that when the messenger of God comes, he will restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers? Why is this restoration necessary? This restoration was necessary because.

When the family breaks down. Civilization breaks down with it. Look at how many social issues we are facing today due to family breakdown.

Now, the parents had seen the work of God. Book of Joshua. They had seen, they had enough experience with God. To know the truth. And to operate with the truth and saw the power of the truth.

But they got comfortable with their faith. and failed to transfer it. Family disaster will lead to national disaster.

Okay, so we go into verse 9. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. Here we are talking about bail. He is the dominant idol. in the old testament and certainly in the book of Judges.

Bale was looked to to provide fertility of the soil, so the crops would grow, fertility of the animals, so that they would have plenty of farm animals and reproduction there, or fertility of human reproduction. Let's put it another way. Mother nature took the place of father God.

Okay. They looked to the natural realm, but they had an idol.

So it became a religious thing. Because humanism is religion. Science can even be a religion. because you're looking to the creation to take care of you. Not the creator.

Which, when we get to Romans 1, talks about that trading the creator for the creation.

So they appealed to bail. And they sin in the sight of God. They ascribe power to nature in the name of Baal. He says the Baals. He says it plural, because that's like saying the church.

But then having churches.

So there was bail and then there were the smaller places of operation. For the worship of this God. Why did they go to Baal? Because the faith had not been transferred. Back to verse 10.

So they sinned in the sight of God, and Baalism became a philosophy of life. It was the way you lived your life. You just, you lived your life Baalistically, that is, with this mindset or orientation, it became a culture. of living. And so they served the Baals.

That is, they operated their lifestyle based on this religious frame of reference.

So they're departing from God. And they forsook the Lord, verse 12, the God of their fathers. They followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples, verse 12 says, who were among them.

Okay, watch that. What are they doing? They are following the culture. that they're In. Let's put it another way.

They did not rub off on the culture, the culture rubbed off on them.

So, this is where the school system is rubbing off on your children, or the media is rubbing off on your children. In other words, they have left the Lord because it wasn't a transfer. And as a result of them leaving the Lord, they bought into the cultural lies. All due to a lack of transfer.

So they bind to this cultural life, philosophy, education, secularism. Man becomes lord over nature. And of course. They forsook the Lord and serve, verse 13, Baal and Ashtaroth, which is Baal's girlfriend. Or Bale's wife.

So it's a family affair here. The anger of the Lord burned against. is real. He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them. And he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

Okay. Please notice. No spiritual transfer. They left God. God then allows The evil system that they were now submitting themselves to to rule them.

So, when you leave the God, you're going to wind up with some God. You're going to wind up with some influence that is dictating your worldview. And when you and I wander from the true God and we wind up with this false... View of man that tries to be God, has a false view of nature and operate, then the culture will be in control. One of the reasons why our culture today is becoming so secular is because so many of God's children have wandered from God.

And we've got a generation who don't even know what we're talking about.

So that wondering produces what we see here, and that is this spiritual departure, God's anger burned because of their departure. And then we have the key phrase of the book. Let me read 15 and go to 16. Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil.

Okay. I'm sure they called it what we call it, bad luck. My luck is sure nothing's working for me. It says God was against them.

So, whatever they sought to make better, God was against them. And as you've heard me say many times, if God is your problem, I don't care who you know, how much money you have, what influence you carry, if God is resisting you. Yeah. you're not going to get very far for very long.

Okay. but he was resisting them because they rejected him. And so his hand was against them. And that's what we're seeing in so many of our lives today: God resisting us.

So they were severely distressed. That means depressed. They were depressed because nothing was working out.

So, the key phrase in the book is verse 16. Then the Lord raised up judges. who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to the judges. For they play the harlot after other gods bowed themselves down to them.

They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandment of the Lord. They did not do as their fathers. When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of the enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groanings because of those who had oppressed and afflicted them. And that's the whole book right there.

Summarize in those verses. They depart from the Lord. The Lord feels sorry for them. God raises up a deliverer for them. The deliverer delivers them, but when the deliverer dies, They go back.

To the idols. The point is that they would wander back from God.

So, this cycle is the cycle of the book. Yeah. So God would raise up a person. in order to lead the people back. to him when the people were crying out.

for their condition. And so But when the judge died, verse 19, they would turn back and act more corruptly. They got worse. Than their fathers and following other gods and serving them, bowing down to them.

So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel because of this nation has transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers. I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died. When you go back to Joshua, God is driving folk out. He's opening doors. That's how we would say it today.

He's opening doors. He's creating things. He's making things happen. But he says, when you leave me, I'm no longer going to make stuff happen. Why would I help you leave me out?

Dr. Evans will return in just a moment to explain why God sometimes lets challenges remain in our lives. and what that teaches us about obedience. First, though, I want to let you know about the current resource offer we're making available to our listeners. It starts with Tony's powerful book, Kingdom Authority.

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We'll get back to Dr. Evans with today's exploration of the book of Judges right after this. Hmm. How do you share the gospel with confidence? What's God's plan for our communities?

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So now we come to a very interesting Set of verses as we close out chapter two. He says in verse 20, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died. In order to test Israel. Buy them. Whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did or not.

So the Lord allowed those nations to remain. Not driving them out quickly. And he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

Okay, the key word which you'll see come up again. Is in verse 22 in order to to test Israel. A test is where God allows a negative Reality in your life so you can see what you're going to do. God already knows what you're gonna do.

So he's not shocked by what you're going to do. But it validates or invalidates your own commitment. And the purpose of the test, he says, is to see whether you will keep the way of the Lord. Because you need to know whether your commitment is real or not. And it's not just real because you feel it right now and say it right now.

It's whether you will follow through in what he says.

So this leads us to chapter three.

Now these are the nations which the Lord left.

So he goes in and he lists some of the nations. that were left behind. And he gives an interesting reason why in verse two. Only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war. Those who had not experienced it formally.

So he left the man for a test. But he also says, I also left them there for another reason. I need to teach him how to fight. Because this new generation hadn't been in a fight.

Well, all through these battles, you're going to see as we go through the book of Judges. are holy wars. In other words, There are spiritual battles being fought. but on a physical battlefield. When you read the book of Joshua, where they had to fight all these nations coming from Joshua.

God would tell them how to fight. And every fight was different for every different place. Joshua had to be in communication with God in order to know how to fight. Jericho and AI and all the different groups. And there was all these different strategies when we went through the book of Joshua that God used to fight because it was a spiritual war.

So what is the point? The point is, they had to learn how to fight spiritually. Not just physically. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Says that in verses four and five, it says that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

But it is for the destruction of wrong thinking. He wants to teach them how to fight as they fought when they followed Joshua. As Joshua followed God, he had all these weird things, nobody would think about marching around a wall. as a battle strategy. But that was the strategy God gave.

And if you don't know how to listen to God. Then you're not going to use God's strategy. You're going to go straight to the world. Are you going to borrow from the Canaanites? Verse 4.

for they were for testing Israel. To find out if they would obey the commandments of God.

Okay, well, watch this. He's teaching them how to wage war, but how are you gonna wage war?

Well, I'm gonna give you a test, I'm gonna see whether you will obey my commandments. Because you can only wage war spiritually, because it's a holy war. You can only wage spiritual war by my word. You cannot wage spiritual war with your word.

Okay, so here we go. We're marching to our first judge here. Verse 7: The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and forgot the Lord. They're God. and serve the Baals and the Asheroth.

Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, So that he sold them into the hands of Cushin Rahathium. King of Mesopotamia. And the sons of Israel served them eight years.

Okay, watch this. Their enemies? were ruling over them. Because they left God. This is God's covenantal people.

The covenantal people of God today is the church. Because they had left God. The evil world was ruling them. Verse 9. When the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.

When the s not until they cried. Yes. Crying to the Lord in the Bible. Speaks of desperation. This is not now I lay me down to sleep.

Pray the Lord, my soul will keep. If I die before I wake, pray the Lord, my soul will take. That's not crying unto the Lord. Crying unto the Lord means you have come to the end of yourself. You have gotten desperate because things have gotten that bad.

The reason that they got that bad was so they would cry. That is, they would get serious about calling on God. When, after it took them eight years to cry. I'm sure that plenty of us could talk about all the years. We kept trying to fix it, kept trying to solve it, tripped trying to deal with it.

And maybe you went to church, maybe you did that, but you ain't get desperate. Why? Because you were still dealing with the Canaanites. But now they cry to the Lord. It took eight years.

The Lord raised up a deliverer.

So he raises up this judge. A judge was basically a civil ruler. that God raised up to bring about deliverance. and vengeance against God's enemies.

So they were eight years a slave. But now they've gotten Forty years of peace. And what made the transfer? From eight years of defeat to 40 years of victory. cragging out.

Their desperate cry. Reversed their situation because it drove them back to God.

So let me just say by word of application to any who are here. who are going through year after year after year of defeat. Have you cried out? Have you disconnected from the idols? including yourself.

And have you thrown yourself completely on God and God's ways? They didn't just pray. They recommitted themselves to fully following God because that was the test. Would you listen to my commandments? Have you thrown yourself?

to him for deliverance. God raised up somebody that they didn't know he was going to raise up. How God's going to do it, I don't have the slightest idea. Who's God's going to use? I don't have the slightest idea.

But he raises up what his means are at his time to bring about the deliverance. It says Up the Elm Died. Verse 11. Uh oh. Says they were good till the judge died.

Now the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

So they didn't go on left. Because Their leader left, died, and so they didn't have the leader, and so they go left.

So the Lord strengthened. Eglon. The king of Moab against Israel because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. Eglon is their enemy. Israel's enemy.

God raises up the enemy, like he did in the previous situation. because they departed from God. You would have thought they would have stayed with God after 40 years. But see, the problem is, you can get used to God's goodness. God's goodness for all of us can become common.

In fact, it's not till things go left long enough. that we remember how important God is to everything. But when God is good month after month, year after year, decade after decade, you got four decades. That you enjoying the goodness of God. And when that reminder is not there, And the judge is gone.

They return right back to that. And so God had to raise up. Eglon. And he gathered himself to the sons of Ammon and Amalek. And he went and defeated Israel and possessed the city of the palm trees.

The city of the palm trees was the area of Jericho. And the sons of Israel served Eglon for eighteen years.

So now Please notice the phrase. served egg law for 18 years. It says they served. Eglaw.

So here's how you can know or have a sense. That you are far from God versus close to God. And that is That which should be serving you, you are serving it. Said it again. That which should be serving you.

is holding you hostage. That is a good indication. Not the fact of having the trials, because the enemies, God left the enemies there.

So it's not that there were problems around them. In this world, you're going to have problems, but it's now the problems that were around them were now owning them. They were serving Eglon. They did what Eglon said do. Go where Haglon says go.

It was bossing you around and it was the illegitimate boss because it was the enemy of God. When that which should not be controlling you is controlling you or me or us, we have to raise the question about our spiritual distance. Dr. Tony Evans on the roots of spiritual breakdown and the importance of keeping our focus on God.

Now, if you'd like to have a copy of today's message to review on your own or pass along to a friend, just contact us for details on the title The Rise of the Judges. Better yet, get this message as a part of Tony's current two-volume teaching series, simply titled Judges. Remember right now, for a limited time, you can get all twelve lessons in this collection as our gift, along with Tony's powerful book, Kingdom Authority. Just visit tonyevans.org to get the details and make the arrangements. or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 where team members are ready to help you 24-7.

And don't forget to ask how to upgrade your offer to include the Kingdom Authority Leaders Kit. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Every time God's people turned to idols, they lost their freedom. But every time they cried out, he raised up a deliverer. Tomorrow, Dr.

Evan shows how God's mercy can reverse years of defeat. and how he often works through the most unlikely people with the simplest tools. I hope you'll join us.