Bible reading: Judges 2 10- 23 & Matthew 21 33-46
Themes: Obedience Disobedience Salvation
Application: The struggles of God’s people to remain obedient but God’s forgiveness is always present.
1. Introduction
- Illus: meal out – relaxed atmosphere “ no rules”
- However look carefully we are surrounded by rules
- rules that we are quite relaxed about.
- From booking, to being seated and given a menu.
- We wouldn’t dream of walking in taking a seat
- demand that the chef provide something not on the menu and then walk out without paying
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- society has strong feelings against those who break rules of etiquette & good manners
- Yet God has spoken, His rules are clear
- the rules He gave us were commandments not Suggestions
- Not to be adhered to when the moods takes us
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- it’s important that we are aware of the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience in life.
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- Abraham received instructions from God to leave his country, his people and father’s household, that he would be blessed and all people on earth would be blessed through him.
- Passage tells us Abraham left as the Lord commanded
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2. The Judges
- In the Book of Judges, we see the consequence of disobedience .
- during the time between the death of Joshua and the anointing of King Saul the people found themselves without a leader
- It was a period of internal anarchy and external conflict, for the most part day to day administration of justice and oversight of community affairs was provided locally by the elders of various clans and tribes. God raised up Judges to deal with matters that could not be settled quickly or easily.
- Ch 2 states, “The Lord raised up judges who saved Israel
- It was a disastrous time in Isreal’s history. God’s people were led to Canaan to conquer the land, but instead they became infected with the idolatry of Canaanite people.
3. The Canaanites
- They (Israelites) became a permissive society, drawing their standards from those around them. Finding themselves surrounded by settlements of unconquered Canaanites the Israelites became attracted to the practises of their neighbours
- Their disobedience complete; they mutilated a captured king and, instead of driving them out completely pressed the Canaanites into forced labour
- The book displays a clash of values.
- the Canaanites were experienced farmers who had attributed their ability to control the soil and weather to the worship of various male and female nature gods the Baals and Ashtoreths
- The Israelites were very attracted to these gods and increasingly mixed their worship of them with the worship of their own God.
- Envitably their loyalty to God and to one another became weak and resulted in spiritual and moral decline, so serious it threaten to destroy Israelite community.
4. Being Canaanised
- Paul urges us to prevent the world from fitting us into its mold (Rom 12:1-2); we have to guard against becoming secular in our thinking, which can result in compromising our behaviour.
- Sometimes we are content to be “Canaanised”; we grow far too comfortable living as the world dictates. But we answer to a higher authority; God has called us to higher standards.
- Israel
5. Idols in our lives
- We can slip into a sense of false security when we read about Israel
- We forget that the old gods are still with us; they’ve simply updated their appearance, accommodating the times.
- They still claim to provide meaning to life and they still promise to provide for our personal desires. They still demand wholehearted commitment from their worshippers.
- Today’s most popular idols are materialism, comfort, power, pride, sexual immorality- greed etc. e.g. Bankers bonuses in the news this week.
- The modern idols are no less unacceptable than the ancient ones. We need to be free from all idols,
- Ancient and modern, and Christ offer such freedom!
6. Parable of the Tenants
- In the parable of the tenants Jesus begins his story with a very familiar hallmark of the Middle Eastern agriculture, a vineyard.
- But Jesus’ parable of the vineyard is unique. It is not just a story, but an allegory, with each part representing something else.
- A man (who represents God in the parable) plants the vineyard and then rents it to tenants.
- Unlike today, tenant farmers are usually paid by allowing them to keep a portion of the harvest, with a fixed percentage going to the owner.
7. The owners’ son
- But these tenants didn’t want to share. When the owner’s representatives come to claim the owner’s share, the tenants beat and mistreat them
- It’s pretty clear to the disciples who have heard Jesus’ teaching who he is referring to.
- He sees the current rulers doing the same as their ancestors - killing the prophets who were sent to Israel
- So in this parable, the tenants represent the unbelieving rulers, while the vineyard is nation of Israel
- The owner’s son who should be offered respect is thrown out of the vineyard and killed him." (-15a) the son is the Son of God whose death takes place outside the city on Golgotha .
- "What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When the people heard this, they said, "May this never be!" (20:15b-16)
8. Having our own way
- Turn back to Joshua 24 and we see the renewal of the covenant at Shecham
- Joshua said to the people ‘This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to God.’
- We began looking at judges by talking about our own tendency to rebel against God and his will.
- We want our own way, prefer our own way, and resent it when we can’t get it. Too often there are issues we war with God about – the loss of a loved one, a financial crisis, a difficult situation we have difficulty resolving.
9. Land of Milk
- The period of the Judges was a time of war. The Jewish nation was charged with driving out the Canaanites.
- I’ve wondered why God would give His people an occupied promised land. You’d think this “land of milk and honey” would be vacant, open to development but instead of simply arriving and settling down; the Jews have to conquer Canaan .
- After the hardships of the wilderness they are forced to deal with internal and external conflict. Possibly God’s reason was to cause His people to trust in His power to grant them victory.
10. Christian Distinctiveness
- In the Book of Judges we see a chosen nation risking assimilation by a pagan culture. God warns Israel
- The challenge of this book for us is maintaining commitment to God in a hostile, secular environment
- In our pluralistic society it’s uncomfortable to stand out, or to appear intolerant. Yet God has called us to be distinct, to show by what we say and do that we belong to Christ.
- We are not to dilute the Gospel. We proclaim Jesus as the only Saviour and Lord, which sets us apart. The word “saint” literally means one set apart—we are compelled to be different from our unbelieving world, living our distinctive Biblical values and priorities and convictions - even if that means we don’t quite fit in.
- As always in such circumstances, however there were faithful Israelites who continued quietly to pursue lives of genuine piety and holiness.
11. Conclusion
- As we continue to study the book of Judges this week, we’ll encounter familiar heroes such as Gideon, Deborah, and Samson, along with some lesser-known individuals.
- A theme throughout the Book of Judges is that the God Who rightly casts us to the ground should stoop to lift us up.
- No book of the Bible so clearly reveals our human frailty, but throughout we see unmistakable signs of God’s patience and compassion.
- A God who time and time again calls back his people to himself in a covenant relationship that continues from one generation to the next.
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