Judges 2 Spinning Out of Control

The Lord brings charges against His people in Judges 2:1-15. The charge or accusation was very serious; the Israelites had disobeyed God, compromised with the enemies dwelling in the Promised Land and engaged in their false worship. To expose this terrible evil, God sent an angel of the Lord confronted God’s people.

Who was this ‘angel of the Lord?’ The word “angel” (malak) means an envoy, prophet, priest, or teacher. Was this an angel sent from the very presence of God, or a special messenger such as a prophet or priest sent by God? Or was it, as most commentators feel, the Lord Himself who sometimes confronted His people directly?

The Lord was making a very special appearance to expose the sin of His people. Notice that this messenger of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Borim. What does this mean to go up “from Gilgal to Bokim?” Keep in mind that the Tabernacle had been originally set up at Gilgal, by Joshua (Josh. 4:18-20). The Tabernacle symbolized God’s presence. Thus, the writer is probably speaking descriptively, painting the picture of God’s presence going up from the Tabernacle at Gilgal to Bokim. Whatever the case, God went up to expose the people’s sin and to charge them with apostasy, with breaking their covenant to obey Him.

Although the charges of Israel’s unfaithfulness were clearly spelled out in Scripture, nevertheless the angel of the Lord reminded the people of these wonderful facts: It was the Lord Himself who had delivered them from Egyptian slavery and given them the Promised Land – the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Morever, the Lord was faithful to keep all His promises which He had proven through the years by the fact that He had never broken His covenant with His people. In fact, not even one word of His promises or covenant had ever been broken. In verse 1 God says, “I will never break my covenant with you.” God would be faithful until the end, but the people would forfeit blessing for trouble, due to their disobedience. Indeed even, if we are faithless, He remains faithful (2 Tim 2:13).

Study Judges 2 this week in preparation for this coming Lord’s Day.

Ephesians (Introduction) – From Eternity to Here

When was the last time you’ve been blown away by God as you comprehended His power and glory revealed to you from His Word? If I had to state the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit in authoring the book of Ephesians, it would be just that. Ephesians exists for the people of God to stop and stand in awe of what God has done in one’s own personal salvation – in what He accomplished through Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection, and how this is worked out in His church. Like no other book of doctrine, Ephesians gives us a magnificent sweep of God’s saving purpose initiated before the foundation of the world, revealed and summed up in Christ, and displayed in the teaching, prayers and worship of the church. There are so many exhortations and declarations of His bountiful blessings to His own, that anyone who is alive in Christ will not help but to have his affections stirred as he reads and meditates upon this Epistle.

It is the peculiar error of the church in this past century, that having forgotten God, it has become so subjective and egocentric. Ephesians lifts us out of our human or vertical plane of perception and carries us to the heights, where we can observe the great panorama of our personal salvation from beginning to end. From this vantage point we can better understand the array of particular details which have taken place in the course of our own Christian walk of faith. Like the salvation experience it describes, the Epistle of Ephesians does not start with man and ascend to God, but rather begins in eternity past before there was anything but God. We find that everything that God has purposed in predestining us to salvation from eternity past, He has carried out in Christ. God determines the timing that everything will happen, as He chooses us in Christ, calls us in Christ, and redeems us by His blood.

The Epistle moves from eternity to the here and now, as God’s purpose which He fixed in eternity is expressed in His church, as different people, with different personalities, from different nationalities and backgrounds, are yet “one in Christ.” Then it tells us all we need to know about who we are in Christ – so that, ‘having the eyes of our understanding enlightened,’ we might live our lives worthy of the name of Christ. It teaches us what life in Christ ought to look like.

With the whole world in financial disarray, wondering what their future holds, and what the outcome of the present trouble is going to be, how privileged we are to stop and stand back and see this revelation of God’s plan and purpose behind it all.

This week we begin our expedition through the verses of the epistle that has been called, ‘the crown of St. Paul ’s writings’ and ‘one of the most significant documents ever written.’ We all have our favorite books of the Bible; this was Calvin’s favorite – and for many reasons it has become mine as well. Martyn Lloyd-Jones has said, “if the Epistle to the Romans is the purest expression of the gospel, the Epistle to the Ephesians is the sublimest and most majestic expression of it. This week I would encourage you to read the book of Ephesians once through to get an overview of its themes, and then read it again and begin to grasp its directive. As you read take note of repeated words and themes of mystery, glory, riches, and redemption.

Judges 1:1-36 The Compromisers

God has a purpose for the narrative accounts that we find in the Old Testament. Paul wrote in Romans 15:4, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” 1 Cor. 10:11,12 tells us, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come so, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”

The Old Testament book of Judges speaks to our time. It presents us with living illustrations of individuals who served the Lord in difficult times. The book presents the consequences of spiritual compromise and it reveals what happens to God’s people when they conform to the mold of this world.

The book of Judges reveals that a partial defense is no defense at all; that there is no room for neutrality in the Christian life. We either submit and serve Christ, or we will be swallowed up by the wicked influence of this world. The place for the ship is in the sea, but God help the ship if the sea gets into it! As the sea waters sinks the ship, the flood tides of this world, and the lifestyle and philosophy of this age, will sink the Christian if it infiltrates his heart. John warns us in 1 John 2:15, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in Him”

The principles and applications in the book of Judges are vital for spiritual survival! Why is the book of judges in the Bible? What are the purpose, meaning, and message of this three thousand year old book? One reason is to warn us of the dangers of compromise with sin and another is to remind us that God’s judgment upon sin is certain as well as His forgiveness and restoration when we are repentant.

This week read Judges and begin to get a grasp of its teachings.