2. “Where Did it Go Wrong?” (Judges 1-2)

Last week we started our study of Judges by looking at the end, by seeing quite clearly a picture of a society that was falling apart, a picture that in some ways feels similar to what we around us see today. We asked the questions, “What is going on? And what is the solution?”

There was a third question implied in that passage that I’d like us to consider this morning. “How did this happen?” When we were told last week that the lawless, mercenary was the great grandson of Moses, we’re meant to have our jaws drop. How in the span of a few generations could it go from the man through whom God gave the law to his people to someone so lawless. How??

It’s an important question. For it’s only as we come to understand how this happens can we learn how not to repeat the same mistake.

This question of “how” is what lies at the heart of this morning’s passage. The very first detail Judges begins with is the death of Joshua. While Joshua was alive, God’s people prospered; they followed his law, and they were experiencing great success in taking hold of the land of Canaan. There’s so much optimism. But then when we get to the end, we find all of God’s people weeping at their failure. Something has happened that has set Israel on a deeply destructive trajectory. What is it? What went wrong? How did it happen?

Well, we are told quite clearly. The fall of Israel can all be traced by a failure to hear.

Chapter 1 describes in broad strokes Israel’s campaign to finish taking the promised land; then the first 5 verses of Chapter 2 God interprets them. In verse 1, He reminds Israel of his grace: how he rescued Israel in order for them to be his special people. He desired to pour out upon them his kindness by giving them a beautiful land. For them to experience the rest and the peace that he wanted for them, verse 2 says that his command to Israel was to go into this land and completely remove from it any trace of idolatry. Stories like Rahab show us that people who want to worship Yahweh could join with Israel. But idolatrous people and their idolatrous practices must completely be removed from the land that God declared holy. By being faithful to God, Israel would come to enjoy rest and joy and peace in the land.

And God says in verse 2, and this the key to this passage, “You have not obeyed, which also could be translated, “you have not heard” my voice. What happened? Where did it all go wrong? In a failure to hear.

That’s the story we find in Chapter 1. Chapter 1 is like a movie montage, moving from one scene quickly to another to tell a grand narrative. And it tells this story in roughly into two halves. The first half describes the actions of the southern tribes connected with Judah. And here is something positive. God’s people, at least for a time, hear his Word rightly. But then the second half shows us the events of the northern tribes connected with Joseph, where things begin to fail. And so we see what could be, what true hearing looks like, and what happened, what it looks like to fail to hear God.

Part 1: Active Hearing

The first scene happens right at the beginning. Joshua has died, and for the first time since they were slaves in Egypt, they are without a clear, divinely appointed leader. So, wisely, they ask God what to do—likely they ask the priests to seek God’s will. “Who shall go up first against the Canaanites to fight against them?” they ask. And God says, “Judah. I have given the land into his hand.”

And then something significant and extraordinary takes place. Right after Israel hears God’s Word, they act on it. The leaders of Judah’s tribe get together with the leaders of Simeon, the tribe closest to them, “Let’s do this together.” They organize around a strategy; they send out word to all of their households. Men everywhere get dressed for battle, leaving their tents and saying goodbye to their families; they march to the large city of Bezek and there began the fight.

What we see is that the true hearing of God’s voice is responsive. It’s a simple thing to highlight, but it can be easy to forget. Sometimes we can confuse a certain kind of knowing with growing. We can feel like if we are gaining more information about what God’s word teaches us, or maybe we are gaining deeper insight into who we are, or what it looks like to follow Jesus, real growth is happening. But the real test is when we hear what God is teaching us, do we respond? Do we act on it?

Which brings us to the next scene, where we see not just an initial responsiveness to God’s word, but a resolve to see it through to completion. God gives them victory over this city of Bezek, and their enemy leader, (Adoni-Bezek just means Lord of Bezek) eventually flees the battle scene. Now it would have been an easy thing for them to let him go. They had taken the city, crushed the enemy army, soldiers were no doubt exhausted and wounded, so what did it matter one man escaping? Well, it mattered because they had been commanded by God to root out idolatry from the land and make no covenant with it. To experience rest and peace in this land, they were called by God to pursue the leaders and bring them to justice, and that’s what they did with this leader. As gruesome as the details are of thumbs and toes being cut off, what we are meant to see is follow-through. If God told them this was what they were to do, even if some of the details seemed unnecessary to them, they were resolute in seeing it to completion. Truly hearing God’s Word looks like means hearing with resolve.

A few verses later we come to the third scene, where we see a third aspect in truly hearing God’s Word. It means responding, being resolute, and it also instills zeal: a zeal for taking hold of what God has given. Caleb enters the story; he’s this old war veteran—decades years earlier, he was one of the two spies who said, hey this land has lots of strong armies, but with God we can take them. We can imagine him now, hair white, skin like leather, somehow still physically capable and mind sharp; if this were in modern day, I’d imagine him smoking a stogy as he meets with his battle leaders. And as he looks at the map to plan the next step, he sees Kiriath-sepher as a strategic city to take. And he lays down a challenge: “My granddaughter (that’s probably what the word indicates here) Achsah is ready to marry. But I will only arrange a marriage with a worthy suitor. If someone takes this city, he can marry her.”  And Othniel, likely his great nephew, who has perhaps been an admirer of Achsah for a while, sees his chance. He organizes the men of his household and his friends’ household, saying, “Let’s do this,” and they follow him and they take the city.

And, as strange as the whole arranged marriage thing is to us westerners, notice that Achsah is not some passive object. When she finds out who is going to be her husband, immediately she counsels Othniel, “Okay, my grandfather will have to give a dowry; ask him for land.” And Othniel, who’s smart enough to know to listen to wise advice, does exactly that, and is granted the Negeb, a somewhat dry area in the south. And then Achsah asserts herself even further by going straight to Caleb: “Grandpa, thanks for the Negeb. Now, I know how much you love me and how you’d want our animals to do well, right? So would you include in the dowry the area with springs of water?” And Caleb, shaking his head with a smile at her boldness, adds into the deed that they will get the lower and upper springs adjacent to the Negeb.

What’s the point? Remember, God has said. “I have given you this land. This is my gift for you, filled with goodness. Take it!” And in Caleb, and Othniel, and Achsah, we see them devoting their energy to taking hold of what God has chosen to give them. They push themselves, they take courageous action, they are boldly assertive—they are zealous to take hold of what God has to give them. Because that’s what hearing the voice of God looks like.

It seems to me that sometimes we can miss this energetic aspect to hearing God’s Word. Listening involve an aspect of quiet, yes, of trust, of internalizing. But also includes a response that is active.

Paul writes to his Philippian friends, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” and then later he will go on to speak personally, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” This is what truly hearing God’s Word looks like. It’s active. We hear it also from the writer of Hebrews. After describing many examples of active faith, he says, “Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” That’s what truly hearing God’s Word looks like. It’s active.

And returning to our passage, notice the good things that come with this active hearing. In responding to God’s call, Judah and Simeon are more deeply united to each other. In their resoluteness, justice prevails, for the Leader of Bezek receives the consequence upon himself that he performed to many others. In Othniel’s and Achsah’s zeal to take hold of God’s gift, we see a healthy partnership between husband and wife. And in all of this they receive the gift of land. As they actively respond to God’s Word, his people are moving into rest and peace and joy.

This is how things could have been.

Part 2: Compromise and Complacency

But then we come to the second half of our passage, describing the actions of the northern tribes connected to Joseph. And here’s where we begin to see things go wrong. Rather than active hearing, we see compromise and complacency.

Just as we read of Judah “going up” against the city of Bezek, now we see Joseph “going up” against Bethel, an intentional parallel inviting us to compare the two scenes. In the victorious battle of Bezek their king left the city and Judah pursued and brought him to judgment. Here the story begins in verse 24 with a man leaving the city, and the leaders of the house of Joseph, rather than pursuing, get practical. They offer this man a deal: “Hey, we’re about to attack this city, and that won’t be good for you. But if you make our job easier, telling us how to get in, we will let you live,” Literally it’s “we’ll show hesed to you” a word often connected to covenants. They made a covenant with this man.

And you can understand why. It’s good military tactics, because letting one guy go is a small price to pay for more easily taking the city. And it absolutely works. They’re able to conquer the city without much difficulty—a victory for God’s people, right? If you’re judging by immediate results, this is a win! But this is the opposite of the resolve we saw earlier, this is not a commitment to fully obey God. Instead, it’s a compromise. To make things easier, they are making a covenant with idolatry. In the short term as they take hold of this city and enjoy its benefits, this will have looked like a good decision. But one or two generations later, the cost will begin to appear. Verse 26 we see that Luz and its idolatry will live on amidst the people of God as the man who escapes starts the city over. A compromise based on what seems practical allows idolatry to continue to have power.

In verse 27 get to the long list of what happens with the other northern tribes. And notice what is repeated: Manesseh “did not drive out the inhabitants…” instead, verse 28, “When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely.” Verse 30: Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants, the Canaanites lived among them and became subject to forced labor; and so on. It’s not surprising that they don’t immediately drive out the inhabitants: God himself said in Deuteronomy that their ability to drive out the Canaanites would not happen all at once. It would take patience and perseverance. But notice that as Israel experiences resistance, as it gets hard, they choose to do what is easier. Once they get the upper hand, instead of doing the harder work of forcing them out, they instead choose to make the Canaanites into their slaves. So what if Israel doesn’t take hold of all the land? So what if they allow the Canaanite altars and shrines to still exist in Canaanite towns? Isn’t it still a win? Isn’t it a good thing to harness their wealth and strength to help Israel prosper?

Caleb and Othniel and Achsah model for us zeal to take hold of what God is giving. Here we see complacency, choosing the life of ease over the life that God says is good.

It’s easy to see the mistake here, right? We can see how in Israel’s compromise and complacency they ultimately are not hearing, not sitting under God’s instructions. What we have a harder time seeing is how we can make the same mistakes today. Tragically, in the American church it is a common thing to overlook sin and compromise as long as it’s getting results. Yes, he might be abusive in his leadership, but look at how many people are coming to church! Or, to speak more personally, how often do we find ourselves squinting or shutting our eyes at an area in our lives that we know doesn’t conform to God’s Word just because it doesn’t seem that important?

Compromise and complacency are a failure to hear God. God says that explicitly: “I said you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land, but you have. I said you shall break down their altars, but you haven’t. You have not obeyed, you have not heard my voice.” And then God says, “What is this you have done?” A simple question meant to penetrate all the lies. You’ve told yourself tales—no big deal, it’s all God wanted anyway. In fact, it’s better this way. But take an honest look. What is this you have done? You have refused to hear and obey my voice.

And this failure to hear is unimaginably costly. It is the mistake that will lead to all the mess, the chaos, the suffering that comes after. Verse 3: “Now I will not drive them out before you.” You have chosen to keep them in your land, I will allow you to experience the outcome of this choice. Here’s what will happen. These idolaters will become thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.” Again and again you will be tempted by their idolatry, and you will succumb to it.

Their sin to ignore God’s voice, sin that maybe at the time seemed relatively small and even justifiable will beget more sin. Each generation will forget more than the generation before, each will lose sight of what God has said and who God is and instead find idols more compelling, each generation more and more will believe they are doing right, but in reality will only be doing what is right in their own eyes, until we arrive at the mess we saw last week; false religiosity, broken relationship, power and wealthy exploiting the weak. At the end of our passage Israel weeps, and rightly so. Israel will be doomed to fall apart. This is how it happens. In a failure to hear God’s Word. A failure to actively respond to it with resolve and zeal and instead act with compromise and complacency.

And it would seem like the application for us is pretty straightforward. Listen to God’s voice! Do not allow compromise into your life; do not accept complacency when it comes to sin. There is a better way before you, a way of peace and rest if only you will listen. So as you hear God instruct you, act upon it. Be resolute in your commitment! Pursue with zeal the life that God has for you.

My guess is you’ve heard sermons like that before. And there is something right about an exhortation like that, something similar to the exhortations we mentioned earlier in the New Testament. But there’s also something missing. It’s not the whole picture. It’s not the full application we’re meant to take from this. The writer of Judges is subtler than this, and the picture he offers is a bit more complicated.

Consider again the words we hear from the angel of God, the words that lead to the proclamation that their failure has doomed them to be slaves to their sin. “What is this you have done?” There is one other time in the Bible when God asks this very same question. Many centuries earlier someone else, instead of hearing God’s voice, chose to do what seemed to make sense. She took the fruit that appeared good and ate of it. And afterward, when God confronted her, he asked her, “What is this you have done?”

See, the failure that has happened here in Judges, this sin that will beget greater sin, this fall from what could have been, it is a tragic repetition, a recurrence of the story of humanity in Eden. This failure itself is an offspring of the very first failure, a the very first choice not to hear, which has plunged humanity into what seems like an endless spiral, a spiritual death. And what that means is that something more is needed than a simple call to try harder. Judges is showing us that there is a deep problem here that lies in our hearts, that needs a miraculous solution.

We considered how the New Testament exhorts us to an energetic obedience, and it does. But listen again to these instructions. Paul doesn’t say, “Work out your God’s Law with fear and trembling.” No, he says work out your salvation; because something miraculous has happened that makes a lasting and deeper obedience possible. Paul doesn’t simply say, “I strive to make everything right.” He says he is pressing on in response to the upward call of God that comes in Christ Jesus: because now God has not just spoken to us in Words; he comes to us in a leader, his son, Christ Jesus. And then again consider what we hear in Hebrews: as we cast all aside and run with endurance, a picture of energetic listening, what are we told to do? Fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

When we hear descriptions of heroic people in the Bible we rightly want to follow their example: we want to be Caleb or Othniel or Achsah. And that’s good. But really, you and I don’t have to be Caleb, because we already have a leader with a deeper endurance and determination than grizzled Caleb, someone who set his face toward our salvation even as he was mocked and rejected: we get to be the people in the room led by his steely will. We don’t have to be Othniel, for we have someone with even greater courage and energy to obey God, not even shrinking back as he went to the cross to deliver us: we just get to be the undersoldiers who follow in his wake, knowing we have his protection. We don’t have to be Achsah, for we have someone who is even bolder than she, praying for us night and day toward the Holy God of the universe; we get to be the children growing up in her household who are told to go and experience the bounty of the land that has already been won for us. With Jesus as our King, our Savior, our older brother who leads us and strengthens us by his Spirit in every way, we can now respond to God’s call upon our lives actively, resolutely, zealously, without any fear. This, to quote Luther again, “is most certainly true.”

And so knowing that in Christ we are perfectly safe, let us hear God. Let’s actively work out our salvation, seeking to let it change every aspect of our lives. Let’s with resolve run with perseverance the race we have been given, looking always at Christ our leader. Let’s with zeal actively seek to take hold of the good life we have in Christ. And let’s take a step toward that now in prayer. Where is it that you have been complacent and compromising? Confess that to our God. What is God calling you to do? Let us ask Christ for help and allow him to lead us.