3. “Understanding the Battle” (Judges 2-3)

Growing up, to me one of the coolest passages in the Bible was Ephesians 6, where Paul tells Christians to put on the armor of God, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, and so on. I mean, what normal 9yo boy isn’t attracted to the idea of being in a battle with superpower armor?

As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to appreciate how important these verse are. Look, Paul is saying, You are in a real battle. God has chosen to save the world, to bring it all under the rule of Jesus, and he is doing this through us, his church. And the devil is actively scheming to destroy us. You are in a battle, Paul says. Not against human beings, which would be daunting enough, but against terrifyingly real and strong supernatural powers that are present and active in this world and who want to ruin you and your witness to the world. You are going to need to be strong, Paul tells us. You are going to need to be ready to wrestle as these evil forces seek to pull you down. You’re going need to learn how to stand, not in your own strength, but in the strength of God.

And I bring that up as we begin, because it might seem to you that as we read in Judges about these border skirmishes between small Middle Eastern nations more than 3000 years ago that they really have almost nothing to say of relevance to someone living in the Chicago suburbs in 2023. But if we read Judges rightly, we’ll come to understand that what is being described here is actually the very same battle we are in. Because the military skirmishes here are just a small part of a much deeper conflict, the visible piece of kind of an upside-down iceberg, where the part we can see on the battleground is only a fraction of the much larger, heavenly reality going on.

On one side you have the people who belong to God, Israel, the people God has chosen to bring salvation to the world. On the other, you have nations who serve other gods, Baals and Ashteroths, who likely were connected to demons. Wherever we see people being turned away from the true God, we are seeing the work of Satan and his demonic host. Thus the battle is between those who have sworn allegiance to God and those people who have sworn allegiance to God’s spiritual enemies.

The demonic powers represented by Baals and Ashtaroth were happy to destroy God’s chosen people through military conquest. But they recognized that the even deeper victory could come through deceiving them, causing them to betray their God and make allegiance to these demonic powers. This is why in Judges descriptions of Israel’s fate militarily and Israel’s turning toward false gods are always so closely connected. Because they’re both part of the same battle: a battle, we might say, for the soul of God’s people.

Judges is ultimately the story of a human battle that’s more than just against flesh and blood; it’s against the “the rulers, the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil” to use the language of Ephesians 6. And so as we read it, we are meant to see the battle that we ourselves are in. And we are meant to be spurred on to fight. That is the central application we will see this morning: here is a summons to battle. If you are a Christian, here is a call to fight, to keep fighting. If you would not yet describe yourself in this way, here is an invitation to join the fight.

Our passage this morning is in two parts. Chapter 2 gives us an overview of the pattern of battle that will repeat itself throughout Judges. Most simply, it’s this:

1. The people of Israel fail in the spiritual battle, making allegiance with the enemy through idolatry.
2. God in response allows them to fall in military battle to the forces they allied themselves to.
3. Israel suffers.
4. God raises up a deliverer, a “judge” to make things right; to bring them military victory and reconnect them to God.
5. When that deliverer dies, the people fail in spiritual battle again.

In chapter 3, we find the first example of this pattern, the first of the 6 major Judges whose stories fill this book. We will primarily focus on those verses 3:7-11, while using the overview in chapter 2 to help guide us so that we can hear this call to fight.

Fight, Because We Are in a Time of Battle

Verse 7 begins with the failure in the spiritual battle: “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.” 2:12 describes it further, saying that “they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them.” At some point after the people had constructed their homes and were farming and beginning to experience stability, they began to make trips to the shrines of other gods and bowed down there.  

It’s fairly clear here that the Israelites don’t realize that in these actions they are losing the battle, because they failed to understand what the battle actually is. In the moment it felt like a time of peace. As you’re setting up home, why wouldn’t you observe the people who lived there for generations had obviously figured out how to prosper in this land—their worship practices were working for them, so why wouldn’t you learn from their example?

Now, viewed from our perspective, it seems utterly nonsensical. After being under the tyranny of a foreign power with foreign gods in Egypt, the God of the universe, the God of their ancestor Abraham who had been with them all their time in Egypt, shows up in a powerful way and does the kind of things that, well, you really can’t forget. He fills Egypt with frogs and gnats; he sends powerful hailstorms and darkness; he divides a sea for Israel to walk through to escape into freedom; and then for an entire generation he provides bread from heaven week after week until finally he brings them into a land to be their home. Can’t you just imagine growing up as a kid saying, “Grampa, tell me again about the Red Sea. Gramma, tell me about how the wall just fell down.” But now, as they grow up, they forget and decide to bow down and serve the gods of the very people who seek to kill them? This makes absolutely no sense. How could they do this?

But actually, is it that hard to understand? Yes, they heard these stories; but that’s what they felt like—just stories. It didn’t feel real. What felt real was the need for crops to grow to feed their families. What felt real were the great shrines and visible statues of these local gods of weather and growth and all the food these local people enjoyed.  

Can’t we relate if we think about it for a moment? When you wake up, what feels more urgent: the need to check your phone for emails and the latest news? Or the need to turn in prayer to the God who loves you? For those of you who are parents, on Sunday mornings, what feels more likely to negatively affect your child: them missing church? Or them letting down their soccer team by not being at that game? If you’re facing a job change, which pathway feels more likely to give you the life you want: a promotion to a position of greater importance and more pay but that also will demand of you every spare minute? Or a slight step down that would also free you up to be more invested in your family and in the lives of others. We all know the gap between what we have been told is true and between what feels real. We know at times how much more powerful those feelings can be.

What’s especially tragic about this in Judges is that this failure to live according to what is true, this failure to seek what is good keeps happening. Every time Israel forgets and turn away; every time they then experience the awful consequences of their choices, God steps in. And they see and for a time they return. But then they forget again. Every time. And if we’re honest, can’t we relate to that repeated forgetfulness, too?

What we are meant to see in these verses, and really, also in our own lives, is that there is what we might call an enemy power at work within us. There is a force within us, within humanity that is resistant to the goodness of God, a part of us that just keeps forgetting; something within us that wants in a twisted fashion to escape God. A part of us that wants to betray God by turning elsewhere for our hope, our strength, our worship. While we have a name for this force, “sin” we don’t have an explanation, because it really doesn’t make sense. But we need to recognize it so that we can know what time it is.

We not in a time of peace. When it’s peace, we can put down the weapons and armor; we can let go of our vigilance, we can relax. But if the enemy is near, if it’s a time of war we must be ready, on alert, and active. In a time of war, we must fight. And we’re in a time of battle.

The enemy is near; it is at work in the instincts of our community and in our very own hearts. Which means we need to be ready to resist. We should expect that what comes naturally to our community, what is normal in our culture will inevitably subtly pull us away from God. What’s more we should expect that at times what feels right to us, what feels natural in the moment, even good, will actually be a lie, a deception, just as Israel was deceived when they felt like the smart thing to do was visit the other shrines.

We’re going to need to fight by being attentive to the choices we make, the habits we form, the life we pursue. Are these choices and habits, is this life oriented toward the God we serve? Or are we being pulled away? We fight, because we are in a time of war, not peace.

We Fight, Because the Stakes Are High

And, what’s more, we must fight, because the stakes are high. That’s the second truth about this battle that we are meant to see in our passage.

Notice again how verse 7 speaks of Israel’s failure here: “The people of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.” Betraying the Lord by turning to other gods is evil. In our day, after a few decades of not using that concept, I think we’re beginning to realize again that evil exists. That it’s not just unpleasant when a human being is beaten and humiliated because of the color of their skin; it’s not just a matter of opinion that it’s wrong when a child is sexually abused. It’s evil. Evil is a real thing. And when a people who have promised loyalty to a God, a God who has loved them and protected them, when those people abandon the true God for others, that is evil. It doesn’t matter if doing this is “right in their own eyes.” It is evil in the eyes of the Lord, which means it is truly evil.

And so, we are told, “the anger of the Lord was kindled.” God doesn’t get angry in the way we do, losing control. Anger with God is the righteous response to evil. Any other response would be to trivialize it: imagine if someone were to say to the holocaust, “Well, that’s no big deal.” What a horrific response that would be! No, with evil, the only true and just response is rejection and opposition. God by being angry is saying, this is not okay.

And his just response is to reveal the truth about this evil through the experience of evil’s consequences. Israel chooses to abandon God, so God gives them over to what life is like apart from his care. Verse 7 says they “serve” these gods of the surrounding nations; and so verse 8 tells us they are forced to “serve” the king who is a human representative of these goods. God gives them the full logical outcome of their actions.  

And what they discover is that it’s awful. This king is named “Cushan Rishathaim” which means something like “Mr. Dark Double-wicked.” He’s not just wicked, he’s super wicked, a tyrant of tyrants with no kindness or mercy. The language of 2:14 underlines this: God gives them over to plunderers who plunder them. This, we are meant to understand, is the essence of those spiritual powers that Israel pursues. They initially look appealing; they initially hold out the promise of prosperity and living well in the land. But these gods do not care about the people of Israel: they just want to use them, to plunder them.

See, whenever someone chooses to place themselves in service of someone other than God, they will eventually come to see that they are in service to the dark double-wicked, with no kindness or mercy.

• Those who serve the Baal of money will feel like they never have enough. They will stress over every purchase, daily checking their banking app, enjoying very little.
• Those who serve the Baal of accomplishment and success will constantly be haunted by the fear of failure. They will feel the need to work harder and harder and yet deep down will never feel like they’ve made it.
• Those who serve the Baal of family will constantly be aware of the dangers threatening their children. Their kids will feel crushed by the awareness that to make their parents happy they need to succeed and be happy, even when they’re not.

Your life will be determined by the one you serve. Everyone of the Baals we are tempted by seeks to plunder us, to hollow us out, because they are evil. And this is why we battle. This is why we are called to fight. There’s a paradox here. Those who choose not to fight; those who default to what comes naturally, experience the exhaustion of slavery to sin and ultimately death. Meanwhile, those who fight, who strain themselves to withstand temptation to turn away from God who hold fast to him: those are the people who, as we will see, experience rest. We must fight, because the stakes are incredibly high.

Fight, Because Victory Is Assured

And this brings us to the third reason we are given here for why we should fight. Fight, because victory is assured. Victory is assured, because of God’s unceasing commitment and God’s unstoppable power.

Verse 8 would be a fitting completion to the story: God’s people betray God and serve other nation’s gods; God hands them over to these gods and their nations; they experience the misery of evil. The traitors get what they deserve. The end.

Except it’s not the end. The miserable people of Israel cry out. That’s all it is, a cry. No mention of confession or repentance or casting out their idols. They simply groan in pain and say Help. And what does God do? He rescues them. He raises up a deliverer who will make things right. He by the Spirit empowers his agent to lead them into battle, free them from Mr. Double-Wicked, and, as verse 11 tells us, give them rest. Rest! Freedom from misery. Peace and prosperity in the land he gave them.

Why? 2:18: “For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.” God didn’t have to be moved to pity. Have you ever thought about that? These people had completely turned their back on God. God could have turned his back on them. God does not need his people.

And yet he keeps his eyes upon them, even in their sin. He allows his heart to grieve as he watches their suffering. And, miraculously, to those who utterly betrayed them, he chooses to show kindness. Because for reasons we will never fully understand, he is utterly, unceasingly committed to his people. He has loved them with an everlasting love. And he will not let them go.

And coupled with this unceasing commitment, we see his unstoppable power. The person God raises up is someone we’ve already met, Othniel. Othniel—remember him? The relative of Caleb whose faith enabled him to lead the charge against a city and subsequently marry Caleb’s granddaughter. Here, we’re given really no further detail about this leader. Really, if we’re honest, he’s kind of a boring Judge. I mean, think about it—for those of you who grew up in Sunday school and learned the stories of the judges, how many of you even remembered Othniel before this morning? I mean, apart from being told that the Spirit of the Lord is on him there’s nothing else cool about him. Samson has super strength; Gideon is this battle tactician; Ehud is lefthanded; even Shamgar, whose story is only one verse long, has a cool weapon, killing hundreds with an oxgoad. But Othniel?

And it’s not just Othniel who seems boring: the entire story is kind of, well, anti-climactic. No assassinations or interesting battle scenes. Here’s the entire climax of the conflict: “He went out to war, and the Lord gave Mr. Double-wicked into his hand.” I mean, don’t get me wrong. If you were there, if you had been timid before but now, with Othniel’s encouragement, with his strong leadership if you had then marched into battle it would have been amazing! But for us today it honestly doesn’t make that great of a story.

But what seems boring is actually the point. Focusing our attention on any interesting trait of Othniel would distract us from what is central. It doesn’t really matter how strong or fast Othniel is, or how smart or impulsive. What matters was that God was with him and that he was faithful in response to God’s leading. And when someone submits to God’s will and is filled by his Spirit, the enemy powers have no chance. There is no contest between God and any other powers, there is no comparison. The powers of evil have no more chance against God than a man who wants to stop a hurricane from coming by blowing in the opposite direction. God is unstoppably powerful.

Now Othniel dies, and once he does, Israel falls right back into its old patterns; sin is too powerful. But this moment of salvation gives us a glimpse of where this all is headed. If God is unceasingly committed to his people, and if he is unstoppably powerful, then the victory in the end must, somehow be assured. And we know how that is. That God will eventually raise up a greater Othniel, a man filled with his Spirit from birth who would submit to God’s will in every way. In Jesus’ God’s unceasing commitment to us and his unstoppable power come together on the cross and in the resurrection as the Son of God defeats Satan and conquers sin, freeing us from its hold on us. Victory is assured, because Christ has already won.

And here’s where Paul’s exhortation in Ephesians 6 comes in, the words we began with. Though Christ has dealt Satan a deathblow, we still are in a time of battle that will continue until Jesus returns: our old self of sin has been crucified with Christ, and yet we are still called to put that old self to death. It is still the case that the stakes are high and that succumbing to the deception of other spirits will lead us into misery and slavery.  

But now we follow in Jesus a deliverer even greater than Othniel. And because of that, we can fight, and not just fight, but fight with confidence, knowing we will win. For our deliverer has equipped us with a new capacity, a new strength so that we too are filled by his powerful Spirit. Now, because of Jesus, we have been given divine armor; the belt of truth to protect us from deception; the shield of faith shielding us from the arrows; the Sword of the Spirit. We can fight knowing that we will win.

So, God says to us, Fight! Be strong in the Lord. Be vigilant, for you’re in a time of battle. Take this seriously, because the stakes are high! And yet fight confidently, because victory is assured. How do we fight? What does that look like? I want to let you in on a little secret. I know the bulletin says we have two different series, where I’m preaching on Judges and Nick on “Habits for Love.” But the reality is, it’s really just one series. It’s a series on the battle. Judges helps us to see what the fight is. And then, as we focus on habits, we’re seeking to fight together.

But for now, let’s respond simply to this call to be strong in the Lord. We do that by turning to him, confessing our sins and seeking his help. So let’s do that now.