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00:17 Once again, it's my joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God.
00:24 We have uh finished uh with a series on the gospel according to John and today
00:30 we start a new series on the old uh testament book of uh judges uh which is
00:36 the seventh book in the Bible uh following the book of Joshua.
00:44 This morning I've been given the u happy burden of uh launching uh this new
00:50 series. Every sermon is a burden. But it's a heavy burden. I must say our
00:57 text uh today is a really a long one. Uh thanks David for reading I think 30 39
01:03 verses and um it includes the whole of Judges
01:09 uh chapter 1 uh plus three verses from chapter 2 and the sermon is entitled
01:15 halfhearted disciplehip. When you are half-hearted, you you lack
01:21 total commitment to the cause and you are not fully devoted to what
01:26 you do. And naturally, the result will deviate from what is required.
01:33 From a quick reading of the text, one is tempted to ask, "What is this got to do
01:39 with half-hearted disciplehip?" This reads more like a military campaign
01:45 by the Israelites to take the land of Canaan which God had promised them. They
01:51 were so successful. They were successful in capturing many cities. But in other
01:56 cases, uh they were less successful in a in an extended war with so many battles
02:03 like this. Uh well, you win some and you lose some. And that is what the text uh
02:09 uh reads like. But later as we dig into the verses, we will see that the
02:14 Israelites were not wholeheartedly dedicated to the task before them.
02:20 Uh their lack of faith will become apparent from the text and hence the title half-hearted disciplehip.
02:28 We'll also uh uh learn later about the nature of God, what it is like and what
02:34 he demands of us as followers of Christ. Even though the events of Judges chapter
02:40 1 took place 3,400 years ago, the um the the passage, the chapter is
02:48 still as instructive to us today as it was to the people of God in ancient
02:53 times. Shall we first go to the Lord in prayer?
02:59 Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this. We thank you for this portion of
03:04 scripture that has been preserved for us today so that we may understand more about you.
03:11 Open the eyes of our faith as we study this so that we may respond accordingly to you. For we ask this in Jesus name.
03:19 Amen. There is an obscure and uh somewhat
03:26 mysterious verse in Deuteronomy 22:1 unknown to most of you which prohibits
03:35 the wearing of clothes woven from wool and linen. Do not wear clothes of wool
03:42 and linen woven together. And this is repeated in the Leviticus
03:47 19:1 19. Keep my decrees. do not wear clothes woven of two kinds of materials.
03:54 Now in Judaism, this prohibition is known as shnesses. An Orthodox Jew uh if he when he buys a
04:02 coat, for example, he will check uh what material it is made from.
04:08 For example, this piece of clothing is made from 56% wool and 44% linen. And to
04:16 a Orthodox Jew, this would be a no no as it would contravene the law in
04:23 Deuteronomy 22:1. And there are shops in the US that will
04:28 sell you a sharpness compliant suit with a good discount thrown in. And if you're
04:35 not sure if it is if you're not sure if it is sharpness compliant, you can always have it tested. Uh this pair of
04:43 pens has been tested by a lab in New York and found to be non sharpness
04:48 compliant. As you know wool is made from sheep while linen is made from the fibers of
04:55 the linseed plant. Now why did God not allow his people to wear clothes woven
05:02 from both wool and linen? It is indeed a strange law or perhaps
05:11 even an irrational prohibition. What's wrong with wearing, you know, a coat uh
05:18 made from these two different material? Now, I'm I'm showing all these pictures as an appetizer to do today's sermon. We
05:26 will come back to this later and I will answer the question at the end of the sermon to keep you a bit in suspense.
05:33 Now before we dive into the text, I would like to offer some general comments. One of the challenges uh uh in
05:39 reading Judges chapter 1 is the many uh unfamiliar place names excluding uh
05:45 perhaps uh Jerusalem and Gaza which we all know. I I've picked up at least 30
05:51 other names of cities from the text. Many of them we may have uh difficulty pronouncing but David did very well.
05:58 Very smooth. Congratulations. You must have practiced like how many
06:04 times last night think. Now those I've colored uh are places
06:09 that still exist today. But whether they still exist today or not, these place
06:14 names in the text do give us uh the impression that the Bible is a historical book. Indeed, the Bible is is
06:22 full of history collaborated by archaeology. Now to illustrate this,
06:27 when I read this text for the first time, the one name that stood up for me was number nine, Beth Shan in verse 27.
06:38 This is because last November when we toured Israel, we spent many hours visiting this sprawling ancient city.
06:45 This is the group photo that we took at Beth Shan. I was standing in the top row to the
06:52 right. Hey, when you look at a group photo, you first look at yourself. Okay.
06:59 Now, archaeologists have dug up uh the remains and the ruins of Beth Shan which
07:05 authenticates the Bible and we walking along its its wide avenues and and
07:11 admiring uh rows of majestic columns. Beautiful place,
07:17 but it is it was a Canaanite city. Okay. Another mouthful of names all from all
07:22 over the text are the names of people groups. The Canaanites, the the Parisites, the the Jebusites, and the
07:29 Amorites. While Canaan is the umbrella name of the land, there were several people groups
07:36 living there. And this is clear from from a verse in Deuteronomy uh chapter 7. When the Lord your God brings you
07:43 into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations, the Hittites, Gigashites,
07:50 Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, uh, Heivites, and Jebusites, seven nations
07:56 larger and stronger than you. And four of these seven people groups are mentioned in our text.
08:03 And the map shows the approximate areas where each of them lived.
08:09 The other names of people groups in the text are the 12 tribes of Israel, the people of God. And here is a list I
08:16 gleaned from chapter one and and four four of the tribes at the bottom are not
08:21 mentioned in the text. Gad, is Shaka, Reuben and Divine. And you need to know
08:28 also that Manas and Ephraim uh are both considered half tribes under the tribe
08:35 of Joseph. number four in the list. Now all this can be very confusing if you
08:40 mix them all up uh uh you know with the with the names of the the opponents in the text you get confused who are God's
08:48 people who are not and so this list might be useful in addition to the list before this and after the conquest of
08:55 the u of the land of Canaan and this map shows the the land allocation to the 12
09:01 tribes of Israel which is a rather complicated picture and so not only do
09:07 we have a very long text today. We also have a very complicated narrative.
09:12 Now before we we we examine our text for today, I I have one more point to discuss with you a rather important
09:18 point which is the context of Judges chapter 1 so that we can make sense of
09:24 of what is going on uh in these verses. Our text opens uh in verse one.
09:32 After the death of Moses, after the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, who of us is to go up uh go up
09:39 first to fight against the Canaanites? So, the events uh in our text took place
09:46 following the death of Joshua, the successor of Moses, the great military
09:52 leader. And this would be around the year 1375 BC. And that's why I say 3,400 years
09:59 ago. Now more importantly verse one here links our text to the book of Joshua. In
10:05 fact Judges chapter one can be seen as a continuation of the preceding of the preceding book the book of Joshua. And
10:12 hence it's useful to know even very very briefly what Joshua did in his time in
10:18 order to appreciate the events uh recorded in Judges chapter 1.
10:23 Firstly from uh Joshua chapters 6 to12 we learned that Joshua had led three
10:28 military campaigns to take the land of Canaan. He started with a with a central campaign which included the famous
10:35 account of the fall of Jericho and then a southwestern campaign followed by a
10:41 northern campaign and being a capable military commander and also a faithful servant of God. Joshua was so successful
10:49 uh that when we get to Joshua chapter chapter 12, the Israelite had taken a sizable portion of the land. There was
10:57 enough land captured by then to allow Joshua to start distributing it to the 12 tribes of Israel. And this was
11:03 completed uh by the time we get to Joshua chapter 21. And I showed you earlier the map of the land allocations
11:10 to the 12 tribes. But more importantly, Joshua never really finished the job. By the time of
11:17 his death, the conquest of the land of Canaan was still not complete. Which
11:22 brings us to Judges chapter one, which is kind of an episode two of this long
11:28 conquest narrative. And this map shows by the time of uh Joshua's death the
11:34 remaining parts of the land that were yet to be uh possessed and mostly uh in
11:40 the coastal plane to the west as well as the pockets around uh Jerusalem and
11:45 Bethan. But more crucial to our insights into Joshua into Judges chapter one, we need
11:52 to know the strict instructions from God to the Israelites about what they needed to do as they dislodge the various
11:59 people groups in Canaan. And this is very critical. Now, the first is recorded, the first requirement, the
12:05 first instruction from God is recorded in Joshua chapter 1 as the Israelites prepared to start their their conquest
12:11 of Canaan. It says, "Be careful to obey all the laws my servant Moses gave you
12:17 that you might you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this book of the law always on your lips. Meditate on it
12:22 day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it." In
12:28 other words, be obedient to God and be faithful to him. But that's not all.
12:35 Earlier I cited a verse from Deuteronomy 7:1 listing the seven nations in Canaan
12:40 that that the Israelites were supposed to conquer. Now let me show you the following two
12:45 verses which describes God's further commands to the Israelites. Deuteronomy
12:51 7 verse uh 2 and 3. And when you and when the Lord your God has delivered
12:58 them over to you then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them.
13:04 Show them no mercy. Do not intermar with them.
13:09 So there are three more clear instructions. One, destroy them totally
13:14 and show them no mercy. The inhabitants of Canaan are to be wiped out. Two, make
13:20 no treaty with them, no packs, no deals with them. And thirdly, do not intermar
13:26 with them, no association with them, no mixing with them. In the book of uh
13:32 Joshua, amazingly the people of God managed to keep all these laws and
13:38 requirements uh uh most of the time. And years later near the end of the his
13:45 life, Joshua again repeated all these to his people before he passed
13:50 on to remind them as they continue their conquest uh in Judges chapter one. So
13:57 from the end of Joshua Josh Joshua Joshua 23 at the end of his life he said
14:02 be careful to obey all that is written in the book of the law of Moses do not associate with these nations but if you
14:08 turn away and ally yourself with yourselves with the survivors of this nation and if you intermar with them and
14:14 associate with them then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. So
14:20 there are many verses that describes God's requirements,
14:26 instructions, and command to the Israelites in relation to their conquest
14:31 of Canaan. So I've given you all the necessary background information, and we are now
14:38 ready to examine the text and to unpack what's beneath the verses.
14:43 As we saw earlier with 30 plus names of of of cities and more than 10 names of
14:49 people groups all tangled up in in this chapter, it is really a challenge to to
14:54 try to unravel uh what is going on here. And so we lack the time to uh to to to
15:01 go through to discuss battle by battle, verse by verse uh in this very complex
15:06 campaign. But nevertheless, this map uh shows a kind of a summary of
15:13 how the Israelites took the Israelites took the the rest of the land of Canaan.
15:18 And this is like a like a condensed version of a pictorial version of Judges chapter one. And you can study you can
15:25 study this later and and match it with each verse. Now each stripe has have
15:30 been allocated it portion of the land and now they have to go and dislodge the rest of the inhabitants in Canaan.
15:39 But from a bird eyes view, this may look very nice. You may not
15:44 realize that the battles seem to get harder and harder as we go down the
15:51 chapter. The Israelites had great success initially right up until about verse 18
15:58 and then they started to get bogged down. Increasingly uh the results left much to
16:05 be desired. From verse 19 onwards until the end of the chapter one the tone of
16:10 the narrative starts to get very negative. The outcome of the campaign became less
16:17 and less decisive. Now to illustrate this I picked up at least 10 verses from the second half of
16:23 the of chapter one. And you'll see that the language paints a rather uh grim picture. And here are some of them.
16:30 Verse 19. The men of Judah were unable to drive the people from the plains.
16:36 Verse 21, the Benjamites, however, did not drive out the Jebusites. Verse 27,
16:42 Manase did not drive out the people of Bashan or Tanak or Door.
16:48 Verse 29, nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Giza. Verse 30,
16:53 neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Ketron or um Hal.
16:59 Verse 31, nor did Asher. Verse 33, neither did Nefali. So you see the
17:06 language here. Why did things turn out rather poorly
17:11 for the Israelites? And did not these were not exactly battle losses. My ne but neither were
17:17 they convincing victories. The Israelites were able to take the the cities and the land, but they could not
17:24 drive out their enemies completely. Why not? Why the lack of success?
17:32 There is a reason for this. In fact, there are five reasons. Now, earlier at the start, I said that
17:37 the casual reading of Judges chapter one gives one the impression that that this is mostly about a military campaign with
17:43 its ups and downs. But if we dig deeper, the military campaign is just the box,
17:49 not the content. The the the whole uh battle thing is is is just the medium
17:55 and not the message. The hidden message behind our text today is a half-hearted
18:00 commitment to God on the part of the Israelites. The real story behind beneath the verses
18:06 is a is a halfbaked faith in God by a half committed people of God.
18:14 And come the big question, how this how is this so? Now from now I shall present
18:19 you five instances in the text which demonstrate how their
18:25 relationship with God became affected by their compromises uh to their commitment
18:31 and their lack of faith in God. And we will now go through the text part by part
18:40 five parts. The first instance of their so compromised compromised commitment is
18:47 in verses 1 to3. The Israelites the Israelites asked the Lord uh who of us is to go up first to
18:54 fight against the Canaanite. You saw this earlier. God replied, "Judah shall
18:59 go." But the men of Judah must have thought wouldn't it be better if we get the men
19:07 of Simeon to join us? Now our chances of victory will be much higher if we enlist
19:13 the Simeonites and in return we will help them in their battles.
19:19 Now most people reading this wouldn't think there is anything wrong. In fact getting the Simonites to help sounds
19:25 like a really good idea. It's common sense that there is strength in numbers.
19:31 More the better. But common sense may not sit well with God. God didn't say Judah and Simeon.
19:42 His instruction was specific. Judah shall go only Judah.
19:49 If you rely on the strength of numbers, you rely less on the strength of God.
19:58 And Joshua understood this when he told his people, "One of you
20:03 routes a thousand because the Lord your God fights for you. One Israelite could
20:09 overcome 1,000 Canaanites, but only because of God's strength, but
20:15 not to the men of Judah." They didn't think God was so powerful and they
20:21 preferred to rely on human wisdom. And so we see here a faith and compromise.
20:28 A faith and commitment to God, compromise or tempered by common sense.
20:35 Let's remember what Isaiah said about the nature of God. As the heavens are
20:41 higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
20:46 than your thoughts. I'm not saying that common sense and and human wisdom is bad. We use them all the time. But God's
20:54 wisdom trumps human wisdom.
20:59 The second instance of their of this compromised commitment is in verses 6 18 and 19 also involving the
21:06 men of Judah. They taken the cities of Gaza, Escalon and Ikron. But they only
21:12 took the hill country and they were but they were unable to drive the Canaanites from the plains.
21:19 Why? Because the Canaanites had iron
21:25 chariots. It says right here in verse 19, the
21:31 Canaanites had iron chariots and that prevented the Canaanites from taking the planes. And in human terms, this is
21:39 understandable. If your enemy has superior weaponry or technology, you
21:44 would think twice before going to battle with them. When you start comparing your wooden chariots with your iron chariots,
21:51 of course, you get rattled. But do you think
21:56 that iron chariots would have stood in the way of God's plan?
22:02 The men of Judah seem to think so. If the earlier lack of faith is bad, this
22:07 is even worse. Now, they didn't believe that God could overcome iron chariots. They forgotten that when their
22:14 forefathers uh left Egypt, escaped from Egypt, when hordes of Egyptian chariots
22:20 went after them, God totally destroyed the Egyptians in the the Egyptians in the Red Sea. And the Egyptians were
22:27 known to have used metals in making their chariots.
22:34 Often when we start looking at what others have, we stop looking to God.
22:40 The men of Judah compared their equipment with what their enemies had and they lost their nerves. They didn't
22:47 completely trust in God. And here we see a faith and commitment to God rattled by
22:55 comparison. The third point is even more shocking.
22:60 Let's see what is happening here. From verses 22 to 25, we now have the tribes of Joseph trying to take the city of
23:06 Bethl. But why tribes of uh Joseph in plural? Why not singular? Were there more than
23:13 one tribe of Joseph? Now this is a test to see whether you are paying attention just now.
23:20 Anyone know earlier remember I said that there are there were two half tribes under Joseph. Manase and Ephraim. And
23:28 therefore when we say tribes of Joseph, we're talking about the men of both Manase and Ephraim. Anyway, it appears
23:35 that the city had a wall because they were trying to find a way to get in. And so they sent some spies to check out the
23:41 place. And lo and behold, they found a man from the city and proceeded to cut a
23:48 deal with this man. Tell us how to get into the city and we
23:53 will spare your life and your family's life. Now, what's wrong with this? You may
23:58 ask. Clever thinking, problem solving, you may add,
24:06 except that it is a direct contravention of Lord's instruction,
24:12 the blatant disregard of his command. Remember this verse, make no treaty with
24:17 them, no deals, no packs. God can deliver victory without you colluding with the enemy.
24:23 But no, they found it easier to do the job by cutting a deal with a Canaanite.
24:30 It is a faith and commitment to God watered down by collusion.
24:37 Next is in verse uh 27. The men of Manasse were trying to drive out the Canaanites from a group of cities in the
24:43 north including Bethan where we took the photo last year.
24:49 And it says here that they failed to drive out the Canaanites from the area. Again failed. Why this time? It further
24:57 says because the Canaanites were determined to live in the land. The
25:02 Canaanites were determined to live in the land. What?
25:07 Because of the determination of the Canaanites. Some Bible translations put
25:12 this as they refused to leave their homes. They simply resolved not to go.
25:18 Nope, we won't go, they told the Israelites. Earlier the Israelites had to contend with iron chariots with strong city
25:25 walls and now they are met with the sheer willpower of the Canaanites and
25:32 what happened the men of Manasse they don't know what to do and so they decided to do nothing
25:41 and let the Canaanites remain faith and commitment to God now weakened
25:47 by complacency slowly but surely The conquest of Canaan
25:52 started to go downfield downhill. Earlier Judah couldn't drive out the
25:58 enemy because they had iron chariots. Now the men of Manasse couldn't sorry
26:03 not couldn't wouldn't drive out their enemy because the enemy had greater
26:09 resolve and it's getting worse. The worst is in the fifth and last instance of their
26:16 compromise compment commitment. And we see this all over the last part of chapter one. And shockingly, as the
26:22 Israelites move in to possess the rest of the land, they decided to press the Canaanites into forced labor.
26:30 From verses 38, 30, 33, and 35, the men of Zebulun did that, and so did the men
26:37 of Napa, Manase, and Ephraim. And again, going back to the few verses
26:43 in Deuteronomy 7, what was God's instruction to the Israelites? They were supposed to drive out the Canaanites.
26:50 They were commanded to destroy them totally. But the Israelites must have thought to themselves, "Hey, why drive
26:57 them out or destroy them when they can provide us cheap labor?
27:02 They can do all the lowly jobs, all the lowly work that we don't want to do. Let them stay to make our lives easier."
27:11 faith and commitment to God now diminished by convenience because it's
27:17 far more convenient to have them around as false laborers.
27:23 Earlier we saw an act of disobedience when the tribes of Joseph colluded with the Canaanite at battle. Now it's open
27:30 widespread rebellion against God. a willful decision by the people of God to
27:36 ignore what God had commanded. As the Israelites failed again and
27:42 again, the campaign to possess the land of Canaan didn't end too well for them.
27:48 And this is indicated uh by by the end of chapter 1 in verse 34. The
27:55 Amorites confined the Danites or the tribe of Dan to the hill country, not
28:00 allowing them to come down into the plains. Hey, the Israelites were supposed to to to come and drive out and
28:07 destroy the the inhab the inhabitants of Canaan, but how the tables have turned.
28:12 Now we have the Amorites instead confining the tribe of Dan to the hills.
28:20 The whole campaign ended poorly for the Israelites. The end of chapter 1, the last verse, verse 36 says it all.
28:31 The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion pass to Cellah and beyond. So
28:36 chapter one concludes by describing the borders of the Amorites.
28:41 The Israelites were supposed to enter and take the possession of the land. And but here we're talking about what? We're
28:46 talking about the borders of not the Israelites but the Amorites when the Amorites weren't supposed to
28:52 have any borders. They were supposed to be gone. Now before we move to the last part of
28:59 our text today um this the last part will be the three the first three verses of chapter 2. It
29:05 may be worthwhile for us to digress a bit uh for me to address a troubling question that may be brewing in your
29:11 mind. Some of you may not be comfortable with the idea that God had instructed
29:17 the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites uh totally to wipe them out completely.
29:24 This instruction to destroy totally often involve slaying all the inhabitants in the
29:31 target city leaving no one alive. Total destruction, men, women, and children.
29:38 And we see actually these three instances of this uh in our text. Verse 8, the men of Judah attacked Jerusalem
29:45 and put the city to the sword. Verse 17 again, the men of uh Judah, now
29:51 this time with the Simonites attacked Zeph and they totally destroyed the city. Verses 22 and 25, the tribes of
29:59 Joseph attacked Bethl also putting the city to the sword.
30:05 It is much much worse in the book of Joshua. This happened again and again.
30:11 Canaanite cities one after the other were totally wiped out and all their inhabitants slaughtered. Even many
30:19 Christians have have problem reading the book of Joshua. How could a God of love
30:25 order the killing of civilians, especially women and children? In modern terms, this will be described as ethnic
30:32 cleansing or genocide. Now, this is a complex issue worthy of
30:37 an entire lecture by itself. I have no time to go into that. It's
30:43 part of what we call Christian apologetics or the defense of the Bible and the Christian faith. Huge subject,
30:49 but I'll just present you a few thoughts, a few brief thoughts so that you can answer your your non-Christian friends if they ask you.
30:57 Firstly, the Canaanites were not exactly innocent people. Okay?
31:03 Don't think of them as nice, normal people trying to live uh peaceful lives. Their culture was characterized by
31:11 absolute immorality, perversion, and brutality to a degree that you cannot imagine. Leviticus 18
31:20 describes them as being so defiled that the land was ready to warm them out.
31:26 Their most wicked practice was child sacrifice to their god Molech
31:32 described repeatedly in Leviticus 20. In in addition from both Deuteronomy
31:39 chapters 12 and 18, we learned that this sacrifice involving putting the the the
31:44 baby or the child through the fire, burning the children at the altar of Molech.
31:50 And this has been authenticated by archaeology. Archaeologists have dug up chart skeletons of children, some as
31:57 young as a few weeks old from sites that used to be the Canaanite cities of Giza,
32:03 Tanak, and Megiddo. And all these three names appear in our text.
32:08 Their level of utter debauchery and deprivity was to the extent that in the
32:14 sight of God, the Canaanites lost their right to exist. And just as God
32:21 destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by fire, God had intended to destroy the
32:27 Canaanites by the sword. And the Israelites were his instruments to carry that out.
32:33 God was acting like a surgeon cutting out the cancerous tumor from the body
32:39 before the cancer kills the body. And hence God's plan for the for the
32:46 conquest of Canaan by the Israelites serve three a three-fold purpose. One to
32:51 deliver the land of Canaan to the Israelites as promised to Abraham. And God delivered on this promise as we saw
32:57 in our text. And two, to cleanse the land of the filth and evil of the
33:04 Canaanites. But here, but because of the half-heartenness of the Israelites, the Canaanites were not destroyed or driven
33:11 out. As we also saw in the text, meaning that the various people groups
33:16 in Canaan ended up living among the Israelites. The result was the people of God living
33:23 in a plural society like Rojala, you know, mix them all up
33:30 here in the hey, in this land, we too live in a plural society. Malaysia is often portrayed as a multiethnic,
33:37 multi-religious country. And that is why Judges chapter one is a piece of scripture that can teach us so much even
33:43 today. But I'll come to that later in the concluding part of the sermon. And
33:48 lastly, in the three-fold purpose behind the conquest of Canaan, it is to protect the Israelites spiritually so that they
33:55 wouldn't be influenced by the culture of the Canaanites. The Israelites were warned in Exodus
34:01 23:33, "Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me."
34:09 But because they disobeyed God and the Canaanites ended up living among them, eventually the Israelites were became
34:15 contaminated spiritually and because pits and people pieces of the cancer still remain in the body.
34:22 As a result, as we will see later in the in the book of Judges, as soon as early
34:29 as chapter 2:1, the Israelites started to worship the Canaanite gods. I'll also address this
34:36 matter of uh spiritual contamination later in the end.
34:42 Now, we come to the last part, the first three verses of chapter 2. After all the
34:47 actions and drama in in chapter one, God handed his people a report card and it
34:55 was a failing grade or to use uh a local
35:00 or red line. In legal terms, it was an indictment against the Israelites. God told them
35:07 clearly in verse two, you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this?
35:13 Now the phrase the angel of the Lord in verse one can be taken to mean God himself personally or more precisely a
35:20 physical manic manifestation of God. God himself came to reprimand his people. So
35:26 God went up from Gilgal to Bokeim from verse one. Bokeim was near Bethl where
35:32 where the traps of Joseph cut a deal with the with the Canaanite. Gilgal is is far more wellnown located
35:39 near Jericho and it's mentioned several times in the Bible. And this is where Joshua
35:44 built a stone memorials with 12 large stones to remind the Israelites of God's power. And you can read all about this
35:50 in Joshua chapter 4. And so it is very significant that that God came up from Gilgal to meet his people in Boim. It is
35:57 to remind them what Joshua had reminded them earlier. Now in Joshua chapter 4 in
36:04 Gilgal, let's go through quickly. God. Joshua was like telling his people whenever you see these stones, this
36:09 memorial, remember how God parted the Red Sea to for our parents to cross, how
36:14 he destroyed the Egyptian army, including the chariots, and how he just parted the the river Jordan for for us
36:21 to cross. Remember that God is a powerful God. And here in Boim, God was essentially
36:26 telling them the same thing. Remember how I brought you out of Egypt. Remember how I brought you into this land. Also,
36:33 you had you had a covenant with me. Why did you break the covenant? Why are the Canaanites living among in your midst?
36:43 I've warned you that they will cause you to sin against me. You have disobeyed me. And this concludes the study of our
36:51 text today. But it leaves one big question or rather a challenge
36:56 that is when your time on earth is done. When you when one day you shall meet God at at bokim inverter commerce, will you
37:05 what kind of report card will God give to you?
37:10 Red marks or black marks? When I was young, you know, the the teacher used red for failing grades and black for
37:17 passing grade. I don't know about now. Or will you arrive at heaven's shores
37:24 with flying colors? Will Jesus say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant.
37:29 Make no mistake that at the end of days, we believers also need to stand before God. Scripture
37:37 teaches us in uh Romans 14, we will all stand before God's judgment seat. Each
37:43 of us will give an account of ourselves to God. Now, before all of you get very alarmed,
37:49 this judgment that we believers have to face isn't the same as the great white throne judgment. It is not judicial in
37:56 nature meaning that it's nothing to do with salvation or condemnation because we are all we all have been saved by the
38:02 blood of Jesus. Rather it's more like an evaluation to assess how well we have done as
38:08 followers of Christ. And sometimes uh Romans 14 10 is uh referred to as the
38:14 beimma uh seat of Christ. Beimma is the Greek word for a race platform where a
38:20 judge sits. But Paul was uh using it more in the context of an athletic
38:26 contest where the performance of the athlete is appraised.
38:31 Which brings me to the concluding part of the of the sermon focusing on how we may apply the lessons from uh Judges
38:38 chapter one based on this this one big question each of us must ask our ourselves. How do you
38:46 think you will be evaluated before the bema seat of Christ? Or is this question
38:52 not so important? Because after all, we are assured of our salvation. Praise God that the events in Judges
38:58 chapter one has been recorded for us so that today we may reflect and be
39:03 instructed on how we should live as Christians, how we ought to walk with
39:09 God, not half-heartedly but wholeheartedly. I also see the intent of uh Joshua
39:16 chapter one as cautionary in nature meaning it's meant to caution us so that
39:21 there will be fewer missteps in our spiritual journey. It'll be good it'll be good for us to
39:27 avoid the missteps or the mistakes of the Israelites in the conquest of Canaan. We've already seen you know all
39:34 the compromises to their faith.
39:40 Now, it looks to me that the the common denominator behind all their compromises is this propensity, this inclination to
39:47 to weigh things and to calculate. What do I mean?
39:53 Sure, we will fight the Canaanites, but by calculation, we may not have enough men. So, let's get the Simonites to join
39:59 us. Hey, look at their their iron chariots. By calculation, ours cannot match
40:05 theirs. So, let's not be too hasty. Why drive them off from the land of
40:10 Canaan? By calculation, they make it makes economic sense to have them around as force laborers. Do you see what I'm
40:17 getting at? It is a half-hearted faith, a faith and
40:22 commitment to God compromised by all sorts of human calculation.
40:27 And in the conduct of our faith, we too are guilty. We often guilty of the same weakness.
40:34 How often do we say God is sovereign? God is in total control. He's all powerful. His plans are perfect. We know
40:41 all that. But yet at the back of our mind, somehow maybe just in case we start
40:49 weighing the situation, we start to calculate hoping to end up in a better situation
40:56 or what we think is a better situation.
41:01 Faith is no faith if it is tempered by human calculation.
41:06 The conduct of our faith is even made more difficult because we live in a plural society as mentioned just now.
41:14 And this is the other application from Judges chapter one in that we must be very careful of spiritual contamination.
41:22 The danger of being affected or being influenced by other cultures around us especially especially business culture
41:30 is something that we should not take lightly. Unless you work in a church, you will
41:36 come into frequent contact with people people who subscribe to other various
41:41 other faiths or who don't subscribe to any faith at all. Two Saturdays ago uh right in this
41:48 auditorium, I attended the morning wedding service of Masimo and Gloria.
41:53 And when he finished at about 10:30 or 11, I rushed to a mosque uh in in near
41:58 Kapong to attend another wedding, a Malay wedding. The son of a Malay, a close Malay friend of mine was getting
42:05 married. This isn't is a wedding season. They say
42:12 if you have not noticed, love is love is in the air.
42:17 But I told my wife to prepare a supplementary budget if you know what I mean.
42:26 But my point is living in the plural society we have friends and family members of various uh religious
42:34 persuasions. In my wife's family alone we have Christians, Buddhists,
42:41 Muslims and freethinkers. my wife's family, no Hindus yet.
42:48 Now the lesson is my point is we must be steadfast and to insulate ourselves from
42:54 being influenced by all kinds of spiritual values contrary to ours.
42:59 Always remember that we are in this world. We are traveling through this world but we are not of this world.
43:07 For a while now, our two children have been going out on dates.
43:16 They have been dating their friends who may become more than friends. Let's put it that way.
43:22 Like I said, love is in the air. Our daughter is already 21 or 23 and my
43:28 our son 21. My first question is always, hey, is he
43:34 a Christian? Is she a Christian?
43:39 If I press further, you know what they say? No, just a friend. Maybe it's true.
43:44 Actually, I'm not too worried about this because I believe they know what to do. What I'm more concerned about is the
43:51 fact that they both live and study in Europe. The boy is in Ireland and the
43:56 girl is in England. My apprehension is that both of them live in an environment with vastly different spiritual values
44:05 where atheism and godlessness is on the rise. I'm worried they get contaminated
44:11 and they both back home on their summer break and I spent many hours with them
44:16 reminding them of their spiritual roots and values. It's not that they they you
44:22 know would like to listen. Every time I say come, let's talk. Oh
44:29 no, not again. The point is as Paul wrote,
44:36 do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I pray that you
44:43 will ponder on these thoughts to avoid compromise and contamination to your
44:48 faith. I have one last thing to share with you. who uh it's getting late
44:55 because don't forget I have not talked about sharpness. So I come back to where I started
45:04 to I want to share this with you so to help you in your walk with God so that your faith will not be easily
45:10 compromised or contaminated. Remember this prohibition in Deuteronomy 22:11
45:17 against wearing clothes woven with wool and linen. I'm not suggesting that you
45:25 you you you follow this command strictly otherwise you label me as religious fanatic.
45:31 The point is not about the fabric rather is a metaphor
45:38 to help us understand the nature of God. Now what I'm about to share is not
45:44 explicit in the text but it actually serves as a backdrop to all that we have discussed.
45:50 If you will truly understand the nature of God you will be you will better understand
45:56 and appreciate why he speaks in with anger against compromise and contamination. You see our God is a God
46:03 who detest the idea of mixing things up. This is behind this verse. Our God detests the
46:11 idea of mixing things up. I may have told you before in a previous sermon
46:16 that our God is a binary God. You know binary numbers if you remember
46:22 mathematics involving only two digits one and zero. Right? With God it is either one or
46:30 zero. That's why I call him binary God. black or white, inside or outside.
46:37 It's either one or the other. He hates it when you are in between. He doesn't
46:43 like 0.5 or gray or sitting on the fence. And I
46:49 can cite you various verses that reflect this nature of God. The best known is Revelation 3 uh 16. Because you're
46:56 lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth.
47:01 God is greatly displeased when we are lukewarm or indecisive or half-hearted.
47:07 He rather we be hot or cold, not somewhere in between.
47:15 And Joshua understood this well. That's why he said to his people at the end of
47:20 his life, if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day
47:27 whom you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. It's either A or B, this or that, God or
47:36 something else. Choose you this day whom you will serve.
47:42 And incidentally, I have I hung a plaque at the entrance to my house that says, "As for me and my
47:49 household, we will serve the Lord." And Jesus further says in Matthew 6:24,
47:56 no one can serve two masters. Either you hate the one and love the other or you
48:02 will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. You can you either serve God
48:08 wholeheartedly or not at all. It saddens our Lord when we practice our
48:15 half-hearted disciplehip. Our God is a faithful God, a God of faithfulness. And
48:22 this is his the other nature. And we see actually twice uh this this nature in
48:27 our text. In verse 19, the Lord was with the men of Judah. In verse 22, he was
48:32 with the tribes of Joseph. And this was despite all their compromises, all their
48:38 lacking of faith. God has been so faithful to us. And he
48:44 will always be faithful to us. and he demands that we his people be faithful
48:49 to him wholeheartedly. Shall we close in prayer?
48:55 Our father in heaven, we come to you in reflection and confession that we have not been taking you seriously as we
49:02 should. Our disciplehip is often half-hearted.
49:08 We are a people easily distracted. But today we wish to declare that it's
49:14 our desire to honor you, to serve you, and to follow your son
49:20 Jesus wholeheartedly. Lord, have your way in us. And we ask this in
49:27 Jesus name. Amen.
