Sermon #1
Judges 3:1-11
April 30, 2002
Have you noticed the book of Judges seems a bit repetitive. Basically, it wouldn't take too long to sum up the entire book. God helps people, people are appreciative, people start doing things they shouldn't, God punishes people, people cry out to God, God helps people. repeat the process and you have not only the book of Judges but indeed pretty much the whole Old Testament, and maybe the new. This process reminds me of a movie which came out a few years back called Groundhog Day, with Bill Murray.
(Given appropriate resources, my preference would be to show a movie clip at this point)
In this film the character played by Bill Murray is a weatherman covering the famous emerging Groundhog in Puxatawnie, Pennsylvania. He is an egotistical, self-obsessed, rude, ethically deficient guy, not caring really about anyone else at all. We learn this as he deals with those around him, his attractive producer, his cameraman, and the assorted other characters that make up this small town. We come to find, however, that something is different about Phil Connors. For some reason, which we are never given, he becomes trapped in a loop, not only waking up every morning to the same Sonny and Cher song, but in fact waking up every morning in the same hotel room, on the same exact day. Thus every day is literally the same, there is no progress, and there is seemingly no consequences to what he does other than the continual repetition. At first he's excited, he indulges his every whim, using the repetition to first learn information about people or events then using that information to satisfy his own desires -- money, sex, adventure. He learns languages, music, and other skills to manipulate the world in which he finds himself. Yet the repetition becomes frustrating as neither good nor bad leads to progress.
He tries killing himself, many times, always waking up on the same morning, to the same song, in the same bed. Eventually, however, he is changed. The repetition in fact kills part of him, in his resignation we find him finding wholeness, finding care, finding compassion -- not for his own gain, but with an increasing selflessness, as his own ego becomes simply exhausted. The chance to redo a not so particularly nice day over and over again forces him to be renewed as a truly good person for its own sake.
In Judges chapter 3 we read this:
3:1 Now these are the nations that the LORD left to test all those in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan 2 (it was only that successive generations of Israelites might know war, to teach those who had no experience of it before): 3 the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their ancestors by Moses. 5 So the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; 6 and they took their daughters as wives for themselves, and their own daughters they gave to their sons; and they worshiped their gods.
Although God had given his people the land, the promised land, he did not simply give it to them and leave them to do whatever they wanted. He was giving them the land for a reason, a reason which he would not abandon. Deuteronomy 13:4 tells us that God tests his people to see if they love him with all their heart and soul, to see if they will serve him alone, obeying him, listening to him, clinging to him through all things. He led them through the wilderness, chapter 8 verse 2 says, humbling them and testing them to prove their character, and to find out whether or not they would really obey his commands. After forty years of this wandering they came to the promised land, but would not, could not, trust, showing themselves full of fear rather than faith. So, they repeated the process. Forty years of wandering, out and back again to the land of milk and honey. This time a new generation conquered, a new day in Israel had arrived.
This generation fought, struggled, claiming by action what God had already promised was theirs. Yet having conquered, they quickly fell away, for in this present world virtue can be fleeting especially in times of success or prosperity. We look to ourselves when we can, forgetting the qualities which brought us blessings.
We read here in Judges that having conquered the land for the most part, some people remained, which God intentionally left to test and train those who now had the upperhand. How could have Israel responded to this? How can anyone respond to a test or trial which has been introduced? They could do exactly what Israel did in fact do. Give in. They let their character change, not to reflect what God wanted them to be, but to reflect that which God specifically did not want them to be, becoming like everyone else around them, because it was easier. Instead of being a light to the world, their light got turned off, and they no longer had anything to offer to others, to themselves, or to God. God was testing them, letting them enjoy their new Garden, but with the forbidden fruit of pagan cultures left for them to see. And they greedily plucked that fruit, and ate it, and encouraged others to eat it as well. They did not teach the next generation to fight, they taught them how to disobey, they intermarried and they worshipped other Gods.
What else could they have done? They could have run away like they did at the battle of Ai. They could have preserved their character, but at the expense of everything God was wanting them to become. In the face of the challenge they could have decided that their faith did not match their philosophy, that while God was a good god to believe in, he wouldn't really make a difference in the fight. God would not be able to pass his own test or fulfill his promise. In Isaiah 7 we find King Ahaz taking this course, not willing to give in, but not really willing to trust that God will save them from the attacking armies.
Though there is not the explicit rejection of God, there is basically the abandonment of what he truly desires for his people, and in this there is stagnation and disobedience. Not all the nations in the land were left because God wanted to test his people, some were left because his people refused the fight, and suffered the consequences for generations.
How else could have Israel responded to the test that was before them? They could have fought, and taught their children to fight. They could have stayed in the land, fought those who came against them physically, morally, and spiritually. They could have obeyed all of God's commandments and stayed true to the calling for which God had called them. One can only wonder what their lives would have been like, what the world would have been like, had they followed this route. But they didn't. They gave in, embracing that which was not what they were called to be.
Judges 3 verse 7 continues: "The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord's sight" . "They forgot about the Lord their God, and they worshipped the images of Baal and the Asherah poles. Then the Lord burned with anger against Israel, he handed them over to King Cushanrishathaim of Aram-Naharaim. And the Israelites were subject to Cushanrishathaim for 8 years."
They did what was evil in the Lord's sight, they did not pass the test, they did not embrace that which God wanted for them and wanted for them to be. And so, again they were enslaved, again they were oppressed, again they were under the hand of repressive rulers, when it was they who were supposed to leaders in the land.
It was the same story we've heard prior to this, and the same story we've heard since. From the time of Adam and Eve fruit has been plucked which is not allowed, and God's people have suffered, and allowed the world to suffer, because of these shameful surrenders to temptation and tests. God tests his people to see if they are true to him, or are only true to themselves.
While some struggles come from sin or evil, some come from God wanting to find out the heart of those he has called, and to continue to teach his people how to fight in a world which is not amiable to his rule.
Jesus was tempted, tested, showing Satan and the Father that after forty days in his wilderness he was true to the one who sent him, and he would not abandon greater rewards and honor for fleeting, lesser benefits. After this he fought temptations, tests, to assert his power, to do miracles, for the sake of what the Father had called him to do and become. When Peter asked him to assert his power he said, "Get behind me Satan", knowing for certain the source of that which calls us to stray.
Peter, who both failed and passed many tests, later wrote in the 4th chapter of his first letter, "Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you." He wrote at the beginning of this letter that "it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while." "These trials," he writes, "are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world."
What are the tests and trials we are facing today? We may not have Canaanites or Moabites living in our homes, and crowding us out of our own bedrooms, but we do have issues of equal importance facing us everyday, as individuals and as a church. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
We each deal with sin, and we each have been called, as Paul writes in his letter to the Colossians, to put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking inside of us. We should have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. We should not be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry. Now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. For God's terrible anger will come upon those who do such things. -- Does this sound familiar?
As part of the church, the people of God, we also have a corporate responsibility. As we heard last week, we need to teach our children to fight, not to give in to temptations, or to run away from that which is troubling or difficult, but to fight, to strive against that which strives against God. Whether it is moral or ethical issues we must fight against, or whether it is poverty of body or soul, we have been called to stay true to who we are called to be. That may mean something as simple as changing the channel at times, or it may mean sacrificing our lives so that others might live. As we see in the Catholic church now, with the issue of molestation (a problem which is just as much a problem in Protestant churches, by the way), to give into evil means shame, to ignore evil means just as much shame. The only choice we all have is to fight and continue to fight, and teach our children to fight.
James writes in his first chapter that God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. But what if we fail, what if we do not pass the test, what if we stumble and fall? We may abandon God, but God will not abandon us.
The passage in Judges continues: But when Israel cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord raised up a man to rescue them. His name was Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother, Kenaz (a family by the way who obviously both was taught and taught the ways of God).
The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he became Israel's judge. He went to war against King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram, and the Lord gave Othniel victory over him. So there was peace in the land for forty years.
Though the people failed, God sent his Spirit to revive and renew his people. The Peter who thrice denied Christ in the courtyard of the high priest, failing a test, under the power of the Spirit he preached boldly to a large crowd in Jerusalem, converting many and establishing the work of the church. God does not give up on us even when we fail, but he does not let us flounder in our failing. He strengthens, aids, teaches, and then tests again, letting us succeed where we failed. If necessary, like Israel, like any who are part of the people of God, this process will be repeated until growth, faithfulness, and wisdom is found in thought and action. The Spirit has been given to the church to not only expand and nourish, but indeed to save us from ourselves. We, and those in our congregations, like Othniel, have been filled with the Spirit of God -- so that we can overcome, so we can pass the tests which are given to us, we can move forward in this life. We pray "lead us not into temptation", because we want to be of those who have passed the need for tests.
We want to join those who are told, like the Church in Philadelphia which we read about in Revelation, "Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world."
"So test yourselves," Paul writes to us as much as he did to the church at Corinthians in his second letter, "Examine yourselves to see if your faith is really genuine. If you cannot tell that Jesus Christ is among you, it means that you have failed the test." Paul passed the test, as have many who went before and came after him. And so can we, if we fight. If we let the Spirit move in us and in our communities like he did in Othniel, if we do not give in or run away, we will move on to a new day, a new beginning.
In Groundhog Day, Phil Connors eventually became someone new, someone whole. After forty days of the same day, Phil found contentment and peace. He no longer was selfish, insulting, or egotistical. He helped for the sake of others, he gave so that others might have, he treated everyone with respect. And one morning he woke up, and the same song was not on the radio, and the same conversations were not had, for he woke up to a new day. A day of new challenges to be sure, but he no longer was the same person facing them.
We have this same challenge and same promise. We are being tested, and God will patiently wait until we pass this test. He has sent his Spirit to help us overcome, but also to help lead us into a new day, so that one morning we will wake up to a day like no other, full of life, and promise, bounty and joy. Getting to this new day, this new life, is our constant challenge as individuals and as a community, but the promise is fullness of life and complete fellowship with the One who has called us to be his own. May we say with the Psalmist (26): "Declare me innocent, O Lord for I have acted with integrity. I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and affections. For I am constantly aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth." If we do not, we will find fire, if we do we will find bounty. An easy choice to choose, a hard choice to live. But it is our calling, and through the Spirit within our grasp indeed.
Focus: God tests his people to determine their faithfulness and character.
Function: A short description of one reason trials may come against us, meant to encourage perseverance and faithfulness
