5-3-09
Deuteronomy 8, Judges

 “After the death of Joshua…”

            The book of Joshua is a record of a people in transition; a people discovering the freedoms and challenges involved with trusting their life with and to their God; a people learning to function from a sense of identity which is to be uniquely characterized by the fact that “God was with them”; a people learning to adapt to new cultures in which their identities can be quickly lost and their uniqueness compromised.

 ● Judges offers us this rather disturbing rehearsal of the consequences of partial- obedience, limited victories, and unfulfilled promises. Here are some of the oft-repeated themes:

 “… they took possession of, but they failed to drive out…”

“… they never did drive them completely out of the land…”

“… instead, the people moved in among the Canaanites, who controlled the land…”

“After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors… and went after other gods, worshipping the gods of the people around them” (2:10-13)

“… all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes”.

“Then the Lord raised up a judge to rescue Israel…”

 ● The book of Joshua concludes with his stirring challenging to the people: “If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”. To which the people responded: “We would never abandon the Lord… we will serve the Lord and obey him alone!”

            Within the opening verses of Judges, we read: “The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. They forgot about the Lord and served other gods…”

 ● You may be tempted to think that what Judges was offering us is just a temporary ‘glitch’ in an otherwise hopeful image, but historians tell us that Judges covers about one-fourth of the history offered to us in the OT.

 ● Amidst the wreckage is the oft-repeated promise of God: “I said I would never break my covenant with you”. Once again, the story shines the spotlight on God’s grace. It confirms that there’s nothing extraordinary about human sin--- it’s so prevalent, but there is something noteworthy about grace.

 What seems to resonate and prove frustrating is that God is almost ‘limited’ in his capacity to restore us as we continue to make room in our lives for that which proves to be ‘self-destructive’.

  But, it’s hard to be unique.

- It’s hard to maintain your identity.

- It’s hard to maintain your distinctiveness without becoming distanced and self-righteous.

- It’s hard to live in and amongst a culture which in so many ways lives in direct conflict with Godly values and priorities and not become cynical and uncaring.

- It’s hard to live amongst conflicting values without somehow adopting some of those values along the way and forfeiting our influence.

- Ironically, in the process of asserting our independence (declaring our freedoms), we become just like everyone else.

 Philippians 2:15 God has called his people to live “in the midst of a crooked (metaphor: curved; out of line) and perverse (having turned aside; corrupt; distorted; plotting against the saving purposes and plans of God) generation amongst whom we shine as lights”.

 ● I’m struck with the pervasiveness and the overwhelming nature of disorder and dysfunction which we have come to accept as ‘normal’; it’s seemingly all we have known, so we feel perfectly at home there.

Who could ever have imagined that we’d become comfortable with brokenness; undisturbed by dysfunction?

 ● Judges reminds us that when it comes to life, we daily face a clash of loyalties; a confrontation with who or what will become the object of our affection--- will win our hearts!

If we discover anything about learning to live “fully’ as Jesus promised, it is that our hearts require commitment.

We become most fully functional when we are ‘devoted’ (to choose one thing). Jeremiah 32 calls it “singleness of heart” which is the anticipated result of having been inspired by God. Devotion is the result of limiting your options; of choosing one thing.

 ● But, old loyalties are not easily abandoned (we have too much invested in them), and when competing loyalties collide, conflict is inevitable--- I cannot remain neutral. I must love the one and hate the other; I must be devoted to the one and despise the other (Jesus: Matthew 6:24)

 Judges vividly portrays the allure and deceptiveness of all that we entertain and all that we allow to penetrate and capture our hearts.

 James presents it most simply as (2) competing loves:

            love of the world  and love of God.

 ● The Bible uses the term ‘world’ in various ways. Sometimes it is used to refer to creation in general; sometimes as a reference to people in general (as in John 3:16).

Sometimes, and particularly in James’ consideration, it is used to describe a pattern of thought/values which train us to live as if God did not exist (or, if he does, he’s irrelevant).

From that system naturally proceeds certain attitudes and behaviors, certain assumptions about the way life is and the way things really are, which we might call the ‘spirit of the world’: the informing, shaping motivation which is often blatant, but most often somewhere beneath all that is seen.

            When James uses the ‘world’ in this context, it’s never morally neutral or benign, but always seen as in direct conflict with God.

● The world says, “You can find and experience real life apart from God”. The world’s agenda (at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist) is to create dissatisfaction and then exploit our tendencies to satisfy ourselves apart from God.

 The world makes it increasingly difficult to say ‘no’ to our desires.

 Deuteronomy 8:1-19 [read]

 There’s no such thing as “the best of both worlds”.

 But, Judges is not just about the cycle of sin and compromise, but about the relentless love of God which pursues humanity in order to break the cycle.

 ● [communion] Today, we renew our commitment: to give our hearts to love; to give our hearts to loving greatly. Today we seek to be devoted--- considering no other options except God.