Judges: Chap 2: The obviousness of the blessing and the curse.

Title: Judges: Chap 2: The obviousness of the blessing and the curse.       

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

JDG 2:11 Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals,

 

JDG 2:12 and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the Lord to anger.

 

Their apostasy is more minutely described as forsaking Jehovah, the God of their fathers. They actually prostrated themselves before the false gods and this provoked anger in Jehovah.

 

The phrase "who brought them out of the land of Egypt" is used again, and it will continue to be used by God to denote how indebted they are to Him for the greatest of blessings.

 

JDG 2:13 So they forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

 

They worshipped as god the powers of nature. Creation was by the power of nature and therefore Nature is deified. The sensuousness of nature worship appeals to the corrupt nature while the spiritual worship of God in sanctification does not.

 

After all, why would something perfect and incorruptible like spirituality appeal to the corrupt nature? That shows us unequivocally that it is true.

 

JDG 2:14 And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

 

JDG 2:15 Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had spoken and as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

 

Whereas Joshua could stand against the enemy, who had superior numbers, this unfaithful generation will not be able.

 

It is God who does this because it is God who gives victory. If God doesn't give victory then we are on our own and that is always failure. The power of God and the protection from God is removed and they are sold into the hands of their enemies.

 

What they should have had:

LEV 26:7 'But you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword;

 

LEV 26:8 five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

 

LEV 26:9 'So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you.

 

LEV 26:10 'And you will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new.

 

LEV 26:11 'Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you.

 

LEV 26:12 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

 

LEV 26:13 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you should not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

 

In the church age the battlefield is the soul. His enemies are the flesh, the world system, and the devil.

 

How do we apply the blessings and the curses of the law, which we are not under, to our own spiritual lives in the church? Can we? They certainly apply as God does not change, however, God's way for the believer to follow in the dispensation of Israel and the dispensation of the church has great differences as well as great similarities.

 

First and foremost, in every dispensation, the laws of morality are the same. What is good in relationships, marriage, family life, and civic life is always good.

 

ROM 5:20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

 

ROM 5:21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

 

ROM 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?   

 

ROM 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

 

 

The Ten Commandments are for all time. Things such as compassion, mercy, grace, love, graciousness, helping a neighbor, doing good to another, not judging, etc. are for all time. However, in the church age, things such as compassion, grace, mercy, and love are brought to the heavenly level of Christ.

 

The battlefield is the soul and not some earthly place. Our enemies don’t draw blood. They draw the things that make for anxiety, fear, worry, self-absorption, slavery to the fears and prides of the flesh.

 

This is the great loss in the church age to which Israel's loss of land is analogous. Anxiety is the loss of peace. Fear is the loss of love. Self-absorption is the loss of joy. Slavery to fears and prides of the flesh is loss of what is truly life.

 

It's not that we are always perfectly spiritual, but that we do walk in them and that we adjust our thinking and faith when we do not.  

 

New commands that fall under the "way of Christ" are fulfilled through faith in the filling of the Spirit.

 

COMMUNION

The believer has to have faith to perform the commands that fall under the way of following Christ. One may find a succinct summary in the fruit of the Spirit, in the definition of love, in complete self-sacrifice, thinking of others as more important than yourself, graciousness, and compassion.

 

Compassionsympathypity: the power of putting oneself into another's place in such a manner as to feel what he feels; pain, suffering, joy, temptation, etc.

 

1CO 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

 

1CO 13:5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

 

1CO 13:6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

 

1CO 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 

1CO 13:8 Love never fails;

1 Co 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."   

 

1 Co 11:25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."    11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.