Half-Way Discipleship (Judges 1:1-2:3)                                                                  2008.11.30    Pastor Richard Yu

The Book of Judges covers the dark ages in Israel’s history from the time of the death of Joshua through the beginning of the monarchy. The recurring scene for this three hundred plus years was that every man did his own thing until God raised up a judge to lead them, but as soon as he/she died the people went back to what was right in their own eyes. The “judges” were not judicial officials in the contemporary sense; rather, they were God-empowered military leaders who administered justice to evildoers and oppressors.

There are many parallels between that situation and ours today. Believers today also living in a religiously and ideologically pluralistic society. Christians work and live among a great variety of gods – not only those of other formal religions, but also the gods of wealth, celebrity, power, pleasure, ideology, achievement, etc. Our era can also be characterized by the phrase that concluded the Book of Judges: “every man did what was right in his own eyes.” This book has much to say to the paganism and individualism of our own days.

As the story unfolds, they begins well (1:1-18), they go up to fight the remaining nations. But they eventually fail to drive out all the Canaanites. They have their reasons for their failure (cf. vv. 19, 27-33, 35); but God simply says, “You have disobeyed me.” Here is a searching lesson to apply to ourselves. There may be all sorts of things in our lives which we think we are unable to deal with, but which we actually are refusing to face. Is there anything in our life about which we say “We can’t do it” but about which God may say, “You won’t do it?” Perhaps in the area of forgiveness? Temptation? Truthful living? Or Generosity?

Now, there is a tension in the text. In verse 1, God says, “I will never break my covenant with you.” But in verse 3 He says, “. . . I will not drive them out before you.” God seems to contradict Himself. Here’s the dilemma: on the one hand, God is holy and just and cannot tolerate and live with evil. On the other hand, God is loving and faithful and cannot tolerate the loss of the people He has committed Himself to. This is a seemingly irresolvable tension in this passage – as well as in the whole Bible. Will God finally give up on His people? But then what of His love and faithfulness? Or will God finally give in to His people? But then what of His holiness and justice?

It is only on the Cross that we come to know how God resolved the tension; and herein is the heart of the Gospel of salvation in Christ Jesus. On the cross, our sin was imputed (or credited, assigned) to Jesus Christ, so that His righteousness could be imputed to us. There, God poured out His wrath on Jesus Christ in the sinner’s place so that He satisfied both justice and love. He satisfied justice because sin was punished. He satisfied love because the punishment was not carried out against the sinners and now that sin has been dealt with He was able to forgive and accept sinners. This is why Paul says that God be both “just and justifier of those who believe” (Rom. 4:26) – the only way that God can love us conditionally and unconditionally at once.

What does this say to our practical living? On the one hand, we know that we do have to obey God’s Word. And if we know what He did for us and why He did it, it makes us deeply long to be like Christ. Yet on the other, when we fail to obey God, even again and again, we know God never will give up on us.  A solid knowing of the gospel would enable us so depending on God that we could live neither giving in to sin nor living under a burden of guilt and fear when we sin.

Lastly, God says that the remaining Canaanites, along with their idols, will become “thorns” and “snares” to the Israelites. Sad. Isn’t it? They started out right but have gotten only half-way. And that half-way effort only led them into further entrapment and threats. God wants us to have a life in Christ and to have it to its fullest extent possible. (cf. John 10:10) But we are not living experientially with the kind of fullness lay out for us in the Bible. Why?

One reason may be that we are being entrapped by sins of one kind or another. Some things, some habits, some thoughts that we know are wrong but wouldn’t let go of; and in time they became thorns and a snare to our effort in trying to live like Jesus. We have not gone all the way and have become half-way disciples. What have we allowed to remain in our life which should be expelled? It may be some kind of over-the top passion, addiction, unforgiving spirit, critical spirit, jealousy, pride, greed, laziness, selfishness, or complacency. We know how they have become a thorn in our side, or an entrapment that kept us in bondage. Why don’t we keep praying for a fusion of God’s power and our willingness to remove them?