Three lessons from Judges

We've been reading through the Bible as a church family since the beginning of the year, and yesterday we concluded the book of Judges.  This is one of the more challenging sections of the Old Testament, largely due to its gruesome content, spiritually destitute characters, and unabashed warfare.  The central theme is  found in the repeated refrains, "Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD" (Judges 2.11; 3.7; 3.12; 4.1; 6.1; 8.33-35; 10.6; 13.1) and "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (17.6; 21.25), clear indicators of the spiritual temperature of the nation that was supposed to represent God to the world.  The book's horrific conclusion alone, five chapters of utter depravity, paint a stark picture of the darkness and self-deception of which men are capable.

Here are a few observations to be gleaned from such a heavy, poignant text.

Ultimately, God is THE Judge.  Though God raised up men and women alike to lead the nation of Israel and rescue the people from oppression at the hands of their enemies, ultimately God Himself is the judge.  Jephthah's words to the king of the Ammonites in 11.27 make this point clear: "The Lord, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon."  Jephthah's own personal story -- despite the great victory he won as Israel's judge -- is a tragic reminder of this very fact: that the Lord alone rules with equity and flawless judgment.

One of the larger, undergirding themes of the book of Judges is therefore the insufficiency of man's leadership.  You and I wholeheartedly acknowledge this truth at the same time we deny it, because we all have our heroes as much as we have our scapegoats.  The guy I vote for is the only candidate worthy of the job; the guy who gets in instead is inept and unqualified.  The last boss knew what he was doing, but the new guy is a joke.  Moreover, when we find ourselves in leadership roles, we are even more likely to forget the reality that human leadership is flawed, because we envision ourselves to be fair, moral human beings perfectly capable of (and entitled to the right of) meting out justice.

While the Judges of Israel were men and women chosen specifically by God, they were still sinners who exhibited critical lapses of judgment.  Sometimes, it's difficult to find even a shred of godliness in these figures (i.e. Samson).  And we sometimes struggle with understanding why God empowers some and not others.  But all of this points to the reality that God alone is perfectly just, and that He alone rules with perfect holiness.  This fact reminds us that, although we are subject to imperfect human institutions and required by God Himself to honor them, those who hold power in this world are not above error or worthy of our unwavering allegiance.

Israel's repentance was genuine (if short-lived).  And therefore, God's mercy and restoration were genuine as well.  God would not have called the judges to restore the people had their cries of contrition not been in earnest.  Unfortunately, it was only after they'd tried everything else, endured oppression for as long as they could on their own power, and clung to the false gods of the surrounding nations that they would finally remember the Lord and His goodness.  Out of their sorrow, they would cry for help, and God -- impatient to rescue His people from their plight (10.16) -- would respond.

This is a powerful reminder that, though we often fall repeatedly into the same sins, God's mercy remains.  One of my favorite worship lyrics comes from Laura Story's "Indescribable": "You see the depths of my heart, and you love me the same."  I can take confidence in the fact that, though I am weak and still subject to temptation, my status as His child is unchanged, and His grace is never rescinded.

While it's impossible to identify a singular root cause of the pattern of rebellion we see in Judges, it seems to me that the cycles are largely generational.  One generation does what is evil in the sight of the LORD, comes to repentance after a decade or so of oppression, and God raises a judge to defeat the enemy and give the people rest, but then they ultimately fail to impart to their children the importance of sacred devotion to the Lord.  And so, 18-20 years later, this new generation -- poorly taught and still beset by the foreign nations their forefathers failed to eradicate -- is doomed to walk the same path as their parents.

Certainly not every single member of the previous generation had died off by the time of the next rebellion, nor were they  immune to the allure of temptation.  Furthermore, every man and woman is ultimately responsible for his or her own sin (Ezek 18.20; Jas 1.14).  But in a similar situation to the wilderness wanderings of the Mosaic era, the parents ultimately failed to teach their children well, setting them up to repeat their own failures.  This is what prompted Moses to deliver the series of speeches just outside the Promised Land that comprise the book of Deuteronomy, because the children had no "knowledge of good or evil" (Deut 1.39), despite the miraculous experiences of their parents in the wilderness.

We would do well to take this indictment of parenting to heart: we should endeavor to teach our children well about the Lord's goodness as well as our own failures, so that they are prepared for the temptations they themselves will face and will (hopefully) seek the Lord's will rather than their own.

The life lessons we give to our children should be saturated with Scriptural truth, not just practical wisdom.

God does not condone human violence.  This is especially difficult to grasp when reading the Old Testament, the pages of which drip with the blood of slaughtered peoples, families, and nations -- Israeli and Gentile alike.  In the book of Judges alone there is enough brutality to satisfy Game of Thrones audiences.  However, the violence in Judges is always directly connected to the people's sin.  God had promised repeatedly that, were the Israelites to walk in worshipful obedience, they would live in peace and prosperity with His sovereign protection shielding them from their enemies.  Instead, Israel first failed to complete the conquest of the land, and then descended into all kinds of depravity as a direct result.  The judgment for this was the oppression of the foreign nations, which in turn necessitated war to free the people of Israel once they acknowledged their error.

Even within that framework, most of the violent activity we see in Judges is excessive and not God-sanctioned.  For example, cruelty such as the severing of Adoni-bezek's thumbs and big toes (1.6), the killing that resulted from Abimelech's power struggle (Ch. 9), Gibeah's crime and the Levite's grotesque response (19.22-30), which in turn prompted Israel's civil war with the tribe of Benjamin (Ch. 20).  These, amongst other examples, were not done at God's command, though the perpetrators were often the very men He called to lead the people (for more on this, see point #1).

Did God command the conquest of the Promised Land, in which Israel was expected to fully eradicate the peoples living there?  Yes.  Moses and Joshua both make this case very clear (e.g. Deut 7.1-2; Josh 3.10).  And the reason is that the Canaanite tribes were wicked people groups who viciously slaughtered their own neighbors and engaged in abominable practices such as child sacrifice in worship of their false gods.  They were perverse tribes who hated God and His people, and God's decisive judgment of them was as much the reason for their eradication as was fulfillment of His promise to Abraham (Gen 15.16; Lev 18.24-25; Deut 7.10; 9.5).  As John MacArthur put it, "The question is not why God chose to destroy these sinners, but why He had let them live so long, and why all inners are not destroyed far sooner than they are."

In the pages of Joshua, we see God's hand leading Israel to victory over wicked peoples whose iniquity was a stench upon the earth.  In Judges, it's a different story -- a worst-case scenario that unfolds again and again.  The wars that ensued after the death of Joshua were direct consequences for the people's wickedness and their failure to permanently depose the Lord's enemies.

A fuller discussion of why God commanded literal war for Israel yet requires peaceful coexistence of His church is beyond the scope of this post, but what we must remember is that even in the conquest era God never condoned human violence.  In fact, the Word attests that He hates hands that shed innocent blood (Prov 6.17), claims just vengeance for Himself (Deut 32.35; Rom 12.19), and prohibits the taking of human life (Ex 20.13; 1 John 3.15).  Leading the people to seize the land promised to Abraham was an act of sovereign judgment that is in no way to be imitated by Christians in any capacity.  Frankly, no legitimate follower of Christ will commend the Crusades.  Our responsibility as His children today is not to determine for ourselves who is worthy of judgment, but to communicate the gospel message in our best, compassionate effort to -- in Paul's words -- "overcome evil with good."

In a day and age when everyone is again doing what is "right in his/her own eyes," understanding the concepts put forward in the book of Judges is more than just a lesson in ancient history.  These truths are pertinent to understanding the complexities of sin in the world, as well as embracing our own God-given responsibilities for walking in righteousness.

The Worship Lifestyle [Pt. 1]

As a worship leader, one of the passages which I've spent a lot of time studying is John 4, the gospel account of Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the village of Sychar. There are a lot of important components within this passage, but the most notable is Jesus' statement of what defines true worship. In verse 23, John records Jesus' words:

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”

It wasn't until this morning that I finally took notice of the immediate context of Jesus' statement, which contains an often overlooked implication for modern-day believers.

There are some differing perspectives on this verse, like many passages of Scripture. Some people think that when Jesus describes true worshipers as worshiping “in spirit,” He is referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit, and that the worship of a true follower of God is confirmed or made genuine by the unique spiritual communion with the Father which the Holy Spirit makes possible. This isn't necessarily a wrong interpretation, because we do worship with the guidance of the Spirit, but that reading of this particular passage is slightly off-base. Remember, Jesus said in verse 23 that “the hour is coming, and is now here,” but the giving of the Holy Spirit would not take place until the Day of Pentecost, after His ascension to heaven. The word for “spirit” used in this passage is the Greek word “pneuma,” which is used throughout Scripture to define both “rational soul, vital principle, and mental disposition” and “God, Christ's spirit, the Holy Spirit” (compare John 4.23 with 2 Cor 3.17, and Phil 3.3). However, the term typically used for the Holy Spirit in describing His divine office (the comforter, helper) is the word “parakletos,” literally “come beside,” which may be translated as “comforter” or “advocate” (see John 14.15-17; 14.25-26; 16.7). John 4, however, uses the primary definition of pneuma to denote the “vital principle and mental disposition” of the worshiper – in other words, the state of his or her heart.

But although the heart or spirit is crucial to this passage, it is not the immediate context.

When worship leaders discuss this passage, we talk about the appropriate approach to worship services, picking songs that are grounded in biblical truth, inspiring within the congregation attitudes of reverence, celebration, thanksgiving. And while these things are all bundled into the description of worshiping “in spirit” and certainly defining of true worship, there is another qualifier that is missing.

What Jesus is talking about deals specifically with location. The dividing issue between the Samaritans and Jews (blood heritage aside) was the place of worship: the Jews called Jerusalem the place of worship, and the Samaritans considered Mount Gerizim the sacred location. That is why the woman, abruptly changing the subject away from her adulterous lifestyle, says to Jesus, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” (4.19-20). This, in turn, prompts Jesus' warm reply: “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (4.21-24). Jesus says that neither Gerizim nor Jerusalem would be the singular location of true worship.

So the obvious question which follows is, “Where is the appropriate place of worship for us as believers?”

MacArthur's study Bible contains the following footnote for this passage: “Jesus' point is that in light of His coming as Messiah and Savior, worshipers will be identified, not by a particular shrine or location, but by their worship of the Father through the Son. With Christ's coming, previous distinctions between true and false worshipers based on locations disappeared. True worshipers are all those everywhere who worship god through the Son, from the heart.”

Therefore, the (hopefully) obvious answer is, “Anywhere and everywhere.”

We can't consider worship just singing any more than we can consider it restricted to one particular locale: Jesus negated both Mount Gerizim and Jerusalem as the “appropriate” place of worship. He said, simply, that true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth. This implies a lack of specific location, or an all-inclusive one. What Jesus is saying is that worship is no longer tied to the physical realm, no longer solely an act of obeying the law and making sacrifices at the temple. It now primarily incorporates the spiritual realm.

In other words, worship takes place in the heart.

Unfortunately, there are people who take this idea that worship shouldn't be restricted to a church building and begin to run too far in the opposite direction. Their idea is that worship services should be socially relative and accessible to the common man, so they meet in bars, coffee houses, and libraries instead of pews and sanctuaries. This Emergent Church movement, which may begin with great intentions, suffers from the domino effect: they misinterpret one of the three pillars of true worship (spirit, truth, location – or lack thereof) and the rest begin to crumble. Because they desire less structure and more accessibility, they remove the location pillar. Because they desire to reach culture, they soften ideas of Biblical judgment and accept and encourage all walks of life within their congregation, and so the next pillar – truth in worship – begins to slide downhill. Gradually, they begin to question the comprehensive nature of the Bible and move away from belief in its infallibility. When truth in worship becomes compromised, whats left is a purely philosophical, opinion-based, emotion-driven “faith” which has divorced itself from true belief in Jesus Christ. It becomes a road to inter-spirituality through mysticism, a blending of religions and morals to suit the desires of the congregants.

In other words, that's not what I'm trying to communicate.

As a member of a church which began in a school, and a volunteer worship leader at another which rents out a bar while waiting on their permanent location, I know for a fact that true worship can take place beneath a steeple or otherwise. The point of this post is not to say that we should or shouldn't meet in a church building on Sundays to worship: the point is that worship should be our continual state, present with the body of Christ or apart.

So if worship is characterized by heart motive and truth, and is no longer dependent upon location, then our understanding of worship should be that it is not simply an activity which needs to take place in church on Sunday – or even an activity at all, for that matter. To the contrary, worship is a lifestyle, necessarily incorporating our daily thoughts and actions. Worship is proper, loving interaction with brothers and sisters in Christ. Worship is service – true and undefiled religion which cares for the orphans and widows without expecting reciprocation (Jas 1.27). In that regard, worship is very much like love. It involves action, sure, but that action is an expression of the heart. Just like faith cannot exist without the verification of works (Jas 2.26), and love is nonexistent without sacrifice, so worship is a condition of the heart which demands external expression. But the inverse is also true: works profit nothing without the foundation of faith, actions done “in love” do not always reflect the genuine sentiment of the heart, and simply going through the motions in worship does not mean we are truly celebrating the Lord.

There is one more defining characteristic of worship that I want to tease out of John 4.

Near the beginning of their conversation, Jesus had told the Samaritan woman, “Everyone who drinks of this [well's] water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (4.13-14). Similarly, in Luke's account of the Beatitudes, Christ blessed the ones “who are hungry now, for [they] shall be satisfied” (6.21). In both passages, what Jesus was trying to teach is that satisfaction is found only in worshipping God. Therefore, genuine worship done in spirit and in truth is soul-satisfying.  When we are consumed with Him, the distractions of this empty world lose their ability to draw us away from the truth.  Therefore, worshipping the Father is predicated upon dissatisfaction with this life and longing for intimacy with Him.   It is recognition of the fact that only He is worthy of our worship, and that only He can satisfy our thirst and our hunger.  Jesus often cautioned the one who is rich in this life that he has “already received consolation” (Luke 6.24).  In other words, the one who has invested all his time and passion in worldly things has already received his earnings.  True worshipers are not fooled by the material, however.  They worship God because He alone brings satisfaction.

The sum total of our lives should be a testament of worship -- the type of living sacrifice which continuously glorifies God on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour basis (Rom. 12.1).  Worship does not take place solely in singing any more than it is restricted to a church building on a Sunday morning.  It is an active, abiding expression of love and adoration for our heavenly Father which must encompass every facet of our lives -- in spirit, truth, and any locale.  In fact, our lifestyles should be so full of worship that we are clearly identifiable as Christ-followers -- so that the expression of our faith through words is merely a confirmation of the observer's pre-existing assumption.