The Principal Thing

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  • Sunday Review Week 2: Judges 2:6-3:11

    Sunday Review Week 2: Judges 2:6-3:11

    *Introduction: This series is a review of the section of scripture that we learned about at my church this Sunday. Unfortunately, I missed out on church service this week (I was at a men’s retreat!), so I’ll begin by summarizing the chapter, and then I’ll provide my thoughts.

    Chapter Summary:

    A Second Review

    The last days of Joshua

    Chapter 2 continues in verse 6 with another review, going back to Joshua’s last days.

    The campaign began with Joshua leading the Israelites across the Jordan River. Then he divided the land and assigned each section to the familial tribes.

    When Joshua and the elders who “had seen all the great works of the LORD” (v7) were in charge, the people served the LORD. But eventually, Joshua and the elders died, and a new generation grew up, who did not know the LORD or the works he had done for Israel.

    After the elders died, Israel forsook the LORD.

    In verse 11, after this new generation grows up, it says that Israel did evil in the LORD’s sight and served Baalim and the other gods of the Canaanite pantheon.

    Doing this provoked the LORD, and he was angry with the people of Israel. In his righteous anger, the LORD stopped fighting for the Israelites and gave them to their enemies. He even went so far as to fight against them, just like he said he would.

    But God was still merciful

    Their enmity with God, and his resulting wrath, “greatly distressed” the Israelites. Israel was oppressed by the people of the land. But God saw their oppression and verse 18 says it “repented [Him].”

    Even though the Israelites were not faithful to him, God was still faithful to them. In such times when they were being oppressed as a result of their sin, God raised up a person called a “Judge” who would deliver the people from their enemies.

    The people still rebelled and God’s wrath was rekindled

    Unfortunately, after the judge died, the people would return to following the idols and false gods of the land.

    In turn, God vowed that, because the people continued in their idolatrous sin, he would no longer drive out the inhabitants of the land for the Israelites. Instead, he would use them to test whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD.

    God raised up Othniel as the first Judge

    In chapter 3, Israel is oppressed by the king of Mesopotamia. The LORD raised up Othniel. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him and he judged Israel and went and defeated the king of Mesopotamia.

    The people and the land, had rest from their enemies for the next 40 years while Othniel was alive.

    My thoughts on Judges 2:6-3:11

    It’s interesting that the scriptures seem to repeat what they just said.

    In the previous installment of this series, the author details what the Israelites did at the beginning of their conquest. The author seems to focus on the physical actions that the people took.

    However, in this second section, the author focuses much more on the spiritual application of their actions. Rather than just pointing out that they disobeyed God, the author makes the point that in doing so they rejected God and embraced the false gods of the land.

    The next generation of Israelites should have known better

    In Judges 2:7 it’s said that the people “served the LORD.” The problem is that even though they served him, they did not keep all of his commandments. Specifically, they neglected to teach their children to walk in the ways of the LORD (Here is a great list of verses about this command)

    “We are commanded to teach the testimony of God to our children. It is not enough to preserve the deposit of truth in a book, and tell them it is there. We are commanded to teach it.”

    John Piper – Raising Children Who Are Confident in God | Desiring God

    There’s an old phrase that says “What you do in moderation, your children will do in excess.” The first generation mentioned here followed God’s way, although imperfectly. The second generation took their flaws to the next level. These scriptures provide us with a great example of why we must teach our children about the LORD.

    They forsook God and served idols

    The text says they served Baalim, then later specifically mentions Baal and Ashtaroth.

    The word “Baalim” is a word similar to the Hebrew word “Elohim.” You’ll notice that they both end in “im,” (“eehm”) which indicates plurality. In the same way that the Hebrew word “elohim” means the plural “gods,” “baalim” refers to a plurality of beings.

    “Baal” is the name of an important deity of the Canaanite pantheon. One thing I found interesting in my research is that the word “Baal” means “lord, owner.” In a way, the children of Israel turning to worship Baal instead of the LORD is a real snub. They’re essentially saying that the LORD is not their owner, but this other god is.

    God was STILL faithful

    Verse 16 begins (at least, in the KJV) with the word “Nevertheless.” This choice of words is interesting to me. “Nevertheless” implies some stress on the preceding events, and how what follows bears some sort of significance. The author could have also said, “Despite all this…”

    Despite all of Israel’s rebellion, God “raised up” judges who “delivered” them from their enemies.

    In our failure, God gives us Jesus

    The language used in this section of scripture, phrases like “raised up” and “delivered,” point directly to Jesus. In fact, I suspect that over the course of this series, we will see a TON of alluding to and foreshadowing of Christ.

    The imagery that God “raised up” these judges, and how they “delivered” the people, is strikingly similar to Jesus being raised up in the New Testament and delivering us from sin and death. Just look at these instances of the phrases “raised up” and “delivered” in the New Testament.

    “Raised up”

    • Luke 1:69
    • Acts 2:24
    • Acts 2:32
    • Acts 3:26
    • Acts 5:30

    “Delivered”

    • Romans 7:6
    • Romans 8:21
    • 2 Corinthians 1:10
    • Colossians 1:13
    • 1 Thessalonians 1:10

    We even see that when God raises Othniel, the “Spirit of God came upon him,” after that is when he did his great work of freeing the people. This same pattern happens with Jesus: He is raised up, the spirit of God comes upon him (Luke 3:22), and then he begins his earthly ministry culminating in his saving sacrifice.

    The Church mirrors Israel in many ways

    The Old Testament depicts God’s and Israel’s relationship as a marriage. Many times throughout the Prophets’ writings, and also in these scriptures, we see the description of Israel’s idolatry as whore-like.

    This is really strong language. And it should make those of us today evaluate our Church practices a little closer.

    Israel is said to have “gone a whoring,” in verse 17, after other gods. They gave God’s rightful place as Lord and Owner of themselves to idols, in violation of the covenant where they swore that He would be their God and they would be His people. This reminds me of a marriage vow, which is exactly how the relationship between Christ and the Church is described.

    Whenever the church decides to put something in Christ’s rightful place, it’s the same thing as we see in the Book of Judges.

    Churches “go a whoring” in several ways. Some examples that come to mind are:

    1. Making their main concern about growing their funds or membership numbers instead of staying true to Christ
    2. Focusing on worldly solutions to problems, instead of pointing to Christ as the answer
    3. Following the words of a man instead of standing on the word of God

    We fail. But even when we are not faithful, God is

    Like in these scriptures, God has raised up a righteous judge who can and does deliver us from our greatest enemy. Jesus, despite our failures, has delivered us from the bondage of our sins so that we can be with God.

    “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”

    Galatians 4:3-5

  • Sunday Review Week 1- Judges 1:1-25

    Sunday Review Week 1- Judges 1:1-25

    *Introduction: This series is a review of the section of scripture that we learned about at my church this Sunday. I’ll begin by summarizing what was spoken of in the sermon, then I’ll provide my thoughts on the scriptures.

    Sermon Summary:

    “A Campaign of Compromise”

    The book of Judges picks up immediately after Joshua’s death. Joshua had just initiated the conquest urging the people to seek the LORD’s direction as they pursue God’s promised land.

    They did what was right in their own eyes

    They were told to do what was right in God’s eyes, but the book’s common theme and final verse point out that: “There was no king in the land in those days and each man did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)

    The book’s point is that people constantly rely on their own wisdom and direction instead of God’s, and fail. They deal with the consequences of their actions, but God continually rescues them, sending “saviors” in the form of the judges. The pastor stated: “When God fights for his people, they win, but when they fight for themselves, at best, we have a mixed bag.”

    They start off good

    We see in verse 1 that the story starts out well:

    • V1: The people seek the LORD’s will as to who should go up to fight the Canaanites and He answers.
    • V2: The LORD was with them!
    • After their first few battles, we have a story of Caleb, who leads some to conquer another place and he’s successful.
      • A quote by Tim Keller was used to point out that Caleb, Othneal, and Achsah demonstrated good discipleship by radically taking risks and relying on God instead of their own power and abilities.
      • We can use this as a good example to follow, not thinking of our own shortcomings or inabilities, but instead trusting in God’s power to be victorious.

    Small weeds begin to crop up

    The people in this section of scripture started right but quickly turned to their own ways. In the sermon, 4 hints of trouble were pointed out:

    1. V3: Judah hesitates to do God’s will and instead seeks out a human companion, his brother Simeon, to help him fight. On the human level, this makes sense, but it is simply not what God said to do.
      • It’s important to note that Judah was still victorious, but his disobedience to God and trust in his own ability set a precedent for the others going forward.
      • We see they are successful until they come across something that seems too hard: some iron chariots. This would have been EASY for God, but they thought they couldn’t beat them.
    2. V4: Judah cuts off the thumbs and big toes of an enemy to humiliate him. This incorporates local secular strategies in their fight against the inhabitants, something that God did not command them to do.
    3. V16: Instead of driving out the locals, some of the people live among them, ultimately settling for convenience.
      • Here, the pastor says something particularly interesting. He says that the command of God was CLEAR, they were to “put to death all living in the land,” not live among them.
      • He points out that some in the world today find this to be a “stumbling block,” they say that God was being unfair and cruel to command a genocide. However, he affirms that was actually being fair and just in commanding this, and that he hopes to put out a statement later this week to address this.
        • I look forward to reading his remarks, but I don’t think we need to place the blame for this genocide on any command from God. I’ll address this more in the following section with my personal thoughts on these verses.
    4. V22-26: The people resort to the same tactics they used in the battle of Jericho, resorting to using their own wisdom instead of God’s.

    Israel’s failures are our own

    We all, even as Christians, do these things from time to time instead of letting God fight our battles:

    • We depend on our own strength.
    • We deploy secular tactics.
    • We default to convenience.
    • We decide using our own wisdom.

    Small weeds create big problems

    Soon, while the above points are merely little hints of trouble, the consequences cascade into a flood:

    V27-33 Detail how the children of Israel did not drive out the inhabitants of the land, each point resulting in progressively worse and worse conclusions, ending in v34 with the Amorites turning the tide and chasing Dan out of their promised land.

    This makes the point that everything done by our own strength is bound to fail eventually.

    This first chapter of Judges seems to be written from the human perspective. The beginning of chapter two, however, gives us God’s perspective.

    God responded to their failure

    In the first verse, the angel of the LORD comes and reminds the people of what they were commanded to do. Reminding them that He brought them up out of Egypt and promised never to break his covenant with them, he reiterates that he commanded them not to make any deals with the people of the land, but to drive them out and destroy their places of worship. But they did not obey Him. Because of this, He says, He will not drive them out from before them as they settle and instead, they and their idols will become “thorns in [their] sides.”

    The rest of the book of Judges is mainly about the consequences of the people rejecting God as a king, and instead going their own way, making themselves king. God, however, remains faithful to the end.

    My Thoughts on Judges 1:1-2:5

    I think the pastor did a great job. He summed up most of my thoughts with his sermon and added many valuable insights. Here are some of my additional thoughts.

    Did God Command A Genocide?

    When it comes to all of the “genocide” throughout the conquest of Canaan, a lot of people think that, as the pastor put it, God commanded them to kill every man, woman, and child that were living in the land. But it’s never clear that God told them to do this.

    When you google this, probably the most common thing that pops up about Gods command to posses the land is Deuteronomy 7:1-2.

    It says:

    “1When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee,… (then a bunch are listed)…; 2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.

    Deuteronomy 7:1-2

    Moses Commanded Utter Destruction

    When people see this, often their first reaction is to say this command is cruel and hypocritical of God. They may say that if he’s a God of mercy, how can he prescribe this genocide?

    But an important thing to note is that this is NOT God speaking. Deuteronomy 5:1 says that Moses called all Israel and said these words unto them. This is Moses talking, not God. The same Moses who argued with God over his ability to speak to the people. The same Moses who ground up the golden calf in water and made the people drink it. The same Moses who God was upset with for smiting the rock when God had only said to speak to it. Moses is a man. Moses is fallible.

    God only commands that the inhabitants be driven out

    The earliest instance (that I’ve been able to find, anyway) of God actually commanding the people to possess the land with his own words, is found in Numbers 33:51-53. Here, God commands the people to drive out the inhabitants, destroy their images and idols, dispossess the inhabitants, and possess it themselves. No mention of killing everyone.

    Either way, there’s no clear command to do genocide

    But even if you look just at the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 7, there is no command to kill every man, woman, and child. He says in verse 2 to “smite them, and utterly destroy them,” and while some may take this to mean kill everyone, that is not necessarily the case. This could easily be a case of hyperbole, which we use even in today’s context; For example, the Dallas Cowboys utterly destroyed the Cleveland Browns a few nights ago… But no one died!

    “God’s sovereignty, that’s why!”

    A common response to this topic is to point to God’s sovereignty. God has the right to do whatever he wants. If God decides that a life is worthy of death, then it is!

    Just because God can do it, doesn’t mean that he does.

    Well, I certainly don’t dispute God’s sovereign right to do what ever he pleases. This is more of a question of what God pleases to do. All I would ask those who would give this response is to consider the following questions:

    • Can you prove that every man, woman, and child (even the youngest) living in Canaan were worthy of death in this story?
    • Is the destruction of innocence in line with righteousness, mercy, justice, or anything else in God’s perfect character?
    • How does it serve to reach non-believers for Christ, by basically telling them that God can do whatever he wants, even when it is perceived as unjust?

    Please note: When I ask these questions, I don’t intend in any way to question God. “God is sovereign, that’s why!” If this is your response to the issue, I’m questioning you.

    Another Personal Application

    What stood out to me in the text is that this seems to depict what could happen on a more personal level if a Christian decides to give even a small place to sin in their lives.

    The Metaphor of a Conquering Christian

    Think of these verses as a metaphor where the children of Israel, being recently taken out of Egypt, represent a Christian being reformed into the image of Christ. Just like Israel is a new nation, here, Christians are said to be new creations in Christ ().

    As the Israelites conquer the land, a Christian conquers various aspects of their life as they conform to their new identity.

    This account provides a picture of what happens when you give even the smallest place for sin to dwell instead of driving it out entirely. Like an invasive weed, it grows and infects until it becomes an unmanageable “thorn in [our] sides.”

    Paul also had a thorn in the flesh

    God’s statement that these inhabitants and their idols would become “thorns in [their] sides” reminds me of a statement by Paul in the New Testament.

    There’s much debate over what, exactly, Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 12:7. Either way, the language used seems too similar to what we find in this passage to ignore. Did Paul give place to something in his life that eventually became like a thorn in his flesh? And how does that tie into God’s response that His “grace is sufficient?”

    Thorns can point to God’s grace

    I think if the thorn in Paul’s flesh was the result of his own doing, it adds much more significance to God’s sufficient grace in the matter. God’s grace was sufficient for Paul in that through Paul’s weakness, God is shown to be strong. Specifically, Paul says in 2 Corinthians that the thorn in his flesh was given to him to keep him humble so that he and others would recognize his need for Christ. Similarly, the details of the Old Testament, especially what we’ll see in Judges, serve to display the weakness of God’s people, so that the strength of Christ would be shown through it in the end.

  • Who is 1 Corinthians Addressed To?

    Who is 1 Corinthians Addressed To?

    Line Upon Line: 1 Corinthians 1: 1-2

    Article by:

    Brandon Wood

    Verse 1: A Letter From Paul

    This letter starts with one of Paul’s standard letterheads. Typical of Paul’s writings is the statement of who the letter is from. In this case, the letter is from Paul and Sosthenes “our” brother. The word “our” implies that Paul is writing to someone who is of the same group as Paul. The word “brother” shows that Sosthenes shares a familial relationship with this group.

    An apostle by the will of God

    Paul says he is “called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.” The word “apostle” is a Greek word which means “sent forth” or “messenger.” Paul is an apostle “of” Jesus Christ. The word “of” could mean from, as in he is a “messenger from Jesus;” or “of” could mean about, as in “Paul is a messenger sent forth to tell about Jesus.” The fact that Paul is called “by the will of God,” shows that it’s not by his own will or effort, but rather the will of the higher power of God that he occupies this role.

    Verse 2: To the Believers in Corinth

    In continuing the letterhead, the author indicates to whom the letter is addressed. In this case, it’s addressed to the Church of God at Corinth, which is described as “those who have been sanctified in Jesus Christ.”

    This second part strikes me as being similar to the way some letters of official business are addressed in modern times like the following, where the business is where this is going, but it’s specifically sent to the “ATTN:” personnel:

    To: ATTN: So-and-So

    XYZ Business

    So this letter is being addressed to the Church of God at Corinth, but specifically to “those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints.”

    These Corinthians have already been sanctified

    What stands out to me is that these “have been” sanctified, as opposed to “are being,” or “will be” sanctified. “Have been” is past tense, implying that the sanctification of these people happened in the past instead of being an ongoing process or a future event. What’s more, this sanctification is “in Christ Jesus,” not in themselves. So Christ is the one who is sanctified, and they are in Christ, and therefore they are sanctified in Christ.

    The word “sanctified” means to be set apart, or declared as Holy. Clearly, this holiness is not of themselves, but rather, they are sanctified in Christ, so any holiness would also be in Christ. This is found in other passages where our blessings are “in Christ.”

    They were called as saints

    Another point in the past tense is that those being addressed are “called as saints.” Note that it’s not that they will one day be saints, but that they have already been called as saints.

    “As saints” could have a couple of meanings:

    1. First, they were already saints when they were called;
    2. Second, they became saints when they were called, “as” meaning “to be.”

    Seeing that they are those “who have been sanctified,” I find it likely that their sainthood is tied to their sanctification, especially since the word for saint is the same Greek word as “sanctified” and both can be translated as holy one, set apart and also Holy. To follow the fact that they “have been sanctified” with them being “called as saints” is likely a restatement to bring further emphasis to their state in Christ as those that are set apart

    With all in every place

    The next clause says “with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”

    This could be saying one of two things:

    1. Those listed above, the church at Corinth, who have been sanctified and called saints, are called that ALONG WITH all “who in every place call upon the name of our Lord.
    2. This is another addressee of the letter. This letter is addressed to BOTH the Church at Corinth AND ALSO “all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord.”

    Paul says that Jesus is “their lord and ours,” which seems to indicate that option one from above is the case, as it speaks of Jesus as “their” Lord as if they are not the ones being spoken to directly in this letter. His usage of “their Lord” implies that this is written directly to the church at Corinth, since if it was written also to those referred to as those “who in every place call upon the name of our Lord,” then he would have left it at that and there would have been no need for “their Lord and ours” at the end.

    Conclusion

    So then, in these first two verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul addresses the letter from himself, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Sosthenes, to the Church at Corinth. He begins by saying that they are sanctified in Christ, called saints, just like all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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