Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Halfway Discipleship | Historical Books | Judges 1:1-26

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

What's the context of Judges? How should we view our leaders? How do we end up morally compromised? In today's episode, Keith shares how Judges 1:1-26 reminds us that sin leads to destruction. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Judges 1:1-26

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Judges is one of my favorite books in the whole Bible, and yet it's not one that most of us are familiar with. You don't hear judges preached often or studied in small groups, and I think the reason you don't hear much about the book of judges is the same reason that I like it so much. Judges is a dark book. What I mean by that is it shows the dark side of human nature.

it shows what we are all capable of apart from God's grace. There aren't any heroes in the book of judges. There's no Daniel faithfully navigating the courts of foreign kings. There's no Esther making courageous choices to savor people. There's no godly leader like Moses. All the good guys and judges are morally compromised. And I guess you could say that about all the people in the Bible. No one is sinless other than Jesus.

He's the true and only hero. And yet, I still think judges is dark. than most other books of the Bible. You could say it's darkness on steroids. Probably the verse that summarizes the book, best, is the last verse in the last chapter. Here's how the book ends. Judges 2125 says, in those days, Israel had no king. All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. That seems pretty dark. Human beings left on their own with no constraints, well, that's not a good situation to be in. When we start a new book of the Bible on TMBT, it's important to remind ourselves of its place in biblical history. It's always good to revisit the main story line of the Bible and ask,

where does judges fit into the Bible story? Remember that in Genesis 1 and 2, God creates the world along with Adam and Eve and calls his creation very good. Then in Genesis 3, sin enters the world and everything falls apart. In Genesis 4 through 11, you get the first murder, where Kane kills his brother Abel. God sends the flood to judge the world for its sin, but saves Noah and his family, and then all the people rebel against God by building a tower to reach heaven to try to make a name for themselves. In Genesis 12, God hits Control Alt-Delete, and he reboots the story with Abraham. God promises Abraham that he will give him a child, a land, and that all the people of the earth will be blessed through him. The plan seems to take a detour when Abraham's descendants end up enslaved in

Egypt. But God raises up Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and take them to the promised land. When Israel first arrives at the promised land, they balk and refuse to go in because they're scared by the armies with giants that live in the promised land. This is the start of their wilderness years. Israel wanders in the wilderness as God's discipline for not trusting him and taking possession of the land he'd promised them. Finally, after 40 years, they returned to the promised land to try again. before they enter, Moses dies and hands off leadership to Joshua. Joshua, which is the book we just finished on TMBT, leads the people into the land, and they do an okay job obeying God and driving at the other nations. Maybe they get a B plus, but they fail to drive out all the nations who worship other

gods. And it's not long before Israel is worshipping the false gods instead of Yahweh. That's where the book of judges comes. It's the story of what happens when God's people don't obey God, but instead do whatever they want. It's not pretty. The book of judges starts by acknowledging the death of Joshua. Here's how it starts in chapter 1, verse 1 and 2. After the death of Joshua, the Israelites ask the Lord, which tribes should go first to attack the Canaanites? The Lord answered Judah, for I have given them victory over the land. Now, I think it's worth noticing that new beginnings come after the death of one of God's leaders. The book of Exodus begins with the death of Joseph. The book of Joshua begins with the death of Moses. Judges begins with the death of Joshua. First, Kings begins with the death of King David.

God's leaders die, but God's kingdom doesn't collapse. His plans and purposes keep marching right along. That's what we see in these opening verses. Joshua died, but the Lord gives their enemies into their hands. Later in the chapter in verse 19, it says the Lord was with the people of Judah, and they took possession of the hill country. This point should not be lost on us. Our hope is in the Lord, not our favorite pastor or our favorite musical artist or our favorite author or mentor or small group leader. God uses human leaders in our lives, but they come and go. We should be thankful for them, but we should never put our hope in them. Remember, the Book of Judges starts with the Israelites asking who should go up and attack the Canaanites. And the Lord answered Judah,

for I have given them victory over the land. Verse three says, the men of Judah said to their relatives from the tribe of Simeon, join with us to fight against the Canaanites living in the territory allotted to us. Then we will help you conquer your territory. So the men of Simeon went with Judah. Now, I'm sure you see the problem. The Lord says Judah should move against the Canaanites, and instead of obeying God's instructions, Judah recruits the tribe of Simeon to join with them. Now, maybe you think that's not a big deal. But moral compromises always start small. No one wakes up and decides to become an addict. No one wakes up one day and decides to commit adultery.

Instead, a person makes one small choice after another until they find themselves in a place they never intended. There's a saying about sin that serves as a warning to us. It says, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. And that's for sure true with Israel. The small moral compromises they make begin to add up. What started with Judah slightly deviating from God's instructions by

recruiting Simeon to go to battle with them becomes something far greater. In verse 21, it says the tribe of Benjamin, however, failed to drive out the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live in Jerusalem along with the people of Benjamin. In verse 27, we read that the tribe of Manasseh failed to drive out the people they were supposed to. In verses 29, 30, and 31, we learned that this sin is contagious. The tribes of Ephraim, Zebulin, and Asher failed to drive out the people they were supposed to. And the further you go in the chapter, the more you see that every tribe has this problem, they failed to do all that God committed them to do. The Canaanites will become a thorn in Israel's side, and they will lead the Israelites into worship of foreign idols.

Now, the reason the Israelites don't defeat their enemies is because they rely on themselves, not on God. It's not our lack of strength that prevents us from enjoying God's blessings, or from worshiping God wholeheartedly. It's our lack of faith in God's strength. When we rely on ourselves and base our walk with God on our own calculations, instead of simply obeying God, we find ourselves making compromises. It is halfway discipleship, and the book of judges will show us that it leads to no discipleship at all. The warning to us is clear. Let's commit to fully obeying all God has commanded. Amen.