Continuing with our series, The Coming King, we examine how God’s people’s posture towards sin brings them blessing in obedience (Joshua) and consequences when their heart posture moves towards disobedience (Judges).  Through examining these two books, Tyler Briggs applies these timeless truths to the current church, asking us to examine where we have compromise on God’s truth and where we faithfully commit.

Tyler’s Main Points

• Walking by faith in obedience to God brings blessing.
• Compromise with sin brings consequences.
• God disciplines us for our good.
• God raises up a deliverers for compromising sinners.
• Good News: God has raised up a perfect Judge and complete Savior in Jesus Christ for those who know they are compromising sinners and cry out to him in faith.

Key Takeaways

• When faced with God’s Word, there are two options: obedience or compromise.  The story of the book of Joshua is a story of obedience that leads to conquest.  The story of the book of Judges is a story of compromise that leads to the failure of God’s people.

• Joshua 21:43 shows us that God was faithful to his people, and as they were obedient to his commands, they were met with God’s fulfillment of the promises laid before Abraham. 

• Judges 2:6-7 depicts a change in the hearts of the people. They have forgotten the works of the Lord and moved away from the Lord and Joshua’s charge (Joshua 24:15).

• This failure to remember God’s goodness led to “7 cycles of sin:”
  • The people would sin
  • This sin would bring slavery
  • The people would move to supplication before the Lord
  • A judge would come forward to bring salvation
  • A period of silence occurs until the process restarts

• The path to comprising with sin, both now and in Judges:
  • First, we tolerate sin
  • We then begin to admire sin
  • This sin becomes our desire
  • Then sin has our devotion

• God does not desire for us to live in sin, so he disciplines his children out of love.  For Israel, this often occurred through the triumph of other nations over them (Judges 2:14), but God’s heart was never against Israel.  His hand moved against Israel because his heart was for Israel.

• Divine discipline has a three-fold purpose:
  • Test – to expose faithfulness for sanctification
  • Teach – train for future trials
  • Turn – to bring about repentance

• As God’s people spiraled in a downward trajectory, so did the judges.  God still used even these broken people for his own glory.  Judges ends with an unfortunate truth, the people of God were doing what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25).

• Despite the depravity of God’s people, he continued to give them a savior, both for the temporal trails they faced in Israel and the eternal consequences we face as believers today.  Jesus is the ultimate perfect judge and complete savior ready to save those who cry out to him in supplication.

Personal application:

• In what ways have you seen God’s faithfulness in your own life?  How can you commit to remember his faithfulness?
• What is your “charge for faithfulness” in this season?  Where are you tempted to compromise in this charge?

Discuss with your community group:

• What sin has your toleration?
• What sin has your admiration?
• What sin has your desire?
• What sin has your devotion?

Passages Referenced for Further Study:

Deuteronomy 7, Joshua 1:8, Joshua 21:43, Joshua 23-24, Joshua 24:15, Joshua 24:18, Judges 2:6-7, Judges 2:8-13, Exodus 19, 1 Peter 2, Judges 2:14, Hebrews 12:11, Judges 2:15-19, Judges 19:22-30, Judges 21:25, Titus 3:3-7

Worship Set List

Lift Up Jesus, 1,000 Names, How Great is Our God, No Other King, Ancient of Days