The Cycle
There’s a phrase popularized by G. Michael Hopf that goes something like this:
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times.”
It describes the circular pattern every nation that has ever existed has fallen into. Great Depression and World Wars gave way to the Baby Boom and the rise of the middle class. That gave way to hippie counterculture and the sexual revolution. Which gave way to the disintegration of the nuclear family. You can look back over history and see it play out again and again.
Today, we’re going to peek in on Israel as they went through one of these shifts, and pull out some truths that still apply to us right now.
The Context
We’re in the book of Judges. In Judges, Israel goes through a brutal cycle:
- They abandon the Lord.
- They are oppressed by their enemies.
- The Lord raises up a judge to deliver them.
- The judge delivers them and calls the people back to God.
Then the whole thing starts over.
Political Upheaval
This book is set against a backdrop of constant political instability. The Hittites had established a stabilized region, but the southward surge of the Philistines disrupted everything. Then the Israelites came into the mix, establishing their boundaries and warring against pagan nations on every side. But they disobeyed God in how they handled it. They didn’t destroy those nations as they were commanded. Instead, they made some of them servants. As time went on, that decision came back to haunt them, those same pagan nations rose up and brought periods of war and enslavement.
You’d think these trials would force Israel to align with each other, but even then they didn’t. In Judges 5:15–17 , the judge Deborah highlighted how indifferent the tribes of Reuben, Asher, and Dan were toward their own brothers. Even in the face of a common enemy, unity wasn’t guaranteed.
Religious Turmoil
The political divisions were matched by religious ones. Israel was transitioning from desert life to agriculture, and the surrounding pagan nations had gods for everything, weather, war, fertility. These false gods appealed to the most basic human impulses. Women who worshipped Baal were cultic prostitutes, which was tempting to Israelite men who’d grown up under the strict law of Moses.
We also see the grounding influence of Joshua’s generation falling away:
“And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel.” , Judges 2:7
The cycle is right there on the page. Strong men like Joshua. Good times during the initial conquest, following God. Weak men who settled for tributary nations, wanting the ease of having someone else serve them. Hard times brought on by pagan influence, dragging the children of Israel into sin.
It’s here that we’re going to camp out for a few minutes.
The Text
And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died. , Judges 2:19–21 (KJV)
So here we are, inserted into the cycle. Times were good under the judge. The Israelites were following the Lord. But then the transition happens. After the death of the judge, they returned , they turned back. And they corrupted themselves, they ruined, destroyed, and annihilated themselves spiritually.
And evidently, each time they did it, the regression got worse. Each generation sank deeper into the mire of sin. They ruined themselves more than their fathers. Their spiritual state deteriorated beyond what came before.
It all hinged on the judge. As long as there was a judge, a Deborah, a Gideon, an Othniel, a Samson, Israel did fine. But the moment that intermediary was gone, the people faltered.
The problem was that the judge held the line, rather than the people’s own relationship with God.
Heed this warning. You are supposed to be the one holding the line. It’s not your saintly mother’s job, your daddy’s, your pastor’s, your worship leader’s, or your Christian mentor’s. It’s yours . Far too many Christians today are refusing to hold the line against sin. They think that’s the job of the evangelist, the missionary, or the pastor. No. If you’re a child of Christ, it’s your job. And if you refuse to hold the line and leave your responsibility in this spiritual war untouched, you are living in disobedience.
The Lord didn’t take this disobedience lightly then, and He won’t take it lightly now.
His anger was hot, picture a pot boiling over on a stove, scalding whatever it touches, hissing.
They transgressed His covenant. They stepped over it, choosing to follow other gods.
They didn’t hearken to His call. He reached out to them. He made His way visible. But they didn’t listen. They ignored it.
Don’t ignore the Word of the Lord.
Point 1: When you don’t hold the line, you drift. Are you holding the line, or are you following your own stubborn way? Are you ready for the consequences that come when you don’t?
So what were the consequences for the Israelites? God refused to drive out their enemies.
Understand that God chooses to move people the same way today. He drives them in and out. He moves people to new places, new relationships, new stages of life. Believers and unbelievers alike are all used in accordance with His purposes.
There is always a purpose to God’s movement in the lives of people. What was His purpose in not driving them out?
“That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.” , Judges 2:22
“Through them”, who is “them”? The evil pagan nations. God was using their wickedness as an instrument to mold and shape His children. Remember Romans 9:21 : “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”
He says He wanted to prove Israel. Prove means to test. Testing is putting someone in circumstances where their true character is revealed, not by what they say, but by what they do.
The Lord left these nations as a test. You prove to the teacher that you know the material by passing the exam. This was no different for the Israelites. Their conduct with those pagan nations would prove whether they would walk the godly path of their fathers, or cast off that godliness for the hedonism of the nations around them.
They weren’t passing the test.
“Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.” , Judges 2:23
He could have driven them out quickly. God could have made it all go away in an instant, the struggle, the war, the suffering that would soon come. He could have given Joshua more victories with a wave of His hand.
But in doing so, He would have deprived the next generation of the opportunity to show, with their free will, a love and devotion to Him. So the Lord, in His omnipotent wisdom, left the battle for the next generation.
We wonder sometimes why God doesn’t give the victory immediately. Why He doesn’t move hastily in your life. Perhaps it’s because there’s some proving that hasn’t been done yet.
“Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan.” , Judges 3:1
This generation hadn’t learned the wars of Canaan.
The word “know”, hear of, learn, reveal, appears four times in these verses. There is knowledge to be found in war. There is knowledge to be found in having to rely on God to both defend you and make you stronger. This generation had not been on the battlefield with Joshua, relying on God to bring victory against bigger, stronger enemies. They had not been forged in the fires of trial that come with loss and casualties.
When I was a child, I knew little of the evil in the world. I didn’t know about lying politicians. I didn’t know about depraved men or scandalous women. I didn’t know about the grip of pornography, adultery, or addiction. I didn’t know about murder and rape. But as I grew, my eyes opened. I began to see evil for what it really was.
If you are a babe in Christ today, there are things you simply don’t know about the spiritual evil around you. You don’t understand the implications, the depth, the breadth, or the weight of it. And the only thing that stands between you and that understanding is a fully surrendered heart and the power of the Holy Spirit working in your life.
There is spiritual knowledge to be found in spiritual warfare. The Lord will teach you things in the darkest moments of your spiritual life, the times when you feel like God has abandoned you, or you feel the crushing weight of sin and its consequences. Often those are the moments when we truly begin to understand what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
God wants you to understand. He wants to reveal things to you. He wants you to learn, just as He wanted the children of Israel to learn.
Point 2: God teaches us obedience through the battles we face. Truly understanding the spiritual battle will drive you to obey God to the fullest.
So why did God leave these nations again?
“Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof.” , Judges 3:2
War, the Hebrew word means to crush, to struggle. These were not little skirmishes. These were deep, hard-fought trials. Events that could either crush Israel or raise them to heights they hadn’t known before.
When they engaged in battle with a pagan nation, it wasn’t simply over land or money or property. Both sides were deeply committed to their religions. A central part of the warring was spiritual: Would the God of Israel overcome the gods of Baal and Asherah? That question was put on display for all to see in every battle. And if you keep reading your Bible, you’ll see that the pagan nations feared the God of Israel. When they didn’t, they were quickly brought low, because the God of Israel was, and still is, the one true God.
If you’re a child of God today, you will be taught war. We live in a sin-cursed world, so the fight is not an if , it’s a when . Without the Holy Spirit indwelling, the spiritual warfare that comes upon a person has the ability to crush them entirely. Apart from God, you can’t withstand it.
Think about the things that crush people every day, alcoholism (the word itself is rooted in “spirits”), mental illness, addiction. We try to normalize them through medical diagnoses and popular culture, but we’re deceiving ourselves. Not everything we see today is a pure chemical imbalance that can be solved with healthy eating, exercise, and a prescription.
God can teach you the proper way to handle the war. You need to understand it through a spiritual lens.
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” , 1 Corinthians 13:11
It’s time. The battles will be plentiful. They will hit different areas of your life and come through different avenues. This was the case for Israel too, they had to fight on multiple fronts.
“Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon unto the entering in of Hamath.” , Judges 3:3
Israel didn’t have just one enemy to worry about. They had many.
The Philistines dominated the region with five fortified cities: Gaza, Gath, Ekron, Ashkelon, and Ashdod. Each city was governed by what the Hebrew text calls a seren , a lord. These are the five lords.
The Sidonians were a center of Phoenician idolatry. Queen Jezebel, the wicked wife of Ahab, was the daughter of a Sidonian king.
The Hivites, according to Deuteronomy 7:1 , were greater and mightier than Israel, more numerous and stronger militarily. They may have grown to this strength because in Joshua 9:7 , Israel made a league with them after being deceived, because they didn’t seek counsel from the Lord.
The Lord didn’t leave small enemies for Israel to fight. He left some of the biggest and the strongest, because He wanted Israel to see His power on full display as He continually protected them and gave them the victory.
Notice: the Hivites, Philistines, and Sidonians are no more. But the nation of Israel still stands today.
The life of a follower of Christ will not be easy. Look at the enemies God left to teach Israel to war. Don’t expect life to be roses when you devote yourself to Jesus. Some of the tests God leaves in your path will hurt. He may choose to leave some of the thorns. But understand there is a lesson in all of it. God knows exactly what He is doing, even when we don’t.
Rest in the trials and battles you face. God has a reason.
Point 3: When God teaches us war, He is training us to trust Him. It’s not always pleasant, but it’s needful.
So why did God leave these big battles with these formidable foes? Judges 3:4 gives us the answer:
“And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.”
After the instruction came the test. Knowledge that is never used is useless knowledge. God will test you to see if what He’s taught you has truly sunk into your heart and become a lived truth, or if it’s just something you heard once and forgot.
This proving gave Israel the opportunity to show their reliance on the Lord. Unfortunately, they stumbled. If you keep reading, you’ll see intermarriage with pagan nations become widespread for the first time in the Bible. They didn’t fully obey. But even so, God brought redemption through the wars and the judges.
The Application
God is calling today just as He was calling then. Are you choosing to hearken?
There are certain things in your life that only God can teach you. The fact that Israel had to be taught war meant they weren’t going to figure it out on their own. This knowledge wouldn’t have come naturally. The Lord knew they needed instruction. They needed to be shown.
Too many of us think we can handle it on our own. We think we know enough. But there are things we simply don’t know, and the only way to learn them is to rely on the instruction of God.
God will take our inexperience and teach us. He will test us. He will be glorified through it. And we will be given the opportunity to draw closer to Him.
Are you taking the trial God has given you and responding correctly? Or are you taking a time of correction and pivoting it into further mistakes?
With our sin nature, we have an innate sense of rebellion. Even in times of testing, we have the propensity to dig in our heels and fall further. Beware of this. The thorns that are left in your life may be there for your edification. They are left to teach you. They are left to force you to rely on God.
Think of it like the stages of being on a football team.
First, you put on the jersey. That’s the first step. You identify with the team. Everyone knows you’re part of it because you’re wearing the colors.
Second, you run drills and play games. You win some, you lose some. When you win, it feels great. When you lose, you watch the tape, find where you messed up, learn from it, and get back out there. When you get knocked down, you get back up. When you miss the catch or blow the tackle, you get back out there. It’s hard work. And when you start winning, you face harder, more experienced teams.
Third, you get on the bus after the championship game. You win, and you go home. It’s relief. No more practice. No more uncertainty about how it’s going to go. You’ve grown throughout the season. You’ve got bruises and stories, but you’re on the bus and the game has been won. One day we’ll get on the bus and it’ll all be over. We just have to be faithful in the interim.
There is a battle the Lord has left for this generation. Are you in the fight? Are you a threat to the enemy? Does Satan know your name?
Point 1: When you don’t hold the line, you drift. Are you holding the line, or are you following your own stubborn way?
Point 2: God teaches us obedience through the battles we face. Truly understanding the spiritual battle will drive you to obey God to the fullest.
Point 3: When God teaches us war, He is training us to trust Him. It’s not always pleasant, but it’s needful.
Without the power of Jesus Christ in your life, you can’t be taught to war. You can’t win the battles or pass the test. You will fall short of obedience to God’s commandments.
Don’t let that be you today.
If God is calling you to change, change .