Reflections on Judges 3: 7-11; Judges 2: 16-23

The sermon worked out better than I expected (from my perspective, of course), but I already see the challenge of trying to take these colorful stories and figuring out where God is in them.  This first week was rather simple -- but soon we get into violence and bloodshed.  Part of the challenge is figuring out how we approach the text and what we understand God's Word to be.  Can we see God in the story differently than the ones who told the story?

Someone asked why I was preaching on Judges and the answer is rather simple -- I thought they were fascinating stories that most of us don't read very often.

“Here Come the Judges” Sept. 23, 2012; Judges 3: 1-7; Fall Judges series; FPC, Troy

Introduction: The stories from Judges are colorful and challenging -- lots of violence, sin and God saving Israel through the judges that heroically come to the forefront at critical times.

Move 1: The primary question the stories ask of us is this: do you believe that God is at work in the world?

a. That question confronted God's people as they lived in the time between the strong patriarchal leadership of Moses and the reigns of the kings beginning with King Saul.

1. Here was the dilemma. On the one hand, they need to show that they needed kings.
2. They had to make the case that the Israelites could not stay faithful to God, could not survive without kings.

3. How could they do that? Tell their story in way that points out all their failings and problems that lead to their needing a king.

4. Easy enough, except they did not want to suggest that God was not at work in their midst.
5. So we get these stories about God's people who continually find themselves in trouble (thus the need for a king); but stories that also have heroes or heroines who come in and rescue God's people (thus proving that God is at work in the world in all circumstances).
b. These stories are very contextual.
1. that is, they take place in the lots of different locations.
2. We recognize this because if we add up the sum total of all the years mentioned that each judge led their people, it is a lot more years than the actually time period between Joshua and King Saul.
3. These stories are a collection of stories from lots of different places where God's people lived. WE may read about some of these judges and question whether we agree that this was how God was at work.

100. We read these stories as the testimony of God's people of how God was at work in their world.
     1. We may read s story and think – that does not sound like God to me.
     2. Or we may marvel at how God was at work.
     3. In both cases, we are challenged to push the question back on ourselves – do you believe God is at work in the world?

Move 2: The first judge we meet is Othniel.

a. Othniel offers the standard pattern about each judges story that we will discover.

1. Israel does evil;
2. God sends an enemy;
3. Israel cries in distress;
4. God sends a judge to deliver Israel
5. Israel again does evil, and the cycle repeats itself.

b. There is an overall decline of Israel as the cycles continue dilemma for the people who are telling the stories of God's people and how god is at work in the world.

100. Here is the important point to note – God works to save Israel.
     1. No matter what God's people do, God hears their cry and returns to save them.
     2. If you want to know where God is in the world, we better look at the places that need to be redeemed or find the people that need to be saved.
     3. God's who created out of love does not stop there; God continues to seek us out to be at work in the world, working out our salvation and redemption.

Move 3: God works through all sorts of people.

a. Judges has all sorts of characters who save the day.

1. Woman who leads the Israelites into battle; Judges has a one of the Bible's largest concentration of women characters (19 mentioned), who reflect a variety of characters. 
2. Left-handed man who carries a knife and is not afraid to use it.
3. A man who tests God and then tests God again.
4. Judge who can't keep a secret from his girlfriend and somehow gets his power from his hair.

b. how many of you have heard of Samson? How many have heard of Othniel?

1. Irony that Othniel is probably the best of the judges and Samson the most flawed.
2. Othniel story seems rather innocuous.

1. some scholars think this story may be included because it is the only judge from the tribe of Judah.

2. He is a Kenizzite (read nobody important), who had

become part of the story earlier when Caleb, one of the leaders during the time of Joshua, Caleb offered his daughter to any warrior who would attack and defeat the Canaanite city of Kiriath-sepher.

3. God works through real humans, despite our flaws.

100. Think about your own life of faith.
     1. What strange, flawed characters you have known who have been part of God working in your life.

1. Jr. High SS teacher – understood the call to salvation in way I still can't claim; no longer in Presbyterian Church; but she challenged me to think about what it meant to have a personal relationship with Christ.
2. Lots of people go into my call story. One minister I knew very briefly. David Berry – minister who played the critical part in my call to ministry. I didn't know him before that critical moment, and I only knew him briefly after. He had a significant flaw – he could not stay faithful to his spouse. He is no longer a Presbyterian minister. But, in that critical moment, he mediated God's call for me.
3. 2nd grade SS teacher – in my eyes she was perfect; still is
4. some of us are that strange, flawed character in other people's call stories!

500. But go back to the original claim of these stories – God is at work in the world.
     1. Who besides people like us does God have to work with?
     2. there was Othniel at a critical time, filled with the Spirit of the Lord, serving God to help save God's people.
     3. That is not just Othniel's story – that is our story. God at work through us at different times in different ways.

Conclusion: read these stories with curiosity. Ask questions. I spoke with an OT/preaching professor this week and she challenged me to read these stories in Judges and ask questions, even argue with the text.

But, do not dimiss the stories. Read them and lay claim to the God who was at work in the world in the time of the judges and the God who is at work in the world in our time.

The God who is at work saving your and me.

The God who is at work through you and me.