The Story Chapter 8 - Judges

What images come into your mind when you hear the word “judge”?  Humour me for a moment and turn to the person next to you and share what came into your mind first.

 

Feedback.

 

In the Story we’ve come to a 300 year spell known as the period of the Judges and there’s a book of the Bible bearing that name.  But these Judges wear armour rather than robes and carry spears rather than briefcases.

 

We tend to think of judges as the people who can throw you into jail but the Judges we’re looking at this morning were the folk who got the people of Israel out of jail – out of the self-imposed prisons they created for themselves by their disobedience.

 

By now, we’re seven hundred years after God’s promises to Abraham; the promise to bless his descendants and make them a blessing to the whole world; and the promise to settle them in the land of Caanan.  You’ll remember that the overarching plan in the Upper Story is that God wants to be with us, but sin has made that difficult. So his plan at the present time is to reveal himself through a people – through this holy nation of Israel. They are to be different. Salt and light to the nations around them.

 

So by this stage, after the leadership of Moses and Joshua, the people of Israel are finally in their own land; God is present with them in the tabernacle; they have the law to guide their lives and a sacrificial system to help them atone for their sins. They have everything they need.

 

But they’re still not getting it right.

 

The first few paragraphs of Chapter 8 state the problems well –

 

“Another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped various gods of the people around them. And in his anger against Israel, the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them.”

 

Israel made two key mistakes after conquering the land.

 

Firstly they hadn’t driven out all the Caananites; they’d settled down alongside them. And over time they started to assimilate Caananite practices. The salt was in danger of losing its saltiness.

 

And if we had more time, we might well think about that for ourselves this morning. To what extent are our lives shaped by the values and practices of the secular world around us? Are we in danger of blending in so much that we end up not being any different at all?

 

Israel blended in too much. But as well as that, they hadn’t done enough to teach their children about God and the things he’d done for them. The memory of God and his great acts of deliverance were being lost among them.

 

It’s a sobering thought for you and me that Christianity is only ever one generation away from extinction. How will our children and grandchildren know who God is and what God means to us if we don’t find ways of sharing that with them? We can’t leave that up to the church any more than we can leave a child’s upbringing to its schoolteachers. The foundational work should be done at home, in the context of the family.

 

Over the years we’ve tended to think of Sunday School as the place where children get their Christian education. But that was never how it was meant to be. Sunday School was only to be the icing on the cake – the real substance was what was done at home through prayer, conversation and reading. That’s why we’ve been trying to encourage the young families in the congregation to do the Story together. If we don’t teach our kids to read and pray and think and talk about God, rest assured - no-one else is going to do it for us.

 

So two big mistakes, right at the beginning of this chapter: Assimilation, and failing to pass on the story to the next generation.

And those led to a repeated cycle for the next 300 years of their history. Washing machines have a spin cycle, Israel had a sin cycle!

And it went something like this –

 

They’d forsake God and worship the deities of the people they lived alongside.

They’d lose God’s protection, and some form of judgment or oppression would fall on them.

They’d cry out to God for deliverance

God would raise up a Judge to lead them and save them.

 

Out of the 300 years the book of Judges covers, 111 of those years were spent living under oppressive regimes because the people repeatedly turned their backs on God.

 

Israel is still struggling to learn the same old lesson she should have learned in the years of wandering in the desert – you can’t expect to live under God’s blessing if you play fast and loose with God’s covenant. And that’s a lesson you and I need to learn too, because it isn’t just Israel who gets caught up in the sin cycle. How often have you found yourself, head in hands, saying ‘not again’. I can’t believe I’m back in this same godforsaken place all over again”.

 

Take courage from God’s faithfulness to Israel. But take care not to presume on his grace and mercy.

 

So what about these Judges – chosen to get Israel back on track?

Well, there were six of them, and we hear three of their stories in some detail in Chapter 8 – those of Deborah, Gideon and Samson.

 

Now Deborah is probably new to you; and isn’t it great to find these words in the middle of a patriarchal text that was written in a patriarchal time. “Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the palm of Deborah and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.”

 

She must have been an amazing, powerful woman to have exerted that kind of authority in a world where men almost always held sway. Strong in the Lord, wise, greatly respected. The kind of woman that no-one could really argue against because of the sheer quality of her character.

 

I had a wee smile on my face as I thought about Deborah, because an image came to mind almost straight away. If you go into the vestry, there’s a photograph on the wall that was taken to mark the centenary of this building in 1978. It’s a picture of the elders of the Kirk, and a fine body of men they are too. I have to be careful what I’m saying here, because there’s still a good few of them around!

 

But on the front left of the photograph, there’s one lady – Nan Sutherland – who I only know by reputation because Nan died just a matter of weeks before I was inducted to this charge. But I’ve heard nothing but good things about Nan in my time here. Strong in the Lord, wise, greatly respected. A woman in what – at least in those days – was a very much a man’s world. When Nan spoke, people listened – and they listened because they knew the quality of her character and her walk with the Lord.

 

Deborah, it seems to me, was cut from the same cloth – and that quiet authority she had was married with courage, because she didn’t just order the troops into battle – she went with them into the thick of it, and saw them triumph. So that was Deborah.

 

Gideon’s story is probably better known. He was a nobody from a little tribe in Israel, and when the angel of the Lord greets him with the words “The Lord Is With You, Mighty Warrior!” he looks over his shoulder to see who the angel’s talking to!

 

But it’s Gideon God is after, and though he takes some persuading, he eventually comes round to the idea that God is indeed calling him to liberate Israel from the Midianites. Not with 32,000 warriors, but with 300, so that Israel would never forget who it was who had really saved them.

 

And lastly, there was Samson. An interesting case if ever there was one. We’re told he was a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth – unable to cut his hair or take strong drink. But however God was at work in him or through him, there’s not much evidence of Godliness in Samson.

 

He developed a taste for Philistine women and for swift, bloody revenge; he brooded over his rights when they were infringed, but gave no thought to his responsibilities; he thought nothing of visiting prostitutes, or taking up with a woman who was clearly out to betray him. And all this time, for all that he was a Nazirite, we never once in the whole story hear Samson talk with God as Deborah had, and as Gideon had. At least, not until the very end.

 

The first time he’s recorded as praying is right at the end of his life when he grasps those pillars in the temple of Dagon and asks God for the strength to do what he has to do. And as you know, that prayer was answered.

 

Samson, Gideon, Deborah. Three very different people, and yet all of them Judges – used by God to deliver his people.

 

And if there’s one phrase from today’s readings that seems to pull their stories together into some kind of unity, it’s this, taken from God’s meeting with Gideon:

 

“The Lord turned to him and said: “Go in the strength you have. Am I not sending you?”

 

Go in the strength you have; your woman’s strength, Deborah. Your humble strength, Gideon. Your foolhardy, fearless and ultimately self-defeating strength, Samson. Go in the strength you have, and rest assured I will use you.

 

That, I think, is our word for today. Go in the strength you have.

 

God calls us as the people we are, into his service. He knows you – he knows you better than you know yourself. And it’s you that he calls; with all the light and shade, gifting and weakness that makes you the person you are. He calls you, and he says what matters is not the strength you feel you lack, but the strength you already have. Go in the strength you have. It doesn’t matter if you’re 8 or 80. Go in the strength you have – that’s all I ask of you.

 

But Go.

 

Sitting around is not an option for a disciple. Being a passive consumer is not an option for a disciple. To be a follower of Jesus, by definition, is to be in motion.

 

God’s command is to ‘go’ – to be active in his service; not passive.

Deborah went; Gideon went; even Samson went. And things happened as a result.

 

How many more things could happen in our church and in our community, if we recognised the strength that we have – the things we’re good at or love to do or have time to do – and put them at God’s disposal.

 

This year, for Right Christmas, we’re thinking about our talents and putting them at the service of the church and community. And I know that many of you already do a lot to help out in different ways, so this may not be for you.

 

But here are some things to think about –

 

If you don’t have some kind of a role or involvement in the church which is about service of some kind, maybe it’s time you did. The church is often called the body of Christ, and each part of the body has its own particular role. It wouldn’t be in the body if it didn’t. Have you found your role yet? A way that you can help?

 

And if you’re one of those folk who’s already running hard doing things, you might ask yourself this question. Am I working out of my strengths? Are the things I’m doing life giving for me? Are there other things I might be doing which are a better fit with who I am?

 

Food for thought.

 

And today I’m just sowing some seeds, but over the next wee while I’m going to ask you to be thinking about this, and then I’m going to put out a sheet with some suggestions for ways you might be able to help – regardless of age, experience or ability. There will be something for everyone, and it would be great to get as many of those back as possible, to make sure we’re using the talents of everyone who’s a member of this church community.

 

So to get us started, would you be prepared to think about serving the church as an elder. Could you take a slot on the car rota, bringing people who don’t drive to church on a Sunday? Could you help dig paths to the Kirk on snowy Sundays? Could you sing, or play an instrument, or lead a prayer or reading in worship? Could you give some time over to visiting an elderly person as part of the visiting team? Could you take a turn on the crèche rota; or with a bit of training, take a turn running the laptop during the service? If you’re struggling to get about these days, could you take a more active role in praying for your church from the comfort of your own home, with a little bit of encouragement and direction? Could you commit time to starting a Mainly Music group within our church, reaching out to young mums and toddlers within our community?

 

How’s that for starters?

 

Go in the strength you have, God says to Gideon.

 

He doesn’t ask us to be strong, to be someone else. He asks us to be ourselves – that’s how he best uses us.

 

But he also asks us to go.

 

And the Story shows, again and again, that whoever we are, and whatever our talents, when we go, in faith, God will use us.

 

Amen