Judges 1-2:9 The Importance of Leadership
The time of Judges was one of true political chaos. God had miraculously led the Israelites to their Promised Land through Joshua, but the land is not fully conquered yet. Joshua fulfilled his calling, but now they don’t have a leader. People start backsliding from God’s law, while at the same time trying to fight wars and claim God’s land, which resulted in a lot of drama and bloodshed. While the author of this book is anonymous, Jewish tradition says that Samuel wrote it, which would make sense because he was a transitional figure from the time of the judges, to the time of the kings in Israel. Judges covers Jewish history from approximately 1380 - 1045 B.C. A lot can change within a few hundred years, and throughout this turbulent time, we see God miraculously preserve and save his people.
A few things to keep in mind as we go through this book..
1. Moral relativism.
In our culture and time, people really hate truth, so much so that people have developed a system of shifting blame, never taking responsibility, and doing whatever feels good by rejecting absolute truth. Statements like, “You do you, I’ll do me” or, “live your truth, and I’ll live mine” are common today, and were common ideas back then too. By not calling good things good, and evil things evil, we can fall for the trap of lies that Satan has made for us. The book of Judges is the ultimate history lesson from the consequences of moral relativism. We want to do what’s right in God’s eyes, not our own - this is the thesis of Judges.
2. Descriptive rather than Prescriptive.
Judges is a historical book, it tells of things that happened, not necessarily how things should happen. Fare warning, there is a lot of crazy stuff recorded here: violence, sexual dysfunction, corruption, and other craziness. Don’t take the descriptive history of the evil of ancient Israel as a roadmap for what to do, it’s more so about what NOT to do. Those are the things that actually teach us the most right? We have to use wisdom to delineate what actions are good, and which actions are bad the stories that we read throughout this book. That is why God preserved this book for us to read today. Just because it is a descriptive book does not mean that there are no applications to our lives today. Throughout studying the book of Judges, Christians should let the descriptions of the harsh realities of sin in this book motivate us to fight the real enemy.
3. Judges points us to the real Savior, Judge, and Leader.
While there is a lot of darkness in the book of Judges, there are plenty of great examples of godly faith, love, and leadership. While the people generally may have been, and continue to be unfaithful, God was always, and is always faithful to His people. Jesus is evident all throughout these accounts of sin, justice, and saving, we just need to have eyes to see Him there. There is a lot to learn from this book, and it is relevant to us, and points us to the redeeming work of Christ and His Kingship.
Judges 1-2
The message today has to do with learning the lessons of leadership that are presented in first two chapters of Judges. Here, there are valuable leadership principles and lessons that we can apply to our lives in Christ. If you think a leadership lesson isn’t for you, you’re wrong. Someone is following you. You have influence in your life whether you like it, or know it or not, and God wants to define you as a ‘good’ leader if you’ll let Him.
Good vs. Bad Leadership
Leadership is vital. It can bring life, or death to those that are following. Bad leadership is costly for multitudes of people. You don’t have to think to hard to think of catastrophic examples of abuse and death that result from bad leadership. On the other hand, good leadership can equip, challenge, love, and change people’s lives and eternities. No matter what scope of leadership God has called us to, we want to strive to be leaders that make a positive impact on those around us.
There are general descriptions of someone’s leadership abilities. There are good leaders, and there are bad leaders. We make the judgments on a leader’s abilities all the time with our bosses at work, the leadership of people within your family, the leadership of a business in town, or the leadership of our political leaders. Some leaders are good, and some leaders are bad, and we define them as such based on their overall character and actions. We’re all constantly voting for the lesser of two evils: Your employer. Your church. Your politician. While we have to follow, or choose to follow particular leaders in this life, we should all be ascribing to the ultimate “good” leadership of Jesus Christ.
What are some examples of good leaders that you’ve experienced in your life? What do you think made them good leaders?
While yes, all of our hearts have been corrupted by sin and we all make mistakes, even God himself categorizes good and bad leaders throughout the Bible, particularly in describing the kings of Israel, of which 5 were labeled as “good and right in the sight of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 14:2), and 33 of which were labeled as doing “evil in the sight of the Lord” (1 Kings 16:30). With wise and gracious judgment we can not only identify good leaders, but actually become them.
In this first three chapters of judges, we have 4 types of leaders - Joshua, Judah, Jesus, and Judges - and some God-given principles to learn from them. Let’s jump to chapter two, where we get the second introduction to the great leader, Joshua.
Joshua: the RARE leader
Judges 2:6-9
6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. 7 The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
-The Lord was the primary leader for the Israelites as God broke them out of slavery, and into the Promised Land. Moses led them to the Promised Land, Joshua led them into the Promised Land.
-Joshua was a courageous warrior that was full of faith. He led the Israelites into Canaan to fulfill the promise. His name means “Jehovah is salvation”, the name Jesus is very similar and comes from the same root. Joshua and Jesus are actually interchangeable names in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8. In addition to a similar name, Joshua was similar to Jesus in character. and because of his faith, he led God’s people to salvation/security. People generally “served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua”, which shows the strength of his faithful leadership.
Besides being called to lead during historically significant events, what are attributes of Joshua that made him a rare leader?
Joshua faithfully led God’s people and did his part, but now as the book of Judges opens up, he is dead. The Hebrews now own the land but yet to fully conquer it. They have a leadership gap to fill.
Judges 1:1
“After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Who will go FIRST to FIGHT against the Canaanites””
This verse describes Joshua, but also marks the characteristics of what people need in a leader. Here are a few principles.
-Real leaders are the first ones into the battle, they take ownership. Leaders lead from the front, they aren’t afraid to ‘get their hands dirty’ so-to-speak.
-Real leaders fight. Conquer or be conquered. This sounds uncomfortable to many nowadays, but it is reality. Real leaders in any capacity understand the importance of fighting for what they believe in.
-Israel needed leadership so that they could win, rather than the enemy. The Promised Land was God’s and Israel’s, they weren’t allowed to share God’s land with the enemy.
Any of us can be rare leaders like Joshua. It just takes unwavering faith in their mission, and in God. Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder make this case in their book called Rare Leadership. They have an acronym to describe these types of RARE leaders. Evaluate your leadership abilities in comparison to what they prescribe.
Rare leaders..
Remain relational - Relationships are more important than the problem.
Act like themselves - They don’t have different sets of goals and personalities based on their present company.
Return to joy - They bring people in their care back to joy and purpose.
Endure hardship well - They don’t give up in their mission, and are humble enough to grow from mistakes.
Judah: the group that leads
Judges 1:2-8
2 The Lord answered, “Judah shall go up; I have given the land into their hands.” 3 The men of Judah then said to the Simeonites their fellow Israelites, “Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours.” So the Simeonites went with them. 4 When Judah attacked, the Lord gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek. 5 It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites. 6 Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. 7 Then Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 8 The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire.
-This is just one example of many about the brutality of war and sin, and the destruction it brings. War sucks, but some things are worth fighting for. Remember, the preservation of Israel means the coming of the Messiah that will save people from their sins. This manifest in brutal ways in the physical, but this is indicative of the spiritual war raging behind the scenes in the heavenly realm.
-Judah would be the tribe that the Messiah Jesus would eventually come through. “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev 5:5). They went first and led God’s people, just as Jesus would.
Judah is not representative of the Church, but there are leadership lessons for the ‘group leadership’ of the Church that we can observe and apply.
This group was God ordained (1:2), and they willingly obeyed. Just like Judah, the Church has been commissioned as a group to go forth and advance the Kingdom of God! He has chosen us, but we have the responsibility to remain obedient.
They made an alliance with another group, the Simeonites (1:3). Similarly, the Church should join forces with like-minded Christians to conquer the enemy and advance God’s Kingdom.
They fought as a group, they won, and continued to conquer (1:4-26). There is power in numbers, especially when uniting for God’s mission in the world, and we can continue to conquer the enemy’s spiritual territory if we unite as the Church.
Judges 1:18-19
18 Judah also took Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron—each city with its territory. 19 The Lord was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron.
Groups that lead still have barriers and limitations, because of the strength of the enemy. While groups can have much power, they can still be corrupted and become weak.
1:18 - Gaza is a part of the Promised Land, and it still is today. Hamas’s terrorism gives us a modern-day example of the evil that exists now, and the evil that existed then. The evil one, Satan, wants that real estate, but God' will always end up triumphing over him.
1:19 - he Lord was with Judah, but they still had limitations because of their enemies.
Judges 1:28
When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely.
Their limitations led them to compromise. Even though they had power over their enemies, they didn’t drive them out completely as they were called to by God (Joshua 23:5-16).
Application: groups can be strong, but they can also be wrong.
What are the strengths of a group of people that are leading something?
What can be weaknesses of a group that is leading something?
Jesus - the ultimate leader.
Contrary to popular thought, Jesus is not just the God of the New Testament, He is the God of the whole Bible, and the God of all the history of time. (Colossians 1:15-17). Whenever God speaks in the Old Testament, Jesus is present and functioning in the Godhead, in complete agreement of the truth spoken. Simply put, Jesus is the Lord, Judge, Savior and Leader of the Old Testament, and we see Him clearly in Judges, particularly in Judges chapter 2.
Judges 2:1-4
The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? 3 And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’” 4 When the angel of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, 5 and they called that place Bokim.[a] There they offered sacrifices to the Lord.
-I believe the “angel of the Lord” mentioned here is a Christophany, which theologians describe as a pre-incarnate Jesus that delivers God’s message. (examples, Abraham’s visit of an angel, Jacob wrestling God, Daniel’s friends in the furnace). I believe this is a message in the passage above is straight from the Jesus, in agreement with the Godhead.
-Notice that Jesus leads clearly and firmly, saying, I told you not to make covenants with the enemy because they will trap you. Echoing Joshua chapter 23.
-We can’t confuse Jesus’ kindness with inclusively. Jesus, the ultimate authority and leader of the Israelites relays this important message: have nothing to do with the sins of the people around you. Conquer them, or they will conquer you. The theologian John Owen put it this way, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”
-Jesus so hard on sin that he was tortured and killed for it. He might have met sinners where they were at us to save them, but he didn’t participate in their sin, nor does he still.
Jesus goes First and Fights
-He was the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15) and he fought the powers of Satan on the cross.
-He will lead from the front when he comes to wage the final war on evil and fight it himself, like the perfect leader that he is.
Application: We must be mindful of Satan’s trap of moral relativism, thinking that all people are good and want the same things.
This all sets the stage for the type of leaders that will lead God’s people for the next several hundred years, Judges. While Jesus has given clear direction to His people, they don’t always agree to follow Him, and the consequences of sin repeatedly unfold. Jesus then empowers judges to save His people and preserve their authority over the land. There is so much at stake spiritually during this time, and God never let His people go. As we continue to study the ways that God used these imperfect people to lead, let’s remember who the real leader is, and what He continues to promise His people today. Here are a couple reflection questions to ponder this week.
What are ways that you’ve seen the consequences of compromising in your life?
What kind of leader is God calling you to be? How are you going to make that happen?
