CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: Dear Dave and Tom: I just finished reading through the Book of Judges, and it seems rather amazing that the Israelites would stray so far from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and turn so quickly from Him to idols and pagan practices. More amazingly, it seems to me, is the fact that some of the judges seem to be just as much a product of the evil times, yet God used them to deliver the Israelites. My question is: How should I interpret the use of evil by the judges, and the fact that God used them. Certainly, God is not condoning their sinful actions, is He?
Tom:
Dave, it seems to me---the Book of Judges is a fascinating book because it just shows the heart of man. It shows how quickly, from one generation that was under the teaching, the leadership of Moses and then Joshua, then left to their own devices---I mean, that’s the theme of the Book of Judges—-each man did what was right in his own eyes. So, they were left to their own devices, and throughout the Book of Judges, over a couple of hundred years, I think, you have incredible idolatry, incredible practices that they just gleaned from those who they didn’t move out of the land of Canaan, the Philistines, the Canaanites.
Dave:
It’s a tough question. You take David, for example, now he was later than the days of the judges. God said of David: He’s a man after my own heart, who shall fulfill all my will, and yet he committed adultery and murder. Except for those acts, although he did kill a lot of people, and he did have multiple wives, but probably, in the days of the judges, one of the worst examples you could get would be Sampson. The guy was a womanizer.
Tom:
Under a Nazarite vow, in other words, almost as if---well, wait a minute, if he teaches this vow and does these things, as God would have him do, then there shouldn’t be any flaws in this guy, right? Wow! how far removed from that is the reality of it.
Dave:
Yeah, Tom, it illustrates a point, I guess. The heart of man is evil, God said it, through Jeremiah: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked---Who can know it---I, the Lord, search the heart. So, we’re going to have to trust God to show us the evil in our own hearts. And this is why David, in Psalm 139, said: “Search me O God, and know my heart, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Now, if God would not use anyone to affect his work on this earth except someone who never sinned, then he would never use anyone.
Tom:
Right.
Dave:
The Bible says, All have sinned. We know that all have sinned. You go back to the history of Israel---this people sometimes say today, I mean Christians now, Those Jews don’t deserve to be over there---they don’t even believe in Jesus, you know, and so forth and so on. Well, go back and read the history of Israel, they were idolaters all through the wilderness, the scripture tells you that. They began to worship the wrath serpent, they carried the god of Rempham with them and names the gods. And you remember Jacob, when he was going to meet Esau he wants to get right with God. So he says to his wives---he didn’t say, Let’s burn the gods, or smash them,--- he said, Hide them under this sycamore tree so we can come back and get them, but for the moment! So, we’re pitiful critters, you know, and we talked a little bit about that, that’s how we ended our first segment. What is God going to do? He loves us, but he is holy. Can He just forgive sin? No, He can’t. So, all of those examples in the Old Testament would show you that something more was needed than just a prophet to come along, or a judge to come along to straighten things out for the moment, and then the judge himself goes bad. Jesus said: There’s a kingdom coming, and the prophets foretold it, not just the millennium, that ends with a war, and the kingdom of God, Isaiah 9:7 says, Of his kingdom and peace there will be no end---okay. Jesus said, Except a man be born again, you cannot even see the kingdom of God. So, God has another solution, and it’s the new birth, we would be born again by the Spirit of God, permanently indwelt by the Spirit of God while we are on this earth, and these bodies, which the Bible said, The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. Some Christians who try to teach sinless perfection, follow them around a little while, ask his wife or children and you’ll find out they are not perfect. But, we will be one day, When we see Him we will be like Him. So, that’s in the eternal state. There will be a new universe, a new heavens, a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness---there will never ever be sin again. But through the Old Testament you see the best that even a prophet can do, or a judge, you know, who is trying to follow God, at the best it’s not good enough. So, we need something better.
Tom:
But Dave, there are also two shining examples of the time of judges. I’m thinking about a Moabite, Ruth, and then Boaz. Here are two examples of integrity, of virtuous people that are enabled by God, because they followed his ways. So it’s not like there’s no hope for anybody, even as bad as the times got, there are shining examples of people who did truly follow God, and I think they really minister to us today.
Dave:
Well, Daniel, of course, he was in terrible circumstances in Babylon, a captive, and we don’t read anything that he ever did wrong. Now, he may have, I don’t know, but he followed the Lord. You could go to Enoch, walked with God, and one day God said, I am enjoying this walk so much, just keep walking, come on up here, and God took him. So, he’s been in heaven all of these thousands of years. But there is none that doeth good, no, not one; there’s not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not, so the Bible says. So, something else had to be done for man. The soul that sinneth, it must die. The death penalty has been pronounced upon all, and in fact, we have the opportunity to accept that death in Christ, and his death becomes our death, so we would say with Paul, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me---The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And there is something ever better than that coming than we are in his perfection.
If you have a question for Dave and Tom to respond to in a future Contending for the Faith, stay with us, we’ll have our contact information at the end of the program. You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Now, our final segment.
