Reading: Judges 2:16-23; 5:10-23.
Following the general survey of the book of Joshua which we made
in our previous meditation, we come to something more particular
by looking at fragments of this book as the Lord may lead. First
of all, however, we must recognise the cause or the nature of the
history which is in the book of Judges. We have seen that there
was a deplorable state of affairs, so completely other than in the
book of Joshua. Looking for the reason, we find it in the second
chapter, in verses 1-4 and 21-23. In those passages there is a
statement of great importance and value which can be broken up
into one or two things.
Failure to Enter the Lord's Plan
in Fulness
In the first place the terrible period of over three hundred years
was the result of a failure on the part of the Lord's people to go
on into all that He had revealed as being His will for them. That
is where we begin.
If you look into the tragic state of the history of God's people
at any time you will find that the cause is the same. Wherever
there has arisen a state like this that we find in the book of
Judges, it can be traced to this, that at some point those
concerned ceased to go on with energy into all that the Lord had
set definitely before them as His will for them. It is always
a most perilous thing not to go on with energy into anything that
has been presented to us as the Lord's will for us, which He has
made possible for us, because it will not be long before other
forces take advantage of that stopping short to press in, and then
it becomes a question as to whether we can go on when we want
to. That which at one time was a clear way - while always fraught
with a measure of conflict, nevertheless in a sense of victory,
with a knowledge that the Lord was there, committed to the thing -
has now become a most onerous thing, marked by struggle, stress,
and a conflict which is not characterised by the Lord being in it
as at one time He was. There is a sense of having given the enemy
an opportunity. There is all the difference between the kind
of conflict and progress which is straight on with the Lord in the
light, and that recovering kind of conflict which is the result of
our being stopped short somewhere, having given the enemy an
opportunity to encamp on the ground.
When Israel was in the first movement, the enemies in the land
were all in a state of looseness. It seems that their very heart
was loosed out, and it was not going to be such a terrific task to
move them out; they were already in heart moved, very largely
expecting to have to go. You know that once you expect anything
like that you may as well go. If ever you accept the idea of
leaving, half the battle is over for the person who is going to
eject you. These enemies were very largely expecting to have to
quit, and so there was not a hundred percent resistance. But when
Israel stopped, these enemies dug themselves in, thus, the removal
of them was a much greater challenge afterwards.
The Lord's Reactions
Then there was the Lord's side of it. The Lord, while in the first
instance fully with them, now let them feel something of the
tremendous range of not having gone on with Him, and it came back
upon them. We all know something of that in spiritual experience.
Whereas there was a time when it was comparatively easy to go on
in some step of obedience, because we did not go on, it has become
infinitely more difficult when we come to face the matter, and we
find the situation has become far more complicated. We must
remember that the history of God's people through all ages speaks
loudly of the tremendous peril of failing to go on in the light
when the Lord presents it to us.
Then there is the Lord's side again. Whenever a people has failed
to go on to God's end, and other forces have taken hold, the
reaching of His end becomes, by His own permission or appointment,
a matter of far more conflict. In connection with the children of
Israel God said that He would not drive out their enemies, but
would leave them to prove Israel.
Now you can see the difference between what took place in the
early days of the church and the apostles, and what has obtained
since in the matter of conflict in driving out the enemy. In the
first place it was really, although with cost and suffering, a
stepping on. God was there mightily in evidence. Then the church
stopped; it ceased to go on; and ever since, progress of that
earlier kind has been fraught with terrible conflict. It has been a
matter of difficulty raising the biggest questions, even the
question as to how far the Lord is with His people. There has
always been an enemy. That enemy was defeated at Calvary. The
victory was given to the church. They entered into it, and carried
it forward, and then stopped. Ever since, they have been trying to
take it up again, and what have they found? They have found that
it is not so easy, and that the Lord has not come in in the same
way as He did at the beginning, but has let them feel the brunt of
this thing. The church has felt the terrific strain of this matter
of overthrowing the enemy. Why is that? Well, that brings us back
to the book of Judges, and the very point that we want to
emphasise. Let us see how true that has been in all of human
history.
Take Adam for instance. Adam had light. We do not know how long
he walked in the light, but while he did so everything went on
blessedly, and there was the exercise of dominion. Then Adam
ceased to walk in the light. The result was that the Lord made it
necessary for Adam to exercise his dominion through terrible
stress. A new element had come in. The Lord told Adam that in the
sweat of his face he should eat bread (Gen. 3:19). Before that God
had said to man that he was to have dominion (Gen. 1:28), and he
had it, and we read of no conflict in it. Afterwards the dominion
was to be expressed through great cost and suffering, agony and
hard labour. A new element had entered in.
Take Israel, as we have already seen. We sum them up thus: at one
time going on in dominion, then stopping; afterwards discovering
that new elements had entered in, thus progress and conquest was
fraught with a very great deal more suffering, agony and conflict
than before.
As we have just pointed out, it was the same with the church. In
the beginning there was a triumphant marching on. If the church
had continued as it started, I suppose the whole world would have
been subdued, or something immense would have happened. Take the
first week or so after Pentecost and multiply that over a year or
two, extend it for a decade. Take the life of Paul as an example
of conquest, of getting out into the world, into the nations.
There was a world bigger than Paul knew, but if things had been
carried forward on the same scale for another period of three or
four generations, the world that is now known would have been
reached. What we mean to say is that there was a tremendous going
on at the beginning. The Lord did not want it otherwise. The Lord
did not call a halt; it was the Lord's people who stopped. When
they tried to resume they found there were new elements. When
ground has been forfeited, the recovery of that ground is far more
difficult than the possessing of that ground in the first place.
That is the history of everything in relation to God's purpose in
this world. Of course, God sovereignly permits that for a very
good reason, and as the Lord enables we want to see that sovereign
reason.
Spiritual Responsibility and
Understanding
We read in the book of Samuel, the last of the judges, that these
judges were those who judged for the Lord in a day when there was
no open vision (as we read in the book of Samuel, the last of the
judges). The great demand in that time was for someone to take
spiritual responsibility for the Lord's full thought. It is this
matter of spiritual responsibility which is the focal point of the
book of Judges, and is to be our focal point now. It can all be
gathered up into two words: spiritual responsibility.
In order to take spiritual responsibility, spiritual
understanding is necessary. When once the Lord raised up vessels
with spiritual understanding, the one issue is that of taking
responsibility for the Lord's testimony, the Lord's full thought
for His people. If you look at this book and read it with this one
word in mind, you will see that a very great deal of the spiritual
history was focussed upon this matter of responsibility.
The most outstanding and classic illustration is seen in
Deborah's song. Many of the judges are only mentioned by name, and
by one act which led to the deliverance of the Lord's people.
These men judged Israel over a series of years. As far as I can
see, the shortest was seven or eight years, the longest about
forty years, but in many instances only their names are mentioned
and the act which led to deliverance. But even in the mention of
the name and the telling of that one thing, you find that in these
cases there is a deliberateness in the matter of responsibility.
All that is known about one is that he was left-handed and made
himself a sharp two-edged sword which he hid under his cloak and
surreptitiously slew the enemy. It is all told in a few
words, but the atmosphere speaks of deliberateness. Here is a man
who takes the whole responsibility of the Lord's interests
for His people upon himself, and it seems in a few clear-cut
movements he brings about an open way for the Lord's
deliverance; he goes straight to the business.
This question of responsibility comes up in various ways. In some
it was deliberate, clear-cut, and direct; in some it was under
constraint, as, for instance with Barak. Deborah almost had to
thrust Barak into it. "Up Barak!" was what she said to him, and he
told her that if she went with him he would go, but if she did not
go, then he would not. Deborah did not let Barak off, and he
eventually had to take responsibility.
Take the case of Gideon. In his meekness of spirit he was rather
slow to respond to the call when the angel of the Lord came and
spoke to him. It was his sense of humbleness of life that held him
back, but eventually the Lord laid it upon him, and Gideon had to
take responsibility; and when once he took responsibility he did
so thoroughly. That night he destroyed his father's idols and rid
the place of false worship. Then, having cleared the ground in his
own domestic circle, he pursued the Lord's interests in a public
way, and was no longer lax in the matter of responsibility.
In the case of Abimelech the responsibility was usurped in a
fleshly way, and that led to disaster. It is an instance full of
instruction. Responsibility must be in the Lord and in the Spirit,
otherwise it only leads to the undoing of the one who usurps it.
In one case there seems to be a holding of responsibility in a
loose manner, and the Lord demonstrates in that case the terrible
perils, and how important it is in a day like this that anyone
called by the Lord to take responsibility should take it
seriously. We refer to Samson; he seemed to play with
responsibility. We know the terrible shame which covered his life
because of this, and the Lord did not allow this side to be
hidden, but revealed that this matter of responsibility is
exceedingly serious.
The song of Deborah divides between those who did and those who
did not take responsibility. She speaks of a number of tribes
which did not come up for various reasons. These reasons are very
interesting to note, and pointed in their application.
In a day of weakness, when the Lord is not being glorified as He
should be, when conditions are not as the Lord would have them,
there must be those of the Lord's people who, with spiritual
understanding and discernment, will take responsibility. The enemy
would, of course, do everything he can to stop the Lord's people
who should be taking responsibility from doing so. He would cause
them to be preoccupied. Preoccupation is a favourite method of the
enemy to destroy responsibility. Preoccupation takes many
forms and has many directions. It may be the preoccupation of the
multitude of things with which we are kept constantly on the move,
diverting or distracting us, keeping us from direct concentration
upon the things that matter most.
It may be preoccupation with a personal problem. Oh, how the Lord
is losing and how the Lord's people are losing because of this!
Many of us, if we were only free from our own problem, would be
counting for the Lord, making a contribution to the Lord's people,
could be bringing the Lord's people into the fulness of His
thought for them. We ought to be doing that, but we continually go
round in that vicious circle of our own personal trouble. We are
not able to take responsibility, we are not free to do so, because
of this problem. We will have a problem to the end, unless we
begin to take an attitude towards the cause of their problem. In
nine cases out of ten the cause is a perfectly natural thing, such
as a physical defect or disorder of the nervous system, although
we think it is a spiritual thing. So you find us introspective and
always needing to be helped out of ourselves in some way. If only
somebody can get us out of ourselves for five minutes we are
different people, but unfortunately we drop back again immediately
we are on our own.
What is to be done about it? How can we help ourselves? Nerves
are nerves we know, and a problem like that is a very acute one,
but why should we not face it before God, and say what David said,
"This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right
hand of the Most High" (Ps. 77:10). It is as well for us to have a
reckoning with this thing, and get it weighed up and labelled.
What is it? What is behind it? When it has been measured and
labelled we can say, "That is what I am, but God is other than
that; God is not what I am when I am in a bad nervous condition;
God is not such as I am as the consequence of my poor physical
state! God is other than that, whatever it may be, and He has come
to dwell in me by His Spirit. I have to take sides with God
against myself!"
Until we get there we shall be useless to God and it is a loss to
the Lord in a day like this and loss to the Lord's people. Get
free from the personal problem by taking sides with the Lord
against yourself. Look it squarely in the face. So often we try to
struggle out of our bad state, out of some slough of despond, some
miry pit, and we fall back more often than not. The Lord never
comes and reaches out a hand to pull us out of it. We are waiting
for the Lord to pull us out, crying to the Lord to pull us out,
and He does not do it. In effect the Lord is saying: Get victory
inside, and then you are able to get on top of your difficulty and
I can help you. Look at it in the light of the need of the Lord
for men and women to take spiritual responsibility for the Lord's
interests, for the Lord's testimony.
There are those who are always leaning on others who will never
take the initiative with the Lord themselves. They are always
submitting things to someone else for their mind on it, their
judgement about it, and really seeking to get a push or a pull
into the thing before they will move themselves. The cases of
failure in the matter of responsibility are legion, and the
difficulties numerous.
What about responsibility in your case? Are you really taking
responsibility before the Lord as though you were the only one in
the land to take responsibility? That perhaps wants safeguarding.
We are talking about taking responsibility, not about independent
action, self-assertiveness, setting yourself up as an
authority. That aggression is just individual aggression. We are
meaning this, that you take on your heart before the Lord as a
personal thing those larger interests of the Lord which have been
shown to you to be the Lord's mind for His people and give
yourself to its realisation, as far as it is possible. You really
take position that now, although there may be many others better
fitted than you are, nevertheless you are responsible before the
Lord for some measure of Christ in His people. You are not to
leave that with other people; it is your business. The Lord's
people are desperately in need, and a tragic condition obtains
among the Lord's people. What can we do before the Lord in meeting
that need? Are we really taking the matter to heart? Are we
regarding ourselves as being responsible in relation thereto?
I am convinced that a great deal of breakdown, failure and
subsequent confusion in the lives of the Lord's people
individually, and in their domestic life, is because
somewhere responsibility is not taken in the place where it
ought to be taken.
Perhaps a husband has not taken responsibility in his home
spiritually, and consequently there is a bad state of things
there, and a great loss to the Lord. That home might have meant
very much for the Lord, a great deal more than it does mean. Not
only is there loss, but there is confusion. There are many
problems; the enemy is always getting advantages and striking hard
blows, and it is all because things are not as they should be in
the matter of responsibility there. He puts someone in a certain
place - it may be in business - and there are those there for whom
that one is responsible. That responsibility is not taken
seriously; that one has not shouldered the responsibility of the
Lord's will in that place, and the result is disorder and
eventually a breakdown. Because of this the enemy would become
strongly entrenched and would drive out the interests of the Lord
from that place. We may be speaking about what may seem ordinary,
commonplace things, but these are true to life.
Every one of the Lord's children must take responsibility, must
take this thing up personally and ask, "What is my responsibility
before God where I am, in my home, in my business, in my place of
serving the Lord, in the company of the Lord's people?" Have you
taken seriously the matter that you have a responsibility? See
what Deborah has to say about those who did not take it: "Curse
Meroz... curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof. Because they
came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against
the mighty" (Judges 5:23). That is one side, a terrible side of
not taking responsibility. The other side is found in verse two.
The Revised Version reads: "For that the leaders took the lead in
Israel...". Here is initiative and responsibility.
That strikes a very important note; the application is
many-sided. The Lord is ready and willing to bring us into a
knowledge of His mind, and He must have a people of spiritual
wisdom and revelation, who will take responsibility in this day.
Let us bring it down to this simple thing: Are we taking
responsibility in relation to all the light that we have? It does
not matter about the light beyond that; we all hold responsibility
for the light that we have. Let us pray most earnestly that the
Lord will bring us into that clear place where we really have the
spirit of understanding as to the mind of the Lord, so that the
Lord has in us those whom He can put into a position of
responsibility. Let us pray that we would be able to discriminate
in a spiritual way as to the things which differ.
The Lord's people are confused. Go out among them and speak to
them about the things of the Lord, the ways of the Lord, and you
open a new world to the multitude of His people. They have never
seen it like that; all they know is that they are saved, and they
want to serve the Lord and are doing it to the best of their
ability. But as to spiritual guidance, as to knowing any inward
sense of what the Lord would have and would not have, and how He
would have it, and the means to be used for it, that is quite
unknown to them. They go on in a more or less mechanical way with
very little light indeed, and the Lord needs that His people
should be enlightened. He must, therefore, have enlightened
instruments as to His thought in greater fulness. The Lord takes
some of His people into strange experiences in order to teach them
these things. He would educate them deeply and thoroughly as to
His way. He wants educated people in that sense of having the
spirit of understanding, able to judge all things; the faculty of
seeing with God's eyes what God's way is, resulting in them taking
up the responsibility made possible by that education to speak to
the Lord's people in this day of need. There is no doubt that the
Lord's people are in great need today, and their greatest need is
of spiritual understanding, that they might understand the
way of the Lord. They are groping, they are crying for
understanding. How is the Lord going to give it? The Lord would
raise up these instruments, vessels, individuals, and a
company of people who can judge for Him and interpret in the
light of God's will for the Lord's people.
Has it ever occurred to you that the Lord's way of deliverance is
always enlightenment? Initially and all the way through it is
enlightenment. Paul was given a commission, and it was this:
"...unto whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God..."
(Acts 26:17-18). Just open their eyes, and everything else
follows. The Lord's way of deliverance for His people is spiritual
enlightenment. We shall come out into a free place of spiritual
enlightenment if our eyes are opened, and the Lord, in turn, will
use us for the opening of other people's eyes for their
deliverance. In a time like this the Lord wants judges to deliver
His people. The Lord could have come in in sovereign acts, but He
raised up judges, and the judges were what the Lord's mind was,
and when the people were open to receive the mind of the Lord
through the judges then the judges drew the people into oneness
with themselves in that enlightenment, went out to battle with
them, and deliverance was wrought.
Before we conclude, let us go back to that point which we did not
quite clear up, concerning the subsequent difficulty after having
stopped. Do you recognise that the Lord must have people morally
responsible? That is why He did not drive out their enemies. When
they ceased to drive them out, the Lord did not come in and drive
them out, but left them there as thorns in their sides. He did
that to draw these people out into definite, deliberate exercise at
great cost, so that they themselves became morally responsible
people. They had got into that state, and if the Lord had come in
and sovereignly acted to drive these enemies out, what would have
been the result? There would have been a people in a bad moral
state in possession of the land. God put the onus upon them in
this matter and called for an extra exercise on their part,
because He allowed them to feel the extra acuteness of their
failure.
When they did rise up things were very glorious indeed. You have
one man slaying six hundred men with an ox goad; another man
causing devastation among the Lord's enemies with the jawbone of
an ass; three hundred men putting a mighty host to flight. These
things bring a great deal of glory to God when once there is a
recognised responsibility towards Him for the conditions, and a
taking up of that responsibility. Then the Lord does come in. But
in the first place it means facing terrible odds which were not
there in the same way originally. The Lord is calling out a people
into a position of strong moral responsibility in relation to the
conditions which obtain.
All this has revolved around that one word, and the Lord must
apply it to our hearts. We can be passive, wrongly dependent upon
others, preoccupied; we can be engrossed with our own, even
spiritual, matters. The Lord wants us to turn from everything like
that and take responsibility for His testimony. I am sure that the
words addressed by Mordecai to Esther sum all this up in an
excellent manner, and in a conclusive way: "For if thou altogether
holdest thy peace (remain silent, NAS) at this time, then shall
there enlargement (relief) and deliverance arise to the Jews from
another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed:
and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a
time as this?" (Esther 4:14).
That is something to take to heart. It sums up this whole matter
of spiritual responsibility. The Lord would call us "for such a
time as this" to take responsibility for His interests. So Deborah
would say to the reluctant Barak, "Up Barak!" The Lord would say
to us, "Up, this is your responsibility, take it!" Be sure that
you are not failing the Lord in the matter of your measure of
responsibility for His full thought among His people!