Forsake Your Idols (Judges 10)

Today, we will share the Word of God with Judges 10 and 11.  The age of Judges was an age where they did not have a proper king raised up.  Last week in Judges, the Israelites were asking God to raise a king for them, but the way Israel is supposed to be governed is God being their King. Even though God is their King, the Israelites wanted to raise up another person as their king, just like the Gentiles.  That is not a good strategy, because that means they are not content with God alone.  Among the kings who were raised up this way, there was not a single one who was good.  Except for King David and a few other exceptions, most of the kings of Israel failed, because even though they raised a king, what they really need was someone who was ruled over by God so that God could use that king. 

God doesn’t raise people up because he needs people.  God raised us up as church officers but he didn’t do that because He lacked church officers.  God is doing His work through the officers He raises up. A lot of officers use the word, “Devotion,” but in actuality, it’s a blessing.  It’s a blessing because through this person, God’s plan and power are being relayed. 

So, starting from Judges 10, it is talking about a few different judges who had been raised up. Then in Judges 10:6, there was a judge named Jephthah who did evil in the eyes of the Lord.  It’s important to note that these Israelites did not stop giving worship, the Israelites were still giving their sacrifices through the priest every day and every Sabbath, but even as they did this, it said the LORD had abandoned them.  The Israelites forsook the LORD, so in today’s terms, it means that even though people go to church, they are leaving God; they are worshiping idols. 

Idolatry is when you put anything that is created by God in the seat of God, so you place your value in that, you love and seek that; that’s an idol.  Back in the biblical times, even though they obeyed the Sabbath and kept their worship, they kept something else in their hearts.  They were worshiping other idols, and back then, the idols represented things that humans needed, and the Israelites worshiped those idols.  But God had placed everything that humans needed into one word: Christ.  Whenever they lost their faith regarding that, they served idols. 

Paul knew this, and that’s why he let go of everything he’s holding onto.  After he let go of everything else he was holding onto, in Col. 2:3, he confessed everything that he was seeking in the world was actually hidden in Christ.  If we worship idols, does that make God feel good? No, it says in Judges 10:7 that God got angry at them.  So, he sells those who were worshiping idols. What happens when he sells them?  These are people who are worshiping Satan through their idolatry, so if Israel is sold to them, they have to worship in this idolatrous culture.

In Judges 10:8, it says they were oppressed for 18 years.  If you believe in God through Jesus Christ, then in the Kingdom of God, there is righteousness, peace, and joy.  This world does not know this thing well, but they call it, “happiness.”  Isn’t happiness being able to enjoy peace within us regardless of the external environment?  Regardless of the environment, if we’re able to enjoy joy, isn’t that happiness?  Isn’t a very renowned person someone who can make decisions in their heart based on righteousness rather than anything else?  That is God’s righteousness. 

When you look at nonbelievers or disasters, then you must be able to see that in a just way.  That true justice is talking about giving them the gospel.  But if you don’t have any kind of reaction to that, it means you are not really just.  Nonbelievers are dying, but if you have no reaction to that, then you are actually not a just person.  It’s different from the justice the world talks about.  God says that the righteousness of God is justice alone, and so Christ dying on the cross, even though He was without sin, is true righteousness. 

If you have the gospel and enjoy something else continuously, then something else will happen: you will lose your peace and you will lose the true joy that comes with being with God, and you will keep on trying to find that joy in the world by worshiping idols.  You will also lose the idea of saving nonbelievers and praying to God.

There is a justice the world talks about, and we need that in order to maintain the world, but those are things that even people without God can do.  What God is requesting of us is righteousness.  It’s a spiritual thing, honestly, as you look at the world, you must be able to feel His wrath. The anger you feel should be for the spiritual things, that is how you will not be angry for unnecessary things.  Instead of getting angry about what you should be actually angry about, we get angry about unnecessary things, and that’s why there are so many shootings. These happen because of our scars.  It’s all of these people holding onto their own idols, and they are at a loss, that’s why it becomes a scar for them.

Simply put, if they’re oppressed for 18 years, it means the Israelites suffered for 18 years.  Do people suffer even though they believe in Jesus Christ? It’s because even though they believe in Jesus, they’re holding onto another idol in their hearts.  We are the Temple of God and inside of us should be the holy things, but instead of keeping holy things inside of us, we seek idolatrous things, and that is why we suffer. 

In Judges 10:9, it says the suffering was very severe, and only at that point do the Israelites cry out to the LORD, which is a blessing in itself, but they realize they have sinned against God in Judges 10:10.  Then looking at Judges 10:11, and especially Judges 10:13, God says, “You have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you,” and it’s not actually that God means this, it’s like a parent who says, “You are no longer my child,” but this is just how He expresses His anger.  Ultimately He saves them, He does not discard them, but this is how He feels in His heart.

Judges 10:15, God says He will no longer save the Israelites, but the Israelites request of God again.  “We have sinned,” in other words, “We have done wrong.  Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.”  These are things that happened after 18 years.  What is the standard of time? It is how you realize and come back. The idol of “me,” of Gen. 3, inside of me.  That “me” is whatever I think is more valuable than the gospel.  I prioritize my experiences over God’s Word.  Or, I prioritize the ideology in my family line above the gospel. These are the reasons that cause suffering.  Some people like having fun more than enjoying the gospel.  They like to go out and have fun or go out and play, that’s their pleasure.  But King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that it’s like chasing after the wind. He said he tried going after those things, but it was like chasing after the wind; you can’t catch it.

In Gen. 6 they get whatever they want, they become mortal or fleshly.  What happens if I like this and it pleases me, but it later leads to disasters?  But the world is choosing everything based on what I like the most.  It would be great if what I like would be the same as what God likes, but it’s not the case.  We thought our family would be raised up correctly, but disasters entered the family in Gen. 6. 

Then in Gen. 11, they gather up their strength together.  They mobilize their human power and gathered people together, what is their goal? They are saying, “Even without God, we want to build a great tower to reveal the power of mankind.”  Then they said, ”to prevent us from being scattered.”  They actually need to scatter to proclaim the gospel, but they were saying, “We don’t want to do that.”  So, they’re saying, “Let us try to gather our strength together to create a civilization that lives irrelevant to God’s Word,” they were challenging God, and in the process of making their civilization and the Tower of Babel, it seemed like things were working out.  I’m sure while they were raising the Tower of Babel, people thought, “I thought we had to live with God’s Word, but maybe these were things we just heard,” so God scattered them. God mixed up their languages so they could no longer communicate and scattered them.

These events occurred prior to Judges, but that cycle has repeatedly come upon the history of mankind because they’ve never once seen what it means to believe in the gospel.  The only thing they’ve only seen is people trying to accomplish something out in the world, so they try to apply those principles without believing in God, and because of that, we have no choice but to filled with the methods of the world.  We live and follow in the same ways of nonbelievers who don’t have God and don’t have the covenant because all we see are successful nonbelievers.  They’ve never seen a successful person who, all they did was hold onto the covenant and pray. 

That’s why I say this so boldly to the next generation.  By the time you’re already feeling something, you’re suffering from the effects of a spiritual problem, so before you feel something, by God’s grace, enter into prayer. 

In Judges 10:16, in order for them to be saved, what must they do?  They must get rid of the foreign gods among them.  All the things that are embedded inside of me that are not the gospel must be uprooted because that is what is making me suffer.  Young adults don’t have a lot of life experience, they just graduated from school, but once they get a job, they realize it’s not true. Once they get a job, they realize people are difficult, “they don’t get along with me, why is the company environment like this? I go to church and why are there so many people like this?” Then you get married and think, “I thought this person was like this, but they’re not like that at all,” so these kids are going out into society without knowing this, without knowing what to do.  Then they decide based on thinking, “how could people be like this?  Why are there only people like this in church? I got married but why did I find somebody like this?”  Then their only strategy is to separate, to leave the company, leave the church, and leave the family because it doesn’t match with them.  

Until, just like the Israelites realized they had another idol in their hearts, realize we have an incorrect standard within us, and until we realize that, we suffer.  It took the Israelites 18 years to realize the problems was not in the company but it was within me.  If it takes 18 years for a young adult to understand, it will be your entire life. By that point, you’re already married, too many things have happened, and you’re separated. The church is like this too, why? It is because there is something incorrect inside of me.  There is some standard you have of a cool or classy life without God, and none of that is correct.  You need to quickly get rid of these Gentile gods and idols you’ve received from the world.  You need to get rid of those foreign gods and serve the LORD.  Serving the LORD means you have to serve the Word of God inside of you, and this Word is being fulfilled even now.  Even right now, people go to church and don’t have the answer. They do know the answer without knowing the problem inside of them. So, even though they have the answer, they look for answers elsewhere.  Or, they have the answer, but they don’t know the problem inside of them so they keep on wandering. 

But serving the Lord, the first way is by giving worship and serving God. Worship inside the church is not the only form of worship; we have living worship in the world, then what is the content with which we serve God in worship?  In the Old Testament, what happened when someone sinned is that they took a lamb or cow or whatever livestock they raised and they have to slaughter their own animal for the price of their sin. The priest plays their role in that too, and that was in the Old Testament.  Now, in the New Testament, Jesus Christ Himself is the Lamb sacrifice, He is also the priest, prophet, and king, so He has finished everything; there is no reason to sacrifice anything else.

Then, what is worship? Worship means giving God three things.  We give our praise to God, what does it mean to praise God?  It’s acknowledging God is God, “You are my Savior, You are my Shepherd,” then when you praise God, God receives the glory as curses and darkness are broken, but during praise, we look around to see who else is here, and we show off our offering envelopes or we’re thinking of something else, but that’s not worship.  Worship means we are giving our praise to God, and it is a time for God to receive glory.

The second thing we give is prayer to God.  The one who gives the representative prayer is giving the representative prayer for us, and then at the end, when we receive the Word, we pray together with that Word, so we give our prayers to God and He answers us.  The third thing we give to God is our offering.  When we give our offering to God, does He have to receive it?  God is the One Who can make money, right?  God is the One Who can move money, then why does He tell us to give offering? God is telling us to do that, “for yourselves.”  For myself.  Through faith, I can confess my faith that He is the Lord, that is why we give a tithe.  We give that full tithe, and that is what God says in Malachi 3, to give the full tithe to God and see whether your storehouses will overflow or not.

Then we give our Temple Construction offering to the church and we give our missions offering and give the next generation offering. There are other miscellaneous ones like Thanksgiving offering.  “If I give all this offering, what do I have left for myself?” that’s what it means to serve God y acknowledging in faith that it is God’s. You need to know this well to experience what is God’s economy and blessing of light. What is the economy of light? It is offering.  The economy of light is talking about money used to break down darkness and save lives, and God has prepared a separate finance that will be given for that offering. If that is broken down, it will be broken down. Whatever you have right now is not yours. 

The fourth thing is what we receive immediately: God’s Word and grace, so we come ahead of time for worship and prepare to receive God’s Word in prayer. We must receive God’s Word, if you just want to study the Bible, you can just read it on your own, but if you want to receive God’s grace through the Word, you must experience the Holy Spirit in prayer. What must you do when you receive the Word?  You need to meditate on that Word so that it spiritually influences every aspect of your life.

You continuously think about the Lord’s Word on Sunday. We have the different fields of our lives, so as we start to meditate on the Word of God, little by little it influences our lives as answers, then in the areas of our lives, we use God’s Word to run our business.  The Word God gave you on Sunday is the living Word, the answer God gave to you, so you must meditation that to influence your entire life, including your business, the people you meet, and families.  That’s what you call prayer and a living worship; if you lose worship, everything falls.

We’re not able to receive the Word during worship. There are tremendous blessings including finances hidden inside of worship. On Sunday, I asked people, “What comes first, family or the church?” Most people said the church, but most Americans say, “The family,” and that’s why the family is broken. Why is the church first? The church is centered on worship.  In Gen., God created Adam and created worship between man and God.  Back in those times, they hadn’t sinned against God, so they didn’t need to slaughter a lamb, but as they communicated with God, even their business of tending the Garden of Eden went well because God was with them. 

The second thing God gave them was the family, God took the rib from Adam and made a family, but when did the business and family collapse?  Through the loss of worship.  The Word isn’t making sense to you because you keep thinking of worship as coming to a holy church and yes, that’s rightful, but in our everyday lives, we must have communication with God.  Look at what Satan does, he enters in and blocks communication between them and God.  They needed to hold onto the Word of not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but instead of meditating, it’s not deep in their heart, so when Satan enters, they lose hold of worship, they face family problems, and there’s conflict: their first son Cain dies.  Their older son Cain kills, I think it’s because it was during a time when Adam and Eve’s spiritual state collapsed so he killed Abel.  In my mind, they restored the covenant of Gen. 3:15 and then had Abel. 

You must have this true connection with God, not only inside the church but inside the world, that’s what we call “service.”  Make it so that the Word of God is reigning over you. You need to make it so that prayer is your answer and your power.  Make it so that evangelism is your plan and how you are led.  Those three things are the ways the Triune God leads us, and living that is a life of service.  But even if you go to church, if you give worship without doing those three things, then your worship has actually fallen. 

It says here, “They got rid of their foreign gods and served the LORD.”  Serve the LORD.  There is no “me” anymore; I am the servant and the LORD is my Master; serve Him.  When Adam and Eve lost hold of worship and were separated from God, the first thing they felt was fear and shame, and the first thing is their business fell and the family was divided. That’s God cursing them. God cursed the land so that man would toil so hard just to barely make a living.  That’s why in Ecclesiastes, Solomon said he tried everything but it was a chasing after the wind; it means you cannot hold onto those things. Even if you try, you won’t be able to.  Only the Word of God is true, only that remains.  Even your work will disappear, but the work you do for the work of God will have value.  Even the answers you get from God become like the wind, they are like nothing.  These are the words that King Solomon, the wisest, the wealthiest, the one with the most wives, said, “There is nothing valuable, so don’t hold onto those idols.” 

Paul had all those things and lost hold of the gospel, the Triune God. When I say you’ve lost hold of the gospel, it means you have lost hold of the Word of God, prayer, and evangelism.   Don’t think about the gospel incorrectly: because of Christ, the Triune God is with me, this means that if the Triune God is with me even now, He will carry out the work of Word, prayer, and evangelism, but if we lose hold of that, we become like nonbelievers. 

We’ll talk about Judges 11 next week. I kept talking about getting rid of your idols.  That was New Year’s message as well, to embed the Word as a deeply embedded nail, to get rid of what’s inside. If you just know God with your brain, that’s a big problem because you think that way.  The Word of God must be deeply embedded in our hearts; if it stays in your brain, that’s a huge issue. If it keeps going into your brain, you will calculate with God, “If I do this, God will bless me.” The Word of God must be embedded in me.  Simply put, the bartizan that can save myself and the world must come into me.  If you don’t have the bartizan to save the world inside of you, how can you save the world?  If the Word of God that can save me is not embedded in my heart, how can I evangelize? Make this your eternal portion.   That is how you will receive the eternal masterpiece that will leave behind the eternal inheritance. The eternal inheritance we leave behind is the 237, healing, and summit. That must be embedded in me as I leave it behind.  I will remind you when you forget again. 

I said this on Sunday but some people didn’t understand: the Word of God never changes.  God told Joshua not to do anything else but instead, meditate on the Word of the Law and make it your portion, then the masterpiece will be made and an inheritance will be left behind.  Do not turn to the left or the right, but listen to these words.   In the world, there are two sides to the story: one side says they are right, the second says they are right, and the world says to compromise.  But that’s not the Word of God; the Word of God is the standard, so do not look to the left or the right.  Look only to God’s Word.

May you and I hold onto this and become the ones who reveal the work of Word, power, and evangelism in our lives and in the field. Let us pray together holding onto the Word we have received.