Understanding and Overcoming Cycles

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Title

Understanding and Overcoming Cycles

Teacher

Peter Hubbard

Date

February 6, 2022

Scripture

Judges, Judges 2

TRANSCRIPT

If you’ll turn to Judges 2, all who are here and online. Judges chapter 2 if you’re not already there.

Lord willing, this Tuesday, thirty-four of us from this church will be flying out for Israel for a study tour. There are a lot of hurdles still to jump through with all the COVID restrictions and tests and the like. So, your prayers are appreciated. We will be in some of the places that we will encounter in Judges, so I’ll have lots to share, hopefully, when we return.

Next week we will take a break from the book of Judges just for one week. Dr. Andy Naselli, who is a long time friend of our church, has spoken here several times before. He and his wife and their four daughters are on sabbatical here in Greenville. He’s a professor at Bethlehem Seminary and College, and he will be speaking from Romans next week. But then the following week we will be back in Judges.

He is also going to do a LEAD seminar March 4th in the evening from one of his books on Conscience — very interesting study. Look for that. We will be announcing that soon.

Let’s pray. Father, our nation seems to be (to us it feels like) in an unprecedented cycle of hopelessness, boredom, despair. So many deaths of despair are up — suicide and opioid overdose. It just reveals how vulnerable our hearts can be to fixate on things like power and approval and comfort and control. And they never produce good things.

We pray that our time in your Word and our response would be a time of breaking cycles that are destructive. We pray that you would do what you told us in 1 Corinthians 10 as to why you give us stories like Judges, which for us seem so culturally foreign, yet they are written down for our instruction so that we can take heed, so that we will be reminded that you are faithful and that you always provide a way of escape. We ask that the way of escape you show us today would be a way to Jesus. We thank you in his name. Amen.

Richard Plass and James Cofield tell the story of Rachel. It’s a true story. Rachel didn’t know her father. Her mother was addicted to drugs and danced at a local club. Her grandmother tried to raise her but became ill. She ended up in her first foster home at four years old and then in several others throughout her childhood.

At 15 she wanted to be out on her own, so she moved in with her much older boyfriend in his parents’ basement. And as she said, they just spent most of their time trying to get high. After a couple of years, she left him because he beat her, and then she kind of bounced around from one unhealthy relationship to another. She was caught in a cycle of destructive relationships where wherever she looked it only appeared that there were bad options available.

Have you ever been there – where you feel like there are a lot of options and every one seems like a bad option? That’s where Israel is in Judges 2, described most specifically in verse 15. If you look at the last six words of verse 15 of Judges 2, “And they were in terrible distress.” That word distress is a Hebrew word, yatsar, which means to bind or restrict. And it has the idea of squeezing between what feels like two bad options.

Genesis 32:7 gives us a great example of this. “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.” That’s the word, distressed. Why was he distressed? Because he just heard word that his brother, Esau, who had promised to kill him, was coming toward him with 400 armed men. He looked at his family, flocks, herds, camels, and he had two bad options. One option, stay and be killed by his brother. Second option, grab a camel and flee for his life and then lose everything.

Another example which is very different is 2 Samuel 13:2. Look at this one. “And Amnon was so tormented [That’s the word yatsar.] that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her.” This is a very different kind of pressure. It’s an internal pressure. It’s kind of a disgusting example. Amnon is lusting after his half-sister, Tamar. He is squeezed between this illicit lust and the lack of opportunity to act upon it.

So, you see yatsar, internally feeling like two bad options. Israel is in that place. Rachel was in that place. Let’s go back and talk about Rachel’s story a bit.

Why? Why was Rachel caught in this distressful cycle? Well, we could talk about generational brokenness. Her grandparents and parents and family of origin and the brokenness that got passed down to her.

We could talk about unhelpful social programs. We could talk about addictive personality, the origins of addiction — genetic and environmental. We could talk about abusive boyfriends, what coercive pseudo love looks like — fake love. And we could talk about personal choices. Rachel got dealt a really bad hand, but she also made really bad decisions.

Shift back to Israel. Why was Israel in terrible distress? Why was Israel, to say it just slightly differently, struggling in the land, the land God promised? God promised this land, promised victory. They had a covenant with Yahweh — God’s covenant name.

Look at Judges 2:1, “Now the Angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, “I will never break my covenant with you.”

God is saying “I,” let that soak in, “I will never break my covenant with you.” God will never initiate the covenant breaking. He is not like us. That’s what we mean when we say God is holy. He’s not fickle. He doesn’t change. He will not break covenant. So, if God isn’t going to break covenant — he made remarkable promises to Israel — why are they caught in this cycle of failure?

What I want us to this morning is to look at the introduction of Judges, which is really from 1:1-3:6. We covered the first half last week. But this whole introduction basically answers that question in a remarkably sophisticated way. And what I mean by sophisticated, it’s so multi-layered, so multi-factorial. There’s not just one answer.

And this is really important for us to get because these chapters reveal an approach to life that Old Testament scholar Derek Kidner describes as a “highly developed conception of the sovereignty of God.”

What does that mean? Do you remember a few months ago, if you were here for our study of Mark, I talked about compatibilism? Compatibilism is that the sovereignty of God, the rule and reign of God and the responsibility of man are not mutually exclusive. Actually, there are many things happening at the same time that all fall within the sovereignty of God. That’s what Kidner means. That’s what it means that these chapters are describing a very highly developed understanding of the role of God and the role of man.

So, let’s think about this in regards to why Israel is struggling in the land. And what we’re going to see is that the answers to that question will help us understand the ingredients to cycles of failure. If we’re going to understand how we get caught in a cycle of failure, it’s typically not one thing. If you tell somebody who’s caught in a cycle, “Well, you just made a bad choice,” it doesn’t resonate because to them, it’s like, “Well, what about this and this and this and this?” That’s what we’re going to see here.

So, you’re going to have to work with me. You ready to work hard? Because we’re going to cover a big section and (I know you’re not supposed to do this amount) seven reasons. Seven reasons the text gives us (and some of them overlap) why Israel is struggling in the land. And I believe if you will try to keep from getting caught up in trying to dive into any one of them, but take the full weight of all of them, it helps us understand our own cycles of failure. Here we go.

Reason number 1, some of the Canaanites had better weapons. Judges 1:19, we’re reaching back into the material we covered last week. Judges 1:19, “And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron.”

Is it possible that God is with you (Remember, the Lord is with Judah) yet we may encounter obstacles that seem impossible to overcome (chariots of iron)? How can God be with me and yet I’m not victorious right away, I’m actually struggling. Well, God promised Israel, Joshua 17:18, “You will be victorious though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong.” But there will be times when that victory is not immediate or painless.

Let’s summarize what we focused on last week: Never inflate or deflate the significance of partial victory. Never inflate or deflate the significance of partial victory. When we inflate the significance of partial victory, we think we don’t need God. We’ve got this. When we deflate the significance of partial victory, we think he’s done with us. We’ve blown it too many times. We can’t beat these iron chariots. What’s the use?

If you weren’t here last week, go back and try to listen to that, if you would, because that builds out this point here — some of the Canaanites had better weapons. That’s reason number 1 why Israel was struggling in the land.

Number 2, Israel refused to obey God’s voice. Judges 2:2, “‘And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?” Here, God moves from external challenges like iron chariots to internal obedience, personal choices. Despite the challenges and the temptations, God is calling you/me to obey his voice. What voice is most prominent in your life right now? God is saying if you’re going to break these cycles you’ve got to listen to my voice.

Number 3, God gave Israel what they wanted. Look at verse 3, “So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” Remember, last week in chapter 1, we saw repeatedly Israel did not drive out (verse 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33). Time and time again, Israel did not drive out. And now God is saying, if you don’t want to drive out, then I won’t drive out. There is one thing worse than not getting what you want. It’s what? It’s getting what you want. It’s when God says if you want that badly enough, I will let you have what you want. But I’m telling you, you don’t want what you think you want.

Someone sent me an article this week from the BBC News on gambling in England. And the subtitle of the article is, “Winning £127,000, ‘Worst Day of My Life’”. That seems odd. Can you imagine this afternoon winning the equivalent of that, over $172,000? Would you think that’s the worst day of your life? Lisa Walker did.

From East London, she explains,

“I won £127,000 in one night. That was the worst night of my life, because that’s when my addiction really started to spiral out of control. The casino wanted me back, and they offered me anything I wanted — free drinks, free meals — to entice me.”

And Lisa became a compulsive gambler. She continued gambling until she lost all of her winnings and her home. She and her two children moved into a hostel and she slipped into what she calls a “deep, dark place.” She was in terrible distress.

In Judges 2:3 he is explaining that he will let his people have what they want if they insist on having it. But he’s pleading with us, you don’t want this. Verse 3, he explains, the things you crave “shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” That word snare is a trap. Think cheese on a mousetrap. To a mouse, it smells good, tastes good, feels good… until the trap springs. And this is what God is warning them of and us of. He gave them what they wanted.

Number 4 reason Israel is struggling in the land is, Israel failed to pass truth to the next generation. In verses 6-10, the chronology flashes back to Joshua. Verse 7,

“And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.”

That is beautiful. We just need to stay there for a moment. That’s good news. But skip down to verse 10,

“And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”

How could that happen?

D.A. Carson intentionally oversimplifies, but gets at something when he says:

“1st generation — believes. 2nd generation — assumes. 3rd generation — denies.”

Forgets. And this is why God emphasizes in the Shema the significance of multi-generational memory. What is the Shema? That’s what every good Jew prays daily. And it comes from Deuteronomy 6:4. The word Shema is the Hebrew word for “hear.” It begins “Hear, O Israel.” And the Shema doesn’t mean just hear audibly. It means listen, pay attention to, respond, obey.

“The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children [Does that mean you lecture your kids constantly? No!], and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

In a few days, some of us will be in Jerusalem and there will be Orthodox Jews who will have little boxes on their forehead. They get that from this verse with little scripture verses inside the little boxes, phylacteries, and they’re literally trying to obey this. Is that what it’s talking about?

No, what he’s talking about is the love of God expressed in the Word of God is the lens through which you see all of life. It’s your world view. It’s the light that shines into your heart. It’s the light that radiates from you, and it’s contagious. It has multi-generational influence. Radiate that in all you do. Israel failed to pass this to the next generation.

Fifth reason, Israel… Are still with me? Oh yeah, yeah. Fifth reason, Israel was caught in a spiraling cycle. Now, I’ll explain what I mean by that. In verses 11-20 he describes this cycle of terrible distress. It begins in verse 11. They did evil. They served the Baals. They abandoned the Lord. Verse 12, “They abandon the Lord.” Verse 14, the Lord “gave them over.” You want that badly enough? “Gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them.” Verse 15, they were in terrible distress, so they “groan”. Verse 18, they cry. You’ll hear “cry out” in several of the stories — 3:9, 3:15, especially early on in Judges. “Then the Lord raised up judges,” verse 16, to save them. But when the judges died, verse 19, “they turned back” and the cycle continues.

Why do we call it a spiraling cycle? Because it is not just going around, it’s going around and down. You’ll see it in verse 19. Whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. It’s like they’re human Velcro when it comes to evil. They keep having more and more evil things stick to them and continue to spiral downward.

This illustrates the way addiction spirals downward. The highs get lower and the lows plunge. You can track this spiritually or you can track this physically. Neuroscience followed the opioid receptors or the dopamine levels tracks exactly with this spiraling cycle.

Sixth reason, God was testing Israel. Verse 21,

“‘I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.’ So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.”

Now, Satan tempts. God tests. And his intentions are always good. Gregory Smith in his biblical theology of testing, identifies 3 primary goals God has in his testing. One is refining. And there are three different Hebrew words — refining, authenticating, and revealing. God is giving Israel an opportunity to express their love and devotion.

Number 7, God was training Israel in war. Judges 3:2,

“It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before.”

Now we’re going to come back to this in two weeks. I included this because technically the introduction to Judges goes from 1:1-3:6 and captures these reasons Israel is struggling.

I’m dying to go into each one of these specifically because they could be sermons in and of themselves. But we need to resist that temptation for this truly to be an introduction and to wrestle with the question: “What is God saying to us from all these reasons Israel is struggling?”

Let’s see if we can summarize. He gave technical reasons — chariots of iron. He gave personal reasons — they disobeyed God’s voice. He gave relational reasons — multi-generational failure, family of origin stuff. He gave historical reasons and spiritual, there’s overlap — this perpetual cycle that we get caught in. Take Rachel, for example. She did not know what a healthy family even looked like. And you begin to assume this is who we are. This is what we do. This is all I’ve known. And then he gave theological reasons — God is testing, God is training, God is using difficult days to strengthen, prepare his people.

We could break each of these down specifically, but I think it’s important for us to step back and to understand how God saves. Not just on one level, but on multiple levels. And why is this so important? Because if you were to ask Israel at the time: Why are you struggling in the land? And somebody says, “Well, we need bigger chariots. God didn’t give us good enough equipment. We need better circumstances, too many enemies. And the weather!”

We do this, don’t we? Your friend comes to you and says, “Hey, I thought you said you were going to stop drinking? But I noticed you’ve started again and a lot.” And you respond, “Yeah, my boss is so demanding. He’s driving me to drink.” Really? It’s your boss? Is that explaining all that’s happening here?

Or someone from your life group rather timidly comes to you. “I’m so sorry, but I hear you screaming at your kids, and it concerns me.” “Oh, that’s nothing. I come from a family of screamers. My parents screamed, my grandparents scream, my kids will scream at their kids one day. That’s what we do. We don’t think of it as screaming. It’s kind of just loud whispering.”

And just in a moment, we can write off destructive cycles that just perpetually get passed on from generation to generation. Judges exposes our deepest need. Because our brokenness goes deeper and wider than we realize, God’s salvation goes deeper and wider than we expected. It’s just amazing to watch.

God is clearly explaining a variety of factors that are at play here. Iron chariots are real. Family brokenness is real. But he’s also not treating us like donuts as if there’s nothing in the middle. There are active hearts in all of us. And that’s why you’ll see as Judges points us to our deepest need; it points us ahead to this heart transforming inside outside process. Look, for example, at Ezekiel 36:26-28,

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

Notice that he starts in the heart and then moves out to the land — inside to outside, multiple layers of transformation. And this is why he keeps talking about idols. Many of us today, when we think of idols, we think of carved images or icons on the on the mantle. Yes, those are idols. But the Bible goes specifically after the deep motivations within us that become idolatrous.

Tim Keller identifies what he calls 4 deep idols to where if you get back to those, you’ll see the source of all other idolatrous expressions. Let me summarize those.

Number 1, idols of power. Life has meaning and I have worth only if I have influence over others, authority, or the upper hand. The greatest fear of someone with an idol of power is disrespect. And the emotional response to that is anger.

Second deep idol is idols of approval. Where life has meaning I have worth only if I am loved and respected by [blank]. Could be a friend, could be social media, or could be my kids. And those with idols of approval greatest fear is rejection, being overlooked, being dismissed. And the emotional response is to live in insecurity, fear.

The third is idols of comfort. Where life has meaning I have worth only if I have a certain kind of pleasure. And that could be an exotic vacations or an impressive home, or it could be illicit sexual pleasure or simply to be left alone. I just want to be left alone. The greatest fear for someone with an idol of comfort is stress. I deserve to live a hassle-free life. Don’t bring any stress into my life. And the emotional response of someone with an idol of comfort is often boredom. People with an idol of comfort are easily bored.

Fourth, idol of control. Life has meaning I have worth only if I’m able to get mastery over my life in a certain area. It could be family, finances, friendship, health, or career. The greatest fear of someone with an idol of control is uncertainty. And the emotional response is anxiety.

And what Judges 2 is pleading … Please don’t hear Judges 2 saying “You’ve got to do better!” That’s not what God is saying in Judges 2. What he is saying is, “I have so much more for you. Do not give yourself to these idols. They will bind you and they will suck the life out of you.” “Drive them out of the land completely.” “They will leave you in terrible distress.”

That’s what Jesus was getting at when he said in Matthew 11:28,

“Come to me [Come to me!], all you who labor and are heavy laden [all you who are caught in a cycle], and I will give you rest.”

Jesus is the cycle slayer.

Let’s go back to Rachel. We left Rachel in a cycle of moral and relational brokenness, bouncing or crawling from one toxic relationship to another. Today, Rachel is a vibrant follower of Jesus with healthy relationships. How did that happen? Well, it began with a couple in a restaurant.

A Christian couple frequented a specific restaurant and often had Rachel as their server. They treated her kindly; they tipped her well. They didn’t just give her a tract that looked like a dollar. Never do that. Over time, they developed a friendship. They eventually hired her to manage their inventory at their little clothing store.

And over time, Jake and Allison, the couple, invited her into their family. She joined them for numerous family events. She said this: “I finally got to see a normal family [whatever that is].” Stop there for a second and think about that. Just let that sink in what she’s saying. I got to see something I had never seen before. One of the first steps to breaking destructive cycles is being able to envision that there could be something different. Life could be different. I may not be able to understand it all, I certainly don’t know how to get there, but maybe there’s a different way to live. She described this family:

“They liked each other, would play cards and board games, and talk. I loved going to their home. One afternoon Allison asked if I would join them at their church. I was 28 and had been to church three times in my entire life. I initially said no, but then after a couple of weeks I decided to go because one of their grandsons was going to be baptized. I went that Sunday and every Sunday for the next three years!”

During that time she joined a small group. They helped her get her first car. The men in the small group helped do minor repairs on the car, and the group began sharing with her the gospel of Jesus. She repented. She believed. She became a follower of Jesus.

And over time, in that family, and bigger Christian family and friends, and counseling trying to help her get to these deep wounds and a lot of hurt and sin all mixed up together, Rachel was transformed. She realized her new identity in Jesus and her relational and substance abuse cycles were broken. This is what Jesus came to do.

Look at Romans 6:5,

“For if we have been united with him [with Christ – united with him means by faith, his life becomes ours.] If we’re united with him in a death like his, we shall be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self [who we were] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin [our slave master] might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also will live with him.”

This is our new hidden life in Christ. And out of that newness of life we go to war. We go to war. God is teaching us how to go to war, not against flesh and blood. What do we mean by that?

Look at Colossians 3:5,

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.”

That’s the new covenant description of “drive them out completely.” Well, what are you talking about? You’re talking about my brother? No. My friend? No.

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry [which is serving the Baals] on account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them [caught in a cycle of living in them] but now you must put them all away.” What are you talking about? “Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

We are being transformed from inside out and it changes everything. I’m going to ask the worship team to come now, and Ben’s going to sing a song over us and it’s going to… We haven’t stopped. It’s going to give us an opportunity to respond. And as he and they are singing, I want us to do one or more of three things.

First of all, can you name a cycle that you may be caught in right now? Can you name it? I think for some of us, it may be we’re very early on. The Lord brought you today to acknowledge you’re heading down a road that is not healthy, and you think it’s a game and it’s not a game. It’s going to end poorly. And you know what I’m talking about. Can you name it?

For others of us, it might be deep idols of power, approval, comfort, and control. We say, Lord, I see it. And that anxiety, that fear, that boredom, I feel it, Lord. Others may be medicating themselves with Netflix binges, excessive alcohol, opioids, or Amazon purchases. We can turn anything into an attempt to satisfy our souls through means that will only bind us. Can you name it?

The second is, will you cry out? Because we can’t break cycles on our own, but God loves to break us free. Will you cry out to him during this time?

And third, take action. Take action. Cycles are never destructed, cycles are never broken by good intentions. Whatever God is calling you to do and it’s going to be different for all of us. For some of us, we need to talk to loved ones, maybe for the first time. And be honest.

For others of us, we need to go to our life group and say, “Hey, would you pray with me? Would someone help me?” Or counseling? But whatever the next step is, take action. Be willing to talk to God today. “Okay, now you’ve spoken to me. It’s easy for me just to shove it back again and just continue on. But I want to name it, cry out to you, and then understand what my next step is to take action.

Let’s pray as Ben sings over us.