January 12, 2024; Sunday Evening Worship

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — 2 Corinthians 2:14
• Hymn — We Gather Together (#415)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — Isaiah 53:5
• Hymn — How Marvelous, How Wise, How Great (#437)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Judges 1:1–26
• Sermon
• Hymn — Day by Day (#255)
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: A Good Start — Judah's Victories and Unfinished Business

Scripture: Judges 1:1–26

I. A Good Start and a Kingly Tribe

A. The Book of Judges opens in a manner nearly identical to Joshua, marking a succession of leaders

1. Moses dies → Joshua leads Israel across the Jordan; Joshua dies → Judah is called to lead
2. Joshua 1:1–2 parallels Judges 1:1–2: the Lord appoints the next leader after each death

B. Caleb's faithfulness explains why Judah is chosen

1. Of the twelve spies, only Joshua and Caleb returned with a faithful report
2. Numbers 14:22–24: God promises Caleb, because he had a "different spirit," that his descendants would possess the land
3. Caleb is of the tribe of Judah, making it fitting that his tribe leads the conquest

C. Judah holds the promise of the royal scepter from Jacob's blessing

1. Genesis 49:8–10: the scepter shall not depart from Judah; the promised King comes from this tribe
2. The repeated refrain of Judges — "there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" — points back to Judah as the solution

D. A foil between Judah and Benjamin highlights the kingly theme

1. Judah captures Jerusalem (Judges 1:8); Benjamin fails to drive out the Jebusites (Judges 1:21)
2. Israel later demands a king from Benjamin (Saul, 1 Samuel 8), bypassing the divinely appointed kingly tribe
3. David, of Judah, is the true answer: his first act as king is to defeat the Jebusites and make Jerusalem the City of David (2 Samuel 5)

II. A Good Start and an Unlikely Alliance

A. Judah invites Simeon to join in battle (Judges 1:3)

1. Simeon's lot fell within Judah's territory, making them natural allies
2. The alliance is "unlikely" because Jacob had cursed Simeon and Levi for their violent revenge in the Dinah episode (Genesis 34; Genesis 49:5–6)

B. Simeon is redeemed through partnership with Judah

1. The very people — the Canaanites and Perizzites — before whom Jacob said Simeon had made Israel a stench, are now defeated together by Judah and Simeon (Judges 1:4–5)
2. God can bring strength out of even the most humble or cursed instrument

C. Tribal unity is a signal theme in Judges

1. Division and tribalism mark the downward spiral of the rest of the book
2. United under Yahweh's directive, Judah and Simeon bring victory; disunity brings defeat
3. Ephesians 3:17–18: grasping the full dimensions of Christ's love is only possible "together with all the saints"
4. Fellowship and unity among God's people are not optional — they are essential conditions for experiencing God's strength

III. A Good Start and Unfinished Business

A. Israel's conquest is incomplete, and the text signals this deliberately

1. Hebrew yarash (to capture/possess) versus yarash in the sense of driving out: Judah captures Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron but does not fully dispossess their inhabitants
2. These three cities belong to the Philistine pentapolis — failure here will haunt Israel throughout her history
3. The stated reason for failure: the inhabitants had chariots of iron (Judges 1:19); Benjamin simply did not drive out the Jebusites (Judges 1:21)

B. God's command of utter destruction (herem) was not arbitrary cruelty

1. Leviticus 18:6–30 and Deuteronomy 18:9–14 catalog the heinous sins — including child sacrifice — practiced by these nations
2. Leviticus 18:24: "the land vomited out its inhabitants" — the destruction is divine judgment on unmitigated wickedness
3. Exodus 23:32–33: the spiritual danger — leaving Canaanites in the land would be a snare, drawing Israel into idolatry

C. Half-hearted obedience is the deeper failure

1. Obedience is present and God blesses it (vv. 4, 22), but it is incomplete
2. "Tolerance and suicide are congenial bedfellows" (Dale Ralph Davis) — leaving the cancer of sin means it will grow
3. The greatest commandment calls for all heart, all soul, all mind, all strength — partial obedience is not enough (Romans 3: we all fall short)

D. The Lion of Judah is the answer to what incomplete Judah could not accomplish

1. Revelation 5:5: the Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered and can open the scroll
2. Colossians 2 and 1 John 3:8: the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil — not merely capture but utterly annihilate
3. Christ crushes the serpent's head completely; under his banner we are called and empowered to love God with our whole being
4. When we fall, we turn again — as Peter did (Luke 22) — trusting the Lion of Judah who intercedes for us at the Father's right hand