LESSON 3: Spiritual Implications

LESSON 3: Spiritual Implications Teacher’s Notes Text – Judges 2:6-3:6

This section of Judges returns to the speech of Joshua. Although it chronicles the same period of time as chapter one, the focus is now on the spiritual implications of the Israelites. Even though Joshua had warned them about falling away from God in the Promised Land, they soon forgot his warning and became self-reliant. The Israelites had not learned from their mistakes while wandering in the wilderness. God required them to depend solely on him. Not only had they failed to learn, but they also failed to teach their children these lessons. God was disappointed in the Israelites’ poor decisions and their failures. As a result, God chastises his beloved people in hopes of having them return to him.

Background to Baal and Ashtoreth: There were many versions and varying worship rituals throughout the Canaanite region for Baal. The word Baal can be translated as god. Baal may have been seen as the son of Dagon, a part fish-part man idol worshiped largely by the Philistines, or as the son of El, who was the principal god or Zeus of that time. One common worship ritual included temple prostitution. This likely included both homosexual and heterosexual relations. They saw this as a way to demonstrate their own personal virility to Baal and in turn Baal would increase their crops and herds or give them more children since he was the god of fertility. In other regions, Baal was also known as Hadad or Adad and at times their worship required child sacrifice. Ashtoreth was the popular female counterpart of Baal. Not to be confused with Asherah who was the wife of El. Ashtoreth was the goddess of war. She was seen as beautiful and also associated with fertility and therefore temple prostitution. This goddess evolves into Aphrodite for the Greeks and Venus for the Romans.

1. God had given the Israelites the responsibility of teaching their children to love him (Deut. 6:4-9). What was the result of the Israelites’ failure to obey this command? What is the result of our failure to obey this command?

a) “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it”. - George Santayana This well known modern quote seems to apply to Israel’s situation. They had forgotten the lessons learned in the wilderness. They had forgotten the consequences of their father’s disobedience and lack of faith. They had not learned the richness and fullness of depending on God. They had not taken seriously the command to teach all of these things to their children, individually or collectively. Verse 10 describes Israel as neither knowing God nor knowing what God had done for them. This resulted in a generation that grew-up doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. In fact, according to verse 19, each successive generation became more and more wicked than the previous generation.

b) It is common to hear people today say “back in the good ‘ole days.” It’s hard to say what exactly made the old days good. Each of us may have a different answer for that. Today, however, we live in a time where there is less and less emphasis on God and more and more emphasis on self. The church is not at the center of our communities like it once was. God has been pushed from a prominent public place to a place where his name may only be mentioned behind closed doors. Our society has removed him from our schools and now there is a threat of removing his name from our pledge and our money. One could argue that this is the result of our failure to teach the next generation the importance of keeping God in a place of prominence. One way to change all of this would be to lobby the Christian position in Washington and try to change as many laws as we possibly can to force God back into our mainstream society. Or we could take the same approach that the disciples did in the first century when they set the world on its ear by simply teaching as many people as they could about Jesus.

2. In verses 12-19, what emotions do we see God exhibiting? Why is God so passionate, especially about Israel? How do Christians see this same passion (Heb. 12:4-11)?

a) The two emotions identified explicitly are anger and compassion, and one could argue that they both flow from God’s deep love for Israel. Like a parent with their child, God has nurtured Israel, fed her, protected her, and tried to teach her right from wrong. In verse 14, we see metaphoric language displaying God’s ownership of Israel, both literal and figurative, as God hands them over and sells them to their enemies. It is common throughout the Bible see economic language used to describe God’s relationship with his covenant people. In Exodus 15:13-16, God is described as both purchasing and redeeming Israel. This obviously gives him them right to do with them as he sees fit. Like with the parent child relationship, when a child disobeys, the parent disciplines the child to teach a lesson about right and wrong, and is justified in doing so.

b) For the Christian, those who are legitimate children of God who disobey the Father, should anticipate discipline. As the Hebrew author describes in 12:6, God disciplines those he loves. It is important to see that God is doing this because he loves us so much that he is willing to do whatever it takes to maintain a relationship with us.

3. What is at the root of Israel’s problems? How does this relate to us today?

a) God was very specific in directing the Israelites to completely destroy their enemies. However, Israel did not finish their task. They only partially obeyed God. They made agreements with some and allowed some to escape. Some were forced into labor. Some were allowed to remain and coexist with the Israelites. God intended for the Israelites to remove all of the original inhabitants so that they would not intermarry with the Canaanites and risk being pulled into idolatry. Their incomplete conquests resulted in centuries of conflict and strife. b) God gives us specific guidelines for living our lives today. He gives us a choice to either obey or do what is right in our own eyes. However, we must understand that by choosing the latter, we will face similar consequences as the Israelites.

4. What is the significance of the use of the word “prostitute” in verse 17?

Here, we see God displaying some more emotions. Implicitly, we are probably seeing God’s jealousy, disgust, and disappointment with Israel. Like the parent/child metaphor, the Bible also frequently uses a husband/wife metaphor to describe man’s relationship with God. In other parts of scripture, we see God refer to Israel as an adulterous nation. In verse 17, we see God as a betrayed spouse. Israel is described as prostituting herself to foreign gods, both literally and figuratively. They sought comfort from another source and in so doing had wounded their true love. God disciples them, not in a vindictive way, but rather in hopes of driving Israel back into his arms.

We too can prostitute ourselves to “other gods.” I would suggest that you ask your class what things specifically Christians can prostitute themselves to.

5. What motivates God to save Israel (refer to verse 18)? What motivates God to save us today? How should we respond to this?

a) As Israel groans under their discipline, God’s compassion provides a way out to end the distress of the discipline. It is God’s compassion that limits the degree and length of the discipline that the Israelites must endure.

b) God’s love and compassion is not limited to only Israel. God’s love extends to all men. We have to look no further than the cross to see the extent of God’s compassion towards us. God sees man suffering as a result of our sin and provides a way out. Because of his compassion, he was willing to suffer for us, in order that we too may be capable of being reunited with our Father and embraced in his loving arms. We sometimes need to be reminded that none of us deserves to be saved. It is only because of God’s compassion on us that resulted in the sacrifice of Jesus which enables us to be saved. Without God’s compassion, there would be no hope for anyone.

c) Our loving response to God’s compassion and his saving grace should be our obedience. Daily we should be committed to demonstrating to God our appreciation for his compassion on us. We did not earn it, we do not deserve it, but God freely gives it. The least we could do is to show him how much we appreciate it. What better way to show God how much we appreciate all that he has done for us than to do what he has asked us to do?