JUDGES 2:7, 10-19 [NLTse]
7 …The Israelites served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the leaders who outlived him—those who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.
…
10 After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things He had done for Israel.
11 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal. 12 They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, Who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them. And they angered the Lord. 13 They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth. 14 This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel, so He handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them. 15 Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as He had warned. And the people were in great distress.
16 Then the Lord raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from their attackers. 17 Yet Israel did not listen to the judges but prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods. How quickly they turned away from the path of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands.
18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge over Israel, he was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge’s lifetime. For the Lord took pity on His people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them. They went after other gods, serving and worshiping them. And they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

SERMON
Our reading this morning shows why we cannot trust in earthly leaders or victories the Lord gives us, or any other blessings or good things that come to us from God’s hand to keep us strong in faith and living for the Lord: Earthly leaders will always die; and, the victories and blessings and good things – no matter how thrilling and wondrous – will always fade over time and under the pressures of new challenges, temptations, and trials here in the world. And, if we are trusting in such good people or good gifts to keep us strong in faith and living for Christ, then it will only be a matter of time before – like God’s people among the Israelites – we return to “our corrupt ways, behaving worse than we did before, going after other gods, serving and worshiping them, and refusing to give up our evil practices and stubborn ways.” No, if we want to stay strong in faith – and grow stronger! – and if we want to live for the Lord – and live more and more abundantly! – we need look to Jesus Christ alone to be our leader, and we need the Holy Spirit to minister everlasting victories and blessings and good things within us. And for all that we need the spiritual practice of Study.

Many Christians remain in bondage to fears and anxieties simply because they are content with a “little word from God for today”. Such folks may be faithful in church attendance and earnest in fulfilling all their religious duties, and yet their character remains unchanged. I’m not talking just about those who are going through the “motions” of religion. This is true for those who are genuinely seeking to worship and obey Jesus Christ as Lord and Master. They may sing with gusto, pray in the Spirit, live as obediently as they know, even receive visions and revelations from God, but the flavor of their lives remains unchanged because they don’t invest themselves in the Word or let the Word do its saving work in them: They read, but they don’t Study.

You see, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul wrote that we are transformed – that is, we are changed to be more and more like Christ – through the renewal of our mind (Romans 12:2): Replacing old, destructive habits with new, life-giving ones. And that happens as we Study the Scriptures. Our minds are renewed as we apply them to – as we fix them upon – those things we desire to be transformed into. Paul says it like this: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8) The practice of Study is all about “fixing our minds on” such things.

The Lord Jesus made it unmistakably clear that knowing the truth would set us free. (John 8:32) Good feelings won’t set us free. Ecstatic experiences won’t set us free. Getting “high on Jesus” won’t set us free. Without a knowledge of the truth, human beings will not be free. (And this sadly includes, not only those who’ve never known God’s truth, but also those who have been taught false truths by unfaithful teachers.)

The mind will always take the shape of what it sets itself to. So, if you’re always watching or listening to or reading trashy stuff filled with backbiting, deception, violence, and sex, don’t be surprised to find your life becoming more and more focused and set on such things, as well. If you are fearful and a worrier, and you are content to follow your fears and to run with your worries, don’t be surprised to find yourself overrun by them.

That’s why, in the Bible’s book of Deuteronomy, Moses instructs the Israelites to “commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates!” Moses called Israel to such excessive practices so that they might set their minds repeatedly and regularly toward God’s truths about Himself, and His truths about them as His people, and His truths about their relationships with others and each other; to protect them from the way society thinks and what society can tempt them to think about; but to help them think about the good and glorious ways of the Lord Who loves them. Our habits – that is, what our minds tend to think about, how we respond in situations and circumstances – will take on the shape of what we Study! (Which is why Moses urges Israel to focus on God’s ways and commands, and why Paul urges us to focus on all that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise in the Lord.)

Sociology, anthropology, and the experiences of the great men and women of faith across history have come to recognize three major aspects of Studying: They are repetition, understanding, and reflection.

Fifth Avenue advertisers and nation-twisting propagandists have long understood that repetition affects the inner mind, even if the person doesn’t understand anything about what is being repeated. You can train your own and other’s thoughts by repetition alone, which will, of course, over time, change your or even an entire society’s ways of thinking and behaviors. (This is why what we and our families watch on television is so important. With lying, cheating, stealing, killing, and sleeping around being so commonplace on newscasts and prime time TV, such repetition alone alters the inner mind, training watchers in destructive thought patterns.) And so, hearing Scripture over and over again in Worship Services or reading Scripture over and over again in daily Bible reading or talking about Scripture over and over again in regular discussion with others can be so helpful in shaping us into Christ-likeness as we repeat His Word to ourselves and each other in all these ways again and again and again.

Add to repetition a firm understanding of what is being studied and we reach a whole new level. Remember, Jesus tells us that it is not just the truth but the knowledge of the truth that sets us free (John 8:32). Have you ever been trying to figure something out, when all the sudden, “Aha!” This great big “click” happens in our brains, and it all makes sense! Suddenly we can see it all so clearly, and we wonder how we ever missed understanding it all before! Understanding what we are Studying takes our transformation to a whole new level.

But even repetition and understanding can only transform us so much. The kicker is when we reflect on what we’ve been Studying. Repetition and understanding establish what the truth is; reflection establishes what that truth is going to mean for us! What will my day look like if I apply this truth to my daily living? That is, what must become a part of my life? What must never be a part of my life again? And how might it lead me to use my time differently? What will my speech be like if I live this truth out each day? How will it change what I say to my parents, my co-workers, my friends? How will this change whom I hang out with? How will it change what I think about and what I do with my free time? We ask all those questions, and more, when we reflect on the truth…

Of course, Study demands humility. We cannot truly Study if we are constantly judging what we are Studying: Judging the author’s credibility; judging the circumstances around it; judging whether or not it is true. We need to be subject to the subject matter. If we’re going to truly Study Scripture, we must trust it as God’s truth and come to it as a student to learn from it, no matter what it says or where it leads…

Some of you have heard the story of how I came to Christ. (I’ll share it again, briefly, for those who have not.) I was in seminary (the college you go to to become a pastor), and I was walking to class one morning. I had been reading through different sections of the Bible, all at the same time, for several of my classes. I had grown up in a church that didn’t believe the Bible to be the Word of God, but believed the Bible to contain the Word of God, each of us getting to determine for ourselves what was truth and what was not. All the Bible reading I was doing in my classes was challenging this fairly small understanding of the Scriptures. I was at a crossroads. I knew I needed to either trust the Bible completely (instead of picking and choosing what to believe based on what made sense to me) or I needed to drop out of seminary and become a part of some faith that I could trust and live wholeheartedly.

So, as I was walking to class that day I committed to the Lord that I would believe everything I read in the Scriptures for two weeks. If I read about a miracle, I would believe it happened instead of immediately questioning it. If I read about things that seemed to contradict each other, I would work to figure out how both could be true instead of so quickly saying, “See, it can’t be true.” If I read about things contrary to science or logic or history or whatever I would give the Bible the benefit of the doubt, where before I’d been very quick to simply write the Bible off. (It seemed like a faithful commitment. After all, if God is truly God, shouldn’t miracles be easy for Him? We encounter seeming contradictions around us each day in the world, but a little exploration and creativity often show us how they work together. And shouldn’t I expect God Almighty to know more about science even than scientists, and to know more about reasoning than even the best thinkers, and to know more about history than human scholars? And isn’t science and logic and our understanding of history changing almost every day on account of new discoveries? So, shouldn’t we expect God to know truths that we human beings haven’t come upon yet?)

So, I submitted myself to the Word. I believed everything I read in the Bible for two weeks. And God changed my world!
All of the sudden, He wasn’t so far away, He was right here with me, just like the Bible said He is. All the sudden, life made sense, and my place in it! All the sudden I knew what the Bible meant when we read that He makes us new, and washes us clean of pain, regret, and shame, and gives us a new start, a new life… I trusted the Bible to be truth and I let it teach me. And all that the Bible says God is and I am and the things of this life are came into stunning focus and clarity for me. Through humility as I Studied…

Daily devotional reading is important for every Christian as we grow in faith and live for Christ each day. But there are times when the unsearchable depths of God are calling out to us, calling us to spend time searching Him and plumbing His glorious heights and depths: God calling us to Study Him and know Him more intimately! The Lord wants us not just to know about Him, but to know Him – fully, deeply, like a lover and a best friend. And to grow to be more and ever-more like Him.
That takes Study…