Tips for Teaching This Week’s Session of The Gospel Project for Adults

Listen to this week’s leader training podcast with Y Bonesteele, team leader for The Gospel Project for Adults, for a summary and guidance in leading your group.

This week’s additional resources for study and preparation:

• Article: “The Model Judge” by Ligonier
• Article: “Preaching the Gospel in Judges” by Steve Mathewson
• Sermon: “How Our Covenant God Loves His People” by Tom Ascol
• Sermon: “Three Unlikely Heroes” by Chris Hutchison

Transcript of Leader Training Podcast:

Hi, this is Y Bonesteele, team leader of The Gospel Project for Adults. Welcome to another Leader Training podcast. Today we are in Unit 8, Session, 1 God Responds to His People. Our core passage is Judges 3:1-11 and our Key Concept is God both disciplines and delivers His people.

In today’s session, we find a summary of God’s actions in light of the Israelites disobedience. The book of Judges starts off with God still fighting for the Israelites but when we get to chapter 1, verses 27-36, we see that the Israelites did not drive out the inhabitants completely as they were commanded. The author goes through a list, stating how various tribes of Israel did not drive out their enemies. The Gospel Project Commentary on p. 76 rightly comments, “It’s essential to note that the list of Israel’s failures at the beginning of Judges is not just a bit of historical record, but also a list of accusations.”

Chapter 3, then, continues with the Lord testing “all those in Israel who had experienced none of the wars in Canaan,” seen in verse 1. Their enemies were left “to teach the future generation of the Israelites how to fight in battle, especially those who had not fought before.” So these nations were left: “the five rulers of the Philistines and all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites…” Again in verse 4, it says that the Lord used them to “test Israel,” to see if they would obey and keep God’s commands. To learn more about Israel’s struggle with the Philistines, you can scan the QR code on p. 78 of the Leader Guide.

So the nations were left, and verse 5 then starts with a big “but”: “But they settled among the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.” The Israelites intermarried with these non-followers of God and worshiped the foreign gods. If you remember from last week, Joshua warned the people that they would be unable to follow the Lord and keep His commandments. And here we see exactly that—they forgot the Lord and worshiped other gods. Some of our spiritual compromises with the world are like Israel’s sinful responses to the Canaanites. But maybe they are less in the big stuff and more in the little things. It’s in the way we gossip or compare ourselves to others. It’s in the way we can’t love others if they have a different opinion on issues. It’s in the way we have a lack of compassion toward anyone different than who we are, and we justify it, even through using these Old Testament stories, but out of context of the whole of Scripture. Do we not realize that if God is compassionate and merciful, He expects His people to be as well, especially in light of who Jesus is and all He came to do? Our spiritual compromises can often include a lack of love and mercy for others, along with of course, the modern evils of this world.

Thus the “Lord’s anger burned against Israel” and He sold them to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-harahaim. They had to serve him and be enslaved for 8 years. The Gospel Project Commentary on page 79 states, “This foreign king’s name means ‘King of Double Evil from Double River.’ This is a derogatory name, for under this king, evil flowed out like a double river.” Under this evil ruler, they were enslaved.

So they cried out to the Lord in verse 9. Back in Judges chapter 2, we see this pattern of sin the Israelites kept getting into. You can look at Pack Item 7: The Judges Cycle poster now to look at what you’re going to show your group later. This is the cycle that will continue: 1) Sin: The Israelites abandoned the Lord and worshiped other gods. 2) Judgment: The Lord handed the Israelites over to other nations to oppress them. 3) Repentance: The Israelites groaned under their oppression and cried out to God. 4) Deliverance: God raised up a judge to deliver His people from the nations. And 5) Peace: As long as the judge was alive, the Israelites enjoyed a time of peace. When the judge died, the Israelites acted more corruptly, worshiping other gods.

Now something to note, many commentators will say that the Israelites’ groanings and crying out to God was not as much a repentant heart as it was a cry of distress toward their circumstances. Yet still, their cry to God was an acknowledgment that He could save them, and He was the only One that could. Even without a repentant heart, God delivered them and they had peace, but all this was temporary, as the cycle continued throughout the book of Judges and beyond. But it was a symbol of, and maybe the first step to repentance—an acknowledgment of God, who He is and what He’s able to do.

But what’s key here in this chart is our understanding of the gospel message in light of this cycle and how Christ came to break this cycle for humanity. So we’re able to see a 5 point gospel message here: 1) Humanity sins. We all do. We abandon the Lord and worship other gods. 2) And because of our sin, we deserve judgment. We deserve death and guilt and shame and eternity without God. 4) But when we acknowledge God and how He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, and we know we are sinners and in need of a Savior and thus choose to follow Christ, 4) we are permanently delivered, saved from spiritual death and sin’s enslavement, and 5) we can enjoy the peace that surpasses all understanding.

The Israelites at the time, may or may not have been repentant; and even if they were, it was only temporary and so their deliverance was only temporary, and their peace was only temporary. But for those who follow Jesus, because of His work on the cross, our choosing to follow Him results in a permanent deliverance from judgment and a permanent peace knowing that He is always with us and for us, and we get to spend eternity with Him.

But here, the Lord’s deliverance is administered through Othniel, not Jesus, verse 9. We know very little of Othniel. He is the son of Kenaz who is Caleb’s youngest brother; so Othniel is Caleb’s nephew. (We know Caleb as one of the spies who came back with a good report along with Joshua.) We know Othniel was also the one who captured Debir in response to Caleb’s challenge and reward of Achsah, Caleb’s daughter, as a wife for the victor as seen in Joshua 15:13-17, also recounted in Judges 1:11-13. So we know Othniel was a warrior, a good fighter. So here in chapter 3, verses 9-10, God raised him “as a deliverer to save the Israelites” and “the Spirit of the Lord came on him, and he judged Israel.” He “went out to battle and the Lord handed over” the King of Aram to him. Notice how the Lord gets credit here. He was the One raising a deliverer. The Spirit of the Lord was the One who came on Othniel. And the Lord handed the King of Aram over to Othniel. God is our ultimate Deliverer and that can be found in Jesus, our Savior.

And when Othniel overpowered the King of Aram, the land again had peace, like it did after Joshua. And it did so for 40 years and then Othniel died. These judges God raised delivered the people but then eventually died. And they were never resurrected. Jesus, however, as our ultimate Deliverer, died but was raised to life. And that’s how we know that our cycle of judgment is over. We still do experience the consequences of our sin. But we never need to doubt God’s presence in our lives or our eternity with Him. The new covenant established in Christ is permanent and can never be broken. He took our judgment and placed it on the cross. We are forever His.

On to the Group Experience then, the Arrival icebreaker and Context sets up our passage. Continue to the Recap section, seeing what stood out to your group in their study this past week. Add any additional thoughts from your own study through the Leader Notes, The Gospel Project Commentary, this podcast, or any other resources. Bring out Pack Item 7: The Judges Cycle poster, as a visual of the Israelites behavior pattern and as a visual of the gospel message.

On to the Group Activity, a little Pop Quiz to summarize what we’ve learned about the Israelites.  After reading Judges 3:1-11, look at God’s test: First, He left the nations to teach Israel how to fight in battle. Israel’s grade here would be an F, I’d say. Verse 2 says “they never fought before” and verse 8 say they were sold to the King of Aram and they had to serve him for 8 years. It doesn’t say much about their fighting so they must have been pretty bad at it since they lost. An F for Failed.

The second line said God left the nations to determine if Israel would obey His commands. I would say, another F. Failed. Verse 6 says they intermarried and worshiped the foreign gods. They forgot the Lord and worshiped the Baals and Asherahs in verse 7. They did not keep the Lord’s commands at all. Another F for them.

Then after their crying out, God raised Othniel as a deliverer and judge. It could be considered a test to see if the people would follow God through this leader. I would give them a C (your group may have other grades but make sure they have a reason for it). My C is because as Othniel judged them, they obeyed and had peace for 40 years. But when he died, did they learn anything? That’s a no, seen from verse 12, “The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.” C for average. It’s like they needed an open book test as a constant reminder, a buddy or tutor to continually be in their face to remind them of obedience. Without a judge or leader, the Israelites fell back into their evil ways. So C for a temporary learning but not a complete one.

Ask the question in the SHARE paragraph: Has there been a time in your own life when you walked more closely with the Lord and His instruction, perhaps when you were led or mentored by a strong believer? How did that person’s faith impact your faith? Point out that regardless of the leadership of other believers, we are all called to know, believe, and obey God.

Go through the Debrief questions. The first one is in the Personal Study Guide on page 68. These have personal answers so you can go through these with your group yourself.

Summarize and in the Head, Heart, Hands section, cover just the Head question if time is limited: How might God be testing you, and how can you pass these tests? Sometimes certain tests are there to help us know something about God and other times it’s helping us grow in character or spiritual fruit. Passing these tests then would include learning what it is that God is trying to teach us; having a teachable spirit and an obedient heart if He is asking us to do something; or the opposite even, learning how to wait on the Lord when we want to do something that God is telling us to stop or pause on.

The Next Steps, I think, are written well in covering different people in different journeys. For someone who needs to cry out to God, the first bullet point is helpful. For someone who is in a season of peace, the 3^rd bullet point is helpful. And for everyone else, we can take time to be thankful in the 2^nd bullet point.

And then for the Praying Scripture, point to Psalm 107 for the group to look at or read if time permits. Sometimes with these Praying Scripture, even with a quick glance, you can draw a prayer out of the Psalm given. For example, just looking at verses 10-16, someone can quickly pray a prayer of thanksgiving that God hears our cries and delivers us from our distress. Thank you, Lord, for your “faithful love” and your “wondrous works” (v. 8)!

Thanks again for joining me on another Leader Training podcast. Write to me at [email protected]! And I really do hope you have a great group time!