Judges 1:8-11 | Episode #1265

August 21, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Judges 1:8-11

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Hope Alive, where we apply God's Word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama on beautiful Lake Martin. I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes where there's a link where you can make a donation. I pray in the name of Jesus that God would open his word to you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life, that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today. Word of God, please speak to the hearers of your voice today in the name of Jesus. Amen. Foreign. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible Study. We are in Judges, chapter one. We're going to deal with verses eight through 11 as. As we're going through the Book of Judges, you need to know that, obviously, I've discussed it. We're going to. We're going to deal with Israel not doing what they're supposed to. They're slowly fading away. They wander off and then God sends a judge to bring them back. Now, the first chapter of the Book of Judges actually is. Well, it's a little bit of setting the stage, I guess, is the best way for me to describe it. It's taking all the things that we already know through the book of Joshua, and it's given us a few tidbits of that will kind of allow us to understand what's happening. And the first tidbit of information is that they are being victorious because they're taking the land, but they're not doing what they're supposed to in that they should have taken that king and they should have gotten rid of him, and yet they brought him to Jerusalem and he died in Jerusalem. Well, you brought him to the town. I mean, you brought him to the place where God's presence was going to dwell. I mean, that's just not. It's not only not doing what you're supposed to do, it's making another bad decision and bringing him there. And so you kind of see as we start the Book of Judges, they're doing what God said in the way God didn't tell him to do it. You know, when God says do something and he doesn't tell you how, well, then there's freedom. If God tells you to do something and then gives you how to do it, there's no freedom in that, that you. You do what God told you to do. And so they don't. They don't do that. They don't. They. They're doing it, but they're doing it their own way. And, and that, that doesn't work as well. Now, you know the parable Jesus told about the two sons where he told one son to go out to the field and, and work in the field. And that son, that son, you know, acquiesced, said, I'm going, and then didn't go do it. And then the other son, who, when told to go to the field, just whined and pitched a fit, and why are you treating me this way? And then after his father left, he went and worked. And then Jesus asked, which one did his Father's will? Well, the answer is the one who actually went to the field and did the work. He did his Father's will. But that's in contrast to the one who didn't at all do his Father's will. Then I would say to you that there is a third option. And the option is. And Jesus was teaching that in another context. But the option here is that you can not only do your Father's will, but you can do it the way he told you to do it. And they don't always do that. Now, that doesn't mean that it's not always done right, that they're not doing it. And I want you to hear that that doesn't mean that they're not doing it. That just means that they're wandering away and God's laying that framework. And so in verses 8 through 11, we kind of see that that framework's being carried out. Now, the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it. They struck it with the edge of the sword. Now, and by the way, some of this stuff is not happening in chronological order. God's not giving it to us in chronological order. He is laying the framework for the Book of Judges, and he's given us some information that'll let us know those, let us understand what's going to happen down the road and get focused on the things that he wants us to focus on and not get focused on the things that we don't want that God doesn't want us to get folks on. So he says here, he struck it with edge of the sword and set the city on fire. And afterwards, the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the mountains, in the south and in the lowlands. Then Judah. So. So they're going out. And then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. Now, the name of Hebron was formerly known as Kirjath Arbor. And by the way, God's leaving little crumbs here. He's speaking to the issues that are going to go on in the Book of Judges, but he's also leaving us a little bit of crumbs here for us archeological minded people, the people who are going to show up 3,000 years later and find tidbits of information that point to these names and these places actually existing, which is very important because there are books that claim to be holy scripture that name places that. That we know for sure did not exist. Okay. Every time God mentions a name in the Old Testament. And by the way, that's not something I just love. I've already told you that my dyslexia causes me to not love those names and struggle with pronouncing them. At least. I've had 30 years of experience. You should have heard me when I was in my 20s trying to do this. But with these names, he is dropping names and telling you, well, telling us 3,000 years later. See, I'm writing these things down exactly the way they happened. And so they killed Shisha and, ahem, and Talma. None of those were easy. I had to go through those a little bit. And so they took those cities. Judah took those cities. And we know that they did. From there, they went against the inhabitants of Debir. Now, the name of Debir was formerly Kirjath Sefer. And so we've got two Kirjaths, Arba and Sefer. By the way, archeologically, we know that those things are true. And so God's telling us that Judah took their territory. Now, why is that important? Well, because it has a couple of significances. The first significance is that when the southern kingdom is the last kingdom to be taken, it's mainly because Judah was faithful in what they did. And what do you mean by taken? Well, the Assyrians took the northern kingdom, and then the Babylonians took the southern kingdom. But the northern kingdom was taken far before the southern kingdom was taken. Taken. And when the southern kingdom was taken, they were just taken into captivity into Babylon. And then they were released out of Babylon back to rebuild Jerusalem. The northern kingdom was not taken into captivity and allowed to come back. They, in fact, they are lost. Those peoples were scattered all over what probably was the Eurasian steppe, all the way probably from China over into northern Europe. They were sold into slavery. And that was common practice in that day. It's common practice even sometimes, even to today. But they were sold into slavery. And so these people didn't exist. Judah was not sold into slavery. Judah was allowed to come back after the captivity. Why? Well, the reason why is because they actually did take their territory. They did drive the Canaanites out. Did they do it properly all the time? No. That's why they ended up in captivity. But they did do what God told them to do. They took the territory. And let me say this. It's better to do God's will not very well than to not do it at all. And that's the whole point of that parable that Jesus told. Which son did his father's will? Well, the son that did his father's will is the son that that went out and worked in the field. Even though he complained bitterly about it, he actually did what his father told him to. The son who did not go out into the field and do what his father told him to, that son was disobedient. And we see here that Judah was not disobedient. Judah did take their territories and Judah did take Jerusalem. And all that comes from that is pretty amazing and pretty good. It's not perfect. As with all endeavors of the believer in the New Testament, and like I said, judges picture of the New Testament believer, all our endeavors are not perfect. They're not done perfectly well. But obedience has great value in the kingdom. Obedience has great value in the kingdom. And I want you to hear me. Obedience that's born of the relationship you have with God. Not obedience for obedience sake, but obedience born of the relationship you have with God. And that's what Jesus said about that son. He thought better of himself is what it says. What he said to himself was, my father asked me to do this. I probably ought to do it. And that is because he was his father. It's because they had a relationship. And so even though he did not act properly in that relationship and honor his father completely, he did honor his father with his actions. And so when we get to this, we understand that Judah and Jesus is from the line of the tribe. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah, and David is from Judah that Judah did what they should have done. They took all their territory. And God in this first chapter and throughout this book is letting us know that that the tribe that you probably ought to look to as far as obedience and as far as a way forward for the people of Israel is the tribe of Judah. And you're going to have Benjamin right there beside them. And then other tribes are going to do well and they're going to do okay, but they're not going to do what Judah did and they're not going to be honored like Judah's honored. And the reason they're not is because they don't do it. Exactly. They don't do what God told them to do. And that's really what the Book of Judges is about. It's about learning to do God's will, God's way. We got to learn to do God's will, God's way. And when we do, we experience the increase that he always desired for us to have. As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.