As we look at what went on in Judges 1, we’re able to think about what it means to be on God’s mission with God’s help. We need to think about that because God has a mission for his church – and a church for his mission. He has gathered us here in Bromborough for his work here.
We need to learn how to be on God’s mission with God’s help.
Things seemed to get off to a good start in our reading, but somewhere along the line things went wrong. Judah failed on God’s mission. And it wasn’t God’s fault.
So we’ll take a look through the chapter – thinking theologically about what’s going on. Then we’ll think about how we’re on God’s mission, and how we must avoid falling into failure.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church Wirral in August 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Bible history is always theological
The Bible is a big book, but it’s selective about what it records. The historical accounts might often seem a bit remote, but when we see them theologically (or spiritually), we learn from them.
The setting for Judges is simple: Moses brought Israel’s 12 tribes up from Egypt and led them through the wilderness, under God, for 40 years. He took them to the edge of Canaan, the land God promised to give them. Joshua was the man to lead Israel into Canaan, and there was much military success and allocation of land.
So Judges is about what happened after Joshua died (v1), and Israel’s attempts to finish taking the land from the nations already living there. Is that fair? Read Deuteronomy 9:1-4.
The removal (and destruction) of those nations was judgment from God for their wickedness. One of the pagan kings realised that. Read Judges 1:6-7.
A mostly good start
Read Judges 1:1-3.
It’s great that they enquired of God who should go. But in taking Simeon along, they’ve added to what God said – always a dodgy thing to do.
Why did they do that? Simeon had become the smallest of the tribes. Even Simeon’s land allocation was actually a part of Judah’s land (Judah was a large tribe). So taking Simeon seemed sensible, practical.
But it wasn’t what God had said. In their practical, sensible thinking, they’d compromised on obedience to God in their very first action. Compromise.
Then in v4-7 we read of success over Adoni-bezek (thumbs and toes), and more success in v8-11. It’s all going well so far.
Faith in action: Caleb
Then we come to Caleb, a man of faith in his mid-eighties. He and Joshua were the only men of faith all those years before on the border of Canaan, ready to enter the land God promised.
Read Judges 1:12-15, 20.
What you see in Caleb is a complete expectation that the LORD would be with him for success. Faith steps forward to take hold of what God has promised, and Caleb was a man to step forward. His daughter seems a chip off the old block too: She sees the land as Israel’s to take, and to give at will. Caleb was a leader who had trusted God over and over, and knew the Lord to be utterly dependable. He would not shrink back. We need more leaders like him.
Doubt and fear
It’s all going so well until we get to v19. Read Judges 1:17-19.
Can’t God cope with people in iron chariots? Of course he can. We’ll see that in chapters 4 & 5.
So what went wrong? Judah doubted God. They feared man (and his tech). It’s like when Peter saw Jesus walking on the water and walked out to him: When he took his eyes off Jesus and feared his surroundings, he lost faith and sank.
So our biblical history has seen some compromise along with doubt and fear, plus also some healthy expectation from Caleb.
Mostly bad
Read Judges 1:21. Notice that it doesn’t say they “could not” it says they “did not”. Bearing in mind Deuteronomy 9, this is simple disobedience.
Israel were to make no treaty or covenant with people in the land, but at Bethel in v22-26, they arranged for help within the village. At Jericho, Rahab had helped Israel because she joined. This man saved his own skin and scarpered. Another “sensible compromise” is actually disobedience.
As you read on you find Canaanites living among Israelites in v27-30. Then you read of Israelites living among Canaanites in v31-33 – a weaker position. And it ends with Dan failing to take their land in v34-36.
All because of compromise, disobedience, doubt and fear.
Where did it go wrong on God’s mission with God’s help?
- They lost sight of God’s mission, and
- They became disconnected from God’s help.
Partial success is also partial failure. God himself cannot fail to accomplish his plans, but we can fail him – and we will always miss out on his blessing when we do.
You don’t drift into obedience or godliness, you drift from them. And you do it by a thousand tiny steps of compromise. So:
Remember God’s promises
To stay on God’s mission with God’s help, we need to fill our minds, to fire our hearts, to fix our wills, and fuel our hands.
Fill your mind
So fill your mind and remember God’s promises:
- Isaiah 9:7 The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
- Isaiah 55:11 my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.
- Isaiah 61:11 the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations
- Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory, as the water covers the sea.
How will that happen?
- Matthew 16:18 I will build my church
- Through his church: Matthew 28:18-20 All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…
- Acts 1:8 you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth
- Revelation 1:5-6 Jesus has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father…
Fire your heart
Church growth is God’s mission. It’s his passion. He’s not a disinterested observer, or a hard task-master.
Church growth is his work, and he includes you in it.
Fire your heart with this: You’re intimately involved because of your union with Christ:
- John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.
- Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
He is on mission to build his church, and as a Christian you’re incorporated into his life through union: You in him, him in you. His compassion for lost drives him, and it should drive you too.
So you’re on God’s mission with God’s help by being united to him in holiness in Christ.
Fix your will
So fix your will on Christ and his mission:
- 1 Peter 3:15 in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
- Romans 12:1 …in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
- Romans 13:14 put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
Determine to set Christ in your heart as holy. Fix on him. Be ready to serve him, clothed in his righteousness.
Put sin to death. Don’t mess about. Don’t dabble with faith.
Determine to take your place in his mission work with his help.
Fuel your hands
And fuel your hands for action.
- If you’ve never actually come to know this Jesus for yourself, and you’re just dabbling with Christianity out of interest, then make today the day you turn to him.
- Call out to him for forgiveness of sin, and you will be forgiven. You will be a child of God, united to Jesus, living in eternal peace and bliss with him
If you have, then be sure to put specific things in place in your life to continue your living dependence on him:
- Get organised with your prayer life. Read your Bible every day. Spend time thinking about God and your salvation.
- Learn to be like Caleb, who leaned on God, trusted him, depended on him – and was always ready to do it again.
- Be a growing Christian, not a stagnant one. Remember, you never drift into godliness. You only drift away.
And then be determined about reaching the unbelieving people around you. You’re on God’s mission where you are, not waiting to be somewhere else.
Step forward in faith on God’s mission with God’s help in union with Christ. And remember the failure of Judges 1:
Beware your compromises
In Judges 1, there was doubt and fear, disobedience and compromise. Even though God was with them, the Israelites failed to complete God’s mission (v19).
Take Jesus’ image of the vine and the branches very seriously. He will build his church and make it grow; he nourishes it and gives us life. So if you’re a branch and you allow disobedience and compromise to creep in, you’re actually cutting yourself off from Jesus. You’re going alone. There might appear to be some short-lived success, but it won’t last. It can’t. You’d be like a cut flower.
So learning from Judges 1, what are the compromises that would keep you from being on God’s mission with God’s help?
“Too busy”
First: You say you’re too busy. Life gets in the way.
- But think: You are not your own; you were bought at a price. You belong to Jesus.
- Set your minds on things above, on God’s mission.
- His mission ought to drive your whole life, not be a tiny add-on. Do you need to reorient your thinking?
“Too disorganised”
Second: You say you’re just a disorganised person.
- There are many spiritual gifts in the New Testament.
- But prayer isn’t a spiritual gift, it’s a repeated command.
- You are blessed to be this side of the cross: Zechariah 12:10 Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the house of David and the residents of Jerusalem, and they will look at me whom they pierced.
You literally have the Spirit of prayer in you. - If you say, “I can’t pray, I’m just disorganised, that’s just me” then you’re being wilfully disobedient, denying the Holy Spirit within you.
“Someone else will”
Maybe you pray a lot about mission and church growth.
- You pray for workers in the harvest field – that’s good.
- But you don’t include yourself, even though Jesus immediately sent his disciples out after telling them to pray for workers.
- You might not be able to witness as you once did. Things change. But you are to witness where you are.
- Pray – of course – but be prepared to be an answer to your own prayers for workers.
“Too old”
Someone might just think they’re too old.
- Caleb was in his mid-eighties.
- Age gives you the privilege of knowing what it’s like to have trusted in God and found him to be true.
- Age also gives you the honour of being an example and encouragement to others.
“It’s too zealous”
Or you just might think all this is a bit over-the-top zeal.
- You’d rather have your faith in moderation, without going nuts like some of those super-spiritual people?
- 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world
- Jesus would have you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him.
- God is the one with all the zeal! Isaiah 9:6-7 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us… The dominion will be vast… The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.
- Get on board with God’s mission! Do it in union with Christ.
In Isaiah 51, Israel asked God to “Wake up” to rescue them.
His reply? God said, “Wake yourself up!”
- Isaiah 52:1,7,10,11 Wake up, wake up; put on your strength, Zion! …How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation… The Lord has displayed his holy arm [Jesus] in the sight of all the nations; all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. Leave, leave, go out from there! Do not touch anything unclean; go out from her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.
A clear call to holiness and to proclaiming the Good News.
In Judges 1, Israel failed to take their place in God’s mission because of fear, doubt, compromise, and disobedience.
Remember God’s promises; beware your compromises.
Who knows what God’s mission might be here for us?