Riverside Community Church Blog

"And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire." - Judges 1:8

This verse struck me as I recently read through Judges in my personal study, as well as preparation for our Spring sermon series. At this point in history, it is 1405 BC. The Israelites are continuing the conquest of the Land of Canaan (The Promised Land) and taking the land one city and territory at a time. The Israelites have captured, struck with the sword, set fire, and occupied Jerusalem and defeated it’s inhabitants, the Jebusites. Yes, THAT Jerusalem. This was the same Jerusalem that would become the “Holy City”. Where God would make the epicenter of His redemptive plan. Keep in mind, this isn’t the beginning of Jerusalem itself (we find Jerusalem as far back as 2110 BC in Genesis 14:17-20), but it is the beginning of Jerusalem as an occupied city of God’s people.

The Land of Canaan was abundant in terms of resources and the fruit of the land, but it was also abundant with paganism, idolatry, and moral corruption. The Jebusites were one of the many pagan inhabitants of Canaan and Jerusalem was their turf. Jerusalem, the epicenter of God’s redemptive plan, was once an epicenter of corruption. So what we’re seeing in the book of Joshua and here in these opening verses of Judges is a cleansing. The Promised Land is being cleansed. Jerusalem had to be burned down before it could be made magnificent. Jerusalem had to be cleansed before it could be made “holy”. Yes, Israel would lose the city again to the Jebusites (Judges 1:21) and it would be 400 years until David took the city back (2 Samuel 5:6-10), but the wheel has begun to turn.

When we allow Jesus into our hearts by grace through faith, the wheel begins to turn and a cleansing commences that lasts a lifetime. It is a cleansing of the moral corruption that we allowed to occupy our hearts before trusting Jesus. Before God can build us up, He has to tear us down first. It’s painful, but it’s His grace at work. Hosea said, “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up” (6:1). God wants us to grow in holiness and become more and more like Christ. To do this, God has to set fire to our impurities and our sin. By the Holy Spirit, God must convict us and strike down our sin and put it to the edge of the sword. This is all in preparation for the time when we will be made magnificent in the presence of Jesus.

To share in his glory, we have to die to ourselves. Our flesh has to be crucified before we can be glorified. Paul said to the Galatian church, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (2:20). Again to the Galatian church he said, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (5:24). When we put our faith in Christ, God begins dismantling our old self and our sinful tendencies, and He begins to build up our new self. He begins deconstructing everything we ever thought about the world and about ourselves so we can clearly see His perfect truth and be transformed by it. Paul said to the Ephesian church, “...put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (4:22-24).

We must be brought low before we can be raised up. Jesus knew the abyss. He knew depths. He knew all about low points. There was a moment in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus, sweating blood, may have been at his lowest point, yet he knew the glorification it was building up to. The following day, it may have been a new low when the innocent Jesus was traded for a true criminal, Barabbas. He reached even lower depths when the spikes of the crown punctured the skin on his skull. A new low point came during his flogging and the carrying of his cross. And it got even lower when the nails were finally driven into his hands and feet. Jesus had to be brought low before he could be exalted. Paul said to the Corinthian church, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus had to become sin before he could return to his glory. That's low. Jesus had to be crucified before he could be glorified. Jerusalem had to be ruined before it could be raised. We have to be torn before we can healed. We have to be brought low before we can be exalted.

Today, the Temple is all but gone and Jerusalem is a mere fraction of it’s former glory. But it was all to show us who the true Temple is - Jesus. Because of his perfect obedience, Jesus is in a place where he will never be dismantled or dethroned, struck by the sword or set fire to. He is the unstoppable King of Kings. Is this the Jesus you are putting your faith and trust in?