Judg 1:1, Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?" 
We are at the very beginning of this book of our consideration. We had a brief introduction last time. Now we are looking at the first verse of the first chapter as it contains a critical component to the whole of the life that we have been given by the Lord. Note the fact that the Children of Israel were without a leader to go before them in the final stages of the conquest of the Promised Land. 
Heretofore, they had been faithfully led by Moses and Joshua. Moses had been their leader throughout the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. He had led the first generation out of slavery in Egypt. Then he was called upon to lead the nation around as the second generation was witnessing the gradual death of their faithless parents. At that point, the children would be enabled to enter into the Land of their inheritance as pledged by the Lord. As his days were coming to an end, Moses had devotedly sought the Lord as to who would finally lead the people to conquer the land across the Jordan River.
As we have recorded for us in Num 27:15-17, Moses was very serious in his commitment to the Lord and to the people. He did not take the mantle of leadership lightly. He had faithfully worn it for those severe decades of wandering in the parched desert of the wilderness. He had led the people from water hole to water hole, until the appointed time of their conquest of Canaan. Accordingly, Moses earnestly asked the Lord to prepare the one upon whom the mantle of leadership would be placed.
Num 27:15-17, Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, "May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd." 
	Moses did not want the people to be without a Godly leader. He knew that they would not be able to go forward without someone, prepared by the Lord, to guide and to gather and to cajole and to intercede and to pray for and to obey the Lord on behalf of this nation which Yahweh had brought into existence. They needed a strong leader who would keep the people on track in their approach and conquest and distribution of the land into which they were being readied to inhabit. 
Please note that Moses did not take the deciding matter into his own hands. He asked the Lord to make it known who would take over the leadership role. He sought the Lord to prepare and to establish and to bring forth the one whom Jehovah would choose from among all the tribes of Israel. 
Consider that there was no monarchy in place at that time. There was no prescribed order of heritage which would establish the leadership. It would not be through the lineage of any particular person, such as Moses’ sons, by whom this role would be filled. It was only by the order of the Lord, bringing forth His chosen servant that the next leader would be put into place.
	We find God’s choice declared in Num 27:18-21. Here, the Lord made it known that the mantle of leadership would be put upon Joshua’s shoulders. Even the declaration of the Lord’s choice was provided in order that there would be no doubt among all the tribes and families that God had been the One Who picked Joshua. Accordingly, all should honor and obey him as the next Divinely appointed shepherd of the nation. 
	Num 27:18-21, So the Lord said to Moses, "Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; and have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation; and commission him in their sight. "And you shall put some of your authority on him, in order that all the congregation of the sons of Israel may obey him. Moreover, he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his command they shall go out and at his command they shall come in, both he and the sons of Israel with him, even all the congregation." 
The point of all this is that Moses did not make the decision on his own. He had been working with Joshua. He had been relying on Joshua. God had given Joshua command over the army and had directed him in the course of the battle plan. Joshua had faithfully spied out the Promised Land. Joshua had been at the side of Moses throughout the wandering with regard to the spiritual and the practical leadership of the nation. Joshua had been the continual aide de camp for Moses as well as his servant in time of need and crises and rejoicing. 
Although Joshua seemed to be the obvious choice to take over, Moses never made that assumption. He prayed to the Lord and asked God to make the choice and to make that selection clear to all the people. He prayed and asked God to install The Lord’s choice into the place of authority and guidance.
This was ever the case with Moses, as we have seen in our studies. He was in constant prayer for the directives of the Lord to be made through him. He did not make decisions unilaterally. He sought the Lord and cried out to Him. Moses counted on God to give him the answer and the direction and the counsel and the admonition and the means of understanding whereby the nation would truly be led by the Lord.
As a result of the examples of the God-directed leadership of both Moses and Joshua, the people were shown how decisions should be made. This is what the Israelites did at the beginning of this Book of Judges. They asked the Lord to decide which of the tribes would lead the rest in the continued conquest of the land. Joshua was no longer alive, so the nation did what every one of us should always do, they inquired of the Lord. Just had been taught them by Moses and by Joshua, they asked the Lord for His choice and His direction and His decision in this matter.
Judg 1:1+2, Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?" And the Lord said, "Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand."
There are two key aspects to consider in this regard. The first is that the Lord chose the tribe of Judah to be the preeminent tribe to lead the nation into the final stages of the conquest of the Promised Land. This was the fulfillment of the blessing of Jacob upon his son, Judah, as recorded in Gen 49:8-10. 
Gen 49:8-10, "Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father's sons shall bow down to you. "Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up? "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. 	
This choice of Judah by the Lord preempted the right of the first-born in terms of what had been the traditional heritage of receiving the birth-right. It showed that God was not bound by the ideas and the practices of mankind. He was above tradition and custom. His choice was foreordained and could not be thwarted or limited or set aside.
As a direct result of this intervention of God to declare His choice of the preeminent tribe to lead the rest of the nation, Judah became the royal tribe in the years following the conquest. It was preordained that the kings of Israel would be forthcoming from this family of Israel. That the Christ would be born from the tribe of Judah was foretold throughout the scriptures. The voiced blessing from Jacob was the voice of the Lord God, in declaring His selection that would eventually be fulfilled in the birth of The Only Begotten Son. Jesus would be born within this clan of people, so chosen at God’s directive, as evidenced in these first verses of Judges.
Because of this decision of God, we see that the kingly lineage was established from the tribe of Judah through the House of David. The eternalness of this Kingship, through the House of David, is culminated in the everlasting reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ as declared by God through the Prophet Isaiah in Isa 9:6+7. 
Isa 9:6+7, For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. 
This brings us to the second aspect to this initial passage in Judges. Note, once more, that it will be the Lord of hosts Who will accomplish this. The people were asking the Lord to decide which tribe would begin the conquest. It would not be through the decisions and the willpower of men that anything would come into being. It is only ever by the power and the wisdom and the ruling and the overruling of the Lord God Almighty. It is only as men seek Him and obey Him and His commandments that anything of eternal value will be established. That is why it is imperative and abundantly wise to ask the Lord to make the every decision according to His plan and His purpose in the lives that we live.
We see this same course of decision making, or rather asking the Lord to make the decision, evident with David as recounted in 1 Sam 23:1-5. Within him is the pattern that was being established in terms of seeking the Lord’s wisdom and guidance within every action and decision. Even before he became king, David was so shown to ask the Lord to guide his choices. 
This passage recounts the decision to fight the Philistines. It was something that David did not want to make on his own. He needed the assurance of the Lord going before him as he was leading his men into this battle.
1 Sam 23:1-5, Then they told David, saying, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are plundering the threshing floors." So David inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And the Lord said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines, and deliver Keilah." But David's men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the ranks of the Philistines?" Then David inquired of the Lord once more. And the Lord answered him and said, "Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand." So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines; and he led away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. Thus David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah. 
	Later, after both Saul and Jonathan had been killed, when it was time for the new king to be installed upon the throne, as directed by the Lord, David did not just assume the mantle. He prayed. He sought the Lord. He continued that reliance upon Jehovah to guide him.
Even as David was going to be crowned king, he asked God where to go in order to accept that mantle of responsibility. As detailed in 2 Sam 2:1, David was directed, by the Lord, to the precise city in Judah in which to receive the scepter of kingship.   
2 Sam 2:1, Then it came about afterwards that David inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah?" And the Lord said to him, "Go up." So David said, "Where shall I go up?" And He said, "To Hebron." 
We need to come to grips with the fact that we should always seek the Lord in the every decision of our lives. It seems that the large and momentous choices are those easiest decisions to take to the Lord. That is because we do not want to make any long lasting and consequential mistakes in the course of our lives, so we seek the Lord for His choice. 
On the other hand, the simple, day to day decisions that we make, we just take for granted. We tend to do things without asking the Lord to guide us in those supposedly easy and straightforward tasks. The key, however, is that we need to take every opportunity of decision making before God for His Hand to be fully operative in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit and completely in line with the Word of God.
It is way too easy for us to get into difficult situations when we try to do things on our own at any time. We may think a decision is an easy and plain one, yet it may put us into a position into which we should never go. Or a seemingly simple choice may bring about contacts or interactions which take us way out of our depth of understanding and ability. Many times, in the course of the routine, the Lord brings people and events into our lives which can utterly change the rest of our walk on this earth.
We should never assume that our day will be ordinary and boring. We should always begin each day with the prayer for the Lord to guide our steps and the steps of our loved ones. We have no concept what the next moments will bring and the life decisions that may be at hand. Our hope and our trust and our faith are continually in motion within the manner in which we conduct any and all of our efforts on this earth. That is why even the smallest decision needs to be covered with the prayer for the Lord to direct how our proceedings are to take place. 
We learn to seek and to obey the Lord as we do so in the seemingly minor, elemental choices of our lives. Then, when we are faced with those momentous and critical decisions, we have the exercised training and practice of obedience in place in our lives. We learn to continually flow forward with the will of the Lord being our single desire, seeking His guidance to be our steadfast manner of dealing with the course of our walk on this earth. So be it.
Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?" Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is John 1:16+17. For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Amen.