Sermon Sunday

Today I am sharing a sermon from a series I began last month in our midweek service through the book of Judges.

I'd like to say I am going to make this a consistent series on the blog, however, if 2020 has taught me one thing it's that I have neglected this part of my passion too often. MAYBE, putting it out here that I have a goal will help me hit it.

Throughout scripture, there are many instances where the writers used particular words and phrases to help mark the importance of what was being said, or to show the connection between choices to consequences, good and bad. Examples like, “If, then…” and, “Therefore…”

The author of Judges uses particular phrases to note the recurring cycles of this segment of Israel’s history: apostasy, oppression, distress, deliverance, repeat. Every cycle has “a similar beginning (‘the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord,’) and a recognizable conclusion (‘the land had peace ... years’ or ‘led Israel ... years’” (Kenneth Barker, et al., The NIV Study Bible, “Introduction: Judges” [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995], 324).

The example set before us in the cycle of apostasy and how it leads to destruction and chaos also shows us that repentance results in deliverance and blessing.

It’s a Fade

Judges 2:10-19

10 That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel.

First of all, verse 10 is a sermon all on its own. Only one generation and the stories and testimonies of God’s miraculous works were gone. You know what I think of here? It’s a movie I’ve never seen before but a quote that is so well known. “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate!” All the ways this could’ve been done through simple everyday living yet it was on the verge of disappearing… If a generation gets complacent with things and no longer places priority on God, the next generation cannot be fully blamed for not carrying it on. Decline in culture and morals is the obvious result! We must take seriously the responsibility of our children’s spiritual development—they depend on it and so does society.

11 The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals 12 and abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They angered the Lord, 13 for they abandoned him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths.

14 The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies. 15 Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them and brought disaster on them, just as he had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly.

The Israelites were caught in a recurring cycle of unfaithfulness to God, but he remained faithful to his covenant with them by giving them judges who were supernaturally equipped to deliver them from their enemies.

The next few verses are a summary of the Judges.

16 The Lord raised up judges, who saved them from the power of their marauders, 17 but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods, bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. They did not do as their ancestors did. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, the Lord was with him and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. The Lord was moved to pity whenever they groaned because of those who were oppressing and afflicting them. 19 Whenever the judge died, the Israelites would act even more corruptly than their ancestors, following other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them. They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate ways.

God has a plan

Chapter 3 begins to tell the accounts of the first three judges God sent to Israel.

Othniel was the first judge God appointed to the position and what I find very interesting is that he was the nephew of Caleb! While the general statement was made in chapter two that a generation had failed to pass on God’s faithfulness to the next, there must be a faithful few and it would make sense to assume that Othniel is one of those few.

There’s not much written about Othniel however his time is nothing to gloss over.

Judges 3

9 The Israelites cried out to the Lord. So the Lord raised up Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s youngest brother, as a deliverer to save the Israelites. 10 The Spirit of the Lord came on him, and he judged Israel. Othniel went out to battle, and the Lord handed over King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram to him, so that Othniel overpowered him. 11 Then the land had peace for forty years, and Othniel son of Kenaz died.

“The Spirit of the Lord came on him…” At a time when the people had to encounter the presence of God in the tabernacle, under the supervision, so to speak, of the priest, Othniel was given a personal encounter with the Spirit of the Lord and he was empowered and equipped with the strength and power to overcome. And through his leadership, the people were led to live in a posture of repentance and lived in peace.

And then, one of my favorite Biblical accounts in all of scripture! Ehud comes on the scene. Once again, without the leader from God, the people lose their minds and turn to worldly garbage.

Here’s what I want you see, and this is throughout scripture, Godly forgiveness doesn’t always negate earthly consequences. There are ramifications we face for our choices and decisions and they aren’t just spiritual. God used an earthly, worldly, king to get Israel’s attention.

12 The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He gave King Eglon of Moab power over Israel, because they had done what was evil in the Lord’s sight. 13 After Eglon convinced the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join forces with him, he attacked and defeated Israel and took possession of the City of Palms.[d] 14 The Israelites served King Eglon of Moab eighteen years.

Not only is King Eglon against them but he rallies other bullies to join the parade. Attacked, defeated, great loss and suffering and finally, they remember that they have a strong and mighty God to turn to.

15 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjaminite,[e] as a deliverer for them. The Israelites sent him with the tribute for King Eglon of Moab.

Okay. Here’s why I love this. Even in our culture today, being left-handed is “different” than the norm. I mean, if you are left handed, notebooks weren’t made for your ease of use, scissors can be difficult, and on and on. So imagine going to a culture where so much was looked at as a weakness or as a deficiency and think about what being left handed would have been like. Most likely it would have been considered a flaw then. BUT God chose him. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the two tribes to become the Jewish people! He was from the line of Jacob and Leah’s youngest son, the “Son of the right hand.”

And what did he do?

16 Ehud made himself a double-edged sword eighteen inches long.[f]... 

Let’s pause here! “A double-edged sword…” Paul writes in Hebrews 4:12, For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And divide it does!

(16)…He strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes 17 and brought the tribute to King Eglon of Moab, who was an extremely fat man. 18 When Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had carried it. 19 At the carved images near Gilgal he returned and said, “King Eglon, I have a secret message for you.” The king said, “Silence!” and all his attendants left him. 20 Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in his upstairs room where it was cool. Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you,” and the king stood up from his throne. 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly. 22 Even the handle went in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly. And the waste came out.[g] 23 Ehud escaped by way of the porch, closing and locking the doors of the upstairs room behind him.

24 Ehud was gone when Eglon’s servants came in. They looked and found the doors of the upstairs room locked and thought he was relieving himself[h] in the cool room. 25 The servants waited until they became embarrassed and saw that he had still not opened the doors of the upstairs room. So they took the key and opened the doors—and there was their lord lying dead on the floor!

26 Ehud escaped while the servants waited. He passed the Jordan near the carved images and reached Seirah. 27 After he arrived, he sounded the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hill country, and he became their leader. 28 He told them, “Follow me, because the Lord has handed over your enemies, the Moabites, to you.” So they followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. 29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all stout and able-bodied men. Not one of them escaped. 30 Moab became subject to Israel that day, and the land had peace for eighty years.

This is the stuff I immediately think of when people tell me they don’t read the Bible because it’s boring. FAMILY! There ain’t nothing boring here!

Ehud led the people to fight for their freedom and brought in a season of peace that lasted 80 years!

31 After Ehud, Shamgar son of Anath became judge. He also delivered Israel, striking down six hundred Philistines with a cattle prod.

Maybe Shamgar was a farmer and his only weapon would have been a sharpened pole, a cattle prod, and over time, with consistency and dedication to God’s purposes and God’s people, he took out the enemy. An ordinary man, Shamgar, was tired of the Philistine oppression and used what he had to do something about it. You don’t have to have a large platform, thousands, even hundreds, of followers or even trained skills. You use what you do have, the ordinary stuff, to allow God to do the extraordinary in and through you.

Your faithfulness to what God has given you is all that is required to be an effective tool in the hand of a mighty God.

God equips us to break out of our destructive cycles through a new life in Christ empowered by his Spirit.

Too often, we tend to look for the fancy, the showy, evidence of God at work. We look for the major events and in doing so we fail to see how the little, everyday things of life, fit together to make the major possible.

If anything, many of the stories we read about the Judges of Israel remind us to keep our eyes open for all the ways God orders even the most minute details before He moves in deliverances and loud power.

2 Timothy 2:11– 13 “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself”

Apostasy is disowning Jesus and denying his lordship. There is a difference between struggling occasionally with doubt/fear/faithlessness and consistently denying Jesus’s leadership in our lives. Take this opportunity to respond today with repentance for any cycles of faithlessness or apostasy. Know that God’s grace can break the cycle once and for all and you can walk in His peace and power.