BullDead City (Judges 6:25-32)

The most exhilarating live television event of 1986 wasn’t the Bears 46-10 trouncing of the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

It was a few months later when millions of viewers were taken on a digging expedition in the basement of an old Chicago hotel with the goal of finding buried treasure.

Do you remember where you were when Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone’s vault on April 21, 1986?

The two-hour special on Fox proved to be a total bust when nothing but debris was found.

A little over a year later, a safe and a satchel raised from the wreck of the Titanic were opened on live television.  Telly Savalas hosted.

It yielded soggy bank notes, coins and jewelry, including a gold pendant with a small diamond and the inscription, “May This Be Your Lucky Star.”

Have you ever prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart?” (Psalm 139:23).

When you do, you’re inviting the Lord to open your heart, and to show you what treasure, or what trash, He sees within it.

The Bible describes various conditions, or characteristics, of the human heart:

When He explained to His disciples the Parable of the Sower, Jesus spoke of the hard heart, the shallow heart, the crowded heart, and the good heart.

In the Book of Hebrews, we are warned to not harden our hearts (3:8).

In the Old Testament God exposed what was hidden in the hearts of some men.  He said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity” (14:3).

Earlier God had said to His prophet,

Eze 8:6  … “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.”
Eze 8:7  So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall.
Eze 8:8  Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.
Eze 8:9  And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.”
Eze 8:10  So I went in and saw, and there – every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls.

I think we’d all agree that idols are definitely something we don’t want found in our hearts; nor do we want to have anything that could be considered an idol in our daily lives.

In our verses in Judges, Gideon has to deal with his family’s idols.  We can use his experiences as a backdrop to discuss idols in our hearts, idols in our lives, and what to do about them.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 In Your Heart There Be Idols That Need Exposing, and #2 In Your World There Be Idols That Need Opposing.  

#1    In Your Heart There Be Idols That Need Exposing (v25-27)

When I say “idol,” your mind probably flashes on a particular object of wood or stone that is said to represent a god in one of the world religions.

I always think of the Buddha statues.  Have you wondered why the Buddha is fat?  It doesn’t seems very Buddhist.

Today we’re not talking about bowing before some man-made object of worship.  That is too obvious.

What, then, is an idol?  Usually when the subject comes up in a Bible study, we say, “Anything can be or can become an idol.”
While that is a true statement, it’s not helpful.  If anything can be or become an idol, I get overwhelmed from the start, and I tend to only give a cursory glance at what is going on in my life.

The list is simply too long for my attention span, so I think of one or two things that are considered idols, and if I’m not openly in sin, I think I’m OK.

We need a better definition of an idol.  I read a lot of them, but I like most this one: “Taking some incomplete joy of this world and building your entire life on it.”

It was said by Alexis de Tocqueville, a political scientist and historian, famous for his book, Democracy in America.

Idols are the things we believe will bring joy.  For “joy” we could substitute happiness, or satisfaction.

Most of our idols, therefore, are good things that we elevate to ultimate things, believing that if we build our lives on them, we will have joy.

One author said this: “The human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things.  Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.”

If you are a Christian, what is ultimate in your life?  It is your salvation in Jesus Christ, and your personal relationship with Him.  Everything else must take a back seat to Jesus.

When it doesn’t, it becomes your idol, but it cannot ever satisfy you, and, in fact, it will destroy you.

If anything becomes more ultimate than God to your life, then it is an idol.

Anything?  One of Jesus’ hard sayings was, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).

That sounds so harsh.  We try to soften it by saying that by “hate” He really means “love less than Me.”  Or that your love for Jesus is to be so great that your love for others only seems like hate.

I think it’s better to see this in the context of idolatry.  Family is a good thing; it is a very good thing.  There is lots of instruction in the Bible for fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters.

However, marriage and family is not the ultimate thing, and it can become your idol.

When Jesus says to “hate,” He means, I think, you should be certain marriage and family does not dethrone Him from the ultimate place in your heart.  You should “hate” the thought of them replacing Him.

And it’s for your own good, because no matter how hard you try, you cannot guarantee your marriage will succeed, or that your children won’t fail.  The only thing you can be certain of is that Jesus loves you with an everlasting love, and that whatever life has for you, He will never, not ever, leave you or forsake you.

Those are some ideas about heart-idolatry to keep in mind while we watch Gideon deal with idols in his family.

Jdg 6:25  Now it came to pass the same night that the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it;

The Angel of the Lord, Who we’ve said is an Old Testament pre-incarnate appearance on the earth of Jesus, had just called upon Gideon to deliver Israel from Midianite oppression.

The more we learn about Gideon, the less we would we would have chosen him.  You can say he was just being a good son, but he tolerated the altar and the idol in his house.  In fact we’ll see in a moment that the altar and the idol were a center of idol worship for the entire community.

Gideon’s house was idol central; it was an idol resort for Ophrah.

Gideon was an idolator and, sadly, he would end his life still dabbling with idols.  At the end of his story, in chapter eight, we’ll read, “Then Gideon made… an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah.  And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house” (8:27).

I’m not saying he wasn’t saved.  He certainly was; he was an inductee to the Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11:32).  But you can’t excuse the pull that idols had on his heart.

One lesson for us: God is gracious even in our failings.  Do you struggle against sin, and even the same sin over-and-over?  God’s grace is greater than your sin.

You should never take your sin lightly, but you should be thankful for God’s promise to forgive you seventy-times-seven every day.

I think the greater lesson is to realize that, even if God is using you, it doesn’t mean you can’t have idols in your heart; and you probably do.

Gideon was about to destroy the household altar and idol.  But idolatry remained deeply rooted in his heart.

He was instructed to tear down the altar to Baal, and destroy “the wooden image” beside it.  The image represented Astarte, the female cohort of Baal.

I think it’s safe to assume that it was in the vicinity of this altar and image that orgies regularly took place – because that is how Canaanite worship was conducted.

It would seem that Gideon grew-up with a steady diet of perverted Canaanite worship right in his backyard.

God, what were you thinking choosing Gideon?  Same thing He is always thinking: That none of us is worthy, but His grace is sufficient.

Jdg 6:26  and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.”

In verse twenty-four, Gideon built an altar on the rock where the Lord had consumed a sacrifice.  Here in verse twenty-six I think it’s that same altar, not another one.

God would not want His altar on the high place where Baal’s had been.  So verse twenty-four was looking forward to this altar, and the verses we are studying today give us additional information.

Bulls were extremely valuable in their culture.  There is some confusion in the wording as to whether or not there were two bulls, or just one prize bull.  The description of the bull as “second” could be translated “prime” – “take the prime (prize) bull.”

In 2013, Miles McKee, a bull from Idaho, was sold for a whopping $600,000, almost doubling the previous Guinness world record price of $301,000 for a cattle sale.

To wake up and be without your prize bull was going to be quite an economic shock to the whole family.

Following the Lord can be costly – both emotionally and financially.  But the spiritual gain certainly overwhelms any physical or material loss.

Jdg 6:27  So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the LORD had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.

Commentators say he did this at night out of cowardice.  Maybe; but I don’t think so.  This was always meant to be a night mission; a stealth mission.  Had he tried this during the day, his father’s guys, and the men of the city, would certainly have intervened.  It was a rational fear.

Besides that, the Lord came to him at night, telling him to destroy the altar, and Gideon must have thought He meant right now.

I’ve been critical of Gideon, but here he obeys immediately, at great personal risk.  People are complicated.  We can be spiritual one moment, then carnal the next.  We should give one another a lot of space to be growing in the Lord.

Our first application is obvious: Just as there were idols in Gideon’s house, there might be idols in your heart.

One pastor went so far as to call the human heart “an idol factory.”

Idolatry is a massive subject in the Bible.  We’re told that “covetousness is idolatry.”  Listen to what one commentator said about covetousness:

“To covet is to long after another’s property to enjoy it as one’s own.  It is indulging in thoughts that lead to actions named in the other commandments.  Grasping thoughts lead to grasping deeds.

Coveting normally arises from two sources:

First, it begins with a perception of beauty; we desire to possess a thing because it looks good to us.
Second, it comes from an inclination for something more abstract, like a desire for power.

The first almost always arises externally because the attraction comes through the senses.

The second generally arises internally through dwelling upon how the abstract possession will better the self.  Both are equally bad.”

We are definitely prone to idolatry, but even more so if we do not invite the Lord to search us, and to know us, with the goal of revealing what, or who, may have dethroned Him from being the ultimate in our hearts.

I already mentioned family; now let’s use the church as an example.  Ministry can become an idol.  In the Book of the Revelation, Jesus let the church at Ephesus know that they had left their first love.  We might therefore say that He was no longer ultimate in their hearts.

What had dethroned Jesus?  All good things, like proper doctrine, and zeal to expose false teachers, and a multitude of good works.

Jesus demanded they repent or He would “remove their lamp stand” – meaning that their witness for Him would cease.

Gideon must destroy the idols in his house.  Nothing else mattered first – not finishing the secret threshing he had been doing, and not going forth to deliver Israel from her enemies.

We must discover and then destroy idols in our hearts.  Don’t leave thinking “Anything can be an idol.”  Leave asking God, “What are my idols?”  Then destroy them, at any cost.

#2    In Your World There Be Idols That Need Opposing (v28-32)

The Billy L. Nabors Demolition Company mistakenly tore down a duplex at 7601 Calypso Drive in Rowlett, Texas, instead of a duplex at 7601 Cousteau Drive, one block away.

They had identified the house using Google Maps – which turned out to be wrong on this occasion.

When the town of Ophrah awoke, the city’s altar and idol seemed to have been wrongfully demolished.

Jdg 6:28  And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built.

Joshua uttered the famous words, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Gideon’s overnight altar destruction and construction said the same thing through action.  The altar to Baal was demolished, and a bull was still smoldering on a brand new altar to Jehovah, announcing boldly that there was a new sheriff in town.

Jdg 6:29  So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.”

It’s telling that they did not have a suspect.  No one came to mind.  It means that there was no one in that town who had any inkling of worshipping Jehovah.

If you’re a Christian, it’s fun to be suspected of doing something good, that promotes holiness and points to Jesus.  As a salesman years ago I was called into my boss’s office and told I could no longer pass-out tracts while on the job.  I complied, but I was pretty excited about getting busted.

Jdg 6:30  Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.”

This is ironic because it was they who ought to have been put to death for their Baal worship.

Gideon was home, not hiding.  While we can’t be sure if he knew the extreme reaction that the men would have, it shows Holy Spirit boldness to be somewhere that he could be easily found.

Jdg 6:31  But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!”

Gideon’s dad had the altar and idol on his property.  It gave him high social standing.  It made him somebody in Ophrah.  He probably hosted orgies, and threw epic after-parties.

All that had changed overnight.

Not only that, but as I previously mentioned, Joash was out two prize bulls, so he had taken a big financial hit.  It was the Israelite version of Wall Street crashing.

On top of that, his son had gone behind his back, and would tell some crazy story about being commanded by the Angel of the Lord.

Welcome to Joash’s very own not so good, very bad day.

His reaction was surprising.  He argued that the offended party wasn’t the men of the city; it was Baal himself.  Let Baal take care of it.

Did Joash think Baal would act?  Or was he being used by God to declare that all the idols men bow down to are powerless?

Probably both.

At any rate, he issued a challenge to Baal, to take on Gideon himself.  Elijah would do something like that later in Israel’s history, only on a grander scale.  He would invite 450 prophets of Baal to call upon their god to consume a sacrifice.  After they failed, Elijah would call upon the Lord, and He’d send fire from heaven.  Then Elijah would kill those false prophets.

I can’t tell if Joash was crazy like a fox, or just crazy.  He may have thought Baal would do something.

Jdg 6:32  Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.”

Jim Croce had a knack for writing songs about dethroned individuals.  Jim Walker was big and dumb as a man can come, but stronger than a country hoss; and when the bad folks all got together at night, you know they all called big Jim boss.

That is, until Big Jim hit the floor and found out that you don’t mess around with Slim.

Gideon was the Slim in this story, having taken out Baal, and that deserved a new nickname, which meant, “Let Baal Contend.”

It may be that the men of the city prayed to Baal, all day, to come.  He didn’t, and that would serve as the set-up for Gideon’s exploits against the Midianites.

This part of the story is about Gideon in public.  He was identified with tearing-down the idol.

We need to go public against idols.  The obvious idols in our modern world are sex, money, and power.

I would normally launch into explanations and illustrations of how sex, money, and power are idols.  I don’t need to do that, because, if you are a Christian, you already know that they are.

You’ve dethroned some of them in your own life; or you’re struggling against them right now; or you see them in the lives of others.

What we need is the encouragement to go public against them.  We do that, first and foremost, by living-out biblical values in those areas.

For example God has a lot to say about sex… And it’s not at all old fashioned and out-of-date or out-of-step.  There’s a whole book about sex in the Bible.  It’s the Song of Solomon, and it’s downright explicit.

Sex is a gift from God, and to enjoy it to the fullest it must be between a biological man and a biological woman, in a monogamous marriage, that is protected by mutual vows to last as long as both are alive.

When I say “enjoyed to the fullest,” I’m talking about a lot more than the physical pleasure.  I’m talking about the spiritual wholeness and satisfaction that cannot be experienced outside of marriage, or in a relationship between two men, or two women.

It cannot be experienced because we were created by God and spiritually wired by Him.  Only when we walk in His truth about sex, revealed in His Word, can we be truly satisfied.

We could say similar things about money, and about power.  The point is this: Simply, but powerfully, walk with the Lord according to His Word, and you will be tearing down idols that characterize our culture, and that are destroying people all around you who are enslaved to them.

If that seems too easy, it’s not, for at least two reasons:

First, it’s not easy to simply, but powerfully, walk with the Lord because we can be harboring idols in our own hearts.
Second, it’s not easy to simply, but powerfully, walk with the Lord because the world system, overruled by Satan, is desensitizing us to idolatry by making evil good.  Just think of the rapid progress of the sexual revolution that is seeking to completely destroy biblical marriage and family in favor of perversions.

Nonbelievers and believers who throw-off God’s teaching on sex, money, and power are slaves.  They seem free and happy-go-lucky; they seem unbound, and therefore to be enjoying life off of the Christian reservation.

If that’s the case, why is the abuse and addiction to prescription drugs higher than ever, and rising?  All those “free” people can’t cope.

They can’t cope because there is Someone missing from their lives.  It’s Jesus.

God has placed eternity in the hearts of men and women (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  It presents as an emptiness that we try to fill in various ways with idols, but can’t because only God can fill it.

If you are a believer, get the Lord searching your heart, to show you idols, and potential idols.  Seek and destroy them, with God’s capable help.

If you are not a believer, you are commanded by God’s Word to “turn to God from idols” (First Thessalonians 1:9).

Do it today; do it now.

The Ophrah WarTree (Judges 6:1-24)

People who are closely associated with caves have strange names:

A person who explores caves is called a spelunker.
A person who dwells in caves is called a troglodyte.

Finish this sentence: “It’s so easy…” (a cave man can do it).

Geico made being a troglodyte attractive with that ad campaign.  It was so popular that there was a spin-off television show in 2007, titled Cavemen.  It didn’t last long, I think only six episodes; but when else has a commercial inspired a show?

We still can’t shake the caveman appeal.  Some of you are probably on the Paleo diet, which is based mainly on foods presumed to have been available to Paleolithic humans, i.e., cavemen.
With one major exclusion: dinosaur meat.

The Israelites in Judges chapter six were going through a troglodyte phase.  In verse two we read, “Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.”

Every year, as the harvest season arrived, enemies would invade the Promised Land.  They’d take the crops, but even worse, they’d drive their own livestock through, devouring the grazing land.  It was so bad that they were compared to a locust plague.

The Israelites would hide in “dens… caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.”  The people of God dealt with their trouble by hiding.

I want to talk about hiding.  Christians sometimes hide.  It’s not unusual, for example, for a believer who is going through a severe trial to withdraw from fellowship.  I understand it; I do it myself.   Depending on the nature of the trial, you might be embarrassed.  You might simply be tired of talking about it over-and-over again.  So you hide.

You can be hiding and not even realize it.  For example you might sense that the Lord wants you to do something.  You don’t feel up to the task, so you respectfully refuse.  It is a kind of spiritual hiding in a cave of false humility.

Pastors and Christian workers can become so busy with what they think is ministry that they ignore ministry in their own homes, to the detriment of their families, and in disobedience to the Lord.  Their public ministry becomes a well-furnished cave in which they are hiding from their responsibilities at home.

What should you do if you discover you’re a Christian troglodyte?  I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 If You Realize You’re In Hiding, Relive What Jesus Has Done For You, and #2 If You Realize You’re In Hiding, Receive What Jesus Is Doing In You.

#1 – If You Realize You’re In Hiding, Relive What Jesus Has Done For You (v1-10)

The article started like this:

Fans of The Flintstones and cheap, environmentally friendly homes, take heart: cave dwelling is making a comeback.  Down in southern Spain, Spaniards and foreigners are buying and refurbishing century-old caves and turning them into modern homes.

In Bisbee, Arizona, the Chulo Canyon Cave House is carved into an outcropping of granite boulder, extending more than 2,000 square feet into a desert grotto.  It has all of the good qualities of a cave for living, like maintaining what is called ‘rock temperature.’  The house never dips below 66 degrees or above 72 degrees.

It wasn’t by choice that the Israelites retreated to caves once a year; they were chased.  It wasn’t to be environmentally friendly; it was to hide from their enemies.

Jdg 6:1  Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years,
Jdg 6:2  and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.

We sing, “You’re a good, good Father; it’s Who you are.”  Being the best father means meeting disobedience with discipline.  In this case, the Midianites were God’s paddle to administer the swats.

Instead of crying out to God, the Israelites continued to do evil, and chose to hide from their enemies.

Hiding was hard work; they “made… dens… caves… and strongholds.”  It would have been so much easier to turn to the Lord.

Hiding was a terrible strategy that only prolonged their suffering.  Instead of hiding, they needed to pursue holiness; but they stubbornly refused.

As we work through these verses, ask the Lord to show you if there is a hiding place in your life.

Jdg 6:3  So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them.
Jdg 6:4  Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.
Jdg 6:5  For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it.

The Midianites, the Amalekites, and the others, were pirates on land.  They would arrive, raid, and rape the land, before moving on.

The Lord has overcome the world, by His victory on the Cross and His resurrection and ascension into Heaven.  He has not, however, established His full victory yet on the earth; and by that, I mean He has not returned to rule and reign over the earth.

He’s going to, at His Second Coming.  But for now, Satan is allowed to operate as the god of this world, and, along with his demons, he wants to rob, kill, and destroy.  He especially wants to rob you; to kill you; to destroy you.

Why are we such high-value targets?  If Satan can get you and I to hide, rather than take our stand on the battlefield, he can continue to hold nonbelievers captive, because we’re not there on the front lines to preach the Gospel.

Jdg 6:6  So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.

Finally, after seven hard years, they cried out to the Lord.  If you ever think God’s discipline is harsh, it’s not.  Human stubbornness is legendary.  God meets disobedience with the exact measure of discipline that is called for.

The thing to notice is that the moment His children cried-out, God responded.

Jdg 6:7  And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites,
Jdg 6:8  that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel…
This is a little different.  So far in the Book of Judges, when the people cried-out, God raised-up a military hero.  He’s going to do that, but this time, first, they got a prophet.

When you cry-out to God, He immediately responds.  But it might not be in deliverance.  In the age in which we live, His response is likely to be, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (Second Corinthians 12:9).

You’re more likely to hear, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (Second Corinthians 4:17 KJV).

Jdg 6:8  … the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage;

There are books I can read over-and-over again.  There are movies I’ve seen dozens of times.  At Christmastime, there are stories we’ve read aloud each year for decades.  They have in common that they are great stories told by a great storyteller.

God is the greatest storyteller and one of the stories He loves to tell and retell to the Israelites is that of His mighty power in delivering them from bondage in Egypt in the exodus.

(Of course you understand that by ‘story’ I mean nonfiction history.  It really happened, just as recorded in the Bible).

God did not mightily deliver the Israelites from 400 years of slavery in order for them to become slaves in the Promised Land.  His prophet was looking back to remind them of their identity, and of God’s intentions.
Jdg 6:9  and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land.

God didn’t expend His strength getting them out of Egypt. He didn’t retire, leaving it up to them to conquer their enemies in their own strength.

No, He drove out the Canaanites, and gave Israel the land that was rightfully theirs.  God used them, for sure; but no one who was at Jericho, or there the day the sun stood still, would attribute any of their victories to the armies of Israel.

God held back the Red Sea, the Jordan River, and even the sun, and He would do the miraculous again for them.

Jdg 6:10  Also I said to you, “I am the LORD your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’ ”

They “[feared] the gods of the Amorites” means that they showed reverential fear toward them – the reverential fear and honor that was due to Jehovah.

We’ve previously described the gods of Canaan.  Baal and Astarte were supposed to be in charge of the weather and the harvest, respectively.  But they had to have god-sex in order for the rains to fall and the crops to grow.  The priests of Baal taught that their gods needed sex-therapy, so Canaanites went up to high places, where they supposed their gods could better see them; and they had orgies, and engaged in beastiality.

They put-on live hardcore porn shows for their gods.  Israelites saw this, and instead of vomiting, wanted in on it.

We’ve come to verse ten, and so it’s time to deliver the application.  The Israelites were in hiding, and the Lord’s strategy to draw them out and back to obedience was to have them relive His power on their behalf.

It’s good for us to relive His power on our behalf.  I don’t want to keep giving my testimony over-and-over, but I can say God was powerful on my behalf.

His Holy Spirit was able to pierce my sinful heart, and talk to me while I was dead in trespasses and sins, while I was a totally depraved person.  He freed my will so I could be convicted of sin, and of righteousness, and of the coming judgment.

By God’s free gift, by His abundant grace, I was saved.  I became a new creation; old things passed away, and all things became new.

It wasn’t just for eternity, for Heaven, as great as that is.  It was for my life.  Since I’ve been saved, these past 41 years, God has shown Himself powerful in many different ways.

How sad, for me, that I am still prone to hiding.  The trials, the troubles, they just keep coming, don’t they?  In fact they get more sinister, the longer the enemy has to study my life.

Rather than find a cave to retreat to, I need to take a stand, with the weapons of our spiritual warfare.

I’d encourage you to relive God’s salvation, His power, in your life.  Even if you’re not in hiding, reliving what He has done for you is a wonderful discipline to practice.

Your life is a great story that the greatest storyteller is still telling.

#2 – If You Realize You’re In Hiding, Receive What Jesus Is Doing In You (v11-24)

I’ll tell you right now, burglars are definitely going to toss your bed, to look under your mattress.  It’s not a very good hiding place.

There are a multitude of simulated objects on the market that are hiding places for small items.  By far the weirdest I’ve seen is a realistic looking head of Iceberg Lettuce, which has a hidden compartment.  The manufacturer says, “Thieves will never dream of looking in this head of Iceberg Lettuce.  Place it in your refrigerator in the vegetable compartment with your most valuable small items inside for safe keeping.”

It’s $99.00 from a retailer named Bim Bam Banana.

As we meet Gideon, he thinks he’s found his head of lettuce, to keep him hidden.

Jdg 6:11  Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.

The Angel of the Lord is an Old Testament physical appearance of Jesus before His incarnation in a human body.  This is at least the third time He has been mentioned in the Book of Judges.

We’re not told how long the Angel of the Lord sat there, watching Gideon; but it’s clear Gideon wasn’t paying very close attention, because he doesn’t notice Him until he is greeted by Him.

Jdg 6:12  And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

The Lord refers to Gideon as a “mighty man of valor,” and in verse fourteen He will send him out saying “Go in this might of yours.”

He was anything but that.  After we’re done working through this section, we’re going to return to this as our application.  For now, let’s see Gideon’s story unfold.

Jdg 6:13  Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”

Gideon verbalized what I believe is the number one complaint people have against God.  If He exists, then why does He permit suffering?  C.S. Lewis called it the problem of pain.  Where is God When it Hurts? is the title of Philip Yancey’s book on the subject.

Joni Eareckson Tada has written books about God and suffering, like Making Sense of Suffering, and, Where’s My Miracle?

Without our testimony about suffering, the world is left to conclude that God is either all-powerful but unloving, or that He is loving but not all-powerful.

He is, of course, both.  He is omnipotent; and He is love.  Our answer is that God created man with free will, because love is not love without the freedom to choose.  When Adam and Eve exercised their free will to disobey God, it brought into creation exactly what God had warned them about: sin and death.

But ever since that moment, God has been promoting His plan to reconcile mankind, and all of creation, back to Himself.  That plan, born of power and love, is the death of Jesus as the God-man on the Cross.

God is not willing that any of our race should perish; He offers eternal life to all.  He is longsuffering, waiting for people to choose eternal life.

While His longsuffering waits, terrible things happen in the world.  They happen as a result of sin.  One day, God will act finally, and decisively, to end suffering.

But when He does, the offer of salvation in Jesus will expire for those who have rejected Him.

Sometimes your suffering is your own fault.  Gideon ignored the rebuke of the prophet in his complaint.  It was because the Israelites chose to fear Baal and Astarte that the Lord was disciplining them.

Jdg 6:14  Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”

God is not obligated to explain everything to us – especially when He has already given us His Word.

What’s great to realize is that the Angel of the Lord sends Gideon in spite of his complaints.  God is so incredibly gracious.

You don’t need to be in a perfect place for God to use you.

Jdg 6:15  So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

Not really true.  Later in the story we’ll see that Gideon had ten servants, and that his dad was a prominent leader in their local community.

He was hiding in the winepress and now he was hiding behind a false humility.

Jdg 6:16  And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”

As Emirel Lagasse would say, “Bam!”  Or maybe, “Bim Bam Banana!”  What more do you need?  A lot, if you’re Gideon.

Jdg 6:17  Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me.

Gideon wanted some assurances.  We can cut him some slack, not just because the Lord does, but because we often lack assurance, but expect God to be patient with us.

Jdg 6:18  Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.” And He said, “I will wait until you come back.”

We talk a lot about waiting on the Lord; but do we realize how much the Lord waits for us?  Is there something He has asked you to do that you are keeping Him waiting to perform?

Jdg 6:19  So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them.
Jdg 6:20  The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.
Jdg 6:21  Then the Angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.

Gideon got his sign, but he lost the sight of the Lord.  Be careful what you ask for; or, at least, ask for better things, more spiritual things.

Jdg 6:22  Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face.”

You can search the Scriptures, but you’re not going to find a bigger scaredy cat than Gideon.  He apparently thought, superstitiously, that he was going to die.  I say he was being superstitious because the Angel of the Lord had appeared other times without any Israelite who saw Him dying.

Jdg 6:23  Then the LORD said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.”

The Lord spoke to Gideon, probably as an audible voice from Heaven.  He let him know he wasn’t going to die.

I half wonder if Gideon was still looking for an excuse to disobey the Lord?  “I’m gonna die; I better get my affairs in order.  I guess I won’t be able to fight the Midianites.”

Jdg 6:24  So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

He regarded that rock upon which the Lord had consumed his offering as an altar.  You can regard almost anything in your life as an altar, as you offer yourself to God a living sacrifice.

The Lord said, “Peace be with you,” so Gideon named the altar “The-Lord-is-Peace.”  Gideon thus expresses that his knowledge of the Lord had deepened.  He knew his Lord better after this encounter than he had before.

It is always my hope that all of us know the Lord better after our encounters with Him here in His Word at Calvary Hanford.

The altar Gideon dedicated was still standing in the days of Samuel, who we believe is the human author of this God-breathed book.

Gideon was anything but a “mighty man of valor,” yet that was how the Lord addressed him.  He had no might of his own, but that’s how Jesus sent him.

I think it is a mistake to think that the Lord saw Gideon’s potential to become a mighty man of valor, with the proper training.  That’s how we always think.  We revel in the weakling, or the misfit, whose potential is somehow tapped, rendering him or her a hero.

You can probably think of a dozen feature films in which the main character suffers a defeat, but over time, with intense training by a mentor, he or she returns to be victorious.

Do you see potential in Gideon?  The answer is, “No.” In fact, he will continue to doubt the Lord.  At the end of his life, he will do something that results in setting up an idol.

The Angel of the Lord saw Gideon as a mighty man of valor because he was one, right then, if he would only realize it.

He was called to “Go in this might of yours, and… save Israel from the hand of the Midianites” (v14).

What might?  “I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man” (v16).

God’s calling was God’s enabling.  Gideon could do it because the Lord had called him to do it, and would therefore empower him to do it.
God wants so much to make this point that He chooses Gideon – the one guy you see zero potential in, whom no amount of training over time could prepare.

What does this mean to us?  It means that anything God is calling you to do, or to endure, includes His enabling to do it, or to endure it.

It’s not a matter of you having the potential, with more time and training, but of Him empowering you.

I was listening to Pastor Don McClure; watching him live as he was teaching at a pastor’s conference.  He was touching on some of these same things.  He quoted the verse, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

Think of that.  In order to save you, God gave the greatest gift He could give – His Son, Jesus Christ.

How could He not give us everything else, anything else, we require?  If He didn’t withhold Jesus, why do we ever think He will withhold what we require for our daily living in Christ?

The apostle Peter said you have everything that pertains to life and godliness.  You have it available to you right now.

Receive what the Lord is doing, you mighty man or woman of valor.

Let Jesus be your only hiding place.

Bang, Bang, Jael’s Savage Hammer Came Down Upon His Head (Judges 4:1-24)

Rocky, Hoosiers, Rudy, Remember the Titans, and Braveheart all have in common that the hero or heroes are underdogs, facing overwhelming odds.

We love underdog stories… As long as it’s someone else, not us, facing overwhelming odds.

If you’re a Christian, you have underdog written all over you:

Jesus said that since the world hated Him, it will likewise hate you.

Jesus promised you that, out in the world, you would have tribulation.

The world in which you are the underdog is ruled by the god of this world, Satan, who goes about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour you.

He’s not alone in his malevolent efforts, having at his disposal one-third of all the created angels who fell with him.  They are arranged into military hierarchies and are dispatched on well-planned campaigns to rob, kill, and destroy.

The odds seem overwhelming – but you’re told that you need not be overcome.

In the same verse where Jesus promised you tribulation, He quickly added, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

In First John 2:14, the apostle states that we “have overcome the wicked one,” referring to the devil.

If I’m being honest, I don’t always feel like an overcomer.  Spiritually… Physically… Emotionally… Life seems totally overwhelming.  Especially when a trouble I’m experiencing seems to drag on.

It’s during those times that we are supposed to find encouragement in the believers who have gone before us, recorded on the pages of the Bible.  We see that they were underdogs against overwhelming odds who nevertheless overcame.

Some overcame quickly; others over a longer period of time.  But all give testimony to God’s faithfulness.

We have an against-all-odds story in chapter four of the Book of Judges.  I pray it’s retelling can encourage us.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 God Has Sent You Out To Overcome Against Overwhelming Odds, and #2 God Can See To It You You Overcome Against Overwhelming Odds.

#1 – God Has Sent You Out To Overcome Against Overwhelming Odds (v1-9)

I should tell you that chapters four and five go together.

Chapter four is a narrative that describes what happened.

Chapter five is a praise song written to commemorate what happened.

What happened?

Jdg 4:1  When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.

Ehud had been raised-up by God as Israel’s hero against King Eglon and the Moabites.  After Ehud killed Eglon, the people of God had rest from their enemies for eighty years, until Ehud died.

These heroes didn’t physically keep Israel in check.  Ehud didn’t go around threatening to kill anyone who got out of line.

No, their lives exerted a spiritual influence that kept Israel in check.  Don’t underestimate the influence you have as a believer.  In fact we know, from the Thessalonians epistles in the New Testament, that the church on earth, as a whole, exerts a holy influence on the world by restraining evil.

You might look around and think, “The church isn’t doing such a good job; evil is rampant.”

Evil is restrained.  Things would be much worse without the church.  They will be much worse.  Read the Revelation and you’ll see what conditions will be like after the church is removed in the rapture.

Jdg 4:2  So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim.
Jdg 4:3  And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel.

“Sold them” means they were subjugated by, and paid tribute to, King Jabin.

They didn’t everyday for twenty years cry out to the Lord; they waited twenty years, then cried out to the Lord.

Last week I used the example of a child who won’t repent, but stays in ‘time-out’ until you simply can’t leave him or her there anymore.  Never underestimate the sinner’s stubbornness.

Is there something you’ve been holding on to – some sin of anger or bitterness?  It’s holding you captive.  Repent, and cry out to the Lord.

This is the second of eight references to the “nine hundred chariots of iron.”  They were the Death Star of that age; a moving war machine, manned by a heavily armored and equipped soldier, and accompanied by armored and armed infantry.
We won’t be told until chapter five, but among God’s people, “Not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel” (v8).  They were unarmed against the most heavily armed force of the time.

Do you remember Tank Man?  Also known as the Unknown Protester or Unknown Rebel, Tank Man is the nickname of an unidentified man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 by force.  As the lead tank maneuvered to pass by the man, he repeatedly shifted his position in order to obstruct the tank’s attempted path around him. The incident was filmed and seen worldwide.

Who in Israel would stand before the iron chariots of Jabin?

Jdg 4:4  Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time.
Jdg 4:5  And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

Deborah was the only female judge; if, in fact, she was a judge.  The verb form of the word “judging” tells us that she was engaged in legal judging.  Israelites would come to her and present their cases, looking for her to decide between parties, or to give legal advice.  This is different from the male judges, who did not hold court, listen to complaints, or make legal decisions.

All the male judges were military leaders; or, at least, they fought the enemy.  Deborah did not go Joan of Arc, but stayed off the field of battle.

Deborah was not providing military deliverance under her palm tree.  The Israelites sought her out to obtain justice.

Most commentators include her in the list of judges God raised-up.  I have no problem calling her a judge; but she probably needs an asterisk next to her name.

The thing to note is that just when you think you’ve got God figured out, He goes in a different direction.  After reading about three heroes God raised-up, you’re thinking He’s gonna do exactly the same thing again… And then He doesn’t.

Nobody puts Jehovah in a corner.

Jdg 4:6  Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun;
Jdg 4:7  and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?”

The wording makes it sound like Barak knew what he was supposed to do, but was disobeying.  The original language doesn’t indicate that at all.  It reads like what it is – a prophecy, giving Barak his orders.

God spoke to Deborah, and she sent for Barak, to give him the prophecy.

I’m not going to get into the male, female roles discussion that sometimes surrounds this story.  I’m not saying roles are unimportant.  They are.  I’m saying that this passage isn’t here to teach us the proper submission of women, or the need for courageous men of God to step-up.

There are plenty of New Testament passages that were written for those express purposes.

This is a history of how God used two remarkable people in an outside-the-box way in order to deliver His people.

Regarding the roles of men and women, we must stay within biblical boundaries, but remain flexible while within them to allow God to work.

Technically, neither Deborah nor Barak was a judge the way the other eleven guys in this book were.  Yet God used them as a team to deliver the Israelites.

Jdg 4:8  And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!”

Barak had been given, through the prophecy of a known prophetess, the exact battle plan, as well as the absolute assurance of victory.  Still, he hesitated, and added a condition.

Why?  I don’t know, but I say, “Thank you.”  Even with the clear Word of God, Barak hesitated, but God was patient with him.  I’m grateful, because I, too, hesitate to believe God, even though I have the completed Word of God.

I’m not excusing unbelief or disobedience; I’m just recognizing that God puts up with us, and uses us in spite of it.

Jdg 4:9  So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.

To her credit, Deborah was flexible.  She could have refused, and left them in a stalemate.

Although it’s clear Barak was wrong to ask her to accompany him, why not go along?  Her prophecy was solid, so she was in no danger.

Deborah utters another prophecy, “for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.”  It isn’t her; it’s Jael, as we will see momentarily.

That’s the set-up for the battle.  Ten thousand unarmed men against nine hundred iron chariots and a multitude of heavily armed and armored infantry.  The strategy God had suggested was for the Israelites to reveal themselves, unarmed, on the field of battle, then wait for Sisera’s soldiers to annihilate them.

Literally, their strategy was to take a stand against overwhelming odds, and trust that the Lord would intervene.

Sound familiar?

Eph 6:13  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Against an army described by the apostle Paul as “principalities… powers… the rulers of the darkness of this age… [and] spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12), we are to believe that truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, prayer, and God’s Word will always give us victory.

God sends us out against overwhelming odds.  Get used to it.  If you feel overwhelmed, it’s because you are – apart from Him.

Oswald Chambers wrote,

God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome.  The strain is the strength.  If there is no strain, there is no strength.  Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy?  He cannot, unless you will accept the strain.  Immediately you face the strain, you will get the strength… If you spend yourself out physically, you become exhausted; but spend yourself spiritually, and you get more strength.  God never gives strength for to-morrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute.

If you feel you are on a battlefield facing overwhelming odds, you are right where you need to be to see truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, prayer, and God’s Word prevail.

#2 – God Can See To It You Overcome Against Overwhelming Odds(v10-24)

One of the great lines in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy was uttered by Gimli, the dwarf.

To clear the way for Frodo and Sam to reach Mount Doom, Aragorn suggested that the forces of the West march headfirst to the Black Gate of Mordor, to serve as a diversion.

Gimli gave it a moments thought, then said, “Certainty of death; small chance of success; what are we waiting for?”

The ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulon must have had that dwarf courage.  It’s almost the perfect quote to utter after hearing the Lord’s seemingly crazy suicide plan.  They’d probably change it to “no chance of success.”

Jdg 4:11  Now Heber the Kenite, of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the terebinth tree at Zaanaim, which is beside Kedesh.
Jdg 4:12  And they reported to Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor.

A renegade Kenite, Heber had allied himself against Israel and with King Jabin.  He acted as surveillance for Sisera, and provided him with intel that Barak was mustering men for battle.

He didn’t know it, but Heber was part of God’s plan.  After all, this was not going to be a sneak attack.  In order for the plan to work, someone must tell Sisera.

Jdg 4:13  So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth Hagoyim to the River Kishon.

Ten thousand Israelites seems like a big number.  Wouldn’t fewer guys getting the victory bring God greater glory?
That’s not the way to look at this one.  On the surface, this was a suicide mission.  No one would give odds for them to live through the day.  Finding that many guys for what, on paper, was a martyr-mission says a lot about their trust in God.

Jdg 4:14  Then Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

Since this was God’s strategy, and since Deborah spoke for God, it seems natural she’d give the go-ahead.

Notice the absolute stupidity of this.  On the hillside, you might have some chance against iron chariots.  In the valley, where they advanced, you were road kill.

Jdg 4:15  And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot.

The author tells us what the Lord did before we learn how He did it.  He wants to emphasize it was the Lord, and no one else, who “routed Sisera.”

So, how did He do it?  Chapter five tells this tale in song.  There we’ll read,

Jdg 5:19  “The kings came and fought, Then the kings of Canaan fought In Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; They took no spoils of silver.
Jdg 5:20  They fought from the heavens; The stars from their courses fought against Sisera.
Jdg 5:21  The torrent of Kishon swept them away, That ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon. O my soul, march on in strength!

God sent a freak storm.  It rendered some of the chariots unusable, stuck in mud and mire.  Others were washed away, and the soldiers drowned.  The Canaanite infantry became disoriented and fled.

Jdg 4:16  But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.

Some of the chariots must have been able to retreat.  What a sight – Israelites running on foot, chasing iron chariots.

The Canaanites probably understood that they had walked into a trap set by the God of Israel.  They were a superstitious lot, and familiar with the stories of Jehovah’s deeds.  The timing of the storm was not coincidental.  They fled from God, but to no avail.

Jdg 4:17  However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

Sisera went to the camp of his loyal intelligence officer, seeking a hiding place.  He expected that Jael, Heber’s wife, would be sympathetic.

Jdg 4:18  And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear.” And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket.
Jdg 4:19  Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him.

The “blanket” was probably a large rug on the floor of the tent.  He got under it, as a hiding place.

She gives him some heavy cream, which commentators claim acted like the old version of NyQuil.  I think she was just going overboard on the hospitality, to disarm him.

Jdg 4:20  And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you shall say, ‘No.’ ”

You’ve heard of the Bridge of Spies?  This was the tent of spies – only Jael was going to prove to be a double agent.

Jdg 4:21  Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

Women were tasked with setting up and tearing down tents, so Jael would be pretty adept with a mallet and tent pegs.

Heber had helped Sisera; now his wife killed him.  Was there disharmony in this home?

I’m going to go out on a short limb here and suggest that Jael might have been trying to help her husband.  I think we have to assume she knew that Heber had been the one to warn Sisera of Barak’s advance against him.
She had also heard, by now, of the route of Sisera by Barak.  She deduced that Barak was in pursuit of Sisera, and that Barak would prevail, since the God of Israel was obviously involved.

The only way to save her husband was to dispatch of Sisera herself – to take sides, as it were, with Barak.

If I was Heber, I’d be thankful; but I think I’d sleep with one eye open, and I’d hide the hammers.

The author of Judges, who we say is Samuel, makes no moral judgment on Jael’s actions.  In chapter five, she is praised for them.  She did what she needed to do in a time of war to protect her family.

Jdg 4:22  And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you seek.” And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple.

Deborah predicted that this would happen, so any thoughts Barak might have had about going after Heber were put in check.  It all seemed to be in the will of God.

We might pause and say a few words about God’s providence.  In theology, providence is His providing for His plans, to see to it His will is accomplished.  But God does it without violating our free will.

In this case, God was providing by sending Barak into battle.  He would have gotten the glory by finishing-off Sisera.  When Barak balked, God provided someone else – Jael.  God’s providence saw to it His will was accomplished, but without violating free will.

Jdg 4:23  So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel.
Jdg 4:24  And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

In chapter five we’ll read that they had rest for forty years.  It was a rest won over time by Israel increasing in strength against King Jabin.

Victory is a process.  We have it, but we must walk in it, taking more-and-more ground all the time.

This is how overcoming works.  You take your stand, then wait for the Lord to act.  Now in the Bible, it always seems as though God acts more quickly, and more supernaturally, than He does in your life.  Your troubles seem to go on, and on, and on.  You keep waiting for God to send the storm that will sweep away your enemies, but it doesn’t come.

While it’s true in the case of Barak that God acted rather quickly, their waiting must have been somewhat terrifying.  Imagine standing your ground, unarmed, as nine hundred war machines shook the ground you were standing upon, headed toward you to slaughter you.  I’d bet that God didn’t send the storm until the last possible instant.

There are stories in the Bible of much longer times of overcoming.  David, for example, was chased by a murderous King Saul at least eight years, maybe as many as thirteen.

Stand and see the victory the Lord will bring.  If you’re struggling while standing, truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, prayer, and God’s Word are the supernatural resources that are available to you.

They are more powerful than any storm.

The Way To The King’s Hurt Is Through His Stomach (Judges 3:7-31)

It was a dark and dangerous period in China’s often mysterious history.  The rebel Tai Lung had escaped after being incarcerated for twenty years.  He was bent on returning to the Valley, to claim the title and authority that he believed was rightfully his.

The last line of defense against him was a small group of warriors, whose Chinese name translates roughly into English as, The Furious Five.

After an epic confrontation on a rope bridge called the Thread of Hope, Tai Lung was undefeated, and still bent on conquest.

Making his way to the Jade Palace, who could stop him from claiming the title of Dragon Warrior? 

Only one – Po, the King fu panda.

(You had enough clues to realize I was talking about the 2008 DreamWorks animated film).

Po the panda, voiced by Jack Black, was a most unlikely hero.  We are captivated by unlikely heroes, because they encourage us to think that any one of us could be the hero, or the heroine, of some important tale. 

In the Book of Judges, we are introduced to a series of eleven men, and one woman, who are raised-up by God to deliver Israel from their oppressors.

The judges are unlikely heroes.  God wants to encourage you and I, not that He can raise-up a hero for us, but that we each are His hero or heroine. 

Three chapters in, we finally meet a hero in the book; we meet a trio of heroes, in fact.  They are Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar.

First we see Othniel, whose heroics we might subtitle, “Eight is Enough”

(v7-11)

In these verses we’re going to get a preview of the cycle of rebellion, retribution, repentance, restoration, and rest that will repeat itself for three hundred years. 

With apologies to Dickens, “It was the worst of times; it was the best of times.”  First, it was the worst of times:

Jdg 3:7  So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.

They “forgot the Lord their God.”  Here are four examples from the Bible of how we forget God:

1. We can forget God by ignoring His past works for us: “Then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (Deuteronomy 6:12).
2. We can forget God by believing lies instead of the Word of God: “This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you, declares the Lord, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies” (Jeremiah 13:25).
3. We can forget God by going after other gods: “And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord” (Hosea 2:13).
4. We can forget God when we are satisfied with material prosperity: “But when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me” (Hosea 13:6).

All of these described Israel, but mostly their going after the gods of the Canaanites, represented as “the Baals and Asherahs.”

Jdg 3:8  Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years.

There’s a saying attributed to the Texas Rangers: “You ride with outlaws, you die with outlaws.”  The Israelites wanted to be like Canaanites, so God let them be treated like Canaanites – who were notorious for warring against one another, and enslaving one another.

They “served… eight years,” but it must have seemed much longer.  In this first case, eight was enough.

Jdg 3:9  When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.

We met Othniel in chapter one.  Caleb offered his daughter in marriage to the man who would conquer Kirjath Sepher.  Reading between the lines, Caleb was making sure whoever married his precious daughter was a believer who was walking with the Lord by faith.

Nothing negative is written about Othniel.  He had already proven himself spiritually.  But before you think that being spiritual was a prerequisite for being a judge, think again.  The last judge, Samson, is about as opposite Othniel as you can get; but he, too, was a hero God raised-up.

Looking at all the judges, one commentator noted, “The progression downward, even in Israel’s leaders, is clear.”

It’s better for you to be spiritual, because you will have closer fellowship with God.  But you never need to wait, to become more spiritual, to be used of God.  God can use you right now, right where you are, as His hero or heroine.

Don’t be looking for a hero; be him, or her.  You can be the hero, because of what we next read.

Jdg 3:10  The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim.

The very first hero reveals to us the secret for all subsequent heroes: “the Spirit of the Lord.”  In the book of Judges, we will see the Spirit “coming upon” the various judges whom God raised up to deliver Israel from their oppressors. 

It is beyond the scope of our text, but I should say something about how the Holy Spirit worked with believers in the Old Testament.  Obviously men and women were saved by the Spirit; but since there is no comprehensive picture of how He worked in their hearts, theologians tend to disagree about the details.

For one thing, there is no promise in the Old Testament to the believer that he will be permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  Some scholars argue that He did indwell them; others say He did not.  I tend to think He did not – although it’s not a hill I’d choose to die on.

The Spirit definitely “came upon” Old Testament believers, to empower them to perform certain tasks.  It wasn’t a matter of their faith.  When we read their stories, it’s obvious that the men and women did not expect the Spirit of God to come upon them, nor did they do anything to prompt it.  It just happened, by the sovereign choice of God.

The Spirit’s coming upon men in the Old Testament was not always the same:

• In the case of Israel’s first king, Saul, the Spirit that was given to him was also taken from him when the kingdom was taken away. 
• With Samson, the Spirit came upon him only at certain times. 

The New Testament teaches the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers (First Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19-20).  When we place our faith in Christ for salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us.  Our physical bodies, and the corporate “body” of believers, is His called His temple.

We go on in the New Testament to read that believers can be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), and they can be baptized with the Spirit (Acts 2).

We are, in fact, commanded to go on being filled with the Holy Spirit.  You can’t continue something unless you start out that way.  We must, therefore, start the Christian life full of the Holy Spirit.

If you were converted as an adult, you heard the Gospel, and were saved.  He took up residence in you.  You discovered immediately that you were also full of the Spirit – manifested by experiencing His power.  You were set free from addictions; your language dramatically changed; you had love for your enemies, and compassion for the lost.  Things like that are typical of conversions.

Converts are to go on being filled, to walk continuously in this power.  Jesus said it would be like a torrential flow of water into, and out of, your heart.

One theologian says of our experience with God the Holy Spirit that it is “dynamic and renewable.” 

That statement squares with the exhortation of Jesus that we go on asking, seeking, and knocking for the Holy Spirit, all the while believing by faith that our Heavenly Father will not withhold His power (Luke 11:13).

Maybe you weren’t converted as an adult, but were saved from childhood.  All this talk of the Holy Spirit’s power is foreign to you.

Or maybe you’ve attended churches that either downplayed the experience of the power of the Holy Spirit, or they put Him on display as a force that takes control of you, forcing you to act weirdly.

More-and-more I’m seeing in the New Testament that the norm is that a saved person is filled and ought to go on being filled day-by-day as a dynamic, renewable experience. 

If that is not your norm, it should be; it can be; it needs to be.  So today, if you get saved, God the Holy Spirit will come to indwell you, and you will be filled, and you will experience His power.

Today, if you are already saved, but have little or no power of the Holy Spirit, you can have a subsequent experience, by faith, that then becomes your new normal.

There is a lot more we could say, but the teaching that always emerges is that whatever we do, it is “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6).

Jdg 3:11  So the land had rest for forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

We don’t know anything about the forty-year career of Othniel.  Did he win one decisive battle?  Was it a campaign?  The details are omitted so that we focus on God’s Spirit, rather than on Othniel being spiritual, or strategic.

Do you need to be a hero, or a heroine?  Ask, seek, and knock for the Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus promised would flow from our lives like a torrent of living water.  Go on being filled.

Next, we see Ehud, whose heroics we might subtitle, “Happy Entrails to You”

(v12-30)

His manager warned Apollo Creed to not fight Rocky Balboa, because he was a southpaw.  Later in his career, Rocky tried to confuse Clubber Lang by fighting him right-handed.

Lefties create problems, as King Eglon was about to find out.

Jdg 3:12  And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.

Jdg 3:13  Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek, went and defeated Israel, and took possession of the City of Palms.

Unlike Megamind, the Israelites were never good at being bad.  You know who were good at being bad?  The Canaanites, in this case the Moabites, Ammonites, and Amalekites. 

They were already evil, so God wasn’t the author of evil. 

They could have repented, and converted, at any time.  In the mean time, God “strengthened” them in order to use them to discipline Israel. 

Jdg 3:14  So the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.

That was a decade longer than previously.  More than twice as long.  But don’t blame God, or suggest His discipline was overly harsh, because we read next,

Jdg 3:15  But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them…

As soon as they “cried out” to Him, the Lord acted on their behalf.  It was their stubbornness to wait so long.

You’ve seen this in your kids.  They simply will not bend their will.  They’d rather stay timed-out than give in.

Jdg 3:15  But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man…

The Bible mentions left-handed people on only three occasions:

1. Here, in the story of Ehud’s assassination of the Moabite king.
2. Later in Judges it mentions 700 southpaws who could use the sling with deadly accuracy (Judges 20:16).
3. There are two-dozen ambidextrous warriors who came to support David in Hebron (First Chronicles 12:2).

All of these stories of left-handed people in the Bible appear in military contexts, and, curiously, all involve members of the tribe of Benjamin.

Benjamin, by the way, means son of my right hand.  These guys were left-handed sons-of-my-right-hand.

If you happen to be left-handed, I don’t need to tell you that the world is a tough place for you.  Historically, left-handedness has been seen as an oddity, even a disability.  People were encouraged to correct their left-handed children.  Being left-handed was even seen by some as being a sign of evil.

Language seems to bear out this meaning.  Something that is wicked or evil we call sinister, the Latin word for the left-hand.

Do you surf or snowboard?  Boardsport riders are “footed” in one of two stances, generally called “regular” and “goofy.”  Guess which ones are the “goofy-footed?”  The lefties.

More to our point, in Hebrew, being left-handed is described as restricted in his right hand.  This can be understood in one of three ways:

1. Ehud was disabled.
2. Ehud was ambidextrous.
3. Ehud was left-handed.

He was probably a lefty who would be seen as disadvantaged because it was a right-handed world.

Jdg 3:15  But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

Sounds like Ehud was the regular courier of Israel’s tribute to King Elon.  King Eglon was familiar with him.

Jdg 3:16  Now Ehud made himself a dagger (it was double-edged and a cubit in length) and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh.

I’m guessing that King Eglon’s guards would conduct a pat-down of anyone who approached him on his throne.  A right-handed warrior would wear his sword on his left thigh.  It’s easy to get sloppy working security, and in Ehud’s case they would pat him down as they would a righty, and find no weapon on his left thigh.

Besides, if Ehud was the regular courier, they would even more have let down their guard.

Jdg 3:17  So he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.)

“Fat” is considered a four-letter word.  How would this get translated if there was a politically correct version of the Bible?  Obese?  Plus-sized?  Horizontally challenged? 

Jdg 3:18  And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried the tribute.

Jdg 3:19  But he himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” He said, “Keep silence!” And all who attended him went out from him.

Ehud left with the group, got as far as Gilgal, then returned.  The “stone images” is most likely a reference to the memorial of twelve stones which Joshua’s men had taken from the Jordan River (Joshua 4:1-7).

His return alone would further dissuade any thoughts of assault.  If he was going to make a move, it makes more sense that it would have been earlier, with the strength of a group, not by himself.

His plan required he be alone with Eglon.  Having a “secret message” for him would do the trick.

Jdg 3:20  So Ehud came to him (now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber). Then Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” So he arose from his seat.

Eglon was chillin’.  The Moabite king was familiar with the God of Israel.  He probably realized that God was strengthening him against the Jews.  It would peak his curiosity to know God had a secret message for him.

Jdg 3:21  Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly.

Jdg 3:22  Even the hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly; and his entrails came out.

At the end of Godfather III, Michael Corleone sends his old bodyguard to visit Don Lucchesi.  He tells Lucchesi he has a secret message that he must whisper in his ear.  He does, then grabs Lucchesi’s own eyeglasses, stabs him in the jugular, assassinating him.

Jdg 3:23  Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

Jdg 3:24  When he had gone out, Eglon’s servants came to look, and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said, “He is probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber.”

Pardon the potty-talk, but his servants thought King Eglon was relieving himself on the toilet.  They assumed he exchanged one throne for the other.

Jdg 3:25  So they waited till they were embarrassed, and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them. And there was their master, fallen dead on the floor.

I’ll share with you one of my most endearing childhood memories.  Growing up, as a kid, if I spent too much time in the bathroom, one of my brothers would knock and ask, “Did you fall in?” 

One thing you did not want to do was let yourself in to the fat king’s chambers, and especially if he was doing his business.  At some point, however, they simply could no longer wait.

Jdg 3:26  But Ehud had escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the stone images and escaped to Seirah.

Jdg 3:27  And it happened, when he arrived, that he blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains; and he led them.

Jdg 3:28  Then he said to them, “Follow me, for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over.

Jdg 3:29  And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a man escaped.

Conquest was as easy as breathing when they turned to God. 

Jdg 3:30  So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.

We don’t need to be told that Ehud had the Spirit come upon him.  It’s implied.  What Ehud adds to our understanding of being God’s hero is that the Lord prefers to work through our weaknesses, not our strengths.

Anyone hearing this story in ancient times would see Ehud as weak, as disadvantaged, as disabled.  Even if he was skilled with his left hand, left-handedness was something frowned upon, to be pitied for.

God is glorified; He is magnified; when His strength is seen against the backdrop of our weakness. 

A weak, but Spirit-filled believer is God’s preferred hero.  You and I certainly qualify.  You don’t need to be left-handed to be, spiritually speaking, goofy-footed. 

Last, we see Shamgar, whose heroics we might subtitle, “The One-Verse Wonder”

(v31)

Speaking of Jack Black, in Nacho Libre the hero and his sidekick eat some delicious looking seasoned corn on the cob that is being sold on the streets in Mexico.  Later they use it as a projectile weapon to great comic effect.

Improvised weapons are great fun in the movies; and it is the hallmark of our final hero.

Jdg 3:31  After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad; and he also delivered Israel.

Shamgar and Anath are not Hebrew names.  He was a convert to Judaism.  God is no respecter of persons.

An ox goad is a stick about eight feet long with a sharpened iron point (First Samuel 3:21), used to train and drive oxen when plowing.  Shamgar used the ox goad like a javelin or a spear.

We don’t know if he was a farmer, familiar with ox goads; or a soldier who improvised weapons.

We don’t know if he “killed six hundred” Philistines at one time, or over his career.  Perhaps he was plowing with his oxen when the Philistines appeared over the hill.  Bad day for them.

What we do know is that his weapon was adequate to his task.

We know that the Philistines had iron chariots.  The only weapon specifically mentioned in Judges is the sword.  Also mentioned are iron chariots.  What about armor?

It’s a little bit in the future, when the time of the judges was ending; but in First Samuel we have a very detailed description of Goliath’s Philistine armor and weapons:

1Sa 17:5  He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze.

1Sa 17:6  And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders.

1Sa 17:7  Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him.

David would defeat him with a sling and a stone.  His weapon was adequate to his task.

It’s never more resources that you need in order to be a hero or a heroine.  Matter of fact, resources tend to detract from your dependence upon the Spirit to work through your weaknesses. 

In the first trio of judges emerges the biblical equipment of a hero: dependent on the Spirit; not dependent upon material resources; believing that God’s divine strength is revealed in human weakness.

Every one of us, who is saved, qualifies for hero-duty.  Go from here God’s hero; God’s heroine. 

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Heroes Life For Me (Judges 2:11-3:6)

Shiver me timbers, you haven’t missed it.  International Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th.  In anticipation, I went to the online pirate-name generator, and put in my name to find my pirate name.

My pirate name is John “Bearded Beast” Noon, The Knave of Flying Fish Sands!

Let’s get it out of our system right now, and utter a collective, “Arrrrgh!!”

We’re fascinated by tales of pirates, all the more since the popularity of the Disney movies, and Captain Jack Sparrow.

When we think of pirates our imagination flies to the Spanish Main, or to the Caribbean – maybe even to Neverland.

We all know it wasn’t really glamorous.  Listen to this description of the pirates’ life:

… conditions aboard even the cleanest and best-equipped ship became quickly unsavory when the sweaty and unwashed crew had sailed a week or two… While the captain’s cabin was palatial compared to the rest of the ship (almost big enough to stand up in), most crewmembers had to bunk in cramped and squalid conditions, or swing in flea-swarming hammocks.  The food was at best bland and at worst rancid, bilge-soaked, or rendered inedible by rats, mildew, or weevils.  The unsanitary conditions and poor nutrition made the ships into breeding grounds for disease.  Didn’t you ever wonder where the phrase “scurvy rascal” came from?

“Piracy” refers to acts of violent crime committed at sea (but can also include on land and air).

Have you ever heard the complete lyrics to A Pirate’s Life for Me?

We pillage and plunder, we rifle and loot… We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot…

We extort and pilfer, we filch and sack… Maraud and embezzle and even highjack…

We kindle and char and inflame and ignite… We burn up the city, we’re really a fright…

We’re rascals and scoundrels, we’re villains and knaves… We’re devils and black sheep, we’re really bad eggs…

We’re beggars and blighters and ne’er do-well cads…

Aye, but we’re loved by our mommies and dads,

Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho.

Our perception of piracy is a romantic fantasy.  It’s a terrible, destructive life, that ruins both pirate and victim.  The Tom Hanks film, Captain Phillips, gives a truer depiction of pirates.  In the films final scenes, you can’t wait for the Navy seals to execute their orders and take those guys out with perfectly coordinated head shots.

In the Book of Judges, the children of Israel had a romantic fantasy of life among the Canaanite people.  Their enemies ate whatever they wanted, had lots of indiscriminate sex with the approval of their gods, enjoyed gratuitous violence, and seemed not to have a care in the world.  They pillaged and plundered, and were really bad eggs.

“Yo ho, yo ho, the Canaanite life for me!” could have been the Hebrew anthem.

Ah, but like the pirate life, the Canaanite life wasn’t all that it seemed.  The Jews who pursued it were the ones left “plundered” and “despoiled” and “distressed.”

God described them as harlots.  We’re going to read, in verse seventeen, “they played the harlot with other gods.”

Spiritually speaking, they were committing adultery against God.  The Canaanite life was a harlot’s life.

Instead of a harlot’s life, God intended His children to live a hero’s life.

That’s what we will see contrasted in these verses: harlots and heroes.  I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 The Harlot Life Leads You To Ruin, and #2 The Hero Life Leaves You At Rest.

#1 – The Harlot Life Leads You To Ruin (2:11-15, 20-23 & 3:1-6)

Because He depicted Himself as their husband, when Israel worshipped idols, it was spiritual adultery.

Notwithstanding the romanticized, even whimsical, depictions of harlots in movies, and in Amsterdam, it’s a life of being “plundered” and “despoiled” and “distressed.”

Jdg 2:11  Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals;

The “evil” was deliberate.  They compared the covenant God had made with them to the carnality of Canaan, and they preferred Canaan to the Creator.

We typically say that they worshipped Baal, but that term is really a title, meaning “master” or “lord,” and can refer to many different gods.

Baal was most often identified with the god of weather.

The female companion of Baal was Astarte, whose plural form occurs in our text as Ashtoreths.

Again, this term represented many localized forms of the goddess but was most often identified with fertility.

Baal and Astarte needed to have sex – and lots of it – in order for the Canaanites to be guaranteed good crops.  Apparently, they were reluctant partners, and needed coaxing.  They were coaxed by watching Canaanites have sex – and lots of it.  These orgies usually took place in elevated areas close to the clouds, where the gods could better hear and better see the humans.  They were called “high places.”

One historian made the following observations:

Canaanite worship was socially destructive.  Its religious acts were pornographic and sick, seriously damaging to children, creating early impressions of deities with no interest in moral behavior.  It tried to dignify, by the use of religious labels, depraved acts of bestiality and corruption.  It had a low estimate of human life.  It suggested that anything was permissible, promiscuity, murder or anything else, in order to guarantee a good crop at harvest.  It ignored the highest values both in the family and in the wider community – love, loyalty, purity, peace and security – and encouraged the view that all these things were inferior to material prosperity, physical satisfaction and human pleasure.  A society where those things matter most is self-destructive.

Also “damaging to children” was the practice the Bible calls “walking through the fire.”  It was child sacrifice, burning children to death.

Jdg 2:12  and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.

They knew about God, having been taught by their parents. Theirs was a willful, deliberate forsaking of their upbringing in order to pursue other gods.

It’s no comfort to the parents of prodigals to tell them that it isn’t their fault, because it doesn’t change the situation.  But it’s true, nonetheless.  Your children must grow-up and make their own decision to follow the Lord.

The Canaanites were “all around them” because they refused to conquer them, and drive them out.  You know that saying, “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer?”  It doesn’t apply to spiritual enemies.

Jdg 2:13  They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

This tells us, specifically, that they were engaging in the perverse sexual rituals whose purpose was to arouse Baal and Astarte.

Jdg 2:14  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

Here is a language tidbit.  The word for “anger” in the Bible is the word for “nose,” or “nostrils.”  When someone is angry, their nostrils flare out.  Think of the classic cartoon of the angry dragon breathing fire.

Thus we read, of God, in Psalm 18:8, “smoke went up from His nostrils.”

I don’t need to explain that God can be angry, do I?  It’s a righteous anger, against sin, on account of its destruction.

God does not become angry because of the heat of the moment or because He possesses a confusing, constantly fluctuating personality.  God’s anger is rational.  It is His direct, calculated response to sin.

His anger also stems from a holy jealousy.  God is jealous over His people, in a good way, to keep them secure, and spiritual.

God “delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around.”  It sounds harsh, but consider this:

Those plunderers were there precisely because the Israelites refused to drive them out.

Their enemies were there precisely because they failed to conquer them, as they were commanded to.

God let the consequences of their disobedience and sin run their course.

Jdg 2:15  Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

They were defeated on all sides, by all forces, in all of their endeavors.

Jdg 2:20  Then the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice,

God calls the Israelites “this nation.”  It’s the same way He would refer to any nation; to all Gentile nations.  He wasn’t disowning them; He was emphasizing just how far they had transgressed.

If you were a visitor from outer space, you’d see no difference between a Jew and a Gentile.

Christians have a reputation for being against things.  While that can turn into legalism, when I think it makes me more spiritual, we nevertheless must stand-out from the world.  If not because of the things we are against, then certainly for the things we are for: Mercy and love and peace.  The hope of Jesus’ coming.  Compassion toward the lost.

Jdg 2:21  I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,
Jdg 2:22  so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.”

The “nations which Joshua left when he died” were not a stain on his record.  He had put the twelve tribes in a position, strategically, to finish the conquest.  Each tribe was responsible for its own conquest of their inheritance.  We read in chapter one how they fell short, and failed.

We see something of God’s foresight.  He knew that the tribes would, for the next three hundred years, repeat a cycle of rebellion, retribution, repentance, and rest.  He knew that after He delivered them, each time they’d go right back into rebellion.

It was to “test” them that He left the nations they had failed to expel.  Tests have gotten a bad name.  We generally don’t like them; or we say they are not an accurate measure.

Think of it this way.  A while back I talked about what are called “perishable skills.”  They are abilities that need regular reinforcement through training and testing.  In law enforcement and the fire services, they are the skills needed to do the job with excellence.  The police and fire departments therefore provide on-going training for their people.

It’s ill-advised to pass-up perishable skills training and testing, because it literally is a matter of life and death.  It readies you, and keeps you sharp.

Jdg 2:23  Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.

Joshua gave the order to finish the conquest.  If there was fault to be found in his leadership, it was in believing that the tribes would execute his orders.
This verse sounds a little melancholy.  Joshua, old and advanced in years, must have realized that the tribes weren’t zealous about finishing strong.

Jdg 3:1  Now these are the nations which the LORD left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan
Jdg 3:2  (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it),

Looking down through the “generations,” and knowing they would transgress, the Lord exercised His providence over the nations, to use them to test their perishable skills.

God’s providence is His working within human history to accomplish His will, but without violating our free will.  These nations would oppress the Jews, but it was their own bent to do so.  God was not the author of their evil, but He could utilize it to discipline Israel.

The Jews chose the Canaanite life, so He let them experience it, and that included being victimized by it.

The author of Judges, we think Samuel, lists the nations:

Jdg 3:3  namely, five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.

The list is geographical.  It points in all four directions: southeast (Canaanites), northeast (Hivites), northwest (Sidonians), and southwest (Philistines).  They were surrounded in such a way that there was no escaping – only help from God.

Jdg 3:4  And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

We talked quite a lot, last time, about the responsibility of each generation to know the Lord for themselves.  God has no grandchildren.

Jdg 3:5  Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Jdg 3:6  And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.

Have you ever gotten an “F” on a test?  Or for an entire class?  The twelve tribes flunked, generation after generation, for about three centuries, from Joshua’s death to the appointment of Saul as Israel’s first king.  The judges God raised-up were the momentary exceptions to their failure.

Their failure followed a progression.  First, they “dwelt among” their enemies, rather than rising-up to drive them out.

“Wait,” you object; “I thought God refused to drive them out?”  True, God didn’t allow them to be totally eradicated.  But as we will see when the judges are introduced, the tribes could have defeated their enemies, and lived without their influence.

Second, “they took their daughters to be their wives,” a thing strictly forbidden by God’s Law.  Don’t get the wrong idea; if these ladies would have converted to Judaism then they would have been marry-able.  Think Ruth, who was a Moabite, but nevertheless married Boaz, and is in the genealogy of Jesus.

God is not against what we call inter-racial marriages, but He is against your being unequally yoked to a nonbeliever of any race or ethnicity.

The they-never-converted-to-Judaism problem is explained in verse six as, “and they served their gods.”  That brings us full circle, and back to the high places and orgies.

“They played the harlot with other gods” (2:17).  They chose to be harlots, spiritual harlots.

Regarding ourselves, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, depicts Himself as our heavenly Bridegroom, and we as His bride.  In the Book of James we are warned to not be spiritual adulterers and adulteresses by becoming too friendly with the world.

The standard is a little higher for us.  We don’t need to be actively worshipping idols – just being too friendly, in general, with the world is a problem.  We shouldn’t even be flirting with the things of the world.

Just as I wrote that last sentence, this quote from Charles Spurgeon was messaged to my phone: “The superlative beauty of Jesus is all-attracting; it is not so much to be admired as to be loved.”

A million years ago we used to sing, I keep falling in love with Him over-and-over and over-and-over again.  

Have any of us strayed from our first love?  Return to it.

#2 – The Hero Life Leaves You At Rest (2:16-19)

Chapter two, and the first few verses of chapter three, are a preview of things to come in the following pages of Judges.  Israel would constantly fail, but under God’s loving discipline, they would cry-out to God for help.  Although they didn’t deserve it, He always heard and heeded their cries.

Each time God would raise-up a judge, a hero, who He would empower to overpower Israel’s enemies, and deliver them.

Any Israelite – man or woman – could have been a judge.  We will see that not all of them were super-spiritual, but all of them were simply available.

When I see a judge, I see that the Jews could have chosen the hero life for themselves.  In one sense, all of them could have lived like judges – conquering territory, and expelling enemies.

They could all have been like Caleb, for example, pressing forward into his territory, expecting victory over the giants facing him.

Let’s read these next few verses with that in mind.

Jdg 2:16  Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
“Nevertheless” sounds almost nonchalant, and that is what makes it full of meaning.  First of all, despite their not deserving it, “nevertheless” God “delivered them.”

You can’t earn God’s help, but if you’re a child of His, you can expect it whenever you agree with Him, and repent.

Second, no matter your plight, “nevertheless” God can easily deliver you from it.  His power to save is legendary.  It is on display in the Bible from the Garden of Eden through the creation of the new heavens and the new earth in the Revelation.

Now having said both of those things, and knowing them to be true, I struggle with why I am sometimes surrounded still by suffering or sorrow, trouble or trial.  It seems my distresses are not relieved or removed.

If it’s so easy for God, then why does my life seem so hard?

It’s because He sometimes delivers me through my circumstances, not from them.  He wants to empower me to represent Him in midst of my pain.  And that is a much harder thing – not for God, but for me.

It’s perishable skills training that He deems necessary.

God will deliver me – but it might be after a long time, or even ultimately, when I see Him face-to-face.

Job is the quintessential example of suffering, is he not?  Scholars estimate his period of being afflicted with boils and such lasted a few months.  Then he was delivered, and what he had lost was restored “twice as much as he had before” (42:10).
But let’s be observant of his sufferings.  The loss of his children at the very beginning of his story… Did that pain last a few months?  Was it alleviated by having more children afterward?

Job was delivered through a severe ordeal – and some of it lasted his entire lifetime.

Regardless my circumstances, I am God’s hero, and should choose the hero life of standing on His promises in the midst of my storm, and giving testimony to His faithfulness.

Jdg 2:17  Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so.
Jdg 2:18  And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.
Jdg 2:19  And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.

They looked to the Lord to raise-up judges, and that was great.  But they could have looked to the Lord to each live as a judge.

The stories in the Book of Judges aren’t meant to teach us that there are only occasional, super-spiritual believers, while most of us struggle to barely make it through each day.

Quite the opposite is true.  Each of us is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit.  We are each commanded to go on being filled with the Spirit.  The power to serve the Lord, with boldness, seems renewable every day.

Our “inheritance,” our territory, isn’t land in Canaan.  Our enemies aren’t the “the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”

We war against “principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Your territory is whatever circumstances you find yourself in.  Press forward, in the power of the Spirit.  In those times you seem more a zero, than a hero, be comforted by these words of Job:

Job 23:8  “Look, I go forward, but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
Job 23:9  When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
Job 23:10  But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 23:11  My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside.
Job 23:12  I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.”

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation (Judges 2:1-10)

Grand-parenting is one of the incredible joys in life.  Rudy Giuliani said, “What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance.  They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life.  And, most importantly, cookies!”

In our case, it’s chocolate, currently in the form of Hershey’s Kisses.

I like this anonymous quote: “Grandfathers are just antique little boys.”

Mr. Anonymous didn’t forget grandmothers: “Grandmothers hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever.”

There are, however, those who give grand-parenting a bad name.  They’re the ones that blatantly display the bumper sticker that says, “My Grandkids are Cuter than Yours.”

Or this one: “My Grandkids are Smarter than Your Grandkids.”

There’s someone you know who cannot ever have grandkids.  God has no grandchildren.

No one is sure who first said it, but here’s the quote, with commentary, from Ken Ham:

God has no grandchildren.  We are all individually responsible to God.  When saved by His awesome power, we are adopted as His personal sons and daughters.  Not one of us can claim the faith of our father or mother as our own.  There is no such thing as a “spiritual grandchild” of God.  We each must come to Him on our own.  If we don’t have our own faith, we have no faith.

The failure of the next generation to come to know the Lord has a name.  It’s called “second generation syndrome.”  The Israelites suffered from it in the Book of Judges, beginning right after the death of Joshua.

Jdg 2:10  When all [Joshua’s] generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.

To use a modern idiom, they may have thought they’d be grandfathered in to a relationship with the Lord.  But it doesn’t work that way.

Thinking about ourselves, there are at least two applications:

One would be our own “second generation syndrome,” and by that I mean imparting Jesus to our kids in a meaningful way.
The other application is to any Christian who may drift into a superficial, rather than a supernatural, relationship with Jesus.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points:  #1 Maintain A First Generation Supernatural Walk With Jesus, and #2 Refrain From A Second Generation Superficial Walk With Jesus.

(Chapter two is not in chronological order; verses one through five are what happen after Joshua’s death, reported in verses six through ten.  We will therefore look at Joshua’s death first).

#1 – Maintain A First Generation Supernatural Walk With Jesus (v6-10)

I hate to quote him, and I don’t want to give his words any spiritual significance… But Yoda once said, “Do or do not; there is no try.”

The sentiment is appropriate here because, from the outset, I need to tell you that as we read these verses about Joshua, there are no suggested steps or principles to maintaining a supernatural walk.  To borrow another famous quote, Joshua essentially said, Just do it!

Jdg 2:6  And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.

This looks back, historically, to Joshua’s famous “as for me and my house” speech:

Jos 24:15  “… choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

See what I mean about decisiveness?  It’s an either/or.  You either choose to serve God, or you’re choosing to serve false gods.

There was no trying to serve the Lord.  Do, or do not.  Just do it.

Either we can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens us; or we cannot (Philippians 4:13).  We’re not promised we can do some things through Christ, and the rest on our own.

God’s power isn’t portioned out; it isn’t rationed.  Think of a film you’ve watched where folks are lost at sea, drifting in their lifeboat for weeks on end.  There’s always a rationing of supplies – and especially the water.  At the end, just before they get rescued, they squeeze-out the very last drop – just enough to keep them barely alive.

God the Holy Spirit is a Person, the third Person of the Trinity; but His effect in our lives can be compared to water.  I sometimes act as if He has been rationed-out to me, as if I have just enough of the Spirit to barely survive my situation.  I feel as though I’m squeezing out the last drop of His power.

Jesus described Him quite differently:

Joh 7:37  … “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
Joh 7:38  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
Joh 7:39  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

God the Holy Spirit, Who is our source of power and empowering, is not rationed out.  The word for “rivers” is sometimes translated “torrents.”  The power to serve and obey the Lord is torrential, not portional.

Here is what I am saying.  I am not given more of God’s Spirit as I grow, or as I excel in certain disciplines.  I can have His influence in my life in abundance, at any time.

I can prove it by looking at the conversion of people to Jesus Christ.  I’ll use myself as an example; but this is true of many of you who, like me, were saved as an adult.

A few seconds into being a baby-Christian, I was no longer a drunkard… Or a pot-head… Or someone who cursed every-other word.  It wasn’t on account of my maturity, or my spiritual discipline, in those ten seconds.  It was the work of the now indwelling Holy Spirit.

I knew I was supposed to do certain things, in order to grow: To pray… To read the Bible… To go to church… To share my faith.  But I had the power to do all that, and more, right away.

I could say “No” to sin.  I could resist the devil before I ever knew I had spiritual armor.

Joshua had set the example, and now he gave the exhortation.  Then he sent the tribes away on their mission to conquer their inherited lands.

Jdg 2:7  So the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD which He had done for Israel.

The “elders,” when they were children, had observed firsthand the Egyptian plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the giving of the law, and the preservation in the wilderness.

In their adulthood, along with Joshua, they saw the Jordan River divide.  They were there when Jericho’s walls fall.  They experienced the sun standing still.  They watched as the hailstorm destroyed their enemies.

Jdg 2:8  Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred and ten years old.

Only three men in the Old Testament are explicitly called “the servant of the Lord.”  The other two are Moses and David.

It’s no lowly thing to be God’s servant.  Lowliness is the highest aspiration you can have.

Joshua died without appointing a successor.  I’m not ready to say Joshua made a mistake, at the very end.  God must not have told him to pick anyone.

It seems God did not want anyone to succeed Joshua.  That makes no sense to us; but it made perfect sense to God.  Each tribe had its elders, and, as we will see, the Angel of the Lord was in the land.

Jdg 2:9  And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.

Joshua was buried in the center of today’s Palestinian village of Kifl Haris, a short drive from the Israeli city of Ariel in the heart of Samaria.  Every year thousands of Jews commemorate his death on the 26th of the Hebrew month of Nissan.

Jdg 2:10  When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.

Did the parents blow it by not teaching their children the ways and the works of the Lord?  When our kids fail to receive the Lord, or when they fall away, its hard not to blame ourselves.

The word translated “know” is better translated acknowledged.  The next generation “did not acknowledge” the Lord.

That means they had heard a lot about Him; their parents, and elders, had done their jobs.  Their children didn’t acknowledge the Lord.  It was their willful choice to reject Him.  It was unbelief.

One commentator put it like this:

Israel had a godly heritage.  They had the examples of the life of Joshua, the lives of the elders who survived Joshua, as well as the experiences of other godly men like Caleb.  Still, they chose to turn their backs on God.  The allure and excitement of the surrounding pagan culture was more enticing than a life of obedience and inner spiritual peace.

Were they at a disadvantage because they didn’t see the works of God for themselves?  Not really.  Fast forward to Jesus.  Think of the mighty works He went around performing.  Most of the people who witnessed His healings, and His exorcisms, remained nonbelievers.  Some of them even wanted to kill Jesus because of His mighty works.

Tell your kids about God.  Read them the Bible over-and-over again.  Make church real, and don’t forget to make it fun.

Most importantly, bottom line, be, in their eyes, “the servant of the Lord.”

Ultimately they must choose for themselves whom they will serve – whether the God of the Bible, or the gods of this world.

Joshua was a first generation believer who lived in the supernatural.  So are you, if you are saved.

As we stated, God has no grandchildren – only sons and daughters.  True, if you were saved as an adult, you experienced deliverance from sin differently than you would have if you’d been saved as a child.

Sean McDowell, son of apologist Josh McDowell, tells the following story:

Even though I grew up in a Christian home, with parents in professional Christian ministry, there was a time that I walked away from God.  I was tired of the rules, authority, and simply wanted to live life my own way.  And as you can imagine, I hit rock bottom.  Feelings of loneliness, despair, and the weight of sin simply overwhelmed me and I hit the end of my rope…
And so when I was four years old, I got down on my knees and decided I was going to follow Jesus.

It humorously highlights the difference between an adult conversion and a childhood conversion.  Do we really believe that being saved from an early age is some kind of disadvantage?  If we do, we need to stop.  It’s different; that’s all.

I, for one, could only wish I’d been saved sooner than I was.  It was great being delivered from sin, but it would have been greater to never have sinned in some of those ways in the first place.

As far as the supernatural, Joshua saw a lot of that, as we chronicled.  Do you know what is truly supernatural?  Having God live within you.  Being able, at any moment, to yield to the influence of the third Person of the Trinity is pretty supernatural.
Joshua experienced many wonders, but these Old Testament guys and gals did not have the indwelling of the Spirit.  They were saved, and He came upon them, to empower their service.  But we – as the church – experience something far greater.

We need to stop thinking of Him as being rationed out to us, and instead experience His torrential presence in our lives, in order that we might do all things through Jesus Christ.

#2 – Refrain From A Second Generation Superficial Walk With Jesus (v1-5)

Second generation syndrome is an important topic.  We definitely want our children to know the Lord.  No matter how much you read about it, it ultimately boils down to example and to evangelism:

Be an example of loving Jesus, and loving others.  After all, that is the summary of the Law, is it not?
Be an evangelist to your kids, and to kids in general.  Realize they need to come to know, and to receive, Jesus for themselves.  There are no spiritual grandchildren.

What I want to focus on is the other application of this text that I mentioned in the introduction.  It’s the danger that any son or daughter of God might drift into more of a second generation, superficial walk with the Lord.

It’s the danger that you or I might become lukewarm, backslidden, leavers of our first love for Jesus.

Jdg 2:1  Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim…

Stop.  Who is this guy, making a surprise visit to the second generation?

The word “angel” throws us.  It doesn’t always mean a being we call, and the Bible calls, an “angel.”  The word itself simply means messenger.

There are at least two possibilities:

The Angel of the Lord is a mighty angel who acted as the special representative of the LORD.

OR, it is God the Son, Jesus, taking a body for a short period of time.

I’ll quote one of the commentators, who gives this concise review of the evidence:

The Angel of the Lord is very likely the pre-incarnate Christ, He who would become flesh for us.  Here is some biblical evidence that this being was more than a man:

He was distinct from the Lord, yet was called the Lord (Genesis 16:7-13, 18:1-21; 19:1-28; 22:11-12; Exodus 3:26; Judges 13:3-22).

Gideon’s father, Manoah, said that the angel of the Lord was God (Judges 13:3,9,18,19-22).

The angel of the Lord claimed that he was God; note the shift in Exodus 3:2-6 from “angel of the LORD” (v2) to “I am the God of your father” (v6).

The Israelites in our chapter were quite familiar with the Angel of the Lord.  He had appeared to Joshua, right at the beginning of their initial conquest of the land, as the commander of the Lord’s army:

Jos 5:13  And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”
Jos 5:14  So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”
Jos 5:15  Then the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

It was at Gilgal that the Angel appeared to Joshua.  It served as a headquarters for Him.

Jdg 2:1  Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: “I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you.

The Angel recalls His power and faithfulness in the exodus, and in the conquest of the Promised Land thus far.  He could most assuredly be counted upon to help them now, to finish the conquest of the land.

Jdg 2:2  And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this?

The Angel is talking to them after the history recorded in chapter one, where we read they did not drive out their enemies as they were instructed, but instead put them under tribute, lived side-by-side, and were influenced by their pagan religion.

“Why have you done this?”  The Angel was calling upon them to repent: to agree with Him, to repent, and to be restored.

Anything less than agreeing with God is superficial.  In our case, sure, our sins are all forgiven at the Cross, and that includes present sins.  But we must own them, confess them to God, in order to be brought back into fellowship with Him.

When the indwelling Holy Spirit says, “Why have you done this?”, it’s no good denying sin, or excusing it.

Jdg 2:3  Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.’ ”

These were nothing more than the natural consequences of disobedience.

If not driven out, their enemies would remain enemies, and be a constant source of opposition.

If not driven out, their carnal, sensual religious rituals would ensnare them.

A typical second generation mindset is to think that God’s boundaries, His restrictions, are too confining.  We see that today in what people call the Sexual Revolution.  I mean, how can heterosexual, monogamous marriage, for life, be the norm for modern societies?

It remains the norm.  More than that, it’s the only way societies can survive.

What societies, and individuals, will always find is that disobedience to God leads to servitude and slavery, while obedience yields true freedom.

We are free within God’s loving, wise, and even logical boundaries, to enjoy all things.  He is so much more than an earthly father, and yet we recognize that fathers and mothers must set boundaries for their children.  We ought to revel in God’s boundaries, not rebel.

Jdg 2:4  So it was, when the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.
Jdg 2:5  Then they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to the LORD.

“Bochim” means weeping.  Their weeping looks and sounds good; but we know better.  Their sacrificing looks and sounds good; but we know better.

We have the after-story, where we read of their disobedience:

Jdg 2:11  Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals;
Jdg 2:12  and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.
Jdg 2:13  They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

One commentator noted, “If their slobbering spectacle had reflected genuine repentance, the Book of Judges would have been a lot different from this point on.”

If someone repents, we ought to believe them; but true repentance will yield spiritual fruit.  The person will change.

The Angel of the Lord did not ask for a sacrifice.  He called for obedience.
Later, the author of the Book of Judges, the prophet Samuel, would tell the first King of Israel, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” (First Samuel 15:22).

We don’t normally bring sacrifices to the Lord.  But I think sometimes we offer Him less than confession and repentance.  We make promises to read the Word more… Or to pray longer… Or to attend midweek services.

Those are all good things; things we ought to be doing.  But they won’t avail us any spiritual benefit if we don’t agree with God, and repent.

Sacrifice can never substitute for obedience.

Second generation syndrome doesn’t only affect the next generation.  It can affect any Christian who allows their supernatural walk with the Lord to become superficial.

If you feel as though God the Holy Spirit has been rationed-out to you, realize that He is a torrential flow into, then through you.

I’m not talking about you acting crazy at church.  I’m talking about you acting calm in all of life – whether you are being blessed, or are being buffeted.

I’m talking about you being strengthened to do all things – including enduring the worst imaginable trials, troubles, sorrows, and sufferings.

Even if you are reduced to groanings, He will interpret those to our Father in Heaven, Who saves our tears – each of them – in His bottle.

You believe in God; believe God, right now, for His empowering.

If you’re not a believer, God the Holy Spirit is revealing Jesus to you.  He is freeing your will so that you might receive the Lord and be born-again.

Did You Ever Know That You’re God’s Hero? (Judges 1:1-36)

It’s called the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  They are the series of superhero films based on characters that appear in Marvel Comics.  It started in 2008 with Ironman, and in that time Marvel Studios has produced fourteen films.  There are twelve films more in various stages of production.

That doesn’t count the X-Men franchise, or the DC Comics Extended Universe of films.  Or the Lego Batman Movie, which is awesome.

We love our superheroes.  They’re mostly ordinary humans, and flawed at that.  But they have been granted superpowers, and they rise to the occasion to save the day.

The Book of Judges tells the stories of a series of God’s heroes (and one heroine).  They are ordinary, flawed, human beings, but they arise with God’s empowering to do extraordinary feats in order to save God’s people.  Samson immediately comes to mind.  He was always doing some superhuman feat of strength – like removing the Gates of Gaza and then carrying them almost forty miles.  Estimates of their weight, by conservative archaeologists, vary from a minimum of five-thousand pounds to over twenty-thousand pounds.

It’s too bad God doesn’t raise up heroes and heroines today.  Or does He?

His Holy Spirit lives in you, does He not?  The very Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead.  One paraphrase of Romans 8:11 reads, “It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself?”

Like all superheroes, we have an arch-enemy.  He’s the devil, who the Bible calls the god of this world, and describes as going about like a beast, seeking to devour.  Nevertheless we are told to resist him and he will flee from us.

You are God’s hero; you are God’s heroine.  You can do all things through Jesus Christ Who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13).  As we embark on our verse-by-verse study of the Book of Judges, keep your hero-status in mind.

I’ll organize my thoughts about chapter one around two points: #1 You’re God’s Hero & Your Weakness Is To Disbelieve Him, and #2 You’re God’s Hero & Your Superpower Is To Believe Him.

#1 – You’re God’s Hero & Your Weakness Is To Disbelieve Him (v1-10 & 16-36)

I’ll list the weakness, and you tell me the superhero it affects:

Kryptonite (Superman).
The color yellow (Green Lantern).
Noise pollution (Daredevil).

What about us?  What are our weaknesses?  Each of us would have an extensive list of particular weaknesses.

One that is common to all of us is disbelief.  I don’t mean by that to suggest we are not saved.  I’m talking about not taking God fully at His Word.  We can disbelieve God in times of blessing, and in times of buffeting.

The Israelites in chapter one of Judges provide example after example for us of what disbelief looks, and acts, like.

Jdg 1:1  Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?”

Scholars like Samuel for the author of the Book of Judges.  It tells the mostly sordid story of the history of Israel after Joshua’s death leading up to the establishing of a monarchy when Samuel anoints Saul as Israel’s first king.

Warren Wiersbe describes the period by saying, “Instead of exhibiting spiritual fervor, Israel sank into apathy; instead of obeying the Lord, the people moved into apostasy; and instead of the nation enjoying law and order, the land was filled with anarchy.”

Another commentator described it using the following wordplay: “Rebellion, retribution, repentance, restoration, and rest.”

It’s perhaps best summed-up by the last verse in the book, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25).

Whenever Israel repented, and cried-out the Lord, He would raise-up a judge – a hero – to deliver them.  We’ll see twelve of them.

Joshua led the Israelites to a victory that secured their control of the land.  But there were still Canaanites living there, who needed to be defeated; and that would be the responsibility of each tribe in its own inheritance.

The children of Israel “asked the Lord, saying, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?”  So far, so good.

Jdg 1:2  And the LORD said, “Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand.”

God indicated, probably through the inquiry of the high priest, that the tribe of Judah should go.  He promised to “deliver the land into his hand.”

Jdg 1:3  So Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory.” And Simeon went with him.

Did you hear God mention Simeon?  This may have seemed like a good idea; but it was not God’s idea.

For one thing, God is all about showing that it’s not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit, that He works.  Teaming up with Simeon was a show of physical, not spiritual, strength.

Our first look at disbelief reminds us it is subtle.  God is your strength, but you add some ‘Simeon’ to His leading, thus diminishing Him in the process.  Strength doesn’t come in padding the numbers, but in simple faith.

Jdg 1:4  Then Judah went up, and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they killed ten thousand men at Bezek.

Right now might be a good time to address a criticism some folks level at God.  How can He order the wholesale killing of the inhabitants of Canaan?

First of all, before God ordered their extinction, He called for their eviction.  He would have been content to see them leave.  The Canaanites knew, for at least four hundred years, that the Israelites would one day come to claim their land.  They therefore had plenty of time to leave.

Secondly, they could have gotten saved.  In their first foray into the land, against Jericho, you see Rahab and her family saved and spared.

God was not willing any should perish; but they must either evacuate, or convert.

Choosing to stay was a conscious choice to defy the wrath of God against them.  The Canaanites were heinous, immoral sinners – practicing all manner of sexual perversion, as well as child sacrifice.  God’s wrath was His last resort, but it was deserved.

Judah and Simeon were victorious… Sort of.  They won the battle, but they did it their way, not God’s.  For example we next read,

Jdg 1:5  And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
Jdg 1:6  Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
Jdg 1:7  And Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

This was terrible.  And wrong.  God hadn’t told them to maim their enemies.  This was, as you see in these verses, a pagan custom.

Adoni-Bezek got a false picture of God from the maiming.  It seemed that the God of Israel was no different than his god, Baal.  They both maimed their enemies.

Disbelief manifested itself here as misrepresenting God.  It’s important how we represent God to others.  He is like no other.

Jdg 1:8  Now the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it; they struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.
Jdg 1:9  And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the mountains, in the South, and in the lowland.
Jdg 1:10  Then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. (Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kirjath Arba.) And they killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

For a time, Judah went about God’s business exactly as they should have.  God delivered their enemies into their hand.

This tells us that we can experience blessings even though we have been only partially obedient.  We mustn’t confuse blessings with obedience, because God graciously blesses us despite our shortcomings.

(Skip down to verse sixteen).

Jdg 1:16  Now the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the City of Palms with the children of Judah into the Wilderness of Judah, which lies in the South near Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.

Earlier Moses had invited the Kenites to join the Israelites because of his relationship to them by marriage.  Although they joined the Israelites, they did not join in the conquest, but rather chose to live among the Canaanites.  Eventually they became “Canaanized” and were indistinguishable from those who rejected God.

Some people in the church are in disbelief because they are not saved.  They might volunteer, and seem to be used by God; but it’s not God’s empowering.  They don’t belong to God.

If you are here, and not a Christian – it’s why you are here.  Today you can be saved.

Jdg 1:17  And Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they attacked the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah.
Jdg 1:18  Also Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.
Jdg 1:19  So the LORD was with Judah. And they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland, because they had chariots of iron.

“Could not” means did not when they could have.  Don’t you think God knew about the “chariots of iron” back in verse two when He promised to deliver their enemies into their hand?

We will encounter one woman hero, Deborah.  She will instruct Israel to go against a superior force of nine hundred chariots of iron, to emerge victorious by believing God.

Superiority of any kind is not an issue when you believe God and are obeying Him.

Disbelief here manifested itself as flat-out disobedience.  Probably a little pride was involved.  They must have attributed some or much of their success to their own strength and strategies, because now, faced with a seemingly superior foe, they did not trust God.

Jdg 1:20  And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said. Then he expelled from there the three sons of Anak.

Caleb – while an old man – conquered a difficult mountain region by expelling three giants.  It was not by might… Nor by power… But by his simply believing in God.

The chapter ends with a rapid series of failures.

Jdg 1:21  But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; so the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

Maybe the Benjamites thought they could convert the Jebusites.  Didn’t happen, but the Jebusites did pervert the Benjamites.

An example today might be a Christian knowingly marrying a nonbeliever.

Disbelief is manifested here by compromise, rather than conquest.

Jdg 1:22  And the house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.
Jdg 1:23  So the house of Joseph sent men to spy out Bethel. (The name of the city was formerly Luz.)
Jdg 1:24  And when the spies saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city, and we will show you mercy.”
Jdg 1:25  So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go.
Jdg 1:26  And the man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.

If “the Lord was with them,” why the need for spies?  “Well,” you say, “Joshua sent spies to Jericho, and that turned out great.”

Let’s compare the results:

The spies sent to Jericho preached the Gospel, and Rahab and her family were gloriously saved.
The spies sent to Bethel made a deal with the man, sent him on his way, so he could establish a brand new godless city.

Besides, who needs an “entrance” into the city?  God destroyed Jericho miraculously, not depending on its blueprints to discover its weakness.

Disbelief manifested itself here by trusting in natural means and methods; and in impatience with waiting upon God for further details.

Jdg 1:27  However, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.
Jdg 1:28  And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites under tribute, but did not completely drive them out.

The Canaanites were more determined to stay than the tribe of Manasseh was determined to obey God.  It was just easier to live alongside them.

No one said the Christian life was going to be easy.  Plenty of godly voices, in Scripture, have told us its going to be hard – a battle.  Thus we must remain determined – to believe God in the face of opposition.

Nothing fosters disbelief quite so much as troubles and suffering.

The “tribute” idea may have sounded good, but it wasn’t God’s Word or His will.  Disbelief adds to the Word of God, and thereby undermines His will from being accomplished.

Jdg 1:29  Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer; so the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.
Jdg 1:30  Nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites dwelt among them, and were put under tribute.

This “tribute” strategy caught-on.  In a very bad way.  When I manifest disbelief by disobedience, it encourages others to do the same.  I might seem successful, but that’s never the point.

Jdg 1:31  Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob.
Jdg 1:32  So the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

The wording makes it sound like the Canaanites were doing the Asherites a favor by letting them dwell among them.  That was a total reversal of what God intended.

Disbelief manifested itself here as surrender to the surrounding culture and its values.  Compromise leads to surrender.
Jdg 1:33  Nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but they dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath were put under tribute to them.

Commentators say these places were centers of Canaanite worship.  The Canaanites were all too happy to corrupt the Israelites by introducing them to Baal worship.

We manifest disbelief if we borrow methods of worship from false sources.  Sadly, to make worship ‘fresh,’ churches often borrow from the world, or other religions.  In recent years prayer has taken a hit, as churches established labyrinths for their members to walk through, stopping to contemplate words and objects.  It’s cultic.

Jdg 1:34  And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley;
Jdg 1:35  and the Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; yet when the strength of the house of Joseph became greater, they were put under tribute.
Jdg 1:36  Now the boundary of the Amorites was from the Ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela, and upward.

The tribe of Dan was defeated, “forced… into the mountains.”

When Joshua was defeated at Ai, he sought the Lord.  God revealed to him there was sin in the camp.  Achan had taken some of the spoil, against the expressed will of God.

The Danite’s were defeated, but simply accepted their plight.  They didn’t want to do the hard work necessary to get right with God.

Disbelief here manifested itself as laziness.

You’re a hero; you’re a heroine.  You have to believe it, against what seem to be overwhelming odds, and God’s unexplained delays.

You’ve been promised victory, but it seems you are defeated.  The enemy has come in to rob and kill and steal.  The very ground beneath you has turned to quicksand.

It might be hard to believe, but disbelief is only going to make things worse.  You should adopt as your theme the song by Journey, Don’t Stop Believing.

Maybe we need an example of what the Israelites should have done.  We saw part of it, with Caleb.  There’s a little more to it.

#2 – You’re God’s Hero & Your Superpower Is To Believe Him (v11-15)

Decades earlier the Israelites had stood on the verge of entering the Promised Land at Kadesh Barnea.  Moses sent twelve men in to spy-out the land.

Ten of the spies exaggerated the dangers and difficulties.  Joshua and Caleb gave a good report and urged the people to press forward and by faith conquer the land.  They were outnumbered and overruled.

Because of their disbelief, the Lord told the Israelites that the entire generation over the age of twenty would never enter the Promised Land.  The Israelites were made to wander in the wilderness for nearly forty years while that generation died.

Joshua and Caleb were the exceptions.  After the forty years they would enter the land and receive their inheritance.

Caleb wanted the land he had spied out and was promised to him.  In one sense it was the worst land because it was the most difficult to conquer.  It was mountainous terrain which always put an attacker at a disadvantage.

The cities were heavily fortified – again a tremendous disadvantage to their conquest.  And it was there that a concentration of giants lived – the very giants that had so filled the ten spies and the Israelites with fear forty-five years earlier.

We read that Caleb conquered his land, but there is something more.

Jdg 1:11  From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. (The name of Debir was formerly Kirjath Sepher.)
Jdg 1:12  Then Caleb said, “Whoever attacks Kirjath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Achsah as wife.”
Jdg 1:13  And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife.

This might seem strange, at first, but it’s really very basic parenting.  Dads, don’t you want most, for your daughters, that they marry a solid, committed Christian?  That’s all Caleb wanted, and the times in which he lived required you prove your belief in God by believing God and conquering your land.

In chapter three of Judges we will see Othniel raised-up as a judge – as a hero – to deliver God’s people.  This episode in chapter one is a sort of pre-judge training by Caleb.

Jdg 1:14  Now it happened, when she came to him, that she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you wish?”
Jdg 1:15  So she said to him, “Give me a blessing; since you have given me land in the South, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

On a practical level, a “field” with no water was useless.  Achsah wanted the water rights.  She asked and Caleb gave her more than she asked for.

The fact he gave her more indicated he wanted them to ask for the field and for the water rights.  So why not just give it to them from the start?

I think that Caleb was an example to them, and to us.  A spiritual example.  If they wanted anything from their dad, all they had to do was ask, and he would give them not just what they asked for, but much more.

Sound like any dad you know?  Maybe this will help:

Luke 11:11  If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
Luke 11:12  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Luke 11:13  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Your heavenly Father wants to give you the good gift of the Holy Spirit in abundance.

God the Holy Spirit is compared to springs of water.  Jesus said,

John 7:37  … “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
John 7:38  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
John 7:39  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive…

In the Luke passage Jesus was talking about believers who have already been born-again asking for more of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  In John we’re promised the influence and presence of the Spirit will be like rivers of living water flowing into, through, and out from us.

We have water rights.  We need only believe that as we ask, we receive – every good and spiritual resource we need to conquer.

The heroes and the heroine of the Book of Judges will be empowered by God the Holy Spirit.  He will temporarily come upon them, and they will deliver God’s people.

He’s in us, permanently; and He’s promised to continually come upon us, if we simply ask, believing by faith.

Your superpower is to believe God.  Believe Him no matter how dark things seem, right now.  No matter how overwhelming your enemy.

Take your stand, in the field of battle, and let the Lord flow through you.