Step by Step through the Old Testament

Step by Step through the Old Testament

Carlton L. Arnold, Teacher

Week 24

Joshua 24 & Judges – Rebellion, Repentance, Retribution, and Restoration

We’re going to finish Joshua and Judges this morning. In Joshua, the Israelites are in the Land that God has promised them or given to them. All they have to do is take possession of it. We’ve already read certain items that said they did not destroy everyone. There was sin and broken fellowship. I want to quickly finish Joshua.

Joshua 24:1-2

Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: `Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshipped other gods.

You may have recalled this when we went through it. Abraham is where we started with the Nation of Israel. Do you remember the most famous chapter in the whole Bible? Genesis 12. That’s where God made all the promises to Abraham. His father’s name was Terah. What does this tell you about the kind of family life Abraham grew up with? What does this verse tell you about the religious conditions in the home? Idols. They worshipped other gods. As Abraham grew up, he learned about these idols that his father was worshipping. This is a statement to that effect.

Joshua 24:3-4

But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

We know that. That’s what we studied in Exodus.

Skip down to verse 11. This is a little history review. Joshua is preparing to die so he’s reviewing. It’s his farewell address.

Joshua 24:11

"`Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands.

There’s God saying again, "I’ve already given them into your hands."

Joshua 24:12-14

I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you--also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.' "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

So God is reminding them again to take all the idols they have, get rid of them, and worship God alone. Does everybody see that? God wants them to worship Him and Him alone. Is that clear? That’s something God has made very clear to them. After the success we’ve seen and all the miracles (with you as part of the Israelite Nation) are you ready to serve the Lord faithfully? You absolutely should be. We’re going to find out that they don’t. But you absolutely should be.

Joshua 24:15a

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you

If you look at the original Hebrew for that, it means "evil" or "offensive." "If serving the Lord seems offensive to you…"

Joshua 24:15b

then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

How many of you have a plaque like that in your house? "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Do you see the commitment you are making with your plaque? You’re saying, "There will be no idols. It’s God and God alone." This is what Joshua was telling them. He’s saying, "Make up your minds. Which is it going to be?" It’s God and God alone.

Joshua 24:16-18

Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God."

"Forsake" means, "reject."

It sounds really clear, doesn’t it? It sounds great like they’re ready to go, they’re fine, they have their Nation together, and they’re going to serve God and God alone. Does everybody see that? It looks really nice, crisp, and clean.

Joshua 24:19

Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.

Huh?

Did you know that as a Christian, you can’t really be a Christian yourself? You know that. I mean you can act like a Christian, but as far as being a Christian, God does all the work through His Holy Spirit. We’ve talked about this. You cannot do it alone and you cannot do it yourself. This is what he’s telling them. You think you can do it but you can’t. You have to rely on God with everything you do—even being "holy," "religious," and "righteous." You have to rely on God. It’s the same with Christians today.

Joshua 24:20

If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you."

This is what we’re going to see in Judges.

Joshua 24:21

But the people said to Joshua, "No! We will serve the LORD."

Stubborn, obstinate, stiff-necked people!

Joshua 24:22-23

Then Joshua said, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD." "Yes, we are witnesses," they replied. "Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."

Do you think they still had some foreign gods? It’s apparently so. Somebody was still dragging along their little bag of idols. He’s saying, "Throw them away. Get rid of them. Let’s just serve the Lord, Himself."

Joshua 24:24-25

And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and obey him." On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws.

That’s the end of Joshua.

Tell me. How’s it going for the Israelite Nation? Would you like to be there for all this "worship," "righteousness," "God and God alone," and "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"? Wouldn’t you like to be there? What do you think will be the next thing to happen? They’ll serve God? That’s the end of Joshua.

Judges

I’d like to hear from some of you who’ve read Judges. Give me some words describing your reaction to Judges.

God accommodated the people wanting to do their own thing by giving them judges to lead them out of slavery from the very nations they were suppose to have destroyed.

Fifth graders think it’s "gross." They just love Judges. They love the story of Samson. "That’s just great! He takes the jawbone of an ass and kills thousands of Philistines. That’s awesome!" They love the story of the woman who nailed the tent peg through the guy’s head into the ground. They love that.

Is this enough to give you an idea of what Judges is about? It’s amazing to come out of Joshua with all the victories, successes, and clear understanding that they are to serve God and God alone and to move into a period called, "Judges." We’ve seen many different time periods covered—days, months, years, and hundreds of years. The period of Judges takes about 300 years in the history of the Jews. At the end of Judges, where are the Israelites? Very low. Their relationship with God almost doesn’t exist. I don’t even want to teach Judges. You know how I say, "This chapter is my favorite or that book is one of my favorite."? Judges will not be one of them. It’s because the Israelites go through a cycle or loop at least seven times during this 300 years. I think the reason I don’t like it may be because it hits too close to home with my relationship with God. It may hit too close to your relationship with God.

From Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee - Volume II - Joshua Through Psalms
(c) 1982 by J. Vernon McGee

Joshua was one of those mountaintop experiences, like, "How could anything ever go wrong again?" Self and flesh come in and they dive down into deep depression and they get away from God. That’s what this diagram shows. They were serving God, did evil, forsook God, followed their own way, and were sold into slavery. God says, "I judge you." The Philistines and others took them over and they were in servitude. Then they cried out to God, "God, we have sinned against you! Please forgive us." They turned to God and repented. God raised up judges—not like the judges we have today. They led the people for a period of time and usually did not lead the whole Nation—only certain tribes. They did not have the kings and organized armies that we’ll read about in 1 & 2 Samuel. The tribes settled into their own lands and kept to themselves. It was very hard to bring them together as a country and a nation to protect. God raised up judges, the people were delivered, and they started serving God again. Time would go by (between five and fifty years) and they’d do it again.

Does that sound like something in your life? You can say, "How could I ever, ever, ever forget God’s goodness, kindness, mercy, faithfulness, etc.?" Then two or three weeks go by and you haven’t thought about God. You woke up in the morning and went about your own business. Two or three days pass or two or three weeks pass. You never thought about God. What did you do? You forsook God. You’re following your own way. Maybe that’s why Judges just doesn’t come out as "wholesome" or "healthy." It hits too close to home.

There were seven "apostasies." Does everyone know what I mean by "apostasy"? What does "apostasy" mean? You’ve heard of it before, right? <Not many hands.> "Apostasy in the church." It means, "falling away," or "getting away from the truth." Isn’t that what they did? They fell away from the one and only, true God and went their own way. Many people believe that some churches today are in a state of apostasy. They are a "church," they have a cross on their steeple, they may sing hymns, and they may talk about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but they’ve fallen away from the truth. They’re in a state of apostasy. They’ve gotten away from the truth of who God is. God has His absolute truth. That’s what we want to discover. No matter how much we want to twist and contort it to fit our lifestyle, it’s still God’s absolute truth. One of the things He says over and over is that it is God and God alone—not the idols.

As you read Judges, examine yourself and ask, "Do I have idols in my own life? Are there ‘idols’ that really take precedence over God?" If you want to hit home inside your heart (God looks at your heart), wherever your heart is, there is your treasure. The heart is deceitful above anything we can imagine. We can fool ourselves and convince ourselves of something and ignore or contort God’s absolute truth. We need to ask God, "God, show me what my real, prized possessions are." Then compare that with His absolute truth. He says, "Him and Him alone." In Judges, they do not. They get away from God and get into this cycle.

Joshua	Judges
Victory	Defeat
Freedom	Servitude
Faith	Unbelief
Joy	Sorrow
Strength	Weakness
Sin judged	Sin disregarded
Progress	Decline
Fidelity to the Lord	Apostasy from the Lord

Take a look at this comparison. This is why Judges is not fun to read. It’s a really strange book but it is a book of truth. God included it in the Bible and wants us to study and read it. It talks about the Nation of Israel. If they had gone in and possessed the Land the way they should have, Judges would never have occurred, in my opinion. But because they left some people there to intermarry with, influence them, and get them back to idols, God had to judge them. That’s what you’ll read.

In the book of Judges, God used ordinary men and women who actually had some kind of weakness. There are twelve men and one woman who are judges. I’m not going to read all of them. I’m going to pick, primarily, Gideon and Samson. I’m going to build a case for Judges and cover Gideon and Samson. How many of you know about Gideon? What was the significant thing about Gideon? He put out the fleece. He hid. He wasn’t a very significant person, but God called him. What about Samson? What was the source of Samson’s strength? <His hair.> How many say, "His hair."? We are convinced it was his hair, but if you read it very carefully, it was the Spirit of the Lord. When his hair got cut off, the Bible says that Samson did not know that the Lord had left him. It wasn’t that his hair was cut off but that the Lord had left him. We’re going to read these.

I’m going to build a case for why they had such problems in this Promised Land.

Judges 1:19-21

The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots. As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak. The Benjamites, however, failed to dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.

What are we reading here? They went in and took possession of the Land, but what did they not do? They didn’t clear everyone out. They stopped. They got tired or weary or something. God said that He wanted to do this for them but they failed to carry it all the way through.

Judges 1:27-28

But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely.

It’s getting pretty clear now.

Yeah, they put them in forced labor, but they didn’t drive them out. Is that what God told them to do? No. He said, "Get rid of them. Destroy them. Charam."

By the way, where did the tribe, Manasseh, come from? Joseph’s son. Joseph didn’t have a tribe but his two sons did. Real hard question: who was the other one? Ephraim.

Judges 2:16

Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

This is not a "judge" like today (sitting in a court of law). These were temporary leaders that God called out to save or return the people to God. That’s what they called a "judge." You have to think about that—it’s someone God raised up to lead the people.

Judges 2:17

Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshipped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD's commands.

Do you understand the generations we’ve been through now? We had a generation to come out of Egypt. How did they fair? They didn’t fair well. They were killed off in the wilderness. God said, "Because of your unbelief at Kadesh-barnea, you will wander in the wilderness for 40 years and everyone over 20 will die." So that generation went away. The next generation came in with Joshua. What did they do? They said, "Well, let’s go in and take the Land." They were trying to do the right things and obey God but they didn’t drive everyone out. Now we have the next generation (the grandchildren of those that died in the wilderness). What are they doing? Forsaking God, worshipping other idols, etc. Do you see the point here of the complete continuum?

Judges 2:18

Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them.

This sounds just like Egypt, doesn’t it? It’s like they went back to Egypt and are back in slavery.

Judges 2:19

But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshipping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

What is wrong with these people? We’re sitting here today saying, "Couldn’t they get their act together?" What is wrong with the Israelites? They got caught up in the world around them. They don’t have a lot of faith.

How do you do with this world, as a Christian? On Mondays, how do you do? Aren’t we just like them? Let’s talk about why it happens to us. If we’re saying, "How could it happen to them? I mean, they saw this and heard that. They saw God work here and there." We see God working miraculously and what He’s done for us through Jesus Christ. Why are we similar to the Israelites in terms of: where does it break down? How can we go to church on Sunday, have this great, mountaintop experience, and yet it breaks down on Monday. What happens?

<We take our eyes off the Lord and get them on other things—self-conceit, self-control, self. We just don’t think about God.>

Are there things in your home that ensnare you and take you away from God? You can say to yourself, "But I can control it. I can turn it off any time I want. I can unplug it any time I want. I can give this thing away if I want to. It wouldn’t bother me one iota." What is it that is within us (and was within them) that causes us to act and behave that way? Even though we know that God has done all these things for us, why do we keep becoming ensnared? Flesh, self, free-will. It seems easier, doesn’t it? Here’s the world all around us. Tomorrow, if they came out with the latest, greatest gadget, as quick as we could, all of us would try to get one of those gadgets. After we get one, we want two or three.

<Also, we see what everyone else is doing that’s really wrong: drugs, alcohol, Jerry Springer, etc. So your little thing is not that bad.>

How about that? We compare ourselves to others and say, "Well, God can’t be too upset with me so I can go ahead and do this."

That is interesting. The consequences of not being one with God here on this earth are that we break fellowship and lose the joy of the Lord. We don’t have joy in our lives. Whatever you’re going after and whatever you keep putting first in your life—there is going to come a day when it’s going to be empty. It will still be there. You’ll still be bowing down to it and worshipping it. (Not literally, but being involved with it.) But you’ll say, "What is the sense in this? What’s the use? This doesn’t bring me joy, happiness, peace, or contentment. This past Christmas, I thought that if this or that happened, I’d never be depressed or disappointed again." And what happens? You’re depressed and disappointed again. Why? Because there’s only One that can give you the peace that passes all understanding: God. Yet we still go after these other things because the world says, "This is what you have to have. This is what you have to do. This is what you have to be involved in."

<It’s like when I get up early in the morning to have my personal bible study, I have a better day. But the next day, when the alarm goes off, do I want to get up? No. I hit the snooze. Even though I know. But it’s a lot easier to sleep in than to get up and do it. Even though I know.>

You have to go back and look at the night before and ask, "How could I have done something differently last night to make sure I would get up? What did I sacrifice that I didn’t want to spend time with God the night before? What did I decide to do? I wanted to watch the news at 11:00 or I wanted to finish this project or effort." Whenever you do that, what have you just done? All of you have been in this same boat. We sacrifice our priorities and say, "What I’m doing now is more important than me spending time with God tomorrow morning. I will not prepare myself to spend time with God. I don’t go to bed early enough. I don’t align things such that when I get up, I’m dedicated to Him." Or it could be at night, sacrificing your time with God. That’s where it starts. How easy is that? It’s very easy because the world is distracting you. The flesh is within you. The heart is deceitful above all that you have. Here we come with the Christian today. The Holy Spirit is within each one of us, if you’re a Christian. If you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have the Holy Spirit. You ask the Holy Spirit, "Holy Spirit, show me when this starts. Show me how this little incident here will (two days from now) lead me to disobey God, not observe Him, or not worship Him." That’s what happens.

These Israelites didn’t just get up one day and say, "Oh, we forgot about God." It was day after day after day of putting practices into their lives that when they got out so far, they forgot God and they were worshipping idols. We look at them and ask, "How could they do that?" Because it was one step at a time until they got so far away, they couldn’t see God. That’s how we do it. Anybody who’s ever experienced being separated from God (as a Christian), if you go back and look at it, it was one day at a time. You kept forgetting, kept putting priorities higher than God, and kept getting involved in more and more "things." Then you’re so far away, you ask, "How did I get here? How did I get so far away from God?" That’s what the Israelites did. Judges is talking about us and how we do things and get away from God. We go through this cycle and the "slavery" is to this world. But then we cry out to God and say, "God, where are you?" He will deliver us. 1 John 1:9, "If we confess, acknowledge and agree with Him, on our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That’s what He promises to us.

When God gave the decrees and commands, what did He say to do? Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and as you are living, teach your children. Talk to your children. Talk to them at night. Talk to them during the day. Do you all remember reading that in Exodus? He told them that. Why? Why was it so important? Because of what we just said. We reach a point of understanding and God’s revelation to us—it just doesn’t come automatically that because the children are in our household, "somehow or another, they’ll see me, they’ll understand how and why I do it, they’ll become great Christians, and everything will be fine and dandy." No. It takes discipline (teaching for progression, not punishment), talking about God, and letting your children see God working in your lives, where you acknowledge God before them. It’s not just that you hope they "get it." I think a lot of Christians do that. They look up and say, "Well, whenever children are around, I don’t want to say certain words, watch certain TV programs, let them see certain books I have, etc. When they’re not around, I can do whatever I want." What’s wrong with that? "I am on the throne. I get to decide what’s right and what’s wrong—not God. I’m protecting my children from this world and they’ll have a good relationship with God." Your children know. They’re not dummies. They hear and pick up things that you’d be amazed at. They look and see how you interact with others, how you talk on the phone to other people, and what you say when telemarketers call and how you hang up the phone. They see you out in the grocery stores and out shopping. They see you at fellowships or picnics. They see how you act and behave and they hear what you talk about. Sometimes we’re not on guard with our mouths. We say things and the kids think, "Well, that’s how you are supposed to behave." It’s very important and a very good point. We must teach our children or they will not grow up in the Lord. They don’t have a chance.

Judges 2:20-21

Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.

There’s part of the judgment. He said, "I’ve given it to them. They’re not willing to take it. Therefore I reserve it." It’s back to the wilderness. Do you remember the wilderness after Kadesh-barnea? They realized they sinned, were disobedient to God, and said, "OK God. We’ll go in." God said, "No. You go back to the wilderness." They said, "No. We’ll go in. We’ll take the land." They went in of their own strength and flesh and what happened? They were defeated. When God tells you to do something, make sure you understand what He’s telling you to do.

Judges 2:22-23

I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did." The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

He didn’t drive them out. He’s testing them. He asked, "Can you live in this world without being contaminated by the people that you didn’t drive out? Can you do that?" That’s what He’s testing them for. We’re going to find out that they fail.

Judges 3:5-6

The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

Now again, don’t ask, "How could they do that?" Men, when you marry a woman, guess what happens to your brain. <It shrinks. Ha ha.> It is amazing: the power of a woman over a man, a husband. It is just amazing. It doesn’t take long before the woman is so influential in that man’s life that he will change. And then the parents of that man (who thought they knew that person) will ask, "Why are you doing that? Why do you live like that? What happened to you?"

They served other gods. That’s the influence that happens with marriage. They decided to intermarry.

There’s another cycle (from J. Vernon McGee). It’s fascinating to read the digression of the Nation of Israel. They have religious apostasy meaning, they get away from God. Once they get away, they have moral decay. They start doing anything they want, deciding what they want, etc. When they get into a state of moral decay, they have political anarchy or political apostasy. Finally, there’s destruction. It’s a cycle they go through. It’s true. Religious apostasy (getting away from God) leads to moral decay then to political anarchy and destruction.

I bring that up because you can think about the United States. Where are we in religious apostasy? Are we getting away from God’s absolute truth and taking whatever we want and contorting it to fit our lifestyles? This week, there are a series of articles on abortion because of the Roe v. Wade decision. It’s interesting to read the articles, especially those that interviewed women who had abortions but now regret it and women who had abortions but don’t regret it—and to see how they justified their actions. The one who doesn’t regret it says, "At 15 years old, there’s no way I could’ve taken care of the child and I’m still convinced of that." She’s still convinced of that. The one who had an abortion and had a change of heart—read her story. She says, "I can’t see a 15-year-old girl now without thinking, ‘My child would have been 15 years old.’" She talks about her disappointment and despair. Church groups have reached out to her and now she says, "I understand that God has forgiven me because when Christ was on the cross, He asked, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’" That’s how God works; that’s his desire to have a relationship with each of us. The first woman did not want to see God’s truth about the holiness of life. We get to the point where we take something God has said is wrong, we mish-mash it, and black and white becomes gray. It becomes so ill defined that someone says, "It depends on how you define the word ‘is.’" It’s just amazing. When we were going through all those interviews and interrogations of President Clinton, I thought of Judges. We don’t like it but that’s the way it is.

Judges 3:7

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

We will talk about those because we’ll see them come up over and over.

Judges 3:8-11

The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became Israel's judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Do you see how the summary was in chapter 2 and now this is an example in chapter 3? I’m not going through all the Judges but this is an example. For some of the judges, the Bible says that he lived, God raised him up, and then he died. That’s all it said about him. Another says a judge was raised up, he gave his sons thirty donkeys, and then he died. When you read it, Judges is not a book that explains everything about all the judges. It seems that the people were just going through the cycle. God raised up a judge, he’d deliver them, he died, and the people moved on. Forty years later, they’d go into apostasy and the cycle would repeat.

Judges 3:12

Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.

Next time you read Judges, you may want to highlight all these key verses on when they came out of slavery, God delivered them through a judge, and then they went back in.

Judges 6:1a

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD

Do you see the wording there? That’s what you’ll find…over and over again in Judges.

Judges 6:1b-2

and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.

Who’s running from whom? The Israelites are running from the Midianites. God gave them over and they have to leave.

Judges 6:3

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country.

Does this sound like when God said, "I’m giving you the Land and here are cities that you don’t have to toil for."? And now, here they are toiling for food and as soon as they have crops, Midianites, Amalekites, and others are taking their food. It’s kind of like role reversal.

Judges 6:7-10

When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. I said to you, `I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me."

You’ve become just like them. Remember the word "holy." What does "holy" mean? Separate. He said, "I want you to be separate so that other nations will see what a great God you have." We read that. Now the Israelite Nation has no influence on anybody in the world. Do you understand that? The saddest thing is for a Christian not to have any influence on others because of the way they live. It’s sad. The Israelites are the same way.

Judges 6:11a

The angel of the LORD came

Who is the "angel of the Lord"? The pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Have you all been convinced of that yet? There’s more to it.

Judges 6:11b

and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

This is interesting. When you wanted to separate chaff from the grain, you went up to a mountaintop where the wind was blowing. The winepress was located at the bottom of hills so that you could take the grapes downhill using gravity. This was role reversal. Gideon was down in the winepress trying to throw grain into the air to separate the chaff. You know this was a miserable condition. The angel of the Lord is coming down to Gideon (hiding from the Midianites). This is great!

Judges 6:12

When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."

I love that. Would you call Gideon a "mighty warrior" at this time? He’s hiding from the Midianites, down in the winepress, trying to chaff grain. It’s unbelievable.

Judges 6:13-14a

"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, `Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian." The LORD turned to him

What happened to "the angel of the Lord"? What does it say now? "The LORD," with capital letters in my Bible.

Judges 6:14b-15

and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" "But Lord, " Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."

There is always a "But Lord," isn’t there?

You can’t get any lower than Gideon: threshing grain in a winepress, the weakest tribe, least in his family, etc.

Judges 6:16

The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

There are some other things you can read about that I have to skip. Gideon went out, got an army together, and said, "Let’s beat up the Midianites."

Judges 7:2-3a

The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, `Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.'"

In other words, God is saying, "You know, if I let you go now, when you defeat them, guess what you’re going to say? ‘I did it.’" Do you understand now that God works with weakness? God works when you are weak. He doesn’t work when you are strong because guess what you think. "I don’t need God. I’m OK. I’m fine." This is the lesson that God is teaching Gideon here.

Judges 7:7-8a

The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place." So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

They start out with 30,000 men and God gets it down to 300. God says, "I’m going to save Israel with 300 men." What does that take? Faith. A miracle.

In your life, God wants to work when you’re weak. I don’t mean that you’re weak to the point of lying on the floor and you can’t move. It’s not that kind of weakness. I’m talking about the point where you say, "You know, God, I don’t see a way out of this. I need you. I do not know how to resolve this situation. I need you." That’s when God works.

When we’re high and mighty and everything’s going good, what does God say? Praise Him. Thank Him for all the good things. Don’t forget about Him. In Proverbs it says, "God, please, I pray that you not make me poor that I might curse you and don’t make me rich that I might forget you." (Proverbs 30:7-9) That’s so true of us today. In the New Testament, Paul says, "No matter what condition I’m in, whether poor, rich, hungry, thirsty, or whatever, I will give you thanks and praise you. No matter what condition I am in, I will be content, God, because I have you." (Philippians 4:11-13) That’s what we need to be after. No matter what’s going on around us. If a hurricane hits you this week at work or at home, people are crying and upset, you’re down and depressed, or things just aren’t working out, the first thing you should say is, "God, I know you’re with me. You’re the calmness and peace that I need. I know that you’re with me." Then let God work out everything else. Keep doing what you’re supposed to do but don’t let the world overcome you. We learned last week that God has already caused you to overcome the world because of Jesus Christ. You are now an overcomer because of Him. We learned that at the end of last week. Therefore nothing can come against you. God is trying to get you down to the point where you can’t boast of yourself.

Chapter 8 covers Gideon’s legacy or influence. This is what I want you to see. Gideon delivers them. It’s a great story. Read it. Read about the fleece—it’s a test that Gideon laid on the Lord (Jesus Christ, pre-incarnate). He said, "This morning, let there be dew on the fleece but none on the ground and another morning, let there be dew on the ground but none on the fleece." It was an amazing test of God.

Judges 8:22

The Israelites said to Gideon, "Rule over us--you, your son and your grandson--because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian."

There is a political/governmental thing going on here. We have the 12 tribes. I told you that they weren’t working together during the period of Judges. They were not one Nation. This says, "The Israelites," as one Nation, asked Gideon to be their king or ruler." Do you hear that?

Judges 8:23

But Gideon told them, "I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you."

Is that wise? You’d better believe it. That’s great!

Judges 8:24

And he said, "I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder." (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)

They had beaten up on the descendants of the Ishmaelites.

Judges 8:25-27

They answered, "We'll be glad to give them." So they spread out a garment, and each man threw a ring from his plunder onto it. The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels' necks. Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshipping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Now how about that? How about that? He was going good and then what happened? What was Gideon attracted to? Things, gold, things of the world, etc. He made this ephod (an ornamental breastpiece) and said, "Hey! Look at this ephod. This is a great ephod." But what did Israel do after that? They made it a "holy/religious" thing. Do you remember the bronze snake in the desert? I told you how they saved that bronze snake and carried it on with them. They carried it until Hezekiah (in Kings) goes in to clean everything out. He throws the bronze serpent away because it had become an idol. People were worshipping the bronze snake, the thing. They were worshipping the thing that was created and not the Creator. The same thing happened here.

Gideon dies.

Judges 8:33-35

No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show kindness to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for them.

God raised a judge. Everything went great. When the judge died, what happened? Israel goes right back to worshipping their idols.

Just think about that in your own life. What do you do?

We don’t have time to get to Samson, but read chapter 13.

Judges 13

Samson was miraculously born. The angel of the Lord came again (and again, I believe He is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ). He’s a Nazarite. "Nazarite" is described back in Numbers as someone whose hair wasn’t cut, didn’t drink strong drinks, etc. They took a vow to God. People believe that John the Baptist was a Nazarite, for example.

Judges 13:8-18

Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: "O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born." God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. The woman hurried to tell her husband, "He's here! The man who appeared to me the other day!" Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, "Are you the one who talked to my wife?" "I am," he said. So Manoah asked him, "When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy's life and work?" The angel of the LORD answered, "Your wife must do all that I have told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her." Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you." The angel of the LORD replied, "Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD." (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the LORD.) Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?" He replied, "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding. "

Again, I’m thinking that this is not just an angel. This is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ.

Judges 13:19-22

Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD. "We are doomed to die!" he said to his wife. "We have seen God!"

That’s the story of the birth of Samson.

Judges 13:24-25

The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

You can read the story of Samson. You all have seen Victor Mature in Samson and Delilah? Samson and Delilah are in here. If you read it very carefully, you’ll see the true source of his strength.

Judges 16:19-20

Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

Delilah tried to get Samson to tell her what his strength was. He joked around with her three or four times. He finally told her it was his hair. They cut his hair off.

"But he did not know that the LORD had left him." That’s why it was the Spirit of the Lord on him and not his hair. The hair represented a vow to God. He broke that vow and the Spirit of the Lord left him.

Judges 21:25

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.

This is the summary of all of Judges.

That was their problem. Everyone did what they thought was "right" in their own eyes. Everyone did what they thought they could get by with or whatever they wanted to do. This is very much like the mentality today, "I can do anything I want anytime I want." We do not believe God owns us. "I’m still free to do anything I want and whatever I see fit." That was the problem in Judges.

We skipped a lot of Judges, but how was it? Read it. If you have any fifth grade boys, read it to them…they’ll probably love it. Next week we’ll cover Ruth and get into 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel picks up the speed a little bit. We get into a nation more formed. It becomes more of a monarchy with a king. We’ll see that in 1 Samuel.

Prayer:

Father, God, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the book of Judges. It’s a tough book to understand and comprehend because there’s so much misery, shame, and horrors—things that we don’t want to talk about or think about, God. But it does speak to us about how we are so influenced and distracted by this world. Father, we need to remind and encourage each other to stay with you. Everyone here, God, needs to talk to one another to ask, "Are you in the Word this week? Are you praying? Are you seeking God in all your decisions?" That’s the only way we can be separate from this world, Father, and not have this world become part of us. Father, forgive us when that happens. We appreciate your patience. We thank you for your faithfulness. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

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