Today we are going to see God’s first instruction to Gideon after he called him to save his people.

Let’s read the text first and see what God has for us here.

Ok, so let’s talk through what Just happened. Gideon has just been called by God to be the deliverer of His people. We know that they have been sold into the hand of Midian and were desperate for help, so they cried out to God to be delivered. So the people of God are prepped to be delivered. They have asked for help and God has met with Gideon and told him that he will be the one to deliver Israel, then what? The very next thing to do to prepare God’s people for deliverance is not invade the territory, or gather the army. It was to clean house. One of the chief reasons God had handed His people over was because of their worship of false Idols. We know from earlier in this book, and also in Joshua that God’s warning to His people was focused on them not to fall into the idolatry of the people they take the land from. Not only did they not completely drive them out, they had added these idols to their worship. They forgot that they are meant to be a holy people, set apart for the Lord’s work. So, on the same night that God called Gideon, he instructed him to tear down the altar to Baal, and the Ashera next to it, and build and altar and sacrifice to the Lord. Now, if you’re not careful, you could miss this, as I did the first couple times I read it. Whose house is the altar to Baal in? His Father’s, and who lives in the town with Gideon? Well based on the text, the Midianites didn’t move into the Israelites villages, they swooped in whenever it was time for harvest and stole their produce and went back to their own land. So we can assume that the village was mostly, if not entirely Israelites. These are the People of God who have built altars for false Gods and the Lord will not share the hearts of His people. So he wants that altar torn down. So, he tells Gideon to tear it down. 

Now, God gives clear instructions to Gideon to take the second Bull. Now, in the text it isn’t clear that there were two bulls, or if it was one. The word translated “and” here can also be translated “namely”. What is amazing though is that God instructs him to use a bull to tear down the altar of Baal, whose symbol was a bull. And then he is told to sacrifice that bull on the wood of the Ashera. So, God is not only destroying these false idols, he is doing it with incredible imagery and irony to show that they are no Gods at all. 

Well, here is where we see Gideons “great valor” again right? Ha! not! He is afraid of his own family and the others in the town, so he waits till nightfall and then obeys God’s command to tear it down. 

Well, then day breaks, and the people of the town see what he has done and they are hot! They are out for blood. So, the town folks are not out for figurative blood, they say to Gideon’s father Joash, “Bring out your son, so that he may die!” They really want to kill him don’t they? It is no wonder that Gideon was a little scared to do this in broad daylight. 

So then Joash reveals that he is a pretty wise man, he says to them, If Baal is a god, then you should not have to fight for him, he will avenge himself. Essentially revealing that at least Joash had an understanding that they were not worshipping a true God, but a false God. he also states that if you do avenge Baal yourself, you will be dead tomorrow. The implications is that if you fight for your false god and destroy the true God’s deliverer, you will find out who is a true God and who is not. In this brilliant stroke of wisdom, he is at the same moment protecting his son from a lynch-mob and challenging the faith of those who worshipped Baal. They were stuck, if they killed Gideon, they were proving that Baal had no real power. So then from then on, they called Gideon a name that would be a constant reminder of his transgression against the people of the village. To them, it was a curse, but what it really was was an indictment of the false God they worshipped.

OK, So that’s a recap of what we read, let’s look at some of the truths contained in this story. Three aspects of this story I want to draw out this morning.

1. God is a jealous God:
   Exodus 20:1-6
   1 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before[fn] me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands[fn] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 34:10-16

10 And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

11 “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. 13 You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

You can also look at Numbers 25:11, Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9, 6:15, Joshua 24:19, Ezekiel 36:6, 39:25, Joel 2:18, Nehemiah 1:2, Zechariah 1:14, 8:2. 

Now, let me clarify something that I am sure no one in here thinks, but just in case, I want to make this clear. One time I heard a Quote from the great prophetess of our culture, Oprah that when she learned in church that God was a jealous God, she was turned off, because she thought, “why would God be jealous of us?” Well, clearly she missed the point of God’s jealousy. God is not jealous of us, He is jealous for us. There is a big difference. The imagery that is most often tied to His jealousy is that of a husband and wife. When two people are married, they covenant to give themselves to one another and be satisfied in one another alone. If one party breaks that covenant, they are robbing the other of the satisfaction, intimacy, protection and love that is meant to exist between them alone. Now, we know on a human level, no one will every be totally satisfied in their spouse, but the analogy doesn’t fall apart when you apply it to God and His people, it gets stronger. God is the self sufficient creator of all things, and he created us to be totally satisfied in Him alone, there is no other person or thing that will every satisfy us. he made a covenant with His people to be their God. Whenever we stray from His love and seek after Idols, we are saying to Him that we are not satisfied in Him and we will seek that satisfaction in a different place. And yet, we will never find that satisfaction except in Him alone. What that does to the heart of God is not only break it, but it makes him jealous for us to experience the satisfaction that can only be found in destroying the false Gods that our hearts have “whored after” as he put it in Exodus 34, and return to Him. Only then will our should find the rest that we so long for, and in fact were created for. God’s Jealously, does not negate His love, it is fueled by and adorns His love. Just as no loving Husband would be fine with his wife pursuing other relationships, our God love us so much that his anger burns hot against the idols that would tempt us from His embrace. 

2. Idols Are difficult to tear down: When Gideon got the instructions to tear down the altar to Baal and Ashera, he know it would be dangerous. He knew there would be push back, he knew he was taking his life into his own hands. This is the danger of confronting the idols we see in our own hearts and in the hearts of others. You see, the trust that we should have in God for our protection and for our comfort and our satisfaction has been placed in those idols. So when someone like Gideon comes along and tears them down, or when God sovereignly acts to remove the idols of your heart from your life, it will not be an easy task. We will get mad, and defensive and push people away and maybe even like the people in Gideon’s village, we may want to kill someone to keep our idols. You know, there is a veteran detective that says that all murder comes down to three motives, Love, Money, or Pride. I say that all three of those could be poured into the same bucket called idolatry. 

3. Idols must be torn down: If you understand the true nature of the Jealousy of God in light of His love and his all satisfying presence, you will understand that they must be destroyed to deliver us. Just as this is the first step in the deliverance of Gods people by Gideon, this is also the first step in the deliverance of a Christian. If you are putting your trust in something other than God, you will never fully experience the satisfaction of knowing and being known by God, and the joy of hearing the words that God spoke to Gideon last week, “I will Be With You!”
   The thing about the call to Christ is that it is not Christ added onto what I already have, it is Christ, to the exclusion of all others. That means bad stuff, like we all think about, but it also means good stuff too. Christ is your satisfaction, to the exclusion of your spouse, your kids, your job, your church family, your political party, your race, your nationality, your education, your, whatever else you can think of. Now, Christ has a lot to say about all those things and how they fit into his call for you to walk out your relationship with him in your marriage and your parenting, and your workplace ect. Satisfaction in Christ will make those things pleasing and wonderful in their proper place, but those things may never supplant, or take the place of your satisfaction and your hope being placed fully on Him and Him alone. When you experience that transformation, there is no area of your life that is not transformed then by the total worship and adoration of Him. And so, if there is an ongoing idolatry in your life like there was in the town Gideon lived in, God will ask you to tear it down, and if you don’t and you are truly His child he will tear it down. He will allow you to experience hardship, and trials that will expose your idols and bring you to the end of yourself. Not all trials are for this, but if you are clinging to an idol, he will.
    Matt Chandler says it better than I can:
   “If God loves you, if he would be merciful, he will lead you to the end of yourself. It’s a humbling thing to surrender our life to Christ, to acknowledge, “I cannot do this. You can.” If you’re still a little bit confused about the refining work of God and how Christians might rejoice in difficult times, it is those difficult times that remind us our deep need. It’s why sometimes it’s not the mercy of God to bless us with a bunch of toys and wealth and those things but rather to, in his mercy, wound us for our good, for our eternal good!

Here arrogant boasting is removed. … If you are a Christian who walks with a swagger (like you saved you, you’ve sanctified you, you’re the one driving this), I would… I’m giving you permission. I’d be very nervous, because the Lord tends to break hips and hands in that arena. God will not tolerate you touching his glory.”

That is part of why tearing down the idols can be dangerous, because it is often painful, and can feel as though our very soul is being ripped out. If it does, then that is proof positive that it was an Idol. 

4. Atonement had to be made for the sin of idolatry: Notice that God did not merely tell Gideon to tear down the altar to Baal, but he told him to take the pieces and construct an altar to Him, and to offer the bull on the altar as a burnt offering. Now, we don’t have time to get into all the significance of the burnt offering, but throughout the Old Testament the burnt offering was an offering of atonement for sins. Here God has instructed Gideon to offer a bull as an offering of atonement for the obvious sin of idolatry. This is a display of the wrath of God towards sin. God’s love compels him to be jealous for us, but it also compels him to be just in the pursuit of those who have forsaken his love and gone to other sources of comfort and peace. Because the sin of idolatry makes us unclean, and therefore unworthy of God’s love, atonement must be made for cleansing and restoration. All throughout the Old Testament, it was understood that whatever animal was being sacrificed was taking the place of the person who was offering that animal, a substitution, because the penalty for breaking their covenant with God was death. And so, God did not take their sin lightly, nor does He take our sin lightly. 

Simply removing your idols will not be sufficient for you to be reconciled to God. His justice demands your life. Your sins must be atoned for in order for you to be made right with him. We know that a bull will not suffice for this. Hebrews tells us that the blood of bulls and goats can never atone for sin. 

So this is bad news right? Yes it is! Except that God, in his covenant keeping way has done the work for us to be atoned for. He has given us His own son, the spotless lamb, who was slain for our sins and transgressions so that we may not only have our sins atoned for, but we may also be reconciled to Him. If you have been called by God into a relationship with him, the good news is that your sins have been atoned for in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, that is the good news that we all cling to. But here is the question I have for you today: Have you allowed Him to tear down your idols? Have you been like Gideon and obeyed his call to tear down the idols that have crept into your village? Or have you been like the villagers who had them so integrated into your heart that you would be willing to kill to keep them? Let me plead with you. Ask the holy Spirit what the idols are in your heart. Offer them up to him, lay them down, allow the things that draw your heart to them to be pulled down and used for an act of worship, an offering to God. 

I will make a promise to you no matter what you do, those idols will never be able to contend against you, or Your God, because they are false Gods. they will never be able to fulfill the hope that you put in them. They are created things, and you were made to be satisfied only in the creator.

Let’s Pray!

Open your Bibles Please to Judges chapter 6. We are looking at the calling of Gideon this week. Last week we looked at How the Israelites cried out to God in their distress and His answer was to remind them who He is and what he had done for them. Now, I said that I believe that the majority of our disobedience in life can be traced back to forgetting who God is, and the best way to build faith for the future is to remember who he is and to recount what he has done. That is a great setup for this weeks message because it ties in very well with not just our obedience to God’s commands, but our obedience to His specific call on our individual lives. 

So, let me ask you this: whose words have meant the most to your perception of who you are? This can be negative, or positive. Most of us will say that our parents’ words have meant a lot to us. Certainly at a young age, that it true. Then as you get older, your friends begin to have more influence on how you see yourself, and sometimes teachers, and later our spouses. For some of us those words were a source of courage and inspiration, and for others it was a source of discouragement and debilitation. Either way, the words of others in our lives are a powerful source of defining who we are, for better or for worse. Those words have power in our lives, because they come from a person who we in some way respect, or fear, or admire. We see ourselves through the words that are spoken about us, and often we are inclined to believe that those words are true. Furthermore, the longer we believe those words, the more difficult it is for us to believe that a contrary opinion is true, even if it is. We have all seen this in both positive and negative ways. My favorite example of this is the first few episodes of every American Idol season. When you see this people come in to audition for the judges, and they have been told their whole lives how wonderful they are and that they are beautiful singers walk in and can’t carry a tune in a bucket. That is the result of people having a false sense of their abilities and worth, and it is based on people speaking encouraging, but untrue words to them. They are absolutely convinced though, and many of them have built their worlds around the idea that they are going to be a star. The sad aspect of this happens much more when parents, or teachers will say something to a child that demeans them or gives them the idea that they are not good enough, and then they carry that with them for their lives. In either case, it is difficult for someone else to come along and change that perspective once that idea is cemented in their minds. The power of life and death are in the tongue. We know this to be true. The problem we have is that like the parents and friends of those American Idol contestants, we can say something encouraging, but it doesn’t make it true. 

That is where one of the massive truths of scripture that we need to wrestle with and understand in order to live life as a believer comes into play.  It is what we will see in this story and what we will see over and over again. The truth that we need to see in this text today is this: “When the God of the universe declares something about you, He will also make it true.” We as Christians need to fight to believe this truth every single day of our lives. 

Let’s read the text and see where we see this truth in the text for today.

OK, so we learned last week that God’s people had once again done what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and that He had sold them into the hands of the Midianites. We also learned that the surrounding people would come and pillage their crops and livestock every so often leaving nothing behind. Well, they cried out for God to help them, so we know what’s coming next right, God is going to raise up a deliverer. His name is Gideon. 

I mentioned this last week, but the state Gideon was in when God called him was pretty Pathetic. In fact, everything we read about Gideon in this story paints him out to be a pretty cowardly guy. in this story he is described as threshing wheat in a wine press. So, just so we don’t miss the point of this, he is doing something that is meant to be don’t on a hill, or a place with good wind, hidden down in a hole. This is an entirely unproductive way to thresh wheat! So, he is down in pit, usually dug out of rock, and he is probably covered in chaff, because there is no wind, and who should appear to him, but the Angel of the Lord. Now, this Angel appears a number of times in this book. now, most likely this is the pre-incarnate Christ appearing to Gideon. At any rate, he has come to speak on behalf of God. and He speaks, what I consider the most powerful words that anyone could speak to Him. He says “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of Valor!” The NIV says Mighty Warrior”. 

Now, as I read this, it is almost an ironic statement because of the situation the Lord visits Gideon in. it can almost sound like he is mocking him, and yet He is also speaking truth about the future he has for Gideon. 

Well, this exchange goes on and Gideon is skeptical because he say “what do you mean the Lord is with us, where are the great wonders that we have been told about by our father? Why are we oppressed and hiding from the Midianites? if God is with us, why are we in the shape we are in, where is God’s deliverance? At this point, Gideon has no idea that he is going to be part of one of God’s great deliverance stories. Then the Lord says to him, “go, in this mights of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian, this is me saving my people, and I am going to use you!”

At this point, Gideon informs the Lord what he believes to be true about his clan and himself. “I am in the weakest clan of Manassa and I am the weakest in my family.” Its almost as if he is saying, “Lord, before you get too far, let me tell you a little bit about myself, I am the runt of my household, and my household is the runt of Israel.” Thats when the Lord lets him in on the truth that echos throughout the whole Bible, “if God is with you, it does not matter how puny you are, he will accomplish His purpose.” 

So then we get this really strange exchange between Gideon and the Lord. Gideon displays his skepticism again, which won’t be the last time by the way, and he asks the Lord for a sign. He says he wants to make the Lord a present. He wants to make some food for him. and he asks him to not leave until he is done, so the Angel of the Lord says, I will wait here. Then Gideon goes to his house and prepares a goat and some unleavened cakes and brings it back. Then the Lord told him to put it on a rock and pour the broth over it and then he touched it with the tip of the staff that was in his hand and fire sprang up out of the rock, consumed the food, and then He was gone. At that point Gideon is scared and thinks he is going to die because he has come face to face with the Lord. So the Lord speaks to him again and says “Peace to you, don’t worry, you will not die.” Then this scene closes with Gideon building an alter to the Lord and called it “the Lord is Peace”

Ok, so What are we to learn from this story?

1. God loves to use the weak people in this world to display his power: Moses, David, Jesus.
2. God is not dismayed by our lack of Faith: Jeremiah, Moses
3. When God speaks something about you, those words take effect: What makes Gideon a mighty warrior, is not his abilities, or wisdom, but the fact that God is with him. 

What does this mean for you? 

1. Are you weak, are you the least of your family? God can, and will use you for his purpose.

2. Do you doubt that God can use you? That will not stop him from using you.

3. Has your Identity been defined by what others have said about you? Do you know what God has said about you?

So far in this book we have seen Othniel, Shamgar, Ehud, and last week we finished up Deborah. This begins the story of the fourth Judge of Israel. He is a pretty well known judge. His name is Gideon. This is a fairly long and detailed story in this book, it comprises three chapters, and there are several acts that take place in this story. The cycle that we have seen and will continue to see is evident in the story. This week we are going to be taking a short action of the story. Really this is just the setup for the story. It is describing the state of the People of God before God calls Gideon. Now, as we know, this will take place a number of times in this book, but I wanted to take a day to look at the description of Israel in these times and draw out the lesson that I believe is contained in it. 

Now the question I want to ask as I get started is this: When you disobey God, what is it caused by? The follow up to that is this: When you repent, how do you motivate yourself By God’s Grace to move forward in obedience?

You see, we know that we are prone to wander from God, and there is almost always collateral damage for those wanderings, furthermore, there is collateral damage of the presence of sin in this world that may not even be caused by us. I believe it is imperative for believers to understand how we can process the effects of sin, and know how to move forward and even thrive in the midst of the effects of sin all around us. This story has a lesson for us in how we do that. 

Lets read and see what God has for us this morning.

So, this is a very simple progression of the story. We know the beginning right? Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So God gave them into the hands of Midian. Then we get a little glimpse of what life was like for them in these seven years. 

They were living in caves and…

God sends a prophet to remind them of His faithfulness.

So what do we learn from this?

When you find yourself in difficult circumstances, the remedy is to remember God.

1. Difficult circumstances are inevitable: sometimes they are the result of our own sins and poor decisions, sometimes they are caused by others. 
2. The greatest remedy is to remember the faithfulness of God to His people throughout History. Remember his faithfulness to you in times of circumstantial trials, but most importantly on the cross.

    

If you will turn in your Bibles please to Judges 3, we are going to be looking at verses 7-31. now, you might be thinking, really, you are going to preach an easter message from the book of Judges? Yep. You may or may not know that it in every book of the Bible, there is a connection to Jesus, infant to preach a passage from the Bible and not relate it to Jesus, is incomplete preaching. He is there, on every page. So, what we are going to do today is look at the first three judges and see how they figure in to God’s plan of redemption and ultimately bring glory to the risen Christ.

A word of warning, this is going to be a little violent today. Now, what I am going do this morning is read the description of each of these first three Judges, then talk a little bit about it, and then at the end we will see what we need to learn from them, and how it ties into the story of the resurrection of Christ. 

Othniel: SO in this section about Othniel, we see that the people did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. We know that from last week the people had failed to drive out the Canannites from the promised lad, and they were accountable to God for that disobedience, but we also saw that God, in his sovereignty left those people in the land to test Israel and see what was in their hearts. The purpose of that testing was to show them and us, that what they had was not faith, and that in their own strength they will never be able to obey God’s commands. Now, one thing I didn’t speak much to last week was how much the picture of marriage was used to illustrate the downfall of the people. Primarily when the people not only failed to drive out the people and their culture but also married into their culture essentially becoming one with people who worshipped false gods. Furthermore, the adultery against God was the outcome. they served the other God’s forsaking the God who rescued them  from Egypt, and joining themselves to false gods. The term often used to describe this in scripture, is adultery. they were God’s Covenant people and they broke that covenant and worshipped other gods. It says in this passage that they forgot the Lord, and served the Baals and the Asheroth. Now, there were probably the most common false gods in the Bible. Both Cannanite deities that were common to worship in those times. the people worshipped them through all types of ritual sacrifice. Ashera is often referred to as a sex god. So, here we see the people of the Lord falling into the worship of these gals Gods, and this stirs up the anger of the Lord, Yahweh. and so he sells his people into the hands of Cushan-rishothaim, the King of mesipotamia. They were then slaves for eight years. Then they cried out to God for deliverance, and he raised up a deliverer for them. The first Judge we see in this book. Now remember a judge as it is used in this book is not a judicial judge, but a deliverer, a leader. So Othniel, we have met before. If you recall, Othniel was the one who went down and defeated Kiriath-sepher for Caleb, and won the hand of Caleb’s daughter Achsah. God raid him up in this time also and it says that God’s spirit was upon him and He went out to war and and the Lord Gave Cushan Reshothaim into his hands, and their was peace again for forty years, until Othniel died. 

now lets look at the next Judge: Ehud

So this story is crazy right? This is the story that has kept me up at night while prepping this sermon. here is my question, “Why in the world did God include this story with these details in the Bible.” Is has some very descriptive details right. Even to the fact that Ehud was left handed. You may or may not know this, but there are only three people called out in scripture as being left handed, and they are all from the tribe of Benjamin. 

 We do see that same pattern in this story that we will see in just about every Judge. We see that Israel was again doing evil in the sight of the Lord, and so God gathered the Ammonites and Amalekites to himself, you see the sovereignty of God in action? and they went down and defeated the Israelites and took possession of the City of Palms, that is Jericho. and then they were in possession of Moab for 18 years, then the people cried out to God, and he raised up Ehud. 

Now, we all heard the story of what happened then. after his defeat of Eglon, there was peace for 80 years.

 Then we see the third Judge raise up, his name was Shamgar. now, after all that detail about Ehud, Shamgar gets one verse. All we know about him was that he killed 600 philistines with an oxford, and saved Israel. 

So, here is the question that I have for this text on this day. You might be asking yourself the same question. Well, here in this text we see all that is needed to understand in order to prepare ourselves to hear the truth of the resurrection of Jesus. 

1. God’s people are incapable of following his commands in and of themselves. We will always fall into adultery from our covenant with God. We call this sin. It is the pattern of scripture all the way through. Ever since Adam and Eve ate the apple, sin has reigned in the hearts of every person born. Romans tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, there is none righteous, no not one. No one seeks God. We all like Sheep have strayed. 
2. Sin always separates: One person wrongs another person, it always causes a separation between them… When Israel worshipped other Gods, it caused a rift between 
3. God uses unlikely means to deliver his people. 
4. When the deliverer dies, the people fall away.
5. Our Redeemer lives!

Open your Bibles please to Judges 4. We are continuing our series in this book as we are seeing God’s faithfulness in the midst of Israel’s unfaithfulness. 

Last week we saw the first three Judges of this book, and the patterns that we will see through the whole of this book. We saw that in the times of the Judges they fell away time and again, and God Sent a deliverer, and we marveled at the truth that our redeemer lives. 

This week are are going to be reading the story of a very unique Judge. Her name is Deborah, and she is unique for a number of reasons. First of all, she is a woman. She is the only woman judges in this book. Also she was not only a judge in the sense that she was a deliverer, but she was also a judicial judge. Furthermore she was called a Prophetess, of which there are only five in the Old Testament. The most significant aspect of her character though is that she is by far the most Godly of the Judges in this book. 

Now, before we read, I just want to point something out to us. I have often heard the accusation that the Bible is a misogynistic book. That women are oppressed and often looked down on. That they are described as weak and play second fiddle to the men. I would guess that most of us don’t believe that, but if you ever hear that, this story os one of many where God uses strong and brave women, and makes them the focal point of the story. Even as heroines. This story portrays Deborah as a woman who knew God’s design for men and women and was used by God, not only to deliver His people, but also to shame the men who had abdicated their positions of leadership.

SO, what we are going to do is go through this story, and I will stop at various moments and explain things, then we will see a couple take aways at the end that we will actually go into in more detail next week as we look at the song of Deborah and Barak. It’s important for this text today that you have your bible out so you can follow along. We are not going to be putting the scripture on the screen so we don’t have to go back and fourth with the camera. 

So now we have seen this story, which again, is a crazy one. And as usual with these stories, they are descriptive texts, not prescriptive texts. they tall us what happened in the story, they don give us a blueprint for life necessarily. So what we need to do in these stories is look for  the truths that are communicated in these stories. Primarily truths about God that we can see that are unchanging no matter what the circumstances are. 

here are a few of the most prominent truths I see in this story:

1. God Creates each person with a specific role and purpose, and the purpose includes your sex. Men and women are equal in value to God, but they are created with differences that compliment one another. Leaders, and soldiers are equal to one another, but they have different roles to play. Bosses and workers are equal in worth, but they have different jobs to perform. Deborah Understood this, Barak did not. V. 8-9
2. God gave us those roles and purposes so that we may join with Him in the work he is doing on earth… One of the greatest Joys you will experience on this earth is the joy of submitting to God’s plan fo your life and seeing Him work through you as He does His work. Deborah experienced this, Barak did not. 
3. God will accomplish His plan and get the Glory whether we submit to his plan for us or not. 

The question we need to ask ourselves is are we willing to lay down our “independence” and join God in the work He is doing to bring salvation to His people. 

Jesus Had a role to play. He was created for a purpose. 

Jesus Joined with The Father in fulfilling that role, even though it was excruciatingly painful.

God’s plan was accomplished on the cross. We are delivered, and He is glorified

Now, before we read the text for today, I want to read a few verses in Joshua that will help us frame what we are about to read next. 

If you are already at Judges 1, just turn back maybe 2 pages to Joshua 23, we re going to look at verses 1-13. That is the backdrop that we need to read the first chapter of Judges. So let’s read it and see what God has for us in it. Now, I am going to do this a little differently, I am going to explain stuff as we go through reading this, so I am going to pray first. 

Now, you may have noted as we went through that text that things got off to a pretty good start. The people of God had some success in the early stages they were putting cities to the sword, and taking the land that was allotted to them, but little by little, you start to see small failures and incomplete victories. They could take the high ground, but couldn’t take the plains because they lacked iron chariots, or they took Jerusalem, but they weren’t able to fully take the city because the Jebusites remained in the city with the people of Benjamin. Then towards the end of this chapter you see how the different tribes were unsuccessful in totally taking the territory that was given to them by God. 

Now, the challenge with reading and interpreting narrative passages of scripture is that they are not prescriptive, they are descriptive, they aren’t telling us what to do in life, they are describing what took place at a particular time in redemptive history. Often they will describe instructions given to the people of God at that time, but those instructions are not for us to take literally for ourselves now, for instance, when God says to take these cities and destroy them, we are not to go, “well, the Bible says it, we need to do that!” Those are for that group of people in that particular time. What I try to do when looking at these stories is to look for aspects of God’s eternal character, and the nature of his instructions and how he deals with the people he is giving instructions to. 

So, in this story, with the backdrop of Joshua 23 we know that God is a god who works on behalf of His people, and He is a god who fights for His people. We know that He commands full obedience from His people, and we see that He will keep his promises. 

So what do we learn from this first chapter of Judges? We are going look at 3 basic points of this story: 1. Incomplete obedience, is disobedience. 2. Trust in God should never depend on circumstance. 3. God is faithful to His promise.

1. Incomplete obedience is disobedience: The Israelites partially obeyed, but did not complete the task. They made peace with the inhabitants, instead of driving them out. They did not break down their altars.
2. Trust in God should never depend on circumstance: Gods Faithfulness does not rely on technology (iron Chariots), or practicality(making them slaves).
3. God Will fulfill His promises despite our unfaithfulness: 2:1. 

You will Never fully obey all of God’s commands, therefore you are in disobedience: That is the predicament we all find ourselves in. We are like the Israelites who partially obey, but fail to completely obey, Therefore we are deserving of the wrath of God against sin, like the Israelites in this book. Lets look at Galatians 3:10 for a second…This is cited from Dueteronomy 27:26. So if you are to understand that God gives instructions to us for how to live and conduct ourselves, and He considers partial obedience disobedience, and even says “curse be everyone who does not abide by ALL the things written in the book of the law” That should give you a showing revelation. You are disobedient. unless you have perfectly obeyed all of God’s commands. if so, you are set. Except that Romans 3:9-20

This is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: God knows that you will never fulfill all the requirements of the Law, in fact, he gave the law for the purpose of revealing our sin to us. 

So that He might be faithful to keep His promise through Jesus Christ. 

Lets finish reading the text from Galatians. SO, now your trust in Christ doesn’t have to depend on your circumstances of being in disobedience, but on the work of Jesus for you.

In that Way, God fulfills His promise to Abraham, Israel, and to You. Your standing before Go doesn’t depend on your obedience, but on God’s faithfulness and the finished work of Jesus on your behalf. 

Your response to this, if you are feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit is to react as the Israelites did after encountering the Angel of the Lord, to repent, and turn to Christ!

*note: I misspoke in this sermon when recounting the Israelites’ time in the wilderness. I said they had to wait in the wilderness because of the golden calf and Moses couldn’t enter the promised land because he broke the tablets. I conflated a few stories in my retelling. It was Mose’ anger and striking the rock that caused him to have to wait to enter the land (see Numbers 20:2-12), and it was the Israelites’ fear and disobedience that led them to have to wait to enter the promised land. (see Deuteronomy 1)*

So, today begins our study of the book of Judges. Now, before we get started, I need to tell you a few things about this book. The first is this, I am really excited that we are going through this book. As I have been digging into it, there is so much we have to learn about God’s work in His people, and how they fit into the overall plan of salvation. I think this is going to be a fun study. Also, we have a treat for you all. If you have been in the Sunday School class, you are familiar with the Crossway Scripture Journals. This is what they look like, they are a specific book of the Bible with text on one page and room for notes on the other side. We have purchased these for every person in the church, so you can keep track of notes and other thoughts as we go through this book. We hope to have those for you next week. I really hope this will be a great resource for you as we study this book. The other thing I need to tell you about is that This is a very graphic book of the Bible. There are graphic depictions of murder, and violence, all types of intrigue and sexual sin. So, really its no different than turning on the tv on a Friday night. The difference is we don’t normally think of the Bible being that way, but it is the Word of God, so we will be discussing those things as we come to them in this book. There is your parental advisory. 

So, as we begin this book, We need to start with some of the nuts and bolts of the book and then get into the context of this book, where is fits in the OT and what is happening leading up to where we start off next week as we dive into Chapter one. So, that is what we are doing today. I am going to give you some info about the book itself, and then we are actually going too some background of the book of Joshua, and then give the overall theme of Judges and get a bit of a preview of what we will be seeing as we study this book together. 

So, first off, the name of the book is The Book of Judges. Now, when you first hear that what comes into your mind? Old person in a black robe restricting your drivers license on your 17th birthday right? oh that’s just me. maybe you think of the Supreme court justices, or judges Judy, Mathis, Wapner, Hatchett, or maybe even Judge Reinhold. It might be possible that you think of Simon Cowell, or Paula Abdul, Adam Levine, Gwen Stefani, or Blake Shelton. Well, Our first obstacle in understanding this book is to understand that the word Judge in the sense it is being used here is not an arbiter of legal matters, or singing ability, although in Deborah’s case she does both arbitrate legal matters and sing. In fact the word Judge as used in this book is more than that, they are Leaders, and in context can be described as deliverers. They are people raised up by God to fulfill his covenant with His people by calling them to repentance and Delivering them from their oppressors. 

Year written: Definitely after the institution of the Kings, since there are multiple mentioning of the fact that there was no King in Israel. It was also probably written before the time of David, since verse 1:21 states that the Jebusites were in Jerusalem “to this day” and David captured the city in 1003 B.C. In short, we know the Early date for its writing, but can’t be too sure of the exact later date in the range of when it was written. 

Dates of events: Between Joshua’s Death (mid 14th or late 13th cen. BC.) and the rise of Samuel and Saul (mid 11th Cen.)

Author: No internal declaration of authorship. Anonymous. Possibly several authors, over period of time. Late Jewish Tradition gives credit to Samuel, but ultimately, the Author is unknown. 

Theme: The basic theme of this book is very simple, God is faithful to His people, even when they are rebellious towards Him. This happens through the course of this book is a basic cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, deliverance and peace. We will see this cycle repeat itself a number of times in this book with each cycle getting worse and worse. There is a Phrase that gets repeated a number of times in the book and that is “There was no King In Israel” This theme ends with the final cycle being the worst, and the book ends with another phrase added to that, “and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

The Judges: In this book, there are 13 judges mentioned. Some have long detailed stories, and some only get a few verses. They are all from different regions in Israel, so it is important to realize that some of the events recounted in this book may have been happening simultaneously in different regions of the land. The Judges, in order of appearance are:

1. Othniel

2. Ehud

3. Shamgar

4. Deborah

5. Gideon

6. Abimelech

7. Tola

8. Jair

9. Jephthah

10. Izban

11. Elon

12. Abdon

13. Samson

Now, there are a lot more nuts and bolts to get into, and those will unfold as we get deeper into the book, but what we are going to spend the rest of our time on today is understanding what happened before the book, so we get it into perspective in the full context of the Biblical narrative. 

So, if I were going to relate this book to a movie, I would relate it to the Empire Strikes Back. Lots of action, and incidentally lots of hands getting cut off, but in the end, we are left with very little hope for the would be heroes in the saga. They can’t seem to get out of their own way. 

It is incredibly important as we get into this book that we recognize where we are in the story of God’s people. So, our sermon text today is from the end of the book of Joshua. We are going to read it and then give a brief summary of all that happened in this book, so when we get into Judges in full, we can understand what is going on. 

Ok, so, the first verse, “after these things…” What tings are we talking about here?

Well, are you read for a quick history lesson?

So, you may recall a guy named Abraham, God chose him from among the pagans to be the father of His chosen people Israel, and Eventually God’s people fell into slavery When they had forgotten all that Joseph had done for Egypt, So God rose up a man named Moses to lead his people our of Egypt and into the promised land. While they are in the wilderness, a very important event occurred, God met with moses on Mt. Sinai and gave him the 10 commandments, a covenant promise to His people. Then because of the peoples disobedience they had to wait outside the promised land a generation before they could enter it. Also Moses lost his temper, and he had to sit that out too. So, then God raised up Joshua To lead his people into the promised land. The book of Joshua has four main parts. 

1. Joshua leads Israel into the promised land

2. The people of Israel battle with the Canaanites: Jericho, and Ai were the main battles detailed in the book, along with other cities that the People of God captured. 

3. Joshua Divided the land between the twelve tribes, which was the fulfilling of the promises of God to give them this land. 

4. Joshua charges the people of God in a couple speeches which had two main messages, 1. Turn away from the sin of the Canaanites, which was serious sexual perversion, and child sacrifice and 2. Remember the covenant with God. 

In those speeches, There is a recounting of all that god had done for his people, and stern warning to remember God’s works, and his law. Echoed over and over is this reminder that it was not their strength that won the victories, it was the Lord who cleared the way for them and destroyed their enemies. 24:12-13. 

The rest of Joshua’s speech is both a warning and a foreshadowing of all that would come in the book of Judges. Let’s take a moment and read it together.

Read 24:14-28

Now, I know we have spent a lot of time talking about history and such, but in the time we have left, let me set up this book in this way. The book of Judges is a case study in what happens when we forget the works of God and follow our own desires, The destruction and carnage that takes place as a result of the people of God not obeying His commands is utterly devastating. The charge was simple to the People, cleanse yourself from the Cannanites, and hold fast to the commands I have given you. The problem was, they are not able to do those things apart from a work of God on their behalf. These people made bold declarations in chapter 24 of Joshua, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” “The Lord our God we will serve and his voice we will obey.” The problem is that no one can, in their own strength serve the Lord without divine work. 

This sets the stage for the people of God to walk through a period of time where they try time and again to serve the Lord, but keep getting swept into sin and idolatry and have to be delivered by the Lord. The deliverer we will see in the Book of Judges are used by God to do a work of circumstantial deliverance, but the judge who will be coming later will be the one to deliver God’s people from spiritual bondage and make right what we will see was clearly wrong with their hearts. This is all setting the stage for Jesus.  

Remember that this whole series is looking at the parable of Marriage as a reflection of the Gospel. Now, think for a minute, no need to answer out loud, in what ways is intimacy in marriage a parable of the gospel? Now let me ask you a personal question, that I definitely don’t want you to answer out loud. Is your sex life an accurate reflection the Gospel?

We are going to be looking at 1 Corinthians 7:1-8. This is Paul’s teaching to the church in Corinth that is answering a specific statement about sex made by a really messed up church.

So, just a quick overview of where we are in this letter to the Corinthians. The apostle Paul is writing to the church in Corinth for what seems the second time. We do not have the first letter that he wrote to them, but we know that Paul heard back that the church had misunderstood his letter pretty badly, and were also dealing with a number of serious issues in the church. The church was divided, sexual immorality was rampant, and there was an arrogance in the church. The church also sent a letter to Paul that showed how much they were getting things wrong. They were seriously confused about a number of things, and one of those was the role of sex and marriage. So Paul wrote this letter to them to address many of these concerns and confusions. He addresses both the reports that he heard from Chloe’s people, as well as the confusion displayed by the letter they sent to him.  So, in this section, Paul tackles their confusion about the role of sex in marriage. Right before this was the section we just read for the NT reading where Paul is telling them to flee from sexual immorality and in that section he quotes Genesis 2:24, which uses the “one flesh” metaphor as more than just emotional or legal union, but the physical act of intercourse. Now we are going to be talking about sex, but this is really a part of a broader topic of being one flesh. soul, mind and body. This is the parable of what it means to be naked and unashamed. 

1. Sex is for husband and wife:
   Monogamous, heterosexual marriage is the place where sexual relationships are meant to thrive. Even though the culture of the time was rife with all kinds of sexual deviancy, the Biblical instruction throughout scripture is that the relationship of husband and wife is the only place where sexual intimacy is meant to exist. It is only in that covenant relationship that a man and woman can respond to one another in safety and security, knowing that they are united as one and they are committed to one another for life.
   So, often people will ask where in the Bible is premarital sex forbidden, let me read to you an excerpt from Tim and Kathy Keller’s devotional on the Meaning of marriage. while I do, let me recommend this book to you. Rebekah and I are using it for our devotions together, and it has been very helpful for both of us…
2. Sex is a practice of mutual submission: Remember last week when Scott talked about submission in marriage, he touched on the truth that Paul asserts in Ephesians 5:21 that Christians are called into a relationship of mutual submission that goes along with the submission of husband and wife. When Paul teaches in this text that the husband and wife do not have authority over their own bodies, he is again affirming the unity that comes from becoming one flesh. 
3. Sex (or rather the desire for it) should press us to do the hard work of emotional connection, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation:  “Do not deprive one another” is a command that can on its face seem pretty cut and dried, but think about it this way. Why would someone be tempted to deprive their spouse of intimacy? It is usually some type of offense, or issue that needs to be dealt with. If one partner is desiring sex, and one person is not, that should drive us to deal with the issues between us in order to experience the fullness of the joy of marital intimacy. In fact, the only reason he gives for abstaining from marital intimacy is by both agreeing to it and for a short time in order to pray. So, think about it this way, if you are both upset with one another, and are not making love for a long period of time, you are in violation of this scripture. This is a process that is where the gospel comes into view in marriage. our unity with Christ comes as we confess and repent of our sin, and forgive one another, as Christ has forgiven us. We become the image of Christ to one another as we forgive one another. The bond between us is strengthened as we grow in this area, and we lear to lay down our lives for one another in the most intimate of areas. 

This Easter morning, the question I want to pose to you is this, “What difference does the resurrection make?” Would it change anything about our faith if the resurrection was a myth perpetuated by Christians over the past 2000 years or so?

Let’s read the text for this morning and see what the Apostle Paul has to say about this question. The apostle Paul has a lot to say about this. 

Just a quick overview of what we just read. The apostle Paul is writing one of two letters that we have that were sent to the church in Corinth. Paul was writing to them to clarify and correct some areas where this church had really gotten some stuff wrong. There was a lot of divisions in the church, and there was sexual immorality, and even people getting drunk at communion. There was a lot going on there for sure. So, Paul had a lot to address with them, and one of the errors that was being spread was that there was no such thing as the resurrection of the dead. Now, Paul must address this because it is clearly an error. Not only that, this error, if left unaddressed could cause some serious damage to the church. So, let’s think about this for a moment, What kind of damage happens when we neglect our belief in Christ’s resurrection, and therefore our own resurrection? Well, to put it as Paul did, it makes everything you do now Vanity! I see this play out in a couple ways, the first is when people are so focussed on this life, that they are all about helping people in this life and never share the Gospel. The second way is that people get so focussed on this life that they are crushed when their hopes for this life are unfulfilled. The way I see it, either way can have devastating effects on the church. Essentially, they are focussed on the first 75 years of eternity. Thats like putting all your hopes on the first play of a football game, or trying to find all your enjoyment in the first note of a song, or basing your relationship with your child on the first few seconds of their life. That makes no sense. At the same time, if there is no resurrection, then it makes no sense to follow Christ. Paul makes it clear that following Christ only makes sense if there is resurrection. What I want to do now is briefly look at Paul’s logic as he corrects their error.

1. If Christ is not raised from the dead, there is no atonement for sin: V. 13-19. The first problem with denying the resurrection of Christ, is to deny the need for and accomplishment of the atonement.
   v. 17. If Christ is not raised, you are still in your sins. This points back to verse 3, where he says that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. To understand and believe the gospel, you must recognize your need for your sins to be dealt with. This points back to my opening statement about having a correct diagnosis of a health problem. We see the evidence of the fall all around us. we don’t have to look far to see the brokenness of this world. it is everywhere, and the world knows it, that is what is being leveraged to sell you all manner of goods and services. It is the promise of removing the curse, but only for a moment. Because you see, the symptoms that we have cannot be cured with by earthly goods and services. A new car, or a new house, or the next new gadget will never remove the mark of sin. It is a curse that we inherited from our first parents. Furthermore it is not something that just makes us unhappy, is is something that makes us worthy of God’s wrath. And the only thing that could remove that wrath was for Christ to bear the full weight of it on the cross… That is why Paul says, if there is no resurrection, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. And he goes on to say, if we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. He goes on later in verse 32 to say, if there is no resurrection “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” 
2. If we lose the resurrection, we lose the guarantee our resurrection. v. 20-23
   a. Because Christ did raise, he is the first fruit of resurrection. His resurrection proves his sacrifice was sufficient for the forgiveness of sins.
   b. His resurrection is simply the first of all who follow him. 
3. If we lose the resurrection, we lose his second coming when all will be made right and death will be totally swallowed up in victory. v. 50-56

Now, let me ask you this again, what does the resurrection of Christ mean to you? 

What do we gain with the resurrection?

Atonement, resurrection, eternal life.

We also gain the ability to suffer well.

We gain true Joy in Christ. 

We gain a testimony.

Is the risen Christ knocking at the door of your heart? 

Do you see and feel the sting of death all around you? the evidence of sin all over the place? What diagnosis are you trusting in? 

Let me implore you, don’t put your trust in a hope that is for this life only. Trust in the only one who has seen death, and been in the grave, and born the weight of your sin, and rose to prove His victory, so that you too can have victory, and life everlasting.