Improper Alliances Lead to Downfall

Transcript

GRS 2-49
11/19/2006
Improper Alliances Lead to Downfall
Judges 3:8-31
Gil Rugh

We are studying the Book of Judges together and we are at Chapter 3 so all of you turn to the Book of Judges in your Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges. Book of Judges, you get to Judges Chapter 3, put a marker there and then come over to the New Testament, the 2 Corinthians Chapter 6. God’s plan for his people on this earth is always that they maintain their purity of devotion and love for him in the midst of a world of corruption and sin, lights in darkness.

This was the concern Paul expressed to the Corinthians in his second letter, 2 Corinthians Chapter 6 and just pick up with me if you would at verse 14, do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness or what harmony has Christ with Belial or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever or what agreement has the temple of God with idols for we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from their midst and separate says the Lord and do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord almighty. Therefore having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all the defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

You note in your Bible, that Paul here is quoting from some Old Testament passages because God’s plan for his people is the same whether his people is referring to Israel in the Old Testament or to the church in the New Testament. The people that belong to God are to be a separate people, cut off if you will from improper associations and involvements. Strong language at the end of verses 15, what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? We had been totally made new. We now belong to the living God turn over to Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians while we are here. Paul express his concern for the Corinthians, verse 2 of Chapter 11, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin, but I am afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

Paul is concerned for the church of Corin. That’s the same issue that Israeli is having to confront and deal with in the Book of Judges, so come back to Judges Chapter 3. Israel’s coming to the land, the land has been conquered in the sense that the major opposition in the land has been crashed, now each tribe has been delegated a portion of the land and their responsibility is the trust God indrawn upon on his provision for them and obediently going and clean out the Canaanites from their portion of land, destroy them, destroy their altars, their worship systems and make it a land that is holy and devoted to the Lord.

However as we saw in the opening verse of Chapter 3 verse 5 and 6 summarizes those problem, verse 5 of Chapter 3 Israel the sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hivites and so on these people that we lump together as the Canaanites because they are all in the land of Canaan. Problem are the sons of Israel live among the Canaanites, they weren’t supposed to live among the Canaanites. They were supposed to destroy the Canaanites, but they have lived among them that leads to the next step. They intermarried with the Canaanites, verses 6, they took their daughters for themselves as wives, they gave their own daughters to their sons. So intermarriage, Israel, the people of God now joined in binding relationships marriage with the Canaanites, what’s the third step, the last part of verse 6 they served their Gods of the Canaanites. And last they did evil verse 7 said in the sight of the Lord, they forget the Lord their God.

We have the cycle that’s going to be repeated back in Chapter 2, verses 11 to 19 you have the cycle remember, the opening Chapters through Chapter 3 verse 6 of Judges just give you an overview of the time of the Judges and the problems that are present and then they go into the details of the individual Judges so back in Chapter 2, verse 11, Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals how this come about, they worship the Lord, followed other Gods bowed down, provoked the Lord to anger so the sin of Israel results in verse 14, the anger of Lord burning against Israel he gave them into the hands of plunders, sold them into the hands of their enemies so sin leads to slavery.

Then they will turn to the Lord and cry out for the deliverance and that will bring his salvation. So verse 15, whenever they win, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, they were wirily distressed and in that distress they are going to call out to Lord for help then the Lord raised up Judges who deliver them from the hands of those who plundered them. Yet they didn’t listen to the Judges, so they quickly turned aside and the cycle keeps going.

Sin, slavery, supplication, salvation with the hands of the Judges, that want to Judge verse 19, Israel goes back to their ways and that cycle is going to go on for the next 300 plus years in Israel’s history down to the time of the establishing of the monarchy under Samuel with Saul and then David, so when we come to Chapter 3, verse 7 we have the first of these cycles recorded verse 7, the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and we are going to come to the Judges, let me tell you there, are twelve Judges in the Book recorded.

Six of them we consider major Judges, six of them minor Judges and we use basically two criteria. The major Judges are those who bring military, deliverance to Israel in a significant way and there is more written about them, so they are just, we know more of them so we call them major and then there are six what we would call minor Judges and let me mention them to you, the major Judges most of them you will probably recognize the names.

Othniel and Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson, many of those names are familiar to you, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson in particular along with Othniel and Ehud. Then there are six minor Judges and they are not nearly so well known, Shamgar, Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon most of those are names we are not very familiar with because there is not much written about them in scripture so they become names and they were Judges but we just don’t know much about them personally or about their activity as Judges.

In addition the end of Judges 12 we come to Elon and Samson and they would both be classified as Judges and in that context Samuel will be them most important of the Judges because he will be the last of the Judges and the one delegated the responsibility of anointing Saul and the establishing of the monarchy and then David and the beginning of the Davidic line. All right, Judges 3 unfolds the first three Judges. And you know there is no particular pattern in the amount of space given. The first one will be Othniel in verse 7 to 11, then we will come to Ehud and Ehud will get verse 15 to 30. Then you come to Shamgar he only gets one verse, verse 31.

So the spirit of God has directed for his purposes and more detail to be given on certain of these Judges and it gives you a sense of the feeling of what went on in various ways the God worked in the times of the Judges. Verse 7, the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. The Asheroth were the # become idols if you will, become the focal point of worship. Then the anger of the Lord was kindred against Israel so that he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia. The sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. So Israel sin even into the worship of other Gods and the result is bondage, slavery, you will know verse 8, you are going to see this sovereignty of God in this he sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim.

God is sovereign in everything that is going to take place here this person became too powerful for the Israelites in one sense he did but the real issue was God choose to use him as an instrument of discipline for his people and you come to verse 9 you see the sovereignty of the Lord when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, there is this supplication, you had sin, you have slavery, you have supplication they are crying out to the Lord, oh Lord deliver us. The Lord raised up a deliverer so it was the Lord in verse 8 who sold them into the hands of this king who put them in slavery, now it’s the Lord who raises up and deliver to set them free, he is sovereign in all that is going on.

The Lord raised up and deliver for the sons of Israel to deliver them, Othniel the son of Kenaz Caleb’s younger brother. You are familiar with Caleb, Joshua and Caleb, two faithful men and here is the younger brother of Caleb, the son of Caleb’s younger brother Othniel he becomes the first judge recorded in the Book of Judges and we were taught in verse 10 the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel.

Remember that Judges are deliverers not Judges just rendering opinions and verdicts between conflicting parties but the Judges are raised up to be military deliverers of Israel from their enemies. Now as part of their rain when they have brought deliverance they would also exercise a certain authority, of course during the time of their rain or ruling.

We are told the spirit of the Lord came upon him and that’s where he is empowered so we are told he went out to war, the Lord gave Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia into his hand so that he prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. The victory is because the spirit of the Lord now enables Othniel to have military victory. This expression the spirit of the Lord came upon him to empower him to enable him in a special way. He is consistent with the pattern of the Old Testament where the spirit of God comes upon men for certain task and then he leaves them. It’s not a permanent presence of the Holy Spirit or a permanent indwelling as we all have as a result of the finished work of Christ on the cross and him sending the spirit from heaven in a new and special way to permanently indwell those who belong to him.

Turn over to 1 Samuel Chapter 16, just keep going pass of Judges and you will be in Samuel and 1 Samuel Chapter 16, what we keep clear on the distinctions in the sprits ministry between the old and new testament otherwise we find ourselves in confusion. 1 Samuel 16, Saul has been annoying a king of Israel but because of sin his replacement will be David, the line of Saul is limited to one king, the line will carry on to Saul’s son. Saul was a Benjamite of the tribe of Benjamin, their line of kingship now will be transferred to David and the tribe of Judha so you have in 1 Samuel 16, verse 13 and here you see Samuel the last judge, Lord not only anointing Samuel but anointing David, so he is the one who anoints the first two kings of Israel. Verse 13, Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; David is the one here, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.

So you see here the spirit of the Lord comes upon David when he is anointing king, he will be upon him mightily now. David will be the one supernaturally enabled and empowered to be God’s divinely appointed leader of Israel. Verse 14, now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul you will see now Saul enablement to function his king is over, he is just a man. A man without the wine enablement and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him. Now the Lord permits an evil spirit, a demonic being to come and terrorize Saul. I don’t know if you are familiar with Saul’s situation you know something of the terminal now becomes the part of Saul’s life. That coming and going of the spirit, that was to enable men for certain tasks and was not a permanent indwelling. Come over to Psalm 51, remember David sinned, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged to have her husband killed and killed in battle but he responsible for as an act of murder because he arranged and gave instructions so that the husband of Bathsheba would get killed in the battle, after he is confronted by Nathan, the prophet and repents of his sin he write Psalm 51 and we don’t have time to go into the Psalm but I want you to look at verse 11.

Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your holy spirit from me. That’s not a prayer that you and I as a believer have today, do not take your holy spirit from me because the spirit of God permanently indwells us but for David he is asking for God’s mercy because that the spirit of God leaves him that means he has done as king and he will come to an end like Saul. He is asking for God’s mercy he is not asking that he did not lose his salvation, he ask that the joy of his salvation be restored. He is asking that in God’s grace and mercy he be enabled to remain as king, those what happen to Saul. In the New Testament from Acts Chapter 2, on the spirit of God comes and takes up permanent residence in the life of the believer. In Romans Chapter 8 verse 9 says if any man does not have the spirit of Christ he does not belong to him.

We will talk about the spirit of Christ ministry in the gifts that we have but important to us to understand he does not leave a believer today so we don’t pray the same prayer that David pray, take not your holy spirit from me because the holy spirit does not leave a child with God. We are not to grieve the holy spirit who is within us, grieve not the holy spirit by whom you were sealed under the day of redemption because sin grieves the holy spirit and when I say and I aggrieve the spirit of God, makes in all the more serious in my life, the spirit of God is present continuously in my life. All right come back in Judges Chapter 3, the land had rest in verse 11 for 40 years so they were in slavery the end of verse 8 under Cushan-rishathaim for eight years. After eight years God raises up Othniel and he under the power that the spirit of God gives him is Israel deliverer and you have 40 years of rest and Othniel the son of Kanez died and now you have the cycle.

The Judges died, Israel goes back, fights back to its old ways, now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of Lord, so Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel because they have done evil in the sight of the Lord, he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek. He went out and defeated Israel verse 14, the sons of Israel served Eglon, King of Moab 18 years. Now this is a longer time of slavery and servitude 18 years being in slaved to Eglon, King of Moab and his allies. Verse 15 but when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left handed man. So here again you see the same pattern and the same emphasis of the sovereignty of God in this, verse 12, second sentence so the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel.

Israel’s independence depended upon the sovereign will of God and they enjoyed that freedom as long as they walked in obedience and when they didn’t then the Lord raises up one to enslave them as discipline and then after 18 years they seek the Lord, verse 15, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them. You know this context take a moment and remind you and look at a couple of examples of Gods sovereignty in the affairs of this earth, that I had shared with you before, I think it is a sad travesty and a black mark on the testimony of the church in these days that it becomes so tied to political matters that sometimes you hear those within the evangelical camp as it is identified, brining their hands and saying how important it is and we have got to get out the vote because of we don’t do this and we don’t do that there is no hope for your country and we lose our way. God is sovereign and the affairs of this world I am not saying we shouldn’t vote so I am saying we should. I am saying in all of this we don’t bring our hands because the vote didn’t go the way that evangelical Christians I think it could because we know when all said and done those are in place or emplaced by the appointment of God, they are not correct.

I was watching a program a couple of weeks ago it was three weeks ago when I was not able to be here. It has a physical problem on a Sunday morning and I listened to the man and he gave a decent message and presented the Gospel. Then he spends the last half of his program telling how important it is if you don’t write in, send in and help supports we got to give to ACLU and you know we don’t if we don’t defeat the ACLU there is no hope for our country and I think, you just priest one thing and are you preaching the opposes. Do we have a sovereign God who brings salvation and he is in control of everything and by the way if we don’t join together and defeat the ACLU there is no hope in other words the ACLU can defeat our God.

I mean somehow we get these contradictory comes up and any wonder the world is confused, we are confused. So you know what we pray that the Lord will provide leaders that will enable us to continue to preach his truth and makes the gospel effective and we realize the Lord can do that, you know one of the best things for the furtherance of gospel in China was when atheism came in and persecution came, all of the sudden people are getting saved by the millions. We don’t control things, so when the election is done what do we all do, we just had a an election, we got on our knees and say thank you Lord for your sovereignty and all of those who have been voted in had been those of the divine appointment for your purposes, we rejoice that your sovereign and your will is being done thats we said right.

Come over to the Book of Isaiah I have to just take a little diversion, Isaiah 10, he is the one who reminds us that God raises up even wicked rulers for his sovereign purposes, we are seeing that in the Book of Judges but its not limited to the time of Judges. In Isaiah Chapter 10, I want to move to some of major nations, major nations in that they become world powers. Assyria is in view in Chapter 10 of Isaiah and look down to verse 5 of Isaiah 10, wow to Assyrian the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hand is my indignation. I send it against the Godless nation and commissioned it against the people of my furry. Assyria was God’s instrument to punish Israel. The capture booty see his plunder trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet it does not so intend nor does it plan so when it’s hard but rather its purposes is to destroy and to cut off many nations. Even Assyrians didn’t see itself as Gods instrument. Assyrians just saw themselves as the mightiest nation on earth, the cruelty of the Assyrians is most infamous, one of the things that they did was impale people, hundreds of people, thousands of people on stakes. And that would just make you aware if you resist as you are in will be more horrible than you can imagine, for its says verse 8, are not my princes all kings and on it goes in its pry come down to verse 12, so will be that when the Lord has completed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will say I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the pump of his hardiness. You see when I am done using Assyria for my purposes then I will punish Assyria for its hardiness, its pride because he is said by the power of my hand by my wisdom I did this for I have understanding, I have removed the boundaries of the people plunder their treasuries like a mighty man, I have brought down their inhabitance and so on.

Assyria gave no credit to God but God was empowering Assyria and it was unstoppable. Verse 15, is the axe boast itself over the one who chops with it, it’s the salt and exalted self over the one who wields it that would be like a club wielding those who lift it, you are like a rod lifting up him who is not wood. In other words, I am the one using Assyria. Assyria can think in their minds that they are in control; they will be like the saw saying that it controls the one doing the sign, I mean its stupidity. Therefore God will bring judgment verse 16, therefore the Lord; the Lord of host will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors. Under his glory of fire will be continued like a burning flame and so he is going to bring destruction on Assyria.

Turn over to Chapter 37, Hezekiah is king of Israel and he has sinned to Isaiah for help because now the Assyrians are besieging Israel. So here you have Isaiah sending word to Hezekiah, thus says the Lord the God of Israel behold you are afraid to me about Sennacherib, King of Assyria, this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him, she has despised you and mark you the virgin daughter of Zion, she is shaking her head behind you the daughter of Jerusalem you know Assyria, their arrogance has made some terrible mistakes, one of the greatest was just pack up when Rabshakeh who represents the king of Israel and then the besieging of the Jerusalem he says to Hezekiah in verse 10, do not let your God and whom you trust to save you saying Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of king of Assyrian, behold your word what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them completely so you will not be speared to the Gods of those nations which my father have destroyed, deliver them. Oh your God will be anymore powerfully against us than the Gods of other nations were, serious mistake to challenge God that way.

Verse 23 whom have you reproached and blustered; against whom have you raised your voice and hardly lifted up your eyes against the holy one of Israel. Verse 26, have you not heard long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it, now I have brought up the past that you should turn four to five cities into ruins, you understand this was my plan before you were on the scene. Gods sovereignty, the Assyrians come on with devastating power, they have carried the northern kingdom into captivity. Now they are down to carry the southern kingdom into captivity. But now they are arrogant and proud, don’t you know I am the sovereign God, I planned it all. From ancient time I planned it, now its coming time I brought at the past, who do you think you are? And there it goes on verse 28, I know you are sitting down, you are going out, you are coming in, you are raging against me because if you are raging against me because your arrogance has come up to my ears therefore I will put my hook in your nose and by bridle in your lips and I will turn you back the way you came. So verse 36, the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians when men rose early in the morning, behold all these were dead. You know what God had said, said you know what I am going to do the Assyrians, I am going to reduce their number so that even a kid could count them, you know kids can’t count very high, chance to read it all.

All it says hey remind you that God is sovereign control of the nations. He raises up minor kings like these Canaanite kings, they are nothing in comparison to the Assyrians, the Assyrians have conquered the world. But the same God is overall, he is raising them up, he is putting them down. Raising them up, he is putting them down. You are in Isaiah go over to Chapter 45, incidentally he also, when Sennacherib gets back home, you know what he goes to worship in the house of his God and his two sons killed him, Isaiah 45. The end of Chapter 44, the last verse, verse 28, it is I who say of Cyrus he is my shepherd he will perform all my desire. You know we are hundreds of away from Cyrus coming on the scene. He might even been born yet, parents and grandparents haven’t been born yet God calls him by name and said he is my shepherd. Verse 1, Chapter 45, thus says the Lord, the Lord to Cyrus he is anointed, he is anointed, he has been anointed to be king and rule. Cyrus to be the king of the Persians, world emperor, Gods anointed.

Cyrus was born, lived, and died a pageant who did not know God. The Lord says to Cyrus he is anointed whom I have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before him, to lose the loins of kings, to open doors before him, so gates will be shut. Come down to verse 4, for sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen one I have also called you by your name, I have given you a title of honor though you have not known me. Because you see Cyrus remember, Book of Ezra, the Book of Nehemiah, you have the return and Cyrus King of Persia is the one who allow Israel to return to the land. Raised up, hundred of years before he is born, God says he will be my shepherd; he will be servant, my anointed one. I will take him by the right hand. He won’t know me but he is the instrument to accomplish my purposes, see God uses the pageants. Best and the worse,

Ezekiel 30 I haven’t forgotten we are doing Judges, Ezekiel 30, we looked at Assyria, we looked at Persia, Sennacherib was the king of Assyria, Cyrus King of Persia, and you come to Babylon Nebuchadnezzar and Ezekiel’s prophecies here and we were in the times of the Babylonians in Ezekiel Chapter 30 verse 24, there is all section here, verse 21, son of man and that’s the title for Ezekiel , son of man I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, I have broken his arm, he has no power left because how in those days fighting with the sword and the spear and your arms broken what can you do, you can do nothing. That’s the point of saying I have broken the arm of Pharaoh King of Egypt and it can’t be healed. Verse 22, behold, I am against Pharaoh King of Egypt I will break his arms. I will make the sword fall from his hand, I will scatter the Egyptians, for verse 24, I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hands. Verse 25, I will strengthen the arms of the King of Babylon, because the arms of Pharaoh will fall then they will know that I am the Lord, the end of verse 26 then they will know I am the Lord.

Point is, in all this we see the hand of God at work. Why do we not ring our hands into despair over the decline of our nation and retched wickedness and sin, does it not greaves us, as we hate to say but we understand God is sovereignty in control. We see the hand of Lord in at all; it does not cause us to despair. Because God is sovereign, go just after Ezekiel, Daniel, and then we will go back maybe to Judges. Daniel Chapter 4 and this is the time of Nebuchadnezzar and he is king and by Gods grace Nebuchadnezzar is going to become a believer in the God of Israel. Cyrus, never does but Nebuchadnezzar does and here the judgment that’s going to come on Nebuchadnezzar and he is going to go insanity for seven years, verse 17, of Daniel 4, in order that the living may know that the most highest ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom he wishes and sets over it, the lowliest of man. Understand God is sovereign no one can afford his plans. Now we may pray, we go, we vote, but when all said and done we realize the will of God has been done, we praise him for it.

Down in verse 25, the end of the verse just for time, until you recognize that the most highest ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom ever he wishes. Down the end of verse 31, your sovereignty has been removed from you, God speaks the word and Nebuchadnezzar goes and saying mightiest man on earth, ruling the Babylonian Emperor he is the head of Gold and the image in Chapter 2. God speaks the word in his out of power, he is crawling around on his hands to knees eating grass like an ox, who is sovereign, the end of verse 32, until you recognize that the most high ruler over the realm of mankind bestows on it whomever he wishes and you know the end of the story down in verse 34, Nebuchadnezzar after seven years of insanity, God brings his sanity back to him and Nebuchadnezzar says but the end of that period I Nebuchadnezzar, raise my eyes toward heaven, my reason returned to me and I bless them the most high and praise and honored him who lives forever for his dominion is the everlasting dominion, his kingdom endorse from generation to generation, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. He does according to his will and those of host of heaven among the inhabitants of earth and no one can vote off his hand or say to him what have you done verse 37, now Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven for all his works are true and his ways are just and he is able to humble those who walk in pride.

Amazing think that you will be able to meet Nebuchadnezzar in heaven, man who was brought to his knees, recognizes that only God is sovereign. On your way back you want to stop and at Isaiah 40, that’s why I said well maybe. Isaiah 40, verse 15, behold the nations are like a drop from the bucket and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. And how he is going to say there is nothing in the sight of God. The mightiest earthly powers they are like a spec of dust on the scale, they don’t move it. They have no vein, they amount nothing like we talk about a drop in the bucket or a drop from the bucket. Verse 17, all the nations are as nothing before him they are regarded by him as less than nothing and meaningless I mean how much more can you emphasize this, so we should be concerned. What is going to happen to our country? Well we preach the gospel we can say we reproached any nation. We proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ and salvation only found in him but I believe that those empower or empower by Gods appointment that’s why Romans 13 says we must submit, our submission is always to be with right attitude for there is no rule, except those appointed by God, first two verse of Romans 13.
So in our attitude we want to be sure that anybody we talk to recognize us, what do you think about the election. Well I think of it according to Gods point and you know it’s interesting to know that God always works his purposes so that those who will accomplish his purposes even the base of individuals will be there for his reasons for the accomplishing of his purposes.

All right now we can go back to Judges, Chapter 3. Didn’t know that was all there, did you? But remind God rising up and these are just minor Canaanite kings they are not on the world stage like the Assyrians would be or the Persians or the Babylonians later in history. But even these minor kings are raised up by sovereign God, the minor ones the major ones it doesn’t matter. He is sovereign over at all and all goes together for his purposes. So God has strengthen Eglon, king of Moab, the Moab remember is on the east side of the Jordan river over where two and half tribes have there so this man has joined in alliance with other kings and they have come into the land, major portion of the land on the western side of the Jordan and asserted his influence and control.

Verse 15 the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up deliver from them, Ehud the son of Gear, the Benjamite a left handed man now what we are going to have in verse 15 to 30 is a lot of details, not a lot, but a number of details where that will help you appreciate what transpires here. These left handed man become significant and how he is going to give rid of the king of Moab and bring about the deliverance of Israel so there are little things here, so that some of these Judges, we get more information, others just are names like Shamgar will be down in verse 31, he is a Benjamite. Saul will later be the tribe of Benjamin, left handedness seemed to run in the tribe of Benjamin we will return there for time, because we have done some other things, but in Chapter 20 verse 16 of the Book or in Judges we are told about, talked about left handed Benjamites and also in 1 Chronicle Chapter 12 verse 2 and it seems that they were according to 1 Chronicle 12, 2 many of the Benjamites were ambidextrous, they could use both the right hand and left hand because the in 1 Chronicle 12, 2 we are told that number of the Benjamites they could shoot their bow with the right hand and left hand, they could use either hand.

They could use their sling shot effectively right handed or left-handed. That seem to run in the line of Benjamin anyway right here Ehud is the left handed man, the sons of Israel send tribute by him to Eglon, king of Moab so as conquered people have to do they have to pay their taxes or the oil, attribute to the king of Moab part of enslaving them was he drains the wealth out of the land he has conquered, takes it all to himself. So his residence is in Moab but he has conquered Israel there and enslaved him so now they have to send a significant portion of their crops and everything to him as a tribute and Ehud brings a tribute to the king of Moab. Ehud made a sword himself a sword which had two edges, so the two edge sword and is cupid in length and an unusual word for cupid here not the usual word but referred to a sword that could be anywhere from 12 to 18 inches long. So a mini sword or a dagger that he made for himself and he bonded on his right side under his cloak, so he wear an outer cloak now that become important because its in an unusual place that you wouldn’t be looking for a sword because majority of men would have been right handed so they would carry their sword on their left side so they could reach over and pull it out.

Ehud will have his sword on the right side because he reach over with his left hand. And he comes and meet with the king of Moab on another incident, Moab is a very fat man and very heavy, it’s all interesting to know but it fits the story. He came about when he finished presenting the tribute here is what I have brought and here is what we have brought to you and he has other men with him because they have tribute not just a little bag and told when he had finished presenting the tribute he send away the people who carried the tribute. So that was response of bringing the tax if you will, whatever form, money grain and so on. He send those who have come with him away ahead of him but he himself turned back from the idols which were Gilgal and comes back to the king of Moab and says I have a secret message for you oh king.

Now here the king has just received the tribute and now I have got a secret, why you don’t want those around you to hear secret because you don’t know for sure what it is, it maybe something that you want to keep secret, maybe there is a conspiracy among his household, that somehow Ehud has said we don’t know so the king tells him, the king of Moab keep silence and all who attended left him, wait a minute don’t say any more, all right everybody out. So just be the two of them and Ehud came to him while he was sitting along in his cool roof chamber and Ehud said I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat and Ehud stretched out his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh and thrashed into his belly.

Oh you see now the king of Moab is not looking for this, so as Ehud approaches him and maybe has a right hand watch in the right hand, he is safe, he is pulling out from under his cloak with the left hand and the king of Moab is not looking for this because you don’t want him to scream or holler because then servants would here, so he is totally unprepared while he is watching, talking to Ehud, Ehud has pulled out the sword and thrashed it into his belly you get a rather graphic picture, verse 22, the hand also went in after the blade so he really put in there. The fat cloves over the blade and he did not draw the sword out of his belly and the refuses came out, you know interesting how graphic the word of God can be, the excrement came out, everything in his intestine build out on the floor.

Rather graphic picture, stop a minute, close your eyes, can you just see it. Then Ehud went out to the vestibule, shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him and lock them, now the servants have been dismissed and they are not whistling at the door so now Ehud goes out, the door and he locks the door behind him this to give him a chance, to escape. Now when he had gone out the servants came and looked behold the doors of the roof chamber were locked and they said, you know that means its going to the bathroom, so we just naturally don’t go in. They waited until they became anxious I mean, did take a long time maybe sick, maybe something is wrong and we are not told how long but long enough that Ehud now has chance to escape and he is well on his way home.

They got the key opened the doors and their master if fallen dead on the floor, Ehud escape why they were delaying past by the Ehud escaped to Seirah, came about when he had arrived that he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, the sons of Israel went down within from the hill country, he was in front of them, he said to them pursue them for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands, they went down after it and seized the fords of the Jordan opposite of Moab and did not allow anyone to cross you see here, remember Moab is a across Jordan now we have a rebellion and you are not going to allow any of the Moabites to escape back across the Jordan river.

They struck down at that time ten thousand Moabites all robust and valiant men and no one escaped. You see the sovereignty of god again as Ehud hold the sons the Israel that the Lord had given them into their hand and he went down and lead them, verse 28, pursue them the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand, doesn’t matter in verse 29, there is ten thousand Moabites it’s a significant force, all robust and valiant men. You see that’s not the issue, how stronger that, the issue is, is the Lord yon your side right. I mean it doesn’t matter how robust and valiant these men are, the Lord is on Ehud side now once again the Lord is on Israel’s side you know there is no defense, there is no ornament against the Lord, no one escaped. So you are going to have ten thousand of the Moabites defeated here and now the strong hold of Moabites and their allies is broken verse 30 so Moab was subdued that they under the hand of Israel the land was undisturbed for 80 years that’s the longest period of rest recorded in the judges a period of 80 years of rest and tranquility.

Verse 31 after an extensive account verse 15, really start in verse 12 but one judge from verse 15 to 30 you get one verse after him came Shamgar the son of Anath who struck down 600 philistines with an ox-goad and he also saved Israel. Now the record concerning Shamgar is the briefest of any of the judges. Some of these judges could over lap because remember the major opposition in Canaan was broken but now some of this, these Canaanites can form alliances, they give them power, maybe not over the whole nation of Israel but over significant portions of it, it is possible that the rule of Shamgar would have overlapped with Ehud and perhaps overlapped with Deborah. Because when you get the chapter 5, chapter 4 opens up the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died he said doesn’t say after Shamgar died.

So would made you to think maybe there is an overlap with Shamgar and perhaps in another portion you have Shamgar’s judgeship and also in chapter 5 verse 6 now you have Deborah being the judges. We are told in verse 6 in the days of Shamgar the son of Anath the days of jail the highways were deserted so you see there is an overlapping here that in the days when Shamgar is functioning that you have also then Deborah coming on the scene so there is an overlap and we don’t know particularly sometimes like a Shamgar we don’t know what territory he is in, remember we have Israel now spread throughout the land of Canaan as well as the portion of the trains Jordan river. He delivered Israel from the Philistines that we do know that he would be over more towards the coast in his deliverance of the Philistines on the western side of Canaan. The Moabites would have been more the eastern side because Moab is on the eastern side of the Jordan River so they are conquering may not have extended as far as over as where Shamgar would have provided deliverance from the Philistines. And that period of time, he saved Israel that qualifies him as the judge, you were told about him is he killed 600 Philistines with an Ox-goad sound like Samson, where he picks up the jaw build of an ass and wipes out large number of the Philistines.

Shamgar may have been that kind of judge we are not told when this happened, how it happened, whether this was just one battle or whether it was a series of battle and total of 600 Philistines killed and Ox goad was a pole about 8 feet long with a point on one end and that was used to probe the ox and it was flat on the other side and that was used to clean off the plough from the mud and so on. All right so we have seen three judges. Already in Israel’s history Chapter 4 and 5 now we are going to devoted to the judgeship of Deborah, so two chapters devoted to coming judge with a couple of things to know.

Number one, constant danger for the people of god in the world that they will form improper alliances with unregenerate people, develop the kind of relationships that entangle them with unregenerate people, lead to the intermarriage and we are happy well you know I don’t think he is a believer, I don’t think she is a believer but they are really nice people and he has got a good job and wait a minute what does a believe have in common with an unbeliever. But Israel came to place they were happy to give their daughter to the Canaanites. They have their sons married to Canaanites remember that god says we are not to become entangled, we are to be holy and separate people. Second thing we need to keep always before us that god is totally sovereign. He does judge sin, he judges the sin amongst his people, he judge Israel currishly. His discipline can be very severe, he punishes sin and he often used as the wicked people for that you can expect that if Jesus Christ that lays his coming as we would phrase it that part of the judgment we may experience for being unfaithful churches in these days is persecution and trial and difficulty, which would be a refining process because we have got it comfortable and we get one and easily life and a comfortable life and give along in the world and I am not saying we are to make trouble. But we must have an uncompromising testimony in anything other than uncompromising testimony we will bring the discipline of god and the discipline of god often takes the form of physical trials and those kind of pressure and political leaders but god is sovereign in at all, secure and he is sovereign his purposes are being done even the wicked ruler served at the command of god.

What our responsibility is to be faithful people, we have the word of god, we have the lessons of Israel we have the new testament further instruction for the church and how we live, holy and godly lives and we live in the midst of an ungodly world that does not cause us to ring our hand, we are to be midst lights in the midst of darkness that we expect the world to be and we are generally people live in darkness we are lights, there is no compromise between the two. We are here to shine in the darkness with our testimony as a people faithful to god, who are holy because the god we serve is holy.

Let’s pray together, thank you Lord for who you are, Lord our hearts are encouraged even as we are reminded in your word of your absolute sovereignty, those entities in this world, in this world system that seem so powerful that seem so irresistible, at times the tide of wickedness seems all but overwhelming and yet the nations of the earth are accounted as nothing, meaningless, a speck of dust on the scale because you are the sovereign god. And from the greatest ruler in the world to the smallest most insignificant person you are sovereign overall; you work your purposes using even the sinfulness of man to accomplish your purposes and your work. Lord what an honor what a privilege and what a responsibility to belong to the living god. How honored we are to be called your people, to be called the holiness to be called the purity, to be called the lives as separation. Lord may we be careful in our personal walk to honor you, may we be careful as a church to maintain the purity of our devotion to you. May our testimony be strong in these days and may the light that we are in the world shine brightly and the darkness in which we live. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.