Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 7, 2021 | Chronological Bible Study with Patty Diliberto - Session 11: The Judges Era

Transcript

April 7, 2021 | Chronological Bible Study with Patty Diliberto - Session 11: The Judges Era · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm so glad that you are here today for our chrono study.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Pray with me.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you so much for the ways that you work and the things that you reveal in your word about how you are, who you are, the greatness of who you are.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, I pray that we just get a glimpse of that today as we look at Judges.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: And might you bless us with new information, with something that just pierces our heart, Lord, through your Holy Spirit?
0:28
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in Jesus' mighty name.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: So last time we met, we saw Joshua and we saw the conquest error.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: And we see Joshua leading the people out of Israel into Israel in the conquest to take over the land of Canaan.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: This week we are looking at the era of the judges, and you have been reading about them and have already read through them, so you know these stories.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: So this will probably be a review for you, but I hope it's new information too.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: We read about the judges in the book of Judges, Ruth and 1 Samuel.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: The judges include some pretty wacky stories that are a little difficult to swallow.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: But you have probably heard this before: that the average age of most world civilizations has a duration of about 200 years.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Almost without exception, each civilization passes through a similar sequence of events.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: They go from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from great courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to leisure, from leisure to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, and from dependency to weakness, from weakness back to bondage.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: If you think of that in reference to the United States, it's a little scary.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: History has proven that over time things tend to move toward disorder in life.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: If we don't exert energy, almost everything tends toward the state of disorganization, and that is called entropy.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: This cycle has not only been true for secular history in the world, but we see a similar cycle, a similar terrible cycle in the 400 years of Israel's history through the judges as well.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: After the conquest of the land, the judges lead Israel until Saul is crowned king.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: The cycle that occurs over and over and over again in the book of Judges is one that can happen in the life of every follower of Christ if they are not careful.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: So this needs to be a warning for us as well as a review to see how Israel handled things, but to also to help keep us from spiritual entropy.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: The people of Ef of the sorry, my words are getting so twisted today.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: The people of Israel have been told very clearly what they need to do to receive God's blessings and what will happen if they don't follow his commands.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: That was the blessings and cursings, curses section.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: We heard Israel tell Joshua and tell God that they will do it, that they will keep those commands.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: They clearly are commanded to drive out all of the inhabitants who lived in the land.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: But the people compromised, they dug in their heels, and in and ultimately ignored God's direct command.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: As I read these verses, I want you to look at the cycle either on the screen or on your sheet.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: After Joshua and that entire generation died, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: They followed and worshipped various gods of the peoples around them.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: They aroused the Lord's anger because they forsook him and served Baals and the Ashtaroth.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: In his anger against Israel, the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they no longer were no longer able to resist.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: They were in great distress.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Yet they would not listen to these judges, but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: They quickly turned from their ways of their ancestors who had been obedient to the Lord's commands.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Following other gods and serving and worshiping them, they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: The Lord had allowed those nations to remain.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: The Lord had allowed those nations to remain.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: He did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: What an awful cycle this is.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Just a terrible cycle.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Here's another way to see this cycle in Judges.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to remember.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: There were seven apostases, and that means seven turning away from seven times of turning away from God.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: There were seven servitudes, the nations around them would abuse and subdue them.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: And then there were seven deliverances.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: God would send a judge or a leader to bring them back spiritually to himself.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Isn't the use of seven interesting?
7:19
SPEAKER_00: A coincidence?
7:20
SPEAKER_00: No.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: It's God has this all planned out.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: So here is the cycle that we see in Judges, time after time.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: The first part of the cycle begins with peace.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: When Joshua and the people come into the land, there's a time of peace and prosperity.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Things are going great.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: The people are seeking God.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: They are thankful to God, they believe in him, and they're holding fast to him.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: The second part of the cycle is disobedience.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: God said, Drive out the Canaanites, and they didn't.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: In verse 11, it said, The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: In verse 12, it says, They forsook the Lord, who had brought them out of Egypt.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: They went after other gods from among the gods of the people who were around about them and bowed down to them.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: This was deliberate, deliberate disobedience.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: The third part of the cycle was bondage.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Doing life on their own, their own way brought them into bondage.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: They enter, they begin to enter into all kinds of immorality, the same kinds of immorality that the people who lived in the land were doing.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: And the fourth cycle was misery.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Doing life in their own way made them miserable.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: They learned that sin always brings pain.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: Even the sins that took that look the most attractive and seem safe, bring pain.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: The nations around them attack, they conquer them and their land, they they oppress the people and they bring pain and sorrow to them.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: And the people cry out to God.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: They cry out to God, help us, help us.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: But here's the important part.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: They are crying out to God from their pain, not out of sorrow for their sins.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: They just want relief from the pain.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: They want relief from the consequences.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: They didn't like living with the consequences of their sins.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: And that's what prompted them to cry out to God.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Not because they were sorrowful and ready to give up those sinful ways and those sinful idols.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: The fifth part of the cycle was deliverance and rest.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: They cry out to the Lord, and verse 18 says, the Lord has compassion on them.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: He has compassion on them.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: God would provide a judge, the people usually followed the judge, and deliverance was experienced and rest would occur.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: And the sixth part of the cycle was compromise.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: The judge would die.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Israel would once again compromise and become disobedient.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: As long as the judge was alive, the people seek after God and follow his ways.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: But after a time of peace, the judge dies, and the hearts of the people become complacent again, and they fall right back into that sin.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: Over and over, this cycle repeats itself.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: The people dive right back into the same sin their parents have committed, and often, very often, to an even greater degree.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Generation after generation falls into the same pattern, and this is the time of the judges for almost 400 years.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: This awful cycle kept them trapped for 400 years.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: They were in as much bondage in this cycle as they had been in Egypt for 400 years.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: Can you personally relate to a similar kind of style in your life?
11:13
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many women I have told me I read the Bible and I feel close to the Lord, and then I stop reading, and I do things that I don't want to do, and then I feel far away from the Lord, and I feel like He doesn't care about me.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: I've heard this from so many women, I can't even tell you.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Most, if not all, of us know what that cycle feels like.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: We know that.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: We've been there.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: We tend to go out and commit the same sin or the spiritual entropy week after week.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Then we cry out to God for help, but our hearts don't change.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: When we start to feel miserable living with the consequences of our choices, we want help right away, right away, and so we ask God to bail us out.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: And if he doesn't show up right away, then we come to conclusions about God that are erroneous.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: We, however, have no intention of changing our life patterns and often feel like God doesn't come the moment we cry out to him.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: That's how Israel felt too.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: God wasn't coming to them as soon as they cried out.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Like Israel, we can offer up a repentance that is all about being delivered from the circumstances we are in and has nothing to do with the true sorrow, true godly sorrow that leads to repentance.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: That is spiritual entropy.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: That's what that pattern is.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual entropy means that our spiritual lives tend to move toward disorder and disconnect.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: If we don't put energy into keeping them vibrant and alive, if we don't do something, we're just gonna atrophy.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: That's why I see men and women in this cycle.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: They don't put forth the effort they need to stay connected.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: Without investing effort and time, we tend to lose our passion and our and our spiritual focus, and we tend to whine about it.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't show up for me anymore.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: I can't feel him.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: When we don't sense God, as soon as we call out to him, we assume he doesn't care.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: And that is a totally wrong assumption.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: I'd say we have a lot to learn from the judges.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: We, like Israel, have to take care of our spiritual lives.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about legalism, I'm talking about spiritual connectedness.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: God helped Israel by giving them the judges.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: God helps us by giving us the Holy Spirit and His written word.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: He expects us to walk in the Spirit and to read His Word to keep us from those downward cycles.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Looking at the judges is beneficial because we see how patient and how graciously merciful God is.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: And lasting change is absolutely possible.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Living righteous, holy lives filled with repentance for our sin is what can keep us out of these cycles.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: I once heard a theologian say that he wanted to live his life in a in a continuous state of repentance.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: And I loved that thought.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: And I and I told the Lord, that's what I want to.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: I want to live in a state of continuous repentance.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Don't always do it, but that's what I'm striving for.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Delighting in His word and constantly, consistently being in it with all of our hearts can keep us out of these kinds of cycles.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: All I'm saying is that staying out of these downward cycles requires action on our part.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: It required action on Israel's.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: We will never be as impactful to others as we will after we have put forth the effort to break the sin cycles of our lives.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: I can so relate to what I am saying to you here.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: This is not just a bunch of words that I'm stringing together.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: I have experienced what I'm talking about.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: I was in that cycle for the first 40 years of my life.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: And I had so much trouble finding consistency and discipline.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: But when I finally disciplined myself in reading the word every day and allowing God to surface the junk, the sin, all the ugliness of me, letting him raise that to the surface, dealing with it in repentance, in sorrow, experiencing the pain, doing all of that then, and letting him take it away, got me to a place of consistency and connectedness, like nothing ever, ever could.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: The word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit completely changed me and made me into a passionate, disciplined person.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: I know experientially that God works powerfully through his word to deliver us.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: I know that.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: His word has the power to change people and to release them from their chains.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: If you can relate to what I am saying and feel like you've been on that spiritual path of entropy, then please hear me.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: You are reading the word on a consistent basis now.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: You're on that path, that good path that's going to take you to a better place.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Just keep doing it, keep reading, keep growing, keep putting forth the effort that it stays to stay connected on the vertical, connected to God.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: And if you do that, if you keep praying, if you attend church and you you you worship God in those times, if you do that consistently, you will be blessed and you will stay out of those harmful cycles of spiritual entropy.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: You will.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: That's just how God has planned it and designed it.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm not talking about legalism here.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: I've been there and done that too.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about unhindered connection with God, which is the opposite of spiritual entropy.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: I know what it's like to be in bondage.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: I know what it's like to walk in bondage.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: And I know what it's like to walk in freedom.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: And all the effort that I had to put forth to get out of the bondage and to walk in freedom was totally and completely worth it.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: Every bit of that hard work was worth it.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Look at Judges 2.10.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Why did the succeeding generations not know what God had done for them?
19:21
SPEAKER_00: The cessation of information being passed on did nothing to keep the succeeding generations out of this sin cycle, did it?
19:31
SPEAKER_00: They failed to pass on what had been passed down to them, which was an understanding of the law and love for Yahweh.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: The problem was the heart of the people was really not changing.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: All they were seeking from God was to be relieved of the oppression that they were experiencing and for him to give them the good life they desired in the promised land.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: They wanted the good life more than they wanted God.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: They wanted the good life more than they wanted God.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Last week we saw the book of Joshua begins with the words, after the death of Moses, and the book of Judges begins with the words after the death of Joshua.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: When a man or woman of God dies, nothing of God dies.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: But God uses individuals to fulfill his purpose and for his kingdom, and when they pass on, pass away, they usually leave a trail of people who are following along behind them.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: The root of Israel's problem is that when Joshua died, God could find no man, no single person to lead them, like he did after Moses died in finding Joshua.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: That is what we saw with Joshua following Moses, but we don't see the same thing when we get to the judges.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: There is no clear leader until God raises up a judge.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: The statement in those days there was no king in Israel.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Every man did what that which was right in his own eyes, is repeated on four separate occasions in the book of Judges.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: I think God wants us to get it.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: There is a leadership vacuum, and the people are failing to take personal responsibility to pass on the truths of God to the succeeding generations.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: How does a whole generation grow and learn and never learn what God has done for the generation before them?
21:44
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to imagine, but it's true in Israel's history over and over.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: It has also been true throughout history.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: How does a vast continent like Egypt, I mean like Europe?
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Which was a place of spiritual reformation and revival.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Grow cold to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: And yet it has.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Europe is one of the God most godless societies right now.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: At one time, the continent of Europe was covered with churches, filled with passionate worshipers of Jesus.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: And just a few generations later, we see the churches are all but empty.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: Nat and I have gone to Rome, to European cities, and there's practically churches on every corner, but they're empty, or they've been turned into museums.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: When one generation fails to pass on the flame of faith to the next, the light goes out.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: What a huge lesson that is for us.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: We have responsibility to be the light, to carry the light, and to pass off the light to the next generation.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: In spite of all of this, God still loved Israel and shows up personally to tell them so.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: In the entire Old Testament, the angel of the Lord is mentioned 80 times.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: Most theologians believe that the angel of the Lord means is the Lord Jesus Christ in his preincarnate form.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Twenty of those appearances are in the book of Judges.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Twenty of them.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: There is no other period of time that God ministers to his people as the angel of the Lord as there is during the era of the judges.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: This tells us how committed God is to his people.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: This also tells us how uncommitted the people are to God.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: The judges that God raised up had three primary functions.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: The first one was a judge was a political leader over the people of Israel.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: This person is called to give leadership to the nation.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: A judge was a military deliverer.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: The judge stands up and he fights against the oppressive forces of the other nations who fight against Israel.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: And number three, the judge was an agent of God's power.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: The power of God flows through the judges in supernatural and mighty ways.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: In our day, God uses the church and individuals in the church to give leadership and to equip for spiritual battle, to be an agent of God's power.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: That's how he works today in this church age.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: It is absolutely crucial that every generation has spiritual leaders who are coming along behind the older generation following in their wake.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: It is crucial that that is happening.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: And the great news is that the Church of Jesus Christ will always, always have individuals who lead.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: How do we know this?
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Because of what Jesus said in Matthew 16, 18.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: I, Jesus said, I'm going to build my church.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: And the gates of hell are not going to overcome it.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: His church is still advancing all over the world because it's his church.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Because it's his.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: They come each year at harvest time, just after Israel has finished harvesting all the crops, and they come in, they ride in, they steal all the crops, and they leave.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: They head out of town until the next year's harvest when they come back and do the same thing.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: Judges 6, 11 through 12.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abizarite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the Midianites.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: I so love that about him.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: He calls Gideon what he would be in the future, a mighty warrior, not what he was right this moment.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: How cool is that! We saw the same thing with Abraham and Moses, too.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: He calls us what we will be, not what we are right now.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: The Midianites didn't want to kill the people, because why would they?
34:57
SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to take over their land because then they would have had to work the land.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: It was so much easier to just let the Israelites do all the work of planting and harvesting and then come in and steal it.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: It's really a pretty smart plan, and God lets them get away with it because it suits his purposes in the cycle and in what he's going to do as far as getting rid of the Midianites.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: So Gideon answers the Lord, oops, sorry, let me go back, because that's not a slight.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: Just listen.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: Pardon me, my Lord, Gideon replied, but if the Lord is with us, why is all this happening to us?
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt?
35:37
SPEAKER_00: But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: Don't you know that Jesus was just like?
35:47
SPEAKER_00: I could I could say a few things here.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: The Lord turned to him and said instead, Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: Am I not sending you?
36:00
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: Pardon me, my Lord, Gideon replied, but how can I save Israel?
36:08
SPEAKER_00: My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: The Lord answered him, I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: Don't you love it?
36:26
SPEAKER_00: Gideon couldn't understand why Israel was suffering the way they were.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: If Yahweh was with them, then why were things so bad?
36:35
SPEAKER_00: He didn't realize that Israel's condition was the result of their abandoning God, not God abandoning them.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: Gideon asked for a sign from the Lord, and he is instructed to take meat and unleavened bread and put them on a rock and pour broth on it.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: And then the angel of the Lord Jesus comes, he strikes the rock with his staff and burns it all up.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Gideon realizes that he is face to face with the angel of the Lord, and he cries out, Alas, sovereign Lord, I've seen the angel of the Lord face to face.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord said to him, Peace, do not be afraid, you are not going to die.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it the Lord is Shalom.
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SPEAKER_00: Peace.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: That night, that same night, the Lord said to him, Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old, tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the ashtra pole beside it.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height, using the wood of the ashera pole that you cut down.
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SPEAKER_00: Offer the second bull as a burnt offering.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: So there are some profound spiritual implications in Gideon's assignment here.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: First, Baal must go before Midian can go.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get rid of the idols before the enemy will leave you.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: The second point: God's altar cannot be built until Ba's altar is destroyed.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: And third, the place we must start is in our own backyard.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: Gideon had to do this on his own turf.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: God is going to use Gideon to defeat the Midianites, but there has to be some house cleaning first.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: And so he also has to take a stand.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: Before God gives this servant, Gideon, great victories in public, any servant great victories in public, he often prepares people by giving them smaller victories in their home and in their own families.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: My greatest spiritual battles took place in the privacy of my own home, just between God and me, and they totally positively impacted and affected my family first before I could impact anybody else.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: Praise Jesus.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: That was true for me.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: Gideon needed to personally take this stand before the nation would follow him as its new judge.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: Sonic Light says the real problem in Israel was not the Midianites' oppression, but Israel's spiritual bondage due to idolatry.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: So true.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: God was using Gideon to deal with that idolatry.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: In order to do what God wanted him to do, Gideon needed encouragement and God delivered.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: In Judges chapter 6, Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have promised, look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.
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SPEAKER_00: And that is what happened.
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SPEAKER_00: Gideon rose early the next day.
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SPEAKER_00: He squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew, a bowl full of water.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: Let me make just one more request.
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SPEAKER_00: Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: That night God did so.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: Only the fleece was dry, all the ground was covered with dew.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: God has asked an insecure individual, Gideon, to do something powerful, and he is needing assurance.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great to see?
40:36
SPEAKER_00: That is what we are seeing here.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: And Gideon knew what God wanted him to do.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: But God allowed him to ask for reassurance.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: How gracious of him.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: When he could have like really answered him powerfully and set the and set the set it set everything straight.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: But he lovingly reassures his struggling servants, you and me, when we need it.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: First, Gideon was allowed to meet the preincarnate Christ.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: What a blessing and privilege.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he committed himself to following the Lord.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: Third, he obeyed the Lord by taking a public stand for him, and that was not easy.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: And third, the Holy Spirit gave supernatural power.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: You remember how God reduces the army of Israel from twenty two thousand men down to ten thousand men and then down to three hundred men.
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SPEAKER_00: Judges 7, 5 through 8 says, The Lord said to Gideon, With 300 men that lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands.
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SPEAKER_00: Let all the others go home.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home, but kept the 300 who took over the provisions and trumpets of the Lord.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: God uses some crazy odds to teach Gideon to believe his promises and to move him from fear to faith.
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SPEAKER_00: There were 135,000 Midianites, Midianite troops versus 32,000 Israelite troops.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: But then God reduces it, the army, to 10,000 and then to 300.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: Gideon and his army are now outnumbered 450 to 1.
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SPEAKER_00: Crazy.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: And what point is God making here?
42:51
SPEAKER_00: This victory is the Lord's.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: God comes to Gideon and says, Arise, go against the go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hands.
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SPEAKER_00: But God knew Gideon's weaknesses, and so he adds these words If you were afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Poor and listen to what they are saying.
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SPEAKER_00: Afterwards, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: And you know what happens?
43:18
SPEAKER_00: They go down to the camp and they overhear the soldiers relaying his dream and declaring that God had given, had driven Midian into Gideon's hands.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: And what does Gideon do with this response?
43:31
SPEAKER_00: He does the right thing.
43:33
SPEAKER_00: When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and he worshiped.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: He bowed down and he worshiped.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: The perfect thing to do.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't wait to get back to the camp where it's safe.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: He immediately prostates himself, prostrates himself before God and worships the one true God who has given him reassurance after reassurance.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: Gideon and Israel attack the Midianites in the middle of the night.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: They blow the trumpets, they smash the pitchers, they shout for the a sword for the Lord and for Gideon.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: And in all that commotion and the attack, the Midianites attack each other.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: When the 300 trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.
44:20
SPEAKER_00: God turns the Midianites against themselves and they kill one another.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: Israel's obedience results in God fighting their enemies for them.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: And what a great victory.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: Gideon was a frightened judge, but he served a mighty God.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, after a time, Gideon eventually led Israel back into the idolatry that he's just delivered them from.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: He makes a gold ephod and it becomes an object of worship.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that we repeatedly see God using insecure, flawed, imperfect people in scripture?
45:08
SPEAKER_00: I am.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: Because it's the only kind he has to work with, right?
45:13
SPEAKER_00: The book of Judges ends with these horrible statements.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: The book of Judges also portrays a God who cannot help but be gracious and merciful and generous in spite of his people's waywardness.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: What an incredibly gracious God we have.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad he reveals himself in Scripture that way.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much that you use these insecure people who eventually put forth effort.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: And because you are almighty, powerful, they are overcomers.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that that when we put forth effort, even though we are weak, insecure people, when we put forth the effort, you are there to apply your power to our lives so that we can make a difference.
46:22
SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you that you have not given up that plan and that strategy and that work.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: And we give you praise for that today, Lord.
46:32
SPEAKER_00: I ask that you continue to still minister through your word to my sisters and brothers who are watching and being part of this.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: Keep impacting them in great ways, God.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: I pray.
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SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, and we will see you next time.