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Teach Us What We Are To Do

As we brought our first child home from the hospital, we wished newborns came with instruction manuals.  To live our lives, we have one–it is written by God and is full of His perfect teaching!

I.  Judges 13:1-12.  When the angel explained the rules to govern Samson’s life as a Nazirite, his father was wise enough to ask God in prayer to teach them what they were to do.  Before the age of synagogues, what would a man of the fields know about the Lord’s instruction except that many years before, a covenant with God had been made on Mt. Sinai that God’s people had agreed to obey (Exodus 19:5-8)?  Yet, this father-to-be, faced with a great challenge, knew not to trust in his own understanding.

II. John 16:12-13.  Since Eden, we have understood the world through learning (Genesis 3:22), and so the first covenant God made with His people came by instruction (Exodus 24:12), and promises that God would teach us for a second covenant were made (Jeremiah 31:31-34).  God’s Son came as a master teacher (Mark 10:1) and just before the cross promised that God’s Spirit would lead his followers into all truth.  Indeed, the Thessalonians were told that they were taught by God to love one another (1 Thessalonians 4:9).

III.  Proverbs 3:5-7.  The big question is–will we submit to God’s teaching or lean on our own understanding?  Like the man who assembles something from a box without consulting the instructions, if we do this with our lives, we’ll end up with a pocketful of extra parts and a product that doesn’t work well or at all.  Instead, we need to delight in God’s teaching (Psalm 1:2) and not be a fool who despises it (Proverbs 1:2-7).  We must say with the Psalmist, “Teach me” (Psalm 25:4-10).

We are surrounded by sources of teaching that would have us living our lives in many different ways, some that even sound wise, but the only instruction for life and godliness comes from God.

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You Would Not Save Me

“In God We Trust” is printed right on our money, yet do we trust Him or the money itself?  Most of us would exclaim that we trust God, but in reality trust in others, circumstances, or ourselves.  We trust that the money we’ve paid into Social Security will be there to fund our retirement; we insist that we do certain jobs because “if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself; and Grandma always believed this, so it’s good enough to get me into heaven.

If we truly examine our motives, we might be surprised what we truly trust in!

I. Judges 12:1-7.  A gentle word is supposed to turn away wrath (Proverbs 15:1), but Jephthah learned with first the Ammonites and then the Ephraimites that that doesn’t always work.  He had tried to put his trust in his fellow Israelites to save him from a foreign invader, and they didn’t like him putting his trust in God when they refused his request.  You may experience friends’ or relatives’ pressure for you to follow their advice or examples, but often their ways run counter to God’s Word.  Adam and Eve experienced this in Genesis 3:1-6.  As a Christian, we must always follow God’s way.

II. 1 Samuel 13:8-12.  We can misplace our trust by putting it in others, circumstances, or ourselves.  When Samuel was later than he said he would arrive and King Saul was watching his army grumble and disperse, he justified in his own mind that offering the sacrifice, a job only for the Levites, was okay for him to do.  God ripped the kingdom away from him because of his disobedience.  Sin is not trusting in a good God to follow His perfect plan in His perfect way in His perfect timing for you.  Worry is trusting only in ourselves (Matthew 6:25-33) as is having little faith (Matthew 14:28-31).

III. Psalm 20:4-7.  A Christian will firmly place his trust in God, knowing that His ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8) and that God never forsakes those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 9:10).  Indeed, for that which is most important–salvation–Jesus Himself tells us to put our trust in Him (John 14:1-3).

We might examine ourselves in light of Scripture and ask if we are placing our trust in God and He is just using the people and circumstances around us as tools for His plan or if we are trusting in those people, circumstances–even ourselves–to save us.

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Teaching Them

The Christian Walk has been described as one beggar showing another beggar where to find food.  This illustrates wonderfully how one of our primary missions on this earth is to instruct others in the way of salvation.

I. Matthew 28:18-20.  Animals know how to live by instinct, but human beings need to be taught (Genesis 3:5-22).  God has given us the Bible to instruct us in the way of salvation (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and displayed His power in creation to know that He is God (Romans 1:18-22).  So, it is no wonder that Jesus seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10) today by equipping us to make disciples through teaching others the gospel.

II. Ephesians 4:11-16.  But, the teaching does not stop there.  After making disciples, we are to teach them to obey all of Jesus’ commands.  To do that, Jesus established His church (Matthew 16:18) as a center of learning, where the lost can hear the gospel, yes, but where the church, speaking the truth in love, can build itself up in love.  Our teaching should not be confined within the walls of buildings, however, but the church, attaining unity and maturity in Jesus, should go forth and teach.

III. John 13:13-34.  We glimpse Jesus’ great love that motivated Him to live a number of years in the flesh to instruct us in the way of salvation before going to the cross for us in love.  In Matthew 23:37, He laments that Jerusalem persisted in sin while so many prophets had come to teach the city and the nation throughout the centuries.  That same love is our motivation as we take up Jesus’ mission to teach others by word and by deed, by our very lives, the way back to God.

By learning do we now understand our world, and so God, in His infinite wisdom, taught us who He is and how to return to Him.  Then, having come to know Him, we are, in turn, told to teach others.

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I Will Offer It Up

God made us in His image, but so often we try to make God in ours.  We want a god we can control, and so we’ll try to bargain with God by making promises or deals that usually begin with “If You will …, then I’ll ….”  But, God doesn’t operate that way; rather He works through love.

I.  Judges 11:1-40.  Despite a similar start to life, Jephthah nevertheless had a different spirit than the judge from previous chapter, Abimelech.  Jephthah tried to reason with the Ammonite king to avoid war, but war came anyway.  Rather than trusting God, however, Jephthah made a rash vow to God to sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house, which sadly was his daughter, if God would give him victory.

II.  Isaiah 44:9-17.  In making us in His image, God put us in dominance over all the earth, but that does not include God Himself (1 Corinthians 11:3).  We turn to idols even today because we can control them rather than submitting to, trusting in, and obeying God.  Even Job thought he had a few points that he would like to argue with God (Job 13:3), but how can creation argue with the Creator (Romans 9:20)?

III.  Romans 8:28-32.  Instead of coming across as a used car salesman with God (Do I have a deal for You!), we must realize that God loves us unconditionally, will give us whatever we need in line with His will, will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), has thoughts and ways so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8), and has a perfect plan for the perfect time in the perfect way (Galatians 4:4-5).  And sometimes we have something to learn from His discipline (Hebrews 12:7-11).

Therefore, love is the coin of the Kingdom.  Just as we do for those we love without bargains, promises, or vows, how much more will God do for us as He’s already proved His love through the giving of His Son on the cross (Romans 5:6-8)?

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Stand in the Breach

Like the pillar of cloud and fire separating the Egyptians from the Israelites at the Red Sea, God has always stood in the breach for us.  He had to as we could not, because of sin and selfishness, stand in the breach for ourselves.

I.  Ezekiel 22:24-30.  At the time of captivity, the nation of Judah had so fallen into sin that God says He searched for one to stand in the breach for them but found no one.  That’s mankind’s struggle as no one is righteous and all have fallen short because of sin (Romans 3:9-23).  God has always stood in the breach for us (Exodus 14:19-25) through power, but He declares that He will now do so through weakness (Ezekiel 34:11-16) and states that He Himself will be a good shepherd to us.

II.  John 10:11-15.  Jesus, God in the flesh, is our Good Shepherd, who lays His life down for us.  To stand in the breach against the forces of the enemy is a position of sacrifice for all those who He protects within the defensive fortification.  Jesus fufills the “Here am I, send me” of Isaiah 6:8 by willingly laying down His life on the cross (Hebrews 10:5-10) and stands in the breach caused by our sin.

III.  Ephesians 6:10-18.  Through His sacrifice, we are able to love like He has loved us and lay our lives down for others (John 12:23-26; John 13:34-38) and stand in the breach for a lost world (John 15:11-17).  Armed with His love as our ultimate weapon, we do not wage war as the world does (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).  So, it is time to suit up!

God still stands in the breach for us with His mighty power.  It’s just now that through the weakness of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18-25), Jesus has made it possible for His followers to stand in the breach in His mighty power with the same weapons of weakness–and overcome!

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Let Them Save You

Idolatry.  That’s so Old Testament!  After all, no one today worships something they put before God … oh.  Well, maybe there’s money and materialism, success and sensuality, jobs and hobbies, food and entertainment.  Perhaps the list could even extend into all the negative ways we seek to escape the stress of life instead of putting our trust in God.

What’s the reason the cycle of sin in the time of Judges as well as now continues to repeat in God’s people?  What is it about idols that made them and us forsake God, so that they and us cry out for a deliverer?

I.  Judges 10:6-16.  God knew that mankind, if given the chance, would turn to other things than Him and so carved it into stone (Exodus 20).  The foundation of idolatry is covetousness (Colossians 3:5).  We are made in God’s image, but since we cannot control God, we strive to make God in ours.  Instead of taking joy in being God’s chosen people, we compromise to become like everyone else.  And then we become complacent because what we serve is not greater than ourselves.

II.  Romans 1:15-16.  How can the gospel break the cycle of sin.  Our world of relative morality works to make us believe that sin and judgment aren’t real and so paves the way for idolatry.  At times in Judges, God’s people would temporarily break the cycle by acknowledging their sin.  We must be convinced that repentance is essential (Romans 2:2-5), judgment is real (Romans 14:10-12), and that the gospel is the solution (Romans 6:1-11).

III.  Hebrews 7:22-25.  But unlike God’s people of the time of Judges who would fall back into sin and idolatry when the judge died (Judges 2:16-19), we have a Judge, the perfect deliverer, who always lives to intercede for us.  Therefore, once rescued from sin and death, we never need to go back into the life we once lived.

Christians, who know the power of the gospel, need to return to trusting God fully and not seek idols of their own fashioning.

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Come and Reign Over Us

In a time so much like today, God’s people in the time of Judges struggled to live out His commands without compromising with the evil world around them.  Often, they failed, found themselves enslaved, and would cry out to God for deliverance.  When they did, God would send a judge who would save them, but the people only remained faithful until the judge died.

Abimelech was one of those judges, and his story teaches us several lessons.

I.  Judges 9:1-24.  Gideon’s illegitimate son, Abimelech, was a terrible guy who went to his terrible family and gathered around him terrible people to do a terrible thing: he killed the seventy sons of Gideon, his half-brothers, all except Jotham, the youngest.  As Jotham tells Abimelech and his family that they will destroy each other, he gives an extended metaphor that helps us today.  The trees (the family) was trusting in brambles (Abimelech) to rule over them, but they won’t like the refuge that brambles offer.  We must not put our trust in the things of this world but only God.

II.  1 Corinthians 9:24-27.  Also, just because you’re being used by God doesn’t mean He approves of what you’re doing.  Pharaoh teaches us this (Romans 9:17).  So do the wicked men who put Jesus to death and probably thought they were doing the right thing (Acts 2:22-24).  We must persevere in the face of discipline (Hebrews 12:11-17) and obey God’s commands so that we will not be disqualified for the prize.

III.  Psalm 46:1-3.  Thirdly, we must be careful in whose or what we’re taking refuge in.  Our situation being so similar to God’s people’s situation in the time of Judges, we must be careful not to compromise with the world.  The brambles are all around us, begging us to come rest in their shade: the economy, politicians, health, youth, friends, self-concept.  These are all temporary and will melt with the elements in the heat on Judgment Day (Psalm 20:1-9).  Christ and His work on the cross and at the tomb, however, are eternal.  Only in Him, the King of Kings, may we take refuge and live.

In who or what are you taking refuge?  Examine your life, the way you interact with others, your social media posts, how you spend your time.  While calling yourself a Christian, you may find that you’re spending a lot of time in the shade of brambles.

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As I Have Done to You

Our idea of ‘servant’ is probably in the context of ‘public servant,’ someone who should work for us but acts more like a king on an elevated throne.  Jesus the perfect king-servant showed that a servant is one who sacrificially helps others above self.  Indeed, the only way a biblical servant is above another is when he stoops to lift another up.

I.  John 12:12-33.  Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in full view of the crowds got everyone’s attention, especially those in power who wanted to hold onto their power.  A line was drawn in the sand, and Jesus’ challenge was heard: “if anyone serves me, he must follow me.”  To Peter and others who thought in worldly ways, following Jesus meant glory and honor … and power (John 13:31-38)!

II.  John 13:1-8.  Jesus illustrated that this wasn’t the case when He, through whom all things were made, removed the trappings of one above all others and did the work of the lowliest servant–washing feet.  Confused by this, Peter, who surely remembered Jesus’ transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-5), balked at this redefinition of serving (Philippians 2:5-8) and had to submit to its necessity.  With the later help of the Holy Spirit, he seems to have gotten it (1 Peter 2:21-25).

III.  John 13:12-17.  Before Jesus explained His actions, He “resumed his place” as their Lord and Master.  The disciples must have recalled their earlier conversation about who was greatest among them (Matthew 20:22-28).  That person, Jesus explained, is the wheat willing to fall to the ground to die to produce many seeds or the one who gives his life for a friend (John 15:12-17).  Just as Jesus would be the greatest servant for mankind, He calls us to do for others what He has done for us.

We have been given great freedom to choose how we live our lives.  May we not in selfishness indulge the sinful nature with that freedom but rather serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13), just as Jesus did.

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And They Devoted Themselves

A wedding is an event; the marriage is an endurance race.  As parts of the bride of Christ, we should plan ahead for the time beyond the “I do” of baptism to the daily walk with our Bridegroom.  A glimpse into the lives of the 1st Century Christians can help us in the 21st Century.

I.  Acts 2:42-47.  How long would a marriage last if after the honeymoon, the bride returned to her single life and only spent an hour with her husband once a week?  There’s much we can learn from the early church’s devotion to their new life.  In western culture, we are in the habit of scheduling time with Jesus along with the other things that we do.  But, a marriage is not something we can schedule.  It is through our relationship with Christ that we live our lives.

II.  1 Timothy 2:1-6.  Just as newly married soldiers in Israel were to stay home to work on the devotion to their wives (Deuteronomy 24:5), new Christians especially need to work on their relationship with Christ through their devotion to learning from God’s Word, serving with fellow Christians, remembering Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection through the Lord’s Supper, and praying as Christ desires all to come to salvation (Acts 2:42).

III.   Ephesians 5:31-33.  And, of course, as the years go by, all couples need to maintain their marriages through such things as retreats, date nights, and good communication.  These keep their oneness from splitting back into two individuals again.  The formula that Christ and His bride use is sacrificial love and obedient respect.  This takes work as well as devotion in our spiritual walk to do the things that benefit ‘we’ and not just ‘me’ (Acts 2:43-47).

Rather than treating our Christianity as a checklist, we should seek to do those things that a good friend or spouse would do with our Bridegroom to have a loving and lasting relationship.

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For As the Man Is

In an age where our secular culture attacks any show of masculinity as ‘toxic,’ should the church settle for the feminized version of what it means to be a man?

I.  Judges 8:18-21.  Having overcome his fear and fully trusting in God, Gideon routs the armies attacking Israel and captures two of their leaders, who basically tell him to kill them himself if he were to be a man.  Gideon does, but is it toxic masculinity or doing what has to be done–even if it’s hard?  Fear almost always is the cause for most men to shrink back from being ‘men.’  Describing David as a man after God’s heart, God explains that he would do all of His will (Acts 13:22).  So, to be a godly men, we must be a living sacrifice to know what God’s will is (Romans 12:1-2), choosing to do His will–even if it’s difficult.

II.  Hebrews 5:7-9.  Jesus was such a man, who suffered greatly in His obedience to His Father’s will, but became the source of salvation to all who obey Him.  We are told to fix our eyes on Him as our example and for perseverance to obey because the way He endured the cross was “for the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:1-4).  Jesus fulfilled what it means to be a godly man in the fullest sense and then left us an example to follow (1 Peter 2:21-23), even forgiving from the cross (Luke 23:34).

III.  Psalm 18:29-40.  So, only in Jesus and walking as He did (1 John 2:6) are we able to be ‘men’ by God’s definition.  “For as the man is, so is his strength,” Gideon was told.  Since “the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25), how better to truly be a ‘man’ than through Him?

God made both men and women in His likeness.  There’s no reason why the church must accept that there’s no difference or that gender is somehow fluid or subject to choice.  Rather, both men and women must live out how they were intended to be in Him as outlined in His Word.