Falling into sin again after 40 years of serving the Lord, God’s people are told by a prophet that it is their fear of the world that has caused them to disobey. That’s not how the people understand it though. When the angel first comes to Gideon, this son hiding his threshing from the Midianites believes that God has forsaken them (Judges 6). Continue reading “Go in This Might of Yours”
You Shall Not Fear
In the 1939 classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tinman enter the Haunted Forest while famously chanting, “Lions, and tigers, and bears–oh my!” to push through their fear. Like God’s people in the time of Judges who had disobeyed God because they feared the world (Judges 6:7-10), God’s people today must not keep the gospel within the walls of our church buildings because we fear the hostile culture around us. Continue reading “You Shall Not Fear”
She Gave Him Milk
Because Barak was reluctant to obey God’s commands though God had promised to be with him, Deborah told him that the glory that Barak could have gained from defeating Sisera would go to a woman. While shrinking back, Barak still tried to regain that glory on his own … but you can’t thwart God.
I. Judges 4:8-23. Deborah is remembered as the leader of God’s people in the battle with Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army. While Sisera marched against Israel with 900 chariots, it is Deborah who tells Barak to fight in the battle that the Lord would win for him. Jesus dying on the cross was part of God’s plan (Acts 2:23), and Gamaliel rightly warned the Sanhedrin that they could find themselves opposing God (Acts 5:39). You can’t thwart God.
II. Judges 5:7-31. Though Jael’s husband was a Levite, he was friendly with the Canaanites that had oppressed Israel for twenty years, so Sisera believed he had found rest and safety in his flight after the battle. Using her wiles to conquer her enemy, Jael gave him milk when he asked for water and curds in a nobleman’s bowl while she waited for him to sleep. Barak arrived to late to gain the glory as Jael had already “staked” out her victory.
III. Acts 4:23-31. The account closes with the idea that God’s enemies perish but His friends rise in His might. It’s not just important to be on God’s side but to be courageously and wholeheartedly serving Him. Though Peter and John had suffered at the hands of the Sanhedrin, they prayed for boldness and spoke about how futile it was to try to fight against God. His will will always be done. If you are cowardly like Barak, you won’t gain glory.
God always finds a way for His will to be done. You’re either with Him or against Him by your courage or cowardice.
The Lord Raised Up
Just as the moral decline of our culture nosedives, the church is struggling with what some have called “the graying of the flock.” Today, less than half of our population attends some kind of religious service, down from three-quarters just a short time ago. God’s people have always struggled not to compromise with the world, and when they did in the time of Judges, God would raise up a deliverer to save them–when they cried out to Him (Judges 3:7-11).
I. Joshua 14:6-15. When Joshua was dividing the land, Caleb reminds them that the two of them as good spies many years ago were all that was left of the generation that had come out of slavery in Egypt, and so Joshua gave Caleb Hebron. Later Caleb gave Othniel his daughter in marriage … and springs. It is this Othniel that God raises up when the people cry out to Him when they realize their worldliness.
II. Isaiah 43:3-11. God alone would be the Savior of His people. Before (Matthew 1:21) and at (Luke 2:10-11) His birth, Jesus–God in the flesh–was hailed as our Deliverer. The time and circumstances were right for our salvation (Galatians 4:4-5), and our redemption was accomplished on the cross (Ephesians 2:4-6). But, in fulfillment of prophecy (Joel 2), we too needed to cry out for it (Acts 2:21).
III. 1 Corinthians 12:18. So, where will our next deliverers come from who will lead us to Christ? This is the wrong question as it’s not our job. God reserves those who will serve Him (1 Kings 19:18) and knows who are His (2 Timothy 2:19). From the very stones He could raise them up (Luke 3:8) if He wanted to. He’s arranging the parts of the body where He needs them to be. Is He raising you up?
It could be He’s arranging you in the place where you are to lead many to Christ. People are crying out for deliverance all around us. Will you step up to help them?
Who Did Not Know the Lord
Influencing children for Christ in this morally decadent culture is much like it was in the time of Judges, but the church can’t make the same mistakes God’s people did then (Judges 2:10-12).
I. Deuteronomy 6:6-9. The generation that had come out of Egypt was dead, and the generation that entered the Promised Land, the oldest 59 (Numbers 14:29-32), with Joshua failed to teach their kids about God or what He had done for them though they had been told to do so. Their excuses were probably much like ours–too busy, not enough time, etc. If we don’t teach them, they will abandon God.
II. Proverbs 22:6. Demas did that (2 Timothy 4:10) and loved the world instead. We must make the gospel relevant for a new generation (Matthew 9:17). We do this by becoming aware of the challenges kids face today and meeting them how Lois and Eunice did (1 Timothy 1:5). With proper preparation to live for God in a fast-paced and antagonistic culture, we can help our children break the cycle of sin.
III. Matthew 15:1-3. Far too often we hand children the gospel packaged in our traditions that worked for previous generations but are inadequate to meet the challenges of today’s world that they must survive and serve in. When we don’t give good gifts to our kids (Matthew 7:9-11) in the form of relevant teaching and preparation, we risk them going after other things and provoking God (Hebrews 10:26-27).
I saw this recently, “The gospel sounds strange to a generation that has been told they are perfect, loving themselves is virtuous, their heart is always right, and nothing is more important than being happy.” How must we adapt our teaching of the gospel to a new generation that thinks differently than we do because it comes from a secular mindset rather than the sacred starting point that we have known?
And Sent Her Throughout … Israel
I don’t believe the USPS or FED-UPS would have shipped it. The contents were definitely ‘fragile,’ ‘liquid,’ and ‘perishable.’ As terrible as the Levite’s actions were in cutting up his dead concubine after she had been abused by the Benjaminites the whole night and sending the pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel, it did have the effect of waking them up to their spiritual drifting from God’s Law.
I. Judges 19:1-30. In a scene reminiscent of Sodom in Genesis 19, the Levite found his host’s home surrounded by men in Gibeah (where King Saul would come from) wanting to sexually abuse him. In a decision that is heinous to today’s sensitivities and not better explained away by ancient hospitality laws, the Levite’s concubine was given to them instead. Sending her body parts into Israel provoked outrage and war as this woke the nation up to their spiritual slumber since Moses had mediated the Law on Mt. Sinai many years before.
II. John 15:18-21. Throughout Scripture, God used extreme acts to awaken His people, but the result was to bring them back into a right relationship with Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). Today, it seems that many calling themselves Christian use these extreme actions to protest against truth and groups they feel are stodgy or reactionary. They call for Christians to blend in with the culture and water-down the gospel to feel-good emotions that are reliant on experience. Spiritual discipline is hard to market (Hebrews 12:5-11), and Jesus said that His followers were not to blend in with the world.
III. Matthew 25:1-10. It takes work to be and stay prepared spiritually (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6), but true worshipers will determine to put this effort above all else. This is yet another purpose for the church as we each encourage another and spur on to good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25). The alarm clock is set (Matthew 24:42-44), but we may be hitting the snooze button.
What would it take to awaken you to your spiritual slumber and urge you to awaken others?
Is It Better For You …?
In the Calvin & Hobbes cartoon strip, Calvin often played calvinball, a game in which the rules were always changing to benefit him. That’s how “Christian chameleons” often treat the truth, changing it to appeal to a wider audience, blend in better with the culture, or benefit themselves in some way.
The question we need to ask is: are we seeking to please self or God?
I. Judges 18:3-20. When Joshua divided the promised land among the tribes of Israel, God scattered the Levites throughout the tribes to remind them of His covenant and Law. In the previous chapter, the Levite was so glad to be employed by Micah that he never says anything against his master’s carved image, household gods, or the location of worship. When 600 armed Danites ask him if it was better to serve one man or a whole tribe, the Levite goes with them, never mentioning God, the tabernacle, proper worship, what God desired, or the need to be holy as God is holy.
II. 1 Timothy 4:16. When we don’t watch our life and doctrine closely, we fall into selfishness and sin or compromise truth because of cultural pressures. In both cases we stray from being a true worshiper in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), become a friend to the world (James 4:1-4), and seek to please self rather than God (2 Corinthians 5:9). Rather, we must seek first His Kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33) and do everything in word and deed in His Name (Colossians 3:17).
III. Ezekiel 22:23-30. During the Babylonian captivity, Ezekiel tells us how those who should have been standing firm on truth had strayed in their duties. He lays God’s charges against the priests, princes, prophets, and people and ends with the lament that there was no one to stand in the breach. This was true in the time of judges, captivity … but not today. Jesus stood in the breach for us by the cross and then turned His work over to His followers to be the light of the world (John 9:1-5).
Are you? Will you stand in the breach to tell a sinful world the saving message of the gospel? Or will you compromise with the culture? Will you do what is pleasing to you or God? You cannot live your live by “Is it better for you …?” Rather, it should be “Is it better for God …?”
And His Strength Left Him
Like Superman, Samson had great strength, but he had his kryptonite–women! Many like to blame Delilah (and she was certainly evil), but Samson, like us, was lured and enticed by his own evil desire.
I. Judges 16:1-30. Though the text says “loved,” there’s no indication that Samson had anything but a very shallow relationship with Delilah, perhaps not much more than he had with his “heifer” who was burned (Judges 14) or the prostitute. But like that first wife, Delilah worked with the Philistines to undo Samson by using her feminine wiles four times to discover the secret of his strength. Now, Samson’s thickheadedness in not recognizing what she was doing each time he fought off men doesn’t excuse his giving in and telling this evil woman (she tormented him in his sleep!) and thus throwing away God’s gift.
II. James 1:1:13-15. We too cannot blame others or circumstances … or the devil (Sorry, Flip Wilson) for giving in to temptation. Like the foolish youth of Proverbs 7:6-23, we get lured and enticed by our own desire. We must fight against it. While in the flesh and made like us in every way, Jesus did in Gethsemane when he committed to following His Father’s will and not his own. David didn’t do so well (2 Samuel 11), but Joseph resisted Potiphar’s wife’s advances (Genesis 39). We must submit to God and resist the devil who is fanning the flame of our desire (James 4:7-10).
III. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11. In Casting Crowns “Slow Fade,” the husband and father doesn’t realize how he is giving himself away. Samson certainly didn’t get it. But Judges 16:18-20 tells us that when he gave in, his strength left him … because the Lord left him. The ending of Samson’s story shows that he went for vengeance rather than repentance. Let that not be our end as God is willing to forgive and restore if we turn our hearts and minds back to Him through godly sorrow and right actions.
Each person’s Delilah is constantly there, working at us until we are vexed to death. How we handle these temptations will determine if we hold onto our strength or die with the Philistines.
As They Did To Me
As the anniversary of 9-11 came around this week, many still want vengeance for what happened to us. But, is that what we should be seeking? Both had the Spirit of the Lord, but isn’t it good that Jesus, while on the cross, sought forgiveness rather than vengeance for us like Samson would have done?
I. Judges 15:1-15. Back and forth Samson waged war with the Philistines, each seeking vengeance for what he or they perceived the other side had done to him or them. They literally fought fire with fire, and it all came from worldly thinking: “As they have done to me, so have I done to them.”
II. Romans 9:20-24. God’s sole right to vengeance is rooted in His sovereignty. Since He made everything, everything is His (Colossians 1:16). Since God has the sole right to reveal His wrath (Romans 12:19), He also has the sole right to bring mercy. His wrath will be wreaked against those against Him or who don’t know Him (Romans 1:18-21) and those in the church who deliberately sin or shrink back (Hebrews 10:26-31).
III. Romans 12:14-21. Since we’ve all sinned (Romans 3:23), we’ve all earned His wrath (Romans 6:23), but He has shown mercy to those in His Son by Jesus’ work on the cross (Romans 8:31-39). So, rather than waging war as Samson or the world does (2 Corinthians 10:3-5), we who have escaped God’s vengeance by obeying the gospel, persuade men instead and reconcile them to God’s mercy through the gospel (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).
Realizing that you have escaped God’s vengeance through the gospel, do you seek vengeance or mercy for others?
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.