The Book of Judges.
Through Moses, the children of Israel were led
out of Egypt, and God began to form
a national kind of a identity, and began
to forge the beginnings of a nation.
At the death of Moses, Joshua, who was
the servant of Moses, took over, and continued
to lead the people now into the land
that God had promised to their father Abraham
that should be theirs, that they should inhabit,
and thus God keeping His covenant and His
word to Abraham.
Now, the Book of Judges takes up the
next period in their history.
There were some 13 judges over Israel.
Now, they became sort of quasi-leaders of
Israel.
They would judge in the matters of the
people.
They were leaders, but never fully empowered by
the people as rulers.
They were in an interim period between Joshua
and the establishing of a monarchy, at which
time Saul became the first king over Israel.
So, this Book of Judges covers this period
of time between the death of Joshua and
the coming in of Samuel, who was the
final judge over Israel, and who anointed Saul
to be the first king over Israel, where
their form of government was changed from a
theocracy, God ruling over the people, to a
monarchy.
Now, the theocracy was not successful simply because
the people would not submit to the rule
of God.
In the Book of Judges, we find a
pattern that emerges, a very tragic pattern.
And that is during the time when they
were blessed, at ease, without war, they would
turn to other gods and begin to worship
Baal and Ashtoreth, the various gods of the
Canaanites, the Perizzites and the Hivites and the
Hittites and the Jebusites, the people in the
land in which they were dwelling.
And because of their apostasy, God would give
them over into the hand of their enemies,
and they would be oppressed by their enemies.
And being oppressed by their enemies, they would
cry out unto the Lord, and the Lord
would raise up a judge to be a
deliverer.
And they would be delivered from the oppression
of their enemies, and they would have a
period of prosperity.
The judge would die and back into the
same old pattern of turning their backs on
God and beginning again to worship Baal and
the other gods in the groves and all.
It's just a sad, tragic story of failure.
The failure of consistency in the worship of
God and in the honoring of God.
So, as we enter into the book of
Judges, we enter the scene at the death
of Joshua there in verse 1.
Now, after the death of Joshua, it came
to pass that the children of Israel asked
the Lord saying, who shall go up for
us against the Canaanites first to fight against
them?
Now, you remember the book of Joshua closed
where the people were in the land, but
there was yet much of the land that
was not yet conquered.
They had not completely driven out the enemies.
They had not yet taken all of the
territories that God had promised unto them.
So, when Joshua died, they inquired and they
said, who shall go up first to take
the land that God has given?
And so, the Lord spoke and said, Judah
shall go first.
Now, you remember that Judah was given that
land south of Jerusalem.
And so, Judah said to Simeon, whose lot
was the extreme south, even south of Judah
down towards Beersheba and all, said to Simeon,
you go up and help us take our
portion, and then we'll help you to take
your portion.
And so, Judah began to attack the cities
and take the cities and possess the cities
that God had apportioned unto Judah.
And they came to Bezek, and there they
killed 10,000 men of Bezek and took
the city.
And Adonai Bezek, now Adonai means Lord.
So, he was the Lord of Bezek or
the King of Bezek.
They captured him and they cut off his
thumbs and his great toes.
And Adonai Bezek said, there have been 60
or 70 kings that have gathered their meat
under my table without their thumbs and toes.
As I have done, so hath God requited
me.
So, it was a practice, I guess, of
this particular king, the Lord of Bezek, to,
when he would conquer a king to cut
off his great toes and his thumbs, and
he would actually be there at the king's
table, 70 kings he had conquered this way.
And he said, as I have done, now
God has requited unto me.
There's a very interesting scripture.
It declares, as a man soweth, so shall
he also reap.
And so many times a person can say,
as I have done, so has God requited
unto me.
For in the same manner in which ye
judge, ye shall be judged.
In whatever measure you meet, it shall be
meted out to you.
As I have done, so has God requited
me.
And they fought against Jerusalem and they had
taken it.
They'd smitten it with the edge of the
sword.
Then they went down to fight against the
Canaanites that dwelt in the mountain and in
the south and in the valley.
And they went against the Canaanites in Hebron.
And there Caleb said, the one who takes
Kirjath Zephyr, I will give him Aksa, my
daughter, as a wife.
And so Othniel, who was the nephew of
Caleb or the cousin of Aksa, went up
and took the city.
And so Caleb gave her to him for
a wife.
And so she then came to her dad
and asked for springs.
And the story is told there in chapter
one of how he gave her the upper
and the lower springs for that area.
Then we have the tragic story in verse
21.
The children of Benjamin did not drive out
the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem.
But the Jebusites dwelt with the children of
Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
The house of Joseph went up against Bethel.
The Lord was with them.
They found a man and they said, tell
us where the secret entrance to Bethel is
and we will spare you.
So the man showed them the entrance to
the city of Bethel.
They went in and destroyed it, but they
saved the man and his house alive who
went out and established another city, named it
after the original name of Bethel, which is
Luz.
But then Manasseh, in verse 27, did not
drive out the inhabitants of Beth Sheen and
her towns.
Nor Tanak and her towns.
Nor the other cities, including here is Megiddo.
Any of you that have been in Israel
have seen the ruins of Megiddo.
And it came to pass when Israel was
strong that they put the Canaanites to tribute
and did not utterly drive them out.
Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites.
Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of
Kidron and several cities.
Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of
Akko or of Sidon.
And so the story is that of an
incomplete victory.
Now, God had told them, when you come
into the land, you're to utterly drive out
the inhabitants thereof.
You're not to make any covenant of peace
with them.
You're not to dwell together and try to
coexist with them in peaceful terms.
Utterly drive them out was the command of
God.
But here is a failure on their part
to obey the voice of God.
Now, there was no doubt a rationale in
their minds.
They no doubt thought, well, if we allow
these people to stay here, actually they want
to be on friendly terms.
They'll be strengthened by us.
We can be strengthened by them being here.
And we ought to be able to live
peaceably with them.
Coexist together.
And they can be our servants.
They can cut our wood for us and
gather, you know, our crops.
And they can build our buildings and we'll
just use them.
Whatever the rationale is, it is wrong if
it is opposed to what God has ordered.
Now, many times in our own minds, what
God has required or what God has commanded
of us doesn't seem to be for our
best interest.
It so often seems that we can figure
out a better plan than God did.
And we are often guilty, as were the
children of Israel, of not completely obeying the
command of the Lord because we don't understand
why God commanded it.
It doesn't make sense to us.
But God has a reason for everything that
He commands.
And whether it makes sense to me or
not, it is important that I obey the
commandment of God.
Because you'll always find out that God always
knew what He was talking about.
And there was a reason behind the command.
Now, the command to utterly exterminate the people
seems to be harsh.
It seems to be cruel.
To utterly drive them out from their land,
that seems to be a very cruel command.
And it may be that the people just
felt, well, that's too harsh.
That's too cruel.
We don't want to do that.
And thus, in disobeying God, it brought ultimate
problems to their children, to their descendants.
It became a perennial problem afterwards because they
failed to completely obey the voice of the
Lord.
So, in chapter 2, we read, And the
angel of the Lord came from Gilgal to
Bochim and said, I made you to go
up out of Egypt and brought you into
the land, which I swear to your fathers.
And I said, I will never break my
covenant with you.
And ye shall make no league with the
inhabitants of the land.
Ye shall throw down their alders, but you
have not obeyed my voice.
Why have you done this?
Wherefore, I also said, I will not drive
them out from before you, but they shall
be as thorns in your sides, and their
God shall be a snare unto you.
And it shall come to pass, when the
angel of the Lord spake these words to
all the children of Israel, the people lifted
up their voices and wept, and they called
the name of the place Bochim, which means
weepers, and they sacrificed unto the Lord.
So, the angel of the Lord came and
said, you failed.
God said he would never break his covenant
with you, but they broke the covenant.
God is always faithful to his side of
the covenant.
It is man who breaks the covenant with
God, not God who breaks the covenant with
man.
No man can ever say, God broke his
covenant with me.
Not so.
Man is guilty of breaking his covenant with
God, his part of the covenant with God,
but God doesn't break his covenant with man.
And so, the angel said, you've broken the
covenant, you've made the league, you've made the
treaties, you've left their places of worship, their
altars, their idols, and now they're going to
be like traps, snares to you.
And the people wept.
They sacrificed unto God, but they didn't change.
Now, that is so typical of so many
people today.
God lays a heavy trip on them.
Oh, I'm so sorry, God, I'm so sorry.
And they weep, but they don't change.
So, there's very little value to the repentance.
There seems to be a vast difference between
sorrow and true repentance.
Many people out of sorrow weep, truly weep,
because of sorrow.
But it doesn't really indicate always that there
is repentance, just because you're weeping.
I don't suppose there is a single man
in the county jail that isn't sorry for
the crime that got him there.
But not necessarily sorry that he did it,
but sorry for the mistake that got him
caught.
So, you weep over your apprehension.
You weep over the fact that I've been
apprehended, but you don't really have a true
repentance for the things that you were doing.
They're released, they go back out and do
the things again.
So often, it means there is no repentance.
The children of Israel, they wept.
Looking at it, they say, oh my, isn't
that wonderful, they're weeping.
God's got to them.
No, He didn't.
It's just a surface emotional experience.
They're going to wail and weep for a
while and go right back out and do
the same thing over again.
They're still not going to drive out the
enemy.
They're still not going to obey the voice
of God.
They're going to continue in their same path.
And so, there is a form of religion,
a form of godliness, but no true repentance.
And that same condition continues to exist to
the present day.
Now, these people that they left in the
land did become a snare.
The gods that they did not destroy became
as thorns.
And soon, we find them worshiping these gods
that they left in the land.
And it was the constant problem through their
history is their worship of the gods of
the land and the leaving of the true
and the living God and worshiping these other
gods.
So that Jeremiah cried out unto the people,
have you ever seen anything like this in
the history of mankind?
Where a people will turn from their God,
even which are not gods, to worship another
God.
And yet, God cried, my people have forsaken
me the fountain of living water and have
hewn out for themselves cisterns, cisterns that can
hold no water.
The lament of God over Israel.
And it was their failure in the beginning.
Had these forefathers been obedient to God, they
could have spared the nation countless misery, countless
woes.
But their disobedience only opened the door for
a future of calamity.
And so the people served the Lord all
the days of Joshua and all the days
of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had
seen all of the great works of the
Lord, which he did in Israel.
But Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant
of the Lord, died at 110 years of
age, and they buried him there in the
Mount of Ephraim on the north side of
the hill of Gash.
And there arose another generation after them, that
is after Joshua's generation, which knew not the
Lord, nor yet the works which he had
done for Israel.
And the children of Israel did evil in
the sight of the Lord and served Balaam.
And they forsook the Lord God of their
fathers, which brought them out of the land
of Egypt.
And they followed other gods of the gods
of the people that were around about them.
And they bowed themselves unto them and provoked
the Lord to anger.
And they forsook the Lord and served Baal
and Ashtoreth, the goddess of heaven or the
Ashtoreth of the Greeks or Isis, the female
deity of ancient history.
Now, it is
tragic that somehow the parents failed to communicate
unto their children the power and the work
of God.
The generation died off.
There arose another generation, it declares, after them
which did not know Jehovah, nor yet the
works that he had done for their fathers
in Egypt.
Now, the purpose of the Passover was to
yearly open the door of opportunity for them
to relate to the children of Israel God's
great deliverance out of the hand of the
Egyptians.
In fact, there were questions designed in the
Passover service that the children would ask that
would give the parents the opportunity to rehearse
God's great power.
What makes this night different from all other
nights in the year?
And they were able to rehearse to their
children, but evidently they had ceased even observing
the Passover.
They had ceased keeping the various feasts to
the Lord.
And where the Lord said, tell your children
that they may tell their children that they
may tell their children, it broke down and
the parents were not faithful in imparting the
truths of God to their children.
It is so tragic that rarely does a
powerful work of God continue into a second
generation.
Someone has aptly said, God has no grandchildren.
You can't have that kind of a distant
relationship with God.
Each one must have his own personal relationship
with God.
And the relationship that my parents had is
not sufficient for me.
And the relationship that I have isn't sufficient
for my children.
It is important that I relate to my
children the power of God and the works
of God in order that they might develop
their own relationship with God.
So that after I am gone, they will
understand and know God and continue in their
relationship with God.
And they to their children growing
up in the depression years was not easy.
We were deprived a lot of things.
And it is interesting how that we don't
want our children to have to learn the
same deprivations that we had.
But the tragic thing is our children growing
in this affluent society never know the joy
and the blessing of having to trust God
for the evening meal.
Having to pray for a pair of shoes.
Having to believe God for the rent.
Because we don't want them to have to
experience those same hardships that we experienced.
And yet there was tremendous value in those
experiences because it was there that we learned
the faithfulness of God.
And we learned that God would provide.
As parents we are responsible to lay a
foundation with our children so that they have
a thorough understanding of God, the works of
God, the power of God.
For there are powerful forces that are vying
for their attention, for their love, for their
worship.
And if we do not lay a solid
foundation within their hearts they are apt as
the children of Israel did to turn away
from God and begin to worship Balaam, Ashtoreth,
and some of the other gods of the
world.
They forsook the Lord and served Baal and
Ashtoreth.
What a tragedy.
And the anger of the Lord was hot
against Israel.
He delivered them into the hands of the
spoilers that spoiled them.
He sold them to the hand of their
enemies around about them so that they could
not any longer stand before their enemies.
And wherever they went out the hand of
the Lord was against them for evil as
he had said.
And as the Lord had sworn unto them
and they were greatly distressed.
God said, even as my hand will be
upon you for good if you turn against
me and worship other gods so while my
hand be upon you for evil.
God kept his word.
Now I'm glad that God keeps his word
sometimes.
Other times it isn't so good for me
that God keeps his word.
It is always good for me that he
does because it brings me back to him.
But the faithfulness of God to keep his
word is something that we want to remember
because even as God has promised blessings, he
has also promised curses.
Blessings upon those that will obey.
Curses upon them who will forsake him.
And so verse 16 establishes this era of
judges.
Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges which delivered
them out of the hands of those that
spoiled them.
And yet they would not always hearken to
the judges, but they went a whoring after
other gods and bowed themselves to them and
turned quickly out of the way of which
their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of
the Lord, but they did not so.
So when the Lord raised them up judges,
the Lord was with the judge and he
delivered them out of the hand of their
enemies all the days of the judge.
For it repented the Lord because of their
groanings by reason of the oppressors that vexed
them.
And it came to pass when the judge
was dead, they returned and corrupted themselves more
than their forefathers in following other gods to
serve them and bow down to them.
They ceased not from their own doings nor
from their stubborn ways.
Now this is just a brief sort of
a summary of the book of judges.
God raised up judges during the period of
the judges.
They would be delivered from the oppression of
the enemy, but then they would turn away
from God and go right back to their
evil ways, the worshiping of the false gods
and all.
And they would go into oppression again and
God would raise up another judge.
And the story is repeated over and over
and over through the book of judges.
When will people learn?
You know, you look at this sad situation
and you wonder, what's wrong with you people?
Why can't you see it?
And yet it is a tragic pattern that
they followed over and over again.
So the anger of the Lord was hot
against Israel.
He said, because the people have transgressed my
covenant, which I commanded their fathers, they have
not hearkened to my voice.
I will not henceforth drive out any from
before them of the nations which Joshua left
when he died.
That through them I may prove Israel whether
they will keep the way of the Lord
or not.
Therefore, the Lord left those nations without driving
them out.
Now, these are the nations which the Lord
left to prove Israel.
There were the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Hivites,
and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the
Perizzites, and the Amorites that God left.
Six nations.
And verse six, the children of Israel took
their daughters, that is, the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
They took their daughters to be their wives,
and they gave their daughters to their sons,
and they served their gods.
And the children of Israel did evil in
the sight of the Lord, and they forgot
Jehovah their God, and they served Balaam in
the groves.
Now, the groves were the places of worship,
and usually extremely licentious type of worship.
Therefore, the anger of the Lord was hot
against Israel.
He sold them into the hand of Kushan
Rishathim, the king of Mesopotamia, and they served
him for eight years.
And when the children of Israel cried unto
the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer
to the children of Israel who delivered them,
even Othniel, the son of Canaaz, Caleb's younger
brother.
So, Othniel was the fellow who married Caleb's
daughter.
Remember, he took the city, Kirjeth, there near
Hebron.
And so, Othniel became the first judge over
Israel.
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon
him, and he judged Israel, went out to
war, and the Lord delivered this Mesopotamian king
into his hand, and his hand prevailed against
him, and the land had rest for forty
years.
Now, forty years is probably sort of a
rounded off kind of a figure.
It is used over and over again.
It would appear that, well, actually though, forty
years, you got a generation.
As long as the guy was alive, that
generation.
When he died, you get a new generation
and back to the old apostasy again.
It just didn't carry over into the second
generation.
And so, here you have the forty years
appearing over and over again, which is just
about that time of a generation and the
failure to go on into the next generation.
So, during the years of Othniel, they had
rest.
And the children of Israel, verse 12, did
evil again in the sight of the Lord.
You know, you'd like to take them and
just bump their heads together or something.
It just is so upsetting.
And the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of
Moab, against Israel because they had done evil
in the sight of the Lord.
And he gathered unto him the children of
Ammon and Amalek, and they went and smote
Israel and possessed the city of the palm
trees.
So, the children of Israel served Eglon, the
king of Moab, for eighteen years.
But when the children of Israel cried unto
the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer,
Ehud, the son of Gerah, a Benjamite, a
man who was left-handed, and by him
the children of Israel sent a president to
Eglon, the king of Moab.
But Ehud made himself a dagger, sharpened both
sides, made it about eighteen inches long, put
it under his robe on his left side.
And he went in to the king of
Moab, old Eger, let's see now, we got
Ehud and Eglon.
Eglon's the king.
So, he came in to Eglon with a
present.
And then he said, I have a secret
message for you.
And so, Eglon, the king of Moab, sent
out all the servants.
And he said, I have a message from
the Lord for you.
And he drew out the dagger.
And oh, Eglon was a really fat guy.
He put the dagger in and the fat
closed around and he couldn't pull it out.
So, he left it in, halved and all.
And when he went out of the room,
he closed the door and locked it.
And he told the servants, the king is
taking a nap.
And so, he took off running so that
they waited outside and waited outside until they
got embarrassed they were waiting there so long.
He said, well, we better go in and
check on the king.
So, they got the key, unlocked the door.
When they got in, they found the king
was dead.
And it had given Hood time to escape.
And so, he called together an army.
And they came against the Moabites.
And God delivered them out of the hand
of Moab.
They killed that time about 10,000 men
of Moab who tried to escape out of
Israel back into the land.
And the land had rest for 80 years.
So, here's twice 40.
And after him was Shamgar, the son of
Anath.
He was the third judge.
And we really don't know much about Shamgar,
except he must have been a tough cookie
because he killed 600 Philistines with an ox
goad.
Now, just the stick that they used when
they were plowing with an ox, they'd have
a goad, a stick that they'd kick in
the flanks with to keep them going.
And evidently, he was maybe farming and plowing
with his oxen.
And here came a company of Philistines over
the hill.
So, he goes after them with his ox
goad.
600 men with an ox goad.
So, he was the third judge of Israel.
That's about all we know of Shamgar.
I'd like to know more about that character.
Chapter 4, verse 1, the same old story.
And the children of Israel again did evil
in the sight of the Lord when Ehud
was dead.
The Lord sold them into the hand of
Jabin, the king of Canaan, that reigned in
Hazor, the captain of whose host was Seserah,
which dwelt in Herosheth of the Gentiles.
And the children of Israel cried unto the
Lord, for He had 900 chariots of iron,
and for 20 years He mightily oppressed the
children of Israel.
So, this is up now.
Hazor is up about 15 miles north of
the Sea of Galilee, in the area above
Galilee, actually.
And Jabin, the king, dwelt there.
Hazor was a fortified city, a very large
city.
The ruins are quite large, encompass a very
large area.
But he had a powerful army, 900 chariots
of iron, the Canaanite army.
And he oppressed the children of Israel for
20 years.
Now, no doubt those that were in the
upper area, the tribe of Naphtali and the
tribe of Zebulun, were most oppressed by him
in that upper area of Galilee.
Naphtali was all around Galilee, and Zebulun was
just south of Galilee, in the area that
is now sort of bordered by Mount Gilboa
and Nazareth and Megiddo, the plains through there
was the territory of Zebulun.
So, Barak, there was, well, we first of
all introduced to Deborah, verse 6.
And Deborah was a prophetess, and she judged
Israel at that time.
So, here is a woman who is judging
Israel at this particular time, who also was
a prophetess.
There are some men today that would exclude
women from any kind of service unto God,
but certainly God does not exclude them at
all, even from important positions such as judging
over Israel, and she was gifted as a
prophetess.
And she dwelt between Ramah and Bethel, which
is just north of Jerusalem, five miles or
so.
And she sent and called Barak, the son
of Abinom, of Kadish-Naphtali, so of the
area of Naphtali, the area around Galilee.
She said unto him, Hath not Jehovah God
of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward
Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand
men of the children of Naphtali and of
the children of Zebulun?
And I will draw unto thee to the
river of Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's
army, with his chariots and his multitude, and
I will deliver him into your hand.
Barak said unto her, If you will go
with me, then I will go, but if
you won't go with me, then I will
not go.
And she said, I will surely go with
thee, notwithstanding the journey that you take shall
not be for your honor, for the Lord
shall sell Sisera into the hand of a
woman.
So no wonder God had a woman as
a judge.
And you have those kind of men in
the land that won't do anything unless a
woman goes with them.
You really don't have real men.
And so it was a tragic condition that
the land was in when Barak says, Well,
I won't go if you don't go with
me.
And so she said, Okay, I'll go.
But God's going to give the glory to
this whole thing, not to you, but to
a woman.
It'll come to a woman.
God will deliver Sisera into the hands of
a woman.
So Barak called Zebulun, the tribe people of
Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh, the city that
he lived in.
And he went up with 10,000 men
at his feet.
And Deborah went up with him.
Now Heber, the Kenite, which was of the
children of Hobab, who was the father-in
-law of Moses, had severed himself from the
Kenites and had pitched his tent in the
plain of Zanam, which is by Kadesh.
Now, Moses' father-in-law, his family sort
of came with the children of Israel.
But here, this guy's sort of a traitor.
He was a Nark, actually informed on the
fact that Sisera was there in Mount Tabor
with this army.
He let them know.
And so Sisera came down with his army,
the 900 chariots and the whole thing.
And so Sisera gathered together against them at
the river Kishon.
And Deborah said unto Barak, Up, for this
day, this is the day in which the
Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand.
Is not the Lord gone out from before
thee?
So Barak went down from Mount Tabor and
10,000 men after him.
And the Lord discomfited Sisera and all of
his chariots and all of the hosts with
the edge of the sword before Barak, so
that Sisera got off of his chariot and
fled away on his feet.
But Barak pursued after the chariots and after
the host unto Herosheth of the Gentiles, and
all the hosts of Sisera fell by the
edge of the sword, and there was not
a man left.
Albeit Sisera fled away on his feet to
the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber
of the Kenite, for there was peace between
Jabin the king of Hazor and the house
of Heber the Kenite.
Now the house of Heber was the family
of Moses' father-in-law.
So Jael went out because there was peace
between Jabin the Canaanite king and the house
of Heber.
Jael went out to the tent door and
Sisera came running up.
And so Jael said, well, come on into
the tent and I will take care of
you.
And so she covered him with a mantle
and he said, give me a drink of
water.
So she opened the bottle and gave him
some milk.
And I thought, that's an interesting Scripture.
Think of how long ago they have bottles
of milk.
I was really fascinated by that.
Now she gave him a drink and covered
him.
She gave him a drink of milk and
covered him.
And of course, good warm milk is sort
of a neat thing to drink and go
to sleep by.
And so he said unto her, now stand
in the door and if any man comes
by and says, have you seen anybody, tell
him no.
So Jael Heber's wife took a tent stake
and a hammer.
And she came up quietly and she drove
the stake through his temples.
And she was a tough cookie too, because
she also then cut off his head.
So that when Barak came up pursuing Seserah,
Jael came out to meet him and said,
come and I'll show you the man you're
pursuing.
And so he came into the tent and
there was Seserah with a nail driven through
his temple.
So God subdued on that day Jabin the
king of Canaan.
And the children of Israel and the hand
of the children of Israel prospered and prevailed
against Jabin the king of Canaan until they
destroyed Jabin.
The king of Canaan.
And then sang Deborah and Barak the song
of Abinom on that day saying, or Barak
the son of Abinom.
So this is the song of Deborah and
Barak.
Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord.
For the avenging of Israel when the people
willingly offered themselves.
Hear O kings, give ear O princes, I
even I will sing unto the Lord, I'll
sing praise to the Lord God of Israel.
Lord when you went out of Seir, when
you marched out of the field of Edom,
the earth trembled, the heavens dropped the clouds,
also dropped water, the mountains melded from before
the Lord and Mount Sinai, the Lord God
of Israel.
In the days of Shamgar, now here's the
next mention of Shamgar.
And it jumps all the way from Mount
Sinai to Shamgar.
It's interesting that not more is written of
him in the text.
The son of Anath in the days of
jail, the highways were unoccupied and the travelers
walked by the byways.
Now it is speaking really of the fear
in which the people lived in these days.
They were oppressed by their enemies so bad
that they wouldn't take the main roads when
they wanted to go someplace.
They'd always go by the back roads.
Because their enemies were possessing the land.
They would take the main roads that they'd
be ripped off by their enemies.
So in getting from one place to another,
so much fear that they would always go
by way of the back roads to get
to from one place to another.
The inhabitants of the villages ceased.
They ceased in Israel until that I, Deborah,
arose.
I arose a mother in Israel.
And they chose new gods.
Then was war in the gates.
And there was a shield or a spear
seen among 40,000 in Israel.
Actually there was, was there a shield or
a spear?
Actually they were just disarmed.
They had nothing.
My heart is toward the governors of Israel
that offer themselves willingly among the people.
Bless ye the Lord.
They that are delivered from the noise of
the archers, they that are delivered from the
noise of the archers in the places of
drawing water.
Actually they were so oppressed by their enemies
that their enemies would go to the springs
and to the places where there were water
and they would just sit in the bushes
with their bows and arrows.
People come, they'd just take target practice at
the people.
I mean they really were living a very
tough life.
They had forsaken God, God had forsaken them.
And there shall they rehearse the righteous acts
of the Lord.
Even the righteous acts towards the inhabitants of
the villages in Israel.
Then shall the people of the Lord go
down to the gates.
Awake, awake, Deborah.
Awake, awake, utter a song.
Rise, Barak, and lead the captivity captive, thou
son of Abanon.
And he made him that remaineth have dominion
over the nobles and so forth.
And so it's the song of victory and
how God delivered and the question why didn't
other of the tribes come to help.
But Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that
jeoparded their lives unto death in the high
places of the field.
The kings came and fought.
Then fought the kings of Canaan and Tanak
by the waters of Megiddo.
They took no gain of money.
They fought from heaven.
The stars in their courses fought against Seserah.
The river of Kishon swept them away.
That ancient river, the river Kishon.
O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.
Then were their horses broken by the means
of the prancings and the prancings of the
mighty one.
So, God fought with them.
A rain, a flood that took away their
chariots and destroyed them there in the valley
of Megiddo.
They got bogged.
Their chariots became bogged in the mud.
And then the curse of Meroes.
Curse ye Meroes, said the angel of the
Lord.
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they
came not to the help of the Lord,
to the help of the Lord against the
mighty.
The curse of Meroes was the curse of
not doing anything.
Trying to take a neutral position.
Standing back and not offering to help in
the work of God.
It is tragic that many people today are
guilty of the same thing.
Non-involvement.
Standing back.
God is wanting to do a work in
this world today.
God has chosen to use people to do
His work.
And when a call comes out from God,
it is our responsibility to respond to that
call of God.
And if we don't respond to the call
of God to help the Lord to do
His work, you say, well, God doesn't need
my help.
That is so true.
But He's chosen to use your help.
And if God chooses to use your help,
then you better help.
And if you do not help when God
has chosen you to use your help, then
you rest under the curse.
God will do His thing.
God will do His work.
Even as Mordecai assured Esther, if you fail,
then their deliverance will arise from another quarter,
but you're going to be cut off.
You're going to be slain.
You're going to lose out.
God will deliver His people.
That's got to be.
God is going to do His work.
But God uses men to do His work.
God calls men to do His work.
If you fail to respond to the call
of God, if you fail to help God
to do His work, God will do His
work.
But you, as Meroes, will be cursed.
Cursed ye bitterly, for they came not to
the help of the Lord in the battle
against the mighty.
And so, then she pronounces the blessing upon
Jael, the wife of Heber.
She shall be above all the women in
the tent.
He asked for water.
She gave him milk.
She brought forth butter in a lordly dish.
She put her hand to the nail and
her right hand to the workman's hammer.
And with the hammer she smote Caesarea.
She smote off his head when she had
pierced and stricken through his temples.
At her feet he bowed.
He fell.
He laid down.
At her feet he bowed.
He fell.
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
The mother of Caesarea looked out the window
and cried through the lattice, Why is his
chariot so long in coming?
Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?
And her wise ladies answered her, Oh, she
returned answering to herself, Have they not sped?
Have they not divided the prey to every
man?
A damsel or two to Caesarea, a prey
of divers colors, a prey of divers colors
of needlework, divers colors of needlework on both
sides that are fit for the necks of
them that shall take the spoil.
So all thine enemies shall perish, O Lord,
but let them that love him be as
the sun when he goeth forth in his
might and the land had rest for forty
years.
So Deborah, an interesting person, quite a song
that she wrote.
The purpose of these songs was to put
the people into remembrance again of God's delivering
power.
They'd often write the victories of God in
songs and then they would sing these songs.
And in the singing of the songs, you'll
remember a song many times long after you've
forgotten incidents.
The song is still there in your mind
and you're singing and many times you sing
just because you like the tune.
You're not even paying any attention to the
words, but then suddenly the words begin to
sink in.
And so that was the purpose of putting
the works of God to song in those
days.
And it was often done.
So again, the rest for forty days.
But then in chapter 6, and the children
of Israel did evil in the sight of
the Lord.
And the Lord delivered them into the hand
of Midian for seven years.
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel
because of the Midianites, the children of Israel,
made themselves dens which are in the mountains
and caves and strongholds.
And so it was when Israel had sown
that the Midianites came up and the Amalekites
and the children of the east, even they
came up against them and they encamped against
them and destroyed the increase of the earth
till they were come to Gaza.
They left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep
nor ox nor ass.
And they came up with their cattle and
their tents.
And as multitude, they were like grasshoppers, for
both they and their camels were without number.
They entered into the land to destroy it.
And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the
Midianites.
And the children of Israel cried unto the
Lord.
And it came to pass when the children
of Israel cried unto the Lord because of
the Midianites that the Lord sent a prophet
unto the children of Israel which said to
them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
I brought you up from Egypt.
I brought you forth out of the house
of bondage.
I deliver you out of the hand of
the Egyptians, out of the hand of all
that oppressed you.
I drove them out from before you.
I gave you their land.
I said unto you, I am Jehovah your
God, for you are not the gods of
the Amorites in whose land you dwell.
But ye have not obeyed my voice.
So, the situation of this particular apostasy, turning
their hearts away from God.
God brought now the Midianites against them.
Tremendous number of people along with the Amalekites.
And Geza is about the southernmost point along
the Mediterranean.
So, by the time they got to Geza,
they had gone through the entire land.
Coming from the east, clear on over to
the coast, south to Geza.
Whenever the people would plant their crops, at
harvest time, here would come all these people
in and just rip them off.
They would, you know, you got all your
wheat harvested, then they'd just come in and
just rip them off from all their wheat
and barley and all of their harvest.
And then next year, back again, harvest time.
And so, they took away all the sustenance
of these people.
And a tremendous multitude of them.
The people finally cried unto the Lord and
the Lord answered with a prophet who told
them the reason for their dilemma was the
fact that they had forsaken God who had
given them deliverance out of Egypt and had
brought them into the land.
So, there came an angel of the Lord
and sat under an oak tree, which is
at Ophrah, that pertained to Joash, the Abrazerite,
and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the
winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
So, here was Gideon hiding from the Midianites
as he was threshing the wheat.
Because if the Midianites would catch him, they'd
take the wheat.
And so, he was up by the winepress
threshing wheat, and here was an angel sitting
under an oak tree.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to
him and said unto him, The Lord is
with you, you very brave man.
Gideon said unto him, Oh, my Lord, if
the Lord is with us, why has all
of this calamity befallen us?
Where are all of the miracles which our
fathers told us of, saying, Did not the
Lord bring us up from Egypt?
Now the Lord has forsaken us, delivered us
into the hands of the Midianites.
And the Lord looked upon him and said,
Go in this thy might, and thou shalt
save Israel from the hand of the Midianites,
have I not sent thee?
And he said, Oh, my Lord, how shall
I save Israel?
Behold, my family is poor Manasseh, and I
am the least in my father's house.
Now, as I was mentioning this morning, God
oftentimes has trouble getting people to respond to
His call.
God calls us.
That's the beginning of it.
As soon as I respond to the call
of God, then God lays out what He
wants me to do.
And then I resign.
Lord, I can't do that.
How in the world can I do that,
Lord?
God called Moses and said, Go in and
stand before Pharaoh.
Tell him, let my people go.
Lord, how can I go before Pharaoh?
I'm not eloquent in speech.
The Lord said to Jeremiah, I have called
thee to stand before kings.
Lord, how can I stand before kings?
I'm young.
No one's going to listen to me.
God said to Gideon, Go in this thy
might and deliver Israel out of the hand
of the Midianites.
Lord, how can I deliver?
My family is nothing.
I'm the least in my father's household.
You got the wrong man.
Better check your address papers.
Not me.
And the Lord said unto him, Surely I
will be with thee.
There's the key of any successful service for
God.
I will be with thee.
Now, it's an interesting thing that many times
we endeavor to do a work for God
not directed by God.
And this is why we so often get
just overwhelmed when God tells us what He
wants us to do because we've already tried
to do so many things on our own
hook and utterly failed.
So, the Lord comes along and tells us
to do just the thing we've been trying
to do and fail.
We say, Lord, I can't do that.
I've tried to do that.
God gave to Gideon the key of success.
I will be with thee.
That's the key of success.
The Lord working with us.
Learning to work together with the Lord.
The disciples had been fishing all night and
had caught nothing.
And in the morning, Jesus stood on the
shore.
And He said, children, do you have any
meat?
And they said, no.
And He said, cast your nets on the
other side.
And when they did, immediately, the nets were
full of fish.
They began to draw them in until the
boats began to sink with the multitude of
fish.
See, there's a difference between just serving and
serving at the direction of the Lord.
When the Lord is in it, He can
fill the nets.
When the Lord is in it, He can
make it prosperous.
You can do the same thing in the
same way.
And apart from the Lord, you're going to
pull up empty nets all night.
But as soon as the Lord joins with
you, it makes the difference between the nets
being empty and the nets being full.
The key and the secret to all successful
Christian service is in this verse, I will
be with thee.
To recognize my total need of the Lord
being with me.
To recognize I can't do it myself.
And to depend upon that presence of the
Lord with me in all that I endeavor
to do for Him.
How can I deliver the children of Israel
from the hand of the Midianites?
Lord, my dad is nothing and I'm the
least of my father's household.
I will be with thee, the Lord answered.
And thou shalt smite the Midianites as one
man.
And so Gideon said, look, if I've found
grace in your sight, then show me a
sign that you've talked with me.
He thought, man, I'm dreaming.
This is wild.
If you really chose me, then give me
some kind of a sign, Lord.
I need a sign.
Now, Gideon was the kind of guy that
was careful and he wanted to make sure.
And I don't think there's anything wrong with
that.
I think that God respects honest doubt.
I think there is a dishonest doubt that
no one respects.
There are some people who come up with
a question and just the way they ask
the question, you know they don't want an
answer.
They just want an argument.
They're not ready to listen to the answer
when they hear it.
There are other people who come up and
the question is genuinely sincere.
They are searching for an answer.
Those kind of questions are worth answering.
The other kind, I have no time for.
God is concerned with honest doubt.
If you really are honest in your doubt,
God respects that and God will confirm His
Word to you.
Lord, are you really speaking to me to
do this?
And it is wise to make sure it's
God speaking.
A lot of people have gone off on
half-cocked ideas because they had some feeling
or some vision or premonition.
And they've gotten into all kinds of miserable
situations because they really didn't search out to
see if it was really God speaking.
Now, if you've got some wild task that
you feel God is calling you to do,
make sure God has spoken to you.
Don't just go out and put your house
up for sale and take off with it
unless you're really sure that God has spoken
to you.
Make certain of that.
And Gideon wanted to make certain.
He said, show me a sign that you
really have talked to me.
He said, wait here, wait here.
I want to go fix you something.
Will you wait here until I get back?
He said, I'll wait here until you get
back.
So Gideon went into the house and there
he made ready a little goat and some
unleavened cakes, a bushel of flour.
He put the flesh in a basket and
put the broth in a pot.
And he brought it to the angel under
the oak and presented it to him.
And the angel of God said unto him,
take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and
lay them on the rock and pour out
the broth.
And so he did so.
And the angel of the Lord put forth
the end of the staff that was in
his hand and touched the flesh and the
unleavened cakes.
And there rose up a fire out of
the rock and consumed the flesh and the
unleavened cakes.
Then the angel of the Lord disappeared out
of his sight.
And when Gideon perceived that it was an
angel of the Lord, Gideon said, alas, O
Lord God, because I've seen an angel of
the Lord face to face.
And the Lord said to him, peace, shalom,
fear not.
Thou shall not die.
So Gideon built an altar there unto the
Lord and he called it Jehovah Shalom.
Unto this day it is yet in Ophrah,
this altar that Gideon built.
Now, it is interesting, he called it Jehovah
Shalom.
He's about ready to go into one of
the biggest battles of his entire life.
I mean, he is facing warfare and an
enemy and conflict.
God has called him to deliver the children
of Israel from the oppression of the Midianites.
But he calls the altar Jehovah Shalom.
God, our peace.
For he is looking beyond the battle to
the peace that God is going to bring.
And so by faith, really, the altar is
named Jehovah Shalom.
The Lord, our peace, because he's looking beyond
the conflict to the peace that God has
promised to his people.
It's really very beautiful.
And we too can look beyond the conflict
to the peace that God has promised.
And maybe you're in conflict and turmoil tonight,
but he is still to you, Jehovah Shalom,
the Lord, your peace.
And he can give you peace even in
the midst of the conflict.
Jehovah Shalom.
One of the beautiful compound names of Jehovah.
And so it came to pass the same
night that the Lord said to him, now
take your father's young bullock, even the second
bullock of seven years old, and throw down
the altar of Baal that your father has
and cut down the grove that is by
it.
And build an altar unto Jehovah thy God
upon the top of the rock in the
ordered place and take the second bullock and
offer it as a burnt sacrifice with the
wood of the grove which thou shalt cut
down.
Now, Gideon's dad was an idolater.
Gideon's dad had his own place of worship,
a grove with the altar of Baal or
an idol of Baal there where they worshiped
in the grove.
And so God says, now take a second
bullock, build another altar, cut down the grove
that your father has, his place of worship,
throw down the altar of Baal, build an
altar unto God and offer the second bullock
using the wood of this grove as the
fire and all.
And so Gideon took ten men, his servants,
and he did as the Lord said unto
him.
And so it was, because he feared his
father's household and the men of the city,
that he could not do it at daytime,
so he did it by night.
And when the men of the city rose
up early in the morning, behold, the altar
of Baal was cast down and the grove
was cut down that was by it and
a second bullock was offered upon the altar
that was built.
And they said to one another, Who did
it?
And they inquired and asked.
And they said, Gideon the son of Joash
did it.
And so the men of the city said
to Joash, Bring out your son that he
may die, because he has cast down the
altar of Baal and because he has cut
down the grove that was by it.
And Joash said unto all that stood against
him, Will you plead for Baal?
Will you save him?
He that will plead for him, let him
be put to death while it is yet
morning.
If he is a god, let him please
plead for himself, because one has cast down
his altar.
Now, here the men of Israel are actually
going to do Gideon in because he threw
down a pagan god.
Joash, when they said, You know, send your
son out.
We're going to kill him.
He knocked down the altar of Baal.
And he said, Are you pleading for Baal?
For a pagan deity?
Truly, the men who are pleading for him
ought to be the ones that are put
to death.
If he's a god, let him defend himself.
You don't have to defend God.
Now, how many times we find ourselves in
the awkward position of trying to defend God
against the attacks of his enemies.
Trying to prove the existence of God.
Trying to defend God.
God is able to defend Himself perfectly, completely.
I don't have to defend God.
God is able, quite well.
So, they called Gideon from then on Jerobel,
which means let Baal plead for himself.
Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and
the children of the east were gathered together
and they went over and pitched in the
valley of Jezreel.
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon
Gideon.
He blew a trumpet.
And Abiezer was gathered after him.
And he sent messengers throughout all of Manasseh
who also gathered after him.
And to Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali.
And they came to meet him.
These are all of them tribes in the
northern part of the land.
South of Manasseh was Ephraim, Benjamin, Judah, and
Simeon.
They were not brought into this battle.
Nor were the tribes on the other side.
But these tribes that were around the area
of Megiddo, Jezreel is the same valley of
Megiddo is also known as Jezreel.
This is where the Midianites had encamped.
Some 132,000 of them.
And Gideon said unto God, If you will
save Israel by my hand as you have
said.
Now again, Gideon is still questioning this call
of God.
Wants to make sure.
Said, tell you what, I'm going to put
a fleece of wool out in the ground
tonight.
And in the morning, let the ground be
dry and the fleece wet.
Then I'll know.
In the morning when Gideon woke up, he
wrung a cup of water out of the
fleece and the ground was dry.
And he thought, well, maybe that was just
a, you know, who knows?
Maybe fleece gathers moisture at night when the
ground doesn't.
Lord, let's reverse the process just to make
sure.
Tonight, I'm going to put the same fleece
out there on the ground.
Let the ground be all wet with dew.
Let the fleece be dry.
So in the morning, he came out again.
And so the ground was all wet with
dew.
The fleece was dry.
And so he figured that it was the
Lord.
Now, because of this, there are many people
who seek to discern the voice of God
by offering some kind of a fleece before
the Lord.
And so you've heard of a person offering
a fleece before God.
Lord, if they call by 10 o'clock
tomorrow morning, then I'll know, you know.
And you set up some kind of a
fleece before God.
Some kind of a condition for God to
meet so that you'll know that it's really
God speaking to your heart.
I really don't know about fleeces today.
I don't know how valid they are for
us as the children of the Lord to
seek to ascertain the will of God by
a fleece.
In the period of the Old Testament, there
were many methods by which they sought to
ascertain the will of God.
One of them was by casting of lots.
And even carried over into the New Testament,
when Judas Iscariot died, Peter said to the
disciples, we've got to get someone else to
take his place.
And so, let's cast lots to see which
one God has chosen, whether it be Barsabbas
or Matthias.
And so, the disciples cast lots to ascertain
the will of God.
But all of this was prior to the
descent of the Holy Spirit upon the church.
After the descent of the Holy Spirit upon
the church, we do not read of anywhere
where they cast lots or where they used
fleeces to ascertain the will of God.
But it seemed that once the Holy Spirit
had begun to direct the activities of the
church, there was a greater certainty in the
ascertaining of the will of God just by
the direct leading of the Holy Spirit.
So, Paul said, and it seemed good to
the Holy Spirit and us.
We were determined to go to Asia, but
the Holy Spirit forbade us.
The Holy Spirit said, separate unto me Paul
and Barnabas for the work that I have
called them to do.
And the Holy Spirit was directing in such
a positive way, there seemed to be no
need of setting out a condition for God
to fulfill, for them to ascertain, or there
was no need of casting lots or trying
to discern the will of God in some
type of an ambiguous way.
Paul, after 14 days on that ship driven
in the storm on the Mediterranean, stood up
and said, men and brethren, be of good
cheer.
Last night an angel of the Lord stood
by me.
And he told me that though the ship
was going to be wrecked, there would be
no loss of life.
And the angel of the Lord directed Paul.
It wasn't a fleece kind of a thing.
It wasn't a lot.
So, I don't know about fleeces today.
I know that some people set out conditions
for God to fill.
And that I suppose is alright.
But I just don't know about them.
I personally don't try to fleece God.
And I'm just not certain about that
practice.
Though it was done in the Old Testament,
I'm not really certain about it today.
But each person I guess to his own
whatever method that you have devised to really
discern.
What I feel if it works great, you
know, whatever you've got, as long as it
works, that's tremendous.
And people, we all relate to God in
our own individual styles.
God doesn't really, you know, follow patterns.
You can't really set God into a pattern.
And I sort of like it that you
can't.
I like the diversities with which God deals
with people's lives.
Because we are so diverse from each other.
And so, Gideon used this fleece to ascertain
the will of God.
I don't know if you would set out
a piece of wool tonight.
I would in morning would think that the
wool and the ground would all be wet.
Then what do you do?
You pray.
So in chapter 7, when Jerobel, or Jerobabel,
get the other B in there, who is
Gideon, and all the people that were with
him rose up early and they pitched beside
the well of Herod.
Now, the well of Herod is still there
today.
It is at the base of Mount Gilboa
or in the range of Gilboa.
Actually, Gilead is all a part of that
range.
And there at the base is this beautiful
little spring with the water that comes flowing
forth.
There's a kibbutz there now.
And the people at the kibbutz have made
a neat big swimming pool.
Huge pool.
And this spring now feeds the pool.
But there is this little stream by there
and you can still go down and lap
up the water like a dog if you
like and be chosen for Gideon's army.
And so, the host of the Midianites were
on the north side of them by the
hill of Mora in the valley.
So, out from Mount Gilboa area, there is
this valley there.
And the other side of the valley, this
little hill of Mora.
It isn't really a mountain, but a hillside.
And encamped in that valley was this huge
host of the Midianites.
The Lord said unto Gideon, Gideon, you've got
too many people for me to give the
Midianites into their hands.
Now, at this point, there were 132,000
Midianites and there were about 135,000 Midianites.
32,000 who had gathered together with Gideon.
God said you've got too many people.
Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me saying my
own hand has saved me.
Now, the thing that God was concerned in
is that people would glory in the work
of God and take glory to themselves for
the work of God.
God wants to work.
But when God works, He wants the glory
for the work that He has done.
He doesn't want people praising the instrument.
He wants people praising Him.
And if God would deliver the Midianites into
the hands of Gideon's army with 32,000
men, they would go around taking glory for
the victory instead of giving glory to the
Lord.
Now, it was interesting when we were in
Israel prior to 1973, the Israelis were extremely
proud of the 1967 war.
They were very proud of their victory over
the Syrians and the Egyptians and the Jordanians.
Everywhere you went, you would hear the Israelis
boasting of their tremendous fighting power.
And we would oftentimes say, well, don't you
think that God was with you?
And they would smirk.
And they would tell of the fighting power
of the Israeli soldier.
And they were really glorying themselves in that
victory.
In the Yom Kippur War, there came a
different attitude.
They came within a hair's breadth of being
defeated in 1973 in the Yom Kippur War.
They were close to defeat.
They were very smug.
They felt that that Bar Lev line down
the Suez Canal could not be taken.
It fell within 24 hours.
They thought that their fortifications on the Golan
Heights were impenetrable.
They were crossed within the first 24 hours.
And Israel was at the brink of defeat
in the Yom Kippur War.
And it was only a series of miracles
that the nation was spared.
And so after the Yom Kippur War, there
wasn't so much talk anymore about the Israeli
army and its powers and so forth.
But there was more talk about God after
the Yom Kippur War.
Now after the next war, when they wipe
out Russia, there's only going to be talk
of God.
Because they'll know that that's the only way
it could have happened.
God oftentimes makes things so ludicrous that it's
very obvious that only God could have done
it.
And so God declares at the time of
the Russian army defeated, he said, and I
will be sanctified before the nations of the
world and they will know that I am
the God of Israel.
Now we are trembling before Russia.
We're really afraid to say to Russia, get
out of Afghanistan.
Or we're going to send our troops over
there and drive you out.
We're afraid to say that.
We are afraid of a confrontation with Russia
because we know the tremendous military might of
Russia today.
We know of the nuclear warheads.
We know of the rockets.
We know of all of their sophisticated weaponry
and we're fearful of a confrontation with Russia.
The world is trembling before this tremendous military
power.
And when Israel utterly wipes them out, you'll
know that there's only one reason for it
and that's God.
So God often in the history of Israel
made the odds totally ludicrous because these are
a proud people.
And if God would deliver the Midianites into
the hand of Gideon with 32,000, they
would go around bragging on their tremendous fighting
ability.
We were outnumbered five to one, but man,
we whipped them.
So God said, Gideon, you've got too many.
If I deliver the Midianites into the hands,
they're going to vaunt themselves.
They're going to be puffed up and proud
of what they have done.
And they'll say, we with our own power,
our own hand have saved ourselves.
So go out and proclaim in the ears
of the people saying, whoever is fearful and
afraid, let him return and depart early from
Mount Gilead.
And so of the 32,000 who came
to fight with Gideon, 22,000 were afraid
to fight.
So they went home.
Now, there was a reason why God wanted
to get rid of the fearful.
It's not good to have men who are
really frightened in the battle lines with you
for they're apt to panic in the time
of crisis.
And to flee and leave that flank exposed.
So God first got rid of the fearful.
Looking now over the 10,000, the Lord
said to Gideon, the people are still too
many, Gideon.
They're still apt to boast themselves.
Odds of 13 to 1, too many, Gideon.
You got to get rid of some more.
I don't want Israel glorying in this.
I want the glory for this.
So take them down to the water, the
water that comes out of the well of
Herod there, and let them get a drink.
And you watch them as they are drinking.
And those that get down and put their
face in the water, send them home.
But those that pick the water up in
their hand and laugh it out of their
hand like a dog, with these men will
I deliver the Midianites into your hands.
So Gideon took them down to the little
stream that flows out from the well of
Herod.
Watch the men as they drank their water.
And 300 men picked it up in their
hands and laughed it as a dog.
9,700 got down on all fours and
put their face in the water and were
sent home.
And God said, now with these 300 will
I deliver the Midianites into your hand.
And so the Lord said to Gideon, if
you're afraid to go down, then take your
servant and you slip down tonight to the
host of the Midianites and you just listen.
So Gideon had fear about this whole thing
and who wouldn't at this point?
You've got 300 men and that huge army
out there.
And so Gideon with his servant, the army
was like grasshoppers for multitude, camels without number.
And so Gideon came close to the camp
at night and outside of a tent he
was listening with his servant and there was
a man inside who was telling his dream.
He said, I had a weird dream.
There was a cake of barley bread.
It tumbled into the host of Midian and
it came unto a tent and it smote
it that it fell and overthrew it and
the tent lay along.
And a fellow who could interpret dreams answered
and said, this is nothing else save the
sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a
man of Israel.
For into his hand hath God delivered Midian
and all of the host.
And so it was when Gideon heard the
telling of the dream and the interpretation that
he worshiped and he returned to the host
of Israel and said, arise for the Lord
has delivered into your hand the host of
Midian.
Now Gideon first of all was testing to
make sure it's the angel.
Let me bring out an offering and he
saw the miracle there.
Then he put out the fleece and now
here's the final thing.
He slips down and God confirms it once
more.
And so there are actually three confirmations to
the call of God to Gideon.
And so he divided the 300 men into
three companies.
He put a trumpet in every man's hand
with empty pitchers, lamps within the pitchers.
He said unto them, look on me and
do likewise.
When we come to the outside of the
camp, it shall be that as I do,
ye shall do.
When I blow the trumpet, I and all
that are with me, then blow ye your
trumpets also on every side of the camp
and say the sword of the Lord and
of Gideon.
So Gideon and the 300 men that were
with him came to the outside of the
camp beginning in the middle watch.
About midnight.
They had but newly set the watch and
they blew the trumpets.
They broke the pitchers that were in their
hands.
And the three companies blew the trumpets and
broke the pitchers, held the lamps in their
left hands, the trumpets in their right hands
to blow.
And they cried the sword of the Lord
and of Gideon.
And they stood every man in his place
round about the camp and all of the
host ran and cried and fled.
Now Gideon's men just stood there blowing their
trumpets and holding up the pitchers.
And the Midianites became so startled and so
discomfited they began swinging their swords at each
other in the darkness and in the confusion.
They began to wipe each other out and
they began to run while Gideon and his
men were just standing there blowing their trumpets.
God has interesting ways of turning the enemy
on his heel.
And so the 300 blew the trumpets.
The Lord set every man sword against his
fellow even throughout all the host and the
host fled.
And the men of Israel gathered themselves together
out of Naphtali and Asher and out of
Manasseh and they pursued after the Midianites.
And Gideon sent messengers throughout all of Mount
Ephraim saying, come down against the Midianites and
take before them the waters to Bethphara and
Jordan.
Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves
together and took the waters to Bethphara and
Jordan.
And they took two princes of the Midianites,
Oreb and Zeb.
And they slew Oreb upon a rock and
Zeb they slew at the winepress of Zeb.
And they pursued Midian and brought the heads
of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on the
other side of Jordan.
And so the men of Ephraim then said
to him, why have you served us thus?
Why didn't you call us when you wanted
to fight with the Midianites?
And they began to chide him sharply and
we'll get into that next week.
The problem we have with the Ephraimites because
he didn't call them.
Well, he had called them.
They didn't respond.
But that's all part of next week's story.
And we'll move on in the book of
Judges and getting to that interesting character of
Samson also next week.
Shall we stand?
Important things to remember from tonight's lesson.
Number one, God has a work to do.
He's calling for your help.
Non-involvement in the work of God will
bring a curse upon your life.
When God does His work, He wants it
done in such a way as He receives
the glory from it.
God doesn't want you front stage taking vows
for His performance as people are so often
prone to do.
Taking credit for what God has done.
Taking glory for what God has wrought.
God does not want to share His glory.
He wants the glory for the work that
He has accomplished.
And that is why He goes to such
ridiculous measures.
That's why He uses such ridiculous instruments.
So that the instrument isn't prone to glory
in Himself, but can only glory in God
who has done His work.
God uses unlikely people and weird situations to
accomplish His work in order that men will
glory in God rather than in the genius,
the brilliance, or whatever of men as we
are so prone to do.
Learn the lesson of serving the Lord.
Don't turn from Him to other gods.
For as long as he sought the Lord,
the Scriptures said concerning Asa, God made His
way to prosper.
As long as you seek the Lord, God
will be with you and bless you.
But if you forsake the Lord, then He
will forsake you.
You'll go into captivity.
You'll be oppressed by the enemy.
Many of our problems are brought on by
ourselves.
We have been guilty of forsaking God.
And it only invites trouble.
Walk with the Lord, and He will walk
with you.
And may you walk with Him this week.
And may you experience His power, His presence,
and His Spirit as He works in your
life and as He works through your life,
His works in this needy world.
May God make you an instrument of His
love that through you, others might experience God's
love for you and God's love for them
as you show God's love to them.