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Judges
3:1-31 “Now
these are the nations which the LORD
left, to prove Israel by them, even as
many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan; 2
only that the generations of the
children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before
knew nothing thereof; 3 namely,
five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanitess, and the Sidonians, and
the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon unto the
entering in of Hamath. 4 And
they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the
commandments of the LORD,
which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5
And the children of Israel dwelt among
the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and
Jebusites: 6 And
they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their
sons, and served their gods. 7 And
the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD,
and forgat the LORD
their God, and served Baalim and the groves. 8
Therefore the anger of the LORD
was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim
king of Mesopotamia: and the children of
Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years. 9
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 Kenaz, Caleb’s younger
brother. 10 And
the Spirit of the LORD
came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD
delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand
prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim. 11
And the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died. 12
And the children of Israel did evil
again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD
strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil
in the sight of the LORD.
13 And
he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote
Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees [Jericho]. 14
So the children of Israel served Eglon
the king of Moab eighteen years. 15
But when the children of Israel cried
unto the LORD,
the LORD
raised them a deliverer, Ehud the son Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a
present unto Eglon the king of Moab. 16
But Ehud made him a dagger which had two
edges, of a cubit length [18 inches]; and did gird it under his raiment upon
his right thigh. 17 And
he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab:
and Eglon was a very fat man. 18
And when he had made an end to offer the
present, he sent away the people that bare the present. 19
But he himself turned again from the
quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto
thee, O king: who said, Keep
silence. And all that stood by him went
out from him. 20 And
Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for
himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a
message from God unto thee. And he arose
out of his seat. 21 And
Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and
thrust it into his belly: 22 And
the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so
that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out. 23
Then Ehud went forth through the porch,
and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them. 24
When he was gone out, his servants came;
and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked,
they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber. 25
And they tarried till they were
ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the
doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen
down dead on the earth. 26 And
Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped
unto Seirath. 27 And
it came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the mountain of
Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and he
before them. 28 And
he said unto them, Follow after me: for
the LORD
hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the
fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over. 29
And they slew of Moab at that time about
ten thousand men, all lusty, and all men of valour; and there escaped not a
man. 30 So
Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore [80] years. 31
And after him was Shamgar the son of
Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.” Introduction [Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED630] “Chapter
3 of Judges, we begin to head into a series of judges this evening, Othniel,
Ehud and Shamgar, the first three judges.
The first two chapters set the stage for us. Chapters 3 through 16 now kind of give us the
body of the Book, and 17 to 21 an epilogue.
It is a time when the new generation is turning away from serving the LORD,
walking with the LORD. And look, this for you and I can be a picture
of our lives, as individuals, certainly Joshua the first book in the Bible
named after a person, Jesus, Joshua [Hebrew: Yeshua], Moses unable to
bring the children of Israel into the promises of God, the Law can never do
that, the promises of God come to us by grace, by Jesus Christ. And then there’s a generation that sees that,
they appreciate the freedom from Egypt and so forth, and there’s a picture then
of the things that the Lord has for you and I in regards to our inheritance,
our own growth in Christ, certainly the River Jordan and the land of Canaan is
not a picture of heaven because it was filled with wars, and giants and
enemies. But it is a picture of victory,
that’s for sure. And sometimes in our
own lives when we’re lacking victory, we get involved in compromise, find
ourselves failing, there’s so much practical instruction for us here in this
Book, as individuals, as a congregation, and certainly many of them can be
related to the nation that we live in.
And what are we supposed to do and how are we supposed to view these
things? So, tremendous things in here as
we move into this series of judges.
Israel’s alone, as it were, Joshua’s gone, it tells us when Moses died,
God raised up Joshua. It tells us when
Joshua died, there’s no successor, this is the first time, and they’ll be a
series of judges from now until David finally takes the throne. The
LORD
Leaves Some Of The Enemy Nations Of Canaan Within Israel’s Territory To Prove
Them It
says, “Now these are the nations which the LORD
left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not
known all the wars of Canaan; only that the generations of the children of
Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing
thereof;” (verses 1-2) King James makes that
sound a little bit complicated. What
it’s saying here, is the LORD,
and he is mentioned 15 times in these 31 verses, Jehovah [Yahweh], the LORD
has left some of the tribes, the remnants of the Canaanites in the land to do
two things, to prove the children of Israel, and then to teach them. To prove them, to test them, if you look down
in verse 22 of chapter 2, you’ll see it says “That though
through them,” the LORD
speaking of these nations, “I may prove Israel, test them, whether they
will keep the way of the LORD
to walk therein as their fathers did keep it, or not.” It
isn’t to prove to the LORD,
he knows, he’s already prophecied and told Joshua clearly that they’re going to
turn away and worship other gods. But
there are circumstances that come into our lives to prove us, and then we’re
shocked at ourselves, we can’t believe it.
God can believe it, he knows, it says in verse 4, of chapter 3,
if you look, “And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they
would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD,
which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.” So there are
things that come into our lives that seem to test us, to poke at us, they come
into our lives, and some of those things are to prove us, to prove us. And we find that if we yield to him and we’re
obedient, the tremendous things that happen, we see the truth of his Word and
the freedom we have. Sometimes if we
fail, we get angry or we make mistakes or do things that are selfish, and we
come to realize so clearly that we need to grow, that we need to get before him
in humility and we need to ask forgiveness.
So first lesson here is they’re left in the land, it says, to prove
Israel, because they had not known the wars of Canaan, this is a new
generation, everything had been handed to them.
“Only that the generation of the children of Israel might know, to
teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;” So they’re to be taught about war also. Now this is not swordsmanship, this is not
like Tom Cruise Samurai, where he’s learning how to use a sword, mounted on a
horse and shoot a bow, it’s not that learning to do war in that sense. It says in Psalm 44, “We have heard
with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their
days, in the times of old, how thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand,
and plantedst them, thou didst afflict the people and cast them out, for they
got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm
save them, but thy right hand and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance,
because thou hadst favour unto them.” So
the older generation could tell the younger one, ‘Look, it was God’s
goodness, the LORD
made the Jordan River stop flowing and part, the LORD
made the walls of Jericho fall down, the
LORD
made the sun stand still and the moon in the Valley of Aijalon, and it was
because we got on our faces before him, it was because we were obedient before
him,’ and there is a way to be victorious in
this warfare we’re in, but the weapons of our warfare, they’re not
carnal, they’re powerful to the pulling down of strongholds, but they’re
spiritual. And the things that
you and I have to learn, is that we war according to, it’s an open book test,
according to the Lord’s direction. If we
do it in our own strength and our own flesh it ends up to be a mess [often a
legalistic mess]. So there are tensions,
there are stresses, there are things that the Lord allows in our lives, both to
test us and to teach us. And certainly
important for the older generation, to teach the younger generation, we find
that throughout Scripture. “Now
also,” it says in Psalm 71, “when I am old and gray
headed, O God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this
generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.” So there is a process here. God is very much involved, it isn’t just
enemies, it isn’t just Canaanites, it isn’t just a new generation, it isn’t any
of that without his sovereignty hovering over all of it. And here it says that for two reasons he left
some of the enemy in the land, one was to prove them, so that they could see
whether their heart would follow God and walk in his way in difficult
circumstances, and secondly to teach them, that there is a way to enter into
conflict and do battle. And it isn’t in
your own strength, it’s trusting in him.
And it says, these are the ones that have been left, “Namely,
five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and
the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon” which is Banias,
for those of you who were just in Israel who were there, Caesarea Philippi
“unto the entering in of Hamath. And
they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the
commandments of the LORD,
which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.” (verses 3-4) Now, here it gives us a picture of what the
children of Israel do, and I think somewhat of how the enemy is operating. Look in verse 5, first problem,
“And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites,
and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:” there is a contentment there
that is wrong. God raised up the
children of Israel, and one of the reasons he had waited 400 years to bring
them into Canaan, he told Abraham in Genesis 15, “The iniquity of the
Amorites is not yet come to a full,” and God was doing two things, he
was fulfilling his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bringing them into the
land he had promised to them, and he was also using the children of Israel as
his rod of judgment, to drive out the vile people that lived there. They weren’t supposed to settle among them
and be chummy with them. There’s things,
you and I in this world, there’s things we’re not supposed to be chummy with
and comfortable with. This world has a
different system, and a different set of values or lack thereof than you and I
do. There are things we shouldn’t be
comfortable with watching on TV, or letting paraded in front of our children’s
eyes, there are words and jokes we shouldn’t be comfortable with at work and
laugh at just so we might fit in or that we should let our kids hear. There are lyrics in the entertainment
industry and there are standards there that are vastly different. There are things being legislated that are
not good Biblically. And the thing is,
we shouldn’t be comfortable with these things. Who
Do We Serve, God Or Idols? Look
here, it says first of all, “the children of Israel dwelt among the
Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites”
they were comfortable there. Look at
number two, the problem, “And they took their daughters to be their wives,
and gave their daughters to their sons, and served other gods.” (verse 6)
they were so comfortable that they intermingled, they adopted standards, they
felt they could be the same family.
Listen, we’re told in 1st Peter that sometimes our enemy,
Satan, comes as a roaring lion, sometimes it’s so evident how he
approaches. But then it tells us, also,
in 2nd Corinthians, that sometimes he comes as a serpent, sly,
subtle. He’s been doing this a long
time, he works 24/7, he doesn’t take a day off.
Sometimes there’s a frontal attack and it is so wrong, and he comes that
way, but I believe he’s that old serpent, he would rather come as that. Because you and I know that we’re more than
victors in Christ, you and I know the terms, you and I know that we need to
depend on the Lord. But when he comes
subtly, so often it’s different. Here
they are dwelling among the Canaanites, and then it says they’re intermarrying,
there’s a level of comfort that should never be there, and then look,
ultimately it says this, “and they served their gods.” They bowed down to the things they bowed down
to, compromise always infects the family.
That if the father is not willing to be the high priest of the home and
stand up, and if the mother’s not willing to take a stand, if the kids are
given away to the standards of the world, it always infects the home. Listen, Deuteronomy 7:1-4 had
said this, if you think it sounds familiar, “When the LORD
thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and
have cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the
Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, seven
nations greater and mightier than thou, when the LORD
thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly
destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them,
neither shalt thou make marriages with them, thy daughter thou shalt not give
unto his sons, nor his daughters shalt thou take for thy son, for they will
turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the LORD
be kindled against you to destroy you suddenly.” That is the exact verbatim, word for word
warning and prediction that they just give themselves to. The exact thing we just read here. How many times in the church, or how many
times in my life or your life, we find ourselves in the exact thing the Lord
said not to do, and if this happens, we find ourselves in it…it’s sad to see
this. Listen, here is God’s estimation
of this, verse 7, “And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD,
and forgat the LORD
their God, and served Baalim and the groves.” They did evil in the sight of the LORD,
remember, it tells us a number of times in this Book, “that there was no
king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes.” It doesn’t say every man did what was evil in
his own eyes, it says every man did what was right in his own eyes. You and I have a King, we should, it’s called
a Kingdom that we’re a member of, that we want to live in forever, it’s not a
democracy, it’s an order. You’re not
voting and legislating what you think the rules should be, we’re part of a
Kingdom, and we have a King, you and I.
[Comment: ‘The
Times, They’re A Changin’ Satan’s Latest
Attack On Christianity & Messianic Judaism
In our Civil War we lost, combined
on both sides, the North and the South, over 600,000 fatalities, more than any
war we’ve ever fought outside our shores.
Satan now has been trying to divide the United States as well as the
greater Body of Christ within the United States through political
tribalism over the past five years, 2016-2021 so far. If this political tribalism continues and
intensifies, it could lead to a civil war in the United States. Sadly, this political tribalism has burrowed
deeply into the fabric of Christian churches across America. The evidence of that can be seen in
Christians who’ve been friends for years, now at each other’s throats over
which political affiliation they have.
The greater Body of Christ in the U.S. has been very slow to wake up to
this attack and recognize where it’s really coming from, nor do they recognize
the solution, and that is to eschew all political affiliations and come to
recognize that in these end times, “the last days,” our sole political
affiliation has to be with the Lord Jesus and in the Kingdom of Heaven alone,
soon to come to earth at Jesus’ return.
Our sole political affiliation has to be with Jesus, our soon-coming
King and Saviour, and we have to come to recognize him spiritually now as our
only King and Saviour. We must come to
recognize that to replace him with any other political affiliation is a form of
idolatry. That’s the only protection we
in the greater Body of Christ have from this Satanic attack leveled at the Body
of Christ as well as being leveled at the United States. We’ve been slow to wake up to the reality of
this Satanic attack, leveled at Christians, Messianic Jews, and the
Sabbath-keeping Churches of God believers alike, as well as being leveled at
our nation.] And this is not about you
and I doing what is right and wrong, because here’s man, here’s Israel, they’ve
seen all of the miracles, they’ve seen the Red Sea part, they’ve seen manna,
just think of the things they have seen, and now it says ‘every man is
doing what is right in his own eyes,’ but when it describes the LORD’s
perspective, it says ‘they did evil in the sight of the LORD.’ How wonderful, we have a roadmap. How wonderful we have things so plainly given
to us. They did evil in the sight of the
LORD, though it was right
in their own eyes, and they forgot the LORD
their God. Now, please, understand, it’s
never forgetting like ‘Oh ya, what did we used to do Wednesday night? I feel
bad sleeping in on Sunday, didn’t we used to do something, didn’t we used
to?’ You never forget God that
way. The word “forget” in the Hebrew is
“set to the side,” ‘Oh I believe in God, sure, ya, he’s my buddy, he’s the
Man upstairs,’ no, he’s the Creator and Lord of the Universe and you’re
going to fall down on your face when you see him, he ain’t your buddy, and he
ain’t the Man upstairs. And if you think
he’s just the Man upstairs, you might end up being the man downstairs. You don’t want to do that. Either he’s Lord of all, or he’s not Lord at
all. They forgot the LORD,
they’ve been pushing him aside, other things are more important, ‘Ya, I’m a
believer, just ok, keep him over here.’ God
Responds, The King Of Mesopotamia Conquers & Enslaves Israel Look,
it says the anger of the LORD
was kindled, that’s what it said in Deuteronomy 7, they shouldn’t be
surprised. “Therefore the anger of
the LORD
was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim
king of Mesopotamia: and the children of
Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years.” (verse 8)
when you’re in the hands of Chushan-rishathaim you’re in trouble, you can’t
even complain, cause you can’t say his name.
[laughter] His name means
“double-evil,” or “doubly-wicked” Chushan-rishathaim, interesting. He’s the king of Mesopotamia, “and the
children of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years.” I have some questions about this. First of all, certainly you and I should make
observation, it says ‘righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a
reproach to any people.’ If
there’s one thing we learn in the Book of Judges is that, and it’s so clear. Another question I have, is what was this
man’s mother thinking, I mean I wanted to name Joshua, Ezekiel, and my wife
said “I can’t nurse somebody named Ezekiel, I’m not naming him Ezekiel,” and
I just said “just call him Zeke then,” “but I can’t do it,” so he got
named Joshua, and she was right. But I
can’t imagine coming to her and saying let’s name him Chushan-rishathaim, and I
was thinking, you know, ‘I was thinking the same thing,’ [loud laughter],
‘call him little Chusey after he was born.’
Chushan-rishathaim, doubly evil, it says that he had Israel in
subjection for eight years before they cried out. Look, verse 9, “And when the children of
Israel cried unto the LORD,”
8 years, this is the insane thing. When Satan comes like a serpent, we
compromise, let our guard down, we start to make marriages, we start to enter
in. You know, you see people sometimes,
they go on and on in their sin for years, and they don’t want to bring it to
the surface, and they don’t want to bring it to the light, and I almost think ‘OK,
me and you God, we’re going to straighten this thing out,’ ‘Oh ya, God’s pushed it aside, he’s not the
Lord of your life, and some day this will be straightened out and nobody has to
know,’ until they’re so broken and so empty they finally cry out, 8 years,
I hope it wouldn’t take me 8 years under Chushan-rishathaim to cry out to
God. But you know how human nature
is. Again I always think of Jonah, it
says after three days, he cried out to the LORD,
I’m thinking ‘What is wrong with this guy?’ I’m sliding down that whale’s throat, I’m
screaming ‘O God, O God, O God,’ I’m going over the teeth, down the
tongue, God’s hearing more from me and more serious than he’s heard in a long
time. I mean, you slosh around down
there for three days in seaweed and parts of squid and all that before you say ‘Uncle’? This guy’s really something. But we’re laughing at ourselves, aren’t
we? 8 years it says, and they cried to
the LORD. God
Raises Up Israel’s First Judge-Deliverer, Othniel And
look, and “the LORD
raised up a deliverer…” We should just cry out sooner. “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 Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.”
Now we find out why he’s been mentioned
several times, Othniel. “And the
Spirit of the LORD
came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD
delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand
prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim.
And the land had rest forty years.
And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.” (verses 9-11) He raises up a deliverer, Othniel, the Hebrew
language struggles around his relation to Caleb, he can either be the younger
brother of Caleb, he can be the nephew of Caleb, there’s a struggle back and
forth, the son of Kenaz, because he was a Kenazite, and we know that Caleb was
the son of Jephunah, so scholars argue, but none of that matters. This man was part of a family that was renown
for their faith and their trust in the LORD
and their courage. This man, who
Josephus tells us by the way was 91 years old in this scene. So all you seniors, you ain’t off the hook. You’re 50, 60, 70, 80, God has something for
you to do. And this man Othniel had
fought alongside of either his uncle or his older brother, Caleb, in Hebron, he
had been a giant-slayer. He had been in
the thick of the battle, he was not afraid of some monstrous enemy, some
Chushan-rishathaim. And it tells us that
he went and he took Debir, a city where there were giants, and that Caleb then
gave Achsah his daughter to him, and Achsah came and asked her father for the
springs that are, her father gave her the upper and lower springs. This man Othniel was settled in a beautiful
valley where there were springs and there were streams. But this man was not content to sit by and
watch this period of time when God’s glory was being mocked by
Chushan-rishathaim, he was jealous for the things of God, he was not
content. Ancient rabbis tell us that
Othniel was the foremost among all of the judges, and we only have a little bit
about him here. Ancient rabbis tell us
that Song of Solomon, verse 7 speaks of Othniel, where it says ‘Thou art
all fair my love, there is no spot in thee,’ they ascribe that to
Othniel. Othniel is the first man in the
Bible where it says ‘The Spirit of the LORD
came upon him.’ We have heard a number of times ‘Of the
Spirit of God, Elohim,’ coming on, but this is the first time we actually
have the phrase ‘And the Spirit of Jehovah [Yahweh], the Spirit of the LORD,
the Covenant God of Israel, came upon him.’
We’re
going to hear it in chapter 6 in regards to Gideon, we’re going to hear it in
regards to Jephthah, we’re going to hear it in regards to Samson. It’s going to tell us that the Spirit of the
LORD came upon Gideon, and
hovered over and came down and clothed him, so that Gideon was clothed as it
were with the Spirit of the LORD. It’s going to tell us that the Spirit of the
LORD began to move Samson
when he was young. And you look that
word up, it’s interesting, it means “to agitate,” it means “to trouble,” but if
you look in your Strong’s, the first meaning is “beat regularly.” You might have had a toddler like that. The Spirit of the LORD
began to whack him on a regular basis.
You know, Samson, he couldn’t rest, he saw what the Philistines, you
know, the Spirit of the LORD
is grieved by what goes on in the world around us. The Spirit of the Lord can move on your heart
and my heart and tell us what’s right.
Listen, in this picture tonight of the first three judges, we’re gonna
have “the power of God in the Holy Spirit,” “the Word of God and the Two-Edged
Sword,” and we’re going to have those who are willing to yield to God, even
with just an ox goad in their hand and remarkable things can happen. This man Othniel now, older in years, the
first judge, no longer willing to be content with the blessings of God on his
life when he sees these other things going on, it says “And the Spirit of
the LORD came
upon him” took hold of him, the first time in the
Bible. Look, every Christian has the
Holy Spirit, but does the Holy Spirit have every Christian? That’s the question that’s being put before
us. The Holy Spirit hovered over Gideon
and clothed him, the Holy Spirit took hold of Samson, the Holy Spirit came upon
Othniel, first time, the Spirit of the LORD. And how real is that to us? Is that a subject in the Bible? Is that a subject of theological debate? We can prove whether we’re a cessationist or
a charismatic? Is he someone we hear
about, or is he someone we know? Is he
someone we experience? Is he someone who
settles upon our lives and breaks our hearts and empowers us? Othniel could be either the Lion of God or
the Power of God, beautiful picture of Christ taking a bride, defeating an
enemy to take a bride, the Lion of God there, but here a beautiful picture of
the power of God. ‘Not by might, not
by human power, but by my Spirit, saith the LORD.’ The
victory that we long for will never happen in the energy of our flesh. Jesus says ‘Wait in Jerusalem until the
Holy Spirit comes upon you, you’ll receive power on high.’ In our struggle, in your own personal
struggle as a believer, whether it’s in your marriage, whether it’s in regards
to pornography or substance abuse, or just selfishness or bitterness, it’s the
Holy Spirit, you’re never going to do it in and of yourself. No flesh will ever glory in his presence, the
Holy Spirit of God, and God loving us, willing to lavish his Spirit upon us, to
empower us, to fill us, to produce fruit that we can never produce in and of
ourselves, this first judge, what a beautiful picture. “And the land had rest forty years.” and
then it says, “And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.” (verse 11) Would to God, do we see forty years, do
we see an entire generation touched when there’s a move of the Holy
Spirit? Do we see it lasting 40
years? I don’t know. I don’t know.
[Comment: Don’t forget,
Israel as a whole did not have God’s Holy Spirit offered to them,
nor the salvation we have offered to us that comes with God’s indwelling
Holy Spirit he gives to believers in Jesus. Moses made this clear to Joshua in
Numbers 11:13-29, esp. verses 28-29.
The only Biblical offer of salvation, given to the Jews multiple
centuries later through God to the prophet Ezekiel, was that they would all be
resurrected in a great physical resurrection to life, and be offered God’s Holy
Spirit at that time, see Ezekiel 37:1-14.
The Jews take this promise very seriously in their Haf-Torah readings.] Eglon
King Of Moab And Ehud, Israel’s 2nd Judge Love
this next story, when the kids were little they loved to act this out. My one son always wanted to be Ehud, always
wanted to be stabbing one of the other kids [chuckles]. “And the children of Israel did evil again
in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD
strengthened Eglon the king of Moab”
this is in Reuben’s territory “against Israel, because they had done evil in
the sight of the LORD.”
(verse 12) It
was right in their own eyes, but was evil in the sight of the LORD. “And he gathered unto him” this Eglon “the
children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city
of palm trees.” (verse 13) Ammon and Moab, the children of Lot through
incest, and Amalek, one of Esau’s descendants.
Now the city of Palm Trees is Jericho.
This is 60 years after Joshua chapter 6, when Joshua and the children of
Israel, through the hand of the LORD,
had a miraculous victory over Jericho and the walls fell down, and it said they
burned Jericho, and Joshua said ‘Cursed is anyone who would rebuild
Jericho in the sense of fortifying it.’ Evidently at this point in time 60 years
later, there were those who inhabited the area, but it had not been rebuilt as
a fortress. [1406BC – 60 years = 1346BC] But how sad to see 60 years later, Eglon
coming in, and making it his headquarters, the place where Israel witnessed the
first demonstration of the miraculous hand of God in regards to warfare, after
they miraculously crossed the Jordan, now in the hands of Eglon. Eglon is a picture of the flesh, ok. Look down in verse 17, it says, now
listen, “And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.” ok, don’t be mad at me, I did not write
this Book. He is the only person in the
Bible called a very fat man.
Eglon means “circular,” it means to be a big bull or a fat cow. Listen, there are ancient rabbinic writers
that say he was over 20 foot around the waist…this was Jabba the Hut, a picture
of the flesh, never satisfied, always consuming. This guy orders a robe, they measured him in
latitude and longitude. That’s the idea,
burrrup, thing that’s never satisfied, it’s a picture of the flesh, and we’re
going to see that. It says they went and
smote and took the city of palm trees, it’s fertile there, Jericho, their water
supply is good, tons of food there, fertile.
Garstang, very notable archeologist and Kenyon, the archeologist spade
within the last 70 years has turned up adjacent to ancient Jericho a palace,
and the pottery there all dates to this period.
And they believe they have found there the palace of Eglon, built in
that area. It says “So the children
of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.” (verse 14) I don’t
know about you, I think that’s a looong time.
“But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD,
the LORD
raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a
present unto Eglon the king of Moab.” (verse 15)
no mention of the Spirit this time, but God raises up a man named “Ehud, the
son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded:
and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of
Moab.” a tribute, annual taxation.
Now it’s interesting, because Benjamin means “son of my right hand,” and
this guy’s lefthanded. The Hebrew says
that he was “shut off of his right hand,” it doesn’t mean that his right hand
was deformed, some writers say that, but when we get to chapter 20 we’re going
to meet 600 men that can use the sling from the tribe of Benjamin that are all
lefthanded, and it’s the exact same Hebrew phrase, and they’re not 600 men who
are all deformed in their right hand and used their left hand. It’s very interesting, the tribe of Benjamin,
the son of my right hand, is known for lefthanders. But God’s going to use this. Listen, if you feel like you’re a lefthanded
person in a righthanded world sometimes, you need to listen. Because in this world, that was looked down
on, in this culture. In the Latin, if
you’re lefthanded, you’re sinister, and if you’re righthanded you’re dextrose,
and you know the connotation of sinister, sinister is sneaky, sinister is weak
sometimes, so the Latins called the lefthanders sinister, call the righthanded
dextrose, dexterity, capable of doing things.
So there’s a connotation. And
maybe you feel like you don’t measure up, you feel like you don’t have the
strength someone else does. Please pay
attention. Because that’s the way I
feel, and this is written for me and it’s written for you. He is this Benjamite, he is lefthanded, and
he is the one who is chosen to go and take the annual tribute to Eglon. Eglon has subjected the children of Israel,
he’s making them pay a yearly tribute. “But”
verse 16, “Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length [18
inches]; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.” Here God, when you’re born, he gives you idiocrasies,
he gives you characteristics, this guy takes his sword and he binds it on his
right thigh, it’s not a full sword, it’s a dagger. Because most warriors were righthanded, they
put their sword on their left side, they would draw it across their body when
they drew it. This man’s lefthanded, so
even if they frisk him they’re going to check his left leg, there’s no sword,
he’s got underneath his garment a dagger on his right side, because he’s going
to draw with his left hand. And God will
use who he is, and what he is, because God is wise, and made him just the way
he is. It says Ehud made himself a
dagger of two edges, about 18, 16 inches long [about the length of a Roman
short sword, very effective weapon], he girded it under his raiment on his
right side, “And he brought the present” the taxation “unto Eglon
king of Moab:” you know, burrrup!
“and Eglon was a very fat man.” (verse 17) and part of the tribute wasn’t just
money, there may have been a weight of gold or silver, but by and large it was
flocks, it was herds, it was grain, he may have eaten most of it as soon as it
got there, we don’t know. “And when
he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bare the
present. But he himself” this is
Ehud, “turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said,
I have a secret errand unto thee, O king:
who said, Keep silence. And all
that stood by him went out from him.” (verses 18-19) So it tells us this, he leaves with the rest
of his men. When he gets to the area of
the Gilgal, by “the quarries,” King James says, the Hebrew word is “the idol
statues,” the idolatrous poles that had been set up there, at Gilgal, where 60
years before this, the river had parted and Joshua had piled up a pile of
stones to be a memorial, so they could teach their children the great power of
their God. And Ehud is cookin’, he does
not like this very big person, who has subjugated the nation, and he looks at
those idolatrous things set up at Gilgal, and it’s an affront to him. And he sends away his comrades and he turns
back to go to the king, and he says “I have a secret errand unto thee, O
king: who said, Keep silence.” (verse 19b) ‘who said, Keep quiet then,’ he
didn’t want anybody to know about this. “And
all that stood by him went out from him.” leaving Ehud and Eglon
alone. “And Ehud came unto him; and
he was sitting in a summer parlour,” the Hebrew is “a cooling parlour,”
“which he had for himself alone.” as big as he is, I guess it was for him
alone. “And Ehud said, I have a
message from God unto thee. And he arose
out of his seat.” (verse 20) oh boy did he. Look, there’s no central air in those days,
so keeping warm was one thing, but keeping cool, many times that cooling
parlour was on the roof where there would be a breeze, sometimes it was in a
part of the building that would be in the shade during the day, I don’t imagine
this is on the roof, can’t imagine Eglon would like going up onto the roof to
get cool, he’d be so hot by the time he got up there, it would be self-defeating. So I imagine this is somewhere lower. And he’s sitting in there, and it’s a private
place for himself that’s cooler, and he takes Ehud in with him, because Ehud
had said ‘I have a secret message for you,’ he takes him in, then
he says “I have a message from God for you.
And he” Eglon “arose out of his seat.” That’s just a sign of reverence, you’re going
to speak to me on behalf of God, he stood up.
“And Ehud” possibly moving by with his right side, so he doesn’t
see, he’s taking the dagger out at the same time with his left hand, it says “And
Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and
thrust it into his belly:” (verse 21) ‘Urrrup’ that’s quite a
belly. Now listen, here’s the divine
details we get from the Holy Ghost, “And the haft” that’s the handle, “also
went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could
not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out.” (verse 22) When
The Word Of God Goes In The Dirt Comes Out So
what it says is, he plunged the dagger in so hard into Eglon that his belly burrup
bounced back again and covered the handle, and it disappeared into him, he
couldn’t withdraw it, the whole knife was gone, except a part of it came out
the back, and it says “and the dirt came out.” people want to argue
around that. It’s enough. Look, this is the second picture, the Word of
God is sharper than any two-edged sword.
David says ‘Wheresoever shall a young man cleanse his way but by
taking heed unto thy Word, O God. I have
hidden thy Word in my heart,’ not my head, ‘in my heart, that I
might not sin against thee.’ Isaiah,
‘the LORD says
that his Word is like the snow, like the rain coming down from the heaven, it
accomplishes what he sends it forth to do, it doesn’t ever return void.’ We’re told in John’s Gospel, it
says this in regards to the Word, Jesus says ‘Now you are clean through
the Word which I have spoken unto you.’ Ephesians chapter 5 tells us
this in regards to the Word, ‘Husbands love your wives as Christ loved
the church, and gave himself for it, that he, that Jesus relative to the
church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water of
the Word.’ In chapter 6
in regards to our warfare in Ephesians, verse 17 it says ‘Take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.’ Listen, the simple truth Jesus says in John
17:17 is ‘Father sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is
truth.’ But the Word of God
cleanses us, it sanctifies us. The truth
is, in your life and my life, when the Word goes in, the dirt comes out. The more time you spend in the Word of God,
the cleaner and healthier, spiritually, you’re going to be. It doesn’t happen overnight, that’s what we
want all the time. But if you start
spending a significant time in the Word of God every day, again, John Wesley in
his 70s was angry, because he could only read the Word of God 18 to 21 hours a
day before it started to bother his eyes.
I was just talking to someone in England today, and we were talking
about George Mueller, and those 16 years he traveled as a missionary, and he
traveled through Montana, he was in Seattle and San Francisco, and this is
between when he was 71 and 87, and someone asked his wife, “How is it that
he always stays vibrant?” She said “He never puts down his Bible, at
every turn, in every train, when the sun comes up, he’s reading, he’s in it all
the time, he bathes himself in it, it makes him vibrant, it makes him clean, it
makes him alive.” The question is
not, ‘Are you going through the Word,’ we do that every Wednesday night,
the question is, ‘Is the Word going through you?’ Are you reading your Bible so you can just
tell people, ‘Ya, I do devotions,’ [we
always called it more literally, Prayer & Bible study time in the church I
came from], ‘chapter a day.’ Or
do you sit down with it and say ‘Lord, how am I going to live by this
today? How can I obey this today, how
can this become part of the way that I think?’
Colossians tells us ‘that we should put off the old
man,’ that’s not enough, you can’t say to people ‘well I don’t do
this, I don’t do that, I don’t do this, I don’t do that,’ that’s a football
team with only a defense, no offense. Our
defense is so good, we cream the other team, we take the ball away, soon as we
get it away, we give it back, without an offense. Don’t tell me what you don’t do, because I’ll
never know who you are. Tell me what you
do, and I’ll know who you are. Don’t
tell me what you don’t do, ‘I don’t do this, I don’t do that,’ but what
do you do? The Word of God, do we open
it and say ‘How do I live this out?’
‘How do I walk in this?’ ‘How do
I rest in this, how do I trust this?’
‘How do I let this be effective and alive, Lord, in my life today,
cutting down into me between that which is soulish and that which is
spiritual?’ We gotta finish this
story, anyhow, he sticks this dagger in, the guy’s so fat the dagger
disappears, evidently it penetrates and comes out on the other end, and the
dirt comes out the other end, when you put the Word in, you always find out,
that’s what the flesh is, it manifests.
You read in Galatians chapter 5:19-21, ‘these are the works of the
flesh, adultery, fornication, lasciviousness, wantonness, uncleanness, murder,
strife, envy, sorcery,’ you read this list, that’s all the flesh is. It’s dirt.
The Word goes in, the dirt comes out.
This is just a great little thing you should put over your mantle, you
can put it on your mirror, refrigerator, ‘The Word Goes In, The Dirt
Comes Out,’ it’s a great little thing.
Ehud’s
& Israel’s Victory Against Moab “Then
Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him,
and locked them.” (verse 23) he shut the doors on
this cooling parlour, this private place for Eglon, he locked the doors, must
have climbed out the window, “And when he was gone out, his servants came;
and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked,
they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber.” (verse 24) now there’s three “behold’s” here in these
two verses. “he covereth his feet,” he’s
going potty is what that means in the Hebrew, ‘he’s got the doors locked,
he must be going to the bathroom in his cooling chamber there, and they
tarried, they waited,’ because you didn’t want to become involved in
that, Eglon’s in there, you know. And it
says ‘They tarried until they were ashamed,’ they finally said, ‘Look,
nobody takes this long, I mean even Eglon,’ and here’s the second
“behold,” “And they tarried till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the
parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen
down dead on the earth.” (verse 25)
They’re knowing and there’s no response, “therefore they took a key,
and opened them: and, behold,” third
“behold,” “their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.” that’s
another reason I don’t think he was up on the roof, they’d have heard that for
sure. “And Ehud escaped while they
tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath. And it came to pass, when he was come, that
he blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went
down with him from the mount, and he before them.” (verses 26-27) he had
arranged a signal. “And he said unto
them, Follow after me: for the LORD
hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the
fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over.” (verse 28) what
it says is this, Eglon, the Moabites are up in the area of Jericho, the
Israelites go around Jericho and take the fords of Jordan so they can’t escape
over into Moab, they cut them off, and suffered them not, not a man of them to
pass over. [Comment: Eglon, being the king of Moab, living just
across the Jordan river in Israelite territory, being the king of Moab, would
have had a protective ‘occupying’ army stationed around him and his palace in
Jericho. This occupying army had been
sitting “in place,” a standing army, getting lazy in their occupation, like the
Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria at the end of World War II, when they were
suddenly conquered by the Soviet Red Army in three short days, 700,000 slain in
three days. Eglon’s army were sitting
ducks, lazy and in place on the wrong side of the Jordan for 18 years, and now with
their king suddenly dead, and the recently mobilized army of Israel having done
an end-around them to capture the fords leading back across the Jordan and
safety in Moab.] “And they slew of
Moab at that time about ten thousand men, all lusty, and all men of valour; and
there escaped not a man.” (verse 29) King
James says “lusty,” in the Hebrew it actually says “the best, and all of
the men of war of the army, of valour, and there escaped not a man.” Of course Eglon had the best of all of Moab’s
troops around him there, because he hadn’t fortified the city, he had a palace
there, so the best of everything Moab had was camped there with him, and it
says they cut them off and slew all of them, 10,000 of the best men of valour
that Moab had. “So Moab was subdued
that day under the hand of Israel. And
the land had rest fourscore years.” (verse 30) had rest for 80 years, this
is the longest rest under any judge in the Book of Judges. And of course it’s a picture of the Word of
God, when it becomes prominent, when there’s a generation where the flesh is
being subdued and put to death, and the Word of God is everything it is
supposed to be in esteem. Man, how would
you like to see something like that last 80 years, wouldn’t you? 3rd
Judge, Named Shamgar--That Can Be Any One Of Us We
come to our last friend here, “And after him” that word implies this is
now the third judge, “was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the
Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad:
and he also delivered Israel.” (verse 31) And he also delivered Israel. We’re not told very much about this guy. [Comment:
Ehud and his army subdued Eglon and the Moabite army in the
central-western part of Israel, while the Philistines had obviously been
harassing Israel in the southeastern territories owned by Judah and Simeon, in
the region of Gaza, Askelon and Ekron.
So Shamgar, in my estimation, was bringing peace to this other region of
Israelite territory which was being harassed by the Philistines, and again, in
my estimation, this could have been done simultaneously but probably sometime
after the military operation of Ehud in the central western part of
Israel.] One sentence right here,
Shamgar. It’s not really a Hebrew
name. The very interesting thing is, as
you dig and dig and dig, even the best lexicons say this name is of uncertain
derivative. If people try to give
meaning to it, this is a guy named Shamgar, that’s all we know. His father is Anath, they try to say that’s part
of Naphtali [not likely, Naphtali is to the north in Israelite territory, Gaza,
Askelon and Ekron is where the Philistines lived]. Or they try to say this is the Canaanite
goddess of war and fertility, they’re not sure there either. So this is kind of, you and I. This is somebody who kind of lives in obscurity. This is somebody nobody really knows, ‘Whose
Shamgar? What kind of name is that? Who is Anath, whose his dad?’ We don’t know. This could be anybody. I think it’s that way on purpose. Over in the 5th chapter it
tells us this, if you begin in verse 6, it says, “In the
days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were
unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.” People didn’t travel openly and publicly,
they snuck around, they were on the byways, it was so dangerous that people
could not travel openly. It says “The
inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I
Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.” (verse 7) it was not safe
for families, it says “They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty
thousand in Israel?” (verse 8) What
happened is, the Philistines, and they were, their metallurgy was way ahead of
that of Israel, they came in and they stripped Israel of their metal weapons,
if Israel needed a metal plow, they had to buy it from the Philistines. Israel, it says, didn’t have a sword or a
spear among 40,000, and the Philistines had so subjected the land, it wasn’t
safe to travel in the open, you couldn’t go visit your children or your parents’
home. Families were ceasing, they were
constantly being bludgeoned and terrorized by the Philistines, and there was a
man there that couldn’t stand it, a nobody, Shamgar, we don’t know any more
than that, son of Anath. He slew 600
Philistines with an ox goad, he’s a farmer.
An ox goad was a pole, six to eight foot long, varied in length
sometimes, it usually had a metal point on one end, and on the other end there
was a small spade that was used to, the sharp end you would goad the ox to make
them move forward, and as the ox pulled the plow, the plow got clogged up with
clay and dirt, you would use the small spade on the other end to clean the plow
off. That’s what the man had in his
hand. Did he know the story of
Moses? I think maybe he did, Moses there
at the burning bush, God telling him he’s going to deliver Israel, Moses says ‘I’m
nobody, I can’t talk,’ and God says to Moses ‘What’s that in your
hand, Moses?’ And Moses says ‘A
rod, a stick,’ he says ‘Throw it down in front of me.’ That rod brought the mightiest nation
in the world to its knees, God used it, because it was yielded to him, it
turned the Nile to blood, it brought plague after plague on Egypt, it divided
the Red Sea, a stick. What’s in your
hand tonight, a computer [yes, I’m typing, transcribing this on a computer], a
wrench? ‘I can’t do anything, I’m
just a farmer.’ [I was a power
supply tech] ‘I’m not qualified, I
can’t serve.’ Listen, it’s not in
your power that you’re going to serve, the power is the power of the Holy
Spirit. The weapons of our warfare,
they’re not carnal, it’s the Word of God, accessible to you, accessible to
me. It is the Spirit of God and it is
the Word of God, and it is someone whose compliant or available to God. This man slaughters 600 Philistines. We think ‘We need to fight fire with fire,
if we’re going to fight the Philistines, we need iron swords to fight iron
swords, we need scholarship to fight scholarship, we need techno to fight techno,
we need cool to fight cool, we need to fight worldly, the worldly tide with
worldly weapons,’ no, no, no, no, not at all. What we need is a man or a woman whose filled
the Holy Ghost [King James 1611 English for Holy Spirit], who has hold of the
Word of God, and is willing to give themselves to whatever God has put in their
hand, to his service. It can change the
course of a life, or of a church, or of a community or of a nation [what God
inspired me to pick up and fashion as a tool for him is this website, which
uses the analogy of being like a B-17 WWII bomber delivering a spiritual
bombload of rich Bible content, verse by verse, book by book connective
expository sermons going through the Bible, a spiritual B-17 bomber along with
its bombload of spiritual material, being delivered across the internet to a growing
number of hungry souls the Lord is calling during these “last days” (see https://unityinchrist.com/memphisbelle.htm).] There’s some great, great people here, and
sometimes we hear them say ‘I’m not qualified, God can’t use me,’ and
yet he can. Look, his greatest joy is
not to use you, I have four kids, yet he can.
Look, I have four kids, my greatest joy is not to use them,
it’s to sit with them, to look in their faces, to love them, to put my arms
around them. One of the greatest
strivings of my life, is life is so busy and time goes away so quickly, and I
look at them and I watched them grow up, and I wish I’d spent more time with
them. God’s greatest desire is not to
use you, but when we talk about qualification, he’s looking for individuals
that are available, not necessarily qualified, available. [I am not a computer geek, nor do I know how
to put the material I write or transcribe on this website, I can’t design a
website, I’ve used so far, six different webhost/designers, paying them to
create this site over the period of 26 years now. God’s used me and them to create this tool,
and I’m part of that tool, but I’m not that qualified in that sense, I learned
as I went, God inspiring, God teaching me, God opening doors and me walking
through them. It’s been a long, lonely
at times, journey, but I’ve had to make myself available to God and the task
each and every day of my life (see https://unityinchrist.com/author.htm). God provided the qualification, created some
of it in me over time, and inspired me to find qualified personnel to create,
update and service the site, qualifications I at my age can’t even dream about
learning of having on my own. I didn’t
start out as a Bible scholar, nor am I one, nor am I currently a pastor or
preacher or church leader in any sense of the word, I struggled to finish high
school, as one having spent 8 years in a remedial reading school before going
to high school, and I struggled to get through high school and graduate, only
to have to go on active duty in the Navy and onto a submarine from there. God did inspire my teachers to assign me
typing classes for the eight years I was at Dearborn School, which I think was
God giving me one tool necessary for my future job, but qualified, in no way
was I, nor am I really, it was what the Holy Spirit did through me, that’s all.] ‘They took note that they were
unlearned and ignorant men, but that they had been with Jesus,’ they
were wrong, they were still with Jesus, Shamgar, that’s you. Lots of Shamgars and Shamgaresses out
there. You have an ox goad, it’s the one
the Lord’s given you. ‘Saul, Saul,
why persecutest me? It is hard for thee
to kick against the goads, isn’t it?’
God was goading that man’s heart with his Word, with his Spirit. You have the Spirit of God, you have the Word
of God, you have the “goad” in your hand.
There is a lost generation around us, there are standards that are
destructive and evil, not just wrong, God doesn’t say ‘Hey, hon, just what
you’re kind of doing here in front of me, is really not cool,’ no, he said ‘it’s
evil.’ To turn away from the
Living God, to do whatever you want to do, it’s evil, because it’s destructive
in your life, and anybody who is not a believer whose watching you, if it
lowers the standard, and keeps them from coming to Christ, you’re talking about
eternity, you’re talking about it’s evil.
But, such as us, he’s filled us with his Spirit, the Spirit of the LORD,
the first one we read about, it came upon Othniel, the Spirit of the Lord came
upon me, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
You have that double-edged sword, it’s yours. And it was that Spirit, and it was that Word
that was the goad that was goading Saul of Tarsus, and he changed the world (see
https://unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm
to see just how he did that). Who knows, where you work, you may be
goading, one of your children, one of your teenagers you might be goading, a
parent, a friend, a classmate. Do you
try to do it on your own? or do you go to the Lord and say ‘Lord, fill me
with your Spirit, let his power, his love, his unction be upon my life, show me
in your Word how to live today, Lord. I
can’t stand some of the things that are going on around me, the pain, the
difficulty, the suffering I see, people I love and care about. Let me goad them lovingly today Lord. Don’t let me goad them in my own flesh as a
Pharisee or a carnal person, let me goad them filled with your loving and
powerful Spirit, let me goad them because your eternal Word is alive in my
life, and it overflows to theirs. All I
have to be is a farmer, Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit, holding onto the
Sword, unyielded, all I’ve gotta be is like Pop-Eye, and just say ‘That’s all I
can stand, I can’t stands no more!’
Feels good, doesn’t it? Feels
good. Who knows what the Lord might do
with a room full of people like this, that are filled with the Spirit, steeped
in his Word, not afraid to take whatever God’s put in your hand, and touch this
generation. Amen? Let’s stand, let’s pray…[transcript of a
connective expository sermon on Judges 3:1-31, given by Pastor Joe Focht of
Calvary Chapel Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]
related
links: Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED630 |