All right, judges chapter three.
Judges.
Chapter three. Next.
If you have a Bible and brought one with you.
Go to judges chapter three.
It's on our app.
It'll be on the screens.
as we get into this chapter.
I want to remind us of this theological principle,
this principle of interpreting that oftentimes what we see
in the Old Testament in the physical world has correlation to our lives.
New Testament lives, our lives in the spiritual world.
And so we're going to look at the history
of God's people going into the Promised Land.
And then we're going to draw some conclusions
and understand this, for it has to do with us spiritually
if and when and as we choose to follow
Jesus, and be obedient to God.
So, just keep that in mind as we go through this.
The book of judges
is about
individuals who are leading God's people.
The Bible calls them judges.
Don't think of judges in the judicial sense.
Think of it as a more often than not,
a military leading sense.
Moses had brought God's
people out of captivity in Egypt,
going across the desert right before they entered the Promised Land.
Moses died on what we know as Mount Nebo.
I've been there as he's looking down over the Promised Land.
He wasn't allowed to go in.
Joshua, his right hand man, took over for him
and led the people into the Promised land.
300,000mi² of territory.
Huge.
At its height, they only inhabited
about 30,000mi²,
so they've never really taken possession of everything God promised.
That's coming.
But Joshua leads them into the Promised Land.
By faith, they receive the promise of God.
And then
as Joshua died, God raised up these individual leaders.
No king yet, but individual leaders to lead them in the small skirmishes
that still had to take place so that they could enjoy the promise of God.
And so in chapter three, we start reading some of these first leaders
that are leading God's people in these little minor skirmishes
so that they can enjoy the full promise of what they've received by faith.
Now they have some responsibility.
Again, keep in mind, but we see in the physical world
in the book of judges applies spiritually to us.
The gift of God, of salvation comes by faith, and faith alone.
And once that is received by faith,
there is work and responsibility on behalf of the believer.
and so we're going to see that lived out in these lives.
The book of judges, chapter three has three judges in it, or people we would
we would guess for judges Othniel, Ehud and Sham Gar 31 verses long.
We're going to go through 30 of them.
I'm going to save one verse for next week.
Okay. On purpose.
Okay. Next week's a one verse message.
I promise I will go as long as all the others.
But starting with these two,
let's look at what the Bible says.
Judges three verse one.
These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites
who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan.
He did this.
God did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites
who had not had previous battle experience.
We have to understand something
that though we live in
the world of flesh and blood.
The impetus of our battle
that we face every day is not flesh and blood.
There's a spiritual battle going on,
and we have to realize that there is a spiritual battle.
It is real.
It exists, and it's happening right now.
Most of us are unaware of it because we live in the world of flesh and blood.
But there is a very real world going on behind the scenes,
and the first thing we have to realize
is that we are walking into and living in a land
that requires battle,
requires war.
In Ephesians chapter six, verse two,
Paul, the writer of Ephesians, says this for our struggle is not against flesh
and blood, but against rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world,
and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.
She said. There is a battle.
We know as soon as we wake up, you just feel like
it's somedays you are more aware of it than others.
But you know, as we go through this world, it's like, whoa!
And it's not contained to the one we see.
What the Bible tells us is that there's a deeper, more real reality.
And our primary struggle is not against flesh and blood,
but against rulers, authorities, the powers of this dark world,
the spiritual forces of evil.
It's it just is.
The interesting thing is, Paul, at the end of his life, he's been in ministry.
He says this
I have fought the good fight.
He won an Emmy. A guy,
he wasn't in the military.
And yet he says, I have fought the good fight.
There's a battle going on.
So as I finish the race, I've kept the faith.
So the apostle Paul puts it in terms of a battle as well.
Whether you go to Old Testament, New Testament, the fact is
we have to realize that there is a real battle, a real war going on,
and it starts before you ever see it.
It's a spiritual battle.
And so because the the real battle that, that we face is a spiritual battle,
we have to learn to fight spiritually.
We have to learn to fight spiritually.
Most don't learn this
and don't learn how to fight spiritually.
We go to self-help stuff. We go to influencers.
We go to opinions.
We want to know what we have to do,
but we have to realize that
spiritual battles are not won physically.
They're won spiritually.
You and I are in a battle.
It's deeper than what we see, and we're not going to win it
by self-help books, influencers and opinions.
It has to be fought and it will be won.
Not physically, but spiritually.
One of the things I know from this
in like God left enemies in that land because he knew the only way
for his people to grow up was to fight their battles.
He knew the only way they're going to be able to enjoy
the promises I've given them is if they learn to fight.
Now their granddaddy and grandmama had fought
and won, and their daddy and mama have fought and won.
But they hadn't yet.
And so they had to have their own battles that they had to fight.
You know what that means for you and me?
We need the battle.
You know what it means for your children.
They need their own battles,
and they have to learn to fight their own battles.
Yeah, I say all the time the parents job
is to prepare their child for the road, not to prepare the road
for their child.
And if our kids, if you are a parent or a grandparent
and your kids are going to grow up and enjoy the promises of God,
they have to learn to fight their own battles
with their own faith.
You can't do it for them now.
You can train them. The Bible says, train up a child
in the way they should go when they're old.
They have to fight that battle.
They won't depart from that because you've trained them.
But if you remember what I said last week, more kids.
Kids learn more by what there's caught than by what is taught.
So you'll train your kids to fight spiritually.
If you.
You're going to have battles
and you need them.
You just got to learn to fight them the right way.
You understand?
Hey, we're two verses in y'all, right?
Verse four, they were left.
His enemies were left to test the Israelites, to see whether they would
obey the Lord's commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.
God leaves the enemies.
They're
because they have to fight, and he left them there to see if they would.
What?
Train hard?
No. The word starts with O and ends with B.
Leave them there.
You got to fight.
But the way you win
is through obedience.
He left them
there to test them, not to see if they could suck it up,
not to see if they would be good, not to see how strong their backs were.
They left them there to see if they would obey.
Because the battles that were in our spiritual battles
and must be fought spiritually.
We have to realize that victory is gained by obedience,
not might.
Not by learning new habits.
Not by practicing new behaviors,
by obedience.
Verses five and six.
The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, ammonites, parasites,
live bites, Jebusites, termites, and cellulite. The.
They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters
to their sons, and served their gods.
So they've been given this land.
They've been told to subdue it.
They've entered the land by faith.
Now they have responsibility. And all of a sudden
what we see is the people that should be living in freedom
are living amongst the people that they should have victory over.
I never think physically and spiritually.
More often than not, we who
should be living in the freedom that God has given us in Christ,
end up living amongst the enemies
of that freedom. Sin.
And they are so like the culture that they're in,
they're given their children to be married
to that culture.
The Bible says in Second Corinthians, we're given this.
Do not be yoked together.
Some translations say unequally.
What right,
the Bible says, does the kingdom of light in the kingdom of darkness have together?
What right do they have to be?
They don't.
Don't be unequally yoked.
A Christ follower and a non Christ
follower is a recipe for disaster.
I tell you, when people all the time evangelistic dating doesn't work,
don't try it.
But but the culture that we're in
says love is love.
Don't worry about it.
I'm sorry. Treat you good. It's all fine.
They believe this.
I believe this one. Get along with.
Figure it out. No, you won't.
No, you won't.
Not. And stay obedient.
There are some people who are Jewish who have not ever learned
to live with themselves and in their relationship with Christ,
that they will give themselves to anybody who
is willing to take them.
If you're not married yet, be very careful.
Listen to my words.
Heed my instruction.
Accepting substitutes in exchange for the sacred is sacrilege.
We have to understand this.
Accepting substitutes for
the sacred is sacrilege.
The sacred is is a is a Christ, a man of Christ, following
a woman that creates a sacred bond that God created called marriage.
And we accept substitutes one
for the other or unequally
a sacrilege.
So playing around with the enemies
that are going to conquer us.
And so, so our our the point of it
is this to be in the culture, but not like the culture.
I'm not talking about being a hermit, and I'm not talking about
being some weird person that nobody wants to be around.
Let's talk about being in the culture, but not like the cultures that make sense
and sound.
I'm saying yes.
I tell my football boys
this all the time in in,
I just had this talk with them last Thursday.
So think about it.
Think about the difference between I got this from, from John Gordon.
Think about the difference between a carrot and egg and a coffee bean.
Think of a carrot.
You put a carrot in a in a in a pot of boiling water for a long time.
What happens? That carrot.
Soft and mushy and worth nothing.
Right.
So take an egg.
Put it in that same pot of boiling water for a long time.
What happens? That egg.
It doesn't just get hard.
It cracks.
It crumbles.
It's just worth nothing.
Stinks.
Take the coffee bean, put it in hot water for a long time.
What happens to that water?
Becomes coffee,
I tell, I tell my football, boys.
It's all the time.
So listen, every day
you're going to be put in hot water
and you're going to have the choice to become a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean.
Two of those, the
environment changes them into something that's worthless.
Some limp wristed, little worse.
Nothing.
Or some nasty old crusty broken person.
Only one of them is going to change its environment,
right?
Right, right.
I get coffee beans, I put them in a little plastic bag,
and I give it to every one of my football players and coaches
at the beginning of the season.
Remember, be a coffee bean.
That's what it means to be in the culture,
but not like it.
And I think one of the problems
with the church
and the quote unquote Christians
is that when we get in the hot water of the culture,
we turn into carrots and eggs,
either so mushy and limp wristed we're worth
nothing or so crusty and broken we stink.
Rather than being coffee beans, that changes the cultures.
That makes sense.
You understand, I'm saying. Yeah.
And this was their problem.
They were in the culture and just liking giving their kids away.
Yeah, go ahead and make a good living. They're nice person.
Why not?
So look at living for seven and eight.
Then the Israelites did evil in Isaiah.
The Israelites did evil and
and Lord, they forgot the Lord their God and serve the bills.
And Asher is the anger the Lord burned against Israel,
so he sold them into the hands of Kushan rich.
The same the king of Aram, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years.
And so they reject what God says.
You said, we're going to do our own thing, and they're giving into the giving into
into bondage. For how long?
For eight years. Eight years.
Look at verse nine.
But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliver us now.
Son of Caleb, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them.
And so they're in they're in bondage.
They're in bond for, for, for eight years.
And after eight years they decide to cry out and in essence, repent.
God. I'm sorry.
We'll we'll do it your way.
Just help.
Took him eight years.
Why so long?
I don't know, why do you and I wait so long?
Right.
And the moment they turn back.
The moment they said. God.
I'm sorry.
God, son, I was. Wait.
And they raised up this guy off. Now.
Now off them.
We don't know exactly if he says the the son of King has Caleb's younger brother.
We don't really know exactly who he was, but we do know this.
That he was a relative of Caleb, who was Caleb.
Caleb.
When Moses was preparing the people to go into the Promised Land,
there were 12 tribes, and he told each of the tribe
to get one guy there representing him to go spy out the land.
So 12 of them went to spy it out.
The 12 came back and two of them said, oh no, we got this is going to be good.
And the other ten were like, no, we can't do it.
The two said, yeah, we can do it.
Were Joshua and Caleb okay?
So he was one of the he was one of the two men of faith,
of strength, of trust, of obedience.
This is one of his young relatives,
the first judge, the first one to deliver God's people.
He's this is him.
Here's what I know.
No one needs to stay in bondage.
That's one thing I know.
But the other thing I know is this be spiritually great.
There are younger ones
who are following what they see in you.
This this guy O'Neill watched
his older relative, Caleb, fight.
Watched him be obedient, watched him be faithful.
So then it was when it was O'Neill's time to fight
and to be obedient and faithful.
All he did was, I know what I'll do.
I'll do what I saw Caleb do.
The instruction to you
and me is be spiritually great.
Because there are younger ones who are watching
what we do.
Remember how kids learn more by
what is caught than by what is taught.
If you have young ones in your shadow,
the charge from God to you is to be spiritually great,
because they will have to fight their own battles.
And if they don't see you fighting from your knees,
if they don't see you fighting faithfully, if they don't see you fighting
by being obedient and submissive to God.
The thing I love about this
passage is no one has to stay in bondage that long.
Yes, we will stay in bondage as long as we choose to stay in bondage
for them was eight years till they cried out,
and the moment they cried out, God said, thank you.
Here's your deliverance.
Look at verse 11.
So the, well, let me go to ten.
The spirit of the Lord came upon him. Those kneel.
So they became Israel's judge and went to war and battle.
Fight.
The Lord gave him
the king of Aram into his hands and oath who overpowered him.
Verse 11.
So the land had peace for 40 years, until of Neil some of King has died.
How long were they in bondage?
Eight years. They cried out to God.
God delivered him because he's got a mercy and grace.
And they had peace. For how many years?
For 40 years.
Here's what you got.
You gotta get this.
God's deliverance last longer than the last.
Longer than the bondage.
God's deliverance always last longer than bondage.
Why would they wait eight years?
I don't know why do you and I wait so long?
Because the fact is that when God delivers,
it lasts longer than the bondage.
So why wait?
Verse 12.
Once again, there's why I said evil eyes of the Lord.
This is the cycle.
God, I'm a fall of you.
I'm a flirt around with sin.
I'm gonna get stuck in it.
I'm going to be remorseful about.
I'm a crafty. You're going to deliver, and I'm going to love you and serve you.
And then I'm going to flirt with sin, and I'm going to get used to it,
and it's going to have victory over me, and then I'm going to feel bad about it.
I'm a out to you, and you're going to live it over and over and over.
So, so what they
did, they did evil and the Lord, because they did this evil.
The Lord gave Eglon, King of Moab, power over Israel,
getting the Amorites and Amalekites to join him.
Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the city of palms.
That's Jericho.
And the Israelites were subject to Eglon king himself for how many years?
18. How long was the first one?
How long is this one?
This is what happens.
Watch.
When we return to the Senate.
We've been delivered from the bondage last longer than before.
When God says, okay, I'm gonna get you out, you cried out to me.
You repent. You. I'm gonna get your.
And they're like, Thanks God.
I'm gonna go back like a dog to its vomit.
That bondage
last longer than it did the first time.
And though God is faithful because he's
got a mercy and grace to deliver us, we go back to it.
It lasts longer.
And all of a sudden we see in ourselves this pattern, this thing
is that victory over me year after year after year after year.
And I'm getting deeper and deeper and deeper.
Yeah.
And again, verse 15, this I cried out to the Lord,
and he gave them a deliverer, because that's what God does.
Ehud, a left
handed man, the son of Gary the Bingham, might.
The Israelites sent Israelites sent him with tribute to eg.
One king of Moab.
So they cry out to God.
They've been subject for 18 years, or called to God, and God
gives them another deliver another judge named Ehud.
And what's what's the Bible? Tell us about Ehud
that it's those two things.
He's what left handed.
And he's from the tribe of Benjamin.
Here's here's here's why this is important.
Look, God doesn't waste words.
God didn't say stuff just to hear himself thought.
So. Everything here is for a purpose.
And I want you understand this.
Usually in this culture, being left handed was bad.
How many of you are left handed?
Any of you okay in that culture?
Okay. You.
There's something wrong with you.
You're discredited.
Okay.
Now, my grandma, my dad tells me my grandma was left handed.
And in school they would take a ruler and whack her on the knuckles
every time she used her left hand, because they had to train her to be normal,
right handed.
So? So the Bible tells us he's left handed and it's for reason.
Now, the reason could be this. Let me share this with you
from First Chronicles chapter 12, verse two.
It's talking about these warriors that went to fight with David.
They joined him, but they were armed with bows and were able
to shoot arrows and to sling stones right handed or left handed.
They're a kinsman of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin.
So apparently Benjamin had these dudes in it that were bad news.
They're like the Navy Seals of that time.
They were equally well, bow and arrow and a sling with right and left hand.
They were. They were dudes.
And so it could be that what we learn about this guy,
guy Ehud, is that he's like Delta team stat.
He's like Seal team six status.
Like he is special ops guy.
Because in that culture,
the Warriors were right handed.
Because left handed was there's something wrong with them in that culture.
And so to be a warrior, a right hand, a warrior,
my sword is on my left thigh and I draw it across my body.
And so when anybody would go to face the king, their bodyguards,
the Secret Service would pat down their left side,
because ain't nobody who's a warrior, who's left handed.
So they would pat down the right side.
And this how he had got in
because he they pat this down,
then realize
perhaps that he's special forces.
So don't even check the side that that's one possibility.
But here's what I think is going down.
When the Bible says he was left handed, the Hebrew indicates
that he was only able to use his left hand,
which means what's wrong with his right?
Deformed.
Injured.
Court cut off.
There's something wrong with his right hand.
He's only able to use his left hand.
And because he's only able to use his left hand,
he doesn't appear to be any threat.
So they don't even bother checking.
Here's what I know about you.
And here's what I know about me.
He had appeared to be a guy
who had deficiencies, who had weakness, who everybody else cast aside
because he wasn't quite up to snuff.
Ehud had made
a double edged sword about a cubit long,
which was strapped to his right thigh under his clothing.
Okay.
He presented the tribute to King Eglon, King of Moab, who was a.
Very emphasized, very fat man.
After Ian had presented the tribute he sent on their way
those who had carried it.
But on reaching the stone images at Gilgal, he made.
He himself went back to the king and said, hey, King,
I have a secret message for you.
The king said to his attendants, leave us, and they all left.
He had then approached him while he was sitting alone
in the upper room of his palace, and said, I have a message from God for you.
As the king rose from his see, he had reached with his left hand
to his right thigh,
drew the sword from his right thigh,
and plunged it into the king's belly.
Even the handle sank in after the blade.
and his bowels discharged.
Ehud did not pull the sword out, left it in
there, took the hair, pulled the hand out,
and the fat closed in over the sword.
Then Ehud went out to the porch, shut the doors
of the upper room behind him, and locked him.
Listen.
What appeared to be a deficit?
Any hedge life was an asset
in God's plan.
He could only use his left hand.
He appeared to have a deficit.
It doesn't work.
It's not good enough.
I'm broke in.
I have something in my past that has deformed my present
and determine my future.
There's a deficit in my life.
If any of you ever felt that way, God says your deficit in my plan
becomes my asset.
Do you understand?
All you have to do is say, God,
this is my brokenness and it's all yours.
And God says, thank you that I can use
my right.
God makes your deficit an asset when you serve him.
Now when the Bible says that his bowels discharged
again, God doesn't waste words.
What was shoved into fat eglon
the sword?
Think spiritually.
The sword in the Old Testament is a sword.
The sword in the New Testament is the word of God.
The Word of God is shoved in and left in.
And what comes out?
King James Version says dirt.
English standard verse says dumb understands fiercely.
The Word of God goes in and stays in, and the dumb comes out.
The Word of God goes in the life
and stays there, and the dung comes out.
Didn't stand.
The Word of God goes in, the dung comes out, the word goes in, the dung comes out.
The word goes in the dumb.
Is this making sense to you? Yes.
One of the reasons why we
are so focused on our junior high school, and now we have journals
for the little kids do in their journaling because it gets them in the word
every day.
And the more
they're in the word and journaling, the more dung comes out of the life.
So makes sense.
What's the you know, how much dung people
look at every single day?
Now, thank God it's not as adults, it's just kids.
Right?
And when we put that much dung in our lives,
that dung isn't coming out
just because we put that down.
It's only when the word goes in
and stays in
that the dung comes out.
You follow so.
Just so you'll get it.
There it is in writing.
Now the dunk.
The sword has just gone in.
Will you let the dung come out?
I tell my football boys this too.
I said, listen.
If your screen time is more than your prep
time, don't complain about your game time.
It makes sense. Yes,
spiritual is the same for us.
If our screen time exceeds our prep time.
Don't complain about the fact
you're always be.
Kind of do one more thing.
Yeah.
So he had leaves.
And the king's attendants are waiting and waiting and waiting.
And then when someone's been in the bathroom too long,
that's what they think's going on.
He sent his private chamber,
I think. Man, he been in there a long time.
I hope everything's okay.
And so they go check on him, they find he's dead.
And then he says this, verse 28.
He tells the guys with them, he knows there's a battle to fight.
He says, follow me.
For the Lord has given Moab your enemy into your hands.
So they followed him down and taken possession of the fords of the Jordan
that led to Moab. They followed.
They allowed no one to cross over at that time.
Verse 29, they struck down about 10,000 Moabites, all vigorous and strong.
Not a man escaped,
he said, listen,
there's a battle to fight.
Follow me.
You know what that tells me?
It tells me this
leaders lead.
Leaders say follow me.
Leaders don't command you go and I'll sit.
Leader.
Say follow.
It's what Joshua told the people before you.
As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.
I know what you're going to do. You choose. You're going, sir.
But as for me and my house,
they're going to follow me, and we're going to serve the Lord.
It's what
Caleb did is why open the could then follow?
Because he led
leaders lead
leaders are the tip of the spear.
And so, husbands and fathers, pay attention.
You are in the God ordained position to lead
with humility and service and love and gentleness and mercy and grace.
But you lead.
It's not.
Michael's job is not my job to lead your kids.
It's your job.
Lead.
Take the word and put it in.
And take the word and put it in.
And take the word and put it in so that all that junk
starts to flesh out of your life
and lead.
Very last verse I'm going to cover today, verse 30.
That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and then land had peace.
For how many years?
Don't miss it.
The first time
they walked away from God and were in bondage, how long?
Eight years.
They cried, repented, and God delivered him, and the peace lasted.
How long? 40 and then they got stupid,
just like we do.
And they went back. And they're in bondage.
Not for eight years this time. For how many? 18.
And then they cried out to God,
and God gave him peace and rest and deliverance for how many years?
Oh, don't mess it.
It might be your 17th time
around that circle, and that bondage has been a long time.
But God's truth and principles, that's when we repent.
The deliverance last longer.
Some of you been in bondage for eight years.
Your 40 years is coming.
Some of you been at 18 years.
You're 80 years is coming.
If you repent.
Deliverance always last longer than bondage,
so repent sooner.
Deliverance is waiting.
Your stand.
What good news?
This is?
Repent sooner.
Deliverance is waiting.
Father, thank you for your word.
You're such a good God.
I thank you that your word
shows us truth that liberates and delivers.
It's a word that's sharp,
like a two edged sword.
And I thank you that it is not.
Not to our shame, not to our destruction, but to our liberation
and deliverance.
Some some of some of us here
have been in bondage for a long time.
And filled our lives with a lot of crap.
There is a way to deliverance.
And I want to invite you into it right now.
In humility.
And submission
to God, I invite you to have a conversation with him.
Say, God, I repent.
Not perfect.
I'm going to try to be.
One I'm going to turn the other way.
Towards you
and not away from you.
Tell him forgive me of my sin.
Thank you that you've done that already.
In Jesus.
I accept it.
And I am turning around.
Towards you and repentance.
Give me deliverance.
Father, we have put your word in.
Thank you that it accomplishes
what you set it out to do.
Let it thrust from us.
The dung and the dirt
in our lives, in our heart.
So that we can live
in the enjoyment of your promises.
Everything about your word
tells us you love us.
Help us to love you more.
In your name I pray.
Amen.
Listen, I don't know.
I know some of you. Know all of you,
but this right here is so fun
to read and to understand what God's saying to us.
It's so good.
I want you to fall in love with him.
And I want you to fall in love with his word.
Like.
Like kind of find wonder in it.
It's so good.
So here's what I'm going to I'm
going to ask that this week you read judges three again
and let this stuff kind of keep speaking to you.
And then finish with verse 31.
That's one verse we're going to go over.
It's about Shem gar
the barbarian.
It just sounds like an Arnold Schwarzenegger character, you know, like
it just
he's an he's an interesting guy.
We don't know a lot about him. We know some stuff.
and you're going to want to know about it.
You're going to want to.
I want to introduce you to him next week.
You're going to want to know this guy.
So read judges three and just see what the Holy Spirit prompts.
And we'll talk about it next week. Are we good?
Yes. Yeah.
Listen, here's the thing.
There's people in your life whose lives will be radically transformed
with this truth.
And the only reason you're still breathing and God put you in
their life is so you could tell them and invite them.
To understand that.
So two jobs,
three judges three and invite some people.
They need this truth
just like we.