I mentioned my brother's mother-in-law, Jerry Dennis, a faithful wife and that's really what you can look at. She became a Christian when she was early adulthood, if I recall correctly. I met her when I was a teenager at church and my brother met the daughter and that came into a relationship and three sons and grandkids now and great grandkids for her, but just a faithful life. Her husband was very faithful until he passed away about 20 years ago. And that's what we would really like is leave a legacy behind us, a faithfulness to the Lord. Our lives here are short and eternity is forever. Let's make sure we're working well for eternity. And as I've said many times, Let's be rebellious and take as many people to heaven with us as possible. That's what our desire is. Well, the basic nature of man is that he wants to get his own way. We can all recognize that. There is a basic selfish bent within us. And we want what we want when we want it. You actually can see that somewhat if you watch people at a fair. It's fun to people watch. And you can see what they want what they want. And little kids definitely want what they want. And sometimes they'll make the adults miserable until they get that cotton candy or whatever it is that caught their eye. Now, how people get along with each other will form the basis of society. But underlying that are their mores. What are the moral ideas of how society should function? and how well a society function is dependent upon that foundation. What is right? What is wrong? But what happens when people are going to live by the adage of, I want to do what's right in my own eyes. I just want to basically get my own way. Proverbs 16.25 warns, there's a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. It looks good to us at the moment and not recognizing where it's leading, where it's going to go to. And we're going to see that truth of that property today in our study of the book of Judges. Before we go to Judges, we're going to be looking at almost the whole book. It has a message that should give a pause to every government, every society as it wrestles through the extent, the limits of personal freedoms within that society and for our own in particular. America has historically functioned well with great personal freedom because the moral virtues of our society based in Christianity gave us a people that were self-governed. There was a healthy fear of God and Christian moral values guided us. And the result has been God's blessing on this nation, much like was experienced in the first generation that went in and conquered the land with Joshua. But as an increasing percentage of the population has rejected the true God in favor of false gods, some sort of syncretic religious system, or even into atheism, which is a rising percentage within our country, there has been a corresponding decline in self-control. The result of that is society doesn't function as it once did. Those of us that are a little older, we look back and we remember. We remember when it was safe to walk the streets. When I was a kid, no one thought anything about riding your bikes in the neighborhood. We didn't even think about riding the bikes over to the stores a couple miles away. Yeah, there was a neighborhood watch, and that was supposed to be a safe place. That had just gotten started, but no one really paid any attention to it. We were busy playing with our friends. And as time went on, it just became more and more dangerous until now. Honestly, the school bus stops next door to the church, the house next to us, to bring the children over here to the school. They can't walk that distance. It may not be safe. It's a very different society than we once were. What's behind that is this rejection of our heritage and our God. So even as government entities continue to expand their powers and intrude more and more into our lives, I think you've noticed that in the last couple years, haven't you? At the same time, this increasing percentage population that pursues what is right in their own eyes has resulted in abominable behavior, blatant immorality, and people running amok. When we are doing this, we do resemble what happened during the period of the judges. And so this is a very applicable book to us. Now before we dig into the book itself, a little background here. It's important to note, Judges is not written chronologically, it's written thematically. It's a selective chronology. There's variation in time sequences and the areas of the nation in view. It covers about a 350 year period from the point when Joshua concluded the conquest of the land in 1406 BC until Samson's death in 1055 BC. Now, Judges was written after the establishment of Saul's monarchy, but prior to David's capture of Jerusalem from the Jebusites. And its purpose was to give a defense of the establishment of the monarchy, showing the utter failure of the theocracy, because they would not obey Yahweh. And because they wouldn't obey it, he would send judges in to bring about revival when the people would repent. Now the main reason for the failure of the theocracy is very simple. And it's repeated a couple times in judges, every man did what was right in his own eyes. And that resulted in disobedience to God's law. Now you can divide the book into three major sections. First is the causes of the period of Judges, chapter 1 through chapter 3, verse 6. That is why the theocracy failed. Then there's the cycle of judges, which runs through chapter 16. And it traces through a widespread failure in different sections of the nation, showing this wasn't just localized. It was localized in a failure and oppression in one area, but it was through the whole nation. South, middle area, north, the east, the west. The whole nation was failing. And then the last couple chapters, 17 to 21, deals with the consequences of disobeying Yahweh. And it gives two stories showing how depraved the people have become, resulting in idolatry, and immorality, and eventually anarchy. And we'll be looking at that next week. But we're going to look at the first two sections this week. Now, the first is, what are the causes for this? And it begins with an incomplete obedience, Judges chapter 1 through chapter 2, verse 5. And now the first reason for failure of the theocracy and the need for judges is this incomplete obedience to what God told them to do after Joshua had finished conquering the land. They had conquered the land, they were dominant, but... God had specifically stated they were to wipe out, annihilate the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite people. Their sin had come to complete fruition. They were to be utterly destroyed because of their iniquity and abominations, and that it didn't include child sacrifice. Now Exodus 23, 30 and Deuteronomy 7, 22 state about the same thing. Deuteronomy 7, 22 is, quote, Yahweh your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You will not be able to put an end to them quickly for the wild bees would grow too numerous for you. Now before his death then, Joshua promised them Yahweh is going to drive out the pagan nations as promised if they will cling and obey him. However, if they do not, he would not drive out the nations and instead they would become, quote, a snare and a trap to you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes. And after Joshua's death, the tribes did not completely follow Yahweh's direction. They could have, they should have, They'd already seen miracle after miracle in their taking the land, and yet they didn't. Judges 1, 1 through 20 records Judah and Simeon agreed to go together and conquer the remaining people in their lands. And so they did have victory over the Canaanites, the Perizzites in their lands, and they conquered the cities of Jerusalem, Debir, Hebron, Zephah, Hormah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, and their surrounding territories. However, they weren't completely obedient because they took Adonai the Zech captive instead of killing him. And so, they remained in the hill country because they didn't drive out the inhabitants of the valleys. Now, Benjamin did drive out the Jebusites or did not drive them out. Instead, they chose to live with them. Again, completely contrary to what God told them to do. And while the house of Joseph did capture Bethel, Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-shan, Tanakh, Dor, Eblom, Megiddo, or Gezer, so the Hittites, the Canaanites, continued to live among them. And when they were strong, they would put these people to forced labor, instead of destroying them as they had been commanded. If you're strong enough to put them to forced labor, you're strong enough to annihilate them. So it was a decision. They would not obey Yahweh. The same was true for the tribes of Zebulun and Asher and Naphtali. Dan did not even fare as well as they did because the Amorites controlled the valleys and Dan was forced to remain in the hills. Now this failure ended up with a rebuke from Yahweh recorded in Judges 2, 1-5. Now the angel of Yahweh came up from Gilgal to Bokom. And he said to them, I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers. And I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars, but you have not obeyed me. What is this you have done? Therefore I also said, I will not dry them out before you, but they shall become as thorns in your sides. Their God shall be as a snare to you. And it came about when the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept. And so they named that place Bokom, which means weepers, and they sacrificed to Yahweh. So Yahweh is true to his character. He does exactly what he warned them about in Numbers 33, 55 and Joshua 23, 13. Now Judges 2, 7 reveals the next failure. It says, the people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua. Those who had seen all the great work of Yahweh, what he had done for Israel. However, after Joshua and all that generation that followed him died, quote, verse 8, there arose generation after them that did not know Yahweh, nor yet the work which he had done for Israel. That's horrible. Say they did not know him, nor did they know the work he had done among them. Now, it seems incredible that a nation can turn that quickly from its own cultural heritage, but history reveals this happens over and over again, both within individual families and within societies. It happens because the earlier generation does not teach the succeeding generation its own history by declaring the mighty deeds of God among them. A people that is separated from its past loses historical perspective of God's hand at work in their own heritage. And that makes them very susceptible to being led astray by the lies of those with evil motives or by their own selfish motivations, their own desires. Now we have certainly seen that in our own nation. It is by design. that the public schools do not teach history. They don't want the next generations to know what God has done in our land in its past. It doesn't know the stories that used to be common about God's intervention over and over and over again in the colonial period, during the revolutionary period, and all the way up through World War II, and even into the Korean War, and even into Vietnam. Over and over again, you see God's mercy upon our nation. But if you can separate the new generation from its past, then when does history begin? With them. They are the source of all wisdom, because they must know. But they're fools. They don't know their own heritage. This has been done in country after country after country. It is on purpose. Jonathan has a great documentary put out about monuments, but it is the reason the monuments are torn down. Conquer the nation, tear down the monuments, remove their history. Israel has this incredible history. And now you're only three to four generations in and they weren't teaching their own children and grandchildren their own history of these incredible events that God had done. Now added to this is something actually is more serious. I mentioned before Deuteronomy 6 is very specific that to teach the next generation the current generation must love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and you must diligently teach that to your children when you rise up, when you lie down, when you walk by the way, every situation of life. Teach them about God, teach them His ways and His commandments. These people did not know God or the things that He had done. they had failed to teach the succeeding generation. It actually is not that uncommon that the third or the fourth generation following somebody who was saved and lived a very godly life is those great-grandkids aren't even walking with the Lord, they may not even know Him. Some of you may even see that in your own family or within your family history. I can certainly see it happening within my dad's side of the family, very large, so you can see it tracing down different lines as my grandfather and grandmother were churchgoers when they could go. And my grandmother, remember, was very diligent, very well-known at church. She was a simple country woman, had a third-grade education, but she loved God. And for her, at that time, 30-something grandkids, when the Living Bible came out, she could understand that. She made sure every single grandkid got a copy of it. So I got mine in 1977. It was on her heart. But you can see as the next generation comes, not all her kids were as diligent. Then there's my generation with a lot of cousins. I'll put it this way. I have one cousin. They know they should go to church. And so they all stated, I know I should go to church. And like, but you haven't been in 40 years, but I know I should go. Well, what does that say? Now you look at the generation following this and they don't even know. See, this is not uncommon. This is what has happened. This is a great reason for the failure. Now it has consequences. Judges 2, 11 through 3, 4. So without this memory of what Yahweh had done, even though they had stacked the stones to prod the question, what are these stones about? This is where God stopped the Jordan River and we crossed on dry land and you can start talking about all the things that happened. You can talk about conquering the nation, the day the sun stood still. They didn't remember any of this. They didn't remember his commands, and so they started violating those commands by worshipping the false gods, the people, and the land around them. And they bowed down to the Baals and Asherah. And when that happened, then Yahweh was going to be true to himself. His anger then burned against them, and he fulfilled the warnings. He would give them over to certain things, and it's sequenced out in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, of what would happen when they would not follow Him. They'd be given over to being plundered, and then sold into the hands of their enemy. That's verses 11 through 15. However, the punishment was not only just a response to their sins, It had a purpose in turning them back to Yahweh, just like all chastisement does. It is to amend the behavior. And when they would turn back, they would cry out to God, and ask for mercy, they would repent, and then Yahweh would be true to his promise here too. He'd be moved to pity by their groaning. Because of their oppression, he would send in the deliverer and raise up a judge to deliver them. That's the cycle of the judges. Now these weren't judges in the sense that we think of them as someone who sits on a bench in front of big lifted up table and decides between two cases in a court of law. These are individuals God would raise up to be head of some portion of Israel. They would then direct that portion of the nation to make peace or to make war and then lead the armies over which they were presiding. They would reign with sovereign power to administer justice the remaining years of their life. However, the cycle would then repeat itself because even while the judge was alive, the people did not always listen. And when the judge would die, that next generation would turn again from Yahweh, they'd act corruptly, disobeying his commands, bowing down to the false gods of the surrounding nations. Yahweh would then allow those surrounding nations to suppress them again as a means of chastisement. Now it was because of this that Yahweh would no longer drive out before them the nations that were still left when Joshua died. And they became a test to Israel. Do you love me? Do you trust me? Will you walk in my ways or not? And among the nations left for this purpose were the five lords of the Philistines over on the coast, all the Canaanites, as well the Sidonians, the Hivites, that lived in Mount Lebanon in the far north. Now a major factor with these heathen nations being able to influence them was intermarriage. That's a direct contradiction to the command God had given them in Deuteronomy 7-3. Do not intermarry among these people. And the results were just what God had warned them. Their children would be taught about foreign ways and turn from Yahweh to serve these false gods. That in turn would result in them being cursed by Yahweh, just as He had warned. So the cycles of judges begin with the failure to fully obey God. They don't drive out the pagan nations as they're commanded to do, they allow them to remain. They see an economic advantage by making them slaves, or at least getting tribute or something from them, rather than doing what God said to do. The pagan nations then, because they're still there, start influencing Israel to worship false gods because they no longer, as the generations preceded, knew who God was. They didn't know his commands. Intermarriage makes that influence much stronger. And when they turn from Yahweh and they would start serving these idols, Yahweh would turn from them, allow the curses he had warned them about to come upon them. That resulted in oppression. As oppression would increase, they would groan, they'd finally recognize, maybe we should go back and serve Yahweh, the God of Israel. They would confess their sin, there'd be repentance, He would deliver them and restore them. And that's the cycle. And it happens over and over in different areas, as we shall see. And we wait for the kings, it's the same cycle. It's just now you have a magistrate. Is Phil here? Phil. I forgot to get the laser. The next section of the book of Judges traces the cycle of disobedience and idolatry, followed by repression and repentance, then deliverance through the various judges that he raised up. Now this section is neither exhaustive nor is it a strict chronological account of what God did. It is arranged somewhat geographically to demonstrate the widespread nature of Israel's rebellion. It wasn't just one tribe or a couple, it was all of them. They were in need of a king because they were not faithful to Yahweh and they did what was right in their own eyes. Now the first judge, Joshua chapter 3 verses 7 through 11, is Othniel. Josh and the elders, those that had served with him, had finally died. The sons of Israel, the next generation following, didn't know Yahweh, they didn't know his commands, and so they began to serve, thank you, the Baals and the Asheroth. Now, Yahweh then allowed Cushon Rishathrim, king of Mesopotamia, to oppress the sons of Israel for eight years. the people finally cried out to Yahweh. He raised up Othniel to judge and lead them to war. Now, Othniel was from the tribe of Judah, so that's in this area. Mesopotamia is back over in this area. And so he throws off the king of Mesopotamia, and the land has rest for 40 years while Othniel is alive. Now, after Othniel died, Judges 3.12, the sons of Israel again did evil on the side of Yahweh, so Yahweh strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel. And he makes an alliance, here's Moab, Ammon is up in here. an Amalek. An Amalek was back down in this area and they make an alliance and they defeat Israel and they begin to oppress it. They possess the city, the palm trees, which is over here by Jericho. It's actually a reference to Jericho. And Eglon oppressed Israel for 18 years. Finally, the sons of Israel cry out to Yahweh. He raises up Ehud from the tribe of Benjamin. So here's Benjamin. So Judah's in this area. Benjamin's here. And Ehud has to go to Moab, and he brings the tribute. He developed a plan of how he could do this. Now, a lot of Benjamites were left-handed. And that figures into this, so he made an 18-inch, two-edged sword, and he strapped it to his right thigh, under his cloak. That is the opposite leg where most people would put a weapon, because most people were right-handed. Nobody noticed it. He then goes to Eglon, presents the tribute to them, and then after the tribute is presented, he tells him, King, I have a secret for you, okay? And the king has everybody leave the room so he could hear what this secret is. Then Ehud comes close to the king where he is sitting and said, I have a message from God for you. And when the king arose, Ehud takes his sword, he thrusts it into him. And this man is so fat, this 18 inch sword is swallowed up by his fat. The handle went in after the blade. He couldn't get the sword back out. Ehud then escaped through the vestibule, and he locks the doors to the upper chamber, and he leaves. Now, the servants start getting worried after a while, and they're like, well, maybe he's relieving himself. And finally, they decide they've got to break down the door, and there he is dead. But by this time, Ehud has fled back across the Jordan River, and he has summoned all the people. He has summoned Ephraim. So Ephraim is in this area. So he summons all these folks to come and they are going to end up with a battle and they win from Jordan to Syria and the hill country of Ephraim. And he said, pursue them. Yahweh has given your enemies the Moabites, your hands. So they descend from the hill country and they struck down 10,000 Moabites. They subdued Moab. They had rest for eight years. Shamgar is next, judges 331. He's sometime after Ehud. He saved oppression from the Philistines. Now, Philistines, go back one slide, please, to the map. Yeah. So here's Dan, not on this map. The Philistines are in the coastal area, which are back over this area. So Philistines are along the coast. OK, you can go ahead now. Thank you. He struck down 600 of the Philistines with an ox goad. What's an ox goad? Well, that's a stick that's a prong. It's sharp in one end that you prod the ox to keep them moving. That was his weapon. He killed 600. Now all three of these, Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, they're all tribes in the south and give Yahweh peace. So we have the southern campaign. Chapter four moves to the north, Deborah and Barak. Now sometime after he had died, we now look at the north, and they're not doing any better. They're doing evil in the sight of the Lord. So Yahweh gets them into the hands of Job and king of Canaan. He reigned in Hazor, which is up here. So Jerusalem's way down here toward the floor. So here's Nathalie, Asher, Manasseh, but here's Hazor. It's in their land, but it was a Canaanite. You might recall what I mentioned before about conquering it. Joshua conquered this city and he burned it. I've been there. The burn layer is very clear. It was a massive city at the time, but it was destroyed by Joshua. Enough time has passed. The Canaanites have resettled it. They've rebuilt the city. They have a strong army and they have iron chariots. the tanks of the time and so they oppressed Israel for 20 years. The sons of Israel finally cry out to Yahweh and he revealed himself to the prophetess Deborah who lived between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim. Now that's back down below where this map is. So it comes to her and she goes to Barak who is from tribe of Naphtali in here so she comes up she talks to him and tells him behold Yahweh this is verse 4 Yahweh the God of Israel has commanded go and march to Mount Tabor and take with you 10,000 men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun I will draw out to you Sisera the commander of Jabin's army with his chariots and as many troops to the river Kishan and I will give them into your hand But Barak refuses to do this unless Deborah goes with him. Strong man that he was. He wants her to go. And so she said, I will go, but understand, you will have the victory, but the honor of it is not going to go to you. It's going to go to a woman who God is going to give Sisera to. So, that's exactly what happens. They gather an army at Mount Tabor, which is in the plains in the ghetto, the Jezreel Valley. And the Jezreel Valley is this area right in here. Okay. So, Mount Tabor is here on the northern edge of it. So, they mustered here. The Canaanites muster all their forces and come and they attack at Mount Tabor. The Canaanites, in turn, are defeated and so they flee up the Jezreel Valley. The River Kishan is this one right here. Their chariots aren't very good in the muddy fields. That's what they end up in. And they get wiped out. Wiped out, except for Sisera, who's the commander. And then he flees. That's his line here. He's trying to get away and he gets up to where the Kenites are. And he ends up, Jal, the wife of Heber, has him come into his tent. He thinks he's safe. She gives him some curds and some milk. He falls asleep. He's tired, obviously be tired. That's a long journey to do by foot. And then she takes a tent peg and drives it through his temple. And so the honor in Judges 5 is given to her for what she did in subduing the Canaanites. The land remains undisturbed for 40 years. Gideon is next. This is the central campaign. So we're now moving from the north into the center of of Israel, and once again we find they have not walking with Yahweh, they're doing evil in His sight. And so this time He gives them the hand of the Midianites for seven years. They'd come up from the south, down here, they come up and they do raids up into this area. So, they're raiding, they would destroy, they take what had been harvested. It was so bad the Israelites resort to living in caves and dens of mountains. to keep from these raids of the Midianites. They finally cry out to Yahweh, and he sends a prophet to tell them they had not obeyed him by fearing the gods of the Amorites. They're actually worshiping the gods of their enemies. And so he sends an angel to Gideon, who was from the tribe of Manasseh on the west side of the Jordan. So here's Ephraim, here's Manasseh. So we've already talked about Naftali. Hazor is here. Now we're in the middle of it. So Manasseh's here. So these Midianites are coming up, and they're raiding throughout the land. But they're really hitting Manasseh hard. Now the angel revealed to Gideon that God had chosen him to be the one who is going to deliver Israel from the Midianites. Now at the time, he is threshing grain basically in a hole. You can't thresh grain in a hole. But if you thresh it where the wind would catch it, a marauding band may see it and steal it all. So he's doing the best he can. not the kind of guy that looks like a lot of confidence and courage, right? But the angel says, you're the guy, you're gonna do this. Now, to be brief, he's not a man of great confidence, and God uses a series of miracles to give this man some confidence to rise up and do what he commanded. Now, the first one is the angel who gave him the message, Gideon had brought him a meal, takes this meal, it's placed in a rock, takes it into the staff, he touches the rock, The meal is burned up and the angel goes up in the smoke. He's out of sight. That's the first thing that happened. And that gave him enough courage to go that night, at night, and cut down the ashes in the bell, the idols that were there. And then to stand firm against those who were upset about it. Next, the Midianites came up and they camped in the valley of Jezreel. Now, that's the same valley we talked about before, Mount Tabor in the north, Jezreel's toward the south into that valley. It's a big valley. They're camped there. And God... Midian sent messengers through Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, that's some of the same area that had been there before, to come down and take part in defeating the Midianites. Now, he wasn't confident, so he sets up two tests. And the first one is, Yahweh, if this is true, this is what you want to do, then I'm going to take this fleece, and I'm going to put it on the threshing floor, and the morning, I want it wet, and the area around it dry. And the next morning, that's exactly what happened. Well, he's still not confident, so the next night he wants it reversed. So this time the fleece is dry and the floor is wet. So Yahweh was gracious to him, even though he's a man of fear. So he musters the troops. There's 32,000 that join him in the spring of Harad. Now Yahweh tells Gideon, it's too many people. And so anyone that's afraid, you can go home. and 22,000 leave. So now you have 10,000 instead of 32,000. Okay. That's still a good size for us, but we know what we're facing is a lot more. In fact, they're described as numerous as locusts, as sand on the seashore. And he's got 10,000. And Yahweh says that's still too many. Too many. So he ends up reducing that number to 300 by the way they would drink water. So it's 300 against those recovering the land and look like locusts. Yahweh would make it clear the victory that's going to come is mine alone. Now Yahweh had Gideon send a spy into their camp, who had then overheard a man telling another his dream, which the other one interpreted as the sword of Gideon, concluding that God had given Midian and all the camp into his hands. Now when Gideon heard the report, he was encouraged, he bowed in worship to Yahweh, he called on his band of 300 to rise up because Yahweh had given the enemy into their hands. So, here's the Jezreel Valley, here. Midian is camped in this area. Here's Mount Tabor. This is where they previously, the Canaanites were defeated was along here. But they're camped in here and there's hills that kind of circle around this way. You can also get on the hill of Moriah. And so you can kind of circle it. So his men, 300, that's it. The whole valley is filled with Midian. So you can circle around here and they have a sword and they have a pot with a lamp inside. And so when he calls out, a sword for the Yahweh and for Gideon, they smash the pot and these men can see there's 300 lights around them. And they're afraid. And so they kill each other. The Midianites and Ammon, who was with them, they slaughter each other. It's confusion. God does this. Now, you had 135,000. 15,000 escape. They go on down to the Jordan River and are going to try to get back to Midian. Midian has 300 men, and he pursues them. So now it's better odds. It's 300 against 15,000 instead of 300 against 135,000. But that's still not great odds. And he chases them around. So he pursues them across the Jordan River. Eventually, he catches them. He kills Urib and Zib, the two leaders of Midian. And then they continue the pursuit after Zibah and Zamunah, the kings of Midian. In the pursuit, they crossed the Jordan River to Succoth and Penuel, who refused to help Gideon by even giving them some food, thinking, well, the Midianites are going to come back and we can't be seen as helping you. They lived in fear of the Midianites instead of Yahweh. But Gideon continues, and his 300 men defeat 15,000. Now after this, the Israelites wanted Gideon to rule over them, but he refuses. He says, neither shall my sons. Yahweh is our ruler. The land remains undisturbed for 40 years. Now obviously it's a story, it's a great story of God doing what's impossible. 300 men can't defeat 135,000. 300 men can't defeat 15,000. But they do, because God is the one who does. Now as soon as Gideon was dead, the son of Israel again played the harp with the bowels. The evil was made worse by Abimelech, who was one of Gideon's 71 sons. He actually was the son of a concubine. And he conspired and he murdered his 70 half-brothers. Except Jotham, the youngest, who had hid himself. The end result of that whole story, if you follow through it, was they did what was right in their own eyes. Turmoil in civil war is what developed. And Ephraim was at war with itself until Abimelech and those in Shechem were killed. Tola is the next judge. Judges 10, 1 and 2. Man from Issachar. He was used by Yahweh to save Israel as well. Let's see, Issachar is here. He lived in the hill country of Ephraim. He judged Israel for 23 years. Jair is next. Not much is said about him, but he's from Gilead. That's across the river in this area, where the tribe of Gad had settled. He judged Israel for 22 years. Now again, there's not much said about them because all it's really trying to point out is this is widespread. All these different tribes, none of them, are any of them faithful? The eastern campaign is next, we're gonna move across the Jordan River on the east. So Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben are on this side. So after Jerod dies, Israel again does evil on the side of Yahweh, goes after the heathen gods again, and Yahweh gives them in the hand the Philistines and the Ammonites. Now those on the east side of Jordan were crushed by the Ammonites for 18 years. So Ammon's here. Philistines are along the coast and between them they're coming across and they're raiding throughout this whole area. Finally the people cry out to Yahweh. He rebukes them, but they repent. That's verses 6 through 16. Now this time he allows them, you can pick your own leader. And so they pick Jephthah. Jephthah is the illegitimate son of a man from Gilead and a harlot. And he had been driven out from among his relatives, and he became a rash man. He gathered all sorts of worthless fellows around him. And yet, despite his shortcomings, Jephthah was willing to fight, and he knew Israel's history. He understood the God-given right, he rebuked the sons of Ammon for their claims to their land, saying God had given to them. It wasn't Ammon's. Jephthah defeats the Ammonites, he subdues them, and that should have been a rejoicing for all. But instead, Ephraim in the hill country, so here's Gad, but the hill country would be over here, they don't like it. Now maybe they just want to be called into the battle and get some of the spoils, but they go to war with Jephthah. The end result, 42,000 of the sons of Ephraim are killed needlessly. And Jephthah then judges Israel for six years. The next is the central campaign too. Ibzan from Bethlehem followed Jephthah. He judges Israel for seven years before his death. Then there's Elan, a Zebulonite. He judges Israel for 10 years before he dies. Then Abdan, he was from the land of Ephraim. He's next. He judges Israel for eight years. So again, you have this whole middle section, central area, and you have to have these judges because they're being oppressed until a judge rises up. Next is a Western campaign that's going to cover this area. The Philistines, here's the sea, the Mediterranean Sea comes down like this. The Philistines are on the coastal plain. But Israel does evil again. So this would be Judah and Benjamin and Dan. And so he gives him the hands of Philistines for 40 years. But no one and his wife are from Zorah in northern Judah, and God promised them a son. This is Zorah right here. This is the Zorak Valley. Jerusalem's over here. So they're from here. The valley bends around like this. So they're from here. God promised them a son. He's to be set aside from birth to be a Nazarite. So he's not to have his hair cut, he's not to have anything to do with grapes, no wine, no eating grapes either. But Samson turns out he is a man who does what is right in his own eyes. Instead of following Yahweh as he should. And yet Yahweh uses Samson anyway. You can see a theme from Jephthah to Samson is these are not as righteous individuals as some of the earlier judges. These are men who are very flawed, and yet God still uses them. It begins with Samson, who again, he's in Zorah. He comes down the Zorak Valley, and over here is Tima, and he's looking for a Philistine girl for a wife. That's directly against God's commands. Don't go to the heathen for looking for a spouse. But that's what he wants. In fact, what he says to his parents, I met this girl and she, quote unquote, she looks good to me. That's it. She looks good to me. Samson, you've got a real discernment here. And yet God is going to use this to create a conflict. At the wedding celebration, and theirs went on for days, there's this feast that goes on for seven days. The Philistines, who are the friends of the Philistine family, pose a riddle. Samson, on his way to Tema, had killed a lion with his bare hands. When he had gone back, there was honey in it. So he poses this riddle to them. Out of the eaters came something sweet to eat. She tells him the answer, the riddle, on the last day. And the bet was 30 changes of clothes. So he goes to Ashkelon, which is along the coast and down in the Philistine area. He kills 30 men, takes their clothes, brings up and gives to them. And then he goes home without his wife. He's upset. She let out what the riddle was. Well, not too long after that, he decides he wants his wife. He goes back down there. But the parents had given the wife to another man, thinking he doesn't want her. Well, that makes him more upset. So he catches 300 foxes, ties their tails together, sets them on fire. I'm assuming he tied a torch in with them. And he burns all the fields in the Sorok Valley and in the coastal plain of the Philistines. That's his reaction. This is not a godly man. Now the Philistines are upset and they want to capture him and punish him. They end up having him bound. He overcomes that. He kills a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. He slaughters them. He goes down to Gaza, which is a coastal city, a Philistine city. And they're going to capture them there. What's he still doing among the Philistines? But that's where he's found. But he gets up at night, and he carries the city gates. He breaks them off their hinges. He carries them from Gaza to Hebron, which is all uphill. It's about 45 miles. So that's why Samson's considered strong. He's a very strong man. He judges Israel for 20 years. His downfall is a woman named Delilah. Though she continually lied to him, she demonstrated her allegiance with the Philistines, he kept going back to her until the secret of his strength was revealed. It was in compromise. She had men who came out of hiding and cut his hair and he was taken captive. His eyes was gouged out and he was set to grinding corn. During a great sacrifice for God, Dagon, the Philistines had Samson brought in and they're gonna make sport of him. This is our enemy. He was so strong, now look at him. Now that gave Samson the ability to carry a final act of strength and gain revenge on his enemies. He asks to be put next to the pillar that's holding up the upper level. He pushes the pillar over. It collapses between those in the roof, those underneath, 3,000 Philistines die. That's his act of revenge. And that's why he did it. He said, in revenge for my eyes, not because he's actually doing it for Yahweh, and yet Yahweh uses it. You see, God is able to accomplish his purposes even by those who do what is right in their own eyes. And so that's a theme that you see. Our God is that powerful. He can use someone like Samson and Jephthah, as well as the ones who are afraid, like Gideon, or the ones who are not quite as afraid, but a little afraid, like Barak, and well as these other ones, we don't really know that much about them. but he would bring them up to bring peace on the land when the people repent and call out to him. Now the book of Judges ends with two stories that serve as examples of the depth of depravity that come about when people do what is right in their own eyes. Jesus said in Matthew 15, 19, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, and slanders. And because all humans are sinners by nature, it is not surprising that when people do what is right in their own eyes, what they do is evil. And they will pursue that evil to whatever boundary is placed upon them. They'll pursue it until something restrains them. I mentioned earlier the United States has this great heritage. The restraint in our land, the reason we could handle the freedoms that we've had here, is the restraint was an internal one. Because so much of the population were Christians. The large majority, the rest of the population, were influenced heavily as these were the moral standards. And so the laws of our lands were set according to those moral standards. And for the most part, you didn't have to do a lot to get people to live by them because the shame of going against them in society was enough to keep you from doing it. I'll give you an example. Even when I was in high school, a girl who was sleeping around was considered a slut. That's quite a change by the time my kids were in that age. At that time in the 1970s, Girls would lie who were sleeping around that they were not. By the 1990s, early 2000s, they would lie that they were sleeping around even if they were not because they wanted to fit in with their friends. That's a huge change in society. That means the shame was gone. That's why more than half of couples live together now before they are married. They shack up. But that's no longer a stigma anymore, is it? Even supposedly better producers like the Hallmark Channel, it's very common for their themes to show, yeah, these are just two people shacking up together. Where's the shame? You see, society changed. If there's not self-restraint, there must be an outward restraint. And that's the purpose of government. Romans 13 is very clear. The purpose of government is to encourage what is good, to give reward to those who are good, and encourage that behavior, and to restrain evil, including that the sword is not carried in vain. It is a means of the wrath of God, and it is a minister of God. But that is only to the restraint level given by the government. So what happens when the government starts removing the restraints? People push as far as that restraint will go. What happens when the government like ours in the recent years does, has gone as far as promoting what is evil instead of what is good? Do you see some parallels now between us and the time of the judges? You see, there should be no surprise that God's judgment is upon our land, that we see the kinds of things that we are doing. The book of Judges was written specifically for the purpose of showing the Jewish theocracy failed due to the people doing what was right in their own eyes. A king was needed to restrain them. But it also serves as a warning to all nations of what can be expected when any society does the same thing. And that does include us. And so it's not surprising that evil has arisen in our land and that we are reaching into ever deeper depths of depravity. What was unmentionable 20 years ago, unimaginable 30 years ago, is common today, and now it's pushing for things that we still think are unimaginable, but they're pushing for it. And government's going along with it. Even basic facts of science. What's a boy? What's a girl? We don't know anymore. You don't even using phrases like the sex assigned at birth. Your sex is not assigned at birth. It's simply recognized. That's it. No one's assigned it. It was already there. Someone with two eyes that work went. It's a boy. It's a girl. They recognized it. It's not surprising. But now we have a society that can't even figure that one out. I know I mentioned this before, we have a Supreme Court jurist now that can't tell what is a woman, can't define it. She's not a biologist. And much worse is the majority of the Senate voted to affirm her. That's far worse. Is it any Surprised to us and the answer should be no Romans 1 is very clear that as a society descends into sin God removes his hand it happens three times and And the the phrasing there actually is he removes his hand they descend at the next level the third level is depravity They cannot even think straight, and that's where we are What should we expect the same thing we see in Romans 1 and God's wrath is revealed against all unrighteousness. How so? By the sins themselves. Sin begats more sin begats more sin. And sin has its own consequences. And so we see diseases that should not exist in humans becoming rampant. I don't know if you see the latest one, monkeypox. They want to rename it. That might offend the population, which is the homosexual population, 95% of those who have it are homosexuals. But that might offend them, so we got to rename it. Just like they did with GRIDS, Gay Related Immune Depressive Syndrome, got renamed as AIDS because you're going to offend the population. So instead of dealing with the disease, we do something else. You might recall, I do, because I was in college at the time, that AIDS became the first federally protected disease. You couldn't follow it up like you could any other communicable disease. This is where a nation goes, so don't be surprised at the evil that's around us. Now that sounds all bad, right? But judges is not all bad. Because every story of the nation falling away, worshiping the false gods, and that includes the syncretic religions of what's currently among Christians in the United States as a whole. We take some Bible and a lot of stuff from society, we merge them together, and that's where we are. That's why, quote-unquote, evangelical churches have gone woke, and they're trying to cater to all the stuff that's out in society. They don't care about God. They want a God of their own making. But when the people would repent, and they'd cry out to God, what would God do? See, that's where our hope always relies, right? Our God is a gracious God, a forgiving God. Isn't that why Jesus Christ came? Because all of us are evil. It is God that chases after us. Adam and Eve fled from God. God chased them. And aren't you glad that God chased you? To call you to himself, we have to be the people who call others to repentance. Call them to change their minds about who God really is and serve the true and living God, the creator of all things, the God who's gracious, the God who's willing to forgive your sins because he himself paid the price in Jesus Christ. And that's why we have hope, no matter what's going on in our society around us. So, while a lot of this sermon is a bit of a bummer, because our society is so bad, we have the message of hope. And so we can never be discouraged. We are the ones to go out and tell people, and that's why we need to be at the fair. And everywhere else, proclaiming Christ to people. That is the hope, is the only hope, and it will only be the only hope, always. If you want to see our nation changed, it begins with something simple. Every Christian lives for Christ. Every Christian serves Christ. And every Christian tells others about Christ. That will change our nation. Father, thank you for the truth of your word. And though there's much in judges that's discouraging because we do see the parallels with our own nation, at the same time, we have to be encouraged because you would raise up these judges. Father, they weren't always good men. Samson certainly wasn't. And yet you'd use them to change things. We've seen that in our own history of men of very flawed character that have risen up to bring about some reforms. But Father, we need much more than reform. We need revival. We need Christians who will actually walk with Christ unashamedly, be caring more about a fear of you than fear of man. who are not ashamed to proclaim that they belong to you, not ashamed to proclaim that the behaviors they have are because we're here to serve Christ, and He sets the moral standards for us, not society. Father, a people who speak the truth in love, but we won't cater, we won't overlook the sin that is there, but in telling them in love that they may turn from it, and no longer have to deal with the consequences, but can receive your forgiveness. Father, make revival start with us. In Jesus' name, amen.