The Book of Judges reveals God's consistent pattern of using unlikely individuals to deliver Israel from oppression, demonstrating that victory comes from Him, not human strength or status. The sermon highlights various judges like Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, contrasting their diverse backgrounds and methods to underscore God's power working through the weak and despised. The core lesson is that God's choice of instruments is not limited by human perception of might or nobility, as seen in His use of a left-handed man with a dagger, a woman with an ox goad, and even a woman to defeat a general. Ultimately, the message emphasizes that regardless of one's past or perceived weakness, calling out to God in repentance leads to His deliverance and strengthening, urging listeners to make decisions that determine their destiny.
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Welcome to another Bible study. We've been looking together at the Old Testament Book of Judges. In our first study, we viewed the background of the book and the basic cycle that runs through judges. It goes something like this. The people sinned. They would turn from the Lord who had given them the land to serve idols of wood and stone. Then they would go into slavery. In their sorrow, they would repent. and turn to the Lord and call out for help. In answering, he would send them a deliverer or a judge. Victory would be won over the nation that was oppressing them.
There would be a time of serving the Lord, but then the cycle would begin all over again and they would go back into sin. Once they were oppressed for forty years and at one time along the way they had peace for as long as eighty years. We looked at two of the most important judges. First, we looked at Judge Gideon, a weak man who was made strong by the Lord. Then the last time that we were together, we took a long look at Samson, a man of great physical strength, but sad to say a very weak man in many other ways. As we have noted the contrast between Gideon and Samson, I would like for us to leaf back through the Bible and the Book of Judges, and note other contrasts.
To note how God delighted to use the weak or unlikely to win victories for him. As the Apostle Paul said in the New Testament, God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, hath God chosen? Yes, and things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Paul wrote that to the Corinthians. The first deliverer or judge was Othneal, nephew of Caleb.
We remember Caleb as that great man of God, who stood with Joshua in saying that they would be able to take the promised land in spite of the giants that were there. His nephew, Ophneil, had possibly been challenged by the life of his uncle, Caleb. Israel had been oppressed eight years by Mesopotamia. God raised up this young man as a deliverer, and they have peace for the next forty years. But then the record goes, and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And there followed eighteen years of oppression.
Othniel was probably a right-handed man. Ehud, the next judge or deliver, was a left-handed man. The children of Israel had again called to the Lord for help. Ehud, with a dagger that he had made himself, killed the king of Moab. And Israel enjoyed their longest period of peace, eighty years. Shamgar is the next judge, and he is not a dagger, but an even more unlikely instrument, an ox goad. That's the long stick used to hurry the oxen along when they were driving them along a path.
Here's the Bible record. Shamgar, the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistine six hundred men with an ox goad, and he also delivered Israel. Let us at this point be perfectly clear. It's not whether a man is right-handed or left-handed. Whether he uses a dagger or an ox goad, the Lord is the one that gives the victory. Let us keep our eyes not on the instrument, but on the Lord. Next came a time of doing evil and an oppression of twenty years by the Canaanites. God this time raised up a woman to deliver.
Her name was Deborah. I wonder, was there not a man on the scene to be a judge? Well, yes, there was one man. His name was Barak. But this was Barak's message to Deborah in regard to their going up against the enemy. If you will go with me, then I will go. But if you will not go with me, then I will not go. We're not impressed with Barak at this point. He would go if someone would go with him. Oth, Neal, Ehud, and Shamgar had gone out against the enemy as deliverers, but not Barak. Deborah answered, I will surely go with you.
Nevertheless, or notwithstanding, the journey that you take shall not be for your honor, for the Lord shall sell Cicera into the hand of a woman. Two women shine out in this chapter of Israel's history. Though Barak routed the enemy, the general got away, the enemy general. Seeking refuge in a tent, General Cicera went to sleep. Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail of the tent and took a hammer in her hand and went softly unto him and drove the nail into his temple and fastened it into the ground.
For he was fast asleep and weary, and so he died. Now let's just a little glimpse into the life and times of the Book of Judges. Chapter five in this book records the duet of Deborah and Barak, their song of victory and thanksgiving. Our friend Gideon comes next in our study, our survey of the Book of Judges. We looked at him a little more in detail last broadcast. Remember, he said he was the least in his father's house when the Lord called him. Well, this follows. We have seen over and over again that God uses the weak and despised things.
One little incident in Gideon's life that we overlooked is found in Judges chapter seven. After the Lord had cut his army from thirty-two thousand to ten thousand, And then from ten thousand to three hundred men, Gideon may have been a little discouraged at the size of his armed forces. Right then the Lord gave him an encouragement, just as he always does. The Lord directed General Gideon and his chief of staff, Pura, to go down the hillside into the enemy camp at night. What they saw was a valley of Midianites and the Malachites, much as they expected, but what they heard... was very unexpected, probably listening outside the tent.
They heard a man telling about a dream he had just had to a fellow soldier. Let's listen with Gideon. Behold, I dreamed a dream, and a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed. His fellow soldier answered, This is nothing else but the hand or the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel, for into his hand hath God delivered Midian and the whole camp. Well, I suppose Gideon could hardly believe his ears listening to these two soldiers.
These were enemy soldiers in an army that numbered more than four hundred times the size of his little band. And here they were talking about Gideon defeating them. The barley cake surely was a good illustration of Gideon. We hear of wheat bread, corn bread, rye bread, but rarely of barley bread. This would be one of the cheapest of breads. And possibly because of the way the Midianites had oppressed them, oppressed Israel, they were reduced to eating barley bread. But the Lord was going to use the loaf of barley bread, that is Gideon, to win a great battle. This is a choice verse.
And it was so, this is Judges seven, fifteen. Judges chapter seven, verse fifteen. And it was so when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation that he worshipped and returned into the host of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the camp of the Midianites. The Bible says Gideon worshipped. He realized his men were worthless, but he didn't lose sight of the worthiness of the Lord. He was now sure of victory and victory he had as he routed an army of a hundred thirty-five thousand men.
After Gideon there was a period of forty years of peace. A usurper Abimelech was next on the scene, not a judge. Then two men about which we know very little judged Israel. Tola seems to have been a man with a rich background of ancestors, and Jair, the next judge, seems to have been a wealthy man. The record of the judges we have thus far considered seems to indicate that these men were a little different. But God says not many mighty Not many noble are called, but he does not say not any. We naturally look to the mighty and the noble.
The Lord often overlooks them and uses the weaker instruments. But then at times he will single out a mighty man and use him in a mighty way. Thus are the marvelous ways of the Lord. Sin came in again, and there was a period of eighteen years of oppression by the Ammonites. And then the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Their cry was, We have sinned. The Lord sent them a deliverer or a judge. His name was Jephthah the Gileadite, a mighty man of valor, the son of a harlot. Would God use the son of a harlot?
Yes, he did. God saves sons and daughters of harlots. He saves harlots who trust him for the forgiveness of their sins. How do I know? The Lord Jesus said so. To the chief priests and religious leaders of that day, he gave these words, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. Listen to that. He said to them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans are the tax collectors, and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you, these religious leaders. In the next verse, he gives the reason because they believed.
These people were believers. They were sinners, but they were believers. They believed. They asked for forgiveness of their sin. After Jephthah, three judges about which we don't know very much, Ibsan, Elan, and Abdan. No one, though, is insignificant to the Lord. Look at the long list of names in the Bible. In the genealogies, the Lord is interested in individuals. He's interested in you. And finally, Samson, the man we looked at the last time we were together. Due to his sin, due to this man's sin, he was a slave of the Philistines at the end of his life.
They had put out his eyes, they had bound him, and he was grinding in the prison house. Or as someone, as so well put it, sin blinds, blinds. And soon we find ourselves grinding in the slavery of Satan. Samson stayed in the prison house and slowly his hair that had been cut grew out again. There came a day when the Philistines were going to make fun of him. Three thousand men and women were gathered. At this point in his life, Samson called out to the Lord. Listen. O Lord God, remember me and strengthen me.
He prayed. The Lord had never forgotten him. He had forgotten the Lord. That was the very reason he was blind and in this prison. He lost his strength. In that hour, the Lord used Samson to pull down that great building, and he killed more in his death than in his life. What does this incident say to me, to you? You can call out to the Lord for salvation. and he will hear. You may be deep in sin, like the harlot we spoke of, and the slavery of Satan like Samson. Tell the Lord you're a sinner. Call out to him.
God will hear. The Lord Jesus died on the cross for you. He will save you. He will strengthen you for the work he has for you. I close with the words that we have used on each broadcast. Decision determines your destiny. I repeat. Decision determines your destiny.