Speaker A
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] We're going to start a new book of the Bible. Who's ready for a new book tonight? The book of Judges. So take your Bibles and let's go to the book of Judges.
Gary Hamrick begins a verse-by-verse study of Judges 1, exploring Israel's leadership vacuum and the book's key themes.
Key Takeaways
- Judges shows the consequences of Israel's rejection of God’s leadership.
- The judges were military leaders raised by God to deliver Israel during a leaderless time.
- The repeated phrases emphasize Israel’s moral failure and lack of centralized leadership.
- The book of Judges is relevant today as people often live by their own standards rather than God’s.
- Understanding Judges helps Christians appreciate the need for God’s guidance and Jesus’ role.
What the video covers
- Introduction to the book of Judges as the next Bible study, focusing on chapter 1.
- Judges covers Israel's history between Joshua's death and the monarchy, about 400 years.
- Joshua was a leader who brought Israel into the promised land, a type of Jesus.
- After Joshua and Eleazar died, Israel had no national leader or king, leading to a crumbling theocracy.
- Judges were military deliverers raised by God, not courtroom judges.
- There are 12 judges listed in the Bible, with six major and six minor judges.
- Key repeated phrases in Judges include 'The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord' and 'In those days Israel had no king.'
- The book illustrates Israel's moral decline and the consequences of rejecting God's rule.
- The study highlights the relevance of Judges to modern life, where people do what is right in their own eyes.
- Gary Hamrick uses humor and practical application to engage the audience.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
And after you see all the gore of this book, you may not really want to applaud, but it's in here for a reason. So we're going to talk about it tonight, the book of Judges, chapter 1. As we start a new book here,
Speaker A
together let's begin just with a word of prayer. Lord, it's good to settle ourselves before you tonight, to draw near to you as we open up your Word here to a new book study. We pray that you would guide us
Speaker A
and teach us by your Holy Spirit. And Lord, I'm thankful for those who are here and those who are watching online tonight. We just commit this to you. We pray that you would use this book to speak to us.
Speaker A
There are dark parts of this book, but you've preserved it for a reason. Lord, you want us to see just how far man can sink without you, and that you would, we pray, just move in our hearts to draw us near to you,
Speaker A
to help us, Lord, as always, to be more like Jesus. This is our prayer. We thank you for your love. We just sang about it: how great is your love toward us. And we thank you, Lord, even as Paul would
Speaker A
write, he wanted us to know how wide and deep and broad and high is the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. May we know your love tonight. I mean, we just cherish that, be thankful that you
Speaker A
loved us so much that you gave Jesus to die on the cross for us. So bless this time in your Word. We're thankful for it. In Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen. All right, Judges chapter 1. I'm going to give a little bit, not too lengthy, of
Speaker A
an introduction, but whenever we start a new book of the Bible, I always like to kind of frame the context, give you the background. So especially for you note takers, I'm going to move to the back screen here and just give you a few
Speaker A
highlights about the book of Judges. The book of Judges is named after the form of leadership that is over Israel between the time of Joshua's death and the beginning of Israel's monarchy when they would be ruled by kings. You remember when we
Speaker A
finish the book of Joshua, Joshua dies. He has been the leader of the people of Israel since Moses entrusted that leadership to him. He was God's man for the hour. Joshua brought the people into the promised land. It was a picture of Jesus because
Speaker A
Joshua's name is the same as Jesus. Jesus is just a Greek transliteration of his Hebrew name, which is Yahushua, abbreviated as Joshua or Yeshua. And so Joshua's this picture of the one who brings people into the promised land.
Speaker A
Jesus is the only one who can take us ultimately into heaven. But at the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua has died, as well as Eleazar the high priest. And so now the people are without a leader. Eleazar's son Phineas will end up
Speaker A
being the high priest in his place, but there's no national leader. There's no king. It's not the monarchy yet. It's a crumbling theocracy where God is supposed to be in charge of a nation, but the people
Speaker A
are not going to submit themselves to God. And so this is a crumbling theocracy, not for any fault on God's part, of course, but because the people want to cast off God. They really don't want his rules. They really don't want his laws.
Speaker A
And it is sometimes typical of our own human nature. We don't like, sometimes when God says this is right and this is wrong, we are inclined to live our lives our own way. It is a sad picture of the human heart.
Speaker A
This is why God sent Jesus to die for us, because he knows left to ourselves we're a mess and we have no hope. Well, this becomes like a picture here with the nation of Israel. They're going to be
Speaker A
ruled by judges, and the book of Judges covers about 400 years of history. And Judges in Hebrew, if you have a Hebrew Bible, it would be called Shaftim. Shaftim is the plural of Shafet. Shofet means judge or ruler.
Speaker A
And so the plural of it obviously is judges. So it's so named after this form of leadership that Israel is under for these 400 years. And it is believed that Samuel wrote Judges, but we have no biblical
Speaker A
substantiation of that. It doesn't tell us in the Bible. This is what tradition says, that it is likely Samuel, who was one of the last of the judges, that he wrote the book of Judges. But we don't know for sure. When we look here at the book of Judges,
Speaker A
you're going to find that there are 12 in all throughout the book of Judges. There are considered six major judges and six minor judges. It's not like baseball, the major league and the minor league. It's basically, it's not that some
Speaker A
were more important than others or more skilled than others. It's just that they get more press coverage in the Bible. They do more. There is more recorded about six of them than there are the other six. So here's the list of the
Speaker A
twelve: you have Othniel, Ahood, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdaan, and Samson. Now, I will tell you that Bible scholars will debate about exactly how many judges there are. These are the 12 that are listed in the book of
Speaker A
Judges. Some Bible scholars say, well, it's actually 13 because when you look at Debra, she's the fourth judge. This is in chronological order through the book of Judges, by the way. When you look at Deborah, some say that Barak was a
Speaker A
co-judge with her, but others disagree that Barak abdicated his responsibility as judge, and that's why Deborah stepped up and God used Deborah. So I don't link him as many Bible teachers don't. I don't link him as one
Speaker A
of the judges, but some Bible scholars do. They say, well, he's the 13th because he was a co-judge with Deborah. Now, sometimes people will ask me, you know, what’s your favorite judge? And my answer is this one,
Speaker A
because, yeah, I mean, Judge Judy. She is Jewish, by the way, and boy, would she get the country in shape for sure. But anyway, highest-paid person on TV, by the way. All right, enough about her. That was just a joke,
Speaker A
for those of you who didn't know that. All right, so when you think of judges, don't think of a judge like Judge Judy because they were not black-robed officials with gavels. The judges were military heroes or deliverers whom God raised up to lead
Speaker A
Israel. It tells us that in chapter 2, verse 16. So a little bit of a different, you know, concept. We think of judges in a legal sense behind a, you know, a desk in a courtroom, but these were
Speaker A
military heroes. These were deliverers that God raised up to lead the people of Israel during a time when they really wanted to throw off the restraints. There are two key phrases often repeated in the book of Judges. This is essential
Speaker A
to understand the book of Judges. The first phrase is, "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." That phrase is repeated seven times: "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord."
Speaker A
And the other important phrase in the book of Judges, number two, is, "In those days Israel had no king." So this is before the monarchy again. It's before the monarchy, and it's this crumbling theocracy. So they have no king.
Speaker A
They have no national leader. God will raise up judges. "In those days Israel had no king," and that's mentioned that phrase is four times through the book of Judges, and then twice in chapter 17, verse 6, and chapter 21,
Speaker A
verse 25. The rest of the sentence in "In those days Israel had no king" is "everyone did what was right in his own eyes." That's very telling to understanding this book. And by the way, whenever anybody says to me things
Speaker A
like, you know, the Bible's a really old book, it doesn't have much relevance for today, look at this, look at this: "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Are we not living in a day like that,
Speaker A
where people are deciding to do what they think is right? They're defining what they think is right and wrong. And so we're living in a day like this. We have a lot to learn from the book of Judges.
Speaker A
So however long it takes us to get through this on Wednesday nights, we're going to see some things that we need to learn as a culture because we're living in a time of rel...
Speaker A
eyes they are their own judge they are their own king they are their own god that's this day and if you if you try to rebuff someone and say no no this this is this isn't right well how do you know oh because i'm
Speaker A
referring to god's word as the standard of moral righteousness they will look at you as a hater and a bigot because they will say to you you don't have any right to determine what is right and what is wrong
Speaker A
you know because man has made himself central to his own moral standard and when man is centered of his own moral standard instead of god being center to the moral standard then you are raising up anarchists you are
Speaker A
basically deciding that you can rule your own life the way you want to you thumb your nose at god and you are in charge of your life we're living in this day and so we particularly as as christians
Speaker A
have to understand look the moral standard is is god's word the moral standard is god's word god determines what is right and what is wrong and god doesn't change he's the same yesterday today and forever but as the
Speaker A
culture changes and as society morphs into different things we as christians decide know what you know what our lives are are um tethered to the word of god and so we don't shift with the culture and and thus we're continuing to take a
Speaker A
stand for what is right and what is wrong as god defines it and when you take that stand there's going to be people who will think of you in in very disparaging terms because they don't like that you have a sense of
Speaker A
right and what is wrong because to them it sounds judgmental to people who are themselves their own moral standard when you say no god is my moral standard and so i operate my life based on what he says is right and what
Speaker A
is wrong they will think that you're judging them it's like you're like i'm not trying to judge anybody i'm just trying to live by what is really spelled out in scriptures right and what is wrong so we're in this
Speaker A
tension today in our culture and there is this you know we it's an overused cliche but there is this culture war and so you know as christians decide are are you going to are you going to shift with
Speaker A
the culture and become just like the culture or are you going to stand your ground and say you know what there are some things that god defines is right and some things that he defines is wrong and wherever he spells that out
Speaker A
in the bible i'm aligning myself with god and his standard and that's what this is about you know there is a story of one of david's mighty men uh whose name was shema and you remember the story in in the book of samuel where
Speaker A
shema it says he took his stand in a lentil patch which is basically a bean patch and and he took his stand to defend this little patch against the philistines and he slew the philistines because why he was defending this little this little
Speaker A
patch this little territory and he only gets like three verses in all of the bible as one of david's mighty men and why because he defended a bean patch how does that get you in the bible as like
Speaker A
one of david's mighty men because here's the deal if you give up the bean patch you'll eventually give up the whole field if you give up the whole field you give up the valley if you give up the
Speaker A
valley eventually you lose the mountain and you lose the whole territory it's just it's one little bean patch at a time which is why what i try to encourage people when they seem overwhelmed by the culture and the
Speaker A
progression of how things are going in our culture what can i do what can i do just try to work on your own bean patch just at least try to lay claim to your own family protecting your family and do what you can in your own
Speaker A
neighborhood in your own community and then together we can try to preserve the land for righteousness but it's a battle it is a battle for sure so this is very relative to our own day we're going to see this as we go through the book of
Speaker A
judges one last slide and then we'll get into the book there is a cycle that you will see throughout the book of judges and i've put the cycle in this pattern so we can understand i want you to start at the
Speaker A
top with me israel serves the lord that's how that's how joshua left things before he died israel serves the lord here's what happens though israel falls into sin and idolatry why because they're influenced by their culture and then that leads to the to what
Speaker A
happens next israel is oppressed by enemies then israel cries out to the lord who wants to be oppressed by the enemy so then they start crying out lord help us god raises up a judge israel is delivered and then israel
Speaker A
serves the lord and you see this cycle throughout the book of judges they're following after god they're in love with the lord and then it starts to wane they start adapting the principles and and the uh practices of the pagan
Speaker A
cultures around them then god says fine you want to live like that and then he allows the neighboring enemies to come and besiege them and then they cry out to god lord our enemies are attacking us that god has
Speaker A
mercy and so he delivers them raises up a judge so that that judge would say listen this is right this is wrong you got to follow the ways of the lord so then they follow the ways of the lord
Speaker A
again and then everything goes well for a time until they forget god and then they get right back into this pattern so this is the cycle you're going to see this slide often throughout the book of judges because this is the pattern this is how
Speaker A
they're living and so let's take a look here at chapter one we're gonna see the first judge by name and this is what what this is what it says in verse one of chapter one now after the death of joshua
Speaker A
it came to pass that the children of israel asked the lord saying who shall be first to go up for us against the canaanites to fight against them all right a couple of things first of all remember the book of joshua i
Speaker A
thought we had finished the wars we have but remember they didn't displace all the canaanites so now they're having to go back and they're having to defeat the enemy that they've allowed to remain so they ask of the lord now how do they
Speaker A
ask of the lord again remember as i mentioned a couple of weeks ago through the end of joshua that they would inquire when they were dividing the land they would inquire of the lord through the lot they would cast
Speaker A
the lot how how would they determine the lot joshua would appeal to eleazar the high priest every high priest would have this vestment and inside the vest were two stones one was called the urum one was called the thumim one stone meant yes
Speaker A
one stone meant no and so they would inquire of the lord this is before you could seek god yourself with the holy spirit's help and understand his counsel they were basically pulling out a stone right yes or no and this is how they would
Speaker A
determine things so it's likely this is what is happening here they're inquiring of the lord phineas the son of eleazar is now the priest they probably go to phineas and say who who this is the question who shall be first to go up
Speaker A
which of the 12 tribes is going to lead us into battle against the canaanites to fight against them and the lord said as they probably went through each tribe you know should the tribe of naphtali go and they pull out a
Speaker A
stone no should the tribe of dan go pull out a stone it's the no stone should the tribe of judah go pull out a stone yes and so that's their answer verse 2 and the lord said judah shall go
Speaker A
up indeed i have delivered the land into his hand so judah said to simeon his brother come up with me to my allotted territory that we may fight against the canaanites and i will likewise go with you to your
Speaker A
allotted territory and so we're you know in other words we're going to fight for each other all right you're going to help me weed out canaanites from my territory and i'll help you then weed out the canaanites from your territory so verse 4 then
Speaker A
judah went up and the lord delivered the canaanites and the perizzites into their hand and they killed ten thousand men at bazak and they found adonai bazak in bezek and fought against him this is the king of bazak adonai means lord small l
Speaker A
they found adonai bezek and in bazak and fought against him and they defeated the canaanites and the perizzites and then adonai bezek fled and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes
Speaker A
yeah ouch that's right now why would they do this why would they cut off his thumbs and his big toes they basically wanted to render him a helpless soldier going forward because without your thumbs you can't successfully draw a bow
Speaker A
nor can you wield a sword and if you cut off the guy's toes big toes he can't run very fast so now he's he's an ineffective soldier now if you'll notice the next verse verse 7 says and adonai bezek said
Speaker A
seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table as i have done so god has repaid me and then they brought him to jerusalem and there he died so we learned a couple things
Speaker A
one is that adonai bezek had done the same thing when he conquered some neighboring king he would cut off their thumbs and their big toes as well and so adonai bezek is basically saying even though he's not a follower of god he's
Speaker A
acknowledging the true god because it's it's god's name that is used here and he says god's paying me back god is paying me back you know even a heathen here understands something about divine consequences you reap what you sow
Speaker A
you know in in like secular uh verbiage we'd say it's karma you know you're getting back what you what you do but but we know this principle from the bible whatever a man sews that shall he also reap
Speaker A
that there are consequences and and that when we do things there are certain consequences that we will reap as a result of it now the other thing we learn here is not only that adonai bezek this pagan guy
Speaker A
has a concept of divine justice that you reap what you sow but we also learn here that the reason why the israelites cut off his thumbs and his big toes is because they learned that from a guy like adonai
Speaker A
bezek in fact this was a common practice of the day the reason this is important to note is because this story gives us insight into the spiritual decline of the israelites that i talked about in our introduction how so because they're
Speaker A
adapting the customs of the pagans god didn't tell him cut off the thumbs and the big toes of these people why are they doing this they're doing it because they realized well the other pagan people around us do this so i guess we
Speaker A
should do it this is the first step to the decline here they're they're engaging in practices that were not ordered by god they're doing this because they learned it from what people around them are doing who are pagan
Speaker A
so this this event here that is happening is a picture here we're getting a glimpse into the spiritual decline of the nation because they started adopting the pagan practices around them this is why it's so concerning to me
Speaker A
when we look at our own day our own culture and people who profess to be christians but they start living like and doing things just like an unbelieving world around them and it is the decline of not only
Speaker A
you know it's inconsistent with christianity it's the ultimate decline of a nation when when the only vestige of what is god's representation of righteousness in the earth which is his church when his church begins to compromise and engage in practices just
Speaker A
like the rest of the world then that moral standard that representation of god the ambassadors of christ no longer represent his righteousness it is the decline of a nation so that's why we as men and women and young people who love the lord have to
Speaker A
continue to be faithful to him and to raise that standard of righteousness and to lift up the lord in conversation in lifestyle and practices because we have to continue to represent him well they were not representing god well here
Speaker A
they start adapting this kind of barbaric practice that they didn't need to do it's like you know if god enables them to defeat their enemy do you think that god needs help by having their thumbs and big toes cut off where god's up in
Speaker A
heaven going wow thank you for doing that because they were going to be too fast now no that it's god doesn't need our help and so they're adapting here this practice among the pagan people it's it's it's this
Speaker A
the decline down the slippery slope here verse 8. now the children of judah fought against jerusalem and took it they struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire and afterward the children of judah went down to fight
Speaker A
against the canaanites who dwelt in the mountains in the south and in the lowland and then judah went against the canaanites who dwelt in hebron now the name of hebron was formerly kiryat arba and they killed shishai ahiman and talmei
Speaker A
and from there they went against the inhabitants of de beer the name of de beer was formerly kiriath sefer and then caleb said this verse 12. so this is the caleb from the book of joshua okay caleb and joshua were
Speaker A
buddies they were the only two faithful of the spies when moses sent the spies into the promised land so that's this caleb then caleb said whoever attacks curiosity and takes it to him and takes it to him i will give my daughter aksa
Speaker A
as wife and othniel the son of kanaz okay here othnia i'll circle that in your bible he's the he's going to become first of the judges so we're introduced to the first of the judges here othniel whose name by the way is difficult to
Speaker A
translate some translators say his name means god is my help or my strength so it says in verse 13 and othniel the son of kanaz caleb's younger brother took it and so he gave him his daughter aksa as
Speaker A
wife so let me unpack this a little bit so caleb wants somebody to attack curiosity fair and he offers as a reward his daughter in marriage so if there's any valiant soldier among us who can take curiosity i will give
Speaker A
my daughter aksa in in marriage now aksa in hebrew her name means adorned and so it is believed that she was very beautiful very attractive after all i mean think about it right if caleb is going to offer his daughter in
Speaker A
marriage to some valiant soldier if she really wasn't much to look at no soldier would have been like i'm not dying for that you know and i'm saying to you i mean i'm just being real with this she probably was very beautiful and
Speaker A
then all the soldiers are like tripping over each other i'm going to go fight i'm going to go get this city because i want her in marriage now if you look at the family dynamics here though who is othnia othniel is
Speaker A
caleb's nephew because atheil is the son of caleb's younger brother canaz so caleb is the uncle of othniel but once caleb gives his daughter to his nephew his nephew's going to become a son-in-law have you followed this austrial is going to marry
Speaker A
his cousin we're going to keep it all in the family friends all right and i'm not going to make any west virginia jokes that would be completely inappropriate but but but it's a family it's a family tree here that gets a little messy with
Speaker A
caleb and his brother kenaz kanaz uh has a son arthel caleb has a daughter aksa these two are going to marry arthel is the one who's like i'm going to fight i'm going to funk fight for you uncle
Speaker A
caleb and i'm going to i'm going to get my cousin to be my wife and they're going to be moonshine at the party anyway i'm i'm digressing and bluegrass anyway verse 14.
Speaker A
and trucks and guns all right verse 14. now it happened that when she came to him that's to her dad that she urged him sorry that she comes to her husband that she urged him to ask her father for a field and she
Speaker A
dismounted from her donkey and caleb said to her what do you wish so in other words caleb over here is this little they're having a little chit chat probably in front of him so aksa is saying to other like i want you to ask
Speaker A
my daddy for something and and what i want you to ask him is she's going to find out she runs um a field here so she gets off her donkey and caleb says well what do you wish like what are you guys
Speaker A
talking about and so she said to him verse 14 give me a blessing since you have given me land in the south give me also springs of water and caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs so you
Speaker A
know arthur yell was valued enough to fight to win her but not quite valiant enough to ask her dad a favor and so she has to ask dad herself you know i want i want a field but have
Speaker A
springs and so he gives it to her so it's like a gift in verse 16. now the children of the kenai moses father-in-law went up from the city of palms that's jericho remember with the children of judah into the
Speaker A
wilderness of judah which lies in the south near arad and they went and dwelt among the people and judah went with his brother simeon and they attacked the canaanites who inhabited zephtha and utterly destroyed it and so the name of the city was called
Speaker A
horma also judah took gaza with its territory now on a map this is the same area today we hear a lot about gaza the conflict between the israelis and the palestinians out of gaza this is that same territory there it hugs the coast
Speaker A
of the mediterranean judah took gaza with its territory ashkelon with its territory and ekron with its territory so the lord was with judah and they drove out the mountaineers see mountaineers see that we are this is west virginia
Speaker A
but and now circle that word uh but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland because they had chariots of iron and they gave hebron to caleb as moses had said then he expelled from there the
Speaker A
three sons of anak now remember the anakites were this giant race the nephilim the anakites and there's a whole story behind them but but they had to deal still with the anakites here but but notice it says that they he expelled that from their
Speaker A
the three sons of anak verse 21 but there's that word again but the children of benjamin did not drive out the jebusites who inhabited jerusalem so the jebusites dwell with the children of benjamin in jerusalem to this day now
Speaker A
note when the writer here of judges says to this day this has to be obviously again before the the period of the kings because it wasn't until king david that jerusalem was actually secured for the israelites the jebusites
Speaker A
continue to occupied occupy the city of jabu which will get renamed yerushalayim the city of peace jerusalem but it's not until david's general joab will will crawl up the cistern there of the gihon spring and make his way how
Speaker A
jerusalem falls is an incredible story joab makes it shimmies his way up and for those of you who have been with me to israel we we look up this you know this great uh cistern that at some points is like 12 feet wide and so you
Speaker A
have to imagine that that joab was having to use perhaps a long staff and extending his body to shimmy up inside this long cistern to get into the city of jerusalem and then that's how they were able to get into the city of
Speaker A
jerusalem and to take the city so that won't happen now for hundreds of years later under king david so presently the jebusites occupy jerusalem and in terms presently in terms of the story verse 22 and the house of joseph also
Speaker A
went up against bethel and the lord was with them so the house of joseph sent men to spy out bethel the name of the city was formerly lose and when the spy saw a man coming out of the city they said to him please show us
Speaker A
the entrance to the city we will show you mercy so he showed them the entrance to the city and they struck the city with the edge of the sword but they let the man and all his family go
Speaker A
and the man went to the land of the hittites built a city and called its name luz which is its name to this day and so here the the the tribe of joseph they take this city of blues this guy tells them here's the
Speaker A
entrance here's how you can get in they take it they demolish the city of blues they spare this guy and so the guy says well then i'm going to go and i'm going to start another city naming it lou's
Speaker A
because this one's demolished now and of course everybody who lived there in that city were known as losers all right anyway uh yeah that's not in the bible that's just me all right verse 27 however manasseh did not drive out now look this
Speaker A
this gets this this here is going to give us insight into what went wrong here look at this however manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of beth beitzan and its villages or tanakh and its villages or the inhabitants of door
Speaker A
and its villages or the inhabitants of iblim and its villages or the inhabitants of megiddo and its villages for the canaanites were determined to dwell in that land remember the canaanites were perennial enemies of the israelites these are the
Speaker A
people that god said you need to drive them out i'm giving you this land but you can't allow them to remain there because the influence is going to destroy you and here it tells us time and time again these various tribes
Speaker A
would drive out the people to a point but they wouldn't totally drive them out completely so they're allowed to dwell there verse 28 it continues and it came to pass when israel was strong that they put the canaanites under tribute but did
Speaker A
not completely drive them out let me tell you something if you're powerful enough to subject them to tribute which is basically you got to pay us in order to stay here then you're powerful enough to drive them out
Speaker A
they are negotiating and this is a picture for us of our own flesh there are certain things that god will tell us drive out but we try to negotiate with our flesh i'm just going to let this little part
Speaker A
stay here because i enjoy this little part and god's like drive that out yeah but i enjoy this little part it's that's going to be the little part that destroys you this is a picture here of what happens
Speaker A
when we don't do due diligence to deal with the stuff that could potentially destroy us you know how it goes like the little things that destroy us if we don't destroy it first it will destroy us and so this is what is happening here
Speaker A
and the saga continues verse 29 nor did ephraim drive out the canaanites who dwelt in gaza so the canaanites dwelt in gaza among them nor did zebulun drive out the inhabitants of quitron or the inhabitants of nahalol so the
Speaker A
canaanites dwelt among them and were put under tribute nor did asher drive out the inhabitants of ekko or the inhabitants of said on or allah or aksai or helba or afiq or riha so the israelites rather so the azurites
Speaker A
dwelt among the canaanites the inhabitants of the land for they did not drive them out nor did naftali drive out the inhabitants of beijing they baked shemesh or the inhabitants of batanath but they dwelt among the canaanites the
Speaker A
inhabitants of the land nevertheless the inhabitants of beit shemesh and batanath were put under tribute to them and the amorites forced the children of dan into the mountains for they would not allow them to come down into the valley
Speaker A
look how sad is that it's like the the tribe of dan not only did they not drive out the canaanites but it says here that the canaanites and the amorites and the parasites all these various uh foreign tribes these pagan tribes they
Speaker A
forced the children of dan into the mountains said you stay up there we're not going to let you come down and they hold them hostage this is not how god's people are supposed to live here but this is what is happening when
Speaker A
you don't effectively drive out the enemy that could destroy you verse 35 and the amorites were determined to dwell in mount here's in ajalon and in shalbim yet when the strength of the house of joseph became greater they were put
Speaker A
under tribute now the boundary of the amorites was from the ascent of akrabim from selah and upward isn't that sad the boundary of the amorites we should be talking about the boundary of the children of israel and the various tribal allotments instead
Speaker A
what we have here is the fact that the people of god were not determined to do what god said they allowed the influence to remain they allow the small vestige of these pagan people to remain and at times these pagan people were
Speaker A
stronger than the israelites drove the tribe of dan up the mountain and so the people of god were held hostage by by the very people that they were supposed to destroy now they were subjecting them to tribute okay but they would come back and back
Speaker A
again and again and again until they would successfully drive them out and this would lead to this cycle so let me just say here's the takeaway from chapter one because this is all we're gonna deal with tonight the
Speaker A
takeaway from chapter one is look the little things are the things that could end up destroying us i'm gonna share three illustrations to kind of drive this point home columbia space shuttle you remember the columbia space shuttle february the 1st 2003
Speaker A
the space shuttle columbia disintegrated upon re-entry to earth from outer space killing all seven crew members on board it was later determined that a small piece of foam insulation had broken off during takeoff resulting in a small six inch gouge to
Speaker A
the underside of columbia's left wing columbia takes off debris hits the underside of the wing small little six-inch gouge upon re-entry to earth that small gouge allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate and destroy the internal wing structure and when that
Speaker A
happened everything else disintegrated a 230 000 pound aircraft 122 feet long 56 feet high with a wingspan of 78 feet all disintegrated because of a small six-inch tear that compromised the entire thing we're all familiar with the story of the
Speaker A
titanic right an unknown crew member was reported to have said to a passenger even god himself could not sink the ship but on its maiden voyage across the atlantic it hit an iceberg and sank in two hours and forty minutes fifteen
Speaker A
hundred and three people died after all the investigations into why the titanic sank the final conclusion was not weak steel that's what they first thought when that when it impacted the iceberg it was weak steel no it wasn't
Speaker A
it was the little rivets the metal screws that kept the steel plates together in an effort to save time inferior rivets were used which proved in the end to be the vulnerability of the titanic last illustration eastern airlines
Speaker A
flight number 401 on its way from jfk to miami international airport eastern airlines flight 401 crashed into the florida everglades on december the 29th 1972 at 11 42 p.m because of pilot error listen and a five dollar light bulb
Speaker A
on its approach to miami international airport the pilot dropped the landing gear but a little green light that was supposed to illuminate showing the landing gear was in locked position did not light up so they weren't sure if the wheels were
Speaker A
down the crash occurred as a result of the entire flight crew becoming preoccupied with the landing gear indicator light and failing to notice that the autopilot had inadvertently been disconnected as a result while the flight crew was distracted with the little indicator
Speaker A
light and because the flight was at night and the everglades are dark no one could visibly notice the gradual drop in altitude and the aircraft crashed 101 people including the captain died and it was later determined that the
Speaker A
landing key that the landing gear was in fact down just the light bulb was burned out it is the little things that will destroy us if god is dealing with you about some little thing in your life that is displeasing to him
Speaker A
deal with it now before it destroys you it's those little things you say it's just a little thing it's no big deal just a little thing that's the very thing that's going to destroy you what we see happening in the nation of
Speaker A
israel is symptomatic of what could happen in any in any of us often those little things that will destroy us when god points those things out to us don't turn a deaf ear but say lord help me to deal with this
Speaker A
help me to deal with this i want to be right with you i don't want this thing to come back to destroy me lord i want you to destroy it help me in jesus name that's the prayer and i'm going to lead us in that right
Speaker A
now let's close our bibles and pray that way lord tonight as we consider the downfall of a nation that happened incrementally slowly and when we think about these stories that i just read about columbia space shuttle and the
Speaker A
titanic and eastern airlines flight 401 how often it's just those little things that end up bringing down big things lord i pray right now that you'd point out in our own lives different ways that we are compromising and by your holy spirit that you deal
Speaker A
with us right now what are those things lord that are displeasing to you show us chances are we probably already know before we even pray for you to show us now the question is lord will we have the courage to say lord
Speaker A
help me to deal with this and to put this to death in my life but you can pray that right now you can say that to him just say lord help me to put this to death in my life
Speaker A
but i don't want this thing to destroy me i want to live for you so god gave me the courage to deal with this thing before it becomes a huge thing that brings me down thank you for your grace and your mercy
Speaker A
you've allowed me to see this for a long time and you you've allowed me to continue to go on like things are normal but lord one day your patience will come to an end because you love me too much
Speaker A
to allow me to continue to do this so so god help me help me to rid my life of this before it's too late before the toll that it takes is so destructive god help me right now in jesus name tell
Speaker A
him that say god help me right now in jesus name to deal with this to root this out of my life lord i'm weak without you and i need your strength help me to fight the good fight of the
Speaker A
faith help me to finish strong and help me to weed out those things in my life that are displeasing to you that are sinful to you show me lord and help me may your grace and your mercy be upon us
Speaker A
all lord as we strive to live in a way that brings you honor and glory thank you for dealing with us in patient ways you are a patient merciful god and we love you and we thank you together in jesus name and everybody
Speaker A
said amen you
Topics:Bible studyBook of JudgesGary HamrickIsrael historyJudges leadershipJoshuaChristian teachingOld TestamentTheocracySpiritual lessons
