Through the Bible - Judges

God, we do thank You for the opportunity to come together, and we do lift this family into Your hands. We pray for Scott Evaland and his family, and we ask that You would just touch and heal him miraculously, Lord. We pray that he would come out of this coma, and that You would use this tragedy to bring people to Yourself. I know that You are doing a work through it, and we just thank You so much for that.

Lord, we lift up the remainder of our night together tonight, that You would open Your Word to us and speak to us. Jesus, You said that You would send the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth and teach us all things. So, we ask tonight that You would guide us by Your Holy Spirit and help us to understand the things that we are going to be looking at and considering. We pray that we would be able to make application from the Scriptures, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

We are in the book of Judges tonight, another favorite of mine, and I think you'll see why as we go through it. How many of you took the time this week to read through the book of Judges? Several of you did. That's great.

As we come to this book, we find that this is a period of time in Israel's history right after the conquest of the land of Canaan. In fact, the book of Judges begins with Joshua, the main character in the last book, still alive. However, it doesn't get very far before Joshua, the son of Nun, dies. We find that the children of Israel are in the promised land, but they do not have a perfect experience there.

We considered last week in the book of Joshua that the promised land pictures for us not that heavenly experience, but the experience of the victorious Christian life—the life of rest in the land of victory. This is the life that God desires every single one of us to come into and inherit, a land filled with fruitfulness, right? The land of milk and honey and great fruit. God wants us to come into that place where we experience and enjoy the land that flows with milk and honey. We talked about the milk of the Word and the honey of the Scriptures as well, and how through those things, God wants to produce in our lives the fruit.

of the Spirit. This was a land of great fruitfulness. However, as we come to this book, it is perhaps one of the saddest books in the Bible, especially in relation to Israel's history. For those of you who read it over the last week or have read it before, or maybe studied through it previously, you know that this book is filled with failure and defeat. Yet, the people are in the promised land. Just being in the promised land does not guarantee success.

We saw in Joshua chapter 1 that God told Joshua to meditate upon the Word of God day and night. He instructed him not to turn from the right hand or to the left from the Word of God, so that he may have good success and be prosperous in everything he does. God promised that every place the sole of his foot would tread upon would be his, as He had given that land to possess. However, if the children of Israel turned to the right or to the left, away from God's Word, the curses of Deuteronomy chapters 27 and 28 were very real.

There are blessings in the law, and we have considered that as we have been going through these studies. But there are also curses for those who rebel against God and turn away from Him. This book is filled with stories of the defeat and failure of the people. The primary theme of this book is the failures and defeats of the children of Israel, and it truly applies to us, especially when we consider it in light of the verse we have referenced many times before in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. There we read in verse 11 that all these things happened to them as examples and were written for our admonition.

I keep mentioning that verse every single week, and I assume that eventually you will remember it. All these things happened to the children of Israel as examples and were written down for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world have come. As we look around this world, we can clearly say that we are living in the last days. In fact, many writers of the New Testament told us that we have been in the last days ever since Jesus ascended into heaven. We are at that period of time in history.

God recorded these 39 books of the Old Testament for us so that we would learn from the mistakes, failures, and defeats, but also the victories of the children of Israel. This knowledge would enable us to walk in righteousness before the Lord, living a life in the land of rest—a victorious Christian experience. Joshua is that book of victory. It is a great, awesome book where they come into the land, and yes, they have a few battles where they do not succeed.

So hot! But primarily, they are a victorious group of people. The reason for that is they had this great leader, a type and a picture of Jesus. In fact, he had the same name as Jesus; his Hebrew name was Joshua. That was what Jesus' Hebrew name was—Joshua.

Joshua, the leader of the children of Israel, brought them into the Promised Land. It was a great step of faith where they came in by victory, and God won many battles for them. As you read in the book of Joshua, it wasn't the battles that the children of Israel won on their own; God did it for them as He went in and took the land for them.

However, as we come to the book of Judges, there is no leader like Joshua among the children of Israel, and that is one of the key problems of this book. You see it over and over again. The first time you see it in Judges is in Judges 17:6, which states, "In those days there was no king in Israel." Whoever the author of this book is—and we're not entirely sure; some Bible teachers believe that Samuel is the author of the book of Judges—we know that he tells us at least four times in this book that there was no king in Israel.

This lack of leadership is one of the big reasons the children of Israel thought they were failing. They believed the reason for their failure was that they had no king. But who was to be their king? God was. God was to be their leader, and that was what He wanted to communicate to Joshua. When the children of Israel came into the Promised Land, what did God tell Joshua? He said, "Follow My word. Meditate upon My word. Follow My word. My word is going to be that which leads and guides you. I’m going to guide you by My word."

When Joshua died, there was still no king in Israel. We read it again in Judges 18:1: "In those days there was no king in Israel." In Judges 19:1, it states, "And it came to pass in those days that there was no king in Israel." The theme verse of the whole book is found in Judges 21:25, which says, "In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes."

That's the theme of this book: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Remember, God had told Joshua to follow His word, to meditate therein day and night, and not to depart from the word of God.

And yet here in the Book of Judges, right after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord because they did what they thought was right. There was no king in Israel, and so they did whatever they believed was the right way to go. But, as we see, they were wrong. They were in error.

Judges chapter 2 is where this really begins. In Judges chapter 2, verse 10, it says that whenever you do the things that are right in your own eyes, the things that you think are the right way to go, it is evil in the sight of the Lord. Why? Because the heart of man is deceitful and wicked, desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9, "The psalmist tells us there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death."

So here, the children of Israel did what was right in their own eyes. In verse 11 of Judges chapter 2, it says, "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served Balaam." Balaam is the plural form of Baal, the god Baal. They started to bow down to all these different masters, these different gods that they had among the people they lived with.

It goes on to say in verse 12, "They forsook the Lord of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, the gods of the people that were round about them. They bowed themselves unto them, and they provoked the Lord to anger." This is one of the key themes that you see in this book, and you see it over and over again in the Book of Judges. There is this cycle, which we might call the cycle of failure.

Now, the children of Israel, when they came into the Promised Land under Joshua, found that God did not drive out all of their enemies. There were still some key enemies in the land: the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and all these "ites" were there. God told His people that they were to drive them out, but they didn't. In fact, you start to see the failures. I want to point this out to you. Judges chapter 1 says in verse 16...

The child of the Canaanite, Moses' father-in-law, went up to the city of Palm Trees, which is the city of Jericho. In verse 16 of Judges chapter 1, it states that the children of Judah went into the wilderness of Judah that lies to the south of Arad. They went and dwelt among the people.

Notice that in verse 19, it continues, and down in verse 21, it says more about the children of Israel. In verse 25, it talks about another tribe, the tribe of Joseph, which was actually two tribes. It mentions that when they came into the land, they allowed some people to dwell there. Neither did the tribe of Manasseh, as noted in verse 27, drive out all the inhabitants. The Canaanites remained in the land at the end of that verse.

Neither did Ephraim, as stated in verse 29, drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer. Similarly, Zebulun, in verse 30, did not drive out the inhabitants of a list of cities. The tribe of Asher also failed to drive out the inhabitants of another list of cities. In verse 33, it mentions that Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and other cities.

You see, over and over again, right in the very first chapter of the book, that the children of Israel were not utterly pushing the other enemies out of the land. So what happened? The result, as described in Judges chapter 2, is that they started to follow the gods of the people that were around them, as noted in verse 12. They allowed these enemies to remain in the land, and because of that, they began to bow down to the gods of these other people.

They forsook the Lord, as stated in verse 13 of Judges chapter 2, and served Baal and Ashereth, two key gods that caused the children of Israel to stumble throughout their history. In verse 14, the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. God noted this in verse 14 of Judges chapter 2.

God had promised this to His people, saying that if they did not drive out the inhabitants, then those inhabitants would become a snare to them, as mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy. Joshua said the very same thing, as we saw last week in the last chapters of Joshua. If they did not drive these people out of the land, they would become a snare, and they would serve their gods. If they did, God would be against them.

He will turn against you. In verse 15 of Judges chapter 2, it states, "Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn in Deuteronomy chapter 28 and Leviticus chapter 26." He swore unto them, and they were greatly distressed.

Nevertheless, here is God's grace in the book of Judges, as seen in verse 16. The Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of their spoilers, those that spoiled them. A judge in the book of Judges is not how we typically think of a judge today. When we think of a judge, we often envision someone who sits in a courtroom wearing a black robe, and we refer to them as "Your Honor." However, that is not what a judge was in this time in Israel's history. A judge was a leader; they were the ones who judged rightly between the law and led the people.

When the children of Israel departed from the Lord, they were sorely distressed by their enemies because God allowed them to fall into the hands of their enemies. They would cry out to the Lord, and so the Lord would raise up judges. Yet, they would not hearken unto the judges. In verse 17, it says, "But they went a whoring after other gods, and they bowed themselves unto them." They quickly turned away from the way their fathers had walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord, but they did not do so.

Over and over again, we see this cycle of failure in the book of Judges. I wanted to illustrate how this cycle looks. The cycle of failure for Israel can be described as a six-fold pattern. First, Israel was serving God while in the land. However, after a period of time, Israel did evil in God's sight. They began to bow down to false gods and the other gods around them. As a result, Israel was delivered into the hands of their enemies; God allowed this to happen.

After some time, they would cry out to the Lord because of their enemies. The Lord would then send a judge or a deliverer, and Israel would return to the Lord. However, this return would only last as long as that judge lived. In fact, when you read through the book of Judges, you find that when Ehud died, the children of Israel once again did evil in the sight of the Lord. Similarly, when Samson died, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord once more.

When Gideon dies, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. This cycle starts all over again and continues throughout most of the Book of Judges. You see it constantly: they serve the Lord for a period of time, but then, after that judge dies, they start to do evil in God's sight. They serve other gods, and Israel is delivered into the hands of their enemies. They are spoiled and oppressed, sometimes for long periods, such as 40 years or 80 years, until they finally cry out to the Lord.

One of the interesting things you see when studying the books of prophecy in the Bible, or the Book of Judges, is that God often uses enemy nations—other nations besides Israel—to discipline them. He allows these nations to come into the land and destroy it for a period of time as a form of discipline. If the people receive this discipline, they will turn to the Lord. However, throughout the books of prophecy, we see that the children of Israel would sometimes harden their hearts under discipline and would not repent. As a result, the Lord would discipline them further.

The Book of Judges is filled with this cycle. Constantly, over and over again, the children of Israel depart from the Lord, and it says they did evil in His sight. Several times, in Judges 2:11, it states they did evil in the sight of the Lord. In Judges 3:7, it repeats this, and again in Judges 3:12 and Judges 4:1. You see it constantly: the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They departed from God and began to bow down to other gods, prompting God to raise up enemies against them.

We can divide this book into three separate parts, or divisions. The first division, from about chapter 1 to the first few verses of chapter 3, deals with the deterioration of Israel and the failure of the nation. They start to deteriorate from the inside out. How do they do this? We have already looked at that a little in the first few chapters, where it states that each of these tribes did not press their enemies out of the land; they did not dispossess their enemies. Because of this, their enemies remained in their midst, and God allowed them to stay there. In fact, God gives us the very reason why He does not fully remove the enemies from the presence of His people.

In Judges chapter 2, verse 22, it says that through them, God might prove Israel. He states that through these enemies, He might test Israel to see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk therein as their fathers did or not. Therefore, in verse 23 of Judges chapter 2, the Lord left those nations without driving them out hastily or quickly. Neither did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua because He was going to test Israel with them.

The same thing happens in your life and in my life as well. We have all experienced this. Even though you may be walking in the land and the life of rest, experiencing the fruit of the Spirit and feeding upon the faithfulness of God, how many of you have found that you still sin? We all do, don't we? We all fall. Sometimes we have sins that so easily ensnare us, as Hebrews chapter 12 talks about. We would say those are the strongholds in our lives—these enemies that God wants us to dispossess. He wants to get those things out of our lives. God is in the process of cleansing us and sanctifying us, yet there are these things that remain, and sometimes we allow them to stay in our lives.

We fail by them; they become thorns in our flesh and difficulties in our lives—things that trip us up. God has the power to remove them, but He doesn't just take them away. Sometimes people continue to struggle with the same issues for a long period of time. We might even call them life-dominating sins. However, God doesn't come right in and say, "All right, I'm just going to take this away from you," because He is using that in your life as a test. He allows those things to stay to prove us, to see whether or not we will walk in His way or depart from it.

He does have the power to remove them, but they are there for a reason and a purpose. He doesn't want us to keep falling in front of those things or being tripped up by them, but He does leave them to test us and to drive us to Him. That is what the enemy is in the land to do: to drive us to Him.

The second passage in Judges, from Judges 3, verse 5, down to the end of Judges 16, deals with the deliverance of Israel. You could say it also addresses the failures and deliverance of Israel. From Judges 3, verse 5, all the way through Judges 16, you see the judges, the deliverers.

The ones that God raises up for His people are meant to bring them through their enemies, to conquer their enemies, and to possess the inheritance that God has given to them. We see great stories of these men, and some women as well, who are the leaders of Israel that God raises up to be powerful deliverers, bringing the children of Israel out of bondage in their own land.

We have the story of Ehud, an interesting judge of the Lord, found in Judges chapter 3. We talked about Othniel last week. Remember that lion-like man from the tribe of Judah who captured the city? As his father-in-law Caleb said, "You take the city, and I'll give you my daughter as a wife." So, this lion-like man from the tribe of Judah took that city and won a bride. Othniel was one of the judges, one of the deliverers of Israel, and you can see him in Judges chapter 3.

Then we read about a man named Ehud right after that in Judges chapter 3. Ehud is an interesting character; he was a left-handed man. This detail is significant because, in those days, soldiers would line up in battle holding their shields in their left hands and swords in their right hands. A left-handed soldier was often deemed less useful. The scripture tells us this about Ehud for a reason.

During this time, a group of people called the Moabites came into the land of Israel and started causing problems because the Israelites had departed from the Lord, as noted in Judges chapter 3. The Moabites brought along some allies, the Amalekites and the Ammonites. It's interesting to note that Moab and Ammon were the products of Lot's wicked union in Genesis chapter 19. When Lot was delivered out of Sodom and Gomorrah, he hid in a cave with his daughters, who thought the entire world had been destroyed. They decided they needed to help God repopulate the earth, but there was only one man left: their father. So, they got him drunk and had children by him. The children born from this union were Moab and Ammon, who can clearly be called products of the flesh.

Amalek is another type and picture of the flesh in scripture. Therefore, when we see Moab, Ammon, and Amalek come against the children of Israel in Judges chapter 3, they are dealing with the flesh. These stories of the deliverance of Israel illustrate this struggle.

Application for how we can defeat these enemies begins with understanding the story of Ehud. Here, the flesh comes against the children of Israel, and God raises up a deliverer named Ehud, but only when they cried out to the Lord. The first thing we need to do when we want to be delivered from the things of this world, the flesh, and the remnants in our lives is to cry out to God for help. The children of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up a deliverer by the name of Ehud.

Ehud fashioned for himself a two-edged sword. When I say "two-edged sword," that should remind you of a New Testament scripture: Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, which states that the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Ehud put this sword on the inside of his right thigh. Remember, he was left-handed. He then visited the king of Moab, who was dwelling in the land of palm trees, specifically the city of Jericho.

What was the first city that the children of Israel took when they entered the promised land? It was Jericho. And what was the first city that they lost? Jericho. The city of Jericho was taken by the Moabites, who brought in their allies, the Ammonites and the Amalekites. The children of Israel served them for eight years.

Judges chapter 3, verse 17 tells us that Eglon, the king of Moab, was a very fat man. The children of Israel brought him gifts year by year. What do you think they brought this very fat man as a gift to make him happy? Food. That's what you do; you bring the big guy food. That will appease him and keep him from being angry. The children of Israel brought their gifts to Eglon, but we learn an important lesson from this: if you feed the flesh, it only gets bigger and stronger.

Ehud decided to take care of this problem once and for all. He made himself a dagger with two edges, about a cubit in length, which is probably 18 inches. He fastened it underneath his clothing on the inside of his right thigh and brought the present to Eglon, the king of Moab. Eglon, as the scripture says, was a very fat man.

After offering the present, Ehud sent away the people who bore the gift. He then turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal and said to King Eglon, "Hey, king, I have a secret message for you from God." Eglon responded with interest, "Ooh, okay, come on in here."

He went inside and locked the door of Eglon's room, and no one else was there. It says Eglon took the sword from his thigh and stuck it into Eglon. Junior hires really love this part. The sword went all the way in, even unto the handle, and the fat closed around it.

I want you to notice what the King James Version says here because I think it's important. In verse 21 of Judges chapter 3, it states that Ehud put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh, and he thrust it into his belly. The hilt, or the whole sword, went in after the blade, and the fat closed up around the blade so that he could not draw out the dagger from his belly, and the dirt came out. Notice that. The sword went in, and what came out? The dirt came out. You can use your imagination about what that is, but we're not going to talk about the dirt coming out here.

When the sword goes in, the two-edged sword, and is left there, what comes out? The dirt comes out. You only deal with the flesh with the two-edged sword. You've got to use the two-edged sword. The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, will deal with the flesh. We hide the Word of God in our hearts. Why? That we might not sin against Him. In that same passage, that great passage, Psalm 119, it says, "How shall a young man cleanse his ways? By taking heed to the Word of God." We need the Word of God, the two-edged sword, to take care of the flesh.

So, the first deliverance from Eglon shows that the first thing you've got to do is stop feeding him. Stop feeding the flesh. Some people think, "If I just feed it a little bit, if I just do this a little bit, then it will be okay, and my flesh will leave me alone." No, it won't. It just gets stronger. It just gets bigger. We've got to deal with the flesh, and the only way to deal with the flesh, scripturally speaking, is by the Word of God, the two-edged sword.

Right after that, we read the story of another deliverer that was raised up. In verse 31 of Judges chapter 3, it says that God raised up another deliverer named Shamgar, and he slew the Philistines, 600 of them, with an ox goad. Now, what's an ox goad? An ox goad is a long pole that farmers used to use in that day when they would plow their fields. It was about 12 feet long, with a narrow, pointy tip on the end. Sometimes they would even put a metal tip on it.

As you walk there with your ox in front of you, plowing your field, and he decides he wants to stop, what would you do? You'd take that pointy end and goad him right in the rear, and he'd get going. This guy had no weapons to speak of.

The only thing he had was that which God had given to him for his trade. He was a farmer. He took what was in his hand and used it against the enemy, and God brought about a great victory. He killed 600 of the Philistines with an ox goad. He didn't have a sword, a shield, or anything else. He just had the tool of his trade.

The great encouragement for every single one of you is that sometimes people lose sight of the fact that the trade they have, the job they have, is the ministry God has given to them to bring about victory. They think, "I need to be a full-time Bible teacher. I need to work at the church." I hear this from a lot of people. They believe that if only they could work at the church, then life would be great.

Listen, God has given you a trade. He's given you the tools of your trade to use for victory in His kingdom. You must use what is in your hand to bring about victory, whatever it may be. Whatever job God has committed to you, whatever gift He has given you, whatever skills and trades you have, He wants you to use them to bring about victory in His kingdom. You have to use what He has given to you.

Well, that brings us to the next group of judges. In chapter 4, it tells us that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord again, as noted in verse 1. When Ehud was dead, the cycle began again. They served other gods, and the Lord sold them into the hand of the Canaanites and Jabin, king of Canaan.

How do you get rid of the Canaanites? There were a couple of judges. God raised up a deliverer by the name of Deborah. She was a judge in the country of Israel, and people would come to her to hear the law and righteously understand what the law had to say about their situations. The Scripture tells us she was a prophetess before the Lord. God spoke to this prophetess, telling her that He wanted to deliver His people from Jabin, king of Canaan, because they were crying out to the Lord.

The first thing we must do when we need to defeat some stronghold in our life or some enemy that comes to us is cry out to God. So they cried out to God, and God raised up Deborah. She went to speak to a man by the name of Barak and said to him, in verse 6, "Is God speaking the same thing to you that He is speaking to me?"

He wants you to stand up and lead His army because He's going to deliver the Canaanites into your hand. Well, Barak, it seems to me that he wasn't a very strong and courageous guy. In verse 8, he said to her, "If you'll go with me, Deborah, then I will go. But if you will not go, then I will not go." She replied, "Well, I surely will go with you, but your journey that you take shall not be for your own honor. For the Lord shall sell Sisera, the captain of the army of Jabin, king of Canaan, into the hand of a woman."

So she says to Barak, "Listen, you're not going to get glory for this." I think we need to understand that when we have great victories in our lives, we need to recognize that we are not going to get the glory for it. God is going to get the glory for it, and He is the only one who should receive the glory when we experience great victories.

Deborah and Barak went out against Jabin, king of Canaan, and his commander, Sisera. The children of Israel fought against them, coming down the mountaintop. Sisera brought his chariots of iron against them, and chariots of iron were a fearful thing in that day. Some believe that these chariots had blades sticking off the sides of them, extending sometimes three to six feet. You could almost imagine them as people mowers. Just as lawn mowers cut grass, these chariots would ride at full speed into the army, chopping them off at the legs. It’s easy to understand why armies were fearful of those who had chariots of iron.

Yet the Scripture says that when they went out in obedience, as the Lord had commanded, He delivered them into their hands. Then Captain Sisera jumped off his chariot and ran away, fleeing into the hill country. He came to a little territory where a man named Eber the Kenite lived. Eber had a wife named Jael, who was standing outside her tent. In verse 18 of Judges chapter 4, it says that Jael went out to meet Sisera, the captain of the Canaanite army, and said to him, "Turn in, my Lord. Turn in to me and fear not."

When he turned into her tent, she covered him with a mantle. Here is an application in this story: sometimes we may have a Canaanite in our closet. We may have someone like Sisera covered up—some sin that we've held on to and haven't let go of, hidden in some dark recess of our hearts. We have a Canaanite in our closet. How do you deal with him? I want you to notice a few things about this Canaanite here. He came in, and she covered him.

And he said unto her, "Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." The first thing that these hidden sins want is for you to feed them. Just feed me. Have you ever seen that old play, The Little Shop of Horrors? There was that plant that just kept saying, "Feed me." That's what sin says. You bring it inside, you hide it, and it just says to you, "Oh, feed me."

So he says, "Bring me a little water because I'm thirsty." Notice what she did. How do you deal with the Kenanite in your closet? She opened unto him a bottle of what? Milk. Think about this for a second. They lived in a very arid, dry desert. They didn't have refrigerators. When we read of milk here, in fact, when you read in the next chapter, the song of this talks about butter.

What this really was, remember what we call the people that dwell in tents there in Iraq today? The Kurds, the Kurdish people, right? One of the things they would do is take this milk and make it somewhat like yogurt, this thick, warm, curdled milk. Sometimes they would occasionally drink it. So what does she do? Instead of giving him water, she brings him this milk and gives it to him to drink, and then she covers him.

Now, after you've had a nice warm glass of milk, what happens? You feel really tired. So here she gives him the milk and covers him. Right before he falls asleep, he says to her, "Stand at the door of the tent, and it shall be when any man comes to inquire of thee, you shall say that there is no man in here." If they ask, "Is there any man in here?" you shall say, "No."

The first thing he says is, "Feed me." The second thing he says is, "Lie for me." That's what happens when you have hidden sin in your life. You feed it, but then you have to lie about it. You don't want anybody to know about it. So he says, "Just lie. If anybody comes inquiring about me, say no, no, he's not here."

How do you deal with this sin that's saying, "Feed me and lie for me?" Verse 21 says, "Jael, Eber's wife, took a nail. She took a nail of the tent and a hammer in her hand, and she went softly in unto him. She smote the nail through the temples of his head and fastened him to the ground."

It's a very pretty picture. These nails, these tent pegs, were about 18 inches long, and the women in that day were the ones who would set up the tent. So she knew how to handle this whole thing pretty well. She grabs that tent peg and that hammer, goes into Sisera, and while he's quietly sleeping there, she sticks that thing right through his temple and fastens him to the ground like you would a tent.

What's the application for us? We've already considered the milk. We talked about the land.

That flows with milk, right? 1 Peter 2, verse 2 says, "As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word." Jeremiah 23, verse 29 states, "Is not my word like a hammer that breaks the mountains in pieces?"

In Ezekiel chapter 12, verse 11, we find another important verse. Actually, I meant to refer to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 11 says, "The words of the wise are as goads." Remember that ox goad that Shamgar had? The words of the wise are like goads and as nails fastened by the master of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. Who is the great shepherd?

It says here that nails, His word, the words of the wise are like nails fastened by the master of assemblies and are given by one shepherd, this fine great shepherd. When we consider the hammer, God asks, "Is not my word like a hammer?" The word of God in 1 Peter 2, verse 2 is like milk for the newborn babe. Additionally, these nails, the words of the wise, are like nails driven in by the master of assemblies or the master carpenter. Who might that be? The word of God, the word of Jesus.

How do you deal with the Canaanite in your closet? The word of Jesus. How did Shamgar deal with the Philistines that came against him? He used the goad, as it tells us in Ecclesiastes chapter 12. The word of God, the wise word of God, is how we deal with sin and take care of it.

One of the key things you see in the book of Judges, as you go through this portion, this second portion dealing with the deliverance of Israel, is how they were delivered from their failures when they fell down in the promised land. And we will. We will fall down. We will still sin. But God wants to purify us. He wants to cleanse us.

Sometimes we're hiding sin. Sometimes we're hanging on to sin. Sometimes we're feeding it, like King Eglon, that very fat man in Moab. We're just letting it go. But God says, "No, you've got to take the word of God and deal with it." Like a sharp two-edged sword, like an ox goad, like the nail, like the tent peg, like the milk—whatever it takes, you've got to use the word of God. It's the only way.

This takes us back to the words that God spoke to Joshua. If you want to be prosperous...

If you want to have good success in the promised land, you've got to take heed to what? The Word of God. Meditate there day and night. It's the only way to deal with these things, the only way to take care of it.

There are a whole bunch of other great stories in this passage of Judges. We read about Gideon, a man who was a coward in his own right. He was hiding from the Moabites, who came and took the land once again. He was up in the hill country, threshing wheat in a wine press. Now, that's not a really good place to thresh wheat because to thresh wheat, you need wind. A lot of times, wine presses were down in the valley portions, so it's not a good windy place. Not only that, it's just not going to work. Wine presses were made for making wine. Here he is, trying to thresh wheat in a wine press, and it isn't going to work.

God comes to him. Why was he there in the wine press? He was hiding from the Moabites because every single year, the Moabites would come up and steal the food. They would steal the fruitfulness of the land whenever the children of Israel would come to harvest time. There are things in our lives as well that steal our fruitfulness. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, and gentleness. How many of you are lacking in joy, peace, kindness, or love? If you are lacking in that fruit, it may be because the Moabites are coming and stealing it.

How do you take care of it? The angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and says to him, "Thou mighty man of valor." Here is this cowardly guy threshing wheat in a wine press, and God says, "Behold, thou mighty man of valor." Gideon turns to him and says, "What are you talking about?" The Lord says, "The Lord be with you, thou mighty man of valor." Gideon responds, "If God was with us, then we wouldn't be in this trouble." Sometimes we think that way. If God were really with us, we wouldn't be going through this.

God says, "Go in your passion, go in your might, and fight these Moabites, and I will deliver them into your hand." A lot of times, we think we've got to go at it with a huge army. Gideon gathers an army together, and he has 30,000 in his army. God says to him, "No, your army's too big." It's kind of like, "Wait, what are you talking about? We're going against a group of people that has over 125,000 soldiers. You're saying that our 30,000 is too many people?" God replies, "Yeah, if I deliver them into your hand with 30,000 people, you're going to take the glory for it. You're going to take the credit for it. I'm not going to have that."

So God says, "Tell everybody who's afraid to go home." Gideon then says, "All right, listen, guys, we're going out to battle. If any of you are afraid, you can go home." How many left? Twenty-two thousand.

22,000 went home, leaving him with 10,000. God said, "That's still too much." What are you talking about? It's still too much. I want you to test these people. Take them down to the water. Whoever gets down on their hands and knees and laps the water of the creek like a dog, set them aside to one side. Whoever gets down on one knee and brings the water up to his mouth with his hand, set them on another side.

He went down there and counted out 300 people who took the water up to their mouths with their hands. God said, "That's your army. Send the other guys home. Send the 9,700 home. Keep the 300. With this 300, I'm going to deliver the Midianites into your hands."

So, he got ready to go out against the Midianites with 300 men. There were 120,000 soldiers among the Midianites, and he had only 300. How do you defeat the Midianites who come and steal the fruitfulness? It has to be a step of faith. That's the only thing—trusting in God to do so. You can't do it in your own strength. It has to be God who does it in you.

God strengthened Gideon that night too. He was worried about the whole situation. So, God said, "All right, go down to the Midianite army. I'm going to encourage you." He went down as a spy and listened in. One of the Midianite soldiers said, "I had this strange dream."

"Oh, what was your dream?" Gideon asked.

"Well, this barley loaf came rolling down the hill and hit one of our tents, and our tent fell over."

The other soldier replied, "Oh, that's not good. That barley loaf, that's the sword of Gideon. He's going to come and destroy us."

When Gideon heard that, he said, "All right, the Lord has delivered them into our hands." He took his 300 men and they defeated the 120,000 Midianites. It was a big step of faith.

Then there was probably the most well-known judge of all, Samson. How many of you have not heard about Samson? I didn't think so. Turn to Judges chapter 13. Samson is this judge who has one of those interesting stories. He is a definite picture of the grace and power of God.

Here was this guy whom God had given phenomenal power and strength. He had called him to be a Nazirite, which meant his entire life was dedicated and vowed to the Lord by an oath. He was not to touch anything unclean or anything that was dead. He was not to come close to the fruit of the vine. He was not to eat grapes or drink.

Of the wine, whatever it was, he was completely consecrated to God. Yet, as you follow Samson's life, you see that he really walked the line, so to speak. He was one of those people who walked close to the world. In fact, when you examine his life, you find that his mother was barren; she couldn't have any children. However, the angel of the Lord appeared to them, and I believe that this is Jesus who appears to them in the Old Testament. When they asked him, "What's your name?" he responded, "Why do you ask me my name, knowing that it is wonderful?" When he departed from them, they were afraid they were going to die because they had seen God.

Jesus appeared to them and said, "You're going to have a child. You're going to name him Samson. He will be a Nazirite, completely consecrated to God, and he will begin to defeat the Philistines, that great enemy of the children of Israel, probably the longest-running enemy of the children of Israel."

We all have that sin in our lives, that one thing. When I say, "What sin do you struggle with?" you don't have to tell me what it is, but you know there's something that pops up. It's that one thing that maybe you have struggled with for years. That same thing. Maybe it's unbelief, maybe it's pride; who knows what it may be? But that's the Philistines in our lives. God says, "I'm going to begin to deliver the children of Israel from the Philistines by the hand of Samson."

However, Samson's life is a really sad situation. When you look at it, it's almost irritating to watch. As he becomes a young man in Israel, he is to be consecrated to God. In Judges chapter 14, it says that he goes down to one of the Philistine cities and sees a pretty Philistine girl. He says, "That's the one I want to be my wife." So he goes home and tells his dad, "Get her for me to be my wife." In fact, he says that exact thing in Judges chapter 14, verse 2: "Get her for me to wife."

His dad responds, "Listen, Samson, aren't there some nice pretty girls in Israel? Why do you have to go down to the Philistines? You're not supposed to be down there." But Samson insists, "Nope, she looks good to me; I want her. Go get her as my wife." He was walking close to the world.

It goes on to say in verse 5, "Then Samson went down, and his father and his mother to Timnath." That was one of the Philistine cities. He came to the vineyards. Now remember, he is a Nazirite; he is not to be anywhere near the fruit of the vine. He is not to be near the vineyards. Yet, he goes to the vineyards of Timnath, and behold, a young lion roared against him.

We see here that when you're walking close to the world, we need to understand that there is a lion who is seeking to devour you.

Satan is right there looking for you. If you're going to places you shouldn't be going, like Samson was, the lion will be there. He was walking where he ought not to be. Amazingly, in the middle of that, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he tore the lion to pieces with his bare hands. God had given him great strength to be able to do this, but he was walking where he should not have been.

At the end of verse 6, it says that he did not tell his father and mother what he had done. He was walking where he shouldn't have been, and he was not accountable. This is one of the things to consider when dealing with the things of this world. If you're walking where you should not be, then the lion is going to come against you. If you're not accountable, you're going to have great problems. He didn't tell his parents what he was up to.

In verse 7, it says that he went down and talked with a woman, and she pleased Samson. Then, in verse 8, it says that after a time, he returned to take her and turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. He was a Nazirite, and he was not to touch anything unclean. Anything that was dead was considered unclean. Now, he turns aside to see that which was dead, that which was unclean.

Behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. What did he do? He took some with his hands and went on eating. He tasted and touched that which was unclean, forbidden for him. He took honey right out of the carcass of the lion, where some bees had made a hive, and then he gave that honey to his father and mother at the end of verse 9. But notice what it says: he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of a lion. Again, he was not accountable. He was walking where he shouldn't be, eating and touching that which was unclean, and he continued in his unaccountability.

Samson was quickly seduced by things and easily enticed. He didn't end up marrying this girl. Sometimes, I think of Samson like Muhammad Ali because he really liked riddles. Think of the words of Muhammad Ali; he always had a riddle, didn't he? "Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee," those little sayings he liked to share.

There was a story years ago, and I don't know if it's true, but Muhammad Ali got on an airplane and wouldn't buckle his seatbelt. The flight attendant came over and said, "Mr. Ali, you need to buckle your seatbelt." He replied, "Superman don't need no seatbelt." She said, "Well, Superman doesn't need any wings either."

He thought he was so tough. "I don't need no seatbelt." She said, "Well, yeah, you need to put it on." But that was the mindset. That was the way that Samson was as well. He liked to give these little riddles. He was so arrogant and proud. Because of that, he would be easily enticed. This woman came into his life by the name of Delilah, and she wanted to know where his strength came from.

She came to him and said, "If you love me, you'll tell me where your strength comes from." He replied, "Well, if they bind me with new ropes, I won't be strong anymore." So they bound him with new ropes, and she said, "The Philistines are upon you! The Philistines are upon you!" He jumped up, broke the ropes, and defeated the Philistines.

Then she came to him again and said, "Oh, you mock me. You won't tell me where your strength comes from." He responded, "If you bind me with the strings of bows, brand new bows, then I won't be strong anymore." So she bound him up and called, "The Philistines are upon you!" He jumped up, broke free, and defeated the Philistines again. You'd think by that time he would realize he probably shouldn't tell her anymore.

But then she came to him again and said, "Oh, you mocked me a second time. Tell me, if you love me, where does your strength come from?" He stepped closer to the truth and said, "If you weave my hair into the loom, then I won't be strong anymore." So she sat down, wove his hair into the loom while he was asleep, and then said, "The Philistines are upon you! The Philistines are upon you!" He jumped up and went out as he did before, defeating the Philistines once more.

However, the last time she came to him, she said, "You've mocked me three times. If you really love me, you'll tell me." He finally revealed, "Well, I'm a Nazarite. If you cut off my hair, I won't have any strength anymore." She lulled him to sleep, cut off his hair, and called the Philistines in, saying, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you! The Philistines are upon you!"

In Judges, I believe chapter 16, he stood up and thought, "I will go out as I have before." But the verse states, "He did not know that the Lord had departed from him." The Philistines took him, and the first thing they did was put out his eyes.

I want you to notice three things about sin. If you play around with it, if you walk close to the world, it will blind you just as they blinded Samson. After they had blinded him, they brought him down to Gaza in the Philistine cities and bound him with fetters of brass. Sin will blind you, and it will bind you. They bound him with these bronze handcuffs, and then they hooked him up to a mill. It says he did grind in the prison house. Sin will bind you; it will blind you.

It will grind you if you let it stick around. We see that in the life of Samson, and yet we also see the grace of the Lord. In verse 22 of Judges chapter 16, it says, "Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven." Sadly, the end of Samson's life comes when the people of the Philistines bring him into the temple of their god Dagon. They want to make sport of him and joke around with him. All the lords of the Philistines are there, and three thousand men and women are gathered to watch Samson, this blind man who, once upon a time, was so strong.

He cries out to the Lord in verse 28, saying, "O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may at once avenge the Philistines for my two eyes." Samson then says, "Let me die with the Philistines" (verse 30). He bowed himself with all his might, and the house of the Philistines fell upon them, killing all the people present. In fact, it says that the dead he slew at his death were more than he slew in his life.

However, his life was a wasted life, a life that could have been so great for the Lord. Yet, he walked close to the things of this world. There are many Christians who live that life. God has given them such great salvation and so many wonderful gifts and fruits in their lives, yet they are content to mess around with the things of this world. God may use them, but it may only be at the end of their lives.

God had so many great things for Samson that he could have accomplished, but he walked where he shouldn't have. He was not accountable and touched those things that God had forbidden him to go near. Because of that, he ended up blind, bound, and grinding flour for the Philistines in that area. Ultimately, the Lord did use his life, but not as He could have.

This brings us to the last portion of the book of Judges, which deals with the depravity of Israel. In the first portion, chapters one through three, we see them falling apart. The next chapters, up to the end of chapter 16, deal with their deliverance. However, the last few chapters, from chapter 17 through chapter 21, focus on the nation in their depravity. This section is not written in chronological order. In fact, if you study the book of Judges in depth, you will see that these events are listed in a non-chronological manner.

In these last several chapters, 17 through 21, we see various issues that arose during this period of time. One significant aspect is personal idolatry, which is evident in Judges chapter 17. In this chapter, a man named Micah built himself a little house of gods and appointed his own Levite to serve as a priest for him. This illustrates personal idolatry.

In Judges chapter 18, the tribe of Dan came and took Micah's gods, leading to an entire tribe filled with idolatry. They exhibited tribal idolatry. The tribe of Dan was the northernmost tribe in the land of Israel and was the first to depart from the worship of the one true God, choosing instead to bow down to false gods. Today, if you visit the ruins of the city of Dan on a trip to Israel, you will see that one of the main remnants is the great altar they set up for the golden calf. This area was known for golden calf worship. The tribe of Dan departed from the Lord, and the entire tribe succumbed to idolatry. Thus, we see both personal idolatry and tribal idolatry.

In chapter 19, we witness the failure of the people through personal immorality. A Levite, who is not named but is from Bethlehem, Judah, went out and took a harlot. This act of personal immorality had dire consequences, as it spread from one individual to the entire tribe of Benjamin. As a result, the entire tribe was annihilated by their own brothers, leading to a civil war among the children of Israel.

In these last chapters, from 17 to 21, we observe failure through personal idolatry, which led to the idolatry of an entire tribe. We also see failure through personal immorality, which resulted in the immorality of the entire tribe of Benjamin. This culminated in civil war within the nation, with the tribes fighting against each other.

This pattern of conflict is a recurring theme throughout the rest of Israel's history, characterized by constant bickering and fighting between the tribes. Similarly, we can observe this infighting within the church, where Christians and denominations often engage in disputes. Such behavior does not glorify the Lord, and it is something we need to depart from. The only way to achieve deliverance from this cycle is through a commitment to unity and faithfulness to God.

The deliverance of Israel is a significant theme in the middle section of this book. However, I want you to notice in this last section how personal idolatry leads to corporate idolatry. Remember what Paul said: a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Personal immorality leads to the immorality of the entire tribe, and ultimately, these issues lead to civil war and unrest among the nation.

This book may be the saddest book of the Old Testament regarding Israel's history because it highlights the failures of the people constantly turning away from God. There are some remarkable portions of the book when they are delivered by the judges that God raises up. Many times, you read that the Spirit of the Lord God came upon a judge, granting him great strength or power to deliver the people. Yet, amidst these events, we see horrendous failures.

There is, however, an encouragement in this book: we too fail. We fail, but God is able to give us a deliverer. He can deliver us from our failures, but what do we first need to do? We must cry out to the Lord God. If we cry out to Him, He will deliver us. He will come with strength and power. God has allowed certain things to remain in our lives. Yes, He has the power to remove those things completely. If He has the power to raise the dead and grant us newness of life, then He can remove these obstacles from our lives.

There is coming a day when mortality shall put on immortality. There is coming a day when this corruption shall put on incorruption, and we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. We will be with the Lord and be as He is. But here on earth, God has allowed us to continue battling the things of this flesh. Why? So that it would prove us, try us, and test us, driving us to Him. When we come to Him, we find the deliverance that we need. Amen?

Let's stand and pray. Amen. Lord, in this book, we read that there was no king in Israel, yet their name, Israel, means "governed by God." You have called us to be governed by You, to have You as our King. I pray that everyone in this room would recognize You as the Lord, the Master, and the King of our lives tonight, and that we would yield to You.

And submit to Your word and the way You desire us to live and to walk, Lord. You have given us all that we need for life and godliness.

I ask that You would help us to take up the armor that You've given to us, so we can stand against the wiles of the devil and stand strong. Help us to follow hard after You to experience victory daily in our lives and in the rest that You desire us to have.

But Lord, when we do fall, when we do trip up, I pray that we would take note of the deliverers in the Book of Judges. May we too take up Your word like a hammer, like a goad, Lord, like that two-edged sword, and use it against the enemy that comes against us.

For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.