Flyover Judges

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Sterling)

Good morning family!

Ask guests to fill out connect card

3 announcements:

1) Happy Father’s Day!!!

Mention the photo booth behind the partition

2) Men’s Gather Breakfast

June 22 at ____

Men, please talk to Sam Hamontree to sign up (ask Sam to raise his hand!)

3) Sunday Night Gathering

June 30 at 6 PM

Adventure Kids for children ages _____

Adults will be hearing an update about the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Hab 3, Ps. 126 (p 33))

Prayer of Praise (Tasha Tollison)

Great Things

All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name

Prayer of Confession (Ben Kavanay), Unbelief

Assurance of Pardon (Psalm 106:1)

Steadfast Love

My Jesus I Love Thee

Scripture Reading (Judges 12:7-15)

You can find it on page 251 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Sterling)

Prayer for PBC—PBC dads, dads-to-be, spiritual dads

Prayer for sister church—Mike & Linda Montgomery (Cru)

Prayer for US—Against fatherlessness

Prayer for the world—Serbia

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

Perhaps you’ve heard of the term “flyover country.” It’s a somewhat derogatory term referring to the vast majority of our country that is passed over during transcontinental flights from one end of our country to the other.

SHOW FLYOVER COUNTRY IMAGE

This region—sometimes called Middle America, Jesusland, or the Heartland—is often ignored by cultural elites, unless there’s some big cultural event like the Super Bowl or the Kentucky Derby.

Or even the Southern Baptist Convention, which was held in Indianapolis, Indiana last week, and was the topic of a whole lot of media conversation. We’ll update you on some of those things in a few weeks.

Bit if you’re one of the millions of Americans who grew up in or currently live in flyover country, you might be a bit offended by the term. After all, if the United States of America is important, than all of the United States are important. Regardless of what the cultural elites may think.

And yet, if we’re honest, many of us do something very similar when it comes to the Scriptures.

Oh we may not say it out loud, but there are passages that we might treat as “flyover Scriptures.”

We may pass over these passages from time to time, but we certainly wouldn’t want to land there. Certainly not for any extended length of time.

Most of us would include any of the Bible’s many genealogies in our list of “flyover Scriptures.” Along with the entire book of Leviticus, the Minor Prophets, any passages with lots of measurements, and our text today in...

Judges 12:7-15. Go ahead and turn there now if you’re not already there.

For our guests this morning, this may seem like a very strange sermon text, and it is. But we have a practice at Poquoson Baptist Church of studying books of the Bible together. Rather than picking ourselves what topics or texts to study, we try to let the Bible itself set the agenda, as we study books of the Bible one verse at a time.

We’ve been studying the book of Judges for three months.

If, like me, you’ve fallen in love with the book of Judges it might have something to do with its surprising heroes, its dastardly villains, its glorious action scenes, or maybe even its gritty violence.

But what do you do when you come across a passage that has none of those things?

Even some churches committed to faithfully preaching verse-by-verse through books of the Bible don’t know what to do with today’s passage.

In my preparation for today’s sermon, I came across multiple churches that skipped this passage entirely.

It seems Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon are nothing but a handful of flyover judges.

But something about that doesn’t sit quite right with me.

Because If all Scripture is inspired than all Scripture is important.

That’s the Big idea I hope you’ll leave with here today.

With God’s help, I want us to explore Four Lessons from a Handful of Flyover Heroes:

First, we’ll consider the selectivity of Scripture.

Second, we’ll examine the mystery of providence.

Then, we’ll observe the mortality of men.

Finally, we’ll notice the necessity of rest.

Consider with me first...

1) The SELECTIVITY of Scripture

Consider the passage Pastor Sterling just read a moment ago. It’s left us with so many questions.

How did Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon become judges?

Who did they fight?

What happened in those battles?

What moments of intrigue were a part of their stories?

What were their great moments of faith? What were their failures?

By omitting those details, the Bible isn’t saying none of those things happened.

It’s not telling us these men were unimportant. They were important enough to be included in this list!

Why then do we have such little information?

I love the way Dale Davis answers this question...

“By telling us so little about Ibzan (and Elon and Abdon) the Bible tells us a lot about the Bible. It tells us that its purpose is not to tell us about every Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. The Bible is saying that its focus is not on man’s life but on God’s action. The Bible is theocentric. [which means God-centered] That does not mean that man does not count but that man is not the center.” [1]

Davis is telling us the Bible gives us all the information we need, but not necessarily all the information that we want.

Even more importantly, Davis is reminding us that the Bible isn’t about us!

There’s a popular approach to Bible interpretation that regularly tries to insert the self into the stories of Scripture.

So for example...

When telling the story of David and Goliath, someone might ask, “Who are the giants in your life that you need to fight?”

Or when telling the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “What fiery furnace are you going through?”

Or when telling the story of the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, “What are the storms in your life?”

There can be some value in asking these questions, but the problem is we often don’t get any further than that.

We’ve forgotten that the Bible is not about us!

These stories are not primarily given so you can place yourself in the story. These stories are given so you will look to the God who is the Rescuer in the story!

Real practically:

When reading the Bible your job is not first to find YOU in the text, but to find GOD in the text!

Ask: what does this teach me about God’s holiness? About His grace? About His judgment?

That doesn’t mean there’s nothing for us to do in response to the text, but we must behold before we behave!

The only fuel that will help you to live the way you should live is by beholding the glory of God!!!

These flyover judges are important, because they teach us about the selectivity of Scripture.

But they also teach us about...

2) The MYSTERY of Providence

Before I show you how our text illustrates the mystery of providence, let’s establish what the word “providence” means.

Over 300 years ago, our Baptist predecessors wrote a statement of faith that describes providence this way:

God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, to the end for the which they were created, according unto His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will; to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy. (1689 Baptist Confession of Faith)

In other words, “God has authority over everything and He does whatever He wants!”

Think of the story of Jonah: God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. God has planned to rescue the people of Nineveh when they repent. And God has planned to use Jonah to be the one who calls them to repentance.

But Jonah says NO! He gets a ticket on a ship going the opposite direction.

Who will win, God or Jonah?

God uses the wind and waves, the sailors, and a great fish to get Jonah to Nineveh.

A bit later in the story, God also demonstrates His control over heat, worms, plants, and even the human heart.

“God has authority over everything and He does whatever He wants!”

This truth is clearly taught all over the Bible, but just consider two Scriptures...

Psalm 115:3—Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.

Ephesians 1:11—In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

This providence is a mystery because in this life we often don’t understand WHY God does the things that He does.

Why did Steve Collins suffer for over a decade while others enjoy relatively great health well into their nineties?

Why are some families blessed with many children while others are unable to conceive?

Why are some people blessed with a host of natural gifts, while others seem to struggle in almost every area?

The answers are a often a mystery to us.

And we see a similar mystery in our text...

Judges 12:8–9—After [Jephthah] Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.

Now at first glance, there doesn’t appear to be anything noteworthy in these verses.

Other than the fact that this Ibzan guy was really prolific.

We were talking about this passage last night in family worship and one of our kids commented that it would’ve been really hard for Ibzan to take a picture with all of his kids.

One of my favorite comedians was describing what it’s like to have four kids. He said, “Just imagine you’re drowning… and then someone hands you a baby.”

Can you imagine raising sixty children?

What can sixty children teach us about providence?

Notice the text says he had thirty sons and thirty daughters.

That’s significant.

Typically the Bible doesn’t record a lot of information about a man’s daughters. Not because girls weren’t important, but because the family line was passed through the sons.

Why mention Ibzan’s thirty daughters?

I believe it’s to draw a contrast between the previous judge, Jephthah, who had only one child. A daughter. And the child he had, he lost.

Matthew Henry—What a difference was there between Ibzan’s family and that of his immediate predecessor Jephthah! Ibzan has sixty children and all married, Jephthah but one, a daughter, that dies or lives unmarried. Some are increased, others are diminished: both are the Lord’s doing. [3]

Some might respond, “Ibzan must have been a righteous man to have sixty daughters! The Lord is blessing him beyond measure, unlike the foolish, wicked man Jephthah.”

Not so fast.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the record number of children born to one mother is 69. But that happened through four sets of quadruplets, seven sets of triplets, and sixteen sets of twins. Needless to say, most ladies aren’t that prolific. [4]

While it’s possible Ibzan had a very prolific wife, what’s far more likely is that Ibzan was a polygamist.

So the point is not, “Be good and be blessed, like Ibzan.” Because Ibzan probably had sixty children through a lot of sexual sin.

The point is, God is sovereign, and He does whatever He pleases.

This does not mean our decisions don’t matter. But it does mean our decisions aren’t ultimate. God’s sovereign rule over all things is what’s ultimately decisive.

Our job is to trust Him. To truly believe whatever He ordains is right, even when we can’t understand what He is doing!

Here’s what this looks like practically...

At Steve’s funeral on Thursday I was talking with one of our members, Bobby Watkins.

He had been waiting on some important test results from the doctor, and that day he found out that everything was fine.

As we were talking about it after the service, Bobby told me: “God would’ve been just as good if the results were bad. And He’s not any better because the results are good. But I sure am thankful.”

If you really trust in God’s providence, you can rejoice no matter what He ordains in your life.

He is not MORE good when good things happen, or LESS good when bad things happen. He is ALWAYS good!

These flyover judges are important, because they teach us about the mystery of providence.

But they also teach us about...

3) The MORTALITY of Men

This lesson is pretty obvious, as long as you pay attention...

Judges 12:7—Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.

Judges 12:10—Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.

Judges 12:12—Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

Judges 12:15—Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

A 19th century commentator named George Bush (not a former president) wrote this:

Death, the lot of man, at last claims his due of the great and the good, and whatever else we may hear of any man, we are sure to hear one thing—that he died: unless indeed our departure hence anticipates his. [5]

These flyover judges remind us that, sooner or later, death will come for us all.

If you were with us in 2020, you may remember the story I told you about a man named Louis Zamperini.

His story is told in a book titled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.

Few people have survived more near-death experiences than Zamperini.

He survived months of flight training on a B-24 bomber (nicknamed “the flying coffin”) when thousands of others did not.

He survived bombing missions under heavy fire when others did not.

He survived one particular incident that left nearly 600 bullet holes in the fuselage of his B-24.

He survived a mechanical failure on his aircraft which caused his plane to crash into the Pacific Ocean.

He survived the crash.

He survived on a small inflatable raft, despite being baked by the sun and tossed by storms.

He survived for 47 days on that raft, despite having nothing to drink but rainwater and nothing to eat but the fish and birds he caught with his hands and ate raw.

He survived the swarms of sharks that followed his raft and often tried to pull him in.

He survived the bullets of a Japanese plane that he had hoped would be his rescuer.

He survived longer on that raft than anyone else had survived adrift at sea. When he finally reached land he was captured immediately.

And yet he survived two years as a prisoner of war, suffering forced labor, starvation, disease, and torture. More than one in three fellow POWs died, but he survived.

But despite surviving bombings, plane crashes, shark attacks, disease, starvation, dehydration, imprisonment, torture, and more, eventually there would come a challenge that Louis Zamperini could not survive.

On July 2, 2014, Zamperini did not survive his battle against pneumonia. After 97 years of survival, Zamperini finally lost the war against death and opened his eyes in the presence of his Maker.

In his book Remember Death, Matthew McCullough says “At one level, calling Zamperini’s or anyone else’s story a survival story is like describing a fall from a thirty-story building a survival story because it ends before the subject hits the ground.” [6]

That’s sobering, isn’t it?

One of the lessons the book of Judges—indeed the entire Bible—is trying to teach us is that all of us are mortal. None of these bodies survive in the end.

Unbeliever: are you ready to meet your Judge? You can be!

One of the reasons the book of Judges repeatedly tells us about these heroes dying is to highlight the reality that NONE of them are able to defeat our ultimate enemy.

But there was a rescuer who did.

EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL (highlight the fact that Jesus DEFEATED DEATH!!)

Christians: you are free from the need to accomplish everything in this life.

Your bucket list doesn’t have to end when you kick the bucket!

You can visit the Grand Canyon and see the Northern Lights in a world without sin!

You don’t have to perfect that hobby in this life, you can enjoy it for eternity, and without the fear of man or pride.

You can spend the next ten trillion years learning about that topic that fascinates you.

Not everything ends when this life ends!

You will be better able to enjoy the things of this life if you hold onto it with a looser grip! Fight to remember this life is not all there is!!!

These flyover judges are important, because they teach us about the mortality of men.

But they also teach us about...

4) The NECESSITY of Rest

We learn this lesson by contrasting something in this passage with the rest of the book of Judges.

First, notice the pattern in our text...

Judges 12:7—Jephthah judged Israel six years....

Judges 12:9b—… [Ibzan] judged Israel seven years.

Judges 12:11b—. . . [Elon] judged Israel ten years.

Judges 12:14b—. . . [Abdon] judged Israel eight years.

Again, this doesn’t seem very special, does it? But compare this with a few similar sentences earlier on in the book of Judges...

In the days of Othniel...

Judges 3:11—So the land had rest forty years....

After Ehud killed Eglon...

Judges 3:30—… the land had rest for eighty years.

After Jael killed Sisera...

Judges 5:31b—. . . the land had rest for forty years.

After Gideon defeated the Midianites...

Judges 8:28—… the land had rest forty years…

What’s the difference between these earlier accounts and the pattern in Judges 12?

THERE’S NO REST!

In fact, after Gideon’s death, there is no longer any mention of rest for the people of God.

This is another reminder that the book of Judges is not a cycle so much as it’s a spiral, things are getting progressively worse.

That’s what happens in a world where everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

I wonder if you can relate to the people of God in Judges 12?

Do you feel like you’re on a treadmill, always running but never getting anywhere?

Do you feel like you need to rest?

Are you anxious, restless, always grasping for something new or something else?

This is not a new problem, loved ones.

Sure, the digital age may make us more frantic and restless, but restlessness has existed in the human heart long before Instagram, Netflix, and smart phones.

Over 1600 years ago, a pastor named Augustine wrote this prayer:

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” [7]

The rest we need will not be found by answering all our questions about Scripture.

Our job is to trust that God has given us what we need so that we might know Him!

The rest we need will not be found by trying to unravel the mystery of God’s providence.

Our job is to trust that He does whatever He pleases, and whatever He pleases is always good.

The rest we need will not be found by postponing death, as if we could if we wanted to.

Our job is to trust that God knows the number of our days, and that those who belong to Him will live forever.

The rest we need will only be found by looking to Jesus.

The waters of baptism are a beautiful picture of this, for those who have eyes to see.

Those coming for baptism today didn’t work their way here.

They didn’t pay a fee to be eligible for baptism.

They didn’t help setup the baptismal, and we didn’t ask them to help cleanup.

Once they enter the waters, they don’t have anything to do.

Their job isn’t to do anything, but to allow something to be done to them.

Receiving baptism is a passive thing. It’s not about working for anything, it’s about receiving. It’s about resting in something that has already been done.

It’s a picture of something that has already been done, so long ago that there’s nothing you or anyone else can add to it or take away from it.

EXPLAIN BAPTISM

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Nothing But the Blood of Jesus

Celebration of Baptism

Prayer for Ray Gunter (Sterling)

Benediction (Ps 67 (p 154))