The Deliverers

Intro

I have entitled this series broken people faithful God Not very often have I heard a sermon series on the book of Judges. Often we hear stories about famous judges like Gideon and Samson but rarely do we see a series on the book of Judges. And sometimes I see why. There is a group of people writing a comic series on the bible called the word for word Bible comic. Their age rating for the one on Judges is 15+

Something I think that we struggle with is the idea of unconditional love. As parents we may know what this is like in a sense. We love our kids, no matter the decisions that they make. We may not like all the decisions they make but we love them none the less and point them to Jesus.

God loves in this way as well. God says I am never breaking my covenant with you but the problem is that we often break our covenant with God. so here's the question will God unconditionally love the people even though they disobeyed him or will he punish them and disavow them and destroy them and disavow them is there a covenant God made with his people 1 of unconditional love or conditioned on their obedience.

This is a tough question to face, and what we are going to learn as we go through this series is that we are a broken people who falls prey to sin. Yet at the same time God is gracious and faithful to forgive all who call on His name. We may be a broken people but we serve a faithful God.

History

The book of Judges comes after the conquest of the nations, that is to say after Israel had moved into the promise land and they had taken it up as their land and they had developed the society. The problem is they didn't completely obey the will of God and kept some fo the people there.

See here. The thing that is driven a biblical story line is the promise to Abraham. That his descendants would become a great nation, they would own the land and therefore become an actual society, and they would be a witness to the nations by the way in which they. Been witness to the glory of God by the way in which they lived in the land. Up until the end of the book of Joshua looks great.

We have God's building his promise. He brings them out of Egypt. He grows him into a great nation in Egypt, He brings them out of Egypt, and Exodus gives him the law that they have to obey, and a Tabernacle with sacrifices or forgiveness when they disobeyed. He brings them through the wilderness. An entire generation dies off because they're unwilling to go into the promised land and take it. But the second generation goes him. They're given a final statement from Moses about how to live there.

Joshua leads them in pretty successfully. It looks like, hey, we did it. The promises have been fulfilled. The salvation is around the corner. The world is going to see who God is, and the whole world is going to turn to God because of the way in which Israel lives in the land. The book of Judges starts a whole new series in the storyline of the Bible. The children of Israel are not going to live the way that they should in the land. They're not actually going to be witness of the nations that they should be.

They were supposed to build a God honoring society. Yet they continued a cycle. Of obedience to disobedience, to judgment, to repentance. To obedience again, and it kept getting worse and worse. Delivery after that they go into an even deeper decline, and this happens for all series of judges. The judges start out good, but as it goes on they get worse. Author of Book of Judges. It becomes very clear that something else is going to have to happen. Or there's going to be complete failure. Judges chapter 17 and chapter 21 tell us there is no king in those days and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. People are not following the law of God.

Judges 2:1-2

Judges 2:1–2 CSB

1 The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land I had promised to your ancestors. I also said: I will never break my covenant with you. 2 You are not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You are to tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed me. What have you done?

Then he says, why have you done this now? I will not grab the people up before you and it will become snares for you. God says I'm never going to break my covenant with you, but you're breaking your covenant with me.

So here's the question. Will God unconditionally loved to people even though they disobeyed him? Or will he punished them and disavow them and destroy them.

Is the covenant 1 of unconditional love, or is it 1 of obedience? The Book of Judges doesn't completely resolve that question, you see it is not resolved until the NT. It's very easy to say God basically just loves us. Some people stay Unless you obey, God's going to destroy you. But the Book of Judges does not take either of those stances. The rest of the Old Testament leaves us in a love Tension. is a covenant conditional meaning you have to obey, or is it unconditional, meaning Gods is going to love it anyway? And that answer is never given until we get to the cross. We actually see that Jesus Christ obeyed God, fulfilled the covenant perfectly so that God would love us unconditionally. So it starts right here and judges. Begins a new chapter in this.

We are going to see through the book of Judges that God relentlessly offers His grace to people who do not deserve it, who do not seek it and never appreciate it, even after they've been saved by it. Or you see that again and again in the book of Judges. This issue. Will be resolved. At the cross. In the New Testament. It points to the fact that they need a king to help them. But even the Kings fail. It all points to Jesus being the ultimate king. Jesus is the true Judge, the true King. Jesus is our only hope.

Keep these things in mind as we get into the book of Judges. BJ went through the first few chapters covering some of this same stuff I have just mentioned. How though we all seem to at some point in our lives do what is right in our own eyes, yet God will not forget His promises to us. We are a broken people but Gd is faitfhul.

Othniel

We move into chapter 3 and the first Judge. We set the stage with a little of what was going on

Nations where left to test Israel, though they were there because the Israelite's disobeyed to begin with.

Judges 3:1 CSB

1 These are the nations the Lord left in order to test all those in Israel who had experienced none of the wars in Canaan.

Because the Israelite's disobeyed the Lord, He would use the nations they left to determine who was following the Laws passed down by Moses. We may think that it is a little unnecessary for God to have done this, but God was using the Israelite's as a tool of His judgement on the nations. And the Israelite's had disobeyed God, disobeyed his law and now they where going to pay the price for what they had done.

Judges 3:4 CSB

4 The Lord left them to test Israel, to determine if they would keep the Lord’s commands he had given their ancestors through Moses.

Judges 3:6 CSB

6 The Israelites took their daughters as wives for themselves, gave their own daughters to their sons, and worshiped their gods.

This is no surprise then when we hear that Israel started to do evil in the site of the Lord. Judges 3:7

Judges 3:7 CSB

7 The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight; they forgot the Lord their God and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs.

This is going to be a common theme that we are going to see run throughout the book. One that will not be completely resolved until the coming of Jesus. It starts an endless cycle that people have labelled the sin cycle.

a cycle that we may be all to familiar with called the sin cycle. (bring bicycle on stage or washing machine. if you use a bicycle get someone to ride it up on stage).

First we see that the Israelite's did what was evil in the site of the Lord. so the Lord would send them into the hands of their enemies for their sin.

You know it was not as if they where not warned. They where warned from the beginning that there sin was going to have consequences. Just look into the book of Exodus. They had just lost a generation wandering the desert because of their sin. We struggle with this too though. We sometimes forget what the Lord has done for us, maybe we get a little bit lazy or apathetic. Maybe we are complacent and then God has to get our attention. God’s getting our attention though looks a little different now though.

They would do this until they started to cry out for help. and repent for what they had done. sometimes it was just to get out of their sin, sometimes because of what had happened they would cry out in true repentance for their sin. Sometimes it takes God trying to get our attention to turn our lives around. Maybe we are caught by a loved one in our sin and therefore we turn our lives around to God.

“The Lord Raised Up a Deliverer”

Because the Israelite's where so willing to serve other gods instead of Him they where going to spend a while serving an evil king as punishment for their sin. but due to their confession of their sin to the Lord, or at least feeling bad because they had to serve an evil king the Lord raised up for them a deliverer.

Judges 3:9 CSB

9 The Israelites cried out to the Lord. So the Lord raised up Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s youngest brother, as a deliverer to save the Israelites.

“The Spirit of the Lord was Upon Him”

The deliverer was Othniel, the first judge, who was the younger brother of Caleb. You remember Caleb? remember the song 12 men went to spy on Canaan, 10 where bad and two where good? Caleb was 1 of the 2 good ones. He must have grown up with a good example to withstand all that was going on at the time and yet remaining true to God.

Judges 3:10 CSB

10 The Spirit of the Lord came on him, and he judged Israel. Othniel went out to battle, and the Lord handed over King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram to him, so that Othniel overpowered him.

Though the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, this does not always mean that they where regenerated by the HS. Those are two different things. The Spirit empowerd Him to do some amazing things.

One thing that this does remind us though as we go through the book of Judges is that the story is not about us but about God at work in us. What this tells us about God and His relationship with His people is that it is about God at work through us not our power and what we can do. This story is about the power and Glory of the Lord God and His work delivering a broken people.

“The Lord Gave the King into His Hand.”

The Lord gave the king into the hands of Othniel.

Judges 3:11 CSB

11 Then the land had peace for forty years, and Othniel son of Kenaz died.

The people had peace essentially for a generation, long enough for them to start to forget what the Lord had done for them. Asd we see in the next verse that Israel started again to do evil in the sight of the Lord.

So What?

what we are going to learn as we go through this series is that we are a broken people who falls prey to sin. Yet at the same time God is gracious and faithful to forgive all who call on His name. We may be a broken people but we serve a faithful God.

This shows us thaT THOUGH WE ARE PRONE TO WANDER THE lORD IS gRACIOUS TO FORGIVE OUR INEPTITUDE. We sometimes fail to keep following the word of God. We fall to sin and serve the God’s around us.

Jesus is our deliverer

Is the covenant one of unconditional love, or is it 1 of obedience? The Book of Judges doesn't completely resolve that question. You see what we are going to find is this all points to Jesus, he fulfills the tension between God’s Love and His Law is not fulfilled in the book of Judges. The people fail, they have no king we are told, because they are supposed to look to God as their king.

But even then the judges as we are going to see start to drift farther and farther away from God. they get worse and worse. They need a better deliverer. God does want a relationship with His people, we must understand this. And He has given us a way to have a relationship with Him. Jesus is our deliverer, when we start to go through the cycle of sin that never seems to end we need to turn to the Lord as our deliverer from our sin.

What I want you guys to know is that though you may fall to the temptation of sin, the Lord is gracious to forgive when we call on His name. Though we must not use grace as an excuse to keep on sinning. Your greatest need is to not be delivered from sickness and pain but to be delivered from your sin.

Othniel, in his role as judge, deliverer and savior, is a picture of Christ. The Spirit of the Lord was upon both. When Jesus came into the world, the Spirit of the Lord empowered him to preach the gospel, perform signs, and willingly suffer and die on the cross for our sake. Though a sinful man, Othniel did not have any negative aspects in this story. But Jesus, though tempted like all of us, did not sin. Othniel was in the midst of a corrupt and wicked people, but he refused to participate in their wickedness. Jesus also was in the midst of an evil and adulterous generation. He glorified only his Father in heaven, not himself, not anyone else. While Othniel delivered God’s people from foreign oppressors, Jesus delivered us from slavery to sin and Satan the oppressor. Othniel was called a “savior” of Israel, while Jesus is “the Savior of the world,” saving his people from all their sins.

God is the one at work in us

God is the sovereign creator that enables us to follow His will. God delivers his people from hopeless situations in surprising ways. we need to remember that it is God who is at work, God who is in control. We are not the hero of the story, God is. the human condition appears to be a lack of courage or a despair when circumstances seem to be hopeless. So, the exhortation for believers is not to give up on the mission God has given us when we face discouraging, hopeless situations. Look to God, He is the one at work in us, He is the one who enables us, He is the hero of the story.