Judges 3:7-11

Introduction:

**My daughter Ocean, who’s 4 months old, gets distracted super easily

-she’s always wanting to crane her neck and look around around

-this makes things difficult if my wife goes somewhere for the evening and wants me to feed her a bottle

-I’ll warm the bottle up, put Ocean in her bouncer, and then try to feed the bottle to Ocean

-But the problem is that everything else is just so interesting, that she’s looking all around and getting distracted by everything else and isn’t paying attention to the job at hand: eating

-This can be a little problematic, and sometimes, the best solution is to be in a dark room where she can’t see much so she’s not easily distracted

-in that situation, her environment is pretty boring, but it serves the purpose of helping her focus on the most important thing: the bottle**

-In our passage today, we’re covering the first of the major 6 judges: Othniel

-However, we receive very little information about Othniel

-Honestly, he comes across as a little boring

-But I think that’s actually the purpose the that’s intended here

-Because by giving us little information about Othniel, it helps serve the purpose of focusing on the most important thing in the text: God and His gracious act of saving His sinful people

-And so my hope this evening is that you’ll focus solely and whole-heartedly on God and His character and His actions this evening, since I think that’s the intention of the Author

We’re going to read Judges 3:7-11 and then pray, but let me catch us up to speed

-the Israelites have made it to the Promised Land and have conquered a lot of it under Joshua

-Joshua dies, the the responsibility of the Israelites is to finish the job of conquering the remaining people

-However, the Israelites fail to do this. They allow the Canaanites to live among them

-Because of this, God says He will no longer drive these peoples out, and they will be a snare to Israel

-Then, the author of Judges describes the Judges spiral for us, which is the pattern of Israel sinning against God, being conquered by a foreign power, and then God raising up a rescuer to deliver them and give them peace

-then it starts over again

-This is why we’ve said that the theme of this book is “God’s compassionat rescue of ruined sinners”

And tonight, we’ll see how this plays out for the first time

**read text and pray**

Tonight, we’ll be following a pretty simple outline

-Sometimes people wonder ask preachers how you know if you’re really getting the text right

-The answer is simple: if you’re sermon points all begin with the same letter, then you can be confident that you’re preaching the text right

-So I’ve got 4 words that describe what’s going on in our text this evening, and they all start with A

1. Abandonment:

-Back in chapter 2, we talked about what we call “the Judges spiral”

-And this is the pattern that repeats itself throughout the book, getting worse and worse as the book progresses

-And what kicks off this spiral is the Israelites doing “evil in the sight of the Lord.”

-What did they do?

“They forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.”

-Now, to forget the Lord probably doesn’t mean they literally forgot Him

**This past Saturday, Jeremy was going to play the guitar the next day, and he texted me, asking me to send him pictures of the sheet music for some our songs the next day

-And I looked at that text, and thought, “man, I really ought send those pictures to him.”

-And then I completely forgot about it until the next morning a few minutes before I was supposed to head to church**

-I don’t think that’s what God is telling us when we read that Israel forgot the Lord

-Rather, I think the next phrase helps us get at the meaning: “They served the Baals and the Asherahs.”

**So instead, this kind of forgetting is more like the kind of forgetting you do when you’re on a diet, and Cindy Walker makes you some of her Christmas fudge

-It’s not like you “forget” about your diet, as if you no longer remember it

-But you forget it in the sense that there’s something far more enjoyable and exciting going on than your diet when that fudge gets given to you**

And that’s what happened with the Israelites

They found something “better” or more exciting going on in the worship of the Baals and Asherahs

-The Baals and Asherahs were the gods that the Canaanites worshipped

-Baal was the god of storms and fertility, and Asherah was one of the female goddesses

-And so, the Canaanites believed that when Baal engaged in sexual activity with a female goddess, that would then result in rain and fertile crops coming to the land

-So as part of their worship, the Canaanites would often engage in immoral activity as part of their worship in order to reenact what was supposedly going on with Baal

-And so, when the Israelites disobeyed by leaving these Canaanites in the land, they began to observe their worship practices

-And they came to believe that Canaanite worship was a lot more exciting than their own worship

-And so, when something more alluring and tantalizing came along, they forgot God and chose to worship something else

-Brothers and sisters, we must take care that we do not forget our God like this:

-This can happen to a whole congregation

-As a church, if we’re not careful, we could begin to cast wandering eyes around us at more interesting ideas and philosophies than the simple, unadorned worship of God and proclamation of the Gospel of Christ

-There have been many churches that have found “better” ways of doing church

-more social or political commentary and less gospel truth

-more entertainment and less worship

-more funny stories and less preaching

-Bigger and better facilities and less discipleship

**I still remember being at Waffle House (a place I’ve spent far too much time at) and striking up a conversation with our waittress, a lady who was probably in her 50’s

-I asked her where she lived, and eventually asked her where she went to church

-She proudly proclaimed that she loved her church, because he pastor was super funny and told lots of relatable stories about his life

-She said she’d never be able to go to a church where all they do is open up the bible and talk about what it says**

-Brothers and sisters, we as a congregation need to be on guard against forgetting God for something newer and more appealing

-Furthermore, each of us need to be careful that we don’t forget God individually

-Perhaps we find a new hobby that keeps us away from church on Sundays

-Perhaps we want a second job so we can have a higher standard of living, and now there’s very little time for prayer, Bible reading, and our families

-Perhaps we get so caught up in some new social justice cause that we’re no longer being faithful to show love and compassion to the people that God has placed in our lives everyday

-Brothers and sisters, we must be careful that we don’t forget God to go serve other gods that we deem to be more exciting or alluring

-God is more beautiful, more worthy, more glorious than anything in the entire world

So first, we’ve seen “Abandonment”

And that leads us to our second word in this passage:

2. Anger:

Judges 3:8 “The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He sold them to Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him eight years.”

-God’s anger takes center stage in this section

-God becomes angry with Israel because they break their covenant with Him

-Israel had made a covenant with God to worship only Him, and yet they forget Him to go worship others gods

-So God gets angry, and He hands them over to their an evil king

-Now, I want us to see here that this anger from God is a merciful anger

-Why do I say that?

-Because God’s anger towards Israel shows how much God cares about them

-He loves them, and wants them to worship only Him

-Why?

-This isn’t because God is desperate for attention

-Rather, it is because God’s glory and our joy always go hand-in-hand

-First, God alone deserves worship, and He’s not willing to concede any of it to false gods

-But second, it’s also because God knows how sin and idolatry always lead to destruction, and slavery, and death for His people

-And so God’s anger shows not only that He is worthy of true worship, but that He loves Israel enough to correct them when they stray

**Imagine a parent hearing that their child has run away and is nowhere to be found, and their response is “who cares?”

-No, any loving parent would leave whatever they’re doing and go to find that child, and when they find their child, they’re going to say, “I love you so much! I was so worried about you! And now I’m going to kill you! You’re grounded for the whole month!”

-Why? the anger of that parent is bound to their love for their child and their desire to keep their child safe**

-And so brothers and sisters, while I don’t believe that God gets angry with us as Christians, because God’s anger and wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ on the Cross for us

-God certainly does chasten and discipline us

-When we go astray, He’s willing to work to bring us back to Himself, even if that’s painful

-perhaps that’s God allowing financial difficulty so that you’ll rely on Him again

-perhaps you go through a job change so that you’ll realize there’s more to life than your career

-perhaps God sends another Christian to confront you and help you see how you’re forgetting God to pursue other things

Whatever it is, can you just take a moment and thank and worship God for caring enough about you to pursue you?

-Can you thank Him that He cares enough about you to bring hardship in your life to bring you back to Him?

-We’ve seen Abandonment and Anger

This leads to our 3rd word:

3. Anguish:

The New King James Version Chapter 3

When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD

-now, I think we need to be careful we don’t read too much into this phrase

-some people would look at this and say, “look, Israel repents and then God comes and rescues them”

-But I would caution against that

-The text never states that Israel repented

-As a matter of fact, it’s questionable if there’s any place in the book of Judges where Israel actually repents

-The text just states that in their bondage, they cried out to the Lord

-they’re in anguish, and their anguish causes them to cry out to God, but it’s doubtful that they actually repent

**Now, I haven’t gotten to this stage of parenting yet since my daughter is only 4 months old, but I think many parents would understand that there’s a difference between your child repenting and your child crying out because they’re suffering punishment

-or perhaps you told them if they didn’t stop hitting their brother, he might hit them back

-or maybe you told them to obey or they’d get a punishment

-And eventually, because of their rebellion and stubbornness, they end up suffering the consequences you’d warned them about

-But most of the time, it’s not true repentance

-How do you know?

-because they go back to doing the same thing the next day**

-And so the Israelites are in pain because of they’re sin, and they cry out to the Lord, but as we’ll see, there doesn’t seem to be any lasting repentance going on in this nation

But we do see that sin causes anguish and pain

-When God warns us to flee sexual immorality, He knows it causes destruction and ruin

-When God warns us to be kind with our words and not slander or gossip, He knows that those sins destroy relationships and break apart families

-When God warns us of the dangers of materialism, He knows that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil

-Brothers and sisters, please understand that sin causes anguish

-Anguish that can be avoided if we simply believe God and heed his warning

**In 1980, officials began to warn the residents of nearby town that Mount St. Helens in Washington State was going to erupt

-soon, efforts were made to evacuate everyone that lived near to the mountain

-A man named Harry Truman (not the president) owned a lodge on a lake nearby

-When warned, he refused to to leave, claiming: “This area is heavily timbered, Spirit Lake is in between me and the mountain, and the mountain is a mile away, the mountain ain't gonna hurt me.”

Officials tried to warn him one last time on May 17, but were once again rejected

-On May 18th, 1980, Harry Truman died in the eruption and his entire lodge was buried, having been warned, but refusing to give heed**

-Brothers and sisters, when God warns us about the dangers of sin and straying from our relationship with Him, we need to heed that warning

-We ought to trust that God knows what’s best

-We need to turn back before we do damage to our relationship with God or to others

So we’ve seen how easy it is to abandon God

-We’ve seen how God responds to chastise and discipline His people out of love

-We’ve seen that sin can cause us anguish,

but there’s good news in our final word:

4. Action:

God still acts on behalf of His people to provide salvation:

The New King James Version Chapter 3

When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. 10 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim. 11 So the land had rest for forty years.

-Now, as I mentioned at the beginning, there’s very little description here about Othniel

-We learn almost nothing about him from this text

-Very little of his personality comes out

-He gets no lines in this play

-We have met him before, back in chapter 1, when Caleb offered his daughter to the man who could conquer Kerjath Sepher

-and so Caleb’s nephew, Othniel, steps up and conquers, winning the hand of Caleb’s daughter Achsah

-But other than that, we don’t know hardly anything about him, and we learning nothing new from this short account

-And I think that’s by design

-the author wants to put the spotlight fully on God here

-Notice that 3 actions are ascribed to God in this text

-First, he was the one who raised up Othniel

-Now, I’m not really sure how this came about

-We’re not told if the Israelites went to seek him out and ask him to lead them

-We’re not told if he saw a need and decided to courageously put himself forward

-Or if God decided to speak to him directly and tell him what to do

-Whatever the specific circumstances, we’re told that the Lord was the one who sovereignly and providentially raised him up

Second, The Spirit of the Lord came upon Him

-This will happen for 3 other judges

-But God’s Spirit empowered Him for this particular task, equipping him to be able to lead Israel

And Third, the Lord delivered the enemy king over to him

-Notice how nothing is mentioned about the battle

-We know from chapter 1 that Othniel seems to be an experienced warrior

-And yet his bravery or skill in battle is not mentioned?

-Why?

because it’s not important

God is the One who gives the victory here

-Scholars of the book of Judges often assert that Othniel seems to be the ideal judge, similar to how the kings of Israel and Judah are often compared to David as the ideal king

-And this seems interesting, considering how little the text speaks of Othniel

-And maybe that’s the point:

-Othniel isn’t all that important

-He’s simply someone who was used by God

-The attention and the glory go to God, not Othniel

-And brothers and sisters, perhaps there’s something here for us to consider

-God doesn’t need flashy people

-He doesn’t need talented people

-He doesn’t need eloquent people

-He is capable of using anyone

-And while we may not know much about Othniel, we do know that God used Him and got the glory for it

-And perhaps we should take our cue from this

-God’s church isn’t built on the strength of talented, charismatic figures who can pack out churches

-Rather, Christ builds His church through ordinary people so that He alone will get all the glory

-Paul speaks along the same lines when he says,

1 Corinthians 1:26–29 “Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world —what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one can boast in His presence.”

Brothers and sisters, life isn’t about Kingsway Baptist Church and us being known as the greatest church in the whole world

-it’s not about us having the most people

-or the biggest budget

-or being known as the friendliest church in town that everyone loves

-Rather, life is about worshipping Christ and praising Him for rescuing ruined sinners like us

-He’s the One who sovereignly raises people up and uses them for His purposes

-He’s the One who conquers sin and death

-He’s the One who rescues His people from their sin and lostness

-Furthermore, life isn’t all about you or me

-It’s not about being thought of as the best-looking or the most popular

-It’s not about having the most in your retirement account or getting to visit exotic locations

-It’s about worshipping Christ

-It’s about being amazed at His incredible work of salvation that’s He’s accomplished

-And it’s about letting Him use us in a way that gives Him glory, and doesn’t draw attention to ourselves

Conclusion:

**There was a donkey in Jerusalem one day

-And he thought himself a rather smart donkey and good-looking donkey

-And one day, two men came and grabbed him

-They threw some cloaks on top of him, and then set someone on his back

-And as they paraded him through the streets, people lined the way, craning their necks to get a look

-They grabbed palm branches and took their coats and paved the road, all shouting and praising and yelling “Hosanna!”

-And the donkey swelled with pride and thought, “wow, I’m sure glad they’ve finally decided to recognize me for the smart, attractive donkey that I am and celebrate me!”**

Brothers and sisters, the glory and attention does not belong to us

-There is nothing you and I have that we did not receive

Instead, let’s worship Christ for being someone who rescues ruined sinners

-And let’s live in a way that shows that we desire to bring glory to Him and not think that we are the ones deserving of all glory and praise

-Othniel died

-He was a good judge, but he wasn’t the ultimate Savior

-The true Savior is the One who saves His people eternally and never leaves them

-And He deserves all the glory