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Building a People of God With Unusual Characters
We are coming to a different part of our reflections on the amazing and unusual characters whom God uses to build his people.
Moses brought God’s people out of Egypt, after more than 400 years subject to the whims of the Pharaohs.
The Joshua was called on, as his successor, to bring the people into the land that God had promised on oath to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So Joshua, a soul of true character who was a man of prayer, who heard from God and encountered God’s angels and saw many victories, helped the Israelites to gain a foothold in Canaan, the promised land.
There was the victory at Jericho that opened up the gateway to Palestine, and struck fear in the hearts of the people who where in the path of the advancing Israelite armies.
And city after city fell.
Territory was gained, many of God’s enemies where killed, and Israel lived in housed they had not built, at crops they had not planted, and enjoyed the fruit of the land that God had given to them.
The task was not yet completed when Joshua, after leading them so far, had to lay aside his own sward and spear.
The situation was simple:
So it was time to pass on the leadership to others.
In fact, it was time for the clans of Jacob’s sons to receive their inheritance and take up the tasks of securing their own boarders.
>>>But this could only be done through faithfulness and grit.
Now it was time for. . .
Joshua’s Last Admonition to Israel
As he gathered the people of Israel together, he laid out the history of exodus, the red sea, the manna, the water from the rock and the pillars of fire and smoke that the Lord had used to show his presence.
He spoke of the law of God that had been given through Moses and was now being passed on to them through Joshua.
So now Joshua challenges them to step up and live for God.
There it is.
Yahweh God is worthy of our worship.
Get rid of your idols and the idea of other powers that might save you.
Throw away the gods who are impotent because they are simply man-made idols of wood or stone or metal who have no muscles, no voice, no power to move.
Now, take up the challenge, and serve the Lord, Yahweh God.
>>>But after his experience with Israel to this point, he was not very confident about their loyalties.
So he pointed out their frailty of faith in. . .
Joshua’s Challenge to Israel
Joshua said “God is too holy for you” which is why a man-made idol is more manageable for most people; not because it is a real god, but because it isn’t a holy and just God who keeps his promises of blessings and of curses.
But the people were sure they could do it, and said,
OK, put your money where your mouth is.
And so they promised they would:
Joshua’s Death and Legacy
Now, to be fair to the people who had made these promises of fealty before Joshua, they didn’t at first abandon God, for we read at the end of the book of Joshua,
Still, they ceased their offensive battles with the Canaanites who possessed the land and were an abomination to God because of their idolatry and prostitution.
Instead, the Israelites got lax and their future was always on a knife-edge of doing God’s will or just settling for what they had.
>>>There are notes that we have about. . .
Israelite Victories and Failures
Well the pattern was set, and it was a matter of relying on God or relying on human strength.
The tribe of Judah had some other successes when they remembered this:
Oh, so many ups and downs are recorded in this part of the Old Testament.
It is really the setting for everything that continues in the relationship between God and Israel for the next centuries.
Victory Comes From the Lord
and if the people of Israel keep forgetting that, if they keep watering down the mission they have been given to fully possess the land, if they leave behind those things that will temp them, then they will simply give in.
>>>That’s when we hear. . .
The Judgement of God from the Angel of the Lord
THAT is the promise of God’s faithfulness.
And it requires the faithfulness of Israel.
Since they have been unfaithful in their following of God, the Angel’s report from God is dire:
And this is just the statement of why we have in the time of the judges. . .
The Sad Record of Religious Relapse
The Wretched Result of Rebelling Against God
The Lord Has Not Abandoned His People
Even though his people, the Israelites, had abandoned him.
Israel Still Rejects Yahweh God
>>>The Cycles in Judges Reveals
A Downward Spiral for Israel
This is just filling out the patterns of the Angel’s Message I shared a few minutes ago.
And trouble kept coming as judges rose and fell, and the people sometimes followed and usually failed.
Othniel vs. Aram
The cycle of the Judges is clear in the story of Othniel, the first judge of Israel in the verses of Judges 3:7-11 “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.
8.
The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him eight years.
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.
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.
11.
Then the land had peace for forty years, and Othniel son of Kenaz died.”
Over and over we have the same cycle of events, only the names have been changed.
The Israelites do evil in the Lord’s sight.
The Lord withdraws His protection and Israel is subjugated
Israel cries out the the Lord
The Lord raises up a Deliverer
The Deliver is Successful
The Enemies of Israel are subjugated
The land has peace.
So even though the situation and the style of victory differs, the cycle repeats clear through the book of Judges.
It was true for Othniel, then Ehud, and then Shamgar, and we will see how it was true for the First Female to Judge Israel.
By the way, after she is gone, the cycle continues.
The book of Judges is so full of spiritual and moral decline that the graphic stories within it are sometimes hard to even tell.
>>>Today, our real story is about. . .
Deborah, the First Female Judge of Israel
whose story is told alongside the story of Barak, a man who became the conquering general against the King Jabin of Canaan and Sisera his general.
>>>So back to the beginning of this part of the story, in Judges chapter 4, and
Guess What the Israelites Did?
If you said they did
Evil in the Sight of the Lord
then you’ve kept up so far.
That’s step 1.
Now, for step 2:
A New Oppressor for Israel
Step 3 is right here, too:
Israel Cries Out to Yahweh
It’s time for step 4:
At that time,
Deborah the Prophetess is Judging Israel
But although Deborah is already Judge over Israel, she is not herself the deliverer that God will use.
Her days looked like this:
>>>That’s when Deborah, as Prophetess, Sees that
Barak Is the Chosen Deliverer
by the choice of God.
But Barak just doesn’t feel it.
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