Judges 3:7-31, Do You Know Who Your Savior Is?

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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Judges chapter 3 starting at verse 7 using the

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NIV version but try to follow along if you have another version we have NIVs against the wall if you want from that table.

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The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the

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Asherahs. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Kushan Rishatayim king of Aram Naharaim to whom the

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Israelites were subject for eight years but when they cried out to the Lord he raised up for them a deliverer

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Othniel son of Kenaz Caleb's younger brother who saved them the spirit of the

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Lord came upon him so that he became Israel's judge and went to war the Lord gave

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Kushan Rishatayim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel who overpowered him so the land had peace for 40 years until Othniel son of Kenaz died once again the

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Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel getting the

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Ammonites and Amalekites to join him Eglon came and attacked Israel and they took possession of the city of palms the

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Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for 18 years again the Israelites cried out to the

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Lord and he gave them a deliverer Ehud a left -handed man the son of Gerah the

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Benjamite the Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab now Ehud had made a double -edged sword about a foot and a half long which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab who was a very fat man after Ehud had presented the tribute he sent on their way the men who had carried it at the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said

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I have a secret message for you O king the king said quiet all his attendants left him

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Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said I have a message from God for you as the king rose from his seat

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Ehud reached with his left hand and drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly even the handle sank in after the blade which came out of his back

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Ehud did not pull the sword out and the fat closed in over him then Ehud went out to the porch he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them after he had gone the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked they said he must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house they waited to the point of embarrassment but when he did not open the doors of the room they took a key and unlocked them there they saw their

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Lord fallen to the floor dead while they waited Ehud got away he passed by the idols and escaped to Sarah when he arrived there he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim and the

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Israelites went down with him from the hills with him leading them follow me he ordered for the

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Lord has given Moab your enemy into your hands so they followed him down and taking possession of the fords of the

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Jordan that led to Moab they allowed no one to cross over at that time they struck down about 10 ,000

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Moabites all vigorous and strong not a man escaped that day Moab was made subject to Israel and the land had peace for 80 years after Ehud became

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Shamgar son of Anna who struck down 600 Philistines with an ox goad he too saved

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Israel thank you question is how do you know who your

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Savior is means that is who solves your most important problems who do you think gives you life now we know the who right we're in church and we know the answer we're supposed to give

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Jesus so well let's just move on but really the question is how do you know who your

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Savior is in religion you know there are two basic ways that people decide who to follow either one what they call charisma a person has a great personal magnetism a sense of power about them a kind of authority some people call it an anointing that they have been touched by God or institutionalism that is the right organization says that this is the one you know they met in secret and now comes the white smoke and then we've selected this this guy he's the one to follow and it's like that in politics too you know some people you know figure out who are they gonna follow who are they gonna vote for in a democracy some go by charisma personal charm that he or she has a kind of a sense of greatness of attractiveness that draws you to respect him or her and support them again maybe for some people is institutionalism that the party that they believe in says this is the one or maybe the voters say this is the one some people of course couldn't care less about politics it's so boring isn't it this is so boring they're following the newest singer the newest movie star you know the celebrity who has that special something that proves that he or she or they are are the one and they will go hysterical if they ever get to see their

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Savior that that person that they you know the anointed one are ones you know 50 years ago this coming

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February 9th will mark the anniversary when of the Beatles first appearing on the Ed Sullivan show and if you've ever seen the video you know was bigger when the

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Beatles I think on that showed when they first came and particularly these girls just kind of screaming in ecstasy how they do it they get to hear their saviors you know the band that makes their life worthwhile and you know for them is far more than just kind of admiring a great musician

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I mean you know it's really not that because for them it's really just an overwhelming spiritual experience and the weird thing is they're screaming so loud they can't possibly be hearing the music that they supposedly admire and love so much and so how do they know that the

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Beatles are the one because they can feel it deep down in their souls of course for many other people they look at that and think you know you know that that's just crazy it's not as though they're

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Elvis how do you know who your Savior is of course it all depends on what you think you need salvation from if your biggest problem in life is that you're kind of bored life is just humdrum and you know your

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Savior then is the band who will give you a thrill if you think as a lot of Hollywood movies or love songs portray it or at least imply that your biggest problem your real need is that meaningful relationship romance a soul mate who will finally complete you then your

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Savior is that one the one it's the cult of romance life is about finding that special someone and then when you finally do and only then then can you live happily ever after and your heart will always be restless until you can rest in him or her like the

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U2 song I still haven't found what I'm looking for she's gotta be out there somewhere I think that's one reason why the argument for homosexual marriage has been so successful you know people are first given this myth of romance even sometimes a

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Christianized version of it you know go sign up for Christianmingle .com so you can find God's match for you and I suppose you know there's nothing really wrong with that per se

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God can use that if he wants that there's nothing wrong with you know using that website whatever to be introduced to people but sometimes the message is conveyed through things like that that this relationship is the meaning of life and in the company is saying we'll deliver you from the worst fate that could ever befall you singleness so once you've accepted that myth once you've embraced that then how can you say that some people can't marry the one they feel will complete them you heartless beast you don't you have any sense of compassion wrong with you denying people what is most important in life but it's not as great as a spouse can be and as wonderful a gift as a loving marriage can be still your spouse is not your

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Savior because having romance is not the thing that you need most of course some rugged individuals will say sure they're not gonna go screaming after you know their their favorite band or live for romance because they think they really don't need anyone they are self -sufficient and they'll pull themselves up by their own bootstraps they'll be self -made men or women and so they don't really need a

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Savior now maybe in a specific maybe they would say maybe they need a guru they need a life coach like that phrase or they need some advice and help education but they really don't need a

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Savior now in a superficially can superficially Christian eyes society like ours they will probably never say that out outright they'll say the right words say

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Jesus is the Savior after all this is church that's what we're supposed to say right but if you look at their life you look at their unattachment to a church their lack of accountability that they may go to church but they resent the idea of having of needing to belong to a church or being a part of a body they don't go scream at bands or desperately search for Mr.

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and Mrs. Wright or join a church because deep down they don't think they need a Savior but as we'll see we all need a

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Savior and it's vital that we understand how to know who the

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Savior is and we see that right here believe it or not in Judges chapter 3 and three very uneven parts about three small s

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Saviors Othniel, Ehud, actually it's

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Ehud as the high -pitched voice isn't it yeah I said Othniel earlier it's Ehud with a high -pitched voice Shamgar now the first judge of judges is a man we've already been introduced to and the man who won his bride by conquering this city called

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Kiriath -Sephir in chapter 1 verse 12 we read last week Caleb that you know the famous Caleb from the time one of the two original spies from the time of all the way back to the time of Moses who along with Joshua believed that they could take the land when everyone else was saying no we can't do it and he says that anyone who conquers this

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Canaanite city of Kiriath -Sephir will get his daughter as his wife good motivational tool and Othniel apparently liked the prize so much she must have been good -looking woman because she was an incentive that he thought that was worthwhile taking the risk and so he does and he then becomes the first judge now remember the judges aren't these we say probably shouldn't been translated as judges but they do whatever there aren't these judicial figures sitting in black robes you know behind it what do they call it a bench and they call it a bench but the judges seat and comes to a verdict with a gavel they are saviors they save the people we see that we see in the story of Othniel from verses 7 to 11 that the five steps that will be repeated probably repeated in all the judges but specifically in most of the other judges we see them laid out here pretty clearly this five steps kind of a cycle they go through one is rebellion second is retribution then repentance rescue finally rest first rebellion in verse 7 the

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Israelites do evil and they do evil by doing two things first they forget and then they serve but first forget they forget the

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Lord now to forget doesn't mean forget something to forget is to let something just slide out of memory it's passive you passively forget something we can't really you can't really intentionally forget we can't intentionally stop reminding ourselves we can do that like if you stop reminding yourself of something that was done wrong to you some insult that you were given or some way you were cheated or hurt that can be a useful kind of what you stop useful thing to do stop reminding yourself of that and so hopefully over time you'll forget it but we forget not by actively forgetting you know not like you can delete a file from your computer and the computer's forgotten it but by we forget by stopping to remind ourself last week on 60 minutes they had a report on a rare skill that a few people have very small percentage of people have that they can remember every single thing that ever happened to them every day of their life they're called a memory wizards and if you ask them hey what did you do on January 19th 2004 ten years ago they'll be able to remember exactly everything the day of the week the clothes they wore what they ate every detail no matter how far back you know for me

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I have to think hard of where exactly was I living what state was I in you know for them they can remember all kinds of the details now the professor was studying them said that when it comes to remembering what happened just just yesterday yeah they're really no better than the rest of us right if you think if you could probably think yesterday what did you do the clothes you wore you probably remember the meals you ate and all that but as the days get further away for most of us they kind of just blur after a while you forget completely unless you do something to remind yourself intentionally it's like when we have holidays tomorrow

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Martin Luther King Day celebrate what Martin Luther King did for the US if we don't we might forget it and we don't want to do that last week

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I didn't remember until after the service was over right here hey this is said to Barry that it was

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Mary and I's anniversary I just I just forgot we have anniversaries of course to remember special dates otherwise we might forget now these people have forgotten they forgot they forgot the

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Lord that means that they neglected to remind themselves of the Lord because that's how you forget right you you neglect to remind yourself they stopped taking the

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Passover they didn't go to the tabernacle and offer their sacrifices they didn't instruct their children in the law of God like God told them to now when they first when they stop doing those things they probably had a good excuse you ask them hey why aren't you doing the

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Passover this year we're too busy too busy this year crops take care of you know we did it last year anyway you know and it's the same old thing every year just skip skip it this year what about you raising the kids well we'll like we'll let grandma take raise you tell the kids about the

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Lord we have a farm to look after you know I have time for all that and like today people will drop out of church they'll stop reading their

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Bible they'll stop praying and at first they think you know I'm too busy right now

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I'll do I'll remember the Lord when the time comes but they won't they'll forget these people here they forgot and when the time came they served to two different gods

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Baal and Asherah now Baal and Asherah are fertility gods meaning that they're gods who promised promised you your crops will grow your animals will multiply your children will be healthy and safe and those are exactly the kind of gods there were most attractive to farmers right you need things to grow and it's kind of out of your control so you want some supernatural power to help things to grow and live even especially even

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Israelite farmers who had forgotten the Lord they stopped doing what they were supposed to be doing to remind themselves about the

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Lord and so when the time came when they felt they needed some religion some faith some power when they were in need you know maybe there was a drought the crops are getting brown in the field there's a disease among the cattle they're dying off or their their baby has a fever and what do you do well they forgot about the

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Lord and so they went to guess where the gods who specialize in these things

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Baal and Asherah because they were promising them what they what they wanted now today people will drop out of church they'll stop reading their

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Bible they'll forget about the Lord and then they'll have kids and they'll think hey I want them raised right or maybe the other crisis in the family maybe a death or a divorce maybe they go bankrupt or worse worse than bankruptcy they get rich and want something else so now what do they do they've forgotten about the

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Lord because they've stopped reminding themselves the true God of the Bible and so they they go after what maybe a prosperity gospel promises them health and wealth you know promises it tells them if they're rich they can keep all of that and God's just not only you know

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God's only fine with him keeping it all he's blessing them for it or maybe promises them they're looking for this

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God's match for them promises a perfect matchmaking or tells them there's no problem living for money for things or maybe they go after some kind of moralistic therapeutic religion in which

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God exists up there to charm their kids into being good kids being decent and it makes them feel warm and fuzzy on Sunday morning or maybe they just maybe they just cut out the phony religion altogether and go chase the almighty dollar now when other people may be seeking some kind of God probably really a prosperity gospel they just double down on self -sufficiency and materialism they forgot about the

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Lord and so they serve something else really themselves their ego their bank account and that is rebellion now if they are not one of God's people they may happily or miserably live that way for the their whole life but if they are one of God's people then comes second our retribution therefore in verse 8 see that in verse 8 therefore it was caused by what comes before it as a result of their rebellion two things happen first the anger of the

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Lord is kindled against them that is God gets mad at them and the

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Father in heaven you know he's not afraid that he when he's angry that he might be excessive and do something wrong and so he is not a parent who will wait until his anger cools down before he starts spanking right he'll he'll he'll spank you right away even when he's mad he will discipline you in his anger kindled that word it's a picture of a fire right fires are hard to start right if you're out there in the woods trying to start a fire it's hard to do but they're also hard to put out once they get started

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God is slow to anger he's not flying off the handle every time you think a bad thought but you don't want to test him either and get that anger burning because he'll burn you with it as a result of his anger being kindled God just says it says here sold them to sell us to give something in exchange for sold them into the hand of cushion

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Rishathiam I don't know how the guy reading it he pronounced a little differently but then the name means literally means cushion that's actually the name part the

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Rishathiam means of double wickedness double wickedness so this guy's a bad dude in other words how you interpret this people calling him double wickedness

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I mean he's not a wimp he's a bad dude and so the Lord sold Israel to him that is mr.

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double wickedness gets Israel and the Lord I guess gets them off his hands yes that's what he gets back double wickedness dominated them for eight years and the people had to serve him in verse 8 think of that though they began by serving these gods who promised them what they want the fertility the prosperity because they forgot the

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Lord that's how they began they ended by serving an oppressive tyrant by serving double wickedness then in verse 9 after eight years of that it says they they cried out to the

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Lord notice that they didn't just cry a lot of people will cry or cry out or maybe just you know shut their mouths and live lives of silent desperation because life has it turned out so well the romance that Hollywood promised them was the meaning of life turn bad even if their marriage is good they you know like you too they still haven't found what they're looking for they're empty and they may cry out but if they don't cry out to the

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Lord they can't expect a Savior now here finally they cry out to the Lord and that is third our repentance repentance is more than just remorse feeling sorry a lot of people who have destroyed their families because they had an affair or whatever you know have remorse because after a while they found out the one they cheated with was it worth it now they're stuck but they they won't repent repentance is more than feeling sorry that what you did didn't turn out so well it's turning away from and turning toward here they cry out to the

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Lord and so they are turning to him and this is repentance and repentance results in their fourth are their rescue in the middle of verse 9 the

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Lord raised up a deliverer that's what a judge is he's a deliverer for the people of Israel who saved them

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Ahniel then in verse 10 the Spirit of the Lord was upon him now how do you know how do you know the

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Spirit of the Lord was upon him how do you know he's a deliverer or Savior that the

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Holy Spirit is on him because he fell over unconscious is that it is that the sign because he did something wild and ecstatic he handled snakes danced around is that how you know how do you know he's a

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Savior it tells us right here in verse 10 first he judged Israel now what does that mean that means he went out to war and the

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Lord gave the Lord gave that bad dude cushion double wickedness into his hand now in case you missed the point says it again next verse his hand

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Ahniel's that is his power Ahniel's power prevailed over the now

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Prince formerly known as double wickedness we know Ahniel is a Savior because he saved so the final result the final evidence of a

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Savior is the fifth R is rest in verse 11 so that as a result of what

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God did through Ahniel the land and it really means the people of the land this is God's promised land given to God's promised people had rest for 40 years

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God's true Savior gives his people rest now if a so -called

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Savior gives you a list of rules you know you got to make these positive confessions to make the destiny you want come about or a you know there's we have a new prophet who gives you another testament that he found in the woods that tells you how you can become a god too over your own planet if you only follow these rules or tells you you got to go to that Kingdom Hall and don't eat this and drink that it don't celebrate

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Christmas all in these list of rules that's not rest because that's not a deliverer a true

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Savior brings you rest now after Ahniel the cycle starts over after that 40 years of rest the people rebel in verse 12 and so the

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Lord gets his retribution the cycle again they get going through over and over and and so a new story starts and now this time in six parts add an extra one one more there's the misery the man the mission the message the mandate and the manifestation now first there's the misery notice in verse 12 the

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Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab okay this is the second cycle the Lord strengthened Eglon now first notice that got that that verse verse 12 what it tells us that tells us

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God is in absolute control God strengthened Eglon now if he said

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God strengthened Ehud we would understand that but no God strengthened Eglon the oppressor the rise to power of Eglon this pagan king of Moab it wasn't some random event you know outside of God's control that's how many people think many people think that much of what goes on in the world it's just totally outside of God's control and God is sitting up in heaven kind of wringing his hands he's feeling really sorry for us feeling really bad that these things are happening to us but there's really not much he can do about it because he just left it all up to us but notice here the

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Lord strengthened Eglon the reason that this oppressive tyrant has gotten power over Israel and he's put it under his heel is because the

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Lord all capital letters Yahweh the true God enabled him

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Eglon didn't didn't know it Eglon didn't acknowledge it Eglon did not praise the

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Lord for his great victory but it was all the Lord's doing now the

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Lord empowered Eglon it says against Israel against his own people and it says because they had done what was evil in the sight of the

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Lord now the result was that he not only led that is Eglon not only led the Moabites over Israel but Eglon gathered allies from the

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Amalekites and some others there and they they united and they defeated Israel together and he took first it says the city of palms in verse 13 and that's

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Jericho and Jericho is an oasis and so it grows palm trees with all the nice water there and so it's known for his palm trees is the city of palms so the first city remember back in Joshua the first city that Israel took when they entered the land is now taken back from them to humiliate

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Israel to show them how far they've fallen so they have to serve

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Eglon for 18 years now how could the Lord do that to his people remember the

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Lord strengthened Eglon to do all these things how could he do it to his people whom he loves

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God's steadfast love you know celebrated the Psalms many verses will pursue them in their rebellion and he may as the

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Good Shepherd use misery to bring them back like I'm like a shepherd might use a crook drag them back so if you are one of God's people and you choose to rebel against them you get tired of denying yourself these pleasures these things that you could have in the world you walk in the flesh you live like the world

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God will make sure you are miserable at it the world might be promising you the flesh the devil may be promising you this will make you happy and satisfied

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God will it might work for other people who are not as people but for you if you're one of his you'll be miserable at it and so if you're afraid of following away you know you're praying like in our song today that you are prone to wander

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Lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love well there's good news here if you're one of his people rejoice you'll make sure you're miserable if you wonder so don't worry he'll get you back so again in verse 15 the people of Israel cried out to the

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Lord in their misery and they repent so next is the man the next small s savior is a hood man with a squeaky voice we heard now he's a left -handed man and the way it's actually literally put in Hebrew is that he is impeded in his right hand and that suggests that either he is left -handed because his right hand was handicapped maybe a shrivel or whatever broken or alternately that the people of that day they saw being left -handed they interpreted left -handedness as being handicapped as a handicap that is that not being able to use your right hand which most people can as well as his left hand they they they thought that was a disability well either way that means that a hood is an unlikely deliverer he's looked at as someone with something wrong with him this guy has a disability as a handicap so he's one of those weak that God uses to shame the strong by this man the people of Israel send their tribute their taxes literally in Hebrew it says they sent it by his hand by his left hand to their oppressor so there's the man and the man a hood has a mission they strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter that's his mission and he makes a small sword really we'd probably call it a dagger in our language today it's only 18 inches long what about that probably about that big double -edged and he puts it where it's easiest for a

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South Paul like him to get at it inside his right thigh but where the guards probably won't look they're not used to lefties now the mission is to give a message to Eglon now

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Eglon as it turned out has gotten fat off of oppressing Israel very fat and so the tribute after the tribute is presented a hood says in verse 19

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I have a secret message for you and literally word message is word of a word for you

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Oh King and so he does he has a very pointed message for Eglon because it's secret now

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Eglon doesn't want any of his you know staff to hear so he tells everyone you know quiet a don't tell me now get everyone else to leave and so it's just a hood and Eglon and the fat king in a room on the top floor of his house of his palace there where it's coolest the breeze will blow through up there at the top and the passage slows down and gets very detailed here odd details isn't a hood repeats

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I have a message again it says and he adds this time from God for you now think about this

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Eglon has been strengthened by God it says he has gotten a palace with a cool roof chamber

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I mean this is a nice place he has and attendance and tribute it's gotten power all because Eglon because God enabled him to have it and now he's about to get a personal message from God delivered by the left hand of a who a who draws out his dagger from his right thigh plunges it into a who's fat the fat that he had packed on off the backs of Israel's misery kind of a gruesome scene there you imagine that he's explained the blade goes all the way in apparently his intestines come out that's

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God's Word for him but to be a savior a who will have to escape with his life so he locks the door behind him and because the attendance wait so long thinking they're cake is using the bathroom that gives a who time to escape it's kind of comical here in verses 24 and 25 the servants are waiting outside and they're whispering among themselves what's taking them so long it's meant to be kind of funny it's a very dark humor the joke is on the oppressors

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Eglon has has in fact relieved himself is the Bible says just just like they think well maybe not just like they think he's done it with the help of with a who's dagger and when they finally open the door they get a key and get it open it says in the end of verse 25 that they find quote their

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Lord dead on the floor you know you're in trouble when your

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Lord your Savior is dead the mission successful with the escape gives to the unlikely a who'd the mandate in verse 27 he sounds the trumpet and the people gather and he is their leader now how do you know who your leader is well he's the one who takes out your enemy so a who challenges them in verse 28 follow after me for or because the

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Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand he has the mandate of heaven to be their leader and he's proved that he took out their enemy now they should follow him and they do but how do they know no people today go screaming after the

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Beatles are looking for some charismatic political leader are looking for love and all the wrong places because they don't know what is the manifestation of the

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Savior here a hood he manifests that is he displays he demonstrates he proves that he is the deliver to take them out of their misery take them out of misery he leads them to seize the forge of the

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Jordan which is the place where shallow enough people could cross over it as the

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Moabite troops were retreating back across the Jordan from Israel Israel's west of the

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Jordan their home Moab is east of that river and so they would have to cross in that particular place and so they stop them the

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Israelites do and eliminate the Moabite troops so they so they can't go back to Moab and rally under a new leader and then come back to oppress them some more and the result is in verse 30 that they have rest for 80 years free of oppression and misery so a who'd manifest that he is a small s

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Savior how do you know who your

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Savior is well Shamgar shows us Shamgar is the third judge he gets all of one verse kind of a short verse to tell his story but that's enough in fact that's just right for making the point that needs to be made we need it we need to strip away really all the clutter the gory details of a left -handed assassin using a double -edged sword to disembowel a fat tyrant we need to get right to the heart of the matter how do you know who your

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Savior is well Shamgar killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad basically a long pointed stick kind of like a spear but not that sharp it's used for prodding an ox you know when it's pulling the plow now if the ox just decides to stop in the middle of plowing they would want to poke it with an ox goad get the thing moving so it wasn't meant wasn't meant to pierce the ox's hide it's not that sharp just enough to irritate it to get it going so it would take a great deal of force to use that as an effective weapon but that's exactly what

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Shamgar does he defeats the enemies of God's people with a farmer's tool and so it says he also saved

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Israel he also is a Savior and that simple sentence leaves us no doubt as to the answer to our question how do you know who your

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Savior is it may not always be the one who gives you a tingling sensation as his voice just captures your feelings or the one who that the institution the denomination the

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Electoral College whatever says he's the one it's not so complicated

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Shamgar shows us how simple it is your

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Savior is the one who saves you then when finally we see what our need is you know what we need saving from that is not really our humdrum lives we're just kind of bored and we need a band they will thrill us with their music they'll thrill us so much will scream with delight so loudly we can't even hear their music or that what we ultimately need is saving from as you know those scoundrel politicians and we need a political leader who will finally give us an economy that will make everyone rich and who would reform all the criminals just with the force of his personality and bring peace to the world that our ultimate problem isn't singleness and so what we really need is not no matter how much

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Hollywood makes it look like it's the meaning of life what we ultimately need is not a soulmate who will finally complete us no our greatest problem is sin we have kindled God's anger against us because of our sins indeed is precisely when we think that the greatest thing in life is that band or that politics or that romance even though good bands a good good political leaders and good loving relationships can be great blessings but it's precisely because we look to those things to save us to complete us it's precisely that feeling that idea that angers the

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Lord the most that is the essence of sin that God isn't good enough what

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I really need I need money which is the power

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I need a thrill I need a romance that sets of on fire

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God's anger against us and putting that fire out is our greatest need now that ultimate enemy of sin that's given us our last enemy of death death just like egg lawn has been raised up by God to separate us from all those things that we loved instead of God to give us some misery so we'll cry out to God and death has gotten fat off of devouring nearly every person taking them away from the thrills and the power and the pleasure the relationships that they live for on earth death open opens wide its mouth and consumes every one of them you need a

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Savior who will defeat that enemy Jesus did like Shamgar who defeated the enemy with farmers tools

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Jesus defeated them first with carpenters tools hammers and nails by them he was nailed to a cross and took

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God's just anger at our sins on to himself Jesus put out the fire of God's wrath against us by being burned by it then he defeated that last enemy he rose from the dead he conquered death he did it all to save his people to bear the punishment that our sins deserve to finally stick it to death that had gotten fat off of consuming us all and by doing that he saves us so how do you know