Judges 4

About three weeks ago I substituted for the teen Sunday school class at church and the following is the lesson I presented. I'd planned to post it the same day but I completely forgot! Better late than never right? Here you go:

Read Judges 4:1-3

First I want to begin by pointing out that terrible verse we see over and over in Judges, “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

I’m sure by now you have picked up that this is a continuation of a theme we find throughout this book…Israel sins, God chastises, Israel cries out, God delivers. And yet, I would say to this that the major theme is not necessarily about the sinfulness of Israel but about the mercy, the love, and trustworthiness of God!

You will note, I am sure, how after God delivers Israel through a judge, there is a period of rest…after which Israel forgets what God has done for them and reverts back to evil behavior.

Here in the first verse we see a reference to the death of Ehud as the catalyst for Israel’s sin…in other words, without him around to remind them of their obligations, they quickly forgot God. As for why it is Ehud that is mentioned rather than Shamgar (who was judge after Ehud), there are two opinions on this matter. The first is that during the judgeship of Shamgar Ehud was still alive and that it was not until his death that the people turned away from God once again. The other opinion is that Ehud was already dead during the judgeship of Shamgar but that after Shamgar Israel was delivered but did not turn away from their sin and that this is why in chapter 4 the verse begins by identifying at what point their sin began. Both of these views are good, and the Bible does not tell us any details so what is important is that at one point following the death of Ehud, Israel forgot her God.

So we have in verse 1 a reminder that we must never allow ourselves to grow slack in our devotion to God…for out of our slackness comes sin.

Ask: How does slackness lead to sin? (discuss)

Look now at verse 2: We first came across Hamor in Joshua 11, where we witnessed its destruction, so at some point it has apparently been rebuilt and a new king sits at its throne. And so we hear in verse 3 the familiar cry from the lips of Israel! Again and again they have sinned…but again and again they have cried out to God for deliverance. And once again, God says NO, right? NO!! He delivers them! Remember that the pivotal teaching throughout this book is that God is the covenant keeper! He is the only One that we can trust completely!

Ask) How can we take this thought and use it as an encouragement for our own times and in our own lives?

When we sin, when we transgress the law of God, if we are remorseful the Lord forgives us…we too are His special people and we can count on His mercy…but His people are not those who sin BECAUSE they think they know that they will receive His forgiveness! Do not think for a minute that we can plan to sin with the comfort that we will receive forgiveness. Show me the professed Believer who lives this way and I will show you a man in need of salvation!

Before we move on, notice why the people are so afraid (in verse 3). Those iron chariots!! Think about it…God has shown Israel over and over again, throughout the generations, that He is El Shaddai, God Almighty! And still they fear these man-made instruments of war! Let me suggest to you that the reason they fear these things is because they forgot to fear God more!

Read Matthew 10:28

Israel feared men because they did not fear God! Likewise, I would confess to you that the times when I have feared situations, or people, it has been because I have forgotten how awesome and fearful God is! That He is so awesome He can get me through these problems…that He is so fearful that Satan is on His leash and is NOT God’s equal not His true rival! Little brothers and sisters, what Jesus tells us in Matthew and what Israel did not keep in mind is that the God we serve is the CREATOR of EVERYTHING! Therefore, when we trust in Him we need NOT fear that which He can control! When we fail to trust in God we are suggesting first that He is unable to keep His word to us, and secondly we dare to equate any created thing with the power of the One from whom everything flows! The self existing, Omniscient, Omnipotent God of the Bible! The knowledge that this is the God whom we serve should make us bold and secure!

Are there any questions or comments?

Read Judges 4:4-9

Who was Deborah?

The Word tells us that she was intimately acquainted with God, for she was a prophetess. As such, she was one to whom the Lord gave visions, which we see very clearly in verses 6-7. She was a judge during a difficult time, for she was an acknowledged judge during the time that Israel was occupied. She was one who loved the Lord and was devoted to Israel, for her concern is that Barak go about the business for which God had appointed him.

Note therefore, that she passes onto Barak the instructions which the Lord had given to her. Note also Barak’s response…

Ask) What do you think of Barak’s response? (Discuss)

There are two schools of thought regarding his reply:

1. One holds that this shows Barak’s lack of faith…that he was unwilling to proceed without the prophetess of God to accompany him. In other words, that he was weak.

2. The other holds that this shows the immense respect with which Barak and all of Israel held Deborah. The thinking goes that Barak wanted Deborah to accompany him so that Israel would see that he was indeed carrying out the commands of God and that they would more readily follow him against the huge army awaiting them! This is supported to some extent by Hebrews 11:30-34, which offers no condemnation of Barak…on the contrary, his faith is commended!

Note verse 9. While Barak would head the army…God would receive the glory for He would hand over the true victory to a woman!

Ask) What can we learn from this?

First and foremost, that the Lord uses whom He wishes to use! (discuss Genesis and the chosen line)

Application: Men should be willing and eager to be about the business of the Lord…for the Lord will not be held back by our inaction!

Read Judges 4:10-16

The call to Israel is made, or at least to two of the tribes…and the people respond. Through verse 11 we see that Israel is being observed…what is happening is that Barak is preparing his army to free Israel from the oppression of King Jabin…and of course general Sisera notices and responds by calling out the occupying army…likely he plans to quickly put down this rebellion…but little does he know that he faces not an army of men but the power and judgment of God!

Note Deborah’s cry in verse 14. She does not encourage Barak by telling him that he has raised up a powerful army and surely they will defeat Sisera…on the contrary…upon what basis is she confident of the victory? Her confidence rests upon the One whom she serves! The confidence that God’s words to her would come true for no other reason than that it is He who has spoken them! Likewise, our trust in His word rests solely on the character of He who gave it to us, is it not?

Now note verse 15...who routes Sisera? God Himself! Iron chariots, no matter how numerous, cannot stand against the Lord! Pity the man who arms himself against God! Think of those fools who even today make war on God, denying His very existence! Will they win? No! The day that God can be defeated will NEVER come!

Note just how total is the defeat! The army of Sisera is destroyed completely! Verse 16 tells us that not one man survives! These men either died by the sword or drowned (remember from verse 13 that the battle takes place near a river…and Judges 5:21 testifies to the fact that many were swept away by the river) Their iron chariots did them no good! Likewise, let us remember that the enemies of God today can do us no harm other than that which the Lord permits…therefore let us be confident in our walk with God. So yes, it is possible, even likely, that God’s people may be killed and His houses of worship destroyed…but His people CANNOT be defeated because they are not fighting the battle…He is!!

Points to consider:

· Israel feared the terrible iron chariots of the enemy because their reverent fear of God was missing! As Matthew 10:28 tells us, we need fear ONLY the One that can destroy the soul as well as the body…and that Someone is God and nobody else!

· We see from verses 10-16 that it was God and nobody else…not Barak…not the armies of Israel…it was God alone that defeated Sisera!

Read Judges 4:17-24

In this passage we see how God brings down Sisera the mighty warrior. As He had spoken through Deborah, the mighty general dies at the hand of a woman…dies not gloriously in battle but as he slept and hid from those whom he now feared.

Verses 23 and 24 tell us again, in case we choose to forget, that God brought about this victory…that He strengthens the arms of Israel to the point that after this battle Israel goes on to destroy a mighty kingdom that had oppressed them…a kingdom that they were powerless against until God delivered them!

Application: As we face our daily challenges and ponder the many hardships we may face…we must always remember that God is the Master…and we His servants should eagerly seek to please Him rather than complain about what our circumstances are!

Are there any questions or comments? If not, close with prayer

"Rules for my Unborn Son" by Walker Lamond

I received this book and on the same day I finished reading it...it was THAT good! Now, this is not your typical book that you read from cover to cover (though that is exactly what I did!). As you might imagine, it is written in the form of snippets of advice by Mr. Lamond to his son. As he says in his introduction, many of these are sayings he picked up from his own father, though he has taken the liberty of modernizing them to include internet etiquette ("Never post a picture online you wouldn't feel comfortable showing your mother, your boss, and the dean of administration" from page 100). Yes, many of these are common sense...but isn't that exactly what we need to hear over and over?

In his introduction, Lamond says that boys need rules and that "somewhere along the way, rules got a bad name...[r]ules were seen as antiquated obstacles...and the game of life suddenly got a bit sloppier, more uncertain, and even a bit less fun." Which, in my humble opinion, is quite profound!

On the day I received the book, before I even read the introduction, I opened it up to the first little entry and read the following: "When in doubt, wear a tie." I knew from that moment this would be my kind of book...and it was! This is the kind of book every male should read. Not that every entry is necessarily true for everyone, but the simple idea that rules are there for a reason is something the men of our society need to understand. If only we could return to a time when men were men not because they cussed or had sex with lots of women, but because they took responsibility for their own actions and understood that sometimes we have to do what is right...even when we'd rather just do what is easy.

Do I recommend this book? Without any hesitation! This is a keeper and belongs on the bookshelves of every home!

"A Climate for Change" by Katharine Hayhoe & Andrew Farley

I don't know exactly what I expected to discover in reading this book but I came away somewhat disappointed with it. The authors, Katherine Hayhoe and Andrew Farley, begin by identifying themselves as Christians with a biblical worldview, purporting to have written a book that addresses the issue of global warming without any political agenda.

Unfortunately this is a bit misleading since throughout the book they declare the importance of educating ourselves about the dire consequences we face with global warming and how the only real solution is to institute "cap and trade" legislation and begin reducing our dependance on fossil fuels. On this latter point I wholeheartely agree, but not because of the imminent natural catastrophe supposedly facing us but because of the real danger from the Islamic nations that mostly control the majority of the earth's oil reserves. To be fair to the authors, their final two chapters do a decent job of providing simple and effective steps we can take to do our little part in being conscious of our environment. They even bring attention to God's command that we are to be stewards of the earth, and base their activism on this. I agree, but recent developments regarding the duplicity of the environmental movement make me take the research they provide with a grain of salt. Frankly, had they written this book mainly about our Christian reponsibility to the planet which God has given us dominion over, I would have been more enthused.

As it is written, however, I cannot fully recommend this book.

Isaiah 1:1-6

I've mentioned on my Facebook account that our family is engaged in a study of Isaiah so I am going to post here the contributions that I am making to the study. The members of the study are pretty spread out, with some of us here in Idaho and some over in the state of Washington so our study is taking place through old fashioned mail! Anyhow, here are the notes for the first few verses!


Tidbits about Isaiah:
 Isaiah prophesized for 40 years
 Tradition states that Isaiah was martyred in 687 BC by being cut in two by a wooden saw.
 Isaiah was a prophet during the division of Israel, with Israel in the north and Judah in the South…
 Isaiah is longest book of prophecy
 In the NT, Isaiah is quoted more often than all of the other OT books except the Psalms

On prophets:
We all know that prophets communicated the words of God to His people, and there are those today who think we still have prophets in our midst. John Calvin provides a good description of what a prophet did…a status by which we may judge those who come to us today claiming to hold to this office.

He referred to prophets as commentators of the Law; “[t]hus when the Prophets inculcate moral duties, they bring forward nothing new, but only explain those parts of the Law which had been misunderstood. For instance, the people thought that they had discharged their duty admirably, when they offered sacrifices and performed the outward services of religion; for the world measures God by its own standard, and renders to him a carnal and counterfeited worship. The Prophets sharply reprove this, and show that all ceremonies are of no avail, when sincerity of heart is wanting, and that God is worshipped by believing on him, and by actually calling on his name. This had indeed been plainly enough declared by the Law; but it was necessary that it should be earnestly inculcated and frequently brought to their remembrance, and likewise that there should be an exposure of that hypocrisy with which men cloak themselves under the guise of ceremonies.”

Calvin goes on to say that “what Moses had stated in general terms they [the prophets] minutely describe. They have likewise visions which peculiarly belong to them, by which the Lord revealed future events, in order to apply the promises and threatenings to the use of the people, and to declare more fully the will of God.”

Read Isaiah 1:1-6

Isaiah was the son of a man named Amoz, and we read in the first verse that his prophecies were given throughout the reign of four different kings of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, finally being killed by a fifth King, Manasseh.

The people of Judah, Israel, have been God’s own special people. Ever since He called out Abram from Ur, they have been a group called out to bear special witness of His nature, both His mercy and His wrath.

Indeed, note the sad quality of verses 2-3

God nourished Israel…He brought them up and cared for them as his special people, His very own children. But have they been faithful to Him? Have they appreciated the care with which He has protected them? No. God says that even an animal can show appreciation towards a master, yet His very own people do not understand Him.

The entire earth is in rebellion against God, yet His concern is that Israel is not obedient…likewise God today desires that His people walk in complete obedience to His Word, and despite the fact that the whole world is a moral cesspool, it is the disobedience of His elect that grieves our Lord. That the elect can sin and remain elect is a testimony to God’s mercy and to His love for if He did not have a special love for us, He would quickly damn us to hell.

And consider just how terrible Israel is that God calls it a sinful nation, laden with iniquity. The word “laden” is the Hebrew ka^be^d (kaw-bade'), which means “heavy.” John Gill comments that it brings forth the imagery of a beast of burden carrying a heavy load. The big difference being that Israel has placed this load on itself and refuses to unload it!

Next, the Lord calls them “a brood of evildoers.” We have to understand this: our sin is not simply something “bad” that we do. It is evil. But let’s be honest…we don’t really look at it this way, do we?

If we did, do you think we would be so quick to lose our tempers? So eager to expose our eyes to images we should avoid?

All of the urges we face, all of the temptations we encounter…they would lose so much of their power if we would do a couple of things: 1) Read our Bibles, and 2) Believe that what we read is true. Not just give it mental assent, but make it a part of us. It is sad to ponder, don’t you think, how terribly we must grieve the Spirit that lives within us?

When you think of a child, what do you think? Innocence? Vulnerability?

Imagine, then, the horror of a child that is evil, and that causes others to do evil. Yet this is what God likens Israel to. They have forsaken God, and by their sin they have aroused God to anger. The Holy One of Israel is now angry at a backsliding Israel!

What about the elect today? Are we children who corrupt? Do we masquerade as lovers of the Word and prostitute ourselves with the world? A world that does not honor our Father? Yet how can we expect the Father to be honored by the world when the children don’t honor Him?

Look now at verses 5 & 6)

“Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints”

The Lord brings correction to those who are His…many times He has indeed stricken Israel and brought them back to Himself, causing them to repent of their rebellion against Him. Yet here He asks…“why?”

In other words…”what’s the point?”

Not one of us here today should fail to be condemned…struck in our very souls, as we read these words to Israel and consider whether they could be applied to ourselves!

God is a loving Father who chastises His children when they err, because He loves them! Now imagine His frustration…imagine the rebellion it must take for Him to say, “yeah I would discipline you, but you’ll only do it again!”

What a rebuke!

Here the object of this rebuke is Israel, but do not think for one minute that we are exempt! Let us make sure we walk in the path of obedience, let us encourage and exhort those around us to do likewise, that our God will be pleased with us. And if we should fall into sin, let us express sorrowful repentance that our God will discipline us for His sake, for our good.

“From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.”

God, speaking through His prophet Isaiah, continues to compare Israel to a sickened body. The body that is Israel is filled with illness…the virus has taken over the entire body!

(I'll post the next few verses another day!)

The Word of God

We have not had the sword tag group out in awhile but today, on Christmas Eve day, we are hosting the group. I think we are expecting about 7 or 8 teens but I'm not sure how many will actually show up. The following is a little study I wrote up this morning...though really it is more of a directed conversation! :-) I'm hoping it will spark discusssion and further research on the part of these young men.

Here is the study (I will post a p.s. later today!):
__________________________________________

The Word of God

December 24, 2009

Ask: What is the Bible?

It is a collection of books written by men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit, therefore the very Word of God.

Two key passages that substantiate this are 2 Timothy 3:16-17 & 2 Peter 1:16-21

R.C. Sproul writes that it is a fallible collection of infallible books…what does this mean?

• Every book in the Bible is infallible (meaning incapable of error)
• The order of the Bible itself is not infallible, but the content of the books themselves only

The Bible is not a textbook for history or science, but when it speaks on such things it is correct. The purpose of the Word of God is specifically to communicate to man the plan of God and His desire for our lives. By it we are to order our lives and judge the things we do and the things we do not do (see 2 Peter 1:3)

As Christians, the Bible is the ultimate authority for things…we may use the writings of learned men to guide us and help us understand the Truth, but it is the Bible that we turn to in the end. No matter how godly, no matter how intelligent…if anyone tells us something contrary to what the Bible teaches, we are to turn away from them. Paul himself warned Believers of this thing in Galatians 1:6-9. We also hear from Jude that our faith, which is founded on the very words of God, was “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

Finally, Jesus the Lord demands our obedience. He says in John 14:15 that if we love Him we are to keep His commandments. Such a command could not be given and then those commands hidden from us could they? No, of course not!

So this is a very basic overview of what the Bible is and what it means to us…it is an affirmation of the term sola Scriptura, one of the five solas of the Protestant Reformation:
• Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone)
• Sola Fide (Faith alone)
• Sola Gratia (Grace alone)
• Solus Christus (Christ alone)
• Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God alone)
Are there any questions?

Next time we meet we will discuss the question of how we can trust that the Bible is what it claims to be…or rather, what evidences exist to support our faith in the Word of God?

Close in prayer

UPDATE:

We had a total of seven boys today, the youngest about 12 and the oldest was, I think, 18. I had a great time being defeated by everybody! :-)

Ashamed of Christ?

"...what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels." - Luke 9:25-26

I hope somebody will soon point out these verses to our supposedly Christian president, Mr. Obama. It appears that the Obama family briefly considered doing without a nativity as a means of being sensitive to those of other faiths. See here for more on that.

Now I know there are many people who deny that we are a Christian nation, and I agree with this sentiment. We are NOT a nation that abides by the teachings of the Word of God. We are, however, a nation founded upon Christian principles and a nation where the majority of people at least give lip service to Almighty God. Only a revisionist would try to deny this (and a silly revisionist at that since it would require ignoring actual historical data!). As a nation founded upon such principles, I think it is silly for us to attempt to minimize any mention of Christianity in the public realm for fear of offending those who believe differently or those who are atheist (who possess their own form of faith as well). Trust me, if we travel to Muslim nations, Islamic teachings will not be obscured for fear of offending our delicate American sensibilities. If we travel to Latin America, Catholicism will be overwhelmingly in our faces! And yet, we in America are so afraid of offending others that we have set aside our own faith in order to appease those who immigrate to our country...forgetting that it is the duty of the one coming here to assimilate to our culture and not the other way around.

The point, however, is this: We have a man who professes to be a Christian as head of our nation (though based on the lack of fruit I question the sincerity of his faith). This man was more than willing to have a Ramadan dinner with Muslims IN the white house, yet in order to appease these very Muslims and all others, he is hesitant to display a nativity? Hmm...it's okay to celebrate the beliefs of others, but not our own? That is foolishness and political correctness run amock!

Saddest of all, however, is what this means for our President. He will one day stand before the Lord and will give an account for all that he had done, is doing, and will do. If he continues to deny the Lord he claims to believe in, then the reality is that he will not be recognized by the Lord of Lords on judgment day.

Let us pray that our President comes to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and that he bears fruit worhty of the Master.