Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Dodo, a man of Istakar,
and he lived at Shamir in the hill
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country of Ephraim, and he judged
Israel thirty or twenty three years. Then
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he died and was buried at Schamir. After him arose Jare, the Guileadite,
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the Gileadite who judged Israel twenty two
years, and he had thirty sons
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who wrote on thirty donkeys, and
they had thirty cities called Havath Jare to
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this day, which are in the
land of Gilead. And jared died and
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was buried in Cayman. The people
of Israel again did what was evil in
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the sight of the Lord and served
the balls and Astrath, the gods of
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Syria, the gods of Sidon,
the gods of MOAB, the Gods of
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the ammonites and the gods of the
Philistines, and they forsook the Lord and
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did not serve him. So the
anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel
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and he sold them into the hands
of the Philistines and into the hands of
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the ammonites and they crushed and oppressed
the people of Israel that year. For
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eighteen years they oppressed all the people
of Israel who were beyond the Jordans and
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the land of the Amorites, which
is in Gilead, and the ammonites crossed
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the Jordan to fight also against Judah
and against Benjamin and against the House of
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Ephraim, so that Israel was severely
distressed, and the people of Israel cried
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out to the Lord, saying we
have sinned against you because we have forsaken
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our God and have served the balls. And the Lord said to the people
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of Israel, did I not save
you from the Egyptians and the Amorites,
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from the AMMONITES and from the Philistines? The SIDONIANS also, and the Malakites
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and the mayonites oppressed you and you
cried out to me and I saved you
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out of their hand. Yet you
have forsaken me and served other gods.
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Therefore, I will save you no
more. Go and cry out to the
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Gods whom you have chosen. Let
them save you in the time of your
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distress. And the people of Israel
said to the Lord, we have sinned
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due to us. Whatever seems good
to you, only please deliver us this
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day. So they put away the
foreign gods from among them and serve the
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Lord and he became impatient over the
misery of Israel. Then the ammonites were
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called to arms and the encamped and
Gilead and the people of Israel came together
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and the encamped at Mispa and the
people, the leaders of Gilead said one
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to another, who was the man
who began to fight against the AMMONITES?
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He shall be head over all the
inhabitants of Gilead. Thus will end the
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reading of God's word. Please be
seated. Well, last time that I
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was with you, we looked at
one of the worst periods in the history
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of Israel and one of the worst
periods in the history of the book of
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judges. We looked at Abimelech UH, not a pleasant story at all.
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We looked at Gaul and ZA bull
and the treachery the people of Shek Um.
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We saw deceit, we saw revenge, we saw back by and we
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saw murder. We saw all of
these things. It was a terrible time
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in the history of Israel. So
to its text begins with two relative unknown
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judges of Israel, and what we
do know about these judges must mostly be
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gained by inference. The text really
doesn't tell us very much about them.
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So we begin by looking at verses
one through five. These verses are looked
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at is kind of an interlude in
the book of judges. As I said,
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we know quite a bit about Gideon, we're told quite a bit about
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a Bimelech, but now we have
two judges who are just briefly passed by
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and then after these two men will
come another judge. That will happen in
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chapter eleven, of whom we know
a little bit more and uh, we're
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told at least the whole chapter concerning
him. His name is Jeff. But
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after him they will come another period
of time where we have three more judges,
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and I would put out as a
challenge that I doubt. But after
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the service you can tell me if
I'm wrong. But I doubt if any
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of you could name those three judges
that come after J ff. But if
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you can, please let me know, because I couldn't have done it.
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So Um, that would be that
would be pretty good. But if you
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happen not to know their names right
now, their names are Ibsen, Elon
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and Ab Dott. So if you
didn't know that, those are them.
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Not Quite as familiar with shadrack Mishak
and the Bendigal, so you are forgiven
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for not knowing. And then after
them will came the most famous and the
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last judge of Israel. You've probably
heard of him. His name is Samson
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Um, and so that's what we're
going to have here. So right now
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and interlude is kind of like there's
been different things, similars put out for
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this but since we're in Tucson,
it's like a little CS. Okay,
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it's it's it's just a little break
into proceedings. It's it's similar to an
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intermission in a play where you go
and gets yourself a refreshment of some kind
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and talk to your neighbors or friends
that are there and see people are there.
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It's it's that kind of a deal. It is just gives us a
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little break here. And and so
we have here in the book of judges
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a forty five year period of which
we basically know nothing. We're not really
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sure what happens in this time verse. One tells us that after the bloody
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reign of Abimelech, there needed someone
to rise at Israel who would save them,
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and we are told that that someone
is Tola, the son of Pua
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the son of Dodo, a poor
and Dodo. We know absolutely basically nothing
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at all, only that Dodo might
be a worse name than loathing, like
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we saw last week. So I
don't I don't think any of the women
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we pray tonight that are having a
child are thinking about naming their child Dodo
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Um. But if you are,
again you can tell me after the service.
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But speaking of bad names, Tola
means worm. That's a great name
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to right. That's that's another name
I'm sure you're thinking about naming your child.
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But but tola, we are told, as a man of Ishakar.
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His actually his name is the same
name. Aim has a son of Issachar,
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and we're gonna come into the same
kind of thing with Jare in a
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moment. We're told that tola lives
in Shamir, which we don't know.
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Some speculate, because the vowels are
the same and even the continental sounds are
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close, that perhaps Shamir is actually
what becomes known as Samaria, but others
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don't necessarily believe that. But he
also lives in Mount Ephraim, which is
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in the location of Samaria, so
that would fit. We're told he judges
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Israel for twenty three years. Then
he dies and is buried in Jamir,
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where he lived. So basically,
as Dr Javin and mcghee notes, all
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we're told about Tola's life is what
is normally found on a tombstone. So
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that's what we know about Tola.
Born this date, died on this date.
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That's pretty much it. So we
are really only told one thing about
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tola that we can kind of grasp
on, and that is that the phrase
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in verse one that he a roll
to save Israel. But there's a question
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that might cross your mind at that
point. Yeah, but save Israel from
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what or who? Nothing is said. We're not told of some enemy,
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we're not told of anything. So
who does he save Israel from? Well,
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it probably is that he saved Israel
from themselves. As Tim Keller said,
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the Church's greatest problem is the church. But at least he saved Israel
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from the terrible reign of Abimelech.
Barry Webb says of Toldah that he left
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Israel better than he found it,
and that's a mighty good thing to be
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remembered for. And my years of
Pastoring, I'm hoping that I can say
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that of the Churches I pastored.
I'm not talking about temporary ones, so
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don't don't count this, but the
ones that I think I pastored, I
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believe I left in a little better
shaped than were founded and I'm thankful for
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that. But we're talking about another
judge in verses three through five, and
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we're told more about him then we're
told about tola, but we're still left
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guessing about his accomplishments. His name
is Jaire, which means he enlightens,
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which I have to admit, is
a better name than worm Um, and
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he is a Gileadite. And he
also bears the same name as a son
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of one of the heads of the
twelve tribes. Again we run into this
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once more. Numbers thirty two,
forty one, and Jay or, the
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son of Manassa, went and took
the small towns thereof and called them have
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a j are, just like the
Jaire sons do in our text today.
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But again, what did he do
militarily? Who did you deliver Israel from?
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What did we do? We don't
know. We don't know anything about
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it that at all. We're we're
not told about any military accomplishments. The
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only thing we're really told is that
he had thirty sons. That's his claim
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to fame, which probably isn't a
good thing, because to have thirty sons,
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he probably had a few wives,
which isn't the best thing at all,
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and so he's not alone in that
department biblically, of course, certainly
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there's others, but nonetheless it's not
a good thing. We're told a little
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bit more about his sons that were
told about him. They wrote on thirty
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donkeys and they had thirty cities that
they called have a chair, just like
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the ones earlier that I mentioned.
And have a chair simply means the cities
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of Jaire, or the hamlets of
Jaire, if you please. And these
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two facts that are given to us, even though they're small, and we
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said, okay, they thirty sons, wrote on donkeys and they had thirty
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cities and they named him the cities
of Jaire. But nonetheless it probably indicates
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to us that Jaire was trying to
form a little dynasty and he wanted his
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sons to go on and and rule
the nation at that time. Now we
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have, I think, a different
opinion of donkeys than the scripture would have
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us. I have an opinion of
I I don't really have a high opinion.
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I don't. I don't think too
many people do, of donkeys.
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Um. But they were much higher
thought of in those days. A few
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years ago I was down in New
Orleans with my wife and another couple and
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uh, I always I had been
there before and when I was there I
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always saw the drawn carts and I
thought, oh, what a romantic thing
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to you know, I gotta bring
my wife here sometime. We gotta take
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one of these rides through the city. I thought it was great. So
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so I did and we got into
the into the cart and I immediately asked
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the driver of the cart, Um, you know something about the horse and
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he said, well, this isn't
a horse, this is a mule.
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So that tells you a little bit
about my horse sense. Uh A,
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is what I know. But apparently
I found out it was illegal to make
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horses work in the city. You
couldn't do that. So they had to
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have mules and in doing that.
But but a donkey in those days and
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the days of the Bible, was
actually looked at as a regal animal.
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When we read about Jesus coming to
the city and the triumphal entry at a
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donkey and we hear about a meek
and lowly it's not because the donkey was
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meek and lowly, it's because Jesus
was meek and lowly. The donkey was
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a regal animal and is looked at
in that way. And it says in
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the EXPOSITOR's Bible commentary. It says
doctors were signs of royalty, wealth and
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military prowess. And then Jair's sons
are apparently ruling over the thirty cities and
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so they seem to be forming a
dynasty with his regal donkeys that they're having
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and all these things. And the
fact that Jayer lives in Gilead indicates he
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had life pretty good. Why do
we say that? Or you remember when
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the tribes of Israel that on the
other side, Gad and Reuben remember whenever
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we're going into the promised land.
Are Going to go in? They said,
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well, you know, we like
it here. They were on Gilead,
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the other side of the Jordan.
He said we we like it here,
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we don't really want to go get
land over there. And Moses said,
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okay, but you're gonna fight with
your brother until they get their land
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and then you can go back.
So Gilead must have been a pretty nice
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piece of property based on that.
So what was happening again in Israel?
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Well, we don't know, but
when the AMMONITES and the Philistines are getting
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ready to attack, the AMMONITES will
attack under J J fef. He will
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be the they will be the enemy
he faces, and the Philistines, as
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I'm sure you know, will be
the enemy that Sampson is going to face.
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But it appears that Jare has done
nothing, absolutely nothing, to prepare
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Israel for war with ammon and so
we don't have a lot of good to
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say about him either. And so
let's move the verses six or thirteen.
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In in verse six, for the
sixth time in the book, we're told
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the children of Israel again did what
was evil in the side of the Lord.
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But we're not told what the evil
was that they did. But when
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we're told what it is, and
there's there's times and judges where it says
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the children of Israel did evil and
that's all it says. There are other
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times it tells us why they did
and whenever it tells us what they did,
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guess what it is. Idolatry.
It's always idolatry. And so here
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again, it's going to be idolatry, but here they don't just do like
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they did before and take the gods
of one nation, but here they take
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the gods of five nations in order
to serve them. They serve the God's
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Assyria, the Gods of Sidon,
the gods of MOAB, the gods of
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Amin and the Gods of the Philistines. And, as they said, two
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of those nations will be the next
two enemies that they're going to face.
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Sidon, as far as we know
in the book of judges, never was
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an enemy to Israel that they faced. But anyway, this, this list
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here is the longest list in the
book of judges of the kinds of Gods
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Israel's served, which some belief indicates
that Israel's apostasy had reached new levels and
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that they were serving all of these
different Gods. And it seems to bear
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out by God's response to their cry
out to God that will see here in
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a moment. The only God they
decided not to worship was the true God.
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They worshiped all the false gods,
but they didn't worship the true God,
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and that God they forsook. And
whenever I read something like that.
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I always have reminded, and it's
a vivid picture in my mind, because
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we saw a sister in Israel and
the Guide pointed out uh this scripture and
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it's always stayed in my mind since
then. Jeremiah, to eleven, to
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thirteen, has a nation changed its
gods, even though they are no gods.
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But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
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Be Appalled, O Heavens, at
this. Be Shocked, be utterly desolate,
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declares the Lord from my people have
committed to evils. They have forsaken
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me, the fountain of Living Waters, and hued out cisterns for themselves,
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broken cisterns. They can hold no
water. Think of that. I mean
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a fountain, a spring of living
waters, but they gave it up for
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not only cisterns, but broken sister
that can't even hold water, which means
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it is a useless cistern. You
think by this time that Israel would have
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realized that this is not a good
path for them to follow, but Jeremiah
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reminds us in chapter seventeen and nine
that the heart is deceitful above all things,
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and desperately sick. Who can understand
it, but every time that they
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decide to go and serve the Gods
of other nations, they end up being
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oppressed by those nations. Peter Martyr
Vermigley writes. They considered that they themselves,
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who worshiped one God, were few
in number, but there was an
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infinite number of those who worshiped idols. And for as much as human nature
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is of itself ready unto pleasures,
hereof it came that they turned onto strange
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holy services. And undoubtedly the same
causes in our time move the minds of
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many, and that's true. The
result in verse seven is the anger of
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the Lord is kindled again Israel and
he sells them into the very nation of
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whose gods they're serving. The S
V says the anger of the Lord is
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kindled, but I kind of like
the King James Better here, because it
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says the anger of the Lord was
hot against Israel. I I like that
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very, very much. But the
second part of the verse is a terrible
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saying. It says that God sells
Israel. Instead of them being in service
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to God, now they are sold
into the service of the AMMONITES and the
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Philistines, which is basically God saying
I'm no longer going to be responsible.
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If you are in a particular job
and you decide to leave it for a
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different job and you tell your boss
and you leave your boss and you go
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to your new location, you are
no longer the responsibility of your past boss.
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He has nothing to worry about whatever
you do. It's out of his
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hands. He doesn't care. God
is saying, if you don't want to
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deal with me, fine, I
won't deal with you. The result the
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E S V gives in very vivid
language in verse eight concerning the AMMONITES.
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They crushed and oppressed the people of
Israel that year. The first word for
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crush, the King James, translates
as vexed. I don't particularly care for
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that. Strong says. The word
means to break in pieces. So they
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broke in pieces the Israelites, a
very violent word. And the second word,
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strong says, means to crack in
pieces. Bratt Brown, driver Briggs
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says the word means to crush or
oppress. So it seems like they endure
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a severe oppression. And in verse
nine, the ammonites now come across Jordan's
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to be in the area where they
can fight against some of the tribes of
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Israel, specifically Judah, Benjamin and
Ephraim. In verse ten we have the
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common response of Israel when their enemies
are coming against them. They cry out
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to their own God and they confess
their main sin, which is, of
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course, idolatry and forsaking the true
God and worshiping false gods. And here
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we have something in this little story. When I read this, at least
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in my mind, I was reminded
of the story of Samson. It will
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come across a little later, and
you might remember Sampson, that when Delilah
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is with him and she said tell
me where your strength lies, and he
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three times he tells her something and
uh, and each time she does exactly
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what he says. And then she
says the Philistines are upon you, and
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he gets up, but he breaks
off the cords and destroys the Philistines.
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And then she comes back and says, well, you must not really love
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me, and and again says to
him, you know, tell me,
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and again he does and he lies. And then there's the third time same
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thing is repeated. Uh. And
then the fourth time that she says that
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he's all finally just kind of overcome
and he tells her that if a razor
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touches his head he will lose the
strength. And in that case, it
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says in Verse Twenty of that chapter, he awoke from his sleep and he
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said, I will go out at
other times and shake myself free. But
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he did not know that the Lord
had left him. So here in chapter
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three, verse nine, we saw
Israel crying out to the Lord because of
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the enemies. Verse Fifteen of that
chapter the same thing. They cry out
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to God and he raises a deliverer. In chapter four, verse three,
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again Israel Christ the Lord and God
raises up Debora and Barrick. Chapter six,
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verse seventies or cries out to the
Lord and God raises up Gideon.
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Well, this time, like Sampson, they go to the Lord and God
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Says No, I don't think so, not this time, and God doesn't
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promise to raise up a deliverer to
them. And God reminds them of this
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and he tells them in verses eleven
and twelve that he had delivered them from
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a certain number of enemies. Anybody
have a guess as to how many enemies?
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Seven good, thank you. Yes, seven enemies. But this is
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the fifth time you read of their
far crying out to God. And this
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time I say they're in for a
shock. They expect things to be just
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like it was, like Sampson felt. But in verse thirteen God says,
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I will save you no more.
And in verse fourteen, and Great Irony,
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the Lord says go cry to the
Gods, you have chosen, maybe
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they will deliver you. Now again, when I read this I'm reminded of
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another story in the book of Kings
where Elijah is challenging the prophets of bail
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and they're crying out and cutting themselves
with stones and yelling and screaming, and
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Elijah finally says to them, maybe
you need to cry it a little longer.
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He could be going or a little
older, could be going to the
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restroom, you know. And Uh, and I kind of like that challenge
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of of Elijah there. But again
God said, go to the Gods,
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you've chose, maybe they are going
to deliver you. Michael Wilcox paraphrases the
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saying of the Lord, by I
know this cry of years is it's merely
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a cry for help which might just
as well be addressed to the balls as
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to me. And Israel is not
so much story for their sins, as
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their story, for the consequences that
have come as a result of their sins.
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So we look at versus fourteen through
eighteen, fifteen through eighteen, in
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verse fifteen, Israel does seem to
do the right thing in response to this.
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They admit their sin and they say
to God, which is a good
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thing to say, God, you
do whatever you want to us, that's
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fine. However you desire, you
do it. But he says one thing.
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They want, please deliver us this
day. And in Verse Sixteen they
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put legs to their words and they
put away the foreign gods they've been serving.
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and has been mentioned by others,
this is the most complete show of
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repentance we see of Israel in all
the book of judges. But is it
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sincere? Does Israel really mean business
this time? And then it says a
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very interesting thing about God. It
says he became impatient over the misery of
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Israel. Now we always got to
be careful when we read a sentence like
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that in the Bible and understand that
God doesn't have the same infirmities nor the
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same passions that we have. And
and it doesn't say that he was impressed
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with their repentance, but he was
impatient with the misery that Israel was enduring.
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One translator. Translator says he could
bear Israel's misery no longer. So
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in verse seventy of the AMMONITES,
perhaps sensing an uprising, armed themselves in
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camp and Gilead and in response,
Israel caps at ms pop and the verse
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a teen asked a question has asked
three times in the book of Judges and
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the question is a little bit different
in each time. But here the question
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is who is the man who is
going to begin to fight against the AMMONITES?
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In case you wonder who that is, it's in chapter eleven. Talk
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about that next time. And then
in the first verse of judges we read
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this after the death of Joshua,
the people of Israel inquired of the Lord
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who shall go up first for us
against the Canaanites, to fight against them.
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And then towards the end of the
book, Chapter Verse Eighteen, will
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read the people of Israel arose and
went up to Bethel and inquired of God
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who will go up first for us
to fight against the people of Benjamin.
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Well, the first question is answered
by Jeff Thah and the last two questions
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are answered by Judah will be the
one. And so here they add to
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the question that they asked that whoever
that man is, who first goes to
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strike against the AMMONITES, that man
will be the ruler over the nation.
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Well, let me make some applications
as I close here tonight. Again we
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see in our text time and time
again, Israel continues to find themselves worshiping
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the Gods of other nations, and
we must, we probably do. Maybe
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you don't, but I do,
shake our heads at it. Think,
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come on, don't you people ever
learn? I mean how many times and
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what are these God's ever ever done
for you? Anyway, I don't get
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it. And and every time they
worship the true God and they forsake their
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idols. God sends a deliver delivers
them, and it's like how many times
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you get hit over the head with
the club before you recognize what you're doing
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is foolish. And they always go
uh finding these foreign deities and then they
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always end up serving the God are
the people whose gods they were and you'd
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think, man, wouldn't they learn? But then you wonder sometimes, first
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of all, what about we as
a nation? And again, I'm not
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a political preacher, and I'm not
trying to preach Americanism or anything like that
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my sermon, but we know that
America was founded by Godly people, for
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the most part, I realized,
not everyone, but there were many who
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fled Europe because of religious persecution and
many churches were early established in America,
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many godly people it came over here. They weren't perfect people, but for
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the most part they worshiped the god
of the Bible. But today, how
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many of our nation worshiped the gods
of Buddha, the gods of Hinduism,
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the Gods of tribal cultures and many
more gods that I could mention. And
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let me ask you this question.
Have you ever found yourself committing a sin
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that you keep committing over and over
again, even though you know every time
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you've committed a sin like that you've
had embarrassment, a sense of God's presence
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forsaking and we do it. We
are no different. Our sins may be
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different, but we are no different
because the things that we do become idols
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to us as well. They are
different idols, but their idols we all
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have, as the puritans used to
speak of our darling sins. What Israel
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does in this chapter and what God
does in response is what Paul will describe
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later in the Bible and Romans,
Chapter One versus twenty one to twenty three.
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For although they knew God, they
did not honor them as God or
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give thanks to them, but they
became futile and their thinking and their foolish
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hearts were darkened. Claiming to be
wise, they became fools and exchange the
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glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals and
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creeping things. In other words,
they forsook the truth, Forsook the true
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God and worship false gods. So
we read in our text, when Israel
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did this, that God sold them
into the ammonites and Philistines. Romans says
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it the same, but a little
different. In Romans, therefore, God
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gave them up and the loss of
their hearts, to impurity, to dishonoring
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their bodies among themselves. They wanted
a master different than Jesus, and so
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Jesus said no one can serve two
masters. So if that's the master you
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want, then that's the master you
can have. Many people are content to
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worship God as long as God doesn't
interfere with their idols, then they don't
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like it. So Israel in our
text shows to us the danger there is
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in presuming upon God's grace. Now
I do believe, and I've told you
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this several times from this pulpit,
I believe it firmly, that the humble,
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sincere believer who comes to God for
forgiveness that God will indeed receive them
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and forgive them. But I also
want to say there are two cautions,
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and I want to close with these
tonight. The first caution I would give
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you is that although there is forgiveness, there can also be a penalty or
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a judgment that comes with that forgiveness. God will forgive David of his adultery
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and murder, but the child,
the fruit of his sin, is going
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to die. God will forgive Israel
for forsaking him and worshiping idols, but
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there will be an oppression that they
need to endure. God will forgive Adam
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and Eve in the garden, but
Oh what a penalty they have to endure.
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God will forgive Asiah for doing what
only the priest were allowed to do,
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but as I will become a leper
to the day of his death.
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So we need to be careful because
there can be consequences, grave consequences,
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to our sin and grace. Oftentimes
that doesn't happen. God is many times
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gracious to us, much more gracious
than we deserve. But the second danger
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is we can become a servant to
that sin that we allow. Paul says
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to the Romans and chapter six and
Verse Twelve, let not sin therefore reign
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in your mortal body, that you
should obey it, in the lust thereof.
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He's writing to Christians. And the
other thing that that can do is
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we begin to serve our lust.
Is it can lead to a hardness of
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heart. After David committed his sin, he seemed to go along quite well
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for a while because his heart was
hardened against what he did. But one
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day the Prophet comes in and tells
David a little story about a man,
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a poor man, who had one
lamb, and when David gets done here
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in the story, he says,
show me to that man, and Nathan
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says, David, you're the man, you're the one, and then we
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see David penitent heart and a psalm
like Psalm thirty two or Psalm fifty one.
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Let me ask you this question.
Do you know what might be the
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last line written in our bibles?
Now, probably your mind is going to
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the book of revelation, and that
would make sense and it's very possible that
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the last line of the book of
revelation is indeed the last line of the
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Bible. But you know, John
wrote the last four books of the Bible
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and we really don't know in what
order those books were written. That we're
399
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not sure. Several years ago I
was at a graduation at a seminary and
400
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I heard Dr Gaffin talk about first
John as making a case for it being
401
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the last book of the New Testament, the last book of the Bible,
402
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and so we emphasized the last line
of the book of First John, and
403
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I wonder if you know what that
last line of First John Is. It
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relates very much to our text tonight. The last line is little children,
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keep yourselves from IDYLS. The same
danger that Israel faced is the danger we
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face. The same exhortation comes to
us. It was the problem of the
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children of Israel and it's also a
problem to the people of God to day.
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So let me close by saying to
those of you who trust in the
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Lord, those of you who believe
in him come to the cross, those
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of you submitted to the Lord Jesus
and received His grace and everlasting life.
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May I say to you what may
be the last words of the Bible.
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Little children, keep yourself from IDYLS. Don Me pray. Let me thank
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you for your word, even the
words that are somewhat, kind of hard
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and, as sad's Lord, even
hard to understand, how to relate to
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us. But, Lord, you
can make them, every word and the
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Bible relate to us, speak to
our hearts and show us where we're wrong
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and show us the path to grace. And we thank you for that.
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We thank you God, as we're
going to sing in a moment, that
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we are very blessed because our trespasses
have been forgiven. But I pray,
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Lord, you would help each one. And there are those who are not
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following you, who have not given
themselves to you. I pray tonight that
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they may indeed just reach out to
you and cry out to you and receive
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grace from you. And for those
of us that have done that but may
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be bothered by a sin that continues
to come up again and again in our
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life, may we not be like
the Israelites. But Lord, help us
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to conquer that sin and help us
to keep ourselves at all costs from ideals
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that can enslave us and can harm
us. Lord, I pray God for
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Your blessing upon us and the strength
that you can give us, for we
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ask an in Christ name. Amen. M H
