Breaking Badly 5: The Book of Judges

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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Breaking Badly Episode number five. We're gonna look at two judges off D. L and A. Hue, the first stories of the judges themselves. But before we jump into those stories, it helps remember how the Book of Judges is structured. Judges are not just random storytelling. It's carefully arranged and edited narrative. The book begins with two prologues which explained how israel spiritual collapse began. At the end of the book, there are two epilogues which show the depth of corruption that eventually overtakes Israel, including corruption among the priesthood itself. And between those two bookends are the stories of the judges, twelve of them. The number twelve is probably intentional, just as Israel had twelve tribes. The editor seems to be saying that every tribe had an opportunity to return to Yahweh, but they didn't. And one more thing to remember, these judges probably did not serve sequentially. Many of them likely ruled in different regions. At the same time, Israel was geographically fragmented and Canaanite people were scattered everywhere through the land. So today we're going to look at the first two judges in the narrative off the l and Ahood. Interestingly, they are the only judges in the book specifically described as being raised up by God. Just a little footnote, Welcome to Gospel rad podcast and Doctor Bill Senor YouTube channel. I'm your host, Doctor Bill Senyard. We are free wherever you get good podcasts, of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below if you're on YouTube or letting me know a Bill at gospeldash app dot com. Thank you already ahead of time for that. I really enjoy it. Also, thanks for making Gospel Red Podcasts one of the top ten percent in the world. I know, right. Thanks for listening every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love for the unlovable and loved, unlovely and worthy, unlikely and hurting. And that's all of us on any given day if we were just a little bit honest. I am learning so much by admitting that and even praying that. I want to get right into this. After a brief word from our sponsors, we'll be right back, all right. We'll begin with the first cycle. The cycle begins exactly the way we expect by now. Israel says, quote, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They forgot the Lord, their God, and served the bales and the Asherahs. The word translated for God doesn't mean simple absent mindedness. It carries the sense of ignoring and overlooking or abandoning the relationship. So Israel knew about Yahweh, they chose to live as if He were irrelevant and maybe distant, uncaring. You know, I'll get to him if I need to. Oh, God gives them what they want. They want to serve other gods. They then they will serve other gods. The text says that God sold them into the hands of a king named Kushan Rishathaiyam. That's quite a name. In fact, it roughly means Khushan the doubly wicked. Sounds like something from Hollywood, right, It's a perfect villain name the local Darth vader, and Israel serves him for eight years. Pause, think of that eight years. Eventually, eventually, this is how bad it got. Israel cries out to God, but noticed something very important. The text says they never repented Look, that's not just missing that's important. It simply says they cried out right. Sometimes when we cry out to God, where really repentant. We're in need, we're recognizing we can't do something, or we've messed things up and we can't fix them, and we're sorry about that. But sometimes we're just simply miserable. We complain, we protest, we blame God for the consequences of our own choices. Look, psalmists do as well. I'm not saying this is totally evil, but we're not repentance. Most of us have done that more than once. So Otiel is raised up in response to Israel's cried lack repentance. God raises up the first judge. Otiel Othiel is probably the closest thing the Book of Judges has to an ideal judge. He's a seasoned warrior. He's related to Caleb, and interestingly, Caleb himself was not originally an Israelite. He was a Kenezite who had been grafted into the tribe of Judah. So the very first judge that God raises up may not have been ethnically Jewish. It's a been a cosmic humor in that maybe God can't find faithfulness among his own people, He's gonna raise it up from some other people and the spirit comes upon him. The text says something important about Athiel, The spirit of the Lord came down upon him, and that phrase matters. When we read it today. We might assume it means Athiel experienced something like acts too or New Testament salvation. But in the Old Testament, the spirit coming down upon somebody often refers to empowering them for a specific task. So it doesn't mean that he was saved and going to heaven and got baptized, right. It doesn't mean that. Bruce Walke, a scholar, describes it as an overwhelming force God uses to accomplish his purposes. So, in other words, it doesn't necessarily mean that the judge is spiritually mature or morally superior. It simply means God has chosen to use that person and then defeats the oppressor. Israel experiences peace for forty years. But notice something strange. The text still doesn't say this is what missing Israel. You would expect Israel. There's a Disney ending they would go to Shiloh, and thank God, they don't. There's no individual repentance noted, or national repentance noted, or repentance of leaders noted. No sense of worship that's done in Shiloh. No renewed submission to yeahweh, that's Shiloh. They're free now, they stop complaining, but they don't worship God again. There was no repentance. They don't pursue the relationship. And that reveals the deep problem, doesn't it. If people who loved idols are suddenly given freedom, what do you think they're going to do with it? They're going to return to idols. We do that, You do it. I do it. I don't want to admit it, but yes, God saved me from that cancer. And then I go back to or save me from that financial from that and I just go back to that lawsuit, whatever it might be. Thanks got, that's great, and I'm gonna go back to work. So think addiction. Think about people who are suffering from core relational wounds, daddy and mommy wounds, child wounds, and so their brains have constructed highly protected walls to not let anyone who could possibly hurt us in. Instead, I don't have to worry about that if all I'm allowing is dopamine hits. Dopamine hits can't hurt me like relationships. So I traded experience of God's love for the unlovable and loved and lovely for a hit without strings or commitment from drugs or porn or athletics or whatever it might be. Right, and I plunge into normal human behavior called addiction, because for some reason, my subconscious feels safer with that risk than running to God. And you know, I run. The closer I get to God, the more shamed I feel, the more needy I feel, the more sense of I'd reject you that kind of thing, right. But when I get to God, I see his face. It's not that, but it's that path. I still find it way too hard to believe that he actually is irrationally, humanly speaking, crazy about me as I am so dope. We mean, hits from other things is so much cleaner, and it leads to addiction and not a sense of self worth. This is a crazy analogy. If any of you have been on ski boats, think of it as a ski boat. If you let go of the steering wheel, the boat naturally begins circling. It doesn't travel in a straight line, so someone actually has to continually apply force to the wheel. That's for safety reasons. Right, if you fall, you can get picked up. And human nature works the same way. Left alone, we circle. Left alone, we circle back towards the things that we had just gotten out of, or something like it. And that's what Israel does. Second Judge d one of the most memorable characters in the entire book. I think you'll enjoy this. So Israel once again abandons God, meaning they don't go worship God in Shiloh. So God gives them over to a new oppressor, a Moabite king named Eglon. Egglon the fat oppressor. Eglon probably means little calf. I think this could be the editor's sense of humor, because he wasn't a little calf at all. He was a huge cow. A little historical slur, an inside joke, right, could be I'm not saying, I'm just saying it could be. Egglon wasn't little at all. He was severely weight challenged. The calf refers probably to a fatten calf. In any matter, Ahu is going to slaughter him like a sacrificial cow. Egglon gathers allies and conquers the regent. He established the headquarters in Jericho and rules Israel for eighteen years. Eventually Israel cries out again and God raises up Echo. Ehud is an unusual hero. He comes from the tribe of Benjamin, so interesting guy. First of all, the editor is having some fun with Ehud. He's saw the tribe of Benjamin, which means son of my right hand, and Ehud, we're told, is restricted or bound in his right hand. The NIV just interprets this as if he was a lefty, but this just probably not the usual phrase for lefties. I think there's something else going on. Another commentator says that he was handicapped and therefore an unlikely hero in that culture that despised handicaps, and someone who would just not be suspected by foreign kings. Maybe see I have another idea. If Athiel I think brave heart, Ehud think Sealed Team six. In Judges twenty sixteen, we'd read of seven hundred of what are referred to as right hand bound cracked troops who were master marksmen with slings crack troops. I think that's the best way of seeing Erhud is a special ops assassin. Yeah, an ancient Jason born or Jack Bauer or Seal Team six, the sniper. He was trained special ops. This was a sophisticated assassination, but unfortunately who didn't seem to have a developed exit plan. So my guess is that this was a suicide vision. His plan involved a seat and intrigue. It's definitely Hollywood worthy. And since he was a lefty, right he could hide his sword under his tunic on his right inner thigh, and that's a place where the guards wouldn't have normally looked. They would have looked on his left side. So he came to Eglon with a tribute, which culturally meant a proclamation of obedience. He's clearly deceiving. It's a lie, not disproved of in this instance, by the way, and I'm gonna come back to that. Based upon Lefty's words and gifts, King Eglon would have reason to trust Lefty. Lefty then left the King's palace, took his entourage to the temples, turned back, feigning a message to the weight challenged apparently superstitious King Eglon from the gods. That's the plan. So he has an entourage, gives a gift, they're leaving, He comes back and says, I've got a message from the gods. Eglon doesn't want his attendance to hear this, so he dismisses them. He's expecting a prophecy of glory. Instead, Echo draws the hidden blade and plunges it into the king. And the Hebrew text here is vivid, shockingly so I think it was a suicide mission. Yet God providentially makes a way of escape for him. Bruce Walkie is is helpful here. The Hebrew is far more wonderful and earthy here than most English translations pick up. It seems that the sword cuts the bowels of Egglon, immediately penetrating the room with his most horrible smell, and it received that God was giving Ehud a smoke screen to hide his escape. The king's attendants smell the odor and just assumed that the king was using the bathroom. So in the meantime, Ehud performed a Hollywood esque escape. One scholar suggesting from the whole of the privy itself, and so he jumped down into the privy and ran out. I mean, you could run through some tunnels and get out of the region. Then he escapes back to Israel, hopefully took a bath. In the meantime, rallies the tribes to revolt, ten thousand Moabite soldiers fall, and Israel experiences peace again. So I mentioned the session, and the Bible didn't seem to criticize that Ehu lied. Is that okay? Biblically, the Bible does not condemn his actions here, but it also does an establish deception as general moral principle. All of us engage in deceit at times. If you play cards, you bluff. If you play football, you use misdirection. If you play baseball, you steal bases. It's part of the rules of the game. In war, that's key here, misdirection is used all the time and is not considered lying. In the Ten Commandments, it's foolish to send the enemy a list of your capabilities and plans, your strengths and weaknesses. It's a war, and war to seat is allowed. This was war. Rayhab deceived the authorities to protect the Israelite spies. War resistance fighters in World War two deceive Nazi forces to protect Jews. War, But that does not mean to set becomes a normal tool for everyday life for the followers of Jesus. Our weapon is not deception. Our weapon is truth. Well, even after Ahood's victory, the deeper problem remains. Again Israel's free, but they don't go to Shiloh. They still don't rebuild their relationship with God. They simply return to their idols, and the cycle continues. Because the Judges can only rescue Israel from external oppression, not internal. For that faith is needed, faith comes to the spirit. They cannot heal Israel's internal rebellion. For that, something greater is needed. They need a greater deliverer, and Judges quietly prepares us for that great savior, a deliverer greater than Atheel, greater than Echud, one who will not simply defeat an enemy king, but will defeat the ultimate enemy, me, my sin, my death, even Satan himself. That savior will come from the tribe of Judah, and his name will once again mean God. Save Jesus. Just sure and unlike the Judges, Jesus does something that the Judges can never do. He changes my heart. He gives me his spirit, living dwelling in my inner being, who can free me from this endless cycle that I'm stuck in. Then I tend towards of idolatry well, and that invitation stands today. No matter how trapped you feel, no matter how empty are, how shameful you are to God, or how much of a disappointment you are to God, no matter what you've done or what's been done to you, you can experience something far greater than just temporary relief. You can experience freedom. And that's the kind that comes with the spirit of God fills a human life, and all it requires is the same posture Israel refused to take open hands, empty hands, a willingness to say not my will but yours, to ask, to simply ask, make me believe. Yeah, Well, what's next? I will tell you after this brief word from our sponsors that new book is out good enough. Parent parenting get is hard. Too often Christians feel like they're messing up their kids, doing a poor job, ruining their kids. So do you know that, no matter how old they are, your child is asking two questions, two subconscious questions twenty four to seven. And don't you think if you knew what they were that would help? We're going to tell you what they are. Check out the book eighteen Biblical Neuroscientifically Informed Tips No shaming, no lecturing, no commanding. So bottom line, parents, if you're feeling the love of God for the unlovable and loved and unlovely and worthy and unlikely and hurting, particularly if you think you've messed up, if you're beginning to feel that your child will notice the difference, check it out. Get copies for your church, your youth group, your teen group, in your church book club. Bible study is short, provocative, and the idea is you picked two or three of the eighteen tips and run with them in your context. Yeah, next time, we're going to move deeper into the judges and meet one of the most fascinating and conflicted figures in the entire book, Deborah, and a story only gets stranger from there. Thanks for listening to Breaking Badly. We'll see you next time, big heart, child of God,