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[0:00] We've been working through Judges, looking at it redemptive historically, and the narratives! of the major Judges and how they delivered Israel, how it points to Christ and his kingdom.

[0:18] And we've looked through the major Judges, and lastly, looking at Samson. Samson is the last judge in the book of Judges. We have a few more chapters to work through, and we're going to work through those today. We're going to review chapters 17 to 21. That's a lot to take on, but don't worry, we'll take a break for lunch and come back after. I'm just kidding.

[0:41] It'll be a very high-level overview. We'll be able to say, there's the beginning, there's the end, and then we'll wrap it together. Now, one thing I want you to notice in the book of Judges is that it begins with compromise. If you remember, the conquest was compromised, and that compromise led to complacency, and complacency, we'll see, ends in division.

[1:05] It started with compromise, and that they were to drive out the evil, they were to drive out the Baal worshipers, they were to drive out the idolatry and the Baal worship, and they compromised by not doing so, and they coexisted with it, and then they intermarried, and then they themselves became worshippers of false gods and Baal worshipers, which led to forsaking God, serving the Baals, and forgetting God. And then we see this cycle of the Judges, and it's like each cycle, the Canaanization seems to go deeper and deeper, and then we find ourselves now, at the end of Judges, we'll see that Israel has hit rock bottom. But for our reading this morning, first turn to Joshua 24, 19, and we're going to kind of cherry-pick a few verses throughout Judges to the very end. So Joshua 24, 19-24.

[2:00] But Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God who is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done you good. And the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the Lord. So Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve Him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now therefore, He said, Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey. Now flip over to Judges 2, starting in 11. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. And they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. Now jump down to verse 16. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they would not listen. They would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do so. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of the enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. And it came to pass when the judge was dead that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and bow down to them.

[4:07] They did not cease from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. Now turn over to Judges 17, verse 6.

[4:25] Judges 17, verse 6. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

[4:36] Now look at 18.1. In those days there was no king in Israel. Now look over at 19.1. And it came to pass in those days when there was no king in Israel.

[4:51] Now flip to the very end, 21, verse 25. In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

[5:05] Now in deciding a thesis statement, a statement which describes and summarizes what this is about, I was tempted to just say in those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

[5:18] And that would indeed summarize what's going on here. But to more summarize and draw out more of it, here it is. This is what is going on here.

[5:30] This is what we see particularly in chapters 17 to 21 is this. That Israel is prone to wander and needs a king as a covenant representative to subdue them, to rule them, to defend them, and to conquer all their enemies.

[5:53] So I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll summarize that even further. Here's what this is about. Israel is prone to wander and needs a king. So in these five chapters we'll see that Israel has hit religious rock bottom.

[6:10] 17 and 18 religious rock bottom. Israel has hit moral rock bottom which is really the rest 19, 20, and 21.

[6:20] and the downward cycle cycle, the Canaanization cycle, that downward cycle that got them to hitting religious and moral rock bottom.

[6:34] So first of all, religious rock bottom. What we see going on in verses 17 and 18 is religious chaos.

[6:47] It starts off, we see, with household evil in the house of Micah. Well, it starts off with household evil and then it spreads to a whole tribe to the people of Dan, to the Danites.

[6:58] So turn back to 17. Now we're, to cover five chapters we're not going to read everything. It's not that there's something I don't want to cover or I'm intentionally leaving out.

[7:09] It's just we don't have the time. So if you haven't recently read through Judges, by all means, go home, read these five chapters and get the greater context. But for now, we'll just read parts of it.

[7:22] But Judges 17 verses 1 to 7. Remembering that Israel here has hit religious rock bottom. Now there was a man from the mountain of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

[7:35] And he said to his mother, the 1100 shekels of silver that were taken from you and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears, here it is, the silver with me, I took it.

[7:49] And his mother said, may you be blessed by the Lord, my son. So when he had returned the 1100 shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a carved image and a molded image.

[8:07] Now, therefore, I will return to you. Thus, he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith and he made it into a carved image and a molded image and they were in the house of Micah.

[8:24] The man Micah had a shrine and made an ephod and household idols and he consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. In those days, there was no king in Israel.

[8:35] Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Now, there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah of the family of Judah. He was a Levite and was staying there. The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place.

[8:50] Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim to the house of Micah as he journeyed and Micah said to him, Where do you come from? So he said to him, I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah and I am on my way to find a place to stay.

[9:04] Now, we need to remember when we read things like this that it's narrative not normative just because it describes in the Bible something that occurred doesn't mean that it commends what occurred, doesn't mean it was right or that it was normative.

[9:18] What we see, what we have just read is not what was supposed to happen, it's a narrative of what did happen and it shows us and it paints us a picture of the canonization that has occurred to Israel.

[9:30] What has come of their compromise and of their complacency. Now, from what I've read, it just starts the narrative and time would fail us to draw out every offense against God's commands but we will focus on a couple of them.

[9:47] First one being that Micah steals from his mother. Now, if you recall as we've worked through Judges, they started off with a godly view of women and the effects of canonization caused a degraded view of women leading to crimes or to abuse against women which, as we'll see today, reaches utter rock bottom.

[10:09] But here, Micah steals from his own mother and it's theft of a very significant amount. So he steals from his mother and then we see later on that one of the other offenses of God's commands is idolatrous worshipping.

[10:27] But notice it's worshipping of the Lord but in an idolatrous way. It's idolatrous worshipping of the Lord through carved images. Now, God created mankind, created by God as rational creatures made after the image of God.

[10:46] We, being rational creatures, we can think thoughts, we can think things, we can hear, we can understand, we can process, we can paraphrase, and we can return our response back.

[10:59] So, being rational creatures made after the image of God, being made by God, we are to offer acceptable worship back to Him. And to do so would be by being renewed by the Spirit, worshipping by the light of faith, and if we recall from Romans, faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

[11:22] So that acceptable worship is God's image bearers with an intellectual understanding of God's revealed truth by the light of faith giving return unto Him by what we understand by the light of faith.

[11:37] Acceptable worship is not worshipping carved images made by the hands of man after the image of creatures. This is idolatry and this is a violation of the second commandment.

[11:52] It is blasphemy offensive to God who is in inaccessible light and cannot be seen nor can He visually be replicated. We cannot make a replica of God and say this is exactly who God is.

[12:06] And furthermore, it detracts from what is truly important, that is, hearing the Word, understanding, believing, and as rational souls by the light of faith giving the proper return to God.

[12:20] Acceptable worship is in spirit and in truth not by a carnal or a corporeal vision of counterfeit images of deity. So, we see here there's problems in Israel.

[12:36] And then, next, we see that Micah appoints his son as a priest. So, we have an unsanctioned temple, Micah's shrine, an unsanctioned temple with an unsanctioned priest.

[12:49] And then, further, we see with the Levite a second unsanctioned priest. Now, we don't live in an old covenant, ethnic, covenant relationship today in the church, but in a similar way, we can see those whom are kind of self-commissioned ministers of the Word.

[13:12] The Bible is very clear that someone who is to be a minister of the Word needs to first be qualified according to Scripture, being qualified to be tested, being tested and proved to be affirmed by the church, appointed by the church, and then sent.

[13:27] Being sent doesn't mean put on the other side of the world. That can be within the very church. But, we can see this while we don't have old covenant priesthood today, we can see those whom are trying to commission themselves or affirm themselves by skirting around God's Word.

[13:48] But, back to Judges. We see the Danites now coming into the picture of the narrative, and the Danites that says they're seeking an inheritance. So, if you recall back to the beginning of Judges during the conquest, they were to take the land of Canaan, the promised land, and to find their settlements, but because the compromise, they compromised the conquest, and we saw with the Danites in Judges 1.34 that they compromised and the Amorites forced them into the mountains.

[14:20] So, they did not have their settlement. They didn't have their inheritance. Because of the compromise, they were forced into the mountains, and so now they're coming to seek their inheritance. So, the Danites come to the picture.

[14:33] The Danites come to this house of Micah with this shrine set up, this unsanctioned idolatrous shrine with unsanctioned priesthoods, and the Danites come to this, and they ask the Levite, a Levite supposed to represent the people to God, as a priest, they ask him to inquire of God on their behalf, and what he does is he gives them a response as though it was from God, but he doesn't actually inquire of God, he doesn't seek the Lord.

[15:04] Instead, he acts as though his very intuition is divinely inspired. And then I want to read what happens further. So, in 18, starting in verse 1, in those days, there was no king in Israel.

[15:20] Okay, now flip over to verse 14. Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brethren, do you know that there are in these houses an ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a molded image?

[15:38] Now, therefore, consider what you should do. So, they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite man to the house of Micah and greeted him.

[15:49] The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up.

[16:00] Entering there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image. The priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men who were armed with weapons of when these went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image, the priest said to them, what are you doing?

[16:20] And they said to him, be quiet, put your hand over your mouth and come with us. Be a father and a priest to us. It is better for you to be a priest to the household of one man or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family of Israel.

[16:36] So the priest's heart was glad and he took the ephod, the household carved image and took his place among the people. So the Danites, who were Israelites, who were to be in a covenant relationship with God where God would be their God and they would be his people in a covenant relation and God delivering the enemies into their hand for their faithfulness.

[17:02] Instead of looking to God, instead of looking to God's promises, instead of looking to God's covenant promises, they instead turn to this unsanctioned temple of idolatry to take it and have it spread into their entire tribe.

[17:20] The irony of all this, you notice they come and they steal this from Micah, the irony of it all is that this started off with Micah stealing from his mother and the results of his stealing and then returning it was some of the silver being made into this carved image which shouldn't be there in the first place, he shouldn't even have it, so it's stolen, so he doesn't have it, he shouldn't have had it to begin with, and it all started with him stealing, so there's a lot of irony here in this being stolen from him.

[17:57] Let's keep reading in chapter 18, verse 31, to see the extent of the idolatry that has then spread into the people of Dan.

[18:12] 1831, so they set up for themselves Micah's carved image which he made all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. They took it as their own, they set it up, and they incorporated this idolatrous worship as their own, which brings us then to our next point, that everyone doing what was right in their own eyes led to religious chaos and moral chaos.

[18:40] So we've seen religious chaos in verses 17 and 18, everybody doing what was right in their own eyes. Now we see moral rock bottom.

[18:52] So secondly, moral rock bottom. What we see next is moral chaos, and it's an account of a Levite, and an unfaithful concubine, the unfaithful concubine leaves, and he goes to retrieve her and bring her back, and then we'll read parts of it, but the account occurs in Gibeah with the people of Benjamin.

[19:14] Remember, Benjamin are the people of Israel, and it leads to war, kidnapping of young virgins for wives, and we'll read parts of it.

[19:31] But again, remember, because it's written in scripture doesn't mean it was right, or it was normative, or it's prescribed. It is an account of what has happened, and the canonization that has happened to Israel because of compromise and complacency.

[19:47] Now before I read it, you'll notice as I read it that it is an echo of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah wasn't God's people.

[19:58] What's more tragic about this, of an echo of Sodom and Gomorrah, is that this is Benjaminites. This is people of Israel. The depths of the depravity of what occurred in Sodom and Gomorrah is now in Israel.

[20:16] So we'll start in verse 19. We'll read 1 to 3, and then we'll jump through a couple of other verses. But 19, 1 to 3, And it came to pass in those days when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim.

[20:36] He took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah, but his concubine played the harlot against him and went away from him to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah and was there four whole months.

[20:48] Then her husband arose and went after her to speak kindly to her and bring her back. Now we'll jump down to verse 15. Verse 15, They turned aside there to go into lodge in Gibeah.

[21:07] And when he went in, he sat down in the open square of the city, for no one would take them in his house to spend the night. Just then an old man came in from his work in the field at evening, who also was from the mountains of Ephraim.

[21:24] Now jump down to verse 20. And the old man said, Peace be with you. However, let all your needs be my responsibility.

[21:34] Only do not spend the night in the open square. He knows exactly the state of the people. He knows the state in which they are at, the depravity and the moral rock bottom that he's reached.

[21:47] So he brought them into his house and gave fodder to the donkeys and they washed their feet and ate and drank.

[21:58] And they were enjoying themselves suddenly, sorry, as they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city, perverted men, surrounded the house and beat on the door.

[22:10] They spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring out the man who came to your house, that we may know him carnally. But the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, No, my brethren, I beg you, do not act so wickedly.

[22:27] Seeing this man has come into my house, do not commit this outrage. Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine. Let me bring them out now.

[22:39] Humble them and do with them as you please. But to this man, do not do such a vile thing. But the men would not heed him. So the man took his concubine and brought her out to them.

[22:52] And they knew her and abused her all night until morning. And when the day began to break, they let her go. Then the woman came as the day was dawning and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was till it was light.

[23:10] When her master arose in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.

[23:22] And he said to her, get up and let us be going. But there was no answer. So the man lifted her onto the donkey and the man got up and went to his place.

[23:33] So we see here that Israel has reached an all-time low, moral rock bottom. Not only religious rock bottom, but also moral rock bottom. And what follows this account is the Levite, he takes his concubine and he cuts her up into twelve pieces and sends her out throughout all of Israel to make a statement of the tragedy of what has occurred.

[23:59] Now, from what we read, it is, of course, very troubling and very devastating. This is what their compromise and complacency has brought them to, the canonization.

[24:09] But we notice throughout the other cycles of judges, the other cycles, the previous cycles, it included the people crying out to the Lord, and then the Lord, of course, would raise up a deliverer, and then the Lord sold the enemy into their hand, and then the land had rest.

[24:30] That's kind of the formula that we see with the cycle of judges. But what happens here, if you remember, since the account of Samson, Samson was the last judge, if you remember what was missing at the beginning of the account of Samson, which showed that things were broken.

[24:49] So the account of judges hits an all-time low, rock-bottom here, because they do not cry out to the Lord. Remember, right from Samson, what was missing was they didn't cry out to the Lord, and even now they don't cry out to the Lord.

[25:06] There is no deliverer, peace, but the account concludes with a devastating civil war.

[25:17] It's not just that they have enemy oppressors, it's not that the land doesn't have rest, but that there is war within. They are at war with themselves.

[25:28] And what follows, so what follows when the concubine sends out the pieces of, the Levite sends out pieces of his concubine is that Israel comes together to go to war against the people of Benjamin, the people of Benjamin of course being Israelites, and the result is a devastating civil war with the people of Israel, 40,000 casualties from the civil war, and from the people of Benjamin, 25,000 casualties.

[25:59] So this pretty near eliminates the Benjaminites, all but 600 are left of them. So the people of Benjamin being almost entirely wiped out, but yet still being Israelites, still their brothers, they have a conundrum because they want to figure out how to rebuild Benjamin as Israelites, but because of other details that time doesn't provide us to go over, they need to find wives for these 600 people that are left.

[26:39] So what they decide to do shows us just how rock bottom they have hit, morally rock bottom at an all-time low, of the solution they find for this.

[26:51] So what follows is another civil war, but really more of an invasion against Jebesh Gilead, orphaning and then kidnapping young virgins to give to the Benjaminites for wives, and then further kidnapping daughters of Shiloh to give as wives for the people of Benjamin, to rebuild Benjamin.

[27:18] Judges concludes in verse 25 with this, In those days, there was no king in Israel.

[27:29] Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Now notice the two statements. There's really two statements and how they are connected. We see the results of everybody doing what is right in their own eyes.

[27:44] And everybody did what was right in their own eyes because there was no king in Israel. Because there was no king, there was no federal representative, there was no ruler, there was no defender, there was no one to subdue them, there was no one to rule them, there was no one to defend them.

[28:06] So that brings us to our third point. Israel's judges delivered them from the oppressive enemy, but not from the bondage of sin.

[28:19] The judges delivered them from the oppressive enemy, but they did not deliver the people from the bondage to sin. Which is why it was a downward cycle, a downward spiral cycle.

[28:32] So third, the downward cycle. Now if you remember, Israel was to be in a covenant relationship with God, which was, I will be your God and you will be my people.

[28:42] That was how it was supposed to be. That was a covenant relationship. But we saw in the beginning of Judges compromise. Israel compromised, and compromised, this is important, pay attention to this formula, Israel compromised, which led to complacency, and complacency resolved, in division.

[29:08] Dale Ralph Davis said, the path to apostasy is paved with what you are willing to tolerate. And we can see this even in church history, in the devastation of the ecumenical movement.

[29:20] Now the word ecumenical in its right place is a good thing, such as the ecumenical creeds, like the Nicene Creed, something that we as Christians can rally around and say, we agree on this.

[29:34] The ecumenical movement, what it attempted to do was to eliminate anything that would divide, to the point of even how the gospel divides.

[29:48] And so in the spirit of this ecumenical movement, ecumenicalism, is that for the sake of quote-unquote peace, or for the sake of unity, putting away those things which may divide.

[30:02] But the problem is that there needs to be doctrinal division. There needs to be, for example, agreement on the Nicene Creed.

[30:12] There needs to be agreement on the gospel. There needs to be agreement that Jesus, the divine nature, is the eternal Son of God. So it does divide because it divides between truth and error, and it divides between those who are Christians and those who are not.

[30:33] But the ecumenical movement, out of an attempt to have a unity and again, quote-unquote peace, was actually compromise.

[30:45] And the results of that compromise led to complacency, and the results of that complacency actually leads to division, not to unity and not to peace.

[30:58] which is why church discipline is so important. We see it in the church. Now, church discipline is for the purpose of restoring somebody who's fallen into sin, and it can be either doctrinal or immorality.

[31:15] Or if somebody is a false teacher, then restoring the rest of the church to the point of having to remove the false teaching. church discipline is for restoration, it is for good, it is for unity and for peace, and it is not only biblically commanded, but it is necessary.

[31:32] And we see it laid out in Matthew 18, for restoring a brother who has sinned. And Titus 3.10 says, reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

[31:54] But back to Judges. He gave them Judges. Now to quickly summarize the Judges who delivered Israel, remember first it started off with Othniel.

[32:06] And Othniel, his name meant the Lion of God, and he was from the tribe of Judah, and the oppressive evil enemy was the king Kishon Rishathayim, and his name means double evil.

[32:20] So we have the Lion of God from the tribe of Judah who defeated the double evil enemy and delivered his people and brought them liberty.

[32:33] After that we have Ehud. Ehud was the left-handed assassin with the dagger, and he brought tribute to the evil enemy, and the evil enemy was the fattened, the fat king, or the fat calf, Eglon, and Eglon thought that he was bringing him tribute, but what he brought he said was a message from God, and that message from God was a decisive blow against the evil enemy which brought liberty to the captives.

[33:06] After Ehud we had Shamgar, with just one verse, and Shamgar's name means sword, and Shamgar delivered the people with an ox goat, and if you remember an ox goat is like a pointed stick which is used to prick a beast of burden, to persuade it in the way that it ought to go.

[33:29] After Shamgar we see Barak, Barak delivers Israel, and it starts with Deborah who is as a mother to Israel, and it ends with Jael, most blessed among women, and the result is the enemy's skull is crushed, and there's bloody spikes, and God's people is delivered.

[33:50] And then we have Gideon, and with Gideon, God's power is shown through human weakness, and remember Gideon's army kept being reduced, reduced, reduced, reduced down to just 300 people so that Israel could not boast that it was of their strength, but that it was by the power of God through which the people were delivered, the people were saved, and remember the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, they blew the trumpets, and they had the jars of clay, the earthen pitchers, earthenware pitchers, and when they broke the jars, there were torches inside, and the light of the torches was unleashed to shine forward.

[34:33] So the people were delivered through Gideon, and then next we had Jephthah. Jephthah was rejected by his own people, but Jephthah saved his people, although he was rejected by his own.

[34:51] And then lastly, if we recall, we had Samson, and there's much about Samson to go over, but Samson also delivered his people.

[35:04] Now, of these judges, of these deliverers, they're spoken of again in the New Testament. In Hebrews 11, 32, it speaks of them, and it says this, And what more shall I say?

[35:16] For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, also of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who, through faith, subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness, were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

[35:46] The judges delivered God's people, but they didn't save their people from their sin. And that's the problem that we see with this canonization cycle, is that after the judge died, they returned to their sin, and they forsook the Lord.

[36:03] the judges didn't save the people from their sin. That is what remains to be done. Each judge is not the skull-crushing seed of the woman that was promised in Genesis 3.15.

[36:20] And the curse is the promise in Genesis 3.15, and there's this anticipation since Genesis 3.15 of the coming seed of the woman who had crushed the skull of the serpent.

[36:32] But Othniel is not the one. Ehud is not the one. Shamgar is not the one. Barak is not the one. Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, none of these are the skull-crushing seed of the woman.

[36:44] Still waiting for the skull-crushing seed of the woman to deliver people from their sins. So, in conclusion to the book of Judges, the judges didn't save the people from their sin.

[37:02] Now, after the book of Judges, remember, in Judges, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. So, to solve the issue of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes, there needs to be a king.

[37:13] There needs to be a king in Israel. So, what follows after Judges is the monarchy, starting with Saul, and Saul was not a good king. Saul was chosen because of his stature.

[37:25] He stood out in a crowd. He stood above everyone else, and I thought, surely he can deliver us from our enemies. But after Saul was David, and David was a man after God's own heart.

[37:35] And God made a covenant with David, and to put it quite briefly, God made a covenant with David that a descendant of David would sit on the throne forever. That's important that we need to understand with a monarchy and the purpose of a king and the nation of Israel, the kingdom of Israel.

[37:54] Israel needs a perfect king to subdue them, rule them, defend them, conquer their enemies, and be a covenant representative.

[38:07] With the Davidic covenant with David as a king, and of David's descendant, is that God's covenant relationship would be centered on one person, that being the king, to represent the people.

[38:25] So a covenant representative. Flip over to Isaiah 9 quickly. Isaiah 9, verse 6. Isaiah 9, verse 6.

[38:50] For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

[39:06] Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to order it, and establish it with judgment and justice, from that time forward, even forevermore.

[39:21] the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. The judges didn't save people from their sins, but they do point to the one who does.

[39:35] They point to the perfect deliverer, they point to the perfect king, they point to the king of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you were to take a jigsaw puzzle, of course you got the picture on the front and all the pieces inside, you look at the picture on the front and you figure it all out and you put together the big picture and you then take that and you take it apart, but you kind of stack it by rows so that you could easily put it back together again, and you put those rows of jigsaw puzzle pieces back into the box and you walk carefully with the box because you don't want to jiggle it up over the counter and you trip over a balanced bike and who left that there anyways, I don't know, and you come over to the shelf, you put it up on the shelf and you come back later, you take it down and you open up and you think they're still stacked there?

[40:26] No, they're all jumbled up. You know what the big picture is, you've seen it, but all the pieces, they're not in order and that's kind of what's going on in the book of Judges and how the narrative of each judge and the way in which they delivered Israel points to Christ delivering his people in Christ's kingdom.

[40:44] it's in different pieces. So, in conclusion, a summary of how the narratives of how the deliverers save Israel, how they point to Jesus and we'll go through it in order of the judges.

[41:02] Okay? Now remember that each judge died, so that after each judge we see the cycle continue. So, taking the imagery or the shadow or the typology from Othno, speaking of Jesus, Jesus is the Lion of Judah who defeated the evil enemy forces of darkness to whom we were enslaved because of sin.

[41:30] Salvation is in Jesus Christ, salvation in Jesus Christ is God's answer to those who cry out to God for salvation. salvation. He is the lamb who was slain to defeat sin and death once for all by his atoning death on the cross.

[41:47] So, then Othno died, the cycle continues, we come back to Ehud. The gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

[41:58] The gospel is an unexpected message that comes with authority and power. Christ on the cross was not tribute to the evil enemy, but on the cross he had a message from God, it is finished.

[42:11] The promised seed of the woman has crushed the head of the serpent. The gospel is a message of a decisive blow to the enemy, resulting in liberty to the oppressed.

[42:24] And then Ehud died, the cycle continues, and we have Shamgar. Mankind is prone to wander and requires divine intervention, moving them and the way they should go.

[42:38] The words of Christ, which is the wisdom of God, the words of Christ are like goats. The word of God, the sword of the spirit, contains what is necessary to move sinners who are by nature beasts of burden and the way they should go.

[42:55] The hearer of the word is moved or is pricked to the soul by the spirit of God, making the word effectual, hence the sword of the spirit. Shamgar died, cycle continues.

[43:08] How Barak points to Christ. The Lord delivers his people from oppression through bloodied spikes in a crushed skull. In the Genesis 3 15 promise, the instrument through whom would come defeat of the serpent was the woman.

[43:25] The seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. Mary was told, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Mary, most blessed among women, brought forth the promised skull crushing seed of the woman.

[43:41] The serpent's head was crushed by Christ, bearing the sins of believers and being nailed to the cross to pay in full the penalty of our sin. The judge died, the cycle continues, and Gideon, how Gideon points to Jesus.

[43:58] The power of the Lord is made perfect in human weakness to the praise of his glory. God's glory spread to all the earth through the spread of the gospel occurs instrumentally through the weakness of the church.

[44:10] Let the gates of hell contend against the church. The gates of hell shall not prevail. The church is the trumpet of the gospel. The treasure of the gospel is unleashed through our brokenness and faithfulness to trumpet the good news of salvation in Christ.

[44:28] Jesus is the bread of life that came down from heaven and through human weakness turned the world upside down. Gideon died. Our next cycle, we have Jephthah, how Jephthah points to Jesus.

[44:43] He was rejected by his own, saved his people from oppression, and suffered bitter sorrow. He went willingly according to the immutable, divine will and the covenant of redemption.

[44:55] His victory won peace for the kingdom of Christ and the promised new creation. Jephthah died, and next we have Samson. And Samson, there's so much in the account of Samson, it's hard to summarize it concisely, but how Samson points to Jesus.

[45:12] He was born to deliver God's people in the midst of brokenness and silence. The word incarnate was born a child through a virgin to save his people from their sins.

[45:22] He fulfilled his mission at the cost of his own life. This unrestrainable deliverer was betrayed, he suffered, he was mocked, and he crushed the enemy and saved his people by his death.

[45:37] His own people delivered him over and he went willingly, but the bonds that he subjected, the bonds he subjected himself to had no power over him.

[45:48] He was betrayed by his close companion to be humiliated and mocked. He bore the sins of his people by, he bore the sins of his people and the father turned his favor away.

[46:02] The weight of our iniquities crushed him, and this spirit-empowered deliverer single-handedly defeated the enemy and saved his people with a crushing blow. He fulfilled his mission at the cost of his life and crushed the enemy.

[46:16] Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Jesus, the perfect and final deliverer, was truly unrestrainable.

[46:27] He did not remain in the grave, but rose from the dead victorious over sin, Satan, and death, the oppressive, evil enemy. Out of the eater came something to eat.

[46:38] Out of death, Jesus, the bread of life, rose victorious on the third day. Out of the strong, came something sweet. Out of suffering, divine wrath, came subsequent glories.

[46:50] Out of unspeakable sorrows came inexpressible joy. And out of the death of believers, glorified saints will taste the sweetness of glory indefectible.

[47:02] Jesus Christ, the perfect and final deliverer, saves his people and brings them eternal rest. Now in those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

[47:18] The conundrum of everyone doing right in their own eyes needs to be, the problem needs to be fixed by a king, a faithful king, a perfect king. With Israel, they kept returning to their sin.

[47:32] There wasn't repentance. They weren't saved from their sins. Israel needed a new heart. Israel needed a new covenant. Israel needed a new deliverer.

[47:43] Israel needed a new king and a new kingdom. The church, the spiritual Israel, the true Israel, is Israel in Christ, and we need Jesus as king.

[47:59] We need Jesus as king as a covenant representative of the new covenant. He has conquered our evil oppressive enemies, sin, Satan, and death, and we need Jesus as king to subdue us, to rule us, and to defend us.

[48:17] We need him because we are guilty of sin. We need him because we are blinded by darkness and need our minds renewed by the word and spirit.

[48:29] We need Jesus as king because we live in a sin-cursed world and we are prone to wander and do what is right in our own eyes. We need Jesus Christ, the perfect and final deliverer.

[48:43] We need Jesus Christ, the skull-crushing seed of the woman. We need Jesus Christ, the king of kings, as our king. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your great salvation.

[48:55] We thank you for the word incarnate, for the Lord Jesus Christ being the son of God and the son of man, the divine nature, united to human nature, not corrupted, not mixed, not converted, but united.

[49:15] And the person of our Lord Jesus Christ delivering his people from their sins. We thank you for deliverance, for salvation, that is in Christ.

[49:26] And we praise you, our Lord Jesus Christ, having suffered and died to pay for our sins, that you were raised from the dead and you are seated on high, exalted with all power and authority, where you reign as king, as king of kings and as our king.

[49:42] Help us, I pray, Lord, to live for you as you are worthy of our obedience. And we need you because this is a fallen, sin-cursed world and we do have remaining corruption.

[49:58] We thank you that you and your salvation not only deliver us from the penalty of sin, but that you deliver us from the power of sin. I pray these things in Jesus' name.

[50:10]  Amen. You'll take your hymnal and we'll stand