Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I'm Rich Young iii. And this is an amazing thing.
[00:00:17] I'm here to facilitate learning the word of God on a fundamental level.
[00:00:23] So join me and let's grow together and build a relationship with our Creator.
[00:00:29] And that starts now.
[00:00:39] Hello everybody. Welcome to an amazing thing. Thank you for joining me. This is our midweek lesson where we have a continual Bible study show. So we're going to take up where we left off last time and we are studying here the time of the first Temple.
[00:00:57] Now, God speaks to Joshua here. Remember, Moses is at the end of his life and his ministry. We'll read this Joshua, chapter 1, verse 2.
[00:01:07] Moses My servant is dead.
[00:01:09] Now therefore arise, Go up over the Jordan, thou and all this people into the land which I do give them, even unto the children of Israel. Now Joshua never went all the way up to the top when Moses would talk to God.
[00:01:27] So he doesn't know that Moses is dead. God has to tell him that Moses ministry is over. Now God ordains new leadership.
[00:01:37] And so we need to be able to seek God in every aspect to give us the leader that he would have us to follow.
[00:01:46] And God certainly does that and is something that we should seek him for.
[00:01:51] Be strong and of good courage. This is Joshua, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6.
[00:01:58] There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.
[00:02:05] As I was with Moses, so shall I be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage. For unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear to their fathers to give them.
[00:02:25] Okay, we have not received the spirit of fear. Second Timothy 1:7 tells us this and reminds us of this.
[00:02:33] God sends us, all of us out with a positive attitude.
[00:02:38] When he sends us to do anything. The message is always one of positivity.
[00:02:44] All the promises of God, God are dependent upon our obedience to do what he has called on us to do. We we need to remember that God says, I will not fail you, nor forsake you.
[00:03:01] Opposition is going to come. We will face opposition that will sometimes seem devastating. But we have to remember what God said. I will not leave you, nor forsake you. So that's a very, very powerful thing. And their first challenge is going to be the city of Jericho. Here now the leadership has changed and has taken place now. And the people of Israel are now following Joshua just as they did. But Moses, this is a God ordained leadership change.
[00:03:34] So God gives us the leader that he wants us to have when we look to Him. I'm reminding us that again, God's plan for our lives sometime does not seem to us to make any sense sometimes. But God wants us to know that the victory belongs to Him. He's the one orchestrating these things.
[00:03:55] So we need to make sure that we follow the plan that God has for us in His Word. And so we will find glory, no matter what it looks like to us. God gives us an unusual battle plan sometimes, as he did here. For six days, I want you to march around that great wall of Jericho and go home.
[00:04:19] So to do this for six days, on the seventh day, I want you to march around seven times.
[00:04:26] And then once you march around seven times, you blow the trumpet and give a great shout.
[00:04:32] This is Joshua, chapter 6, verse 20.
[00:04:36] So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. And it came to pass that when the people heard the sound of the trumpets and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. So the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
[00:04:57] God wanted Israel and the heathen to know that the battle was his.
[00:05:02] So that's why God gives us sometimes an unusual battle plan so that you'll know that it has to be Him.
[00:05:09] God deals with people on the earth, all people on the earth, in different ways, as we see here. God dealt with the people of Israel one way and the heathen in another way. We sometimes look outside of our own view to see God. We have to do that sometimes. And so that's how God's purpose speaks into our lives. When we look outside our own view and look to him again, God will maneuver us in a position where we would have to know that he's the one bringing the victory.
[00:05:41] We move on to now into the Judges and the book of the Judges. And so God dealt with Israel in a specific way and the Judges.
[00:05:52] Let's just read it. God gives us 15 judges here.
[00:05:56] I'm gonna name them all. Oathnell, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Gyre, Jephthahn, Isban, Elon, Abdon, Samson, Eli, Samuel, and Joel.
[00:06:17] This is Judges, chapter 2, verses 16 and 17.
[00:06:22] Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges which delivered them out of the hands of those that spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken unto their judges. But. But went a whoring after other gods and bow themselves down unto them.
[00:06:38] They quickly turned out of the way of which their fathers walked in, obeying not the commandments of God.
[00:06:46] They did not. They didn't. I was a poor reading, so Forgive me. But they did not do as their fathers did. They went a whoring after the gods is what this scripture tells us. And so God has always called out a separate people, separate from the ways of the world.
[00:07:01] And yet these people would constantly envy the world as seen by their neighbors and the people who were in the land with them.
[00:07:10] God's system for Israel, the Judges was very dependent upon God and had to be valuable in their eyes in order to work. And they would appear in their own eyes to be vulnerable to their enemies. But God, God would raise up judges from time to time to lead them in what God would have them to do.
[00:07:32] So that's going to be very important. So when Israel did evil, they went into bondage or was disobedient or whatever the case may be. God would allow the inhabitants of the land to come in and and impoverish them and rule over them and do different things. This is Judge Judges, chapter six, verses one and verse six.
[00:07:54] And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian seven years.
[00:08:02] And Israel was greatly impoverished. And the Midianites and their children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
[00:08:11] So because of the Midianites, Israel was impoverished and they were just sort of beat down and didn't have any abundance of the land. The Midianites would come in as soon as they harvest the crops, they take almost all of it, leave them enough for seed so we can come back and take it next year. And also enough to keep you going so you can harvest those crops so we can come back and take it next year. So that's the way they went about that whole thing. Then when Israel cried unto the Lord and repented, God sent deliverance. This became a pattern doing the throughout the time of the Judges, God, Israel would sin, God would allow their enemies come in and take them captive. They would repent and say we're sorry. And then God would raise up one of the judges to help deliver them from the people who inflicted this thing upon them.
[00:09:03] So God knows how to dispense punishment equal to what the transgression in our life, in our life is. So again this became the pattern of Israel. God continually use the system of the judges. When Israel would transgress, God would allow the inhabitants to smite Israel. And upon repentance once again, God would raise up a judge to deliver them out of it. And God used the 15 judges over time. We're gonna just focus on three of the prominent judges at this time. And these are all judges that we've heard of here.
[00:09:41] Now, Gideon, this is Judges chapter 6, verses 12 and verse 14. And the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said unto him, the Lord is with thee, mighty man of valor.
[00:09:55] And the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this way, and I'm sorry in this might thou shalt save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites. Have I not sent thee.
[00:10:09] Now we see Gideon trying to grind up enough meal to make him a pan of cornbread and hope the Midianites don't know he got it. And so God refers to us sometimes as what we will become. Now, we don't see Gideon like this when we first see him, but God calls him a mighty man of valor. So God is calling Gillian what he's going to become. God allows Gideon to put his fleece before him. Now, this is a test that God allows us, all of us, so that we can know that it's him.
[00:10:39] Now, Gideon wants to be sure that this, this is the Lord that's talking to him. So he put his fleece. And you've heard us say, I put my fleece before the Lord. That was what he used. A fleece is a piece of a hide or a garment made from wool. And he says, I'm gonna put this fleece out in the. In the backyard. If the ground is dry and the fleece is wet, then I'll know. If I get up tomorrow morning and the fleece is filled with do and the ground is dry, I'll know that is you talking to me. So he gets up and the ground is dry, the fleeces wet. Bible says he rang out a whole cup of water out of the fleece. And so. But he. I want to be sure, Lord, I don't want to make the think this is me, and that is not really you speaking to me.
[00:11:28] So I'm gonna do this one more time. I want the fleece to be dry. I put it in the backyard again. I want the fleece to be dry and I want the ground to be wet, so then I'll know it's you. So he gets up and his shoes all muddy in the dew, but the fleece is dry.
[00:11:44] So now he knows that it is the Lord, and now he can go forth. Now Gideon prepares the men of Israel to face the Midianites. So God instructs him to do this. Israel's army is an army of 32,000 men is what they have. But the Midianites have a hundred and fifty thousand. So that's five to one.
[00:12:04] This is Judges, chapter two. I'm sorry, Chapter seven, verse two.
[00:12:10] And the Lord said unto Gideon, this people with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest they vaunt, boast or brag themselves against me. This is God speaking, saying, mine own hand has saved me.
[00:12:27] So it's too many people. Y' all get the bragging. Thinking y' all to find this army in the land. I too, we, we. We beat them five to one. You know, I took care of my five. I. I start throwing that left, and next thing you know, we beat them down. So God don't want it that you got. You have to know that the victory is God's to give.
[00:12:46] And so God said it is to deliver the Midianites into the hands. They have to remember that the glory is man. So God instructs everyone that is afraid to go home. If you scare, go home.
[00:13:01] So 22,000 are afraid now, at least we have to give them credit. They aren't enough to say, man, I'm scared.
[00:13:07] And so 22,000 men go home. So the men depart from Mount Gilead was where they were bracing for the battle.
[00:13:16] And there's 10,000 men remaining now.
[00:13:20] So now it's time. They've been out there practicing and doing whatever they were doing. And now they're thirsty now they go to drink water. And God wants to get all the disobedient people out and still do what it is he wants to do. I'm trying. I need to get y' all down where the number is so low that you'll know that it's me. So now we're going to go to the watering hole.
[00:13:43] I don't want you to lay down and stick your face in the water or stick your gourd in and scoop up water to drink. I want you to take it in your hand and laugh it like a dog. You know, take it like a dog with. With his tongue and all those who laugh it like a dog worth 300.
[00:14:01] God instructs Gideon, Tell the other 9,700 to go home.
[00:14:06] So now Gideon is left with 300 men. And God is happy with that number.
[00:14:12] And so God seeks people that submit themselves to him because the glory belongs to him.
[00:14:21] And so fear is not a godly attribute. So when God gives us, you know, something, we need to know that we can depend on him. God one with God is a majority, no matter how many people that you face.
[00:14:39] And so we learned that about what God is showing us here also. We know that God wants people who are obedient.
[00:14:46] God gives Gideon a plan. Give every man a candle and then give him a picture and the trumpet and get them go up and surround the Midianites. This is a candle, allows them to have a little bit of light to see where they're going. It's dark, you know, it's in the middle of the night.
[00:15:06] The picture goes over the top of the candle. So now the light shines straight down. So now you can see where you're stepping and you can see where you're going, but anybody that's straight ahead or above you can't see you.
[00:15:20] The military used this on their military vehicles in Korea and in World War II because they were using airplanes at that time. And so the apparatus would cover the headlights and shine down on the road, so that way the planes couldn't see them as they were driving.
[00:15:38] So this. And that's where they get this from, I'm sure.
[00:15:41] And so they were given a trumpet to blow at a certain time to add to the confusion. And I doubt that was a Miles Davis. I went Marcellus with him. So it sounded terrible.
[00:15:52] And so Gideon's instructions, when they surround the camp of the Midianites and they're instructed, when you see me break my picture and blow my trumpet, everybody else do the same thing. So we can't have you doing what you want. You got to be able to follow instructions, be obedient, and not be afraid to be around just a few of us surrounding so many people.
[00:16:16] And so when they do this, the Midianites, they do that. They break the pictures, they blow the horns. The Midianites arise out of their sleep and they're confusion, they kill each other down to the last man. Now, only God could come up with this type of plan that would work.
[00:16:32] And so it could only work if it was God. And also if they were not afraid to do what was asked of them and they were obedient, couldn't have somebody breaking the picture before the time and. And awaken the Midianites to show them what they were doing. So it depended upon them not being afraid and being obedient.
[00:16:52] So after that they smote the Midianites and they invited the other men of Israel that they left behind to join them in the victory, to take the spoils from the Midianites. All the things that the Midianites had, they took it, took it back.
[00:17:07] So the victory belongs to the Lord. No matter how outnumbered we are, how it looks to us, one with God is a majority. And so we have to remember that. It also reminds us that God, if we're the God, the people of God, and the body of God, one body, we all can take place. I mean, take part in the victory. So the people who were afraid, they were honest enough to say they were afraid. The people who were disobedient, you're still a part of the body.
[00:17:40] So we are to embrace you, bring you back in, and allow you to share in the blessing that the Lord has given us. And it wasn't us. The Lord did it.
[00:17:48] And so we learn by mistakes. Sometimes we learn more from the mistakes that we make than any victory we ever had.
[00:17:57] So God allowed them to take part in this.
[00:18:00] Okay, we have another judge, a prominent judge. Everybody's heard of Samson. And so Samson is going to be the next judge that we're going to talk about, of the prominent three that we're going to discuss.
[00:18:11] And this is Judges 13, verses 1 and verse 24.
[00:18:16] And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord.
[00:18:21] And the Lord delivered them unto the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. So obviously these sins are getting greater because it was seven years under the Midianites. Now it's 40 years under the Philistines. Verse 24. And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And he grew, and the Lord blessed him.
[00:18:41] Okay, Manoah and his wife is the woman who's bearing Noah. In this scripture we just read, they'll beyond years of childbearing. And the Lord presents them with a promise of a son and call his name Samson.
[00:18:55] And the verse 24 is the one that refers to Manoah's wife as the mother of Samson. Now, they were instructed to raise Samson in a particular way, Taking a Nazarite vow. And a Nazarite vow has quite a lot of different things that they would have to do. But one of them was preventing him from having strong drink all the days of his life. Or cutting his hair, like I said, among other things. Now, Samson had uncut hair. And his clothing would identify all the. For the people of Israel would know that he's anointed of God to be a judge over them. So when they saw him come with long hair, all the other men, in spite of what we see and hear people say, had short hair. There was a distinction between men and women.
[00:19:45] Unless it was a situation like this where God's anointed was involved.
[00:19:50] The angel of the Lord gives them instructions on how to raise them. This is judges 13:17.
[00:19:58] Now, the angel of Lord has Given them instructions on how to do this. And. And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is thy name? That when these sayings come to pass, we may do the honor.
[00:20:10] And the angel of the Lord said unto him, why askest thus after my name, seeing it is a secret.
[00:20:18] Now, particular angels would. This particular angel never gave his name whenever he appeared to the people, when he was sure with instructions and things.
[00:20:27] Other angels would, but this one didn't. Would never give his name. Now, this is important.
[00:20:34] So we'll discuss this, you know, in a more complete way in a future lesson. But to give you something to hang your hat on, this is First Corinthians. Well, what it says in First Corinthians, chapter two, verse eight gives us a clue of the matter that we'll look for when we talk about this in the future.
[00:20:53] This tells a mystery. And it's a mystery that scripture give us the mystery that none of the princes of this world knew.
[00:21:00] For had they known it, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory.
[00:21:05] So this particular angel will never give his name. And in the New Testament, it tells us why.
[00:21:12] Because the princes of this world would not have crucified the Lord of glory had they known the name. So even way back here in the time of Samson, other places, this particular angel of the Lord would never give his name here.
[00:21:27] Now, Samson in his. Some of his exploits. Here, Samson takes revenge of his wife being given to another. Now, let's set this up. Samson was engaged to a Philistine girl, which Israel was instructed never to do. So Samson is becoming more complacent with the. The anointing that's on him. So he is engaged to a Philistine girl, and he just gives us a look at what Samson's personality was like. He puts a riddle before the Philistines, and if you can saw the river, I give you 30 changes of Raymond clothes.
[00:22:06] If you can't, then you give me 30 change changes of Raymond. Now, he's told his fiance he's not keeping any secrets from her what the answer to the riddle is.
[00:22:17] So now she goes back and secretly tells her family, the Philistines, the answer to the riddle and cause Samson to lose his wager with them. Now he has to give them 30 changes of Raymond. So he goes to get the Raymond, and while he's gone, the girl's father marries her off to another man.
[00:22:36] So Sampson comes back and finds out that his fiance has been given to another. And that makes Samson mad. So Samson is not only Very, very strong. He's obviously very, very fast because he captures 300 foxes. He ties them together two by two. He's angry at these people. Now it's time for them to gather the grain. All the crops have dried up now. So it's not that the corn is hard and they can go out and get it and make seeds and feed and things for the animals.
[00:23:06] So he goes and he ties two foxes together and puts a red hot firebrand in them and turns them loose. Now they pulling each other. So they zigzagging among all of the fields of the Philistines and burns all their crops up. And they're angry and they go to the. To Israel and say, we want you to give us Samson. He's ruined us and we seek revenge. So they go to Samson and tell him to Sampson, they say, we have to give you to them.
[00:23:35] He says, tie me up and present me to them. Now make sure you're not gonna follow me yourself. No, we're not gonna follow when you present me to. So they tie Sampson up, they take him to the Philistines, and Samson breaks those ropes and picks up the jawbone of a donkey and kills a thousand of them. And so that's an amazing thing here.
[00:23:57] So Samson solves this little thing right here, let you know I'm a judge of Israel.
[00:24:03] And so that is what happened there. Now, Samson still is becoming more and more complacent. We should never become complacent when the Lord blesses us somehow or gives us whatever it is, it's for the, the furtherance of the kingdom of God.
[00:24:22] Now does God want us to live and, and be able to make. Yes, he does. But he gives us, blesses us with things so that we can father the kingdom of God, which is the primary purpose.
[00:24:34] Now, Samson has taken another philistine girlfriend, Delilah.
[00:24:42] And so he is really, really, you know, he's getting along. Good word. He sleeps his head in her lap and all these kinds of things.
[00:24:52] So do we know that the. The Philistine leadership knows that this is Sampson's girlfriend? And they go to Samson's girlfriend and, and it tells her, if you will give us the strength of what the strength of Samson is, we'll give you enough money.
[00:25:15] Amazing. You can't even calculate the amount of money that I'm going to give you. So she agrees to do that. So she asked Samson, Samson, what is the name? What is the secret to your great strength? You know, I'm your girlfriend. You won't tell me nothing. You won't tell me. So he tells, if you'd bind me up with new rope, I'd be like any other man.
[00:25:34] So he goes to sleep as usual. She ties him up a new rope and wakes up Samson, the Philistines are among you. He wakes up and breaks that rope and shakes himself. And she says, now see, you trick me again, Samson. And so she does it again. She says, you tell me, he says, if you will braid up my hair.
[00:25:52] And so I'll be just like any other man. So she braids his hair. So he's getting closer and closer to what the strength is as he's talking to this woman.
[00:26:00] So she braids his hair to seven plaids on his head. And she says, samson, the Philistines are among you. And he wakes up, shakes and stuff. And his strength is there as it was all the other times.
[00:26:13] Now we don't know if Samson just, you know, he's gonna hang out with his brothers and he wants some fresh cornrows. But anyway, that's what happens. And so she does this. And so she's like, samson, you making a mockery. I mean, you won't tell me. And so this time he's complacent and he's putting his trust in people that God, you shouldn't even be among these people, much less putting the trust in the things of God in these people's hands.
[00:26:43] But he does. And she takes a razor to say, samson's head.
[00:26:49] And she tells him, you know, he tells her what the Nazarite vow was that he had taken and his parents had taken his raising and all these things. And she shaves his head. And then she invites the Philistines and says, samson, the Philistines are among you. He gets up and shakes himself as all the other times. But his strength is gone. He told her, shares with something that never should have been shared with him. God's word is for God's people.
[00:27:20] And so they take Samson. His strength is gone.
[00:27:26] They make mockery of him. They parade him through the streets and they take pokers and poke his eyes out.
[00:27:34] And then they've. They laid him from place to place and shows him what their God day God has done for them.
[00:27:41] So, and then they. They have Samson led about the different places to make a mockery by young boy.
[00:27:47] Now Samson is. This has happened for a while. He's. He's bearing the disgrace. It's a disgrace. And they probably slapping him around and whatnot. And they take him to this huge gala that they have where they invite all the leadership of the Philistine people there.
[00:28:09] And Samson is, knows where he is. And he's asked the young man, lean me against the pillars that hold up everything because I'm so tired.
[00:28:17] And the young man foolishly does that.
[00:28:20] And, and so this is Judges, chapter 16, verse 28.
[00:28:27] And Samson called unto the Lord and said, o Lord, remember me, I pray thee and strengthen me, I pray thee only this once, oh God, that I might be avenged of the Palestine. The Philistines that have put out my two eyes.
[00:28:46] Now, just so you know, the Philistines is the Hebrew word for Palestinian. So that's the same word. Sometimes when I'm explaining things like that, I'll say Philistine. It's the same people in, in the celebration of these Philistines for conquering the the judge of Israel, they didn't notice that Samson's hair has started to grow back and it could become shaggy.
[00:29:14] And Samson is of a repented heart and asked the Lord to strengthen him this one last time for his eyes sake.
[00:29:26] You know, Lord, I bought this on myself. But they didn't have to put my eyes out. They didn't have to do that.
[00:29:32] And so the Lord answers Samson's prayer and his strength returns.
[00:29:39] He takes down the two pillars and brings the house of the Philistines down and kills 3,000 in his death, more than he had in his life.
[00:29:52] So Samson was prominent, a prominent judge in Israel's history.
[00:29:58] And you know, we see the failures of Samson and how he takes for granted the things that God has given him.
[00:30:06] But we will learn, you know, he repented and, and makes it right. And we will learn in future lessons that God pronounces him as one of the heroes of faith.
[00:30:18] So God is a forgiving God and allows us to, to go through things. And we know the scripture says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And that's the kind of Lord that we serve. And this lesson surely shows us that.
[00:30:34] And we'll be right back after these messages.
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[00:31:41] Thank you for joining me for an amazing thing and be sure to have your friends subscribe to the show maybe ring that bell like us. And this has been our midweek show where it's a continual Bible study show. So we're taking you slowly through the Bible so we can build up things attributes that God would give us about himself and the Word of God so we can know what it is that God wants us to do. We know in future lessons we're going to talk about than God says this, God wants this.
[00:32:13] And when we go through all these lessons we don't have to refer back and constantly go back and teach different lessons. You'll know you'll be able to keep up and also too you can go back in our midweek lesson. These are in order, a particular order so that we can continue along. And if you have friends who are new joining us, they can go back and catch up.
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