Genesis to Esther Series – LESSON 20

 

 

Subject: Judges

 

Now we come to the book of Judges. There were problems in the early history of the nation of Israel, as we have seen in the books Genesis to Joshua; but now as we pick up the story of Judges, we can see some of the very sad history connected with these people. I think it is the saddest history, perhaps, in all of the Old Testament.

 

I.    The Period Of The Judges Lasted For 450 Years

 

Acts 13:17-20

These Scriptures outline this history for us.

(17) The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.

That covers the books of Genesis and Exodus.

 

(18) And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.

That takes us into Leviticus and Numbers.

 

(19) And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot.

There is the book of Joshua.

 

(20) And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four-hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.

And so, there is where we have it; four-hundred and fifty years that is covered in the book of Judges.

 

II.  Some Of The Great Chapters Are:

 

Some of the great chapters in the book of Judges are:

 

Chapter 7 has to do with the man Gideon, and his three-hundred men.

 

Chapters 13 to 16 have to do with the story of Samson.

 

Chapters  17 to 21, where we are going to spend most of our time, have to do with the apostasy that came into the nation of Israel – the departure from God.

 

III. The Conditions Of The Times

 

Judges 2:7, 10-13

(7) And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel.

 

(10) And also all the generation (Joshua’s generation)  were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

How sad!

 

(11) And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim:

 

I mention again, when you have Baal, that is masculine. Baal is singular, and when “im” is on the word, that makes it plural. And so, they are serving gods, plural.

 

(12) And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.

 

(13) And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal (the male god) and Ashtaroth (the female god).

 

And so, the generation that follows the death of Joshua, depart completely from the Lord. That is rather sad; and you have the same thing in Jeremiah. I am asking the question, “Why did this generation depart as they did, from the Lord?” I think we have a few answers.

 

Psalm 78:5-11

There is a reason why these people departed from the Lord.

(5) For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

 

(6) That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

 

(7) That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

 

(8) And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

 

(9) The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

 

(10) They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

 

(11) And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shown them.

 

God made a law, what was that Law?

 

Deuteronomy 4:9

The Psalmist is actually referring to what we have back in Deuteronomy chapter 4, and Deuteronomy chapter 6.

 

(9) Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy  life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

 

When I read that verse, I am utterly amazed at what is involved. When Moses said that, he was talking to the people who had seen God open the Red Sea. They had seen the Manna from Heaven every morning. They had seen God bring water out of the smitten rock. And yet, Moses said, “Be careful, if you do not look after your soul, you can forget what God has done. Isn’t that an amazing thing!

 

Do you think it possible for saints today to forget what God has done for them? I think it is. Somebody gets saved, and perhaps they have come out of some open degradation of sin, and they stand up and testify about it. At that time, they don’t forget: it is so real to them – what they were, and what they are. But go twenty years down the line, or thirty years down the line, and they can forget that they ever were there. I find that amazing. God said, You keep your soul, and don’t forget; because if you forget what God did for you, it can depart from your heart all the days of your life.

 

What was God’s remedy to these people?

 

Deuteronomy 4:9    Reading again:

(9) Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy  life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

 

Teach them to your children. Teach them to your grandchildren. And what is the reason for telling the grandchildren and the children? – so you won’t forget.

 

There is a Law that none of us can argue against; and by the help of God, in recent years I have been trying to practice it more and more. It is this: if there is anything that I hear that I do not want to remember, I don’t repeat it. If you don’t tell it once, you will soon forget it. But if there is something that you want to remember, the first  person you meet, tell it, and then tell it again. The way to establish your memory is by telling again and again and again.

 

I heard something the other day that I don’t want to forget. About forty years ago, I said to Brother Burnside, ”When I get to be a sour old man shoot me!” Well, he phoned me up the other day to see if I should be shot about now.

 

I was reading about a dear old man who must have felt somewhat the same. This old Christian gentleman went to the doctor, and the doctor diagnosed his case, and said, “You have diabetes.” The old gentleman said, “Doctor, what’s that?” “Well, basically, you have too much sugar. “ And the old man said, “Praise the Lord, I asked the Lord to make me sweet when I got old, and now He has just over-done it.”

 

I want to remember that, and apply it sometime along the line. I think the more I tell it, the more I am going to remember it. So here is a principle: TELL IT AGAIN.

 

My father used to tell me how he came under the sound of the Gospel. He went into a meeting where a man had broken his leg out plowing. And he said, “In the middle of that meeting, with this fellow’s broken leg propped up on a chair, the fellow got up and started to dance around. There wasn’t anybody there to “hocus pocus” over his leg; he was healed instantaneously.”

 

My father got interested in the Gospel because of that. He wasn’t saved; he went, out of curiosity; but God used it to bring him in. I’m so glad my father told me that. And I’m so glad I can tell it to you, and tell it to my grandchildren. You see, God said, “I have established a Law: You tell what God has done for you.

 

Has God done anything for you? Surely He has! And every testimony is different. Tell it, tell it, tell it, so you won’t forget it. Keep on telling what was done. Somebody says, “I don’t like these old testimonies that go back thirty and forty years.” Well, sometimes they get out of hand, but you should never forget what God has done right from the beginning of your Christian life. Keep on telling it.

 

What I am applying here, in the book of Judges is there was a generation that served the Lord under Joshua. All the days of Joshua they followed the Lord; and the next generation departed wholly from the Lord. What is one of the basic causes? Their parents must not have taught them. Their parents must not have told them. Their parents failed that generation.

 

Deuteronomy 4:10-15

(10) Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb

Every one of us has some special day. God said, you tell your children about that special day at Horeb.

 

when the Lord said unto me (Moses), Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

God brought the fathers up to Mount Horeb where He is going to give the Law; and He said, “I want you to remember what I did.”

 

(11) And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.

 

(12) And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.

 

(13) And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

 

(14) And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

 

(15) Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

 

Deuteronomy 6:1-2

(1) Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:

 

(2) That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee,

Now notice again, here is the Law established, repeated in the Psalms, and repeated in the book of Joel. I think I can find it six times in the Old Testament.

 

thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.

 

Three generations. Don’t only remember it yourself, tell it to your children, and then tell it to your grandchildren. Isn’t it wonderful the way the Lord has made children, and the way the Lord has made grandchildren? They want to hear from you before they want to hear from anybody else; and parents have opportunity to tell it again, and tell it again.

 

Deuteronomy 6:5-9

(5) And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

 

(6) And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

 

(7) And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,

 

I don’t like trying to put people under conviction when I read this. If God does this, it is fine, but I would that parents were as diligent teaching their children as they think the school teachers ought to be. God puts the responsibility on parents to teach. And to teach them diligently.

 

and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

 

What a wonderful outline. There are all kinds of opportunity. Somebody says, “When can we teach these things. How have we got time?” Do you sit with your children at the table? Do you ever go for a walk, or for a drive? You get them up in the morning, put them to bed at night. Those are the opportunities to take. You can be teaching these wonderful things, and telling the children what the Lord has done for you.

 

(8) And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

 

(9) And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

 

Deuteronomy 6:12

(12) Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

 

He goes on to say that when you  get goods, houses and so on, there is that danger of forgetting.

 

Deuteronomy 6:20-21

(20) And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you?

 

(21) Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand:

 

He goes on to say, You rehearse again what the Lord did for you. I think you can see clearly what I am trying to point out to you. The Lord told these people to tell it again and again what God had done for them in bringing them out of Egypt. And I’m telling you what you ought to do. Tell your children what the Lord did for you when you got saved. Did He do something for you? Tell it again, and tell it again. And the wonderful thing is: the children will always want to hear.

 

Well, the children of Israel failed to do that. In the book of Judges I want you to notice what the first sixteen chapters are about.

 

Judges 2:7

(7) And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel.

 

Judges 2:12-14

(12) And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.

 

(13) And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.

 

(14) And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

 

Judges 2:16

(16) Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

 

Judges 2:18-20

(18) And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.

 

(19) And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.

 

(20) And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel;

 

Judges 3:5-15

(5) And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hitites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:

 

(6) And they took their daughters to be their wives, (what God had told them not to do) and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

 

(7) And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves.

Don’t forget what we just read. Why did they forget? They ceased to talk about the goodness of the Lord.

 

(8) Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years.

 

(9) And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.

 

(10) And the spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the Lord delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim.

 

(11) And the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

 

(12) And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord:

 

(14) So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

 

(15) But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded:

 

 

All of these things are wonderful to read, but I am trying to point out one fact. Do you notice what it is? Their sin against God, takes them into bondage, they have a revival meeting and they start calling on God. God raises up a deliverer, takes them out of it, and they start living for God for a few months, and back they go into the same cycle.

 

 

Judges 4:1-4

(1) And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud (the judge) was dead.

 

(2) And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan,

 

(3) And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord:

 

(4) And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.

 

After twenty years God raised up a woman. You have all heard her name – Deborah this great judge. That’s the time when the best man in Israel was a woman. That’s the only way you can figure out that story. When Barak the prophet was going to be sent out against the king, he said, “I won’t go unless that woman goes with me.” She was the best man in the realm.

 

Judges 6:1, 7

(1) And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

 

(7) And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites,

 

And then the Lord sent a prophet and then He sent Gideon. These next chapters deal with the story of Gideon, but we go over to the tenth chapter:

 

Judges 10:1-16

(1) And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamire in mount Ephraim.

 

(6) And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord,

 

(15) And the children of Israel said unto the Lord, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.

 

(16) And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

So the Lord raises up Jephthah.

 

Judges 13:1

(1) And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

 

Then the Lord raises up Samson.

 

 

Now, you see what a generation it was! From one bondage to another. And from one phase of sinning against God to another. The first sixteen chapters of Judges describe almost four-hundred years of backslidings, of revivals, of backslidings, of revivals, of backslidings; until God said, “You have done it often enough!” And they go into real bondage. You can see the history of individuals and churches and peoples typified in all of this.

 

 

There is another thing in these chapters:

 

Judges 17:6

It now tells you what happened to these people after all of these backslidings.

(6) In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

 

Judges 18:1

(1) In those days there was no king in Israel:

 

Judges 19:1

(1) And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel,

 

Judges 21:25

(25) In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

 

What a mess! The whole nation was in a mess, where everybody was making his own rules. Can you see that? Everybody is doing his own thing, There was no king to set anybody straight, or set him right. Everybody did what was right in his own eyes; that sounds like our generation. We are rapidly coming to the conditions of the book of Judges.

 

IV. The Sad Revealing Stories

 

Now I want you to look at the revealing stories, and I call them “The sad stories of the time.” In the first sixteen chapters that I have just gone over, I wanted to show you, it is “up and down,” and “in and out.”

 

1.    The Deterioration In The Family

 

But now here in chapter seventeen, we have a revelation of the home condition during the days of the Judges. It starts in the home. Chapter eighteen gives us a look at one of the tribes, and then in the latter two chapters, it gives us an overview of the whole nation. I think that that whole progression of revelation is very important. You get to the end, and it shows you an overview of the sins of the nation. Why was it so bad in the nation? Because of the breakdown in the tribe. And why was it so bad in the tribe? Because of the breakdown in the home.

 

 

The whole thing starts with the breakdown of the home, and then it spreads like cancer to the rest of the nation.

 

 

Judges 17:1

(1) And there was a man of mount Ephraim, (Don’t miss that. He belonged to a tribe of Israel. He belonged to the people of God. Ephraim is one of the tribes.) whose name was Micah.

 

When I read the Bible, and see so often, that God names people, I think, when I preach and teach, it is alright if I name a few. That gives me a bit of liberty here. Sometimes I embarrass people by naming them, but I think there are times when you have to do it. God names him. His name is Micah. Don’t associate this with the writer of Micah. That a different man.

 

(2) And he said unto his mother,

Try and get this setting; he came home to his mother one day and said,

The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears,

 

Stop for a minute. Don’t miss a point! What have you got here? A mother in Israel has been saving her money; and may I be crude and say, in a can under the bed. She hasn’t gone to a bank with it; she has put it in a container at home. And one day, she went to the can and the money was gone. And when the money is gone, she starts to curse and sware. Well, I thought she was a woman of Israel! I thought she belonged to the people of God. She did, but see how she is carrying on? I want to tell you this: The conduct of Christians at home is more important than the conduct of Christians in public. How one lives at home has a bearing on the whole nation. There are some people who live so respectfully when they are in the company of others, but how do they live in the company of their own family?

 

Micah said to his mother, “That money that you looked for that was gone, and I heard you cursing about it, because you did it in my ears.” In other words, that’s the way she carried on in front of her children. I think there is a real moral lesson to learn here: mothers and fathers, be careful about your conduct in the presence of your children, for your children’s sake. She cursed and swore and carried on, and I think it is implied, she is threatening. “If I could only get my hands on the thief who has stolen my money, what I wouldn’t do!” Have you ever heard anybody talk like that? The boy said:

 

behold, the silver is with me; I took it.

 

Here is an open confession. The boy came home to his mother and said, “You cursed and swore. I didn’t tell you that day, but I want you to know that I took all that silver.” Notice the change of attitude. What a transformed woman. Now she pats the boy on the head and said,

 

Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son.

 

If it would have been somebody else’s boy, she would have torn him to threads. If it would have been somebody else’s boy, she would have sued him, but not her boy. Her white-haired boy could do no harm. See? I want to tell you, when parents do not see that their children can do wrong, they haven’t studied much of the Word of God. This woman, although she is a woman in Israel, and of Israel, she doesn’t know her boy at all, because she herself is not in touch with God.

 

Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son.

 

Judges 17:3- 5

(3) And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.

 

Can you imagine? This is a woman in Israel and she said “I had wholly dedicated this, and I am going to give it to make an idol.” That is syncretism. Do you know what that means? That is trying to mix things that don’t mix. If you are serving the Lord, you can’t serve idols. And if you have dedicated yourself to the Lord, you can’t turn around and give it to idols. So it is a contradiction. She is contradicting herself.

 

(4) Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.

 

This image then made from the money that the mother had collected (Don’t miss that) is set up in the home of the son. And rather than this mother teach her boy about the things of the Lord, she is leading her son in the religion of the nation, into idolatry. Can you see the awfulness of it?  That’s the condition in this family!

 

(5) And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

 

Micah has a house of gods. He doesn’t stop with one god; before he is finished, he has a house full. And he has an ephod and a teraphim. Those are like what Israel had. And what does he do next? He consecrates one of his sons, who became his priest; one of the boys like himself. He turns him into his preacher. Can you imagine?

 

I have said many times, when I have heard some of these preachers ordained of men, get up and preach, and I have read some of their sermons: “They had empty hands laid on empty heads.” And that is what you have here -- empty hands laid on an empty head. The father consecrates his own son to be his preacher and his priest.

 

Judges 17:6-13

(6) In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

 

In those days you could do what you liked. Here is an example of doing what he likes. He consecrates his own priest. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. That’s God explaining why he did that.

 

(7) And there was a young man out of Bethlehem-judah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.

 

Do you remember anything about the Old Testament? Where did the true priests come from? The true priests came from the tribe of Levi. But you see, this man from Ephraim had dedicated an Ephraimite, and there is no law of God that says an Ephraimite should be a priest. Do you see that? Now a Levite comes.

 

(8) And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehem-judah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.

 

(9) And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.

 

(10) And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in.

 

If you stay with me, I will clothe you, I’ll feed you, and I will give you wages besides. Isn’t that a pretty good offer? So the Levite went in.

 

(11) And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.

 

That doesn’t say much good for that Levite either. But, I want you to notice what Micah said.

 

(12) And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.

 

Can you see the degradation? Can you see the departure. This idolater consecrates! This worshipper of idols, this man with his house full of idols consecrates the Levite.

 

(13) Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.

 

The Lord will do me good because I now have the right kind of preacher. I have a Levite, and I have adjusted my thinking with God.

 

Whenever I read that; I have to tell you a little story.

Back in 1928 my mother went to a little town called Perry Saskatchewan, and God gave her a mighty revival. I’m sure there were one-hundred people saved in that schoolhouse. This was in a town that didn’t even have one-hundred people.

 

There was only one church in the town, and they were very disturbed, because all of these people were going to Mrs. Pritchard’s meetings. And so they had a committee meeting to find out what was the attraction? And they came to the conclusion, the reason people were going to Mrs. Pritchard’s meetings was because of the way the people sang. And so, they got together and said “What we will do is buy their hymn books; because if we get the hymn books that Mrs. Pritchard is using, we’ll have the revival in our church.”

 

Well, they got the hymn books, but it didn’t make any difference. Can you see what I am talking about in here? If I get a Levite, then I am going to get the blessing of God. You see, the fact is this: It doesn’t matter what kind of hymn books dead people have; dead people can’t sing! Amen.

 

Alright, we are talking about the sad, revealing stories in the days of the Judges. In the seventeenth chapter, we have the deterioration in one family in the nation. Just giving to us an example of what was going on, where they were mixing the true with the false, which is always a sign of the end of the age.

 

2.    The Deterioration Of The Tribe Of Dan

 

Now, as we come to Judges, chapter 18, we look closely at the deterioration that followed in one of the tribes. God tells us a little bit about it.

 

Judges 18:1-4

Observe some of the conditions that were here.

(1) In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites

In chapter 17 it was an individual from the tribe of Ephraim. Now we are dealing with the tribe of Dan.

 

sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel.

 

It tells us about the children of Israel sending men to spy, and so on.

(2) And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.

 

(3) When they were by the house of Micah,

That goes right in with the story we have read in chapter 17.

they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither?

Who brought you here? And I can understand the way they said this.

 

and what makest thou in this place? And what hast thou here?

Levite, you are the preacher with that fellow Micah. What brought you here? What salary is he giving you?

 

(4) And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest.

 

I think that before I go on, I should show you a passage in the book of Micah. It is not the same man, so I’m not trying to confuse you here; but turn to the book of Micah where I have some very sad verses to show you.

 

Micah 3:11

He starts talking about the heads of Jacob in verse 1 – the princes. In verse 5, the prophets, and now in verse 11:

 

(11) The heads (of Israel)  thereof judge for reward, (in other words, for money) and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money:

 

There were three leaders in the nation. First, the Judges (the princes as in verse one.) Then the Priests, and then the Prophets. In one simple statement, you can see that the problem the prophet faced was the fact that all of these people were doing what they were doing because of the love of money. Can you see that? The love of money is the root of all evil. And at the end of every age described in the Bible, it’s always the same.

 

I personally, am very disturbed today, by the fact that so many leaders in the world of religion are experts at raising money – not for the work of the Lord, but for themselves. And that is wrong! It always was, and always will be. That was the sin here, and that’s the sin in the book of Judges.

 

Back to Judges. The first question of the Danites was “Preacher, what kind of salary are they paying you?” You see, putting that in up-to-date language, verse 3, “What are you making here?”

 

Judges 18:4-7

(4) And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest.

 

That’s not the way it is supposed to be! When it comes to prophets and priests, and leaders in the work of God, you are not supposed to be able to hire them. And as brother Gillett used to tell me about forty years ago, “No church can hire me, and therefore, it can’t fire me.” I like that kind of theology!

 

(5) And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

 

(6) And the priest said unto them, Go in peace: before the Lord is your way wherein ye go.

 

Before we are finished, we are going to find out what kind of men these were, but this preacher believed that everybody was a son of God. You can see that. He would bless anybody. I think if a pig went by, he would bless it too!

 

(7) Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless

Please remember, these stories are revealing the days of the Judges at different locations.

 

how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.

 

You can pull these texts out of Judges, and apply every one of them to today. We are getting down to the place where “What can the magistrates do? What can the Judges do?” Everybody is doing what is right in his own eyes, and nobody can put anybody to shame in anything!

 

Judges 18:17-20

(17) And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image:

These are the men who the priest said, “God is going to prosper your way.”

 

And the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.

 

(18) And these went into Micah’s house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye?

 

(19) And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest:

 

I don’t think you need much intelligence to see what they said. They simply said, “Shut up. Don’t you say anything about what we are doing. And you come with us, to be a father and a priest.”

 

Here is their argument:

Is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?

 

Can you see what they are doing? They are bribing him to promote him. And if you look at it, up to today, here is what it is: This priest has a little church. He is only in a little church, and now a big church comes along and says, We want you for our preacher, and so you leave that, we will treat you better than you are treated here. Can you see how he is  being bought? And the same thing is going on today. And this reveals the young man’s heart.

 

(20) And the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.

 

Judges 18:23-31

(23) And they cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said unto Micah, What aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company?

You see, after they had stolen their gods, and they come after them, and they say to Micah what aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company?

 

(24) And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? And what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee?

 

(25) And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lost they life, with the lives of thy household.

Can you see the threat? These are certainly spiritual men aren’t they!

 

(26) And the children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house.

 

(27) And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.

These violent men.

 

(28) And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein.

 

(29) And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.

With violence they took the city, and with violence they built the city.

 

(30) And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

 

(31) And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

 

And then it goes on to tell you what happened after that.  War was the result. War is always judgment. So lets go to the nineteen chapter.

 

3.    The Deterioration In The Whole Nation

 

Judges 19:1-30

(1) And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite (not the same Levite) sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem-judah.

 

(2) And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father’s house to Bethlehem-judah, and was there four whole months.

They were religious, you can see that, but their morals were certainly deteriorated. Here is a religious people without any morals!

 

(3) And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father’s house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him.

May I remind you, before I read on, all of these stories are not only written for our learning and admonition, they are written to reveal the times in which these things happened.

 

(4) And his father-in-law, the damsel’s father, retained him; and he abode with him three days: so they did eat and drink, and lodged there.

Now watch as we read, how many times it talks about their drinking. He went to get his wife, this concubine, to take her back home, but the father-in-law said, “Why are you in a hurry? Lets have a little drink.”

 

(5) And it came to pass on the fourth day, when they arose early in the morning, that he rose up to depart: and the damsel’s father said unto his son-in-law, Comfort thine heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward go your way.

 

(6) And they sat down, and did eat and drink both of them together: for the damsel’s father had said unto the man, Be content, I pray thee, and tarry all night,(here is the secret coming out) and let thine heart be merry.

 

You don’t do that with a glass of water. I think you can see that. These fellows are not drinking water, they are drinking liquor. And so, they have had a three day drunk, and now the fourth day the father-in-law says, “Why hurry? Lets have another night.

 

(7) And when the man rose up to depart, his father-in-law urged him: therefore he lodged there again.

I don’t know too much about drunkenness, but I found out this is pretty well the way they act. They never want to come to an end of this.

 

(8) And he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart: and the damsel’s father said, Comfort thine heart, I pray thee. And they tarried until afternoon, and they did eat both of them.

 

(9) And when the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the damsel’s father, said unto him, Behold, now the day draweth toward evening, I pray you tarry all night: behold, the day growth to an end, lodge here, that thine heart may be merry; and tomorrow get you early on your way, that thou mayest go home.

 

(10) But the man would not tarry

 

Before I read on to what follows – the most awful story; can you see the way in which they were living in the days of the Judges? They were living in idolatry. They are living in immorality. They are living in the sin of the Canaanites. And everybody is enjoying his liquor. They are liquor-crazy!

 

But the man would not tarry that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem; and there were with him two asses saddled, his concubine also was with him.

 

(11) And when they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said unto his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn in into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it.

 

(12) And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel; we will pass over to Gibeah.

 

(13) And he said unto his servant, Come, and let us draw near to one of these places to lodge all night, in Gibeah or in Ramah.

We won’t go into the city of the Jebusites, but we will go to an Israeli town.

 

(14) And they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down upon them when they were by Gibeah, which belongeth to Benjamin.

There is another tribe name. This evil is not only in Ephraim, and this evil is not only in Dan. The evil is in another tribe. See how it is spread out. It starts by telling us about one, but now we are to the third, the fourth, the Levites. We have four tribes named already.

 

(15) And they turned aside thither, to go in and to lodge in Gibeah: and when he went in, he sat him down in a street of the city: for there was no man that took them into his house to lodging.

There was no hospitality in Israel in those days. There was no place for the man to stay.

 

(16) And, behold, there came an old man

The emphasis in the story, I don’t know how many times, but it emphasizes the fact that this man is an old man.

 

 from his work out of the field at even, which was also of mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah: but the man of the place were Benjamites.

 

(17) And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, Whither goest thou? And whence comest thou?

 

(18) And he said unto him, We are passing from Bethlehem-judah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went to Bethlehem-judah, but I am now going to the house of the Lord; and there is no man that receiveth me to house.

 

(19) Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for thy handmaid, and for the young man which is with thy servants: there is no want of any thing.

 

(20) And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street.

 

(21) So he brought him into his house, and gave provender unto the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink.

 

(22) Now as they were making their hearts merry,

He gets away from one drunk, and he comes to an old drunk in another town. The story reveals the morals of the time.

 

As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

 

There is another one of those awful stories in the Bible. What was going on in this town, in this city that belonged to Israel? They were homosexuals there. That’s what it is; they are homosexuals. And they are not interested in the old man, but they are interested in the stranger who has come their way. This is the most sickening story you can read any place in the Bible.

 

(23) And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them,

This is somewhat like the story of Lot in Genesis.

 

Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.

 

I want to say this: If that old backslidden sinner, if that old drunk knew that homosexuality was wrong, men today that are trying to make it right, know better. That old fellow in all his drunkenness knew it wasn’t right.

 

(24) Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.

 

That makes my blood rise when I read that. Imagine a father was willing to sacrifice his daughter to these damable men! And he was willing to sacrifice that other man’s wife. I want to tell you; there is something about this whole subject that is devilish.

 

(25) But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go,.

We are not told how many, but it was certainly more than one man.

 

(26) Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light.

 

(27) And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold.

 

(28) And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered

 

When I read that, I have to say something else at this point; not only were these people living in drunkenness and rebellion, but can you see the hardness of heart in this man? What had he done the night before? He had turned this woman over to those fallen beasts. And now, in the morning, he doesn’t ask her how she is. There is no thought of kindness. There is no word of kindness, just WOMAN UP, but she doesn’t speak.

 

Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place.

He went home.

 

(29) And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.

 

(30) And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

 

Judges 20:1-6

(1) Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the Lord in Mizpeh.

 

(2) And the chief of all the people, even of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.

 

(3) (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?

 

(4) And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.

 

(5) And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.

 

Can you see what that man did? He sacrificed that girl to save his own skin. That’s the conditions that were existing in Israel. In order to save his life, he gave that girl.

 

(6) And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

 

Judges 20:10-13

(10) We will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.

 

(11) So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

 

(12) And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?

 

(13) Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel (these are Israelites). But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:

 

You can come to quite a few conclusions out of that. There were people in the tribe of Benjamin who did not think that homosexuality was wrong. There were people there who were willing to harbor and protect the criminals. Can you see that? And more than that, they didn’t believe in capital punishment. These other tribes have come and they said, “We want you to bring out these men, because we are going to put them to death.” That’s capital punishment. They didn’t believe in capital punishment.

 

Every time I read this I think: if all of us would be realistic, and think about this story, if someone was to do to my wife what these men did to that girl, I think I would be believing in capital punishment. And I think a lot of other husbands would too! But the Benjamites said, We don’t believe in that. It is alright to murder a girl. It is alright to abuse her. It is alright to practice homosexuality – every thing is right. It is only relatively wrong. And so there is a war that resulted.

 

I want to tell you, our nation is headed for trouble. I did not know when I would be taking this lesson, that our Minister of the Federal Government would be announcing that they have let down the standards for the forces and for the police. Now they are going to allow homosexuals in all of these departments of our forces of our land. I want to tell you, when a nation starts to stand up in favor of homosexuals, it is on it’s way out. That is the record of history. And that is the record here.

 

Judges 20:14-21

(14) And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

 

(15) And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

 

(16) Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breath, and not miss.

 

(17) And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.

 

(18) And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the  battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first.

 

(19) And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.

 

(20) And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.

 

(21) And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

 

It goes on to speak of their weeping.

 

Judges 20:25-28

(25) And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

 

(26) Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.

 

(27) And the children of Israel inquired of the Lord, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

 

(28) And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the Lord said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

 

And the rest of the story is that they almost annihilated the tribe of Benjamin. They reduced it to a few hundred men. And then in chapter 21 it tells you how they had wives so they could propagate and continue that tribe.

 

I think, as you look back over chapter 17 through 20, you can see that there is deterioration. There is Spiritual decline. The morals break down in the home, and then the morals break down in the tribe, and then the morals break down in the nation. And then what happens? God has to Judge. Nothing brings the judgment of God more rapidly to a nation – any nation – then the sins displayed here. Apostasy is the product of backsliding! Religion, idolatry, sexual immorality, are not true religion, they are false. But, praise God, we don’t have to stop there.

 

V.  During The Sad Days Of The Judges, God Was Still Working

 

We would think that God was silent in those days, but He is working.

 

1.    God Was Preserving The Seed

 

Ruth 1:1

(1) Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

 

Here you  have your story of God doing something with another family. I’m not going to look at the details of it; but if you go down to the last chapter of Ruth, we talked a little about this when I outlined all the books.

 

Ruth 4:22

(22) And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.

 

It looked as though God had forsaken the nation; but God was preserving the seed. Through a family that had not been taken in, He is preserving the seed. And then God raises up Samuel.

 

2.    God Raises Up Samuel

 

1 Samuel 7:15

During the days of the Judges – we forget that these stories in Ruth and in 1 Samuel have to do with the same time element.

(15)  And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

I think we forget that Samuel was a Judge.

 

Samuel was the last Judge. Keep that in mind. He was the last Judge, but he was the first of a line of prophets.

 

Acts 3:24

(24) Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.

 

 

With Samuel, the age of the Judges ended, and with Samuel, the age of the prophets began. From Samuel to John the Baptist there was a new age in Israel’s history.

 

Go back and think again. You have that period of the fathers, from Abraham to Moses. Then you have the period in Egypt, then in the wilderness, then under Joshua, then under the Judges, and now under the prophets.

 

 

  

3.    The Periods

 

The Period Of The Judges.

Samuel was the last Judge

 

 

Then we go on in our Bibles, and we are going to be introduced to the Period of the Prophets, the Priests, and the Kings. Samuel was the first prophet of whom John was the last.

 

 

Hebrews 1:1-2

(1) God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

 

(2) Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;  

 

And now we are in the Period of the Church.  Up to John the Baptist was a period in history. And so we have looked at the period of the Judges. Next is the period of the prophets and priests and the kings. And that will bring us to the end of the book of Esther. And then the period of the Church. Jesus came to build His Church

 

Matthew 16:18

(18) And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

 

4.    A Brief Look At Samuel

 

We will now look at the life of Samuel, briefly. His life is recorded in

1 Samuel 1:1-3

1 Samuel 12:1-5

1 Samuel 25:1

 

Very quickly, looking at this last Judge.

 

1.    Samuel - His Times

 

He was born and raised near the end of the age of the Judges. And, as we have seen, they were very sinful days.  Everyone was doing his own thing. Everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes. Yet all his days, Samuel walked with God. Isn’t that beautiful! That’s success. What is success for a believer? Walking with God. I want to repeat that. Success for a believer is walking with God. It is not to be valued in dollars and cents and money. Samuel is living in an evil generation, and he walked with God. Do you think it possible for us to walk with God today? We are living in days, just like the days of Samuel. We are living in days, just like the days of the Judges; but if Samuel walked with God, we can walk with God.

 

2.    Samuel – His Parents

 

Samuel – His Father

 

There isn’t too much about his father.

1 Samuel 1:3, 19

(3) And this man (Elkanah) went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh.

 

(19) And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew his wife; and the Lord remembered her.

 

Twice it mentions the fact that Samuel’s father went up to worship. And I would gather from this that Samuel’s father was consistent in Spiritual things. I think there is a lesson for fathers today in that. I haven’t time for all the practical instruction that comes out of this; but so often, fathers are not consistent. They may go to church one Sunday, but they will miss four. They may go to Sunday School one week, but they will miss three. They may read the Bible one day, but they will miss four. They may pray with their children one day, but they will miss six. Do you know what is so important with children? Consistency. And that is what you learn from Samuel’s father. He was consistent in the things of God; and he was the leader in the things of God.

 

Samuel – His Mother

 

It is very easy to see what kind of woman Samuel’s mother was.

1 Samuel 1:10, 15, 27

(10) And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.

 

(15) And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.

 

That’s the best definition of prayer in all the Bible. That’s what real prayer is. Real prayer is pouring out your soul before the Lord; and Hannah did that.

 

(27) For this child I prayed;

Do I need to read what is in-between? I think not. What was Samuel’s father? He was faithful in the things of God. What was Samuel’s mother? A mother of prayer.

 

Samuel’s mother was a woman of prayer. She prayed for her son before, and she prayed for her son after he was born.

 

1 Samuel 1:22

(22) But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever.

 

You see, this woman was all mother. She did not leave him with baby sitters. And you can bring that up to modern language. When he was tender and young, she stayed right with him. And I think a lot of children would be better off if they had their mothers looking after them, rather than others.

 

3.    Samuel – His Dedication

 

1 Samuel 1:24-28

(24) And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh: and the child was young.

 

(25) And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli.

Notice, it wasn’t “she” but “they.” His father, her husband, is there too.

 

(26) And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.

 

(27) For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him:

 

(28) Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.

 

 

In his dedication, there are some things that we do reverently. I am old-fashioned. I believe that when we bury our dead, we should show reverence. That is Scriptural. I believe when we marry our young, we should show reverence. And I believe that when we dedicate our babies we should do it with reverence.

 

 

Here is a dedication without reservation. There were no strings attached. This mother who loved this boy for which she had prayed, brought him and said, “He is the Lord’s. He is the Lord’s as long as he lives.” I’m preaching to you because I had a mother like that. The reason I am preaching, is because my mother presented me to the Lord without reservation. Oh that we had more mothers like that. Stop and think, these mothers, of whom we are reading, lived during the days of the Judges. They shone like lights in the dark.

 

Recap

We have been following the story of the origin of the nation of Israel, as found in the book of Genesis. We have looked at their moving into the land of Egypt, and then their Exodus from the land of Egypt, in the book of Exodus. And very quickly, we have looked at the forty years in the wilderness, as found in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. And then we followed them as they moved from the wilderness into the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua.

 

And for a number of studies, we talked about the land of Israel, and the people of Israel. We considered the 450 years in the land of Canaan, under the leadership of the Judges. These were years of backslidings, sinning against God, going into idolatry, then into bondage, then calling on the name of the Lord. The Lord raising up a Judge to bring them out of their bondage. And finally, this lead the families of the children of Israel, and the tribes into awful moral conditions. One would look at the history and think that God had forgotten the nation entirely. But during the years of the Judges, the Hand of God was at work. And that is revealed, first, in the story of Ruth (during the time that the Judges ruled.) and then toward the end of the period of the Judges, God raised up the last Judge who became the first prophet to begin a new era in the history of the children of Israel. This man was a Godly man from the days of his childhood, until the days of his death.

______________________________________________________

 

Now, back to Samuel

Samuel was born and raised near the end of  the age of the Judges, I suppose about 50 years before the end of that period. And as we saw, they were very sinful days, and everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes. Yet the significance is, that during those awful, dark days, Samuel walked with God. And there is a real challenge in that. If Samuel could walk with God in the days of the Judges, then we can walk with God in our day, and our day is just like in the days of the Judges. Success is walking with God. And it matters not what else one does: if he isn’t walking with God, he is not successful when it comes to the standard of the Bible.

 

His father, as we saw from reading the first chapter of 1 Samuel, was regular at worship. It doesn’t tell us very much about him, but I have analyzed from what I read, that he was consistent in Spiritual things. And the thing that we can emphasize there is the fact that there is so much inconsistency on the part of Christian fathers and mothers, and especially fathers in these days. And what can we expect from the children, if the fathers are not consistent? In this case, the father of Samuel led in regular worship.

 

And of his mother.

You read in verse 2 of chapter 1, that Elkanah, the father of Samuel, had two wives. God doesn’t put his approval on that, but He tells us what was going on. In the days of the Judges this was an ordinary thing to happen. It says in verse 5 that Hannah was loved by her husband, but she didn’t have a child. That brings us down to verse 9. We look at her story once again.

 

1 Samuel 1:9-19

(9) So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord.

 

(10) And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.

 

(11) And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

 

Her request was very positive. Her prayer was definite; she was asking God to give her a son. That’s interesting from the Old Testament. That is a proof of Hannah’s faith. God had promised that some woman in Israel was going to be the mother of Messiah. And so, a woman of faith wanted to have a boy; and so she prayed for a son in hope that that son might be the seed. Now of course, that wasn’t so, but still you can see her petition is so plain.

 

(12) And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth.

 

(13) Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.

 

That reveals the awful conditions of the times. Eli, the priest at the house of God, wasn’t even accustomed to seeing women pray, let alone men. You can see the point. It is bad enough when the men don’t pray, but it seems to me it is ten times worse when there isn’t a woman praying; because, go to our prayer meetings today, and you notice how the women outnumber the men. It doesn’t matter where you go, it has been that way. But in the days of the Judges, things got down so far, Spiritually, that the priest was shocked, and thought that this woman had to be drunk. What is she doing there muttering away to herself? She has to be drunk! And so he went to her.

 

(14) And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee.

 

(15) And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.

 

You put verse 13 alongside of verse 15, and you will learn something wonderful about real prayer. It’s not how loud you pray that really counts. This woman wasn’t even praying out loud. You couldn’t hear her voice. Her prayer was coming from her heart, and pouring out her soul before the Lord is real prayer. There isn’t any prayer that is any better than that kind of prayer.

 

(16) Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.

 

(17) Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.

 

(18) And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.

 

(19) And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her.

 

Now a little later on in the story, here is what Hannah said:

1 Samuel 1:27

(27) For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him.

 

And so, it is really a wonderful account of the mother of Samuel. She prayed for him before he was conceived. She prayed for him after he was conceived. And she prayed for him all the days of his life. It is wonderful that a son can have a mother like that.

 

So, he has a dedicated father, and he has a mother, who according to verse 22, was all mother. When Elkanah went up to worship, Hannah said, “I’ll stay at home with my baby, and I will look after my baby while you go to do what you have to do.” She didn’t believe in babysitters. Hannah looked after her own child.

 

In my own experience, I look back over the days when my boy, Jamie, was just a little fellow and went off to school. When he would come home, the first thing he would do when he opened the door was to call out, “Mom,” And as long as there was an answer some place in the house, all was well. There is something about a mother and a son, and about a mother and a daughter. There is a tie that God makes that God intended to be made, and Hannah was mother right from day one, until the day that she died. I like to read that kind of story in the Bible.

 

There is something here about Samuel’s dedication that is wonderful. They go to Shiloh, and after Samuel is old enough to be weaned, they present him to the Lord.

1 Samuel 1:28

(28) Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.

 

Back in verse 11, we read what she said before she conceived. “Lord if you give me a boy, I will give that boy to Thee all the days of his life.” I call that real dedication. This mother asked the Lord for a son, and then when her request was fulfilled, she turned around and gave that gift back to God and said, “Lord you look after this boy, and you use him.” I think it most wonderful when parents unreservedly dedicate their children to the Lord.

 

I guess I will never forget Sister McLean. That is Glen S. McLean’s mother, telling her story. I have forgotten how many boys are in the McLean family. I think about six. They had waited a long while to have a girl. After they had about four or five boys,  finally their daughter Hazel arrived. And so Brother and Sister McLean took this baby down to Trausachs Camp on a Sunday morning, and dear Brother Smith dedicated this little girl. Sister McLean would often tell in her testimony, how that while she was standing there, with her only girl, this preacher started to pray and he said, “Lord, make her a missionary.” And Sister McLean said, My heart rebelled. “I would have been satisfied if the Lord had made my boys missionaries; but for the only girl I have, for a preacher to dare say, Lord make her a missionary, I had all the reservation in the world.”

 

Afterward, God dealt with her, and that is what happened to her girl. When her girl was about twenty-one or twenty-two, she went out to Africa to be a missionary. God answered the prayer that day, even though there was a reservation. But I think it is far better when mothers take their children, and without reservation, they just say, “Lord, you gave me this child, and now I want you to use this child.”

 

Although Hannah had given her boy to the Lord, she never lost him. They weren’t under the same roof, but every year, she made clothes for him, and every year she went to look after him. You know, it is possible for a mother and her boy to be under the same roof, and be a thousand miles apart. And on the other hand, you can be a thousand miles apart, and still be close. That is the case here. Samuel wasn’t at home with his mother, but he never was away from her as to his spirit. She never lost her boy. By giving her boy unreservedly to the Lord, she gained him. Oh that parents can learn that from the story!

 

4.    Samuel – His Childhood, And His Salvation

 

When you look back at chapter 1 and 2. Chapter two has to do with Hannah’s prayer. Now we go ahead to the third chapter.

 

1 Samuel 3:1, 7

(1) And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. (That is mentioned over and over again) And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.

 

 

(7) Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord,

 

What a statement, and what a revelation! You go back. His mother prayed for him before he was born. His father was Godly. His mother was Godly, but he didn’t yet know the Lord. He had been dedicated and presented to the Lord, but he yet didn’t know the Lord. What is so important about emphasis at this point? I think it is this: Godly parents can make an awful mistake. They can get the idea, because they are saved, their children are automatically saved, but that is not true. You can get the idea, because you pray for your children, they are automatically saved. Or you can get the idea that you dedicated them to the Lord, and on the day of dedication they got saved. That is not so. There are parents who believe in what they call “Confirmation.” They have the idea that when they are confirmed by a priest or preacher, that’s automatic Salvation.

 

Listen, the truth is that every individual needs a personal experience with the Lord Himself. With all his background, being raised in this Godly home, this boy had to get saved. I’m glad that I had parents who were more concerned about the Salvation of their children than anything else. And I thank God that they did not take for granted the Salvation of their children. Children can be saved, praise God.

 

 

When I was pastoring some years ago, we put on a children’s crusade. From the standpoint of numbers that you could count, and testimonies that were given, it was really successful. A Christian family had sent their boy to these children’s meetings, and I happened to be present, when this little fellow of about six years old, definitely got saved in those children’s meetings. I was really happy and went to his mother to tell his mother how her little boy had accepted the Lord, and she was upset and indignant, and terribly disturbed; because it was an embarrassment to her. How could my boy live with me in my house for six years where we pray every day, where we read the Bible, where we go to church, where we go to Sunday School, and escape not having been saved before now? See the argument? See the reasoning? You see, we can take it for granted, that children have come in, when they haven’t.

 

So, there is a lesson here in Samuel. Godly mother, but Samuel did not yet know the Lord. He needed to have an experience, personally. Well, I suppose anybody who has read the Bible knows what followed in this story, but let’s go on.

 

1 Samuel 3:8-10

(8) And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I: for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child.

 

(9) Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

 

(10) And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.

 

This was the personal call of God to Samuel. Notice, when Samuel answered, he didn’t say “Speak Lord.” He simply says “Speak.” For no man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. And yet, at this point he’s not saved, and he acknowledges it by making that statement “Speak.”

 

John 10:27-28

(27) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

 

(28) And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

 

2 Timothy 1:12

(12) For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

 

1 Samuel 3:11

(11) And the Lord said to Samuel,

 

 Then you come down to verses 18-20

1 Samuel 3:19-20

(19) And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him,

 

(20) And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.

Not only did the Lord know, Samuel knew, and others knew also.

 

Now you can see, as you fill in the lines, it was between verses 9 and 18 Samuel had an experience with God. Here is a story of a child conversion. I would like to insert here two little stories by way of illustration. I won’t talk about my son and my daughter, but it is very real to them. I’ll come to my grandson. Four years ago, out here at Langley, Barry Moore was having a meeting out in a School house, and our daughter and our grandchildren were here, and we went out to a Sunday night meeting. While the altar call was being given, that little grandson, sitting on my knee, started to shake and tremble, and there sitting on Grampa’s knee my grandson accepted Christ. I haven’t had the chance to tell Barry Moore, but some day, I want to tell him face to face, that while he was preaching, my grandson accepted Christ.

 

In 1982 we went to Olds Camp in Alberta, and I always want to be cautious when I tell this, and I tell it again and again and again. I want to be cautious that I am not misunderstood. My daughter and her husband attend a Baptist Church. It is a good Baptist church – Evangelical. But they never have altar calls in that church.

 

Well, we were sitting in that meeting at Olds Camp in 1982. My grandchildren were sitting on each side of me. At the end of a meeting Brother George Johnson, who was the Evangelist, gave an altar call at the end of the service. It was rather a low-key thing. There was no Pentecostal pressure, if you understand what I mean. He just went down after he preached, and stood at the altar and he said something like this: God’s here and I’m here, and if anybody wants to come, come. No pressure at all!

 

People started to go to the altar. And as they moved up, that little boy looked up into my face and said, “Grampa what is an altar?” How do you answer a little boy? I said, “Jay, an altar is a place where people have opportunity to meet God.” I don’t know if that was a good answer or not, but that’s what I gave him. He sat there beside me and watched the people go, and then he looked up into my face and said, “Grampa, can I go?” There was no hesitancy, and I led him up to the altar and stood off to the left side of the Tabernacle.

 

When we got down on our knees, the little boy looked at me and said, “Grampa, what do I do now?” Every step was a question. And I guess I prayed to get the right answer. And I said, “Jay, you just tell Jesus you love Him, just tell Him you love Him.” And so, while we are kneeling at the altar at a camp meeting, that little boy started to weep before the Lord. He is telling the Lord that he loves Him. I like to relive it.

 

In my file that I want to keep as long as I live, I have a letter from my daughter in the month of August. This was about a month later. She said she came up on a Monday morning, and my little Grandson is walking around in the Front room, and he is crying and the tears are flowing down from his cheeks and Judy said, “Jay what’s wrong, did you hurt yourself?”  No, “Why are you crying?” And Jay answered, “Oh, I was just telling Jesus that I love Him, like Grampa and I did back at the altar.” I think that is wonderful! You see, the reason I take time to  tell that, is because God can be real to little children!

 

And here we have a wonderful man to read about, who had such a tremendous beginning back here when God talked to him and he talked to God. And don’t let anybody tell you that it can’t be real to children. It was real to Samuel. And We read that all the people knew that he was called to be a prophet.

 

5.    Samuel – His Life And Ministry

 

There are two things I want you to look at

1 Samuel 7:15-17

This sort of summarizes his whole life.

(15) And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

From a little boy he was called; and they all knew he was going to be a judge and a prophet.

 

(16) And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places.

 

(17) And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the Lord.

 

You can see that one is reluctant to pass by that. He had an altar at home. And because he had an altar at home, wherever he went he was a blessing. He was a circuit-riding preacher.  Every year he had to make the circuit to these four points, and actually when you find and discover the geography of the area, Samuel had to preach where everybody knew him, all the days of his life. That’s really good for a preacher. I thought the Lord was going to make me do that too. For fifty years of my life I preached within a radius where everybody knew me, from my childhood until my fiftieth birthday. But now it’s changed just a little bit. But Samuel didn’t have any change, he preached in the same spot all the days of his life.

 

There is something wonderful that I like in

1 Samuel 9:6

It doesn’t name him, but it is talking about him. There was a servant of king Saul, and when they were in difficulty it says:

(6) And he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honourable man;

 

I think that goes together. Who is that talking about? It is talking about Samuel. And the servant of Saul knew that he was a man of God, and more than that, he had reason to observe him, and he knew that he was an honourable man. I would to God that all of God’s ministers and all of God’s servants were honourable. That’s what God requires, but it isn’t always so. You can investigate Samuel and find out what an honest man he was. And we find out more of it as we move to his old age.

 

6.    Samuel – His Old Age And Death

 

From chapter one, right through to chapter twelve, it is basically dealing with this man Samuel. And so this is a lap-over of the book of Judges. For all of this is happening during the time of the Judges.

 

1 Samuel 12:1-5

(1) And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.

 

(2) And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; And, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.

 

I never make an apology for reading this portion of Scripture over and over again. It is so precious. Here is an old man and he’s gray-headed. And he said, “My sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.” He is standing up before a congregation, and he looks into the faces of everybody who has known him since he was a little boy. Have you got the picture? He said, “I’m an old man now, but you have all known me for all of these years.”

 

(3) Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? And I will restore it you.

 

(4) And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man’s hand.

 

(5) And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.

 

Isn’t that an amazing testimony! What a wonderful thing, to be able stand up in front of your congregation, from the days of childhood, until the days of your death, and challenge the congregation. If we have not been just and honorable and upright, if we have defiled, or taken money falsely from anybody, stand up and declare it. I think Samuel felt good that day, don’t you – when he is able to stand up with that kind of testimony. I say, Would to God I could have that kind of testimony. I’m always reluctant, lest I be misunderstood, because God knows I don’t think myself to be some great one, but I do think back to a day when I think about an inch on a twelve inch or a sixteen inch ruler, I felt a little like I think Samuel felt that day.

 

I think I have talked to you in these lessons about my Aunt Minnie who died in 1967, and I told you the story when my uncle requested me to take her funeral service. I took one in Regina, and then after that, went down to the little village of Pangman where I had been raised, and where I had preached, and where I had gone to school.

 

When I stood up that day, I had a congregation in front of me that I never faced before. I looked on both sides and here were men that I had gone to school with and they were getting gray. I looked over the congregation; and here were people from the neighborhood that had known me ever since I was a child. And when I stood up to preach that day, I said, “There is no point in me trying to pretend anything here. There is no hour for pretense. You all know me, and you have all known me from a child.” I didn’t name them, but I would point and say, “You went to school with me, you went to school with me, and so you know, I am going to talk honestly to you, out of my heart.” I really felt good, that I could stand up and tell them what the Lord had done for me, knowing that they knew me.

 

Samuel had a great feeling that day, when he challenged his congregation. And I’m simply saying, Read the story. Meditate on this story, and ask God to give you the kind of testimony that Samuel had.

 

1 Samuel 12:18

I want you to see more of his greatness. He was a great man.

(18) So Samuel called unto the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.

When that man prayed, something happened!

 

(19) And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.

 

(22) For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people.

 

Notice again his greatness in verse 23

(23) Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:

 

(24) Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.

 

Do you know what the greatness of that man was? In the fact that people knew that his prayers were powerful, and people knew that his prayers counted with God. And they said, “Pray for me.” When is the last time that people came and asked you to pray for them? I think that is a wonderful testimony. I think that is part of our testimony as Christians.

 

I can recall: again I go back to my childhood and I think of my mother in this regard; whenever neighbors got in trouble, and whenever the family got in trouble, the first thing they did was phone (not sister Pritchard, because some of them weren’t even saved) they would phone Mrs. Pritchard to pray. That’s the way it was with Samuel. This man had contact with God. Listen, he was walking with God and he had contact with God.

 

Let’s go over and look at the end of the story. Samuel continues right through 24 chapters. And there is more of his life revealed during the time of Saul, but that’s not part of this study.

 

1 Samuel 25:1

(1) And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah.

All of Israel gathered together to do him honor at his death. I think that is a passage of Scripture that needs to have us stop and let it soak in. What a big funeral he had!

 

2 Chronicles 21:18-20

Let me show you the other end of this stick. You can find many things like this in the Bible, but this is one of the best passages from which to draw the contrast that I want to draw.

 

(18) And after all this the Lord smote him (Jehoram) in his bowels with an incurable disease.

You better believe it, if God says it is incurable, it’s incurable.

 

(19) And it came to pass, that in process of time, after the end of two years, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness: so he died of sore diseases. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers.

 

(20) Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, (he is only 40 years old) and departed without being desired.

Can you get the contrast of what I am showing you? Here is a man that lived so ungodly that when he died, everybody was glad he was gone.

 

Now back to Samuel. When Samuel died, everybody gathered to lament, to weep, to mourn for him. I am watching in the papers how many people are dying today and don’t want a service. I think that we Christians should pay attention to little things like this in the Bible. It is right to have Christians funerals. It’s proper. It’s Scriptural. When Samuel died, they didn’t gather merely to lament, but I can show you other Scriptures, they gathered to do him honor.

 

In June 1955, my wife and I resigned as Pastor of the little village church in Pangman. We had our farewell, and on the Sunday night at the end of the service, some of the dear men, whom we looked upon as Elders, stood around us as dear Brother McNichol,  74 years of age, put his hand on our head and blessed us and sent us out like missionaries. Here was Gordon White’s father Frank White, and here was Charlie White, and here is my father, and here is Harold Hollands, and Fred Hollands, and Jimmy McNichol, and who else I can’t remember, but these are the gray-haired men who stood around us as dear Brother McNichol prayed. That was in June.

 

We went off to Veteran Camp and Brother McNichol got hit with a truck and killed, and I got a call to go back to his funeral. So on the first Wednesday of July 1955, we went back to this man’s funeral and he didn’t have a relative in Canada – they were all in Scotland. I went up in the church and this side is full of people, and this side is empty; because making the arrangements before I got back from the camp, all of the Saints marched in that day. He had a great family. All of the saints sat as his mourners. And I’ll tell you, that was one of the easiest funeral services I had in one sense, and yet in another sense, it was very hard. We missed him. And the challenge of that day was: Brother McNichol is gone, who is going to stand up in his place?

 

And when Samuel was gone, they challenged Israel: Where is there going to be a man to take the place of this man who served God all the days of his life? We need some more Samuels. And, in order to have them, we need some more Hannahs.

 

We have only been able to touch the high points of the outline of the history of the nation of Israel, from the days of Jacob, as found in the book of Genesis, until the days of the kings and prophets, in which period is covered in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.

 

VI. A Brief Review

 

In Genesis we have the origin of the fathers of the family of Israel. And their move  into the land of Egypt. It is a very historical documentation.

 

In Exodus, chapters 1 to 14, the story of the last years of their 430 years in the land of Egypt.

 

Then in Exodus chapters 15 to Deuteronomy 34, it’s the story of their leaving Egypt, and their subsequent 40 years wandering in the wilderness.

 

Then the book of Joshua they enter the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua.

 

And then followed by the Judges, they were in the land for a period of 450 years. And, as we have pointed out, these were years of backsliding -- years that produced Apostasy in the nation. Problems in a nation are basically caused by backsliders and Apostates. And such conditions also always lead to war and other judgments.

 

That second to last statement, I suppose you need to ponder well. A lot of people do not realize what influence they have. Listen, if you live a Godly life, you are going to have an influence. And if you live an ungodly life, you are going to have an influence. The principles of the Bible remain the same, whether it be in the Old Testament or in the New. In the days of the Judges, because of the backsliding of the people, the nation went under morally. And our nations are going under morally because of the backslidings of God’s people. I don’t want to be preaching another sermon, but God says we are the salt of the earth; and if we don’t remember that, then morals are going to get worse.