WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:04.240 So Judges 9 is super interesting for a couple of reasons. 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:06.480 The main reason is the pattern changes. 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:14.800 The pattern that's been set in the book of Judges has been pretty much God raising up leaders at the right times. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:16.559 These leaders are called judges. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:19.359 That's why the name of the book is Judges. 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:24.079 But in Judges 9, we have the pattern change, and that is Gideon's son, Abamelech. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:25.839 And thank you, Lindsay, for reading the passage. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.239 It got me out of having to read all these different names. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:31.679 I'm not going to reread it. 00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:34.960 I'll spare myself that privilege. 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:41.119 The pattern changes is Gideon's son, Abamelech, this guy, he wants power. 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:46.399 So he goes to his family, he gives kind of an inspirational speech of some sort. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:49.119 At least he's able to do that because they give him money. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:01:03.679 He goes out and he hires these reckless guys, and then this group goes and they hunt down the 70 brothers, all of which somebody could have tried to step in to become king, and they kill all 70 of those brothers. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:16.799 So what changed in the pattern of judges at this point was before God had raised up each leader, and then in Judges 9, we have a guy who he takes control by his own means. 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:18.799 He's the one that steps in. 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:22.799 It's also interesting that this story receives two chapters. 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:25.920 So it receives a huge chunk of the book. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:33.200 And then what's interesting is in that huge chunk of this book, the Lord is never mentioned by name. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:35.760 So that kind of gives us our first point. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:36.799 This is what it tells us. 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:44.400 Point number one is this our desire for control is not from the Lord and welcomes frustration. 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:54.879 I mean, just the fact that we have a story about a guy taking control that wasn't his to take, and that the Lord's name is never mentioned in any of the story. 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:02.560 This tells us that this urge of ours to always have as much control as possible, to have everything under control. 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:03.920 It's not from the Lord. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:07.439 It's an impossibility for us, and it welcomes frustration. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:11.520 Last week I watched ABC's new documentary on Mike Tyson. 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:13.599 I'm kind of like a secret Tyson fan. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:15.439 I don't know what I call it a fan. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:17.120 I don't know if that'd be a great thing. 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:21.280 More like I'm fascinated by this guy's life. 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:31.599 So Tyson grew up in extreme poverty in New York, neglect, sexual abuse, physical abuse, bullying, violence. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.639 All he knew, all he knew was fear, and all he knew was defense. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:42.240 And he, by the age of 13, he had been arrested 38 times. 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:45.759 So by the age of 16, he was in a youth prison. 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:47.280 This is him at 16. 00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:50.240 I'm still waiting to get those muscles that are never gonna come. 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:51.439 He had that at 16. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:52.719 You should have seen me at 16. 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:54.800 I should have put a picture up of me at 16. 00:02:54.879 --> 00:02:56.240 That'd have been interesting. 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:00.479 Also, when he's 16, his mother dies. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.439 So he's 16, youth prison. 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:05.280 A guard starts to teach him to box. 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:08.000 Uh he gets introduced to a boxing trainer. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:23.439 This boxing trainer takes him into his home, his mom dies, he loses the one somewhat supportive figure in his life, and then the boxing trainer adopts him, but he's this boxing trainer also vested in his interest, and he starts to train. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:24.159 Right? 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:28.159 And he just starts to pound people, he starts to box and just demolish people. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:36.400 I can remember one time in high school where, you know, like one person would buy the fight and everybody's show up for like$3, and you'd have like, you know, like 100 people in one living room. 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:41.120 And like if you went to the bathroom when the fight started, then you came out, it was over. 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:42.800 Like that's how fast it was. 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:51.120 I mean, he was demolishing grown men as a teenager, and at age 20, he becomes the champion of the world. 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:53.439 Age 20, he's a kid. 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:55.280 Millions of dollars. 00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:59.759 And yet he has no self-control, he's self-destructing, and he's dangerous. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.800 And then he ends up, eventually, he ends up in jail. 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:05.520 And then he comes out of prison to regain his titles. 00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:06.639 And I'm getting to my point. 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:08.240 I will get to my point here. 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:11.039 Because the point is, is eventually he fights Holyfield. 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:12.479 And maybe you remember this fight. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:16.319 Okay, so Holyfield, the first fight goes to the 11th round, stoppage. 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:17.920 They give it to Holyfield. 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:22.399 Second fight, this is the refight, and this was a huge fight. 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:25.439 Tyson gets$30 million for this one fight. 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:29.279 Holyfield gets$35 million for this one fight. 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:32.079 And this is an infamous fight. 00:04:32.399 --> 00:04:33.600 Because this is what happens. 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:35.680 Here's the image of what happened. 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.680 Holyfield starts to bully Tyson. 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:42.000 Tyson hasn't been bullied since he was a kid. 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:44.079 Tyson had become the bully. 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:51.600 Tyson had always been the one to take control, but then Holyfield finally is a boxer who can take control in the ring. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:53.360 Tyson doesn't know what to do with it. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:56.480 Holyfield ties him up, he headbunts him over and over again. 00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:04.800 Tyson loses it, he bites a chunk off of the ear of Holyfield, one of the most infamous sporting events in history, right? 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:10.319 And it's just because Tyson got bullied to the point he triggered back to being a kid. 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:17.199 He just triggered back to being a street brawl where you're fighting for your life and you'll do anything to get out of it. 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:22.720 One of Tyson's famous quotes is this everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:24.560 You've probably heard it, right? 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:26.639 I mean, that was his life motto. 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:30.560 Like, I'll just punch everybody in the mouth so that I have power and I have control. 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:33.360 I'll be okay because I cease power. 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:34.879 And then what? 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:37.199 Like for your life and for my life. 00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:38.160 Like, and then what? 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:40.480 What if you're not in control? 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:43.519 What if you're the one getting punched in the mouth? 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:48.879 What if you can't control the timing of that thing that you want to happen? 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:51.600 What if you can't control that other person? 00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:54.639 What if you can't control what they're doing? 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.959 What if you can't control your health? 00:05:57.360 --> 00:05:59.040 What if you can't control your job? 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:00.319 What if you can't control your children? 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:03.759 What if you can't control that somebody's disappointed with you? 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:05.040 Now what? 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.319 Control idolatry says this. 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:15.120 I am okay or I have worth as long as blank is under control. 00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:19.360 And we all have control idolatry at some point, right? 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:27.600 I mean, it may be family, it might be finances, might be the job, it might be people's respect, admiration, but all of us have control idolatry in some way. 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:38.399 Now, if we go back to Abel Malek in this story and judges, he has a father from one race and he has a mother from another race. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:45.120 So in the ancient Near East, sadly, still today, this could put a person in a lower view from society. 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:47.439 That's unfair. 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:51.839 But he didn't have the pedigree from society. 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:53.040 Right? 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.120 Those other brothers had the pedigree. 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:57.519 They're the ones that had the pedigree, but not him. 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:01.759 So he's the outcast and he has to prove himself. 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:03.120 He feels like he has to prove himself. 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:04.079 He has to step in. 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:05.920 So he overly asserts. 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:13.920 Point number two is this undealt with past, undealt with pasts affect our present and our future. 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:20.160 So when Tyson bit the ear off, he hadn't been bullied since he was a kid. 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:23.839 He triggers back into what it was like to be a kid in a street brawl. 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:25.920 You do anything to get out of it, there's no rules. 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:35.680 I mean, Tyson even said this in another quote of his Sometimes I put on a ski mask and dress in old clothes, go out in the streets and beg for quarters. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:41.759 So he said that as a famous, rich, successful athlete. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:42.959 He said that. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:46.399 See, we can run from our past. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:47.920 We can even band-aid. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:49.839 We can even band-aid our past. 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:55.279 And when I say that, I mean sins we've committed, mistakes we've made, wounds that have been committed upon us. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:58.959 We can even band-aid that with religious talk. 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:04.079 And we can end up metaphorically stuck there forever. 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:08.160 Or in Tyson's situation, he was physically going back there. 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:20.480 But see, what Jesus calls us into, it's the most interesting thing because he gives us a state, a position of fully healed in him as his beloved child. 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:22.879 And yet in this world, we're still broken. 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:24.959 So we're already, but not yet. 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:27.279 We're healed, but we're still in the journey of healing. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:29.680 You remember the woman at the well in John 4? 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:39.360 It's one of my favorite stories of I think this kind of being fleshed out, because Jesus shows up to this woman who's an outcast in her own way, and he tells her, Hey, I have living water for you. 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:45.519 And she's not picking up on the metaphorical talk that this living water is about her heart and her soul, not just like her coming and physically getting this water. 00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:47.600 She's like, hey, I'll take the, I'll take the water. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:48.559 Give me that water. 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.200 I'll keep coming here over and over again. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:57.600 And then he says to her, he says, Hey, by the way, like you had five husbands and you live with a six man. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.840 And so this wasn't, Jesus wasn't saying this to shame her. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.240 He was already welcoming her to himself. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:11.840 So that wouldn't have made sense for Jesus to be welcoming her and accepting her and saying, Hey, I want to be your Lord and Savior. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:15.440 I want to pour into you living water, but I'll also shame you along the way. 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:16.799 So that's not what's going on here. 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:24.559 It's not a shame talk, but it is a walking with her through all of her sins and all of her wounds. 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:36.159 This is how we both need to be healed in Jesus and how Jesus wants to be with us as we process through our paths of sin and wounds. 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:47.759 We can allow the security of our healed position as we grow in our identity, the great wealth we have in Jesus, that we can become more and more secure in Him and that we're not at risk to feel pain. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:54.080 That pain will not destroy you because you are at peace and secure in Him. 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:59.360 Dan Allender says this in his book, To Be Told, Know Your Story, Shape Your Future. 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:14.240 In those moments of unnaming, when we have lost ourselves, we must remember to return to our past redemptions to find God's mark of glory on our abandonment, betrayal, and shame. 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:19.279 We wrongly believe that we will be happy if we can escape the past. 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:27.440 But without our past, we are hollow and plastic beings who have only common names and conventional stories. 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:36.240 When we enter into our story at the point we lost our name, we are most likely to hear the whisper of our new name. 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:40.879 So Alander is saying that we all have unnaming events in our lives. 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:45.039 I think in the context of his writing, he's talking about things that have been happened to you. 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:48.399 But I think this can also be sins we've committed, our own mistakes. 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.320 And in that way, we're unnaming the creative beauty we have. 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:59.519 That we have hearts that have been wounded by our own sinful past, we've been wounded by the evil of the world, by the evil of other people. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:01.840 And in this way, we've been unnamed. 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:04.320 But in Christ, we have a new name. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:09.440 We have a redemptive story, a new identity. 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:15.360 And you think about somebody like Abel Malek, or we can think about something like Mike Tyson, or we think about ourselves. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:26.399 And how often we try to escape from all of that, or we try to reach for more and more control or power in order to feel at peace, or as some measure of defense. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:32.879 And then, of course, we know how that story works: that you'll never have enough control, and you'll never have enough power to be at peace. 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:36.799 Judges 9, it goes on to give us this parable of a bramble bush. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:40.480 And it says that all the trees were looking for a king. 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:43.200 And so there's lots of amazing trees. 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:44.879 There's an olive tree, a fig tree. 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:54.399 These would have been good trees to exalt as a king, but in this parable, it's the bramble bush that steps up and volunteers to be king. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:12:00.480 The problem is the bramble bush is small and scraggly and pretty useless, other than the fact that it can catch on fire. 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:01.679 That's about it. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:06.960 So the only thing that such a worthless plant offers is destruction. 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:08.879 And that's the point of the parable. 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:10.320 It's an odd little parable. 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:15.440 Point number three is this evil always leads to destruction. 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:22.480 See, we may fool people for a little while, we may fool ourselves for a little while about what we're doing. 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:31.840 But evil, destructive thinking, destructive motives, destructive behavior, it always leads to destruction. 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:38.960 See, some of us are living in what I would say is deep waters of consequential sin. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:45.759 And that's just a way to say some sin has bigger consequences in life in this world than others' sin. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:50.879 We're not going to rate sin and rate sin, but some sin just has more consequences in this world. 00:12:51.039 --> 00:12:54.480 Now, your soul may be saved in Jesus, right? 00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:58.240 But you may burn your life down along the way. 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:01.440 And evil always leads to destruction. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:06.080 And so just knowing this, knowing you're not going to escape that reality and that truth. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:09.840 You may be saved, but you may burn your life down. 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:13.120 And so pastorally, I would just say, like, just stop. 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:14.080 Just stop now. 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:15.039 Like, get out of that. 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:16.080 Rearrange your life. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:17.120 Confess. 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:18.320 Restore. 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:19.679 Come talk to me. 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:20.399 Email me. 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:21.120 We'll work it out. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:22.559 Let's get you set up with a counselor. 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:30.480 Let's figure out a way so that the evil, the destructive behavior does not have to burn your life down. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.200 And the Bible is clear on that, and reality is clear on that. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:41.279 Live long enough with certain sins that have heavy consequences in this world, and you'll burn your life down. 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:42.960 And it happened to Abamelech. 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:52.159 That's what the bramble bush is about, and it happened here to Abamelech because three years later, Shechem tries to take out Abamelech. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:58.559 Abamelech finds out about this, and so he goes and he fights Shechem, takes them out, routes them. 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:00.240 They lose about a thousand people. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:03.120 And then he goes on to this next village, he captures it. 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:07.919 All the people in that village, they run to the tower in the middle of the village, they run up into the tower. 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:11.600 Abamelech's there at the bottom of the tower with his men. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:14.559 And a woman high up in the tower, love this. 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:16.000 Abamelech can't stand it. 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:23.840 She takes a millstone, throws it out the window, it lands on his head, crushes his skull. 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:32.159 As he's dying, he looks at another soldier and he says, Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, a woman killed me. 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:38.559 So, until his last breath, his last sentence, he is an insecure man. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.879 He can't even deal with the fact that a woman might have killed him, right? 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:45.039 Like he can't even deal with it. 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:47.919 Insecure until his last breath. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:51.759 Always needing control, always trying to assert himself. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:54.240 I mean, how exhausting. 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:56.879 How exhausting of a life. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:09.759 And then in Judges 10, the story shifts because we get two leaders showing up, Tola and Jar, who we know little about, but the story actually gives us a lot about God. 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:11.840 So Judges 10, 1 through 5. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:24.559 After Abramelech there arose to save Israel, Tola, the son of Pua, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he lived at Shemir in the hill country of Ephraim, and he judged Israel 23 years. 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:27.120 Then he died and was buried at Shemar. 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:42.240 After him arose Jaar the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years, and he had thirty sons, who rode on thirty donkeys and had thirty cities called Havoth Jaar to this day, which are the land of Gilead, and Jaar died and was buried in Kamon. 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:43.840 You go, okay, well, what does all that mean? 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:44.960 Here's what I think it means. 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:45.919 Point number four. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:48.320 In Christ, God never gives up on you. 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:50.240 Now here's how we get that. 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:54.000 This phrase in verse 1 arose to save Israel. 00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:57.120 That means everything because it's language. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:01.039 It's language of God interacting and pursuing his people. 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:03.759 So you have all this mess of Abamelech. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:06.159 The Lord's name is never mentioned. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:11.120 And then you get these two leaders showing up, and we know so little about them. 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:14.320 And yet there's 45 years of peace. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:18.000 It's his language of God interacting and breaking in. 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:20.399 Israel never cried out. 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:22.559 They never asked for mercy. 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:24.480 They never asked for help. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:25.519 There's no prayer. 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:26.399 There's no turning. 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:27.679 There's no walking the aisle. 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:32.320 There's no retreat, you know, moment on the hill at a bonfire and they're praying. 00:16:32.639 --> 00:16:33.919 There's none of that. 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:42.960 And yet, God, in his kindness and grace, sends them two leaders to lead them and have peaceful existence for 45 years. 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:50.879 Holiness and justice would have demanded punishment for all those years of forgetting him. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:53.679 But he in his kindness steps back in. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:55.840 Here's where my heart went this week with that. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:00.799 So grateful for our story that we have in Christ as a redemption story. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:03.360 Romans 5, 6 through 11. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:09.519 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:12.880 I mean, that's sort of what just happened in Judges, right? 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:19.039 A group of people who weren't remembering him, and yet he sends them, saves them, rescues them. 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:26.799 Verse 7, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:32.559 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:40.000 Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:48.400 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:56.960 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.799 So under Tola and JR, 45 years of peace. 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:05.599 And then, of course, you know what happens. 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:07.359 Same thing as always. 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:09.519 They forget again. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.079 They mess up again, they turn from God, they become miserable, and then they're crying out. 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:17.680 Here's how God responds in Judges 10, 11 through 16. 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:30.960 And here's how we can see in the Old Testament so often, we see like this justice of God, and you like you hear the tone, you're like, oh, that's not like the God I like or the God I hear about in the New Testament, and but then you see like the grace of God stepping in. 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:32.880 And so we see this in this Judges 10. 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:35.440 You'll you'll you'll pick up on it here in these verses, verse 11. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:50.079 And the Lord said to the people of Israel, Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites, from the Philistines, the Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their land. 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:53.119 Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. 00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:55.519 Therefore I will save you no more. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:58.559 Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:01.039 Let them save you in the time of your distress. 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:06.559 And the people of Israel said to the Lord, We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to you. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:08.640 Only please deliver us this day. 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:16.079 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel. 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:19.440 So the Old Testament is teaching us. 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:22.880 And see, if we isolate just these verses, who knows what we end up with? 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:29.839 I mean, we have to take the narrative arc, the redemption story as a whole, to understand all these different pieces in these little stories. 00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:34.079 But the Old Testament is teaching us about the justice of God and the grace of God. 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:41.519 Now, Paul in the New Testament really helps us understand that and put this puzzle together, what can feel like a puzzle. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:47.599 Because in God's justice, God rightfully says, You want to be on your own? 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:52.079 You love control, you love these other gods, you love to do your own thing? 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:54.480 You're on your own. 00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:59.839 Be miserable, be condemned, pay the price of separation from me. 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:05.359 Yet in his grace, he disrupts our selfishness and our sin. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:07.920 And he pursues us and he loves us. 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:16.160 Now, what Paul's telling us back in Romans 5 is God's justice is fully satisfied in Christ. 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:19.440 That's why we need to talk about Jesus more and more. 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:28.160 Because God's justice is fully satisfied, and in Jesus what we have is full, limitless, unfailing, steadfast love. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:32.400 And so what this means for us is we have confidence. 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:41.440 Through all of our insecurity, all of our sin, all of our unnaming, all of our control idolatry, that He never leaves us. 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:46.880 This is what the story of Judges is telling us over time through the story. 00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:50.720 I close with this promise from Ephesians 1, 13. 00:20:52.480 --> 00:21:05.279 In him speaking about Christ, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:06.160 Let's pray together. 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:10.880 God, thank you that we are sealed in you by your spirit in us. 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:22.319 And thank you that this is a gift of grace to us, that on our own, that we choose to go our own ways, that we are a forgetful people prone to wander. 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:28.319 But thank you that you are more prone to seek us and find us and rescue us and love us. 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:40.480 We're so thankful for the gift of Christ that all of your justice, that all of your justice that would need to come down upon any of our sin and our mistakes and our rebellion is fully satisfied. 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:48.559 And what we have left is a heavenly Father who adores us and welcomes us, accepts us, and wants to pour living water into our hearts and souls. 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:56.720 Help us not to diminish the full character of God, but to accept it as to know you and to be more astonished by your love for us. 00:21:56.960 --> 00:21:59.039 We pray this in Jesus' name. 00:21:59.279 --> 00:21:59.759 Amen.