God’s Lion
Judges 3:1-11

Intro:
Good morning. Just a reminder that if I say anything you disagree with in the lesson please come and see me and we can look at the scriptures together.

Last week in the bulletin was an article about a Lion’s den. That got me to thinking about lions in scripture and how they were used in lessons and as symbols. We all easily recognize the lion as a symbol of strength.

Taking a look at the book of Judges recently and reading the first two chapters I noticed that after the death of Joshua, Israel as a nation, slowly but surely went into decline. The bible shows us how this was one of the darkest times for the nation of Israel because they failed to drive out the Canaanites and ended up compromising with them.
This led to Israel getting involved in idolatry, intermarriage and accepting them as neighbors. Because Israel refused to walk with the Lord as He had commanded them, God refused to drive out all their enemies from the land of Canaan. Now Israel was forced to live alongside the very people they had been sent to destroy. I’m taking today’s lesson from the book of Judges chapter 3.

Let me tell you a quick story. A father of five kids won a toy in a school raffle and he called his five kids together to ask which one should receive the present. He asked them, ‘Who is the most obedient?’ The children all stared back at him in silence. Then he asked them, ‘Who never talks back to mother?’ Again the kids seemed to be mystified by the question. Then the father asked them, ‘Who does everything she says?’ and with that question, the kids were finally able to come to a conclusion. The five small voices answered almost in unison, ‘Okay, dad, you get to keep the toy.’ You see, when it comes to disobedience, it’s a tough topic to speak about because no-one likes to be told that what they are doing is wrong.

Please keep that in mind as we read Judges 3:1-4 “Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly). These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses.” [NAS]

I. In these few verses we are told the very reasons why God left these people in the land.
a. First we see that God was testing Israel, He allowed the pagans to live around His people and test them. His people were tested to see how they would live and act while being surrounded by wickedness, they were tested to see if they would keep His commandments under those conditions. Sadly as we all know they failed this test.
b. Secondly, God left these people there to teach this new generation of Israelites about spiritual warfare. In other words God wanted them to learn the lessons from battle that their fathers had known. God wanted them to be strong and to know how to fight the enemy when they came around, but sadly they failed that test too. It wasn’t long until this caused some serious problems to show up among the people of Israel.
i. Israel proved that they couldn’t be trusted to stand up against the enemy and they proved that they would rather join than fight the enemy. Let’s look at Israel’s condition in verses 5-7.
ii. Judges 3:5-7 “The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.” [NAS]
c. The writer tells us that Israel’s first great failure was their compromise of God’s word and God’s will. Verse 5 tells us they lived among the enemy, that word ‘lived’ carries with it the idea of settling down.
d. To recap, when Israel arrived in Canaan, they were commanded to destroy these people without mercy, but now they are living among them, they have settled down with them. It didn’t take very long, and their former enemies had become their new neighbors. Israel was supposed to be separate from the world around them because they were unique among all the peoples of the earth.
i. They had been chosen, and set apart to serve the Lord God Almighty, and He expected them to remain separate, as Deuteronomy 7:6-11 - tells us; “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:. But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.“ But because they didn’t remain separate, they opened the floodgates of sin that would end with them facing a terrible punishment from God. Now folks, like we have mentioned before, as God’s holy, special, redeemed people, we too as Christians today, need to be keep separate from the world.
ii. As a reminder of this look at: 1 Peter 2:9-10 - “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR {God's} OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.” [NAS]
e. When we refuse to walk in His ways and honor His Word in our lives, it can open the floodgates of sin that will eventually overwhelm us and drown us in its turbulent currents. Going back to Judges 3 verse 6 and it tells us that after a while, the people of Israel got so used to living among the Canaanites that they began to intermarry with them.
f. This if you remember was expressly forbidden by the Lord, so this was nothing less than pure disobedience on their part. Look at Deuteronomy 7:1-6 – “When Jehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before thee, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; and when Jehovah thy God shall deliver them up before thee, and thou shalt smite them; then thou shalt utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them; neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For he will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of Jehovah be kindled against you, and he will destroy thee quickly. But thus shall ye deal with them: ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Asheroth, and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God: Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.” [NAS] Now I believe that the Israelites possibly did what many of us do today.
II. I don’t know but perhaps they thought, ‘oh, maybe these Canaanites are not as bad as we were told. They are actually very nice people. They’re not monsters at all. Their girls make good devoted wives. There is no reason why we can’t marry them. After all, we might just be able to change them.” … Don’t we think like that sometimes?
a. ‘Oh, the people of the world aren’t that bad, not all of them use filthy language, some of them are actually really nice people, some don’t cheat on their wives and don’t tell lies. All true isn’t it? It’s OK, we can hang out with them and try and change them and encourage them to become Christians.’
b. Sounds great but what happens when you spend too much time in the world and not enough time in Christ? Well, just like Israel, we soon find out that it is us and not the world that changes. As they married into the tribes around them, the Israelites began to lose their national identity. The very integrity of their families began to break down and they soon lost the very thing that made them unique.
c. Don’t be fooled, when we get too close to the world around us, we will soon find ourselves entangled with them in their sins. Remember 1 Corinthians 15:33 “Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals." [NAS] In other words, the company we keep will determine how close we walk to the Lord. Yes we have to interact with the world so that we can be a light to them and give them the Gospel, but, we must keep our spiritual distance.
III. Notice also what Judges 3:6-7 tells us. It tells us that it didn’t take long for the Israelites to get from living among them, to marrying them and then going on to worshipping with them. Again they might have been thinking to themselves, ‘Well, you marry a Canaanite girl and you just have to understand how they are. They were brought up differently than we were. You have to allow them to bring their gods. After all, it’s just part of her culture.’
a. The children of Israel, who had been delivered from Egypt by God’s mighty power. The children of Israel, who had been the beneficiaries of God’s power and work, time and time again, found themselves bowing before the idol gods of the Canaanites.
b. You may have seen the film ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ starring Julia Roberts. Roberts plays a woman who fakes her own death and escapes from her abusive, obsessive husband from Cape Cod to Cedar Falls, Iowa.
c. Think about it, what we have is a group of people who have gone in one generation, from worshiping God and fighting evil, to abandoning God and what do they end up doing? They end up sleeping with the enemy. And that’s not the worst of it. They took their precious sons and daughters and handed them over to the very people they had been commanded to utterly destroy.
i. This stands a warning for God’s children today, because when we refuse to maintain our distance from the world around us, when we continually yoke ourselves to the people and things of the world, when we bow down at their altars, we are sacrificing a generation to the gods of this world.
ii. In other words, we are teaching our children that they are free to treat God and His Word as they please. Remember we teach by our actions. We are telling them that it is alright to disregard God, His Word, His House, His worship and His will. As adults, whether we have children or not we need to be careful of the example we are setting the children around us.
IV. Verse 7 also tells us that each step they took led them farther away from God. Each step they took away from Him led them down a pathway toward totally abandoning God and His ways. The text says, ‘they forgot the LORD their God’. Now that word ‘forgot’ doesn’t mean forgot in terms of memory.
a. It means they chose to ignore or they ceased to care for God. The people of Israel reached a point where they simply ignored God and ceased to care about Him or what He had to say. Most people of the world know the Lord is there.
b. They know that His Word has something to say to them, about their lives and how they live. They know God has a claim on their lives, but they choose to ignore Him. We say, ‘He is there’, but they aren’t listening, we say, ‘He’s calling you’, but they don’t come. They harden their hearts against God, His Word and the call of His Spirit.
c. As far as they are concerned, God doesn’t matter, and He might as well not even exist and folks that is a dangerous place to be! We know it’s a dangerous place to be because of what the writer says in the next verse.
d. In Judges 3:8 – we see that God’s anger was kindled against Israel and He sold them into the hands of the king of Mesopotamia where they served him eight years. (“Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim (ku'-shan-rish-a-tha'-im) king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.”)
V. Now this is where Israel was spiritually, but that is not where God would leave them. It was Charles Spurgeon who used to say, ‘God never allows His people to sin successfully.’ In other words, we might deliberately continue in sin, but we better believe we won’t get away with it forever. There is always a price to pay for disobedience and rebellion against God.
a. That word ‘anger’ means God is ‘flaring through His nostrils’ and the word, ‘burned’ means God is ‘furious’. Let me ask you, who was God angry and furious with? It wasn’t the Canaanites, yes He hated their sin, but they were a lost people. They did not have His Law and they hadn’t been separated and commanded to be different. No, His anger was directed at His people and they were about to be punished for their sins against God.
b. When God punishes His children in this life, it’s not to hurt us but to bring us back to where we are supposed to be. 1 Corinthians 11:32 we are reminded; “But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.” [NAS]
c. Judges 3:8 also tells us that God ‘sold’ Israel into the hands of a pagan king. It’s the idea of ‘giving up, or giving over into one’s control or power.’ In other words, Israel gave themselves to paganism and God punished them by giving what they wanted. They didn’t want to follow God’s rule in their lives, so He allowed them to be ruled by a harsh, pagan king.
d. Now the name of this king is interesting, the name ‘Cushan-Rishathaim’ (ku'-shan-rish-a-tha'-im) means “Double Wicked Cushan”, or ‘Double wickedness’. In other words, Israel is about to reap what they had sowed. They wanted paganism, they wanted their sin, they wanted their false gods and God gave them everything they asked for and more.
e. That’s Paul’s argument in Romans 1:24 - where he tell us that, ‘Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.” He says it again in Romans 1:26 “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,” [NAS]
f. If people refuse to acknowledge God and His ways, God allows them to live the kind of life they want but they have to suffer the consequences of that lifestyle. Once again folks, this is a very real danger for Christians today.
VI. There are Christians today, possibly even in this room who are not as close to the Lord as they once were. Some Christians don’t attend meetings like they used to and some are not as committed as they used to be. Some are no longer faithful to the Lord like they once were and some just don’t serve Him like they used to. Other things have taken God’s place in their lives and other gods, little things like pleasure, desires, and work now have first place. Perhaps those around them are influencing them like the Israelites were influenced when they took wives from people with different “customs”. We shouldn’t be surprised when they begin to reap what they have sown.
a. The very things that we think are so important to us can actually become the very things which destroy us spiritually and they can become ‘double wicked’ to us. Galatians 6:7-8 - “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” [NAS]
b. Folks, if any of us is struggling in this area then I pray we change our ways today before any more damage is done. Look lets see how long God was going to leave them in slavery according to Judges 3:8. God sold them into slavery and left them there for ‘eight years’, God allowed them to experience the full measure of what their sin cost them.
c. When they dwelt among the Canaanites, married their sons and daughters and bowed down to their gods, they never thought it would come to this, but it did. They had to pay the terrible price for their sins. Someone said, ‘sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay.’
VII. That’s the bad news for Israel, but there is good news to come as we read on. Judges 3:9-11 - “When the sons of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went out to war, the LORD gave Cushan-rishathaim (ku'-shan-rish-a-tha'-im) king of Mesopotamia into his hand, so that he prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim (ku'-shan-rish-a-tha'-im). Then the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.” [NAS]
a. When Israel came to their senses, they called on God and He heard them. When they turned back to God in their hearts, and He reached out to them in deliverance. He raised up their first judge, a man by the name of Othniel whom the writer calls ‘a deliverer’ which basically means ‘a saviour’, and as we shall see in a moment that is exactly what Othniel was.
b. Let me tell you a short story told of an old man who was traveling on an ocean liner, when the sea suddenly became rough. A woman lost her balance and fell overboard. People stood frozen with horror. Suddenly, a man plunged into the waves, grabbed her, and held her until a rescue boat came. When they were pulled out, everyone was astonished and embarrassed to discover that the hero was the oldest man on the ship—a man in his eighties. That evening they held a party to honor him. When they called on him to make a speech, the old man rose slowly. He looked around at the people, and said, "I would like to know just one thing." There was an embarrassed silence. "Who pushed me?"
c. What do we know about this first judge named Othniel? Well we know according to the text that he is the son of Kenaz, ‘Caleb’s younger brother’.
i. That would make have made Othniel, Caleb’s nephew.
ii. What else do we know about Othniel? Judges 1:12-13 - “And Caleb said, "The one who attacks Kiriath-sepher (kir-i-ath-se'-fer) and captures it, I will even give him my daughter Achsah (ak'-sa) for a wife." Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for a wife.” [NAS]
iii. The text tells us that Othniel must have been a courageous and brave man as he defeated a Canaanite city to win Caleb’s daughter as his wife. Othniel was a man of great courage with strong ties to a former generation of leaders in Israel. We are not told but most bible scholars believe Othniel was an older man by this time, some believe around the age of 75 but he was battle tested, he was available and God chose him.
d. There is a point here. I don’t care how old you are, this is a reminder that God can use anyone, regardless of our past, regardless of who we are, regardless of our strengths or weaknesses. You see if we are willing to allow God to use us, then He can use us for His glory, but we must be willing to make ourselves available to Him. Othniel did that and the Lord used him in a mighty way and He’ll do the same with you if you would only allow Him too.
e. Now you might be thinking, ‘But I can’t preach!’ Well bless you but you can teach. ‘But I don’t know my way around the Bible that well!’ Well bless you, but you know what needs to be done for someone to be saved. ‘But I’m not good at talking to people in the street!’ Well bless you, but you can be a great host in your home. ‘But I’m getting old and I can’t physically do as much as I would like to!’ Well bless you, but you can send an encouraging message. ‘But I don’t have a lot of money to give each week!’ Well bless you, but you can give of the time and energy you do have.
f. That list includes many things I have thought my self. Those before us have as well. We find examples from this in Moses and in Paul.
VIII. We must stop focusing on the things we can’t do for God and allow God to help us focus on the things we can do for Him. We do that by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us.
a. Speaking of Othniel again Judges 3:10 - says, “The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went out to war, the LORD gave Cushan-rishathaim (ku'-shan-rish-a-tha'-im) king of Mesopotamia into his hand, so that he prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.” [NAS]
b. Othniel didn’t possess the power to deliver Israel within himself, but, when the Spirit of God took control of his life, God was able to use him in great ways. Othniel didn’t really deliver Israel, God delivered Israel through Othniel. The truth is, when we’re left to ourselves, we are incapable of serving God as He deserves to be served. A point missed by many I fear.
c. The only way we will ever be useful to, and usable by the Lord is when we are controlled by the Spirit of God like Othniel was. Our Scripture reading was Galatians 5:16-25 and we saw very clearly how important it is to allow the Holy Spirit to direct our lives.
d. Galatians 5:16 tells us to “walk by the Spirit”. Galatians 5:18 tells us to allow ourselves to be “led by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25 tells us to “live by the Spirit and walk with the Spirit.” Just like Othniel, the Spirit of God will enable us to stand against the enemies around us.
e. The Spirit of God will make us powerful for the glory of the Lord. The Spirit of God will use us in ways that we can hardly imagine, but we must be willing to allow Him to do that. And when we finally do allow Him to do that, we will be more open to His power in and over our lives.
IX. Now isn’t it ironic how people love to hear stories that contain immorality, deceit, doubt? Just read the newspapers, listen to the news, watch the movies and they are filled with exciting corrupt characters just like that. People seem to love to hear those stories, while people who are just doing good get no recognition.
a. But folks, God can take what most people would call an old boring man, who more or less has five verses written about him and do great things through him. God can do the same with each and every one of us, if only we would allow Him to. Look what Othniel achieved because he allowed God, through the Spirit to use Him.
b. Judges 3:11 - “So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.” By the way, do you know the meaning of the Othniel’s name? In Hebrew it means God’s strength, God’s lion. God enabled Othniel to defeat old ‘Double wickedness’. God used Othniel to deliver Israel from the bondage of that pagan king. Then God empowered Othniel to judge the nation of Israel for the rest of his life, some 40 years. In other words, God gave Othniel victory in his life because Othniel gave himself to the Lord, first.
c. Let me ask you, do you want the Lord to use your life for His glory? Do you want to see Him do great things through you? If you answered ‘yes’ to those questions then the way to make that happen is quite simple. Submit to the Lord like Othniel did and allow the Lord and His Spirit to lead you, control you and He will use you for His glory.

The Lord is willing, are you?

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins… If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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