We are back in Judges tonight. We're back in Judges, and we are in Judges chapter 10. So I invite you, if you have not done so, grab that Bible, turn to Judges 10. Hopefully you brought your Bible with you. If not, there's always one there in the pew in front of you. In the book of Judges, I don't always say this every time, but every once in a while it's good to remind ourselves, that in the book of Judges, we see God's triumph amidst human tragedy. The nation of Israel as a whole kind of fell flat on its face during this time. The judges that God sent, they were not perfect people. In fact, many of them had really, really deep and dark struggles in their own lives. We've seen some of that. And as the book of Judges progresses, which we really have progressed past the point of all of the quote-unquote good judges of the book of Judges, a couple of the ones we're gonna look at tonight, it's hard to make an exact determination on good versus bad because you just don't know enough about them. But we just know at this point in the book of Judges where things are headed. And amidst all of that, though, these are the people that God used, and God is the one who gets the glory, and God is the one who gets the praise, and God is the one who is seen as long-suffering and the deliverer of his people. And even tonight, as we look at this idea of sin's defection in Judges chapter 10, we see how God is at work in these things. Nobody in life would say that they like a traitor, right? If you read American history, the name which is synonymous with the word traitor is Benedict Arnold, right? He is probably the most infamous in American history in the records for being a traitor. And perhaps in our lifetime, we will not see anything that rises to that level. We still are gonna harbor feelings in our lives towards people we feel, at least, have betrayed us. Whether that be someone you know, close friends and family. But it's funny, we even harbor these things against people we don't know. I mean, if you like sports and your favorite sports player decides to leave to go make more money in somewhere else on a team that you really just don't like, you feel like that person betrayed you, right? And if you were in their position making millions of dollars to play a game, you would never do the same thing, right? And so we harbor these feelings against these people, right? We detest the feeling of someone, in our mind, defecting, right, from one side to the other. Sin is a defection from the ways of the Lord to the ways of Satan. That is, at its core, the definition, right? That it is a defection from the ways of God. The Bible talks about, we looked at this in the Psalms of ascent, right? That the ways of the wicked are crooked, their paths are crooked. It is a going outside of those things. It is a rejection of God's ways and a rejection of God's righteousness and an embracing of the very thing which God hates. He hates sin. Sin brings God's wrath. It attacks God's holiness. It grieves God. In the book of Judges, we continue to see God's people defecting from what is true and right into sin's crooked and perverse ways. And I love how God does things. Because if you were with us this morning, we just finished in Sunday school talking about the study of sin and what does the Bible say about sin. And I wasn't supposed to talk about that today, but I have too many words to say and went too long last week and I ended up finishing it today. Okay, I know that's news for some of you around here that I never have too much to say. But what we talked about this morning goes so well with what we're looking at here in Judges chapter 10 tonight. And what we see is that sin turns our hearts away from God, advancing us down the path of self-destruction. Really, in a lot of ways, Judges 10, the latter half of Judges 10, shows us what sin is and how it affects our lives, and how it's affecting the nation of Israel, really, is one of its main focuses there. Sin must, again, at its core definition, must turn our hearts away from the things of God. It must advance us down a path of what we may call self-destruction. I used this term tonight, I wrestled over this statement this afternoon. Is this really the best way to describe this passage? And I stand by it, I think it is. But understand, I'm not talking about as you are a Christian and you go off into sin that you are advancing yourself towards taking yourself out of the kingdom of God. That's not what we're talking about. But you must understand that if you continue in sin, it is not going to end well for you. If you don't know God, it's not going to end well for you. You're going to end up not knowing God, Jesus, as your Lord, but as your judge. And if you are a Christian and you continue to persist in sin, that's not going to end well for you. You will leave this earth, yes, and if you are truly a Christian, you will end up in eternity, but what are you going to have to show? What is it you have built with your life? And in the immediate context of this chapter here tonight, the nation of Israel is advancing further into sin and self-destructing the nation that God has set up. They are just turning their back on God time and again, long-term. The book of Judges is gonna lead us to the book of 1 Samuel. Not necessarily us, it doesn't mean we're gonna keep going that way. We might, you know, we'll see, right? But it's gonna end up in 1 Samuel chapter eight when they reject God completely and go to look for a king, and you know, King Saul, how well that worked out for him, right? And the struggles and the hardships, the things they're gonna face there, why? Because of this constant turning away from God and his ways. So let's look here in Judges chapter eight, 10 tonight and see these things that God has for us about sin's defection. And the first part of the chapter is what I call the transitional judges section. And it begins in verses one and two with this man named Tola. And before we read about Tola, I wanna make a few comments about this chapter in general. In many ways, Judges chapter 10 is a transitional chapter in the book of Judges. It's advancing the downward spiral of the nation of Israel past Abimelech, and now we're headed towards these two guys. One is named Jephthah, and one is named Samson. Perhaps you've heard of these guys. And remember, I told you in the last couple of times, we looked at Judges 9 last time in Abimelech, that you're not gonna see this phrasing used, where God gave the land rest. It just seems like there's one trouble after another, these hardships that happen, whom God uses to oppose his, and then the judges that God uses to oppose his appointed oppressors. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that Israel was in constant war from that point onward. I just find it interesting and I think it's significant that the book of Judges does not again use that term that the land had rest for X amount of years. And we also see in this chapter the transition and development of God's continued message to his people. He's making it abundantly clear to his people why they are suffering and the futility of their idolatrous worship. But it begins here with these two guys that are referred to by many as minor judges. There's a number of these throughout the book of Judges. We're gonna see some more before we get done with the study. And it doesn't mean that these were like the minor league judges. These aren't like the guys that just never made it to the big time. But what it means is that we don't have a lot of information about them. I'm gonna tell you tonight that these two men, Tola and Jair, these are no one's favorite Bible character. These aren't the people you name your kids after. That's not a challenge, by the way. All right? Why? Because the Bible's very ambiguous here about the details of these two men. We just don't know a whole lot about them. We're gonna make comments on what we do, but then we're gonna go on. We're not gonna stand here and speculate. But what I am reminded of when I read of things like this and we're like, man, we just wish we knew some more about that, God knows his people. And in reading their names, we remember that God knows these two men and he knew exactly what they'd done. and he put their names here for a reason. And so here at the beginning of the chapter, we meet this guy, his name is Tola. We read, after Abimelech, okay, so there's that guy, right? The really, really, really awful, wicked, bad guy we read about last time. After Abimelech, 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, then he died and was buried at Shemir. And that's the end of his story. Now, Tola comes in at an interesting and important time in the nation of Israel because they've just come out of the terror of evil that was Abimelech. And again, three weeks ago, I spent a significant amount of time discussing Abimelech and all the things that he brought down on the nation of Israel. The people who were affected by Abimelech, they really suffered a lot under him. And after him, this man named Tola, from the tribe of Issachar arises. But it is interesting, he doesn't live in Issachar, he lives in Ephraim. And there he judges Israel for 23 years. We are told that's how long he reigned. We are told that he arose to save Israel, but we don't really know what that entailed. The Bible doesn't tell us of any enemies he defeated. The Bible doesn't tell us of any great things he did for the Lord. It doesn't tell us about any disputes that he settled. Presumably he had some type of positive influence on the nation during that time from the way it's worded. But then he passes from the scene and he's buried in Shamir. By the way, nobody really knows where Shamir is, right? And so we just really don't know a lot about this guy. And after him, we meet another guy, his name is Jair, in verse three. After him arose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel 22 years. And he had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys, and they had 30 cities, called Havath-Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jair died and was buried in Caman. So here in these verses, we read of the second guy. Now, what we know about him is he was a Gileadite. Now, it means he's from the city, the area of Gilead, which is in Manasseh. Now, specifically, because Manasseh encompasses, has territory on both sides of the Jordan River, he lives in what many people refer to as the Transjordan section. And what we mean by that is it's on the east side of the Jordan, right? So when the people of Israel came into the land, they crossed the Jordan River, And many of them lived on that west side of the Jordan River. But there are some of these tribes who had land on the east side of the Jordan River. And this section where Jair lived was on the east side of the Jordan River. We're told that he judged Israel for 22 years. And it seems like he carried some kind of noble status among the people. He had how many sons? 30 sons, okay. and they rode on 30 donkeys, okay? And you say, why is that significant? I mean, we don't really take a favorable view of donkeys, right? But in this time, okay, this actually was a sign of wealth. Right? We think of donkeys as pack mules, right? Or worker animals. But this is talking about, a lot of times in the Old Testament, you would read about these kings, they would ride on donkeys. We read about Jesus coming into Jerusalem. What did he ride on? A donkey. And again, we think, I mean, what's the big deal? It was a big deal. And here, he's got 30 sons. riding on 30 donkey, well, each one on a donkey, right? So 30 donkeys. They each had their own donkey, which is a sign of prosperity and power and prestige. What he's displaying is royal type power. So because he has 30 sons, we have to come to a conclusion that he had some type of harem in his reign. He didn't have all these sons with one woman, right? He had a lot of wives or women in his life of some sort. We don't know how many daughters he had, but we're told of the 30 sons. And we've noted throughout Judges As we continue through the book of Judges, the people who fill the role of judge are continually like the people whom they judge. They continue to show these signs of sinfulness and sin in their own lives. Jair has engaged in some type of kingly behavior, fathering children with presumably a large amount of women. And then in addition to the 30 sons, we're told of 30 cities that these sons seem to reign over. And they are named, this area is named right in the text here, Havath-Jair. Perhaps you look at that and think, well, I mean, this guy, he named all these cities after himself. But it's actually not. These cities were named a long time ago. In Numbers chapter 32, verses 39 through 42, we read this. And the sons of Mechir, the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead and captured it and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. And Moses gave Gilead to Mechir, the son of Manasseh, and he settled in it. And Jair, the son of Manasseh, went and captured their villages and called them Havath-Jair. And Noba went and captured Kenneth and its villages and called it Noba after his own name. In Deuteronomy chapter three and verse 14, Jair the Manassite took all the region of Argab, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maccathites, and called the villages after his own name, Havath-Jair, as it is to this day. Back in the, as they were getting ready to come into the Promised Land, this is when this happens, and these cities were named after this Jair that was mentioned here. And these cities seem to have some type of permanence because they're still around when Jair is reigning as judge in Israel. And then the author says they're called Havas Jair to this day, so when the Book of Judges was compiled, they still knew what these cities were. And eventually, though, Jair himself passes from the scene, and he's buried, and again, there's debate about where was this area that he was buried, we just really don't know. And we see here, I was thinking about this this week, a theme that is common all throughout history, and that is this, that eventually, all men die. I mean, that's been the theme since Genesis chapter three. I kind of went over this a little bit in Sunday school this morning. You get past Genesis chapter three when sin enters the world, you get to Genesis chapter five, and you read, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. And as I said this morning, Enoch was taken, you know, he just wasn't there anymore, but everybody else, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, right? And you read it all throughout the scripture. No man can exercise his impact on a people or a nation indefinitely. Everyone eventually passes from the scene. So what does that challenge us to do? It challenges us to make the most of the time God gives us here to make a difference for Him. You only have so much time. When one day, should the Lord tarry His return, you are laid to rest, and a tombstone is placed in memory of you, that little dash between the year you were born and the year you died, that's what you have. to make a difference for God. We will not always have the influence of other people in our lives who led us close to the Lord. We should be thankful for those people who led us close to God and have had that influence on us, but they're not always going to be around. Think about these judges that had some kind of positive impact on the nation. What happened when those guys weren't around anymore? The nation of Israel just went straight down, right? right back to the problems and the places they had been before. We must cultivate our own relationship with God. We got a lot of kids and young people here tonight, and I love that, right? That there's just, we see the next generation have come, and they spend time here in church. Hey, one day, you're not gonna live with mom and dad anymore. You gotta cultivate a relationship with God. It's never too young to start that. You gotta grow that relationship with God. You need that in your life. This is something the Israelites just failed to do time and again. They didn't grow that on their own. They needed somebody to kind of hold the reins on that. And these people, these judges, now again, we don't have a lot to say about these minor judges, but these judges, they're getting really bad at that part of it, right? I mean, we're gonna talk about a little bit about a guy named Samson. He was really good at wiping out Philistines. He was really bad at helping people get close to God, right? Like really bad at that. Instead, the people of Israel continue to defect to the enemy side. They continue to go back in the ways of sin. And that defection is displayed once again in the second part of this chapter. We're gonna cover the rest of the chapter and the rest of our time here tonight. and see in verses six through 18 the continued defection. And it begins in verses six through nine with, once again, some earned oppression. The people of Israel did, again, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoroth. Sorry, there's a couple of those. I always get them mixed up. Ashtoroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hands of the Ammonites, and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. and the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed. So once again, we are told that the people went back to their evil, wicked ways before the Lord. In fact, again, I want you to see this phrase, that the people of Israel did again to what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Now that phrase sticks out to me in a couple of different ways. One, everything that we do is always in the sight of the Lord, for God is everywhere at all times. You and I may think we can get away with things in this life. We may think that no one knows, but God always Secondly, that phrase is significant because the only definition of what is evil and wrong that matters is God's definition of what is evil and wrong. If something is proclaimed to be evil in the sight of the Lord, you can bank on it, it is always evil and wrong. It doesn't matter what kind of spin you try to put on it. When God says something is sinful, it is sinful. And as the definition of righteousness and holiness, okay, because when we look at God, we understand he is the definition of righteousness and holiness. God is therefore most vital, his nature is most vital when we define what is wrong and what is sinful. Because anything that goes against the righteousness and holiness of God is wrong and sinful. So it is evil in the sight of the Lord. The people, once again, are returning to their sin. Specifically, what is the sin? They are embracing the false gods of their neighbors. They worship the Baals and the Asheroth. Okay, that's the gods of the Canaanites, the people who lived in what would be known as Israel, right? They lived in the land of Canaan. And the people of Israel were told to drive them out, and at the beginning of the book of Judges, we see they didn't do that. And God said there would be a snare to them, and they were, time and again. And then we have these other gods that are mentioned. They worship the gods of Syria, of Sidon, of Moab, the Ammonites, and the Philistines. So basically, the author is making a point here. He says, look, I want you to know how bad things really were. I mean, it wasn't just that they were worshiping one false god. They had a whole list of them. The people were in deep in the rebellion against the Lord, and in return for their sin, the people received the chastisement of the Lord again. We're specifically told God sold them, he delivered them to two enemies, the Philistines and the Ammonites. Now, the Philistines were the enemies who were located in the west of the nation of Israel, And this chapter, when it mentions the Philistines, is setting us up for Judges chapter 13 through Judges chapter 16 in the arrival of Samson, because he's the one who's going to oppose the Philistines. But at the same time, we're preparing for Jephthah, because we learn about the Ammonite oppression. Now, Ammon was located northeast of Moab there. And in Judges chapter three, in verse 13, We learned that the Ammonites were aligned with Eglon against the Israelites at the time of the judge named Ehud. Now the Ammonites are returning under the Lord's providential direction to afflict God's people again. And their main affliction takes place in this area of Gilead. but they're not satisfied to only oppress Gilead, but they crossed over the Jordan, because remember, Gilead is east of the Jordan. Now they're coming across the Jordan and they're attacking Ephraim and Benjamin and Judah. Okay, these guys, again, these guys are a problem, right? They are causing a lot of trouble. And it's not like they just do this, you know, when they feel like it, like, oh, we'll do it this year and not next year. We're told they do this for 18 years. I mean, can you imagine? Okay, some of you aren't 18 years old. What if you lived your whole life and this was just the norm, right, that you knew? That these people just oppressed your nation. The Bible says that not only did they oppress the people, but verse eight, they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel. This is, again, a very descriptive way in which God is talking about this, about the severity of the people's suffering. But even in that, we see it's a direct fulfillment of God's warning. In Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 33, God said this. He warned the people that if you go away from me, I'm going to judge you. And he said, a nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. So God, in his long-suffering love, has brought down opposition upon Israel for their disobedience. And you say, wait a minute. That statement you just made, if I was really listening, didn't jive. So God and his love brought crushing oppression. Yes, that's what I said. Because God loves his people, he is jealous for his people's love, so therefore when they disobey him, he disciplines them for their sin. Discipline is not an expression of hatred, it is an expression of love. At least that is what it's intended to be. That's why parents, when we discipline our children, we're told to discipline them in love, right, and not in anger. God is rightfully vengeful, rightfully wrathful, and shows vengeance on sin, and in that vengeance and wrath, he lovingly disciplines his children, fulfilling the promise he made to them in Deuteronomy chapter 28. And so seeing all of this trouble, we read of what the people's response. I call this intended conviction. I'm gonna qualify that statement with I'm not really sure there's a lot of conviction, but this is the intent that God has to convict them of their sin in verses 10 through 16. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord saying, we have sinned against you because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals. And the Lord said to the people of Israel, did I not save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites, and 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 hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore, I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress. And the people of Israel said to the Lord, we have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you only. Please deliver us this day. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And he became impatient over the misery of Israel. So the people now, they've been crushed and oppressed, and they cry out to God. I mean, they're very outspoken and open, right? They say, look, we've sinned. And if I may say so, well, duh, right? I mean, the Bible said that this is a fact you can't deny. What did God say? God said, when you send, Deuteronomy 28, 33, I just showed you, right? Crushing oppression is going to come. They're looking around after 18 years going, hmm, crushing oppression is here. I think we've done something wrong, right? I think we've sinned. But again, I want us to be clear here. This is not necessarily the same as them repenting from sin. Identifying that you have sinned is not the same as repenting from that sin. They said, oh, you know, we've done wrong. We've turned aside from you. But it's the same start they seem to always have. This is the effect of consequences that for sin are intended to have. God is clear, sin comes with a price, and the price, the consequences of sin are meant to awaken within us a need for confession, yes, but also repentance. There's a huge difference between saying, yep, I did wrong, I did wrong, oh, I just feel better, I burdened my conscience and my guilt because I confessed my sin. But did you repent and turn away from it? Because if so, there's no real heart change going on here. Instead, we are meant to be pointed to the Lord. For an unbeliever, for someone who has not placed trust in Jesus Christ, the reality of hell may jolt that soul and cause you to run to the Savior for salvation. For a Christian, the consequences of your sin calls for you to return to an unbroken, unhindered relationship with God, forsaking sin with his help. This is why I put the word here, intended conviction. This is what God intended to happen with his people. He called on them to return to him by delivering them into the hands of those who would gladly attack her. So here she responds to the Lord once again. This time, though, notice what happens. The prayers that the people send up kind of come back with a return to sender, don't they? With a message, because God is saying, look, and again, I'm not trying to be sacrilegious, but let's just cut to the chase here. This is what God is saying, look, you need to recognize my preeminence, you need to recognize who I am, You need to recognize what's going on here, and so I'm going to help you do that, right? That's exactly what he's doing here. Because here, in this section, we can sense God is revealing his glory and his holiness, his majesty to his people. Because Israel seemed to think that they could treat God like a vending machine. Hey, when trouble comes, pull out your little confessional quarter, Stick it in a little vending machine, bang on the button till, you know, help comes out, right? Out comes your judge. He delivers you, he dies, you just go and do whatever you wanna do. Trouble comes, pull out your confessional quarter, stick it in the thing, bang a little harder this time, because maybe it's not gonna work this time, right? So God sends a message, presumably through a prophet or someone to his people, and says, look, I wanna show you the folly of your thinking here. He wants to test their motives and their commitment to genuine repentance. So God reminds his people of their history. Okay, once again, I've said this, I feel like sometimes like a broken record, but we cannot overstate this. God's actions in the past call for our trust and devotion in the present. If we do not render to God our exclusive trust and devotion, we may well expect that God's actions in the past are going to be used to indict us. And that's exactly what God does here. He starts in verse 11 and into verse 12 and lays out, here's what I've done for you. There are seven nations listed here. By the way, there were also seven false gods that the people worshiped. It's very interesting, instead of God. There are seven nations mentioned here, beginning with Egypt, and each of them at some point attacked, enslaved, or oppressed God's people. We'll go through them very quickly here. Number one, Egypt. Now that's the original. They were enslaved there for 400 years. Pharaoh. would not let the people go as God commanded. God waged war against the false gods of Egypt and freed his people from slavery. He mentions the Amorites. In the book of Numbers, Israel faced these two kings known as Sihon and Og. They were from the Amorites and God gave them victory. The Ammonites were associated with the Moabites in Judges chapter three. In Judges 3, okay, because the Philistines are mentioned, we also read this guy named Shamgar. He delivered Israel from the Philistines. Then we read about these guys, this group known as the Sidonians. Now, I don't really know what that is referring to about the Sidonians, but perhaps they were allied with Jabin and Sisera. Many have wondered about that. Then you get to the Amalekites. They've been around a couple of times. They were both allies of the Moabites and the Midianites. And then you read about this other group, the Maonites. Now, the Maonites is an interesting one because we're not really sure what that means at all. A lot of people think that there might be a scribal error in some of the texts here, and this is really what this is talking about is the Midianites. And this comes from the Septuagint, Now again, this is, I'm trying not to get off in the weeds too far here, but I think this is something that'll help your spiritual growth and understanding. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and in the Septuagint, this passage renders the word Mayanites as Midianites, so that's why we think that this is something that's supposed to say, or some way associated with the Midianites. The point of the matter is this. From each one of these people, God delivered the Israelites. Each one of them caused trouble. Each one of them oppressed the Israelites, and God delivered them. Israel cried out to God in their distress. I mean, in the book of Exodus, when they were in Egypt, we could see that very first time it happened. God heard them, and he delivered them. And so then, it leads us into verse 13. And here is the terrible, awful reality that happened. Verse 13, yet, okay, I did all of this, yet you have forsaken me and served other gods, therefore I will save you no more. So instead of turning to the Lord and serving him wholeheartedly, the people forsook God and went and served other gods. Specifically, they were chasing down the gods of the sinful nations who oppressed and opposed them. Talk about irony at its finest, right? I think I mentioned this at the beginning of the book of Judges. But I mean, think about the Baals, the Canaanite gods. I mean, Israel, through the book of Joshua, has just mowed through all of these people who worship Baals, and they go, you know, we should worship those guys now. They didn't hold a candle to the God they serve. And specifically, they're turning aside, and what we note is this. Sin always involves turning from God to something else. I read a couple of times this week, people said, you know, it wasn't just enough that they abandoned God, they went and did something else. I thought, well, yeah, because that's the definition of sin, is it not? You know, it's not like you just go, well, I'm just going neutral now, because there's no neutral with God. You're either for God or you're against God. You're either serving him or you're not serving. You're either serving him or serving something else. We are made, again, at our core, to be worshipers. If we're not worshiping God, what are we worshiping? And so here they are, they turn aside to these other false gods, And they engage in some sort of worship with almost every single God. What you find out is these gods are from every nation that is contiguous with Israel, except Edom. That is the only one whose God they do not seem to worship. And so this is where God tells them to turn, right? He says at the end of verse 13, he says, I'm not gonna save you anymore. And then verse 14, go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen, let them save you in the time of your distress. And again, you read 1 Corinthians, you think, well, that's heartless. No, this is the reality of what they've chosen. And God says, this is what you want, you can have this. It is God's work among his people to show them the irrationality of their sin. This is a word I used last week in Sunday school, that all sin is irrational. If you think that you can sin against the almighty infinite creator of the universe and get away with it, that is irrational thinking. And when we really step back and look at sin, right, have you ever done that? You've sinned against God, you've been convicted, you've come back to him, then you reflect, right? You self-reflect, so to speak, on your sin. And you think, you know, that wasn't really smart. You ever done that? In the moment, it doesn't seem that way, does it? But when you think about it removed from the situation, you think, well, that was just highly irrational, right? Because sin is irrational. And if we think there is any other God who can help us, we're in trouble. I want you to hold your finger here, and I want you to go to Psalm 115. I wanna show you eight verses here. So that's why I didn't put it on the screen, because that's a lot of text. But I just briefly want to show you Psalm 115, verses one through eight, because God says in verse 14 of Judges chapter 10, he says, all these other gods that you want to serve, go cry to them, right? Go find help there. And the psalmist writes in Psalm 115 verses one through eight, this is the reality of people who trust in false gods and in other places except God. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Why should the nation say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak. Eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear. Noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel. Feet, but do not walk. And they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. This passage shows the reality of anyone who would trust in anything except God. It demonstrates, again, the irrationality of such trust and the outcome of those who trust in them. I mean, the psalmist is very clear, right? At the end of that, hey, everyone who makes these idols and trusts in them, they become just like them. With eyes that don't see and ears that don't hear, what is it talking about? It's talking about you're gonna die, right? You're spiritually and physically dead. And really, the saddest part of this in Judges chapter 10 is this, that the greatest judgment God can levy on any people is to give them exactly what they think they want. The people said, we don't want God. We want false gods. We want the Baals and the Asherah. We want the gods of this country and that country. God says, go ahead. Those gods you love so much, go and cry out to them for deliverance. You are being crushed and oppressed. Go look for help. Well, I mean, that's pretty foolish. They're not gonna find any help there. You're right. It was foolish then, it's foolish now. Because we think we're really advanced and we're really great because, you know, I mean, I would never like bow down to this little idol, right? I mean, who does that? Who rubs the little belly of the Buddha and says, you know, bless me, help me, right? No, you're right. That is foolish. Our idols are just a lot more sophisticated and dressed up. Our world is, and our lives are no less full of things that would steal our focus. and our trust away from God. You know, I really should trust God about this, but I think I got enough money to buy my way out of this one. You know, I really should follow the Lord and do more, but you know, my family really needs me to do this for them instead. I know that I should be leading them, but you know, God will understand. And you know, I know that we're supposed to worship the Lord, but I mean, what does it matter if I really show up and if I really serve God with my life? I mean, I got other things. I mean, I got my kids in ball, and I got this, and I got that, and I got the job, I gotta put hours in over here, and you know what happens? Those are gods, those are idols. They take our focus and our trust away from God. But we feel really good because, you know, I don't bow down to little statues. My idols are just sophisticated. An idol's an idol any way you slice it. And if God said, okay, then let them deliver you from my judgment, they're not gonna help. And what happens is all the while we lose a proper view of God and we think, well, if I've gotten in deep enough, I can just run back, I can say the right words and I can manipulate, okay, if I can manipulate my mouth to say that, I can manipulate some answer out of God, because I said the right things, and I did the right thing. I read my Bible two days in a row, so now God's gotta answer me. And in so doing, what we've done is we've lost a proper view of God's holiness, of his uniqueness, of his supremacy that he demands in our lives and in our hearts. One pastor said it this way, Christians must beware of their tendency to make God safe. When we do so, we end up worshiping something other than the Holy One of Israel. I love that quote, and I read this week, and it made me think of something else, okay? I'm gonna go right back to the pastor's bag of things you're allowed to reference in a sermon that aren't the Bible. because this made me think of something from C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. You're allowed to talk about Narnia if you're not talking about the Bible and church, okay? But in that book, you meet these four children, the Pevensie children, and three of them are making their way through Narnia to meet Aslan. Aslan is, of course, the lion who is Lewis's representation of Christ in those works. And along the way, the children come to stay in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, from whom they learn about Aslan. And it's here we read this exchange, that the beavers are telling the children about him. They say, Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion. Oh, said Susan, I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. That you will, dearie, and no mistake, said Mrs. Beaver. If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly. Then he isn't safe, said Lucy. Safe, said Mr. Beaver. Didn't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the king, I tell you. Our God is good and our God is loving. He is great and forgiving, but he is also holy. My friend, he reaches out to you, but understand who God is. He isn't safe. He's the King of kings and Lord of lords. And in his graciousness, he reaches down to us. And we must recognize the holiness of God and keep it ever before us in our service of him, because we can seek fulfillment and help from other things if we want, but nothing will be found to help us. Our only hope for help is in God alone. So as we said this morning, what do we need to do? Walk, live in the fear of the Lord and walk in his ways. The only source of purpose and joy is our creator. And anything who trusts in powerless idols will become just like those idols, powerless and helpless. And so you go on from here in verses 15 and 16, and it's like maybe at some level people are recognizing this. I mean, again, in verse 15, they're vocalizing their sinfulness, they're asking for deliverance in God's way. You know, they don't really make a list of demands, which is good in verse 15. You know, like God, you have to deliver us in our own way, but they're seeking his way of help. Okay, that's an important thing to remember. You and I, we can't approach God with our own agendas. We have to come to him as he tells us to. We have to come humbly before him. And then in verse 16, we see they're putting away these foreign and false gods. And at first blush, this seems like genuine repentance. I mean, these look like a lot of the steps to what we may call repentance, but I would call on you to remember the history of Israel in this matter all throughout this book, that they would do this every time they wanted God to do something for them. And then when God would do something for them and the judge was gone, they would just do the same thing. You could say it this way, the spiral, the downward spiral has really become the plunge, right? And though the people seem to take right actions, I'm not so sure about the motives behind those actions, even in what we see how God moves amongst them. I want you to notice what it says here in verse 16. They put away their foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel. I think that is an important statement, as is any statement in the Bible, but the way it's set, right? Because God is a loving, compassionate God, and he could not bear this trouble any longer. He is moved, why? What is he moved by? Is he moved by their repentance? By their actions? No, he's moved by their misery. He's moved by the judgment. I think that's very telling. that he's not moved by their cries or their actions, he's moved by the misery they are experiencing in his judgment. Because even in judgment, understand this, that God does not forsake his people. I mean, you see that in Numbers chapter, well, it starts in Numbers chapter 14, when they wandered in the desert for 40 years, God still is with them. He doesn't forsake them in his judgment of them. In Isaiah, chapter 63, verse nine, we read the same thing. In all their affliction, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity, he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. So God is moved to deliver them, why? Because of his compassion on them. So that is why we see in judgment that God is a God who is expressing judgment in love to us. And when we experience consequences of our sins, they are motivated by His love. But what you see in verses 17 through 18, as we round up this chapter here tonight, is that the people are going to receive the type of judge they probably should have come to expect at this point. In verses 17 and 18, here's the expectant nation. Then the Ammonites were called to arms and they encamped in Gilead and the people of Israel came together and they encamped at Mizpah. And the people, the leaders of Gilead said to one another, who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. So the situation for Israel now begins to become greater indeed, right? Because here the Ammonites, right? They began to gather. They call for arms, summoned to Gilead. And in response, the people themselves are gathering for defense. But what is the problem? They still don't have a leader. They still don't have a judge. They still don't have someone to go for them. And so what do the people say? They go to God and they say, God, who's gonna be the judge, right? No, they just kind of look at each other and they go, who's gonna lead us? We got all these people, we got this problem, what are we gonna do? And this is what sets the stage for Jephthah. We don't read of God appointing a man, we don't read of people turning to the Lord, but the story of Jephthah and then Samson are gonna be full of selfish pursuits and outright sinfulness, because Israel failed to follow God and bow properly before him, and now they're going to gain the judges that are the fruit of that behavior. The pattern of defection to sin is so well-known at this point in the book of Judges. The people are constantly turning from the Lord and embracing their sin. Those paths are so well-worn in their lives, yet God in his mercy continues to seek their return. So what must it do to our hearts tonight? May we be convicted by such things in the lives of the Israelites and may we be challenged to make it hard to send and easy to do right in our lives. May we put God's ways before us constantly. May we not tolerate sin and its promised ease, but instead seek God's ways in our lives, and may we respond rightly to the conviction of sin in our lives, turning to the Savior. Sin turns our hearts away from God, advancing us down the path of self-destruction. At times, judges feels like the broken record, right? It's just like the same thing over and over and over again. It feels like the theme of sin is repeated time after time. You might, by this point, 10 chapters in, feel like, I think I could write a chapter of the Book of Judges from what I have learned. But this is the reality of the human condition. This is the reality of our existence. We are sinners, there are no exceptions. We are not only acquainted with sin, we are engaged in it more regularly than we care to admit. And the holiness of God stands in stark contrast to the sinfulness of man. And as believers, we have a call and a commission from the Lord to walk in the ways of God's holiness. The book of Leviticus, God told his people that they were to be holy as he is holy. And you go, well, I mean, that's the book of Leviticus. That's Old Testament. Oh, then you should read Peter. Because Peter says, be holy. The Lord says, be holy, for I am holy. May we see God's holiness in full view, and may we reflect that holiness with our lives to others. What we do for the Lord matters, and how we approach the Lord matters. God is not merely interested in our actions, but he is also interested in our hearts, knowing and embracing his change and walking