Judges chapter 3 and verse 12 to 31. We have been looking through the book of Judges. We do believe that it has something to say to the professing Christian church today. The times that the Judges deal with are not good times in many ways. and we do believe they are somewhat mirrored in our own experience today. But we come to this book believing that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfectly furnished or throughly furnished for every good work. And therefore this is the attitude we take when we come to look at the word of God. We believe it is God's final word for us and it has a message for us today. And as we look at how Israel behaved and how God behaved, we do believe that we can derive lessons that are relevant and pertinent for us today in the 21st century. Last week we looked at the first judge, Othniel, and now we want to look at the second one that's outlined here for us, Eglon. we do have a pattern developing. Verse 12, the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. And really this is my first heading that I want to draw to your attention. Israel's relapse into sin. Israel's relapse into sin. They had cried out previously Because they were in sin and because of that they were in bondage and God in his grace and in his mercy raised up a deliverer, Othniel, and as a result the land knew rest for some forty years. But after the death of Othniel, it does seem as if the children of Israel went back into their old ways. Did they think to themselves that now that peace had come upon them, that they could revert to their old ways? Did they now think that since the threat had been divinely dealt with by God, therefore they were free then to plunge into their old ways? Did they forget God when they enjoyed a time of peace and prosperity and goodwill when the danger was passed? That seems to be what has happened here and what happens throughout this book, in fact. But before we get too judgmental and too critical, we need to look at our own lives. And we need to assess the life of the congregation and the life of the denomination and the life of the professing Christian church. Because is it not true that if you go through church history, Is it not periods of peace, prosperity, and then declension, decline, sin, crying out to God and He rescues us? Is that not what has happened? We are so quick to look at these people and we're so quick to judge them and imagine how can this possibly be? God has been so good to them, gracious to them, delivering them, yet in a very short space of time they've forgotten all of these things and they plunge into old sins and old ways of lives. Well friends, we need to look at ourselves. Is this not something we've done on many occasion? been delivered from things. We've been under trouble. Maybe we've had an illness. Or maybe we've had some sore providence that's come upon us. And this providence by the hand of God has caused us to seek the Lord our God in a way that we've never done before. Something has come upon us. Something has has awakened us and something has startled us and we have been shaken and we have been disturbed. And as a result, it has brought us to our knees and we've cried out to the living God and we've said to him, whether we were on a sick bed or whether we were under tremendous pressure or difficulty facing us, but we've said to God in certain terms, if you get me out of this, if I'm delivered from this, then I will serve thee, then you will see a change in my life. Have we not said that? Have we not said, if God will deliver us, if God will take me out of this bed of affliction, then I will serve him? And what has happened? God has heard our prayer. And the dark and the sore providence has been removed from us. And that illness that caused us to think about our own mortality has been removed. And now we have health and strength. Or now the sore providence has been removed. And now life, to some extent, is rosy, it's pleasant, the sun is shining upon us. And what about our devotion to the Lord? What about our service? What about all the promises we made when things were grim and things were dark? Have we forgotten about them? Is this not true? Has this not happened to us? And when God has been good to us, we've plunged into our old ways. We're still committing the same old sins. Our love and our devotion and our attraction to the Lord is not what it once was when that sore providence was upon us. We have forgotten him. What does the Spirit say to the church at Ephesus, a church that promised so much? You have left your first love. Go back, repent, do the first works. That's what the Spirit says to the church at Ephesus. I have this against you. I see all you do. I see your sound and doctrine. I see all these things. I see all you do. But I have this against you. You have left your first love. And maybe this is a way for us, Christians, as a congregation, have we lost our love for the Lord Jesus Christ? Is this not what makes Christianity something unique, friends? It is the wonderful love that God has for his people that should be shown by his people towards God for what he has done for us? Who else suffered on the cross? Who else died? Who else gave up himself, that once for all supreme sacrifice? Who did it? None but the Lord Jesus. Where should our love be directed but towards this great and glorious person? Who should we be following but Christ? Has he not shown to us the full extent of his love Could He display it any clearer? Is it not bright? Is it not clear? Is it not shining from Golgotha? Surely it is, friends. Surely He has given the ultimate gift. He has given His priceless Son, His precious Son. Did he not rescue us when none other could rescue us? Did he not do what none other can do? Did he not experience the wrath of God being poured out upon him on your room and in your place? Is he not our great divine substitute? And yet, we still tamper and dolly with sin. Oh that we might see the deceitfulness of it and the heinous nature of sin. Oh that the Lord might instill upon his people a holy hatred of sin and to see how evil it is and the evil consequences it brings. And before we point our fingers at these people and before we judge them for what they did, is it not true that in some extent we have been exactly the same? We're so easy to go back to the old ways. Where is the growth and grace? Where is the us being remade in the image of the Lord Jesus? Let us be careful that we do not relapse into sin and to forget the goodness of our God. Has He not saved us from our sins? Has He certainly saved us from its guilt? Yes friends, can you remember your old lives? Can you remember your old days of unbelief? Can you remember how your conscience used to trouble you? Do you not, or did you not fear being thrust into the presence of God with your sins still upon you? Did your conscience not trouble you? And now, in Christ, Your conscience does not trouble you. Why? Because he has taken away the guilt. And friends, in the salvation that he brings, he not only takes away the guilt, but he takes away the power of sin. You know, sin is not so much what we do. Sin has a grip and it has a hold upon us. by nature. It isn't been enthralled unto it. And when Christ enters in and by the power of his spirit, he gives us new life, new life, powerful life, power that's able to resist the sin, not in our own strength of course, but in the strength of the Holy Spirit. but so often we succumb to the old ways, the old natures there. Well friends, don't criticize them because we're all prone to be just like them. Let us therefore resist sin. Let us hate it. Let us fight it. Let us pray what We are told in that petition, deliver us from evil. Oh, how we need that on our lips every morning. Deliver us from evil, because evil doesn't come to us with a sign, I am evil. It can be very deceptive. Well, Israel relapsed into sin. And secondly, we would notice from these verses, particularly from verses 13 and 14, we would notice Israel's punishment. God had dealt with them in love. Yes, friends, love, divine love, pure, spotless love he had dealt with them by. And they had treated him so badly, that they sinned against him. And because of this, because God is a God of love and he will not tolerate sin in his people, he had to punish them. He had to punish them. We didn't read it this week, but we have read it on a previous occasion. Their previous oppressor came from Mesopotamia. He came from a faraway country. But now, as part of their punishment, their new oppressor was a near neighbour. He was on hand. He was at Moab, one of these countries that was beside Israel. And the lesson here we're meant to learn is that God can raise up enemies, and God can punish his people when they fall into sin in a variety of ways. And he can take things from far away, or he can take things from nearby, from our neighborhood, even from our homes and from our families. God can do this. He does not have one arrow in his quiver. His quiver is full of arrows and he can use them as he pleases. He can use the forces of nature. He can use flies and insects as he has done in times past. He can raise up oppressors that will obey his will and punish his people as he sees fit. And as he punishes them, friends, we must remind ourselves that what they did, they did in the sight of the Lord. The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, verse 12, and towards the end it says exactly the same, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. They had been open, upfront, they couldn't care less. didn't in any sense try to hide their sin. They did it in the eyes of the Lord. Of course, it would be foolish even to hide their sin, because all that we do, we do in the sight of the Lord. And if this was written in our hearts, if we fully grasped what this meant, that we live all of our lives, all of the days of our lives, in the sight of the living God, and nothing is hidden from His all-seeing, all-knowing eye, it would change our lives. What did you do last night? The minister knows nothing about it. It could well be that many other people know nothing about it either. What did you do last night? Or what did you do last week? Whatever it is, friends, it's known in heaven. God sees it. He sees in the dark. He sees in the daylight. And more than that, even more than that, The Lord sees into the heart, the heart. He's able to assess our thoughts. He's able to judge them. He's able to go right in and see all of these things. It's so easy to pull the wool over the minister, over his eyes. So it is with your husband, your wife, and your family. It's so easy to come across as devout and pious when you come to the house of God. We cannot tell your hearts, but God can. And all that the people did, they did in the sight of the Lord. And because of this, friends, he had to bring punishment upon them. Because God is God, he will not and cannot tolerate sin. As someone said, quote, God will not cease to punish till men cease to rebel. And how true that is. And if we are ones who are found sinning against God and calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus, you can be sure that God will take you to task for that sin. and he has a variety of ways of doing it. He can speak differently to different people, use various instruments at his will. He is not confined, he can do all of these things. As Job says in Job chapter 33 verse 14, for God speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not. Is God speaking to you about a sin? Has God in his providence put his finger upon a sin, a sin that's known to you and to you alone and to God? And has God in his infinite wisdom, as it were, put his finger upon a sore point? Has he pricked your conscience? If this be the case, friends, the only hope for us is repentance. Our only hope is to confess this sin. It's not to come to the minister or the elders. It's to go before the Lord. It's to acknowledge our sin before him. For if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But God is God. and he will take us to task as he took the people of Israel to task and he punished them. It was a severe punishment that he placed upon them to humble them. We're told here that Eglon gathered together with enemies, former enemies, Ammon and Amalek. They all joined together in verse 13 and went and smote Israel and possessed the city of palm trees. They fought against Israel, subdued them, and in the process they took possession of Jericho and Now what does Jericho suggest to us? Does not Jericho remind us of that great victory that Joshua secured when they marched round the walls of Jericho and on the seventh day the walls came down and God was there fighting for them and they won this city, they destroyed this city by the miraculous work of God. here we find them. Their enemies are gathered together and what happens? They repossess Jericho. Something that God had given to them in his grace was now in the hands of their oppressors. God was truly bringing them low, reminding them of the terribleness of their sin against them. We're told here in these verses too that they would not serve God. Instead, they served someone else. They would not present their offerings to God. Instead, we find them presenting a gift to Eglon, the king of Moab. And that word, present, that's found there in our text, that is the same word that's used when the people offer their offering or their gifts to God. So the contrast is clear. They wouldn't serve God. They wouldn't give God the presence that were rightly God's. They wouldn't serve God with their oil, or with their wine, or with their corn. Instead, they served another. And for us to grasp this, they would not serve God who loved them. Instead, they serve someone who hated them. This was to remind them. This was to humble them. This was to bring them low. This indeed was God punishing them for their sins in order that they might cry out for deliverance. Well, friends, has it got something to say to us? Has it got something to say to you, Christian? Well, the Lord, when he's dealing with you, backsliding Christian, he will indeed bring you low. He will indeed remind you of what he has done in times past. And he will cause you to be smart and to smart under his discipline. He will bring you low. He will not let you continue. He will show His displeasure at the fact that you have turned and served your sins and your lusts instead of serving the risen God. Well then, following on from that, we might notice, thirdly, Israel's cry. Israel's cry and we find that there in verse 15. But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer. And here friends we find some wonderful encouragement because here Israel's crying out and who has made them to cry out It is the Lord who has made them to cry out. The Lord has brought them low and as a result of this they begin then to cry unto the Lord. He gives unto them the spirit of prayer and supplication. And this is what always happens when the Lord is about to do something and when he's about to bless his people. What happens, friends? We find the people of God are found in prayer. We find them calling upon the name of the Lord. And of course, what does it entail when people pray? It's reminding us how powerless we are. and how much we need God to move and to work. We are, friends, in prayer. Are we not calling out that God would move, that he would work, that he would do a wonderful thing? Are we not admitting in prayer that we ourselves are powerless? That we have no strength and that we need to be rescued? We need a deliverer? And this is what happened here. when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. Individual Christian, I don't know your walk with the Lord, I do not know it. But friends, if any of this has described your own particular devotional life and Christian life at this moment in time, if you're one who is dabbling in sin, then you must cry out to the Lord that he might truly deliver you, that he might hear you. and that he would raise up a deliverer, that he would awaken you, that you would see the error of your ways. And this is what happened here. Israel cried unto the Lord. And friends, when we have this prayer and when the church and the congregation is earnest in prayer then we can be in some sense confident and then we can in some sense have this hope about us that God is going to move and to work because ordinarily that is the way that God does move when his people call upon him in prayer. my people which are called by my name. And he goes on to say talks about prayer. This is what happened here friend. The people were punished. They were under severe servitude and they cried out to the Lord. Let us take a leaf out of their book. Let us learn from them because that's why we're here. We're here to learn from the experience of believers before us. And let us pray, and let us call unto the living God. But the fourth thing and final thing we want to notice from our verses here is, again from verse 15, it is Israel's deliverer. We are told, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left-handed, and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon, the king of Moab. And of course we know what happened and we know the deliverance that this judge brought. But we want to look at this deliverer whom the Lord raised up because he is a very colourful character. He is, we're told here, a Benjamite. Now we cannot be absolutely certain about this, but it does seem that at this time, it was very close to the time when there was civil war in Israel, when all the other tribes had fought against Benjamin. And we'll come to that towards the end of the book of Judges. But all the tribes were fighting, and they were fighting against Benjamin for a terrible deed that had been committed. And as a result, Benjamin was severely depleted. That tribe had been, after three attempts, had been almost destroyed. And therefore, here was a man who came out of the tribe of Benjamin when it was very low. Some would say there were down to about 600 males left, the rest having been slaughtered in the civil war. And here we have, we're told, someone who came from that much depleted tribe. Here we have also a left-handed man. And the Bible obviously records this for our instruction and learning. The Benjamites were known as people who were skillful, left-handed individuals. But the Hebrew behind it would indicate that when it says he was a man left-handed, that he had no real use or he could not effectively use his right hand. He was a left-handed man, that is true, but the indication is that he really didn't make much use or could use his right hand. And if we put this together, the fact that he was a man who came from a tribe that was much depleted, a left-handed individual, this would remind us, friends, that this was not a great and a mighty deliverer. He was not some illustrious conqueror. He was, in some sense, a mean individual. Not a great military person like David was, for instance. And of course, the lesson behind it is that they were delivered, ultimately, by the Lord. He raised up this person who was totally insignificant in and of himself. And the Lord brought about a great deliverance. It was the right hand of God that delivered them. That's the point. And this, friends, is a theme that runs throughout the book of the Judges. The Judges themselves were not particularly great individuals. they were somewhat ordinary or even less than ordinary. The fact is that the Lord raised them up and the fact is that the Lord used them and the fact that the Lord equipped them and that he went out and fought for them. That's what we're meant to realize. And of course, friends, this is not to remind you about our great Deliverer. Does it not remind you of the Lord Jesus Christ? Humanly speaking, friends, he was nothing to look at. And we say that with reverence. We say that with respect. A root out of a dry ground, I think Isaiah says, of the Lord Jesus. Who hath believed a report? Who would believe this of the Lord Jesus? But friends, our Deliverer is a mighty Deliverer, a glorious Deliverer, but not outwardly, not in a physical sense. He was nothing to look at at the cross. And indeed, we would turn our eyes away from him on the cross. Does he not say in Psalm 22, I am a worm. But friends, he is the most glorious and the most mightiest and the most powerful savior that we could possibly have. The Bible talks about him as being one mighty to save, who is able to save to the uttermost. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And there, friends, when he was humiliated in some sense on the cross, Yet he made a fool of his enemies, we are told in Colossians. The devil in some sense, and all the scribes and the Pharisees and all his enemies, when they saw him in the cross, they were in some sense rubbing his hands, rubbing their hands. We've got rid of him now. But the third day he rose. death itself could not hold Jesus Christ. He broke the bands of death. And this is what this is meant to remind us. Here, this insignificant individual, by the hand of God, delivered the people. Many people say that Ehud should not have did or should not have done what he did. Some say he murdered Eglon, assassinated him. Commentators disagree. Matthew Henry says that he judged him. Another commentator says he murdered him. What do we say? For what he did was dubious, was it not? To get this person in private, and to stab him, and to bring him to death the way he did, was it what God would want? Well, we cannot be definite about these things. Certain he was raised up as a judge, but did God want him to do what he did, the way that he did? Notice it doesn't say the spirit of the Lord came upon him when he did what he did, as it does for Othniel and the other judges on occasions. Well, we're inclined to think that he was a judge suited for that times. And if we go back to the fact that this happened around the time when there was civil war in Israel, when Israelites were fighting Israelites, and when there was a great slaughter, when Benjamin was almost extinguished, when there was a tremendous amount of bloodshed and anarchy, It does seem as if the Lord raised up a judge who was ideally suited to the times that he found himself in. We could get confused over the details and we could get bogged down about these things and we fail to see the message. And the message is clear. God brought salvation. They had been in bondage for 18 years. And through Ehud and what he did, and those who followed him, we are told the land had rest for four score years, for 80 years. Let us not get confused or bogged down with the details the things that are not pleasant, let us rejoice in the glorious salvation that the Lord brought. And as we close, there is an application here for us all. Modern man doesn't like the doctrine of Christ dying as our substitute. Modern man doesn't like to think that God punished his son in the room and place of sinners. Modern man doesn't want to look upon Christ as our propitiation. What does that mean, mister? What does propitiation mean? Well, propitiation means, friends, that God poured out his wrath and his anger upon the Lord Jesus. Yes, an angry God was angry and he punished his son in the Roman place of sinners, telling us, teaching us that God hates sin. No wonder modern man and the modern churchgoer doesn't like this. The doctrine of the cross is too bloody for them because it reveals a God who is angry against sin. Well friends, there is no other salvation. There is no other gospel. God is angry with sin, but he has indeed provided a way out. He has provided salvation, and he's been there in the nitty gritty of it. Just like what we find here, not pleasant things, but out of that he has brought a glorious salvation. Not a salvation that lasts for four score years, but a salvation that shall last all the ages of eternity. Is that not worth delighting in? And all of these judges and the salvation that they have brought, limited and temporary, ultimately to Christ and to his glorious salvation. That's freely offered to us all in the gospel if we will but come and put our hope and our trust upon Jesus Christ. Amen. May God bless his word to us. Let us pray together.