So you have Judges chapter 6 opened before you there tonight. And for a little time I'm going to preach on dens, caves, and strongholds. Dens, caves, and strongholds. Now, the book of Judges picks up the story of the nation of Israel after the death of Joshua, just the way the book of Joshua continued the story after the death of Moses. So both of these books begin with the death of a great servant of God, a great leader who had done great things for God's people during their time on earth. Now it's got to be said about the book of Joshua that it reaches to a very high spiritual level. It takes us into the heavenlies. to a spiritual high. But then when you come to the book of Judges, it takes us to a very spiritual low in the experience of the nation of Israel. So we could say that Joshua speaks of the mountaintop, and then Judges speaks of being down in the valley. Is that not familiar to us? Sometimes we're up in the mountaintop, other times we're down in the valley. Well, it's all here in the Bible anyway. We can see it. the practical experiences of the people of God. Now the book has been called the saddest book in the Bible and it has been called the saddest book in the Bible because It's a book of defeat and a book of disgrace. And the key verse in the book is chapter 17, verse 6, where we read these words, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. The point is this, the Lord was no longer king of Israel. The tribes were divided. There was no unity. The people were mixing with the heathen nations. There was no separation. And God's people failed to trust God's word and claim their promised possessions. There was no advancement with the people of Israel at that time. The death of Moses marked the end of the wilderness journey and the start of the conquest era. Joshua records that the people crossed the River Jordan and then they began to conquer the enemy. But it closes with much land to yet be possessed. You can read there in the last couple of chapters that there was still much land to be possessed. First they tolerated the enemy, then they took tribute from the enemy, they took taxes from the enemy, then they mixed with the enemy, and finally they surrendered to the enemy. Do you see the pattern? Just let it sink in. We're talking about the experiences of God's people. We think about our own history. It's painted here in picture form for us in the Holy Scriptures. A very sad story indeed. It was through God's deliverers, the judges, that they did have victory when they did have victory. Whatever glory Israel experienced in Joshua's day soon disappeared. with the crushing defeats brought about by Israel's apostasy in the days of the judges. Now the book of Judges covers an approximate period of 350 years. 350 years. And it's characterized by recurring cycles of apostasy, oppression, repentance, and deliverance through divinely appointed leaders called the judges. Hence the title or the name of the book, the book of Judges. There are three things I want you to notice here from the verses that we've read before us tonight. First of all, there is the evil in the lives of the people of God. The evil in the lives of the people of God. Notice what it says there in verse 1. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. These are very sad words. You'd appreciate that, don't you? These words occur often throughout this book. I'm not going to turn you to the references. I'll quote them to you. Chapter 211, 3-7, verse 12 again, chapter 4, chapter 6, chapter 10, and chapter 13. So these words, they reoccur quite a number of times in the book of Judges. And the word again crops up quite a number of times as well. The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. So they did evil, but then they did evil again in the sight of the Lord. That reminded me of my own experience. In spite of the blessings of God, we sin, and then furthermore, we sin again. That's just exactly what happened to the people of God in the days of Judges. And the conjunction there, the word and, as you know it as a connecting word, it connects the previous chapter with the events in this chapter. Now, if you go back to chapter 5, verse 1, notice how it begins. Then sang Deborah and Barak on that day saying, praise ye the Lord for avenging of Israel. So they're singing and they're praising God in chapter five. And as you come to the end of that fifth chapter, the last words, Verse 20, 31, tell us, and the land had rest 40 years. So the point is this, 40 years between the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6, a new generation had arisen. So at the beginning of the chapter 5, they're singing, they're praising God. 40 years later, new generation has arisen up, and now we read the devil in the sight of the Lord. So they sang in one chapter, and then they did evil in the next chapter. That reminds me of Exodus chapter 15, because in Exodus chapter 15, after they crossed the Red Sea, Miriam led the ladies, led the congregation in singing praise to the Lord. Now what else happened in chapter 15 of Exodus? They had a bitter experience. The water was bitter. So there's singing, there's praising, it's followed by a bitter experience. Singing is followed by the children of Israel doing evil in the sight of God. And the character of the evil that is spoken about here was idolatry. And verse 10 mentions the gods of the Amorites, and that's a problem Israel had, given over to idolatry. Can you imagine this covenant people? The people who have been redeemed by precious blood, brought out of the land of Egypt by the mighty power of God, and they're falling down before images? Gods of hay, wood, and stubble, bale, whatever. The problem was with them. they left their first love. And that's what the Lord accused the church at Ephesus of in Revelation chapter 2, thou hast left thy first love. So that's the point I want to emphasize. Their hearts were not right with God. And because their hearts were not right with God, they were given to idolatry. There's something between them and God. And if there's anything between us and God that's not becoming the child of God, we cannot really expect blessing. We only end up doing evil in the sight of the Lord. And as a result of the problem they had within, they suffered losses without. Because as we will see shortly, they lost everything that was precious to them. There was loss of animals, of food, of liberty, of freedom, all of these things. And so because of the problem that was within, they had to suffer a problem without as well. They did evil in the sight of the Lord. Let's emphasize, sin was not hidden from Him, you see. He knew all about it. In the case of Moses, he presumed a lot. He felt it was the right time to move out there and to deliver the people of Israel from bondage using his own strength and his own intelligence and wisdom. It wasn't God's time. Had to wait for a long time further before he really was used of God. And remember the day when he saw one of the Egyptians smiting one of his brethren. He knew that he was a Hebrew. He knew that he was different from the rest of them. What did he do? He killed the Egyptian and buried them in the sand. Did it remain buried? Of course not. Because the people soon discovered it. We can't sin and try to hide it from God because we can never succeed when that happens. It will always be found out. Be sure your sin will find you out. The same thing happened with Achan. when they came to Jericho. Don't take any of the spoils. But when the spoils presented themselves to Achan, he took these things. Nobody else knew about it. And stealthily, he took those things. He dug a hole in the center of his tent, covered everything up. Nobody would know anything about it, but God knew about it. And God directed his servant to the right man, to the right family, and to the right individual in the family, to the right spot in the tent. And there it was discovered. And so the emphasis here, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. God saw it. God was standing by all the time. He knew everything that went on. He knew where Moses hid the body. He knew what he had done. He knew about Achan. He knew where he'd hid the things. We cannot sin without his knowledge. He recorded what they did. And even though the recording angel is writing down in heaven what we've been up to this day, our deeds, our acts, our words, our sayings, everything else, the recording angel has been busy. Even though in the prayer meeting he's writing down the message I'm preaching, if it's of him or if it's of self, he knows it all. We can't hide anything from him. He takes note of us all, all that we do. Good theology raises our morals. Bad theology lowers our morals. The children of Israel did evil. Now, they're not doers of the Word because they did evil. And the Bible tells us we're not to be hearers only, but we are to be doers of the Word. But the people of Israel were not doers of the Word. They did evil. That's what the Bible says contrary to the teaching of the Word. They were the children of Israel. This was sad in the light of their godly heritage. The term children of Israel, of course, you know the story. It refers to the children of Jacob. And then at Peniel, his name was changed from Jacob, the heel catcher, to Israel, the prince with God. a ruler with God. The L signifies God. The name of God was incorporated into their name. Yehal Bethel is the house of God. Daniel is God as judge. Gabriel is God as my strength. And Jacob was renamed after his spiritual experience with God. God touched him that night. He was never the same thereafter. His walk was changed. I've emphasized this before. How do I know that? Well, when he walked away, well, it says he limped away. So his walk obviously was changed for the rest of his day. He limped away. His walk was changed as he met with God up in Isle, in that blessed place. His life was changed after a prayer changed an event in his life. Prayer does change things. Changes you, changes me, changes my attitude, changes my heart. It replaces the coldness within with warmth. The disciples on the mess road when they listen to Christ expound in the scriptures, did not our heart burn within us? Not hearts, did not our heart, talking about the two of them. Here's God's people together. Did not our heart burn within us? It's the word that burned, causes our hearts to burn. Fellowship with God, communion with God, closeness to Him. It's good for me to draw near to God. Oh, let not coldness ruin our lives for him. Let not indifference cloud the picture, cloud our testimony, cause us to lose out with God. He knows everything. He's merciful and gracious. There's the evil and the lies of God's people. Secondly, there's the enemy and the land of God's people. We're told here in verse 1, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. Did you see that? The Lord did this. So we're told, first of all, what Israel did, they did evil. And the next word is what God did. What did the Lord do? He delivered them into the hand of the Midianites. So there's the committal of sin. They did evil in the sight of God. And there's the consequences of that evil. The Lord gave them into the hand of the Midianites. Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator, some of you have his commentary. If you don't have it, you should have it. Tremendous commentary. And this is what he said. He said, let all that sin expect to suffer. and the people of Israel sinned and they suffered for it. Three times in two and a half centuries, Israel had departed from God and sunk into sin. Three times over, the Lord permitted the enemies to oppress them sore. It says the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian. So every time the Midianites crossed the border into the land of Israel, it was by divine direction. This was a divine discipline. divine discipline because they did evil. This never would have happened had they not been evil and doing evil in the sight of God. And you notice the word again, and you find this a number of times, 2, 3, and 4 in this chapter again. And the enemy came and encamped against them in verse 4. The Lord allowed this to happen. What was this? This was divine chastening. And the truth that is being taught here is that those who will not learn in communion with God must do so in the hands of the enemy. They had to be afflicted by the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the East. They wouldn't learn any other way. God had been merciful, God had been gracious to them all down through the years. But they've hardened their hearts against Him. They've rebelled against Him. They've departed time and time and time again. Time and time again they did evil in the sight of God. And now God is saying, I can't tolerate that anymore. And so we could really say, he's saying, I'm weary with this. I'm weary with my people. I'm not going to destroy them. I'm going to discipline them to make them better. I don't like seeing my people the way they are doing what they're doing. I want them to be better. Therefore, I'm going to allow them to be chastened by the enemy, to teach them a lesson that eventually they may call upon me and be blessed and brought into that place where they ought to be. Now, it's interesting. that Midian, the father of the nation, was the son of Abraham and Keturah after Sarah died. You know that story in Genesis chapter 25, verses 1 through 6. And then you know the story of Moses. Who did he marry? A woman called Sapphora. She was a Midianite, the daughter of a Midianite priest. After he fled from Egypt, he ran ahead of God, you see, and then he had to flee. and they had to go to the back side of the desert for 40 years. Had to wait for a long time. His plans were suddenly changed by God because he was going to run ahead of God, but God brought him back, pulled him back and says, now Moses, I'm going to put you in the back side of the desert for a teacher lesson. And it was there he beheld the glory of God in the burning bush. The Lord spoke to him out of the midst of the burning bush. And it was midnight women who were counseled by Balaam to suggest the Israelite men to turn their heart to idols. See how the evil one used illegitimate relationships to cause the men to turn to idols. They were suggesting to doing it by the Midianite woman. Over 24,000 Israelites died as a result of that. Number 25. And one commentator says that the name Midian actually means strife. So here we're talking about the Midianites who were like half brothers to Moses or to Abraham, connected to Abraham. You see this, how close strife is already to spring into action any moment. You have Cain and Abel. You have Abraham and Lot. You have Isaac and Ishmael. You have Abraham's descendants and Israel. There's strife, you see, between the flesh. The flesh is within us. And there's a striving even going on now, the two natures we have within us. One is pulling us down. The other wants to lift us up. and lead us in prayer and lead us in worship. The other one wants just to cause our thoughts to wander and it doesn't really matter. We lose our concentration. We just go way down there and we don't really care. We're in the presence of God. We're under the eye of God. Heaven is looking down. The ear of God Almighty is open to our cry. Remember what I said about his ear bending? He's listening for the cry of his people right now as we congregate here in the house of God. And so one reason why the Midianites had power over Israel was because Israel was unfaithful to God. That's the reason why they had this power, this hold. over Israel. And you can see how the enemies multiplied. There's the Midianites are mentioned, and then there's the Amalekites, and then you have the Children of the East. And some people think that the Children of the East, now I'm not saying this is right. This is a thought that I came across reading some of the commentaries. They think that the Children of the East would have been the Ishmaelites. Whether that's right or not, I don't know. All in all, I don't know who they were. But remember the story of Joseph, Genesis chapter 37, verse 28. Remember what the brethren eventually decided to do. Some of them said, we'll kill him. Others spoke up on his behalf and said, no, we'll sell him. Who came along the road? Midianite merchant men and the Ishmaelites, and they carried together Joseph down into Egypt. And now here we find the Midianites closely related to Abraham. They're in God's territory, robbing his heritage. What robs God's people of the heritage? What robs God's people of the blessings of God, the things that God has in store? God said, I'll give you a land, flowing with milk and honey, and now the Midianites are there. enjoying all the best that should have been partaken of by the people of God. So along with these two groups, they oppressed Israel in a most humiliating manner. Now, they did not maintain continuous occupation of the land for seven full years. Don't think that for one moment. Don't think that they all arrived in their multitudes. This is the first time the camel was actually used in the Bible for warfare. That's just a wee sidebar with a wee bit of useless information. That's the first time the camel was used for warfare. You think about the water they could carry and they could go 100 miles in a day, whatever. And when you're evading the land, that's all important. And so they're not there for the full seven years. The point, the strategy they had was this. They just visited the land once a year, and they came at the harvest time. Oh, the people of Israel were depending upon the harvest to sustain them for that following year. Oh, they go out and they work hard and they labor, under the eastern sun, and they labor, and they intend to fill their barns and everything else to provide for the family. And just at that time, at the harvest time, they look out and they can see the dust clouds. The camels are coming. The enemy's coming again. It's harvest time. We've got to get out of here. Got to go because the enemy's coming to take the sustenance, our food, our supplies, our homes. We're going to live there during the harvest time and then they'll leave after they've taken everything and we'll be bereft of everything. So the enemy came. The enemy took what they wanted. The enemy stayed as long as they wanted and left at their own pleasure. So here we have the thought of the Israelites working to produce the harvest. Suddenly it's gone. What a waste of time. What a waste of effort. They received no real benefit from it. Are you working for God and laboring for God, and yet you're not receiving any real benefit from it? There's no increase that you are receiving benefit from? The enemy comes and steals it all. You hear a good message, your heart is stirred. But within a very short time, maybe a few hours, the blessing is gone because you've got your eyes of Christ again. You need to get refocused tonight and get our eyes upon Christ in the throne, the sovereign Lord of the universe, the sovereign God of all of his believing people the world over, working according to his eternal purpose and plan. Nothing happens by mere chance. God has a plan in it all. God has planned it all for his glory, for the praise of his great name. And they increased. That was their aim. They increased. They destroyed the increase. They destroyed the land. That was their objective. And because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made dens and caves and strongholds. What does that suggest to you? A cave, a stronghold, a den as a hiding place? Is it not? So what are we being told here? They accepted defeat. They had no fight left in them. These were places to hate. Remember Elijah had a great victory at Mount Carmel, and then in chapter 19 of 1 Kings, he's under the juniper tree, praying that he will die. Well, thank God the Lord never answered that prayer because he never did die. You know, if God had answered all through our lives certain prayers, I wonder exactly where we'd be tonight. God, in his great grace and wonder, gives to us those things that are agreeable to his mind and will, not necessarily things we pray for for a selfish reason. And so they're hiding. Elijah, this great man, is under the juniper tree. Now, they tried to live regular lives the way Gideon did. He's the great hero of these next three chapters. He's a great hero. And remember where he was found working and hiding because of the approach of the enemy. But then the enemy moved in and took control. Midian came up when Israel had sown. The enemy came at a time of the sowing of the seed. We've just concluded the gospel mission. Thank God for every message, every time the Lord stepped in and blessed and moved, sense of his presence night after night, a time of sowing the seed, the thankfulness, thankful for the faithfulness of God's servant, for the blessing that you've all received. And that's the time when Midian came at a time when they'd sown the seed. Just like Matthew 13. Remember when the sower went out and sowed the seed? Remember how the pharaohs came to snatch away the seed there? The same thing. Here's the Midianites doing the same thing. And when the word is taught to us, the seed falls into our hearts. Oh, may it be good ground that will bring forth a hundredfold to the praise of God. We can use that in the gospel context, but for us it's God's people. And you've got to protect that seed that is sown there by prayer. Oh, what a wonderful word the preacher brought, and the Lord said, it's a blessing to my soul. Lord, hide it in there. Store it up in my heart. May it produce the fruit of the Spirit in my life. That's what God is designed to do. but the devil's purpose to come to pick up the seed, to leave us bankrupt, to destroy the increase, to take away the sustenance, take away the fruit and the fruitfulness from our own hearts and lives. The devil goes about like a lion seeking those he may devour, swallow up to destroy. And that word impoverished that is used there in verse 6 means to make slack or feeble. It comes from a root. But it's used to speak of a bucket dangling from the end of a rope. You get the picture. There's the rope. There's the bucket dangling from the end of the rope. It's a picture of hopelessness and helplessness. It's a picture of people at the end of themselves. Israel has everything they love taken away from them. They planted the fields. The enemy came and took away the crops. They took away the livestock. They're animals. and they were left with no sustenance. They were literally left weak. Now if you don't have a good food supply, if you don't have proper nutrition, you're going to become weak with the passing of time. So this was the harvest time. It was to last them until the next time. And so the enemy's taking these things away so the people become weak. That's the way the devil works. A weak in church, he delights in. He doesn't rejoice in a strong church, in a praying church, a vibrant church, a soul-saving church, no. He always wants to keep the people of God weak. But in the name of Jesus, we have victory. In the name of Christ, we triumph. We triumph in the risen Lord who's defeated the devil at Calvary. We need to live victorious lives for the praise of God. So everything they valued was taken from them. Everything they needed to sustain life was gone. They were left with nothing. They lost their freedom, dens, caves, and strongholds. They lost their fruitfulness, their crops were gone, and they lost their food as well. Oh, what a sad situation. The incalculable numbers of raiders, like the grasshoppers, just arrived in multitudes, so many, so mighty. And after the enemy plundered, all the enemy withdrew to the following season when he came again from the desert at the time of the sowing of the seed to renew the rains. Remember what happened to Jesus. Matthew 4 and Luke 4, the devil came to tempt him, and then after the temptation, he left him for a season. He came back again, of course. And so we have the Midianites, the Amalekites, the children of the east, they come in and they do their work, they do their terrible deeds, and then they leave Israel for a season, but they're coming back again. Now you can imagine how discouraged those people must have been. For seven years this happened. Year after year, oh, this harvest is coming again. Oh, not another nightmare. Oh, you can imagine the dread. We've got to go to a new place up in the hills there to hide from the enemy. And then when the enemy goes, they come down. Their homes are a mess. Their land is a mess. Everything's gone. They start over again. And then it goes on next year, next year, next year. That is why God always raised up a deliverer. The judges, that word can be translated deliverer or savior, and the judges in some way or another point us to Jesus Christ, the great deliverer, the great savior of sinners who delivers his people from bondage spiritually. That's what it's all about, you know, Christ. It's all about the king of kings. And so the experiences we have here are our experiences. Don't divorce yourself from what's going on here tonight. It's in the Bible for this reason. because this picture is a picture of ourselves. It's here to teach us instruction. I've got to come to an end now. I should have ended long ago. My wife's sitting there, she's saying, it's about time you'd finish now. I've got to listen to her for this time. So I thought two things, I'll be very brief. The evil in the lives of God's people, the enemy in the land of God's people, and then the evaluation of the Lord of God's people. Now, I've got to be very brief, but I want to draw your attention to verse 8. The Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel. Now, this was not the normal thing. This was not the usual thing. This was different. Because on at least three different occasions, we read of how the Lord raised up a deliverer, Othniel and Ehud and so on. Three deliverers, three saviors. And seven years, as mentioned here, of their bondage, if you like. Seven is a complete number. This period of time was necessary to teach the people of Israel a vital lesson. Yes, they needed a deliverer, and they were hoping and praying for a deliverer. The Lord has done it before. And that's why in verse six we're told that they cried unto the Lord, but that does not imply repentance. They just wanted to get out of the situation they were in. Does that not sound familiar? Oh, we enter a tight corner and we immediately think about the Lord. We may not have been thinking much about the Lord during the course of the day, but when the trouble comes, we begin to think about the Lord. Isn't that right? That's me. That's probably you as well. I would think it would be quite accurate in saying that. And so here they are. Oh, the Midianites are coming. Oh, this is the seventh time. And they cried unto the Lord. And they were expecting the Lord to send a deliverer, a savior, a judge. No, not this time. God, as I said earlier, I'm getting weary with this. You just can't play around with me, you know. I'm just going to do a different thing this time. And that's the reason why he sent a prophet. He sent a preacher before he sent a deliverer. He sent John the Baptist before he sent Christ. What was John's mission? Repent, repent. And when you read verses 8 through 10, You will read about the message, and really, I've just time to mention it. He talks here about what he had done for them. I delivered you, brought you out of Egypt, I redeemed you, and so on. He reminds them of all the great things he had done for them. And then he comes down to the sad verse, the sad words in verse 10, but ye have not obeyed my voice. I delivered you, but what have you done to me? You have departed from me." So he remembered them because he sent a prophet to them, and then he reminded them of what he had done for them, the great things he had done for them, and then he reproved them. Look at what I've done for you. The Lord has done for us great things, but what have you done for me? They did evil in the sight of the Lord. So there was this reproof. The divine messenger arrived, not to chase away the Midianites, not to rally an army to fight the Midianites or the Amalekites, not with a promise of a speedy deliverance, not even to speak comfortably to the people. No. There's no mention of mercy here. Because God is saying, you need to repent. You need to repent. Before I send the deliverer, you need to get right. You need to repent. That's the whole point. That's why he sent a prophet instead of the deliverer first. Yes, he was gracious and merciful, and he did send Gideon. He allowed them to wait. He postponed sending a deliverer. John the Baptist is in prison. Jesus has come out of the wilderness, the time of temptation. He hears that John is in prison, and one would have thought that he would go down to the prison house and get John released. But what happened instead? He went in the opposite direction. He went into Galilee. And John died in the prison. Lazarus was sick. He was dying. They sent a message to Jesus. The disciples were baptizing beyond Jordan. He stayed two more days. When he returned, Lazarus had been dead. There was that delayed response. But there was a reason for it. I've said this before. Had he just laid his hand upon him and touched him and prevented him from dying, that would have been a great thing. But he allowed him to die to perform a mightier miracle, that he would get all the praise for his mighty power, and he would prove beyond a shadow of doubt, I am the Messiah. I have the power of God. So John died in prison. Lazarus was delivered and exalted and raised. It was a delayed response. And the point is this. God was teaching the people. This is his evaluation of his people. I have blessed you. I've been good to you. I've shown great things to you. I've worked on your behalf. You have not obeyed my voice. The message I'm sending to you is repent. That's it. Repent. It's an interesting story I've got to end. the evil in the lives of God's people, the enemy in the land of God's people, and the evaluation of the Lord of God's people. And could I just say, may God richly bless you, one and all. And may the Lord move Michael in our midst in these days. And very soon, may the congregation of a man of God's choosing. May God bless you. We'll bow for prayer. Prayer short to the point.