Forgetful Hearts
Searching for a True Savior: An Exposition of Judges

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Good morning , church! Thank you, Nixa, for your “grace” story, your testimony. We train people to give their “story,” the story of how they came to Christ and how they’ve been following Jesus, in a process that we call “Life on Life Discipleship.” If you’d like to know more about that, you can sign up on the connection card. If you’re watching online, you can sign up on the Church Center app. We teach people how to tell the story that they’re the worldwide expert on; that’s your story. You know more about you than anybody else, right?

We’re in part two of our series, through the book of Judges. We’ve entitled this series, “Searching For a True Savior,” because in this book, there are twelve human judges that all make us want something more. They saveIsrael for a season through the power of God, but then, as soon as they pass away, we see that the people of God fall right back into sin.

The other thing is, each judge consecutively becomes less than the previous one. More difficulties arise in these judges. You’ll see today that we’re going to be in chapter three of the twelve judges. You’ll see what I’m talking about when we talk about these judges; we’re not talking about “black-robed, gavel carrying” judges in a courtroom. We’re talking more about someone like a tribal chieftain or a captain. Someone, who has for a season, had God to raise them up and they deliver Israel for a season. That’s what we mean; that’s where the title of the book, Judges, comes from.

The key verse in the Bible is repeated twice. The key verse in Judges is found in Judges 17:6 and 21:25 (ESV), “In those daysthere was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

I can’t think of a better description of what we see in our culture today –people just doing what they want to do, not caring if there’s truth, not caring if there’s a right or wrong. We hear people say, ‘Well, that’s your truth; you do you.’ Even though the book of Judges describes events that took place over three millennia ago, human nature really hasn’t changed. I’m not just talking about the people out there, though; those people out there are just doing whatever they want to do in their own eyes. The church struggles with that too; the people in here struggle with that too.

Today’s message is entitled, “Forgetful Hearts.” We have, in our human nature, a tendency to forget the things that we’re supposed to remember. The people in Israel forgot the Lord. Even we, as the people of God, and even though we have had knowledge, we don’t forget that God is God. If we’re believers, we don’t forget the Lord, in the sense of intellectual forgiveness or forgetfulness, but we sometimes act as if He’s not real in our hearts. So, we have forgetful hearts.

Tim Keller, calls this “heart-forgetfulness.” It’s kind of like on a cold morning, how you have a bucket of water sitting outside and an icy surface forms on top of the bucket. We haven’t had a lot of really cold days, but if you have a pet outside that has a pail full of water, you’ll have to get up in the morning sometimes and break the ice in order for the pet to be able to drink from the water pail. That’s kind of like what I’m talking about with “heart-forgetfulness;” the forgetfulness of the heart. If we don’t remember with intent, there’s a kind of a coldness that comes over our hearts; a kind of icy formation that forms, that has to continually be cracked so that our hearts are soft. This is what we call “active remembering.” There’s things that we must constantly remind our hearts of so that we make good decisions because the heart is the seat of the will. It’s the driver’s seat of how we make decisions in life. It’s where life comes from; as we talked about in our previous series, Dr. Dallas Willard said, “we live from our hearts.”

One of the reasons we come together on the first day of the week is to remind ourselves (because we have forgetful hearts) of what’s true. We then can go back out empowered and strengthened. We “break the ice” that was formed during the week over our hearts.

Where have you forgotten the Lord today? Where do you need to look at your life and know, at the heart level, that you haven’t really been remembering the Lord as it pertains to this. Are you going through a season of trouble? Maybe you’re going through a season of trouble. Have you remembered the Lord? Maybe you’re going through a season that feels like warfare. Maybe it’s in your marriage,at the workplace or in your neighborhood. Perhaps, it’s at school. It feels like warfare.

Have you remembered the Lord? Have you remembered Him or are you trying to do it in your own strength? How do you feel about life right now? Are you discouraged? Are you disheartened? Are you feeling overwhelmed? Ask yourself the question? ‘Have I forgotten the Lord in my heart?’ You know Him in your head , but have you forgotten Him in your heart? Maybe you’ve lost your passion. Have you forgotten the Lord?

That’s what happened to the Israelites in Judges, chapter three. It says that they forgot the Lord. They forgot Him. They didn’t forget about Him. They were doing the festivals and the holidays. They did Passover and Yom Kippur; they went through the motions. They went to the Tabernacle. But the Bible says, “They forgot the Lord.” I think they forgot the Lord in their hearts.

In chapter three of Judges, the Israelites were caught up in this cycle of “heart-forgetfulness.” They would go through a season, where the Lord would bring difficulty into their lives and then they would, in sorrow, cry out to Him and then He would deliver them. This cycle just kept going around and around. How did they break out ? Well, they really didn’t. That’s what we’ll find out in the book of Judges. They need a true Savior that will break them out of this cycle of forgetfulness of the heart. I believe that we can break out of this cycle of “heart-forgetfulness” and remember the Lord, because we have the true Savior, Jesus.

As we look at the text today, I think we’ll see three ways that we can do that. We’re going to break the text up into two readings. In the first reading, we’ll talk about two insights, two ways that we can remember. Then, the second part will bring a third thought. Judges 3:1-11 (ESV) “1 Now these are the nations that the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. 2 It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. 3 These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods. 7 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. 8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. 9 But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. 10 The Spirit of the LORD was upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD gave Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand. And his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. 11 So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.” This is God’s word. Amen.

REMINDING OUR FORGETFUL HEARTS TO ALWAYS REMEMBER THE LORD…

1. We can remember to count it all joy when our faith is tested.

You probably took note of verse seven where it says, “They forgot the LORD, their God.” As I’ve already mentioned, this forgetfulness was not “head- forgetfulness ; it was forgetfulness of the heart. God was no longer real to them and they began to live as the world did.

If we brought it to the church today, there are Christians who live like Christian atheists. They proclaim that they’re believers, but you couldn’t tell it by their lives nor by their habits. And so that’s how Israel was starting to look, uh they claimed to be the people of God, but they weren’t living like it. God said they had forgotten Him. We see that in verse seven.

The first way that we can remember is to remember what God did for them. You might think that this doesn’t sound like a gift but it really was grace. He allowed these nations to stay in their land. The ones they were supposed to drive out, He allowed them to stay there in order to test their faith.

Look at verse one. These nations are the ones that the Lord left to test Israel by them and then again, in verse four. They were for the testing of Israel to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord.

See the word, “test?” It’s there twice. The word could also be “to prove” or “to assess” as in to give an assessment. God is leaving these nations here, all these “ites” that we read about. He’s leaving them here, really, as grace so that the people of God have the free will now to choose between the world and the Lord, between the world’s gods and idols or the one God, the one true God, the Lord.

What do they do? They flunked the test; they failed the test. The purpose of Him leaving them in this situation was to get their attention so that their faith might be proven and it might be perfected. “Proven” means “to prove it true.” “Perfected” means “so that it will grow.”

This is why God allows testing in our lives today. You might be thinking, Why am I going through this? Why is God allowing this? May I say, it’s perhaps because of this– untested faith is inauthentic faith. Anybody can be faithful in a season of peace. It’s when you go into a season of trouble or a season of warfare that we find out what’s really inside of us. We find out if we really have faith. It is when you lose a loved one, when you get bad news from the doctor, when your marriage is in trouble or one of your teenagers is in rebellion and you can’t figure out how to help them. It’s times like that that we find out what we really believe. What we really believe is exposed during times of testing. In that sense, it’s the grace of God Who wants us to recognize our dependence and need for Him.

He didn’t leave these nations here to punish Israel. He left them there to test their faith. A couple of reasons he gives one of them is strange at first. Verse two, “It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before.”

Historians call the World War II generation the “heroic generation.’ They went and won World War II, then they came home and built all of these human institutions and factories. They had children; these children were called the “baby boomers.” They came home and built families; they were heroic. We still look back at those stories and we enjoy watching movies and reading stories about them because they were tried by warfare and they came home changed.

The people that had won the wars that brought the people of Israel into Israel have all passed away. Now, Joshua has passed away; Caleb has passed away. Now, there’s a generation that doesn’t know warfare.

Parents and grandparents, you pass the baton of faith on to your children, but they go to the public school and they hear different ideas and different philosophies that are contrary to the way they were brought up. That is warfare for that child’s mind. There’s a war for their minds. Make no mistake; there’s a war for your minds, as well, but there’s a war for your child’s mind all the time. Who will you choose?

Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” We have to constantly remind ourselves of that when we go through a time of testing. It’s important that God teaches the next generation how to fight the war. The war that we fight is not the war of this world, but it’s the war against an unseen world. That’s the true enemy. The important thing is to know your enemy. Your enemy is not your spouse. Your enemy is not your teenager. Your enemy is not your mom and dad.

Ephesians 6:11-12 (NLT) 11 “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Recognize the enemy; the enemy behind all of this. We’re to love our enemies, (humans) but we’re to stand firm against Satan. We’re to take up the weapons of warfare that are not the weapons of this world, but they’re the word of God, they are prayer and they are love. Those are the weapons we are to fight with. Every generation has to learn warfare. We learn it by being tested by it.

Let me pop this map up. (Gary showed that map that is pertaining to the area in this chapter of Judges)

Our hearts are forgetful hearts. We have to say, ‘Why don’t I feel joy right now?’ Joy is one of the first three attributes of the fruit of the spirit. If you don’t feel love, if you don’t feel joy, if you don’t feel peace, it’s like warning lights on the dashboard of your car. It’s like the car’s overheating or it’s low on oil. If you don’t feel love, joy, peace in your heart, there’s something out of alignment between you and God. If you’re going through a time of testing and you don’t feel joy, that should give you a warning. Testing shouldn’t worry you because you belong to God. You can’t surprise God . If you’re going through a test, it had to pass through God’s fingers to get to you. He will not cause anything to do harm to you. He’s sovereign over you.

He has a purpose for you and it has two parts. He wants to test your faith; to prove it. He wants to prove your faith. He wants to perfect it, to bring it to its completion. Testing both proves and perfects.

James 1:2-4 (NKJV) 2 “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” That’s an accounting term in Greek. There’s two columns. If you know anything about accounting, if you want to do a value statement, the bank will make you do this before you buy a house, you have your liabilities and your assets. You write them all down to see if, hopefully, it’s a positive number at the bottom When we have a trial, James says, instead of putting in the liability column, put it in the asset column. “Count it all joy.” I know it feels like sorrow, but count it as joy.

Verse three and four of this passage says, “that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” Testing has a perfecting effect on our faith. We’re to count it as all joy, that when we come out on the other side, our faith will be stronger than it was before. We are going to count it all joy because we trust the Lord.

It, also, proves your faith. 1 Peter 1:6-7 (ESV) 6 “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The testing of your faith, from God’s perspective, has the dual impact of proving and perfecting. Therefore, we count it as joy. He leaves certain things in your life in order to prove and perfect your faith.

Will you count it as joy? Joy is one of the ways we crack the icy forgetfulness of the heart. You may say, ‘God, I don’t know why I’m going through this. It sure hurts, but I trust You and I’m going to get my joy from You, not from my circumstances. That’s the first way that we remind our forgetful hearts to remember the Lord.

REMINDING OUR FORGETFUL HEARTS TO ALWAYS REMEMBER THE LORD…

2. We can remember to let godly sorrow lead us to repentance.

The truth is, most of us will never admit we’re wrong and really won’t change until we hit bottom. Here’s what happened with Israel. Here. We see in verse eight and following that they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. They had been given their daughters in marriage to these foreign peoples. They’ve been taking daughters into their family and marrying their sons off. Verse 7 says, “They forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.” They forgot the LORD; they failed the test. The Lord was angry. It says, 8 “Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” He had a fiery anger towards them. Why? If He didn’t love them He wouldn’t be angry. This is a righteous anger. He called them to be His people and He would be their God. That’s a monogamous relationship that He’s after. They’re committing adultery, as Judges, chapter two said. They were whoring themselves, it said in chapter two, by taking on these other false gods. God is angry about it.

So what does He do? Does He strike them all dead? No. He lets them have what they’ve asked for. He allows them to be enslaved by those things they’ve chosen. Verse 8 “…and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.” Therefore, it says, he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim; that name, “Cushan-rishathaim” means “double wicked, double evil.” Probably, a man from Cush would be considered modern day Ethiopia. We have some record in Egyptian history that there was a man who came up from Africa and over through Egypt and actually overthrew all of Mesopotamia. He’s the greatest king that any of the judges fight against.

The very first judge, Othniel, is really the best judge of the 12. He goes up against this king of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is a description of the fertile crescent, which is most of the Middle East that follows along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, up through the sea of Galilee and down the Jordan river valley all the way over into the river Nile.

(Pastor Gary shows another map)

Verse 9, “But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.” It took eight years for the people of Israel to cry out. They didn’t cry out after one year of this. They didn’t cry out after two. They didn’t cry after four. They didn’t cry out after six years. It took them eight years to cry out to the Lord.

Have you ever had a friend that’s going through something and they just keep making the same dumb mistakes over and over again ? You think to yourself, Well, maybe they hit rock bottom this time. They’ve lost their family. They’ve lost their jobs. Maybe, if they have hit bottom, they’ll finally look up. I know you’ve never said that about yourself, but we say that about other people, don’t we? Maybe if they hit bottom, they’ll finally look up.

For some people, like the people of Israel, it takes them eight years of hitting bottom before they look up. Some people are hardheaded; they have to hit eight “bottoms.” The people of Israel finally cried out to the Lord. The minute they did, notice the time word– “But when they did.” They finally looked up. They finally hit bottom. Verse 9, “But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.” My goodness, why didn’t they cry out sooner? Othniel’s name means “the lion of God.” He’s got the name. He’s got the “pedigree.” He’s the nephew of Caleb. He’s from the tribe of Judah that carries a banner with a lion on it. This is the lion of God from the lion of Judah. Is that what made Othniel the greatest judge? No, actually that’s not what qualified him at all. It wasn’t his name nor his pedigree. What qualified him was, first of all, God raised him up. That’s the first qualification. People didn’t choose Othniel, although they probably would have. God raised him up.

Secondly, and perhaps most important of all, verse 10 says, “The Spirit of the LORD was upon him.” Yahweh was on him. The spirit of the Lord was on this man. This is the greatest judge of the 12 and he defeats the greatest enemy of the 12, the king of Mesopotamia. We can see here this cycle that repeats over and over again:

The people rebel. They sin and then the Lord turns them over to servitude . God allows them to have what they asked for and they begin to serve false gods; they fall into servitude. They rebel and they sin; God responds and gives them that, then they cry out in sorrow. They repent and then God raises up a deliverer and He saves them. It just goes round and round and round; it gets worse and worse. They rebel worse every time; they have more forgetfulness every time. Who’s gonna break the cycle? These judges can’t seem to break the people of Israel out of it.

They needed a better judge. They needed a true Savior. What was wrong with Othniel? He did it all perfectly – he went out to war and defeated the enemy. They had rest for 40 years. That’s a generation, but Othniel had one problem. He died . He died and one day you will too. There’s a day where this body won’t survive; a day where you pass from this world. That’s the problem with all of these judges. They all had a tendency to die.

We need a Savior that has eternal life; one that can save us unto eternity. We have a Savior; His name is Jesus. I think the book of Judges was written to the people of Israel to give them a hunger and a thirst for something better and, also, to prepare them for someone who would come like a judge, like a savior, but better. These judges continue to fail them, but then they are pressing in, wanting to know more.

Here’s the thing about sorrow: sorrow can be a gift if it causes you to drive to your knees and you actually look up. In the book of 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 (NKJV) 9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation… Paul says that I’m not rejoicing because you were in sorrow but that your sorrow led to repentance. That’s what I’m rejoicing about – “For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation…”

God wasn’t putting them in servitude for eight years to punish them. He was trying to get them on their knees, so that they would look up because Godly sorrow causes you to say, ‘I was wrong.’ Worldly sorrow says, ‘I’m sorry that I got caught.’ That’s worldly sorrow, which doesn’t save you and it doesn’t bring you to repentance. It just means that you’re sorry that you got caught. Worldly sorrow tries to figure out a way to squirm out of it so they don’t get caught the next time. The person that believes in the Lord says, ‘I’m sorry that I offended You, God. I’m sorry that I didn’t do what You told me to do. I brought this on myself. Lord, forgive me. Help me to get back on the right path.’ That’s Godly sorrow and it leads to repentance.

Stephen’s witness before his accusers: Repent and turn back that you may find rest in Christ. Acts 3:19-20 (ESV) 19 “ Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.” It took them eight years, but the minute they cried out to the Lord, the Lord delivered them.

What’s keeping you from crying out to the Lord today? Why wallow in your sorrow when all you have to do is look up. Don’t wait eight years. Don’t wait eight minutes. Cry out to the Lord. Will you do it? The second way that we remind our forgetful hearts is that sorrow is even a gift from the Lord to cause us to cry out to Him.

Let’s keep reading and we will make a final observation. We’re at verse 12. We’re gonna be talking about two more judges.

Judges 3:12-31 (ESV) 12 “And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 13 He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of palms. 14 And the people of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. 15 Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. 16 And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes. 17 And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. 18 And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. 19 But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he commanded, “Silence.” And all his attendants went out from his presence. 20 And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat. 21 And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. 22 And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out. 23 Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them. 24 When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, “Surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.” 25 And they waited till they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber , they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor. 26 Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. 28 And he said to them, “Follow after me, for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. 29 And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped. 30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years. 31 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel .”

Well, Gary, what are you going to say about this part of the story? It’s kind of like reading something or watching a modern movie. The first guy is like a concealed carry assassin in a James Bond movie; he even went to Q and fashioned his own weapon. If it were a James Bond movie, I would probably name it, “Lefty kills Hefty.” In the second story of Shamgar, we only have one verse. All we know is that he’s the son of Anath and he killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad. He is compared to “Conan the Barbarian,” except with an oxgoad instead of a big sword.

REMINDING OUR FORGETFUL HEARTS TO ALWAYS REMEMBER THE LORD…

3. We can remember that God’s true Savior came in weakness.

These are some strange stories. It just reminds us that God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. He uses the weakness of people often to accomplish extraordinary things, too.

In those days and still in those lands today, if you go to the Middle East or you go to a Muslim country and you go as a missionary, they instruct you not to touch people with your left hand because they view it as the “unclean” hand. It’s the hand that they’re taught to use when they go to the restroom; the right hand is the strong hand. It’s the hand of God; it is the hand of faith. The left hand is the “underhanded” hand. It’s the hand of weakness. The scripture makes much of that to explain why they allowed Ehud entrance into the king’s private quarters. They probably “patted him down . ” The good servants and attendees would have “patted him down” and they would have expected him to be right handed. They would have really worked over the left leg because the sheath of a right-handed sword would be on the left side. Ehud was a “lefty.” He hid the sword on his right thigh; he built it so it would fit and he had it under his robe. I don’t know how he got it out quick, but he figured it out. Some suspect, because of the nature of the Hebrew description of his left use of his hand, that he had a bound or impeded right hand. Some say that maybe he was handicapped.

I did some more research on this because I couldn’t leave it alone. The same term is in Judges 20:16 for 700 left-handed Benjamite warriors. Dr. Spangenberg, of the University of South Africa, says this, “It is far more likely that the Benjamites were specially trained, whereby the right hand would be bound in order to train left-handedness.” I find it interesting, because in the Septuagint, which is the ancient translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, they encountered this “bound in the right hand,” as they translated it. Maybe you recognize this. They translated that he was ambidextrous.

Then, I did further research, because I couldn’t leave it alone. Perhaps the Benjamites were known for binding the son’s right hand in order to make them ambidextrous, so they could fight equally with both hands. If you read in the Bible, the Benjamites could fight with both hands.

Did you know that only 10% of the population in America is left handed and more males are left handed than females? I told you I did a lot of research. If you’re left handed today, you’re not “underhanded.” I’m not saying that, but in Bible times, it was kind of a metaphor for something else that God would use. A “lefty” was unexpected.

What I want to say to you is that this points to our Savior, named Jesus, because He’s “unexpected.” He was born to the virgin Mary, born in a stable, raised in Nazareth along the sea of Galilee to a carpenter. The way that He wins the victory is not with an oxgoad but with a cross. Only believers will get this; we recognize that God sent the true Savior in weakness and took our sin, our death, our separation from God so that we could have His strength. He came in this unexpected way.

Even these unexpected, unlikely saviors, in their own way, point to the most unlikely Savior of all –Jesus, the Messiah. He is the King of the universe, our Savior, Jesus Christ, Who died on a cross, was raised from the grave and lives today. It’s our story because we believe in Him, but the world looks at it and thinks that it is a crazy story.. That’s why all these judges are here; they’re here to prepare the people of Israel to know how to look for the true Savior when He comes.

(Pastor Gary shows another map, concentrating on the locations of the judges of Israel .)

God chooses the weakness of this world in order to prove Himself. Look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 1:27-31 (ESV) “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus , who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Don’t boast in the ox goad. Don’t boast in the self-made double-edged sword. Boast in the Lord because He’s the one that gives us the victory. He comes in weakness and so we are challenged to live in weakness and recognize, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” I have learned that it’s in my weakness that I’m strong.

The apostle Paul prayed three times that God take this thorn in the flesh from him. He begged God three times. God finally answered him after praying three times. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV) But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” I’m just going to celebrate my weaknesses because I know this, for the sake of Christ, that when I am weak, then I am strong.

We have a tendency to hide our weaknesses, but Paul said that he would be real before the Lord and real before God’s people, then God’s people will see Jesus in him. As long as we’re bragging about ourselves, they just see us. But once they realize that God could take a wretch like us, that God could take our story and turn it around.

I don’t know what your story is today, but the weaker you are and the more messed up your situation is, the more likely God can do wonderful things with you. The more you think you have it together, the less likely the Lord can use you. “For when I’m weak,” Paul says, “then I’m strong.” We have a kind of heart amnesia, a kind of heart-forgetfulness that we have to be reminded of. That’s why we come together every week. To remind ourselves and to “crack the ice” that forms on our hearts and to be reminded of who we are in Jesus that, when we go through testing, we can “Count it joy.”

Are you going through testing today? Put it in the “joy” column that, when we’re sorrowful, when we’re down, we’ve lost someone or we’re going through a season where something’s not going the way we want it to and it’s just hurting us, we can recognize that it had to pass through God’s fingers first. What do I need to change in my life about the way I face this? When you’re going through a season, where you feel weak and wondering how you will face this, recognize that it is perfect. That’s where God really likes to work, where you can really count on a true Savior named Jesus.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You for Your word. I pray, first of all, for that person that’s here today that’s never given their life to You. I’m talking about an act of the will. I’m not talking about “head knowledge.” I am talking about “heart knowledge.” Have you ever given your life to Jesus as an act of the will? You can do it right now, right in your seat. You can pray right now, just expressing your faith. Pray like this. ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I need a Savior. I believe You died on the cross for my sin, You were raised from the grave and You live today. Come and live in me. I give You my life. I want to be a follower of Jesus. I want to follow You. I want You to be my Lord and my Savior.’ If you’re praying that prayer, believing, He will save you. He will become your true Savior and He will be your Lord. He will make you a child of God. You’ll see life change and you’ll see your faith grow. You can start today. Others are here and you’ve done that. You’ve made Jesus your Lord and Savior, but you’re going through some testing right now. You’ve been “beaten up” and you feel sorrowful. You may even feel like giving up. You feel weak. Don’t give up. Cry out to the Lord. Would you cry out to the Lord and say, ‘Lord, I need Your help.’ Know this, when you ask for help, He hears. You serve a God Who hears. Cry out to the Lord and He’ll give you help. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.