Transcript of Radio Show #400:
Book of Judges, Part 5
Continuing from last week, on our study in the Old Testament, with the book of Judges...

Radio Show...

This program continues on various series of different topics of Bible studies and theology such as end times, prophecies, Old Testament, New Testament, daily living, etc. as the subject matter comes up.

The e-book on End times, Prophecies and Revelation, answering the questions “where are we in the events of the end times?” and “Are we now in the tribulation?” is available on this web site, which you can find throughout the pages.

Opening Narrative

Hello and welcome to another exciting radio program today on end times and prophecies and scriptures to live by... which is all about old-time gospel and worship music, praying for needs and preaching the Word of God....

And remember this radio programs Virtual Church for the Spiritual Unchurched is broadcast every Sunday at 7 am and 7 pm pacific time... and if you unfortunately miss it for whatever reason at any time, you can hear the program any time after that for 4 weeks...at my web site TimingRevelation.com

And I did mention to you before that with this series begins the start of the 9th year of these radio programs Virtual Church for the Spiritual Unchurched.

So, we continue today, with the new series from the book of Judges in the Old Testament, which is the book following Joshua.

We will begin here right after this opening music, prayer and worship...

Prayer
Praise God Doxology
Worship music

Narrative 1

So we will pick up from chapter 7 again in the book of Judges, and continue on Gideon's plan of attack against the enemies of God and Israel...

So you will remember that the Lord had told Gideon and his companion to go down the the enemies's camp and there they would hear of the Lord's confirmation of giving Israel victory over their enemies...

Let's review that at verses 10 to 14 of chapter 7 of the book of Judges:

God said to Gideon,

v.10, “But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant,

v.11, and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp.

v.12, Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude.

13, And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.”

and v.14_” Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.”

Wow, so the two men heard this conversation taking place at the camp of the enemies, and Gideon worshipped God right there and then... then they went back to the camp of Israel's men and told them that God showed them He would deliverer the enemies into their hand...

So we'll pick up from here and read about Gideon's plan of attach next... and the heading in my Bible for this is “The lamps and the pitchers...

Let's go and see what that's all about...

v.15, to 23... chapter 7 of the book of Judges:

15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.

16 And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.

17_”And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do.

... and of course I'm reading from the old King James Bible...

18_”When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

19_”So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: (or, as they had just posted the watch): and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.

20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing (to blow withal): and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

21 And they stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the host ran, and cried, and fled. -- in other words they were scared off from the sudden loud noise and turned on each other...

22 And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, (even) throughout all the host: and the host fled to surrounding areas... (Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.)

23 And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites.

And verses 24 to 25...

24 And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mount Ephraim, saying, come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan.

...in other words “seize from them the watering places...

Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan.

25 And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed them in a manner that you can read yourself in your Bible if you are interested in the details ...

Music Interlude

Narrative # 2

So let's pick up from our story, from chapter 8, continuing with Gideon's capture of Midian's kings... and there is a lot of very complicated exploits and intrigues that would take too long to get through in a program like this one, so I encourage you to read it in your Bible later on...

...however, in a quick summary, Gideon and his 300 men pursued after the Midianites and captured and killed some more of their kings and manoeuvered various trickeries and so on... from verse 1 to verse 21...

then I pick up from v. 22 to the end of this period of Gideon's victories against the Midianites...

So, v. 22 to v.35, still in chapter 8...

v.22 “Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also; for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.”

23 But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.”

24 Then Gideon said to them, “I would like to make a request of you, that each of you would give me the earrings from his plunder.” For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.

...And from here up to v. 27, we read how they did give Gideon not only earrings but much more of the jewelry pieces these people had obtained...

25 So they answered, “We will gladly give them.” And they spread out a garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from his plunder.

26 Now the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments, pendants, and purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were around their camels’ necks.

Alright so let's pick up from where Gideon requested the jewelry from the Ishmaelites...

...so v. 27, “Then Gideon made it (meaning the jewelry) into an ephod (a sacred, apron-like vestment worn by the high priest of ancient Israel), and set it up in his city, Ophrah. ...

and next, we read something shocking...

it says, “all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

Would you believe this – right away after the victory, they turned again to worshipping some items they made out into jewelry....

then, v. 28 says: “Thus Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted their heads no more. And the country was quiet for forty years in the days of Gideon.

And next we read of the death of Gideon:

v.30_”Gideon had seventy sons who were his own offspring, for he had many wives.

31_”And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, whose name he called Abimelech.

32_”Now Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

33 So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god.

34_”Thus the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side;

35_”nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) in accordance with the good he had done for Israel.

So that is a pretty somber period in the life of God's people...

Music Interlude

Narrative #3

Alright, so let's continue in the book of Judges...

we ended above with the judgeship of Gideon in chapter 8 and then chapter 9 had a twist in the whole outline of Israel's judges, in that Abimelech, the son of – well one of the sons – of Gideon was made king over Israel...

... so we see here that the people of Israel were already wanting a king to rule them...

... but that didn't go well nor end well and you can read the story in chapter 9... Gideon is referred to as an usurper and wicked man.... and there is quite an unusual list of intrigues and violence following him during his ruthless, power-hungry, and unprincipled rulership. ..

...He murdered his 70 half-brothers in order to become "king" of Shechem. His his reign was short and ended tragically some 3 years later, as God allowed him to be killed by a woman's millstone – and this was the most humiliating situation for a strong man to be killed by a woman – especially a man of war....

Then after that came two more judges that we read about in chapter 10 – Tola and Jair. We are told that Tola judged Israel 23 years and then died. Then came Jair who judged Israel for 22 years.

After these, we read in chapter 10 still, in verse 6, that the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord and served Aaalim and Ashtaroth and the gods of Syria and of Zidon, Moab, Ammon and of the Philistines... and totally forsook the Lord their God and did not serve Him. And again you can read all of this in chapter 10 of the book of Judges....

Then in chapter 11, the saga continues, now with Jephthah delivering Israel... and here again is quite another intriguing story of victories over the enemies of this time... and to summarize this, here's a paragraph from an AI internet overview:

It says, “Under Jephthah's judgeship (around six years), Israel experienced a significant military victory against the Ammonites, subduing them and securing their territory, but this triumph was overshadowed by his tragic, rash vow to sacrifice his own daughter in fulfillment of a promise to God, leading to the end of his family line and highlighting Israel's moral decline and internal strife, especially with the Ephraimites...”

Key events of this story is:

--Victory Over the Ammonites where the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he led Israel to a decisive victory...

--Theh the tragic vow and sacrifice, which if you have read the book of Judges before you will recall Jephthah's terrible vow that if God granted him victory, he would sacrifice whatever came out of his house to meet him first upon his return – pretty childish and selfish thought I would say, for anyone to entertain... it seems from the bible that he did sacrifice his daughter. Very sad story.

--and then there was a Conflict with Ephraim following the Ammonite war, where the tribe of Ephraim challenged Jephthah for not calling them to battle... this led them to another conflict where Jephthah's Gileadites defeated the Ephraimites,

Then we read about the death of Jephthah after judging Israel for 6 years.

His death led to renewed disunity among the tribes, the story serving as a powerful example of the cycles of oppression and moral compromise in Israel during the times of the Judges.

And now let's read in Chapter 12, verses 7 to 15 ends with this:

7 And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried among the cities of Gilead.

And next we read about the last judges, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

Verse 8_”After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.

9 He had thirty sons. And he gave away thirty daughters in marriage, and brought in thirty daughters from elsewhere for his sons. He judged Israel seven years.

10 Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.

Verse 11_”After him, Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel. He judged Israel ten years.

12_”And Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the country of Zebulun.

Verse 13_”After him, Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.

14_”He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy young donkeys. He judged Israel eight years.

Verse 15_”Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mountains of the Amalekite.

Music Interlude

Narrative #4

Alright so all this takes us to the end of the Book of Judges – about 300 years, from 1350 to 1050 BC)... this period covers the chaotic period of Israel following Joshua... as chronologically presented in the Bible... detailing cycles of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance by the judges of Israel...

Next we will read about the last judge, Samson, which will end this period just before Saul became king...

And the first verse of that time period that we will get into says: “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

Music interlude

Closing Narrative…

Oh how wonderful to appreciate what Jesus has done in our lives to save us from sin by Grace... and how He continues to keep us by His on-going and unlimited Grace...

...that wonderful Grace that comes into our life the moment that we receive Him as for who He is -- the Saviour of mankind and of every individual like you and me personally...

... and this Jesus the Son of God who came to give His life for you and me is the same Jesus who's life we've been reading about in these series of programs right now, and who's death on the cross we will see as we go through the gospel story to where He gave Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God that took the sin of the world...

...but right now, the question is:

...do you know this Jesus that we're talking about? If you don't know the Lord...

...Just say this prayer, “Lord come into my heart, come into my life, I turn to you right now and ask for forgiveness, I repent of my sins and receive your work on the cross... I receive your gospel as it was delivered through your blood shed on the cross in my place, and I thank you, Amen...

The Blessing

Before I dismiss the service today, I want to read to you the Blessing that was read to the people of God in Numbers 6:24-26 which is the benediction from God to you today:

“The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."

I hope and pray that you will come back next Sunday at SpiritFM.ca, 7 am and 7 pm pacific time. And if you want to hear the service again at any time, you can go to my website at TimingRevelation.com, and click on the Radio Shows navigational tab along the left side. The replays are available there for five weeks, then they are transcribed into articles as new radio shows are put up.

I encourage you to go to your Bible and read further on the scriptures that were given throughout the program today. And if you like these programs and you've been blessed, call or write the station and let them know... if you said the prayer and have accepted the Lord or you've been healed or touched in some way by the Holy Spirit, write to me on the contact form of this web site...

...and this web site is also where you will find the Free Offer of the “Christian Growth and Maturity Chart” that I talked to you about in the last weeks... you will see the graphic on any page called “Get your free CGM Chart”, click on it and it will take you to a page that will tell you about it and how you can subscribe to my newsletter to get your free copy of the Chart sent to you.

Until next week, Maranatha, the Lord is coming, very soon. Goodbye and Blessing.

/DMH

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Blessings,