This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you back to day four of our first week of looking through the
book of Judges. We're going to be looking primarily at chapter three today.
Yesterday, we saw that God had left the unholy nations amongst the people of
Israel to test their faith.

Unfortunately, they don't pass the test. So listen to what happens beginning in
verse seven, "The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They got the Lord
their God, and they served the Baals and the Asherahs.

The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, so that he sold them into the hands
of Cushan Rashiotham, king of Aram the Harayim, to whom the Israelites were
subject for eight years. " So they sell them into the hands of this king who,
what a difficult name. I always say to people, when you come across difficult
names in the Bible, just read them like you know what they mean.

Everybody will expect, "Well, I guess that's how you pronounce them. " And this
guy, his name is so long, it took him eight years just to know how to pronounce
his name. They're subject to him for eight years.

And then they begin to cry out to God, and God delivers them through a judge,
the first judge named Othniel. Many people call him the ideal judge because of
the kind of faith that he had. Listen to what happens beginning in verse nine,
"But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel
son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

" This is the one we read about earlier in Judges, "Caleb's younger brother who
saved them. The spirit of the Lord came upon him, so that he became Israel's
judge and he went to war. The Lord gave Cushan Rashiotham king of Aram into the
hands of Othniel, who overpowered him.

So the land had peace for 40 years until Othniel son of Kenaz died. " Now
Cushan's name really means Cushan the doubly wicked. So they put up with this
wickedness for eight years before they began to cry out to God, and then Othniel
comes.

And the Bible says he came and notice the spirit of the Lord came on him. You're
going to see this throughout the book of Judges, and by the way the rest of the
history of Israel through Samuel and Kings you see the same thing, that the
spirit of the Lord gives power to people as they are seeking to enjoy God's
promises, to see God's victories in their life. The spirit of the Lord comes
upon them so that that power is there.

The spirit comes upon certain people from time to time. Now we don't live in the
same kind of time as they did because Jesus has come. The spirit indwells every
believer because of what Jesus did on the cross.

We not only have forgiveness for the past, we have vastly greater power in our
lives. Every one of us to live out God's will. We have the spirit of the Lord
who's come upon every one of us.

God's promises in the present in every one of our lives. So God comes and he
delivers the people of Israel through Othniel, through the spirit of the Lord.
But that's not the end of the story.

They're going to get in this pattern again and they're going to need another
deliverer. So next God is going to deliver them through a judge by the name of
Ehud. And Ehud might be nicknamed the handicapped judge.

The judge who leads from weakness. Listen to what happens in verse 12, "Again
the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. " This is after Othniel died.

"And because they did this evil, the Lord gave Egon king of Moab power over
Israel. Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Egon came and attacked
Israel and they took possession of the city of Palms. And the Israelites were
subject to Egon king of Moab for 18 years.

And again the Israelites cried out to the Lord and he gave them a deliverer,
Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gira the Benjamite. " Now without reading
the entire story here, let me tell you how Ehud defeats Egon the king of Moab.
He takes a tribute to Egon and in promising him a bribe Egon tells everybody
who's around him all his guards to leave the chambers because he doesn't want
them to hear that Egon is going to give him a bribe because they might want part
of it.

I don't know why. He asks them to leave the chambers. So Ehud all of a sudden is
alone with the king and with his left hand, notice it said earlier he was
left-handed, he plunges a sword into the king.

In fact the favorite verse of all junior high boys is here in verse 21, "Ehud
reached with his left hand, he drew the sword from his right thigh and he
plunged it into the king's belly and the fat closed over it. " Oh junior high
boys love that one. So here they are, they finally have a victory over their
enemy after 18 years.

Now notice they waited 18 years before they cried out to God. Why did they wait
18 years? It's almost without reason.

They were trusting in the wrong gods for 18 years and Ehud becomes the one who
delivers them. Now he's an unlikely judge for two reasons. Number one, he's from
the tribe of Benjamin, that's one of the smallest tribes.

Judah led the battles, Benjamin didn't drive out the enemy, but he's going to
have victory over Ehud even though he's from one of the smallest tribes. Even
more significantly, he's left-handed. Now those of you who are left-handed right
now are thinking, "Well what's the big deal about that?

That's not a handicap. What are you talking about? " In that day it was.

The Hebrew phrase here is literally, "He was impeded in the use of his right
hand. " For a warrior, being left-handed was a handicap because the right hand
was the warrior's strong arm. If you're left-handed trying to fight against
everybody else's right-handed strong arm, you might be able to defeat one,
you're not going to defeat all of them.

You're not going to be able to defeat all of them. You needed a strong right arm
for defense against other warriors with a strong right arm. He was weak or a
warrior needed to be strongest.

But did you see what happens here? Ehud sees that his handicap can become his
strength, that God can actually use his handicap. The fact that he's
left-handed, that the king would never expect a sword to be plunged in from a
left hand against an enemy.

Now Egon dies immediately and this death shows how vulnerable God's enemies
really are. They think they have power, but it's only because God's allowed it
for a time. And once God's people cry out and God responds, their power is lost
in a moment.

Not just for Egon, but also as you read down through this chapter for 10,000
Moabites. In verse 30, that day Moab was made subject to Israel and the land had
peace for 80 years. So out of this defeat of their king comes the battle that
comes the defeat of all the Moabites.

God delivers them. And there's a third judge in this chapter through whom God
delivers them. God delivers them through a judge by the name of Shamgar.

And Shamgar you might call the unlikely judge. In verse 31, after Ehud came
Shamgar, son of Anath, who struck down 600 Philistines with an oxcote. He too
saved Israel.

So obviously a powerful warrior. Why is he an unlikely judge? Well notice he's
the son of Anath.

That means he was possibly, most probably a Canaanite. He certainly was from
Canaanite influence with that name coming from that line. God uses this unlikely
leader.

In fact, using unlikely leaders is one of the themes of the book of Judges. He
uses a left-handed judge. He uses a man we're going to see later who's hiding in
a winepress from the enemies.

He uses a woman who was a prophet. He uses a man who struggled to keep his
passions in check. And he uses a man here from a Canaanite background.

You see, it doesn't so much matter if you're the ideal leader like Othniel or
the handicapped weak leader like Ehud or the unlikely never to be expected
leader like Shamgar. That's not what matters at all. What matters is where does
God want you to lead?

Doesn't matter what somebody else is saying or thinking about you or what you're
saying or thinking about you. There's a great lesson about leadership in these
three judges. It doesn't matter.

All that matters is where is God asking you to lead in your family, in your
company, at your school, in your neighborhood, in your church? Where is God
asking you to lead? Lead there.

No matter what someone else says, no matter what someone else expects, whether
they expect you to be the leader, you don't want to do it because it's expected,
or they don't expect you to be the leader, you don't want to do it because you
think it's not expected. Where's God asking you to lead? Lead there.

So as we pray today, let's make that our prayer. In prayer with me, would you
just say, "Lord, where do you want me to lead? Where do you want me to lead?

I know you want me to lead in the closest relationships in my life, in my
family, with my friends. Show me how I can be a leader there, a spiritual
leader. Where do you want me to lead in my company, in my place of work, in my
school, in my church?

Where do you want me to lead? If you will show me, I will pray for the faith to
lead in that place, and I will step out on that faith, and I will obey you. God,
I'm telling you in advance that as you show me where you want me to lead, I will
obey you.

I will lead in that place. I'm having a hard time praying this prayer, some of
you might need to pray, because I'm not sure God will give me the strength. But
Lord, even though I'm having a hard time praying it, I pray it one more time.

I'm willing to do this because I know you will give me the strength. So show me
where you want me to lead. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

Join us tomorrow. We're going to learn some great lessons about faith and
victory from Deborah.