Double Trouble and the Half-Caff Hero
Hopson Boutot
Judges: Rebellious People, Rescuing God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Lead Vocalist (Joel)
Welcome & Announcements (Jason)
Good morning family!
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3 announcements:
1) Discover Class, Sundays at 9:15 AM
If you’re interested in pursuing membership at PBC you’re invited to our Discover Class
7-week class currently offered on a rotating schedule
Other SS classes available for all ages
2) Evening Gathering, April 28 at 5:30 PM
Typically have an evening gathering once a month
Adventure Kids for children ages 0-6th grade.
3) Thrive Birthday drive?
NextGen, children and youth, are collecting boxed cake mix and frosting for a Thrive birthday Drive now through April 28.
Our goal is 150 of each, to help create birthday kits for Thrive to provide for families who visit the pantry. Drop-off will be in the PBC Kids Check In area.
Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.
Call to Worship (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
Prayer of Praise (Susan Thomas)
All My Boast is In Jesus
Holy Holy Holy
Prayer of Confession (David Engel), Forgetting God
Assurance of Pardon (Psalm 86:5)
Come as You Are
I Will Glory in My Redeemer
Scripture Reading (Judges 3:7-11)
Page 238 in the black Bibles
Pastoral Prayer (Jason)
Prayer for PBC—Expositional preaching
Prayer for sister church—Petsworth Baptist (John Pouchot)
Prayer for US—Attorney General
Prayer for the world—St. Kitts
Pray for the sermon
SERMON
START TIMER!!!
How many of you are into board games or card games?
If you’ve been introduced to a new game recently, that experience probably went something like this.
Somebody was elected to read the instructions and explain the game. In my house, usually that’s me.
Perhaps a few paragraphs in, the rules-reader got frustrated with the instructions and went to YouTube to find a video that explained how to play the game.
Once the main principles of the game were understood, you probably decided to just play a sample round to get a feel for the game.
The way we typically learn how to play a new game reminds me a lot of the first judge in the book of Judges. [1]
If you’ve closed your Bible, I’m going to ask you to open it back up to Judges 3:7.
It’s going to help you immensely to have a copy of God’s Word open where you can follow along as we study the text together.
Two weeks ago we finished looking at the introduction to the book of Judges.
And in the introduction, we observed the basic pattern that will play out throughout the book.
Think of that pattern kind of like the rules of the game.
That pattern, which we called the the Judges Cycle, goes something like this...
SHOW JUDGES CYCLE IMAGE
First, God’s people commit idolatry.
Then, God disciplines them, leading to oppression by their enemies.
Next, we’ll see God’s people crying out for help.
God hears their cries and brings deliverance by sending a judge to rescue them.
But then that judge will die and the cycle starts all over again.
In our text today we will get our first glimpse at this pattern in action.
But reading this story feels a bit like playing a sample round of a new game.
All the main headings in the Judges Cycle are there, but there’s not a lot more.
There’s little intrigue and no surprises, almost as if the author of Judges is trying to break us in slow before he introduces any twists and turns to the story.
The story of Othniel is almost like drinking a half-caffeinated cup of coffee. It’s not an unpardonable sin like decaf, and it’s got enough caffeine to kinda get the job done. But it’s just so very basic. So ordinary. So unremarkable.
But in the ordinary story of Othniel we learn an important lesson about how God rescues His people.
God uses unremarkable people to rescue undeserving people.
That’s the Big idea I hope to communicate from God’s Word this morning.
We’ll do this by examining two major themes in our text.
First, we’ll see an undeserving people.
Then we’ll see an unremarkable rescuer.
Let’s consider first…
1) An UNDESERVING People
1) An UNDESERVING People
We see how undeserving God’s people are in verses 7-9a.
In these verses we see three main scenes.
Scene one is...
A) DISOBEDIENCE
A) DISOBEDIENCE
Judges 3:7—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.
God’s people have two problems. There’s a double wickedness afoot among the people of God.
The first wickedness is the sin of forgetting God.
Like we said a few weeks ago, the problem is not that they literally forgot who God was.
The truth about God was no longer precious to them.
There are two main ways we forget God: [2]
First, there’s Careless Forgetting.
We get so caught up in the things of this life that we don’t stop to think about God.
Take a moment and evaluate this past week. How much time did you stop to think about God? How often did you pray? How often did you read or listen to God’s Word? How many times did you neglect God because you were busy with other important things?
One reason why we must regularly gather with God’s people is that God uses these gatherings to remind us to remember.
Tim Keller says, “Our hearts are like a bucket of water on a very cold day—they will freeze over unless we regularly smash the ice that is forming.” [3]
Careless forgetfulness is a big deal, because God is a big deal.
But it’s also a big deal because it can devolve into a more dangerous kind of forgetting...
Deliberate Forgetting:
This type of forgetting occurs when we don’t want to remember God anymore. We don’t want to remember God because we know He isn’t pleased with our pursuit of sin. So we deliberately put Him out of our mind so we can chase after our idols.
I wonder if you are engaging in any deliberate forgetting. If you are cherishing any secret sins. You know God sees your sin and He isn’t pleased with it. Yet you’ve deliberately put that truth out of your mind so you can chase after your idol.
It was deliberate forgetting that led God’s people to chase after...
The second wickedness of idolatry.
The idols that the people worshipped were the Baals and the Asheroth.
Baal was the most powerful god of the Canaanites. Asherah was a fertility goddess, whose worship included sexual deviancy.
Both Baal and Asherah are probably mentioned in the plural because there were many local expressions of both idols.
And God’s people piled up Canaanite idols the same way a kid piles toppings on an ice cream sundae.
But let’s not forget that idolatry is a much bigger problem than bowing down to pretend gods.
Remember the definition of idolatry I shared two weeks ago...
John Piper—“Anything in the world that successfully competes with our love for God is an idol.” [4]
What is successfully competing with your love for God?
Is it your stuff? Your comfort? Your entertainment? Your job? Your reputation? Your social media? Your health? Your ministry? Your spouse? Your kids? Yourself?
The double-wickedness of spiritual amnesia and idolatry is explained this way by the prophet Jeremiah...
Jeremiah 2:11–13—Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Evil number one is forsaking, or forgetting God.
Whether our spiritual amnesia is careless or deliberate, the Bible says it’s EVIL!
Evil number two is looking for satisfaction in an idol. It’s like trying to draw water from an empty well, or drink from a broken glass.
This is where disobedience will lead you. Thirsty and unsatisfied.
How will God respond to the wickedness of His people?
We see the answer in scene two...
B) DISCIPLINE
B) DISCIPLINE
Judges 3:8a—Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia.
Do you know how sometimes a little baby will get angry and start screaming when you don’t pay them attention? As long as you’re holding them or feeding them they’re happy as can be, but put the baby down for a few seconds and they start screaming bloody murder.
Is that what God’s doing here? Is He behaving like a spoiled baby, angrily acting out because His people didn’t pay Him enough attention?
There’s something much deeper going on here.
God’s anger is rooted in His love. It’s an expression of His grace.
One commentator puts it like this:
“Even here, in Yahweh’s anger, is hope for Israel, for his anger shows that he will not allow Israel to serve Baal unmolested. Yahweh’s wrath is the heat of his jealous love by which he refuses to let go of his people; he refuses to allow his people to remain comfortable in sin. Serving Cushan-rishathaim may not sound like salvation to us—and it isn’t, but, if it forces us to lose our grip on Baal, it may be the beginning of salvation. We must confess that Yahweh’s anger is not good news nor is it bad news but good bad news. It shows that the covenant God who has bound himself to his people will not allow them to become cozy in their infidelity.” [5]
—Dale Ralph Davis
God sends suffering to the Israelites not to pay them back, but to rescue them from their wickedness!
This does not mean that all suffering is God’s discipline.
But God does sometimes use suffering to discipline us and He always uses suffering to make us look more like Jesus.
So instead of complaining about your suffering or looking for ways to escape your suffering, ask God to teach you in your suffering.
The suffering of God’s people in Judges typically comes at the hands of some sort of foreign villain who oppresses them.
And here it’s a villain named Cushan-rishathaim.
You can just call him “Cushy” for short. He won’t care, he’s dead.
I like to picture him in a desert somewhere saying to the Israelite people “say my name.”
The name Cushan means “dark.”
“Rishathaim” means “double-wickedness.”
So this guy’s name means “Dark, doubly wicked!” Obviously this is a really bad guy. He’s double trouble.
And the fact that he’s the King of Mesopotamia suggests he is the villain in Judges who traveled the greatest distance to oppress Israel. [6]
Some have speculated he is the most powerful of all the enemies named in the book of Judges. [7]
But even if his name doesn’t hint at him being the worst villain in Judges, I think it does hint at something else.
We’ve already mentioned how Israel has committed the twin evils of forgetting God and idolatry.
It’s almost as if God responds by saying “you want double-wickedness? Okay, I’ll give you double-wickedness!”
One of the most dangerous things in the world is for God to give you what you want.
Like the Israelites in the wilderness complaining and asking about meat—God gave them so much meat it made them vomit.
Or in Romans 1 where God gives people over to their own desires, which eventually destroy them.
How will God’s people respond to this discipline?
We see the answer in scene three...
C) DESPAIR
C) DESPAIR
Judges 3:8b–9—… the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer…
After eight years of suffering, God’s people finally cry out for help.
One of the things we’re going to notice as the story of Judges progresses is that it will slowly take longer and longer for God’s people to cry out for deliverance. Until we get to the final judge, Samson, and God’s people stop crying out altogether.
But we need to be careful not to read too much into this cry for help.
This is not necessarily repentance.
The word translated “cried out” is a word that simply means to cry out in anguish. [8]
Perhaps it describes the sort of thing you would do when you stub your toe. When you stub your toe you cry out in anguish, but you’re not repenting. You may repent later for whatever you said when you stubbed your toe, but that’s a different story.
One commentator writes this about Israel’s cry:
“This outcry is not to be interpreted as a penitential plea, as though the Israelites have repented. Rather, it is a simple anguishing cry of pain (i.e., a yelp of pain) of people in a distressing situation in need of deliverance.” [9]
—K. Lawson Younger Jr.
I confess, all I I could think about when I first read that quote was Paw Patrol. “Whenever you’re in trouble, just yelp for help!”
That’s all this is. A cry of pain, a yelp for help.
But what’s the point? Why does it matter?
God does not withhold deliverance because His people are bad at repenting!
Christian, that is still true for you and me today! If Jesus only saved those who perfectly repented all of us would go to hell! We are rescued because God is a Rescuer, not because we’re particularly good at confession and repentance.
But Christian, this does not mean we should be content with shoddy repentance.
We must train ourselves to confess our sins. We must learn how to cultivate true repentance.
We must help each other pursue genuine repentance.
We must learn to demonstrate repentance by bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.
If we are content to merely yelp for help like the Israelites do, we’ll be doomed to their same cycle of sin and oppression.
But praise God that He rescues His people even when we need to grow in repentance!
Praise God He saves undeserving people.
But let’s consider the second theme in our text. That God saves His people using...
2) An UNREMARKABLE Rescuer
2) An UNREMARKABLE Rescuer
We see how unremarkable this rescuer is in verses 9b-11.
Notice two reasons why this rescuer is so unremarkable.
First, he is...
A) An Ordinary MAN
A) An Ordinary MAN
Judges 3:9b—… the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.
Let’s do a little experiment. How many of you have heard someone preach or teach about Samson? How many of you have heard someone preach or teach about Othniel?
Isn’t that interesting? Samson is by far the most famous character in the book of Judges, even though he in many ways he is the worst of all the judges. Meanwhile poor Othniel, who is the best of the judges is one of the least well-known.
Othniel is the first of twelve judges mentioned in this book.
SHOW 12 JUDGES TABLE
Remember these judges aren’t like our judges today. A better title for these heroes might be “rescuers” or “saviors.”
There may have been more rescuers who judged Israel during this time period, but the author is trying to make the point that all of the tribes of Israel have failed in one way or another.
The only tribe that doesn’t have a judge is the tribe of Levi, but the last five chapters show us the spectacular failures of that tribe.
But it’s significant that the first and best judge is from the tribe of Judah.
Othniel is the best judge because, even though he was ordinary in many ways, he had extraordinary character.
Ehud is deceitful, Barak is a coward, Gideon becomes a dictator, Jephthah is a fool, and Samson is a womanizer. Several of the Judges were polygamists.
But there’s nothing negative mentioned about Othniel here or anywhere else in Scripture.
Othniel’s character is a lesson for us, Christians. God does amazing things through ordinary people with extraordinary character.
Othniel reminds me of the words of a pastor named Robert Murray M’Cheyne almost two hundred years ago. He once said, “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.”
Parents, your kids’ greatest need isn’t anything extraordinary. Their greatest need is your personal holiness.
Husbands and wives, your spouse’s greatest need isn’t for you to do some radical, remarkable gesture. It’s your personal holiness.
Elders, deacons, coordinators, Sunday School teachers, your church’s greatest need isn’t for you to do some amazing ministry that captures everybody’s attention. It’s your personal holiness.
Do not underestimate the power of ordinary unremarkable people with extraordinary character!
In the classic novel Middlemarch, we’re introduced to an ordinary woman named Dorothea who pursued ordinary interests that end up making a massive difference. In the book’s conclusion we read, “The effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” [10]
If the Lord tarries, one day many of us will also rest in unvisited tombs. Many of us will also live unremarkable lives. And yet, God delights to use unremarkable people.
The second reason Othniel is an unremarkable rescuer is that he wins...
B) An Ordinary VICTORY
B) An Ordinary VICTORY
Think of some of the victories in the book of Judges.
Ehud wins with his dagger, Shamgar wins with an oxgoad, Sisera with her hammer, Gideon with trumpets and torches, and Samson with foxes, jawbones, and incredible strength.
But we know virtually nothing about how Othniel wins the victory. It’s completely unremarkable.
Judges 3:10—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.
Cushan-rishathaim may be the darkest villain in Judges, but we know next to nothing about how he meets his end.
This is an ordinary, unassuming, unremarkable, half-caffeinated victory!
Yet even though this victory is ordinary in many ways, Othniel does have something extraordinary.
The text says he defeats Cushan-rishathaim by the power of the Holy Spirit!
There’s a common misconception that the Holy Spirit doesn’t come along until after Jesus ascends into heaven.
It’s an honest misunderstanding, especially when you read Jesus’ words in passages like...
John 14:16–17—“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
But Jesus doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit is completely MIA until Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit is actually mentioned seven times in the book of Judges.
So why did Jesus say He was going to send the Holy Spirit?
Remember last Sunday we talked about how God makes us alive when we’re dead in our sins?
That spiritual resurrection is what the Bible calls “regeneration,” and it’s a work of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the One who causes us to be made alive spiritually.
And He did that work in the Old Testament, just like He does in the New Testament.
In the Old Testament the Spirit regenerated people, but He didn’t permanently indwell the people of God.
That’s why you’ll sometimes read in the Old Testament about God leaving people.
Like Samson after his hair is cut, or King Saul after disobeying God, or King David’s prayer in Psalm 51.
The incredible blessing of the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling the hearts of God’s people is what Jesus prophesied in John 14.
Jesus said, “He IS with you, but He WILL BE in you!”
In a very helpful book on this topic, James Hamilton writes “In the Old Testament, God is described as with and near His chosen nation and only in certain persons for extraordinary tasks.” [11]
But all that changed after the ascension of Jesus. When the Spirit came down at Pentecost, He came to live in the hearts of every believer forever.
So Christian, there is a lesson for us here too.
There is a sense in which the Christian has something better than Othniel or anybody else in the book of Judges.
We have the Holy Spirit of God living within us!
If Othniel was able to successfully defeat Double-Wickedness by the power of the Spirit, than you and I should be able to put our sin to death by the power of the Spirit too!
In some ways we need to be careful not to over-identify with the wickedness in the book of Judges. They did not have the indwelling Spirit, and we do!
And yet, even with the Spirit empowering him, Othniel’s victory still seems so vanilla, so bland, so basic, so unremarkable.
That is GOOD NEWS, because Othniel’s life seems a lot like your’s and mine.
Dirty diapers, runny noses, washing dishes, cutting grass, paying bills, saving receipts, emptying the trash, and on and on and on with one mundane boring thing after another.
We sometimes want to do the amazing, radical, extraordinary things in this life.
And that’s not necessarily bad. But we need to be far more content doing the simple, uninteresting, unremarkable things.
In his book Ordinary, Michael Horton rights this: “Taking a summer to build wells in Africa is, for some, a genuine calling. But so is fixing a neighbor’s plumbing, feeding one’s family, and sharing in the burdens and joys of a local church. What we are called to do every day, right where God has placed us, is rich and rewarding.” [12]
I remember growing up in church I’d sometimes hear preachers ask, “What will you be doing when Jesus returns?”
The implication was that the only real correct answer to that question was something remarkable and amazing, like evangelizing the lost, serving the homeless, or serving in some foreign country as a missionary. Those things are all amazing and important.
But what if Jesus comes back and you’re sitting in a chair listening to a sermon? Or changing a diaper in the nursery? Or cutting your grass? Or taking a nap?
Listen church, all of life is worship! Jesus cares about unremarkable things too!
Your faithfulness in the ordinary matters more than you think!
God loves to use unremarkable people to do seemingly unremarkable things.
But those things that the world sneers at are often eternally significant.
Just like ordinary Othniel winning an ordinary victory to rescue an undeserving people.
But as amazing as that is, the rescue Othniel wins won’t last.
Judges 3:11—So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
Isn’t it interesting that it’s the land—not the people—that enjoys a forty-year period of rest.
It’s almost as if the author of Judges is saying that the people cannot find rest until they find a better leader. A leader who, unlike Othniel, will not die.
Or, at least, will not stay dead.
In the words of Augustine, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee.” [13]
Who is the rescuer who can give God’s people ultimate rest?
Hundreds of years before, Jacob had prophesied that the ultimate rescuer would come from the tribe of Judah...
Genesis 49:10—The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
But Judah would live and die, with God’s people still looking for rest.
And although Othniel won a temporary rest for God’s people, he too would be unable to win a lasting rest.
Perhaps it would be King David, one of the greatest leaders ever to come from the tribe of Judah.
Many commentators actually believe that the book of Judges was written to convince God’s people to follow after King David instead of King Saul.
David was, of course, from the tribe of Judah. Born in the little town of Bethlehem.
Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin. Born in a forgotten town called Gibeah.
If you read Judges carefully you’ll notice that the tribes of Judah and Benjamin both play a prominent role in the book.
Both Judah and Benjamin are seen fighting the Canaanites in Jerusalem in chapter 1.
The first two judges are from Judah and Benjamin, respectively.
But there’s no question that the tribe of Judah is presented in a much more positive light.
In Judges 1:2 when Israel asks who should go up first to fight, the answer is Judah.
In Judges 20:18 when Israel again asks who should go up first to fight, the answer is again Judah.
Except at the end of the book, God’s people aren’t fighting the Canaanites. They’re actually fighting the tribe of Benjamin because of a deplorable sin committed in King Saul’s hometown of Gibeah.
It’s almost as if the author of Judges is trying to tell us, “Salvation and rest won’t be found in the tribe of Benjamin, but in a King from Judah.”
And at first it looked as if David might be that king.
Like Othniel, David was in many ways an ordinary man. He was the last son of Jesse that anyone would have expected to be anointed king.
Like Othniel, his greatest victory was in many ways ordinary too. He used only a stone and a sling to bring down a giant.
Like Othniel, he was empowered by the Holy Spirit.
But like Othniel, David also died.
And unlike Othniel, David didn’t really die a hero. In many ways he lived long enough to see himself become a villain.
Is there a Rescuer from Judah who can give God’s people ultimate rest?
Just like a practice round of a new game is a little bit boring and leaves you wanting more, the story of Othniel does the same thing.
But I think that’s the point.
The author of Judges wants us to know that God Himself—not Othniel, and not any other rescuer in this book—can provide the ultimate rescue that God’s people need.
But 1000 years after the final chapter of Judges, another Rescuer would come from the tribe of Judah.
He too was in many ways an ordinary man.
Isaiah 53:2b—… He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.
He was born into the family of a poor Jewish girl and spent His first night sleeping in a manger.
Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but He had nowhere to lay His head.
But unlike both David and Othniel, this ordinary Man was perfect.
And He too won a victory that, in the world’s eyes, appears very ordinary.
Jesus won the victory by doing the same thing that Othniel, David, and every other hero in the history of the world has ever done.
Jesus won His victory… by dying.
1 Corinthians 1:22–24—For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Jesus is the ultimate Hero, He is the One who gives ultimate rest to whoever runs to Him for rescue.
Have you run to Jesus for rescue? If not, will you run to Him today?
If you have run to Jesus, be encouraged by how God still loves to use unremarkable people today.
You have an ordinary, unremarkable mission, Christian.
To make disciples of all nations.
To love and serve your church.
To bear one another’s burdens.
To put off sin and put on righteousness.
And just like God used an unremarkable man like Othniel, he can use unremarkable people like you and me to accomplish His purposes.
But all of it is for the glory of Christ! He is the ultimate Rescuer, and He alone is worthy!
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Is He Worthy?
Benediction (Luke 2 (p. 156))