May 3, 2020 Judges 6:1-10

Bryan Holt: Emmaus Christian Church

Open your Bibles please to Judges 6. We are going to be looking at verses 1-10 today.

So far in this book we have seen Othniel, Shamgar, Ehud, and last week we finished up Deborah. This begins the story of the fourth Judge of Israel. He is a pretty well known judge. His name is Gideon. This is a fairly long and detailed story in this book, it comprises three chapters, and there are several acts that take place in this story. The cycle that we have seen and will continue to see is evident in the story. This week we are going to be taking a short action of the story. Really this is just the setup for the story. It is describing the state of the People of God before God calls Gideon. Now, as we know, this will take place a number of times in this book, but I wanted to take a day to look at the description of Israel in these times and draw out the lesson that I believe is contained in it.

Now the question I want to ask as I get started is this: When you disobey God, what is it caused by? The follow up to that is this: When you repent, how do you motivate yourself By God’s Grace to move forward in obedience?

You see, we know that we are prone to wander from God, and there is almost always collateral damage for those wanderings, furthermore, there is collateral damage of the presence of sin in this world that may not even be caused by us. I believe it is imperative for believers to understand how we can process the effects of sin, and know how to move forward and even thrive in the midst of the effects of sin all around us. This story has a lesson for us in how we do that.

Lets read and see what God has for us this morning.

So, this is a very simple progression of the story. We know the beginning right? Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So God gave them into the hands of Midian. Then we get a little glimpse of what life was like for them in these seven years.

They were living in caves and…

God sends a prophet to remind them of His faithfulness.

So what do we learn from this?

When you find yourself in difficult circumstances, the remedy is to remember God.

1. Difficult circumstances are inevitable: sometimes they are the result of our own sins and poor decisions, sometimes they are caused by others.
2. The greatest remedy is to remember the faithfulness of God to His people throughout History. Remember his faithfulness to you in times of circumstantial trials, but most importantly on the cross.https://thisliminalstate.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/may-3-2020-5_5_20-3.34-pm.m4a