I was scheduled to have breakfast with my son on Wednesday as we do every week when he called me to say he had got a puncture on his bike. I picked him up on Marion Rd and we decided to do a Drive Through at McDonalds.
As we were waiting at the window it dawned on me that Mark had never known a time when Maccas didn’t exist.
Imagine that!
Trivia time: When did first Maccas open in Australia?
Ans: 1971 in Sydney
First ever Drive-through was in Sierra Vista, Arizona, opening on the 24th of January, 1975. Soldiers from local military base were not allowed to enter a business establishment – so Maccas made a drive through!!
I did some research on McDonalds and discovered that although it all started with a couple of brothers called Dick and Mac McDonald selling Hot Dogs…..the founder of what we now know as McDonalds was a man named Ray Kroc!
Through some amazing deals he managed to run Dick and Mac out of business. Had the brothers maintained their original agreement, which granted them 0.5% of the chain's annual revenues, they or their rellies would be collecting in excess of $100 million per year today.
Fascinating story!
Reminded me of how much can happen in one generation!
Eg.
Tell me some things that have changed or developed or been discovered in last 20 years!
The backdrop to the Book of Judges is found in Judges 2:10
…..another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.
Have to remember that the Book of Judges spans about 400 years, so while the book seems like a frustrating sequence of instability, it is symptomatic of generational change.
Problem with generational change is the problem of PERSPECTIVE
What one generation sees as right and helpful, another generation sees as restrictive, unhelpful.
We are not good at transferring from one generation to the next those things that are critical to our well being.
Eg.
1986 is infamous for the Chernobyl Disaster.
Worst Nuclear Disaster in history.
31 people died as a result of the explosion and thousands more will die prematurely from exposure to radiation that drifted over Soviet UnionNorth America. , Europe, and
A couple of engineers were performing what was later described as an ‘experiment’ on one of the turbines.
In order to perform the test they wanted, they had to manually override six separate computer-driven alarm systems.
One by one, as the alarms sounded, instead of shutting down the EXPERIMENT, they shut down the ALARMS!
That’s the perennial problem of generational change.
We want the freedom to experiment but we don’t want any alarms!
There is no doubt the alarms were going off in Judges but again and again the people turned them off!
We have a generation that is experimenting with the lives of our children and the results could be more catastrophic that any nuclear fallout!!
Probably the biggest danger is that we have become ambivalent to alarms!!
Even worse, in Church, is the resignation that we can’t do much about it!!
I want us to take a look at how God used a few good men to change things in times that were not much different to ours!
1.Othniel – Heritage v7-11
Read v9
Othniel walked in some big footprints! His Uncle…
Caleb was big man in Israelite history!
Explain…
Not easy following father, brother, sister, uncle etc
You either burn out trying to live up to something or you walk away from it altogether!
Hardest thing of all is to find your own sense of identity and purpose.
See that in John Bradman who changed his name to John Bradsen in an effort to escape the claustrophobic world that came with being the son of the incomparable Sir Donald Bradman!
In 1972 in announcing his change of name by deed poll, he wrote,
"I'm an individual, not a social souvenir,''
Let me tell you where Othniel drew a line in the sand.
Joshua 15:13-17
…..Othniel took it
He was an opportunist!
He grabbed this opportunity just like Uncle Caleb.
Here was a young man carving out his own story of faith, not just talking about his Uncle’s great exploits!
I want to encourage those of us who have a Christian heritage to take God given opportunities to WRITE YOUR OWN STORY.
As a CHURCH we have a great history but we need to write our own story. We want our children to see faith in CURRENT history not just in ANCIENT history.
2.Ehud – Handicap v12-30
What a great story about Ehud and King Eglon!
v11 ….land had peace for 40 years
v12 ….once again…
It’s so hard to maintain what’s good for us!!
Blessings can soon look boring!
It’s time to experiment!!
Interesting that we read
….the Lord gave Eglon King of Moab, power over Israel.
I bet Eglon never saw it that way!
I’m sure Israelites didn’t give it a second thought.
This was just another generation experimenting with beliefs and flirting with their heritage.
It went on for 18 years!
For 18 years they ignored the alarms!!
Finally the penny dropped and they called out to the Lord and he gave them a deliverer – Ehud, a left handed man..
“Lefties” have always done it a bit tough.
Even the etymology of the word is not good.
Latin word for left-handed = sinister
Today, word for someone with skill and ability is
Dexterous = right hander!
So left handers have carried the baggage of being sinister and somewhat suspiciously evil, while right handers are the epitome of all that is right, proper and normal!
But there is more to this interesting left handed judge!
The Hebrew actually says it slightly different.
It doesn’t say he was left-handed, it says he couldn’t use his right hand.
It doesn’t say why.
So Ehud was left handed by DEFAULT.
He was incapacitated but he wasn’t inhibited.
He didn’t have a right hand so he excelled with his left!
He didn’t dwell on what he DIDN’T have; he used what he DID have!
That is a key attitude in being used by God!
Lord I may not have what everyone else has but you can have everything I DO HAVE!
Read v19
“I have a secret message for you….
We are suckers for a bit of gossip aren’t we?
As King rose from his seat for Ehud to whisper in his ear, He exposed what the Bible says was a rather large belly, and Ehud gave him the message!
Bible doesn’t spare the detail
Read v22
We are so smart in this generation.
Instead of this instilling a sense of reverence and fear in us,
we read this story and we would rather sit and debate the morality of such violence seemingly sanctioned by God.
Eg.
Man in London at Central Methodist Church
As we take the high moral ground and stand in judgement upon God we seem to be completely oblivious to our own massive contradictions.
Who can explain the fact that you can be fined for destroying a birds egg and yet get government assistance to have an abortion!
Who has any explanation of the kind of world we live in that gives us the right to stand in judgement upon a Holy and Righteous God!
We don’t have what it takes to scrutinise God!
But we have been given a message!
Message of Jesus!
Great preacher Wilbur Chapman once said,
“My advice to pastors is to give up preaching for a few months. Take an outline and spend time in prayer over it and then enter the pulpit and tell the story of Jesus. People have had too much preaching."
I agree with that.
How much preaching do we need?
How many sermons have some of us heard?
What does it take for us to understand that God says,
“I want your heart!”
3.Shamgar – Heart v31
Not saying others didn’t have a heart, but this seems to be all Shamgar had going for him.
Othniel had a great heritage, Ehud had great skill and determination, but Shamgar is just a peasant and when it came to the crunch all he had going for him was an ox goad!
Rough old piece of wood with a sharpened point on one end for prodding animals!
Shamgar ought to give hope to many of us who just think we are so ordinary and have little to offer God.
He was a peasant who took hold of what he had!!
I love the fact that Gideon gets 3 chapters of the Bible and Shamgar gets one verse!
I love the fact that we get all the gory details of Sampson’s life in 4 sordid chapters and yet Shamgar is summed up in one sentence….struck down 600 Philistines with an ox goad
That’s it!
…..he too saved Israel!
He’s up there with them!
He did his bit.
He took his part with the same passion, the same commitment, the same resolve as the more highly fancied judges.
What has God given you to do?
You may not have the spiritual pedigree of an Othniel or the fiery courage of Ehud, but you can be a Shamgar!
Eg.
Never forget when I was 19 years old I worked in Sheet Metal working plant for 6 months
Manager was a Christian and one day I told him I wanted to go to Bible College.
Why?
“I’ve read great stories William Carey, Hudson Taylor and Adoniramp Judson. They inspired me.”
He said
“Remember this, God doesn’t want William Carey to reach this generation he wants Neil Ryan!”
Put your name there!
It might even be the modern equivalent of SHAMGAR!
One of the hallmarks of being human is that we love stories.
What is it that makes a great story?
Some stories are told and forgotten, some stories are told over and over again!
Some stories are so good they are passed from generation to generation!
Now, my grandchildren say to me,
“Tell me more of the things you used to get up to growing up in Wallaroo!’
“Pa, tell us more about how Nanny chose you over hundreds of other good looking boys who were available at the time!”
“Pa, tell us again how far you could kick a football”.
Stories are great!
What makes a great story are the characters.
We want to be able to identify with them.
We want to be like them.
We want to be able to say,
“That’s me!”
Who hasn’t wanted to be a Rocky Balboa?
Underdog fighter with a bad accent but who fights for his girl Adrian!
Who hasn’t wanted to be Richard Geer who rescues Pretty woman from a life on the streets.
Who hasn’t wanted to be Braveheart like William Wallace who fights for country against tyranny and oppression?
Our story tonight has some great characters.
Deborah
Prophetess, a wife and a Judge
Interesting mix in a male dominated, violent world in which this book is written.
“The Book of Judges is one of the most exciting, colorful, and disturbing books of the Bible. It combines stories of political intrigue and assassination, lies and deception, rape and murder, courage and fear, great faith and idolatry, power and greed, sex and suicide, love and death, military victories and civil war.
New Interpreters Bible Commentary
God calls out a woman to take the reigns!
Good start to the story!
Barak
He’s the Bruce Willis of the story. The tough guy who’s called in the fight against the odds.
But he has a dark secret – he’s not so tough!
Read v8
In the end we wonder whether he is in the mould of a “Die Hard” or a “Try Hard”?
Sisera
He is the bad guy.
He is really mean and tough.
He has that air if invincibility about him.
He is captain of the armies of Jabin, who heads up an alliance of Kings around the Sea of Galilee.
Sisera has 900 chariots at his disposal and Judges5:8 Israelites….not a spear or shield was seen among 40,000 in Israel.
We have a seasoned military general with all the latest technology up against a bunch of footsoldiers who fight with sticks and stones!
This guy is a winner!
We hate him already!
Jael
She’s the Joker in the pack.
She comes out of nowhere.
She’s the Alfred Hitchcock twist that you didn’t see coming.
She makes a great first impression but leaves you cold at the end!
Great story not only needs great characters but a great plot! This has a plot that you probably will never forget!!
By the way Judges 4 and 5 are the same story told differently.
Judges 4 – Prose
Judges 5 – Song [Very different to chorus’ we sing today]
v1-3
We can read these verses with such an air of detachment.
Do you know what it’s like when you take your kids shopping and they throw a tantrum and you can’t stop it.
It goes on for a minute and it feels like forever!
You whisper in their ear – if you don’t stop this then you are in really really big trouble!!!!!
They don’t stop!!
Do you know how that feels to have your kids out of control for 2 minutes!!!
What about 20 years?
For 20 years God whispered in their ear and said,
If you keep this up you’re in really really big trouble, and they kept it up!!!
…..God sold them
Let me tell you every parent has thought of that.
In fact I thought of giving them away!!
But God did it!
Reminds me of time years ago when a whole bunch of us were playing cricket at our house and my Dad was umpire.
One of my friends got out and he turned around and hit the stumps with his bat in a little show of temper!
A little while later I was batting and my Dad gave me out caught behind when I didn’t hit it so I turned around and whacked the stumps with my bat.
My Dad walked up, picked up the stumps, bat and ball and said,
“There won’t be any more cricket today!”
I was mortified and I said,
“Dad, that’s not fair. You didn’t call the game off when Wayne hit the stumps!”
He looked at me and said,
“Wayne is not my son!”
Listen to me.
God has expectations of us because we are his children.
That message has gotten lost in our generation where its all been turned around.
Today, we are the ones with great expectations of God. We are the ones who decide what God must do and what sort of God he must be.
If he doesn’t measure up we sell him off!
This story reminds us of the right order of things!
v4-5
This is right out of the blue!
We hardly give it a thought in our day of equal opportunity and anti discrimination laws but this is really one of those God things.
I hate it when preachers make something out of a text that’s not there.
This is not so much a woman thing as God thing!
This is about God doing the unthinkable.
It is about God doing the unexpected.
Throughout history God refuses to fit into our paradigms.
Just when we think we know how God operates, He moves right outside that paradigm and shocks us, even confuses us!
This is God at work!!
·We wouldn’t have picked Moses to deliver Israel – guilty of murder!
·We wouldn’t have picked Abraham and Sarah to have a child that would become Nation – they were nearly 100 years old!
·We wouldn’t have picked David over his older brothers, far more impressive than he, to be the king to Israel.
·We wouldn’t have picked Mary, barely a teenager in a nothing town called nazareth give birth to Messiah.
·We wouldn’t have picked Paul, devout Jew and a violent hater and persecutor of the Church, to become the great missionary to the Gentiles.
·We wouldn’t have picked each other!
Type-casting puts us into a straight jacket!
True in life.
There are some people who will never shake free from it.
If I mention the name Michael Richards – Kraemer
Doesn’t matter what he does for the rest of his life – he will be Kraemer!!
For old timers – Bob Denver = Gilligan
Shipwrecked on an island with The Skipper, Thurston Howell III, Mrs Howell, Ginger, The Professor and Mary Ann Summers
Denver died 3 years ago but was forever thought of as the goofy character he played in a sit com that only lasted 3 years!
This is a story for all of us who have been type-cast!
You’re a woman….
You’re too old…
You’ve got a history….
You know what it’s like.
You mess up at some point and people type cast you forever because of that one time in your life.
You know people think of you a certain way and inside you are screaming out….
“There’s more to me than you know. There’s more to me that you give me credit for!”
Why Deborah?
Because God raised her up for the task!
Because God doesn’t type-cast.
Because God doesn’t put you into a category.
Because God does the unthinkable.
V6-8
Barak hesitates!
He freezes!
There is nothing more dangerous that this!
For a moment he choses passivity!
He says,
I’m not going unless you go!
However you come down on Barak, God calls us to recognize the pull to be passive.
It is lethal!
Eg.
Garden of Eden – story of Satan seducing Eve to eat fruit of tree of knowledge good and evil.
One thing we overlook – where was Adam?
Gen 3:6 …..with her
Adam was passive.
He did nothing. He said nothing.
The result was catastrophic!
Passivity is the great enemy of faith!
Bottom line is this – he agreed to face the odds with Deborah.
He accepted God’s challenge.
We need to give up this notion that faith turns us all into clones.
We need to give up notion that the victorious Christian life has been pre-scripted, and will look the same for every Christian.
God has a place for the bold and the beautiful.
He has a place for the timid and the tame.
But here’s the thing.
Regardless of how you are wired up, will you face the reality of what God is calling you to do.
v12-16
You have to read Judges 5 to find out what happened.
Basically, God sent rain and all the chariots got bogged.
The weather conditions suited the footsoldiers and Sisera’s army was routed – Sisera escaped!
Despite his tentativeness, God still used Barak.
Hebrews 11:32
…..what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell you about Gideon, Barak and Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel…. Who through faith conquered kingdoms…
Barak slips in through the back door into the Hall of faith.
It reminds me that its better to show up late than to not show up at all.
We keep telling ourselves that we missed the chance.
Our time has gone.
Window of opportunity has shut.
We keep thinking we CAN’T because we DIDN’T.
God says
“Better of to show up late than not show at all!”
God doesn’t give up on us like we do!
v17-21
Jael seems such a sweet thing.
She has the gift of hospitality.
Deborah sings about her Judges 5:24-27
One of those songs you would open a worship service with!!
Right after this, Barak alias flawed Bruce Willis shows up and Jael says,
I’ve nailed the man you’re looking for!
You know a great story not only needs great characters and a great plot – but in the end it is all about a great author.
There is Deborah, Barak, Sisera and Jael – but in the end none of these are the focus of this story!
The whole story turns on the words that Deborah spoke to Barak in v14
Go…This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands….has not the Lord gone before you
When we tread stories like this it needs to lead us back to the AUTHOR.
What a God he is!
“When we succeed in focusing on God’s love to the exclusion of his wrath, we unsettle the whole moral universe. We create a God who may be patient, kindly, and compassionate but who is without the will to resist what is wrong, without the will to judge it, and without the power to destroy it. Such a God lacks the moral earnestness to attract our attention, let alone inspire our belief or warrant our worship. Such a God is not the God of the Bible, is not the God of Jesus Christ. (God in the Wasteland, D F Wells, p143)”