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Discipleship 9 Jesus in the Old Testament -- Judges
14 Plays9 days ago
Like! Share! Subscribe! This time we'll be looking at Jesus Christ's interactions with people during the Book of Judges... the highs of Deborah's day and the lows of Samson's... as well as a possible contradiction in the Judges timeline!!! If you'd like the Bible studies that go with these studies, they cost €10. Reach out and let me know. They've got the same theme as the videos, but FAR MORE information. Let's jump in! The content used in this video is intended for educational and informational purposes only. All rights to the images, music, clips, and other materials used belong to their respective owners. I do not claim ownership over any third-party content used. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📘 Order My Books Read faith-filled adventure, fantasy, and science-fiction books to support Christian entertainment. 👉 https://www.amazon.co.uk/GHOST-UNSAID-ONE-PANOPTICON-Triumvirate/dp/1948581647 👉https://www.amazon.co.uk/GHOST-UNSAID-BOOK-RECKONING-Triumvirate/dp/B0CH2H6LSX 🎥 Watch More Videos: Teaching, encouragement, testimony, and biblical truth. 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@brendanthomasmarrett9868/videos 🧢 From Dublin to Cleveland – Official Merch: Wear the message. Support the work. 👉 https://www.bonfire.com/from-dublin-to-cleveland-shirt/?srsltid=AfmBOorvSsSmUI-oAQ9mC4uSVWhkPmZvaMkeouFcmZEM8G3eJAqNyGnT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤝 Support the Ministry: If this ministry blesses you and you’d like to help it grow, please consider becoming a monthly supporter or making a one-off love offering: 💸 PayPal: paypal.me/BrendanMarrett 💵 Revolut: https://revolut.me/brendanthomasmarrett ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📬 Mail / Contact For letters, testimonies, or ministry-related mail: fromdublintocleveland@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to the Book of Judges
00:00:05
Speaker
All righty, okay, so today's teaching is on the book Judges, and and this is one that i strongly encourage you to read from chapter 1 to 21 in your free time, even after this study, and it will just bring it all to life into a whole new and rich way.
00:00:31
Speaker
And the Book Judges i is probably the book in the Bible that first convinced me to lose faith in humanity. used to think that, you know, maybe on some level humans weren't all that bad.
00:00:45
Speaker
And then one day i just read the Book of Judges and thought, oh my goodness, human beings are absolutely nuts and just totally, utterly irredeemable. Hey there, Jamie. How's it going?
00:00:59
Speaker
Hey, Brandon. Great to see you. Looking a lot fresher today. as to be done. New season, new me. um you It's nice. And I see you lost all the weight. Well done to you. Thanks a million. Thank you so much.
00:01:13
Speaker
Good for your health. Good for your mind. kind of realized when I could no longer walk up five flights of stairs. Well, I'll be honest. I couldn't walk up two flights of stairs. I'd stop. And that's when I knew that there was a problem.
00:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, no, give it up. Good work. Thank you. Thank you. was out last night for about two or three hours running around the forests of Toledo and Andrade just to a keep the weight off.
00:01:38
Speaker
Very good. That was my punishment for having a Chinese at the weekend. You have to let yourself have little treats in between. That's why you're working hard. Well, as long as it's little treat and the treat doesn't become the staple diet. That was the problem the first time. You start the next day.
00:01:54
Speaker
That's exactly it. God's mercies are new every day. moving
Metaphorical Giants and Consequences
00:02:00
Speaker
All right. So guys, we looked last week that if you want to take hold of your promised land, your destiny, there are 14 giants standing in your way, just as it was for the ancient Israelites in the Old Testament.
00:02:18
Speaker
The Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Emem and Hittites, Perizzites, Refraeim, Hivites, Amorites, Kianites, Girgashites. I always felt very guilty of saying that one as a kid. Zuzum, Jebusites, and Avum.
00:02:33
Speaker
ah However that's pronounced.
00:02:36
Speaker
Do I expect any of you to remember those? I absolutely, 100%, do not. But instead, in English, it translates fabricators, liars, and forgers.
00:02:50
Speaker
Hunters, captors, one who snares. Religion, antiquity, ancient ways, tradition. Terror.
00:03:01
Speaker
Apathy, squatter, resisting change or urbanization. Giant. Sayers, arrogant, boastful pride. Submission, bend the knee, bold humility.
00:03:17
Speaker
Stranger, roving, impossible to put down roots. downtrodden, depressed, to victim mentality. Bend, twist, distort, ruin, pervert, commit iniquity.
00:03:31
Speaker
They're the meanings of the enemy nations in the Pomegranate.
00:03:38
Speaker
So God instructed the Israelites to take out their enemies or they would be taken out by them. They did a pretty decent job overall.
00:03:49
Speaker
However, There are some giants that they left standing. The Amorites, so sayers, arrogant, boastful pride.
00:04:02
Speaker
The Canaanites, lots of Canaanites, meaning submission. They're gonna make you submit. They're gonna make you bow the knee, very false humility.
00:04:15
Speaker
And the Jebusites, before Jerusalem was called Jerusalem, it was called Jebus. think there was an episode of The Simpsons where Homer says, you know, save me Jebus or something. Jebus was Jerusalem. and And the Jebusites were the villains who occupied what became Jerusalem. And that means downtrodden, depressed, and a victim mentality.
00:04:44
Speaker
And if you go forth in your journey through life, in your journey with Jesus, and you walk around with a victim mentality where everyone's always out to get you and it's never fair and it's never your fault and everyone hates you and blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:05:00
Speaker
And either you're surrounded by people who are incredibly boastful and proud and want you to submit, or you adopt these mentalities where you think you're the bees' needs, you think you're so amazing, or you feign humility.
00:05:23
Speaker
Basically, every word of your mouth is a lie. You pretend to be humble because you're looking for people to tickle your ego. One of two things going happen. You're either not going to achieve what God has for you, or you'll get it, but you will not keep it.
00:05:43
Speaker
So this is something that God's people left standing in their promised lands. And because they did, they did not fulfill the mandate that was on their life to take hold of the promised land completely.
00:06:01
Speaker
So therefore, in Judges chapter two, Jesus came to them and he was not particularly happy.
00:06:12
Speaker
Judges two, Verses one to five says, the angel of the Lord, now again, this is not a normal angel. It's a capital A angel, a messenger. This is Jesus, God with skin on.
00:06:27
Speaker
Went up from Gilgal to Bocum. So he's traveling. Maybe he's walking, maybe he's riding a horse, but don't And said, I brought you up out of Egypt, where they had been enslaved for about a century.
00:06:44
Speaker
and led you into the land that I swore to give your forefathers. So I told your ancestors that they would get this land. They chose not to walk in I told you you would get it.
00:06:57
Speaker
And now you're here.
00:06:59
Speaker
I said, I'll never break my covenant with you. And you shall not make a covenant with the people of its land. But you shall break down their demonic altars.
00:07:12
Speaker
That was the instruction. That was the brief. That the protocol. Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now, therefore, i tell you that I will not drive them out before you.
00:07:29
Speaker
There will be thorns in your sides and their demonic gods will be a snare to you. Because you left the enemy standing, Because you left the very things that want to destroy you standing and in your way.
00:07:47
Speaker
Well, they're going to. You sow a seed, you reap a harvest. And if the seed you sow is disobedience, the harvest you reap is a consequence of disobedience.
00:08:03
Speaker
If the seed you sow is apathy, well then the harvest that you grow will be the consequences of your indifference.
00:08:15
Speaker
If you make covenants with your enemies, the forces manipulating and pushing your enemies are gonna take over you.
00:08:29
Speaker
gonna be in captive to captivity to them.
00:08:34
Speaker
And when the angel of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud. I'm sure they cried. They had reason to. And they called that place Bokhm, which means weepers, criers.
00:08:49
Speaker
And there they offered sacrifices to the Lord, animal sacrifices, grain sacrifices. So they tolerated wickedness.
00:09:00
Speaker
And therefore, wickedness would be their portion. And that is why it is so, so important for us that, let's say, even when we sit under the word on a Wednesday or a Sunday, whenever you have your Bible time, that we're not just hearers of the word, but that we're doers of the word, that we put it into practice.
00:09:24
Speaker
We don't just get fat on the word of God. We actually exercise. We put it into practice. We mobilize. Think of obeying the word of God like being on a spiritual treadmill.
00:09:39
Speaker
So because the people left these demonic gods standing, demons are not neutral. They understand how important a human soul is.
00:09:52
Speaker
People fight to control a soul.
00:09:57
Speaker
Angels fight to protect souls.
00:10:02
Speaker
Demons fight to kill souls. And God sacrificed Jesus to buy sinful souls back for himself. A soul in the spirit realm is very expensive commodity.
00:10:16
Speaker
Humans want to control it. Angels want to protect it. Demons want to kill it. God sent Jesus to die so we could buy it back.
00:10:28
Speaker
So demons are not neutral. They do not sit there saying and doing nothing. And they snared the people of Israel.
00:10:40
Speaker
Baal demons in particular.
00:10:44
Speaker
Baal demons... are demons that they would often have a bovine or cow-like appearance. You still see them in the world today, maybe the Commonwealth Games, when they had that big Aussie the bull thing, and the witches performed ceremony around it.
00:11:01
Speaker
mean, that's a Baal demon. At the French Olympic Games last year, they had statues of bulls, you know, um Apis, who's the yeah the golden calf bull, am who the he's up to the Israelites worshipped when Moses began the Ten Commandments. and They also had Baal demons there too.
00:11:24
Speaker
What the Israelites began to do was have babies, create idols, demonic idols, out of metal. put their babies on the metal idol and set the idol on fire, burning the baby alive.
00:11:45
Speaker
Or they would create demonic idols of demons whose arms are outstretched, and then they would put their babies on the demon's arm.
00:11:58
Speaker
There would be a hollow hole in the chest of the idol They would pull a lever, the demons arms would up, and the baby would roll into the hole and be set on fire.
00:12:13
Speaker
And then they had instrumentalists, demonic worshippers, who would play drums to drown out the sound of the babies screaming.
00:12:25
Speaker
That is
Worship Practices and Judges' Roles
00:12:26
Speaker
how they worshipped the Baal demons.
00:12:31
Speaker
Baal was seen to have a consort, a lover. Now, demons don't actually love each other. Demons don't have any love in them. But in the story, they said it was his lover.
00:12:44
Speaker
And this was called Asherah. Or Asherah. Ishtar. Different names, same demon. And I could go into lot about this one, but I'll save that for another night.
00:13:00
Speaker
um But Asherah was the goddess of transgenderism. Her priests were women who were told to dress up as men and were given a spear to act as a counterfeit penis.
00:13:18
Speaker
Her priestesses were boys whose private parts were mutilated. They were castrated.
00:13:29
Speaker
so that the boys always spoke like this with a squeaky voice. And then people would put female clothes on the boys and make these children serve as female shrine prostitutes.
00:13:46
Speaker
And then, of course, they would be molested. And that is how Baal and Asherah were worshipped in the days of Judges. That is how they were worshipped even when Jesus was on the earth.
00:14:01
Speaker
It was Christianity in the first century AD that actually pushed the worship of these two to the periphery. um But Asherah was seen as a goddess who would steal images from other gods and deities And in the iconography, the artwork, um she stole the rainbow from Yahweh, from our god.
00:14:27
Speaker
Even if you look back centuries and centuries ago, over a millennium ago, you will see um iconography and artwork of her with Yahweh's rainbow.
00:14:39
Speaker
So, effectively, um you would say that you know, being a goddess of transgenderism and seeing Yahweh's rainbow, kind of makes you question certain political movements in a the twentywent s shall we say.
00:14:59
Speaker
It kind of gives you an idea as to what spirits are operating behind the LGBTQ123 PS5 HDMI whatever letters they want to add and movement.
00:15:14
Speaker
um It's there very much in honor of that demonic goddess.
00:15:22
Speaker
lot people think that they just woke up one day and suddenly the world had gone nuts. No. That's what's been happening. This is the beginning. There's nothing new under the sun.
00:15:35
Speaker
Now people get confused about the chronology of Judges and how things happen in it when they happen. And it makes sense. I understand it. For instance, Judges chapters 1 to kind of makes sense. They seem to follow a very natural flow.
00:15:58
Speaker
But actually Judges 17 happens first. You might be thinking, why? but why Why is this necessary?
00:16:10
Speaker
It's because it's broken up thematically. It's not broken in chronology, first, second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh. It's broken up thematically. um And the theme of chapters 17 21
00:16:26
Speaker
is on moral degradation. Watching people behave at the absolute worst. Watching people behave worse than animals.
00:16:41
Speaker
So for instance, in Judges chapter 17, the story is about a man who steals from his mother.
00:16:53
Speaker
He steals her silver. Imagine those of you at kids, they steal your silverware. And then he came along. Now, she was right. Obviously ticked off. Someone stole her silver. So she was like, I declare a curse on whoever stole my silver.
00:17:09
Speaker
He comes like, hello, mother dearest. It was me. And she's like, oh, OK, well, well, that's fine, I suppose. i don't want to curse you. But then she thinks to herself, hmm, I've already put hex or a vex witchcraft on the person who stole my silver. so what will I get them to do? Hmm.
00:17:33
Speaker
So she says, aha, make a shrine idol to Yahweh, something that the Ten Commandments God says not to do.
00:17:44
Speaker
Okay, this is not something God would ever prove of. So she says, make a silver idol. And he's like, okay. So he makes this demon out of silver. and And then he gets his kids to be his priests to the demon.
00:18:04
Speaker
And then a Levite. So there were 12 tribes in Israel. and The Levites were supposed to be the priest class. A Levite comes along and this guy is supposed to know the Bible.
00:18:16
Speaker
That's his job. Because Jehovah said teach the word of God, to tell people when they're believing in theological nonsense and to point them back to the Lord.
00:18:28
Speaker
He finds a Levite and says, would you like to be my priest too? And I'll look after I'll give you roof over your head and I'll give you some food. And he's like, yeah, okay.
00:18:39
Speaker
And then next thing, this full on cult begins in this house over the silver idol.
00:18:49
Speaker
And then if that's not bad enough, things get worse from chapters 17 onwards, especially from 18 onwards, beg your pardon.
00:19:02
Speaker
In chapter 18, it starts off with a couple. There's a husband and his concubine. And she commits adultery.
00:19:13
Speaker
The husband lets her go home. And then after a while, you know, he kind of misses his concubine. So he goes to her home and says, you know, come back with me.
00:19:26
Speaker
But he is seen by a group of men who try to gang rape him. He says, oh no, please, not me. oh And then another guy Firstly, the other guy tries to offer off his own daughters.
00:19:45
Speaker
When that doesn't appease them, they the wicked crowd, this other guy grabs the first man's concubine and throws her to the gang rapists, who have their way with her all night long while both men are inside the house having a good night's sleep.
00:20:06
Speaker
With the last bit of energy she has, she comes crawling to threshold, hold onto to the threshold and dies. Her husband, very unsympathetically, gets up after a very good night's sleep and says, get up, it's time to go, no remorse whatsoever, no care, and no concern.
00:20:27
Speaker
And when he sees that she is not moving, he chops her up into 12 pieces censor all across the country in the post. A civil war breaks out and all the men from one tribe, well, just about all the men, are slaughtered and butchered.
00:20:45
Speaker
And in order to give them the survivors' wives, they kidnap a group women. The whole thing is ab absolutely nuts. It's heinous.
00:20:56
Speaker
You read it and you just think, wow. That level of evil and depravity is what exists within the human race in a relationship aside from God, in a life apart from God, in a life in which God means absolutely nothing. He's just a byword or they have very limited awareness and just do the exact opposite of what he's commanded. It's tragically sad.
00:21:28
Speaker
Judges has some great heroes. But my goodness, you have to wade through a lot of human filth before you get to them. And even the heroes aren't always all that great. They're all they sinners as well.
00:21:41
Speaker
So that's where Judges begins. It starts off with chapter 17, then to 21. And then you start reading in chapter 1.
00:21:54
Speaker
through 16, and then into 1 Samuel. So the chronology confuses people, and and we know for a fact that's how you read it. Because Moses, you know, we spent three weeks looking at Moses, his grandson is part of that story with the woman, the rape, and getting chopped into 12 And Moses' brother's grandson is part of the story in and Chapter 17. So in order for them to be alive.
00:22:28
Speaker
Those chapters need to happen first. OK, so sad chapters, scary chapters, cringy, all good, uncomfortable chapters. But it just goes to show what a life set apart from Jesus can fall into.
00:22:48
Speaker
And remember, of all the nations on Earth, This is the nation that God has called to be his own chosen people. And even they are fallen privy to this nonsense because they are worshipping demons.
00:23:03
Speaker
So. God has one of two options. He can say, screw them and just let them perish. Or he can say. going to rescue them.
00:23:16
Speaker
And because he is the Lord. Thankfully, he chooses option number two. Otherwise, the Bible would be a very short book.
00:23:25
Speaker
So he sets up leaders, called judges, to rule the nation, to lead the nation. It doesn't mean that they're arbiters of legal court cases in the law, okay? It's not that kind of judge.
00:23:40
Speaker
um It's that they would judge what was right. They would judge God's opinion and lead the nation in righteousness. There were people who could be very militaristic, military leaders.
00:23:53
Speaker
And sometimes there were people who just gave good counsel. So, for instance, the first judge he called was Otniel, who conquered a Canaanite city.
00:24:06
Speaker
There was also Ehud, who killed Eglon, the king of Moab, and defeats of the Moabites. there was Shamgar, who used an ox goad to kill 600 Philistines, an enemy nation, who had had invaded them.
00:24:24
Speaker
There was Deborah, who we'll look at in a few minutes. She convinced a man named Barak to lead an army to victory against the evil Sisera's troops.
00:24:36
Speaker
And Barak was told by God to fight against the evil Sisera, But he said he wouldn't do it unless Deborah came with him. And God said, okay, well, then the glory is going to to a woman. Fair enough.
00:24:51
Speaker
Then there was Gideon. ah bit of a scaredy cat, but that's okay. He found his courage. And he led 300 men against And he won.
00:25:03
Speaker
and he won
00:25:07
Speaker
There was Tola and there was Jair. We know very little about them. We just know that Tola reigned for 23. the way, she wasn't a king. he He led the country for 23 years and Jair for 22. Then there was Jephthah who defeated the Ammonites.
00:25:26
Speaker
He made a very strange bargain with the Lord and that I won't go into tonight, but ah totally and utterly unnecessary with very curious results. Then it was Ibsen, who ruled for seven years.
00:25:41
Speaker
Elon, for ten years. Abdon, for eight years. There was Samson, who we will look at a little bit later today, used a junkie... Junkie.
00:25:55
Speaker
I spent too much time in Dublin City Centre. A donkey's jawbone. And he killed 1,000 of his Philistine enemies with it. um But he was...
00:26:06
Speaker
He had a problem, and his problem was his libido. He would not get under control. And he gave it away to all the wrong women.
00:26:15
Speaker
And then there was Samuel, and who was the last of the judges and the first of the prophets. And he's the same man who would anoint King David. So you might think, why was it necessary for Israel to have so many different judges?
00:26:35
Speaker
And the reality is, is because no matter how often God rescued them, with an act of their will, they kept choosing to jump into bed with the devil.
00:26:51
Speaker
They would give themselves over to sin.
00:26:55
Speaker
They would be invaded by the enemy.
00:26:59
Speaker
They would cry out for help. God would raise up a judge. who would deliver them, who would rescue them, who would help them, who would restore them. And then the cycle would repeat.
00:27:14
Speaker
They would give the middle finger to God all over again.
00:27:19
Speaker
They would adopt the evil ways of wicked nations, who also hated them. You know, evil people aren't friends.
00:27:29
Speaker
These nations despised them. but they gave themselves over to the wills of the demonic gods. These nations would invade them because vulnerability and commonality go hand in hand.
00:27:47
Speaker
Commonality is vulnerability. What you have in common with the enemy makes you vulnerable to the enemy.
Cycle of Sin and Deliverance
00:27:55
Speaker
And then the enemy would invade them, would take over, would oppress them,
00:28:02
Speaker
take their resources, take their lives, force them into slavery, and into forced labor. They would cry out to the Lord, he would raise up a judge who would deliver them, and the cycle just kept on repeating.
00:28:19
Speaker
Last week's Story of Joshua is a very exciting book, and there's so much in it. that could just put a smile on your face, watching God's people rising up against insurmountable odds and taking their destiny and by the horns.
00:28:37
Speaker
Judges is the exact opposite. Judges is watching not a nation cementing itself as the powerhouse God wanted it to be.
00:28:49
Speaker
It's watching people's ego and watching people's false humility, and watching people's victim mentality, and watching people's hatred of the Lord's covenant, Lord's commands, absolutely derailed their lives.
00:29:06
Speaker
Very, very sad. A very disturbing book in a lot of ways, just to see what people are capable of. But if you're struggling with addiction, maybe you keep on doing the same thing again and again and again,
00:29:21
Speaker
Perhaps you'd find great encouragement from judges. You'd say, okay, God, you know you helped them and they chose to mess up. You helped them. They chose to do wrong. You helped them. They chose to throw it all away. You helped them. They chose throw their progress away. You helped them. They chose to jump back into bed with whatever it was.
00:29:40
Speaker
But you were still faithful. You were still true. We can be encouraged by that too.
00:29:48
Speaker
But even when people are faithless, God's faithful.
00:29:53
Speaker
Now, I'm not going to go into all the judges' careers, but i if you want the 10-year-old Bible study, it's about 30 pages long, and I go into a heck of a lot detail than I will today.
00:30:07
Speaker
But for today, I'm just going to two of the judges. And one of them is Deborah. Let's get some female representation here. um Deborah's story is told in Judges chapter five, verses six to seven.
00:30:27
Speaker
And it's very similar to the world that we're living in today.
00:30:34
Speaker
Judges five, six to seven says, in the days of Shamgar, son of Aneth, in the days of Jael, she's a great woman, we'll see her in a couple of minutes. The roads were abandoned.
00:30:49
Speaker
Travelers took to winding paths. Village life in Israel ceased. Some translations say warriors ceased. Both are true.
00:31:01
Speaker
Ceased until I, Deborah, arose. Arose a mother in Israel. What is she talking about? She's describing days of lockdown.
00:31:13
Speaker
Days of shutdown. Days much like for us 2020, 2021. No one was outside their houses. People were inside their house, cowering with fear.
00:31:27
Speaker
Shivering. Shuddering. You went down the roads, you didn't see anybody. You went for a drive, there was no traffic.
00:31:36
Speaker
No one was to be seen. Village life stopped. Warriors, the fight in people. by and large, came to a halt.
00:31:50
Speaker
In Judges 5, 8-9, when they chose new gods, demons, war came to the city gates, and not a shield or spear was seen.
00:32:04
Speaker
Among 40,000 in Israel, people gave up the fight. They threw in the towel. They just said, you know what? I can't do this anymore. What's the point? What's the point in fighting? We're going to lose anyway.
00:32:19
Speaker
My heart is with Israel's princes, with the willing volunteers among the people. Praise the Lord. So Deborah had such a heart for those who would fight, who would stand up to oppression.
00:32:33
Speaker
But the vast majority gave up. They submitted. They bowed the knee. There was no fight. No stamina in them.
00:32:45
Speaker
They were nowhere to be found. There was no courage. No bravery. And the reality is... That's very similar to the world that we're in today.
00:32:59
Speaker
um I would say a lot of Christians had tagged out from the spiritual fight in the 2000s or the 2010s.
00:33:13
Speaker
What the lockdown did was it gave them an excuse to tag out. It gave them an excuse to hide a away, to give up the fight, to say, oh, well, you know, we can't because the government says so.
00:33:28
Speaker
And very many of them when the country is all reopened, we're still nowhere to be found. You could say that in just about any congregation, whether it's a physical one, whether it's online, whether it's a revival event, whether it's at a ministry.
00:33:46
Speaker
By and large, you look for the men. And, well, you kind of keep on looking. but but Very hard to find them. The women are an abundant supply.
00:33:56
Speaker
um Yes, we we always want more women to love and serve Jesus. course we do. but We look for the men and it's tough. Not many of them are willing to step out and stand up, even for Jesus.
00:34:11
Speaker
What happened in Deborah's day? The same is true in ours.
00:34:21
Speaker
But even if men will not stand up to evil, God does not just need a human spiritual army. He also has an actual spiritual army.
00:34:34
Speaker
And in Judges 520, it says, from the heavens, the stars fought. What's a star? It's a heavenly body. And a heavenly body could be like, you a big ball of gas.
00:34:48
Speaker
Or it could refer it to warring angels, the heavenly host. That's who it's talking about. From the heavens, the stars fought. From their courses, they fought against Sisera.
00:35:03
Speaker
So during this battle, when Deborah was leading the nation of Israel against Sisera's army, heaven was also fighting alongside them.
00:35:16
Speaker
It was as much a natural war as it was a spiritual war.
00:35:23
Speaker
And God will also use nature to his advantage as well.
00:35:30
Speaker
In Judges 5.22, it says, Then thundered the horse's hoofs, galloping, galloping to his mighty steeds.
00:35:40
Speaker
And verse 21, The river Kishin swept them away. The age-old river, the river Kishin, march on my soul, be strong.
00:35:55
Speaker
that's a kitchen in particular, where God, out of season, supernaturally flooded the river, and the river washed many of Sisera's army away.
00:36:13
Speaker
However, Jesus was displeased. Jesus makes a cameo appearance in Judges 5, 23. Now again, he comes in the form of the angel of the Lord, the messenger of the Lord, one of the most common names he used for himself in the Old Testament.
00:36:32
Speaker
Curse Miraz, said the angel of the Lord, Jesus. Curse its people bitterly, because they did not come to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty.
00:36:45
Speaker
So, either Miraz, the people of that town, were told, stand up for your nation, fights against the evil invaders, take a stand in these days for those who cannot fight for themselves. or maybe they made a treaty with Sisera.
00:37:07
Speaker
Maybe they made a covenant with the enemy. We don't know. ah But what we do know is Jesus was not one bit happy with them. And if Jesus is declaring a curse on someone, you know they've really ticked him off.
00:37:25
Speaker
So what actually did happen to Sisera? Well, in Judges 5, 24 to 27, it most blessed of women be Jael.
00:37:37
Speaker
That's her that you see there, the tent peg in the picture. The wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women. So God's very, very impressed with her.
00:37:51
Speaker
Sisera came to her. He asked for water. And she gave him milk. In a bowl fit for nobles, she brought him curdled milk.
00:38:02
Speaker
So she appeared to be showing him loyalty. She appeared to be on his side. She appeared to be um helping the enemy. But it was all an illusion.
00:38:14
Speaker
All part of her crafty plan.
00:38:20
Speaker
Her hand reached for the tent peg. What is a tent peg? It's a big nail. Her right hand for the workman's hammer. He struck Sisera.
00:38:31
Speaker
She crushed his head. She shattered and pierced his temple. At her feet he sank. He fell, there he lay. At her feet he sank, he fell.
00:38:43
Speaker
Where he sank, there he fell. and case you didn't catch the first time, so the three times, dead. So basically, this woman actually saves her whole nation.
00:38:55
Speaker
With her left hand, she grabs a tent peg, right hand hammer, badoosh.
00:39:03
Speaker
Spills his brains all over the floor.
00:39:08
Speaker
It sounds grisly, look, these were days of war. You do what you have to do.
00:39:15
Speaker
But there's a picture of Jesus in here. One, the fact that she's a tent peg, which is effectively a nail. And how did Jesus defeat evil? By being nailed to a cross, right?
00:39:28
Speaker
But then also, in Genesis 3, 15, which we looked at in episode 2 of this series, Jesus prophesied to Eve, And I will put enmity, discord, war between you and the woman,
00:39:47
Speaker
So he's talking to the devil here. And between your offspring and hers, the Antichrist and Jesus.
00:39:56
Speaker
He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. So basically the enemy will attack Jesus on the foot, which happened. The nail went through Jesus' foot.
00:40:12
Speaker
But Jesus would crush the enemy's head. Well, where was Jesus crucified? Mount Calvary, Golgotha, the place of the skull.
00:40:27
Speaker
And 1 Timothy 2.15 talks about women, but she will be saved through the childbearing, the childbearing of Jesus, if they remain in faith and love and holiness with sound mindedness.
00:40:44
Speaker
So there are times in the Old Testament where God would use women to crush the head of evil people. There are two examples in Judges. Today we're just gonna look at one.
00:40:54
Speaker
The other one is in the Bible study. um And they were pictures, not the full manifestation of the Genesis 3.15 prophecy, but pictures, prophetic narratives, prophetic pictures.
00:41:09
Speaker
to show that history was on the right track, to show that things were developing in a very good direction. Think of Tahira Jael hammering Sisera's head, or you might have David hit Goliath with a stone in the forehead.
00:41:30
Speaker
um This was not the fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis 315, but it's a picture of us prophetic picture, a foreshadow, little, little nod.
00:41:45
Speaker
All right, then the second judge that we're going to look at is the most famous one. For all the wrong reasons. And this one is named Samson.
00:41:59
Speaker
Now in Judges 13, Jesus appeared to a man named Manoah and his wife, who was barren.
00:42:14
Speaker
Didn't have children, she was infertile.
00:42:18
Speaker
Jesus appeared first of all to her, to the mother, and he prophesied over her that she would have a child. She told her husband. Jesus prophesied to both of them.
00:42:34
Speaker
It starts off, they describe him as a man with like the face of an angel. But he was awesome. There was something amazing, but also so kind of terrifying about him.
00:42:46
Speaker
And eventually there comes a point when they realize, okay, hang on. This is actually the Lord himself. This is not an angel. this is not just normal This is actually God with skin on. So they light they light up, they set on fire, the sacrifice to the Lord.
00:43:04
Speaker
And next thing, Jesus flies and they're like supermans into the sky in the flame of the burnt sacrifice. And they're like, oh my gosh.
00:43:15
Speaker
So Manoah is like, we've just seen God face to face. We're going to die. And his wife is like, chill out, man. If God wanted to kill us, he would have killed us and he wouldn't have told us we'd have a baby. but but Now, God the Father,
Samson's Story and Downfall
00:43:31
Speaker
his holiness and perfection would absolutely have obliterated reality and the whole human race.
00:43:40
Speaker
But that's why Jesus would come instead, God with skin on. Because humans had brought the problem of sin into the world. So it was going to take a human to take sin out of the world.
00:43:55
Speaker
And while people could not really cope with Father God's holiness, because we lived in darkness, and God's light and light kills darkness, Jesus would comb with skin on because it was a form that we could understand.
00:44:12
Speaker
It was a form that we could sympathize with, a form that we could relate to. So Jesus flies up into the sky. But he tells them, this boy you're going to have.
00:44:26
Speaker
I'm going to use him. He's got a great destiny. going use him to take out the Philistine army, your enemies. But don't cut the hair on his head. He's a Nazarite. Leave the hair on his head.
00:44:42
Speaker
Years passed and their baby boy, Samson, basically became the Bible's Hercules. Very strong man. Now, he would braid his hair, so his hair was long, probably full of dandruff, but, you know, that's okay.
00:45:00
Speaker
And I'm talking to him like mine, hence why I just, like, propped it all the weekend.
00:45:08
Speaker
Samson, what do I say about Samson? Samson loved women. Too many women, and all the wrong women. ah He would look to the Philistines,
00:45:22
Speaker
God-haters. The worshippers of Baal. The worshippers of Ashira. They also had a demon called Dagon, who a lot of people believe was like a marine spirit. and Kind of looked a bit like a fish man. And and have they had this evolution idea where people came from fish or from the sea or some nonsense
00:45:46
Speaker
Samson did not look to Israelite women, God-loving women. He would always look to Philistine women. That was a big part of this problem. It was really sad story where he gets engaged to a woman and one thing leads to another at the wedding party and she ends up marrying his best friend.
00:46:12
Speaker
Ouch. Serious. Yeah, it was a Then there are times when he visits prostitutes. Samson is what you call maybe a man of gods, but not a godly man.
00:46:28
Speaker
He was a man of God insofar as he believed in gods. He served God imperfectly to an extent. But if you were looking for godly character,
00:46:43
Speaker
it was not to be found. If you wanted to see the heart of Father God, you should probably be looking elsewhere.
00:46:53
Speaker
And this is the one who's the judge of Israel. This is the spiritual leader of Israel. And he's totally and utterly compromised.
00:47:06
Speaker
Emotionally incontinent. Sexually compromised. And just makes all their own decisions. And then eventually, he meets the most famous of his conquests, his lovers, Delilah.
00:47:25
Speaker
Delilah is also Philistine.
00:47:35
Speaker
Delilah is told by the other Philistines to find out what the secret of his strength is, of his Herculean strength How is it that he's so strong? How is it that he's so able to defeat lions and Philistines and groups of men and yada yada yada?
00:47:56
Speaker
And so, you know, they they go to bed one night. nice zoom and their conversation begins. And she's like, oh, darling, what is the source of your strength?
00:48:07
Speaker
And he lies to her. So she arranges for Philistines to come. do what the lie was, and to try to apprehend him once and for all.
00:48:21
Speaker
Obviously, he lied to her, so, you know, he gets off scot-free, he's fine. And Lila does not say, oh darling, I'm so sorry I tried to kill you. She says, how dare you lie to me, I thought you loved me.
00:48:36
Speaker
i mean, there's emotional abuse, and then there's downright stupidity. Then another night, she's like, darling, please tell me the secret of your super strength. And again, he lies to her.
00:48:47
Speaker
So yeah you kind of think that was the first time, you know, he would have raised his eyebrows. But no. So she does exactly what he told her. And she's like, oh, Samson, the Philistines are upon you.
00:49:01
Speaker
Save yourself. And he does it with relative ease. And then a third time, she's like, okay, he's really embarrassing me. Samson, you keep on lying to me. I just want to sort your strength so my people can kill you. Please tell me.
00:49:16
Speaker
And he lies again. It's it's embarrassing. But the fourth time, she wears him down with her incessant nagging to the point where he would sooner be dead than listen to her one more time.
00:49:32
Speaker
but There's a Bible verse that says as a nagging wife is worse than a dripping tap. And it's better to sleep on a roof than share a house with a nagging woman.
00:49:45
Speaker
Hilarious. Spooker proverbs. So funny. But that's exactly how Samson felt. To the dripping tap, wrecking his head. And in the end, he just says, sorry, in the end, she says, and tell me, for goodness sakes, you will give me the secret.
00:50:02
Speaker
And he says, it's my hair. He said I'm an Azurite. No razor has ever touched my hair. My hair has never been cut. That's how I have super strength. Holy Spirit lives within me. He's empowered me to fight against Lord's enemies so long as I'm obedient. I don't know why I'm tapping at my hair given that I did the exact opposite. I shaved mine.
00:50:22
Speaker
But you know I'm just pretending it's long. And Delilah shares this. When the Philistines she cuts his hair. And she's like, oh, Samson, the enemy is here. Whatever you want to do.
00:50:39
Speaker
and this time he is bound with ropes, beaten to a pulp. And they tear the eyes out of their socket. Totally and utterly blind him. He can't fight back.
00:50:54
Speaker
They drag him to the temple of the demonic god Dagon, their god. And they chain him up. and to do menial labor.
00:51:06
Speaker
And then they drag him out before them to be a jester, to be a performer. The whole thing is one great performance, a humiliation ritual.
00:51:19
Speaker
He asks a servant boy to help him stand up and put his two hands along the pillars for balance. And he prays, oh God, If you give me the strength one last time to destroy my enemies.
00:51:36
Speaker
Oh, my goodness, will I do it. And the Lord regrows his hair. Gives him strength one last time. And he's still blind. His hair has come back. His eyesight hasn't.
00:51:49
Speaker
And he pushes against the pillars of the temple. Commits suicide. And kills three thousand of his enemies.
00:52:02
Speaker
And again, this is supposed to be a leader of God's people, but totally and utterly compromised. Now, what we do see is Samson's story are a lot of pictures or nods to Jesus, not the actual Jesus, apart from the miracle birth, and but we see a lot of similarities.
00:52:29
Speaker
In Judges 13.3,
00:52:32
Speaker
Samson was conceived by a miraculous birth. Now, his parents still had to have sex with each other, but the Lord miraculously opened her womb. And we know that Jesus was born in the Immaculate Conception, where Mary got pregnant without ever having slept with Joseph.
00:52:50
Speaker
In Judges 13, 7, we're told Samson is a Nazarite and Jesus was a Nazarene.
00:53:00
Speaker
Samson was betrayed by his own people to foreigners, the Philistines, in Judges 15, 11 to 13. And Jesus was betrayed by his own people, the religious ones, and into the hands of the Roman Empire.
00:53:19
Speaker
In Judges 16, 3, Samson gets very upset the wedding feast, the wedding that never was. And he carries two doorposts.
00:53:30
Speaker
And Jesus carried two posts to cross the vertical post to connect us to God and the horizontal post to connect all people together.
00:53:49
Speaker
In Judges 16, five, Samson was betrayed for silver. and Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver at the price of a a slave by Judas Iscariot, his friend.
00:54:06
Speaker
In Judges 1617, Samson's head was shaved. And when Jesus being tortured, the hair was torn from his face. His beard was plucked, with ripped from his cheeks and his chin.
00:54:23
Speaker
In Judges 1620, when Samson sinned and lost his hair, we're told the Lord turned away from him. And when Jesus was on the cross, he became sin for us. He literally became the epitome, the personification of all human evil. And Father God couldn't look. was too disgusting.
00:54:43
Speaker
Imagine if the news were showing ISIS beheading Christians. What do people do? You look away. That's what Father God had to do.
00:54:54
Speaker
In Judges 1625, the Philistines made Samson perform for them in a humiliation ritual. And the religious leaders mocked Jesus as well.
00:55:05
Speaker
Like it was all one grand performance.
00:55:11
Speaker
How did Jesus defeat evil? Arms outstretched on the cross. How did Samson bring down that temple on those 3000 Philistines?
00:55:24
Speaker
arms outstretched, pushing the pillars.
00:55:31
Speaker
And the temple of the demonic god Dagon fell on him and crushed his 3,000 enemies. And with Jesus, his temple, his body was destroyed.
00:55:43
Speaker
And then Herod the Great, or the not-so-great, and He'd built a temple of God in Jerusalem, um and there was a great earthquake, and the curtain of that temple was torn in two.
00:55:57
Speaker
That curtain came before the most holy of places, the most holy of holies, and that was a place where only the high priest could go to communion with God. In tearing it, that was God saying, there is no barrier, there is no distinction.
00:56:13
Speaker
All people can come to me now boldly, boldly before the throne of grace to find help in their time of need.
00:56:38
Speaker
All right, so they're the two judges that we're gonna look at today. Again, if you do want more information on the Judges, there is the Bible study available for 10 euros. Just let me know on WhatsApp.
00:56:52
Speaker
But for the time we got left, we're going to look at something chronology related, a little bit different regarding the Book of Judges. I said earlier, a lot of people are confused with the chronology. One part of it is because the last few chapters happened at the start, which totally makes sense.
00:57:13
Speaker
and Another thing that really confuses people is 1 Kings 6, verse 1.
00:57:24
Speaker
This was written and set a long time, centuries, after what happened in the Judges. It says, in the 480th year, after the Israelites came up out of Egypt, which we looked out at with Moses a few weeks ago,
00:57:43
Speaker
In the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord. Now it says this was in the 480th year, so that means years had been totally completed.
00:58:01
Speaker
um i know it's said four hundred and nine and a bit basically
00:58:13
Speaker
Acts 13, the New Testament now, Acts 13, 17 to 22, describes the same period of time, but it throws as spanner in the works.
00:58:32
Speaker
It says, the God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors. He made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt. Now, they were slaves, but they left with lots of gold.
00:58:46
Speaker
With mighty power, he led them out of that country, the plagues. For about 40 years, he endured their conduct in the wilderness, and he did endure because they wrecked his head.
00:58:59
Speaker
And he overthrew seven nations in Canaan, giving their land to his people as their inheritance. He divided up the land and said, okay, you guys get this, you guys get this, you guys get this.
00:59:13
Speaker
All this took about 450 years. After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.
00:59:25
Speaker
Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled 40 years. After removing Saul, he made David their king.
00:59:39
Speaker
God testified concerning him, I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.
00:59:52
Speaker
So 1st King 6.1 gives the overview. 480 years. Well, 479 bit. 13, 17-22 gives eighty years wow four hundred and seventy nine in a bit
01:00:06
Speaker
ax thirteen seventeen to twenty two gives us a fuller picture. Breaks it down in a lot more detail. So far, so good.
01:00:19
Speaker
Now let's complicate it a little bit.
01:00:29
Speaker
We're told here in the middle, all this took about 450 years. Now if you consider just how many things are mentioned here,
01:00:41
Speaker
Before you even get to the likes of Sol. Ruling for 40 years. And David's reign. And David was also king for over 40 years.
01:00:55
Speaker
You start to think... The mathematics are looking very, very unlikely. So let's break it down.
01:01:09
Speaker
When they left Egypt... That was the starting point. Okay. So for 40 years he endured them in the wilderness. That's 40 years.
01:01:23
Speaker
He gave them their inheritance in the promised land. He divided up the land after seven years of invading.
01:01:34
Speaker
Then we're told here 450 years. So that's pretty obvious.
01:01:40
Speaker
Until the time of Samuel the prophet, that's 29 years.
01:01:46
Speaker
Saul ruled for 40 years.
01:01:51
Speaker
And David ruled for 40 and a half years. And the construction of the temple began in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, but really three and a half years into it.
01:02:06
Speaker
So let's add all of these up together. 40 years wilderness. 7 years conquering the 450 years under the judges until Samuel. And that 450, okay?
01:02:22
Speaker
That's 8 years under the Kushan Rishateim, which was an invasion. That's 40 years under Othniel, judge.
01:02:34
Speaker
That's 18 years under Eglon, a villain. 80 years under Ehud. 20 years under Jabin and Sisera. Not good guys. 40 years under Deborah and Barak.
01:02:50
Speaker
7 years under Midian. 40 under Gibeon. Sorry, Gideon. 3 under Abimelech, a wicked tyrant who murdered 69 of his brothers.
01:03:04
Speaker
23 under Tola, 22 under Jair, who we know very little about.
01:03:10
Speaker
18 under the Ammonite of oppression. 31 under Jephthah, Ibsen, Elon, Abden. Heroes, but we don't know too much about them. Far from Jephthah, but again, he was a bit of a a wild guy. 40 under the Philistine oppression.
01:03:28
Speaker
And 20 years under Samuel's ministry until his victory Mizpah. Okay, that's your 450 broken down very clearly, all right?
01:03:38
Speaker
29 years under a half under David, and three and a half under Solomon's reign. That gives you 610. Oh
01:03:53
Speaker
oh my goodness, have the Bible contradicted itself? Well, let's have a look.
01:04:00
Speaker
Acts gives us 450 years lot more, plus so plus a lot more
01:04:09
Speaker
1 Kings says the 480th year. So you have 480 versus 610. This is looking pretty hairy.
01:04:24
Speaker
Let's do some mathematics. i'm not great at this, so I admit I did use a calculator. 610, which add everything which is if we add everything up
01:04:36
Speaker
Minus 479, because again, it was the they started the building in the 480th year. It wasn't a full year. It was 479 full years.
01:04:47
Speaker
Gives us a gap of 131 years. Now this is the kind of thing where a lot of Christians stick their fingers in the ears and go because they don't want to think the Bible has any error, which it doesn't, or contradictions, which it doesn't,
01:05:06
Speaker
But when Christians see things like this, they get scared. And they run away and they say, you're lying! The Bible just got you. So what is going on?
01:05:18
Speaker
Well, this is pretty amazing. I'm going to teach you all a secret that most believers don't know. Pens at the ready, friends.
01:05:29
Speaker
Write two words for me. Unreckoned times. Un-reckoned time. If you think that is not a word I will ever use again rest of my life, you can write uncounted time.
01:05:48
Speaker
But un-reckoned time. This is a ah Bible mystery.
01:05:55
Speaker
There are two ways, well, there are lots, there are two minimum ways that the Bible counts time. There's the chronology of man, which is a standard linear timeline where every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year counts.
01:06:19
Speaker
That is my 610 years.
01:06:27
Speaker
And then there's the redemption clock. This is a different way God counts time. You'll be happy to hear, yeah he counts your life with number two, the redemption clock.
01:06:42
Speaker
This is a spiritual timeline where time only counts when God's people are in fellowship with him. So the chronology of man is a standard linear timeline.
01:06:59
Speaker
Second, minute, hour, day. It's all important.
01:07:07
Speaker
The redemption clock is when, well, what is to redeem? and It's to buy something because you want it, because you wish to, to own something.
01:07:21
Speaker
This is the clock when God owns the hearts of his people, when people are firmly and securely in the palm of the Lord's hand.
01:07:32
Speaker
They're in right relationship with him.
01:07:39
Speaker
The Kushan-Brichathame oppression in Judges 3.8 lasted eight years. The Moabite oppression in Judges 3.14 lasted 18 years.
01:07:53
Speaker
Jabin and Sisera of the Canaanite oppression in Judges 4.3 lasted two decades. lasted two decades The Midianites oppression in Judges 6-1 lasted seven years.
01:08:08
Speaker
The Philistines and Ammonites oppressed the Israelites in Judges 10-8 for 18 years. In the days of Samson, the Philistines oppressed the people for four decades. And in the days of Samuel, the Philistines oppressed the people for two decades. That's 1 Samuel 7-2-3.
01:08:33
Speaker
If you add 18, 20, 7, 18, 14, 20, you get 131 years of rebellion oppression. So according to man's chronology, have history degree, According to the historian,
01:08:47
Speaker
of rebellion and oppression so according to man's chronology i have a history degree i love history ah going to the historian 610 years have passed.
01:09:07
Speaker
If God looks at things and through the lens of when his people were his people, it was 479.
Divine Timing and Communication
01:09:16
Speaker
He actually omits the years of their oppression based on their rebellion
01:09:33
Speaker
Sin, you see, is a cosmic destiny disruptor. Try saying that 10 times fast. The delay, rebellion causes genuine delays in the course of history.
01:09:49
Speaker
There are things God wants to do. And if people sin, he'll say, okay, I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not to harm you, plans to give you ah hope and a future. sir Plans to give you destiny.
01:10:06
Speaker
Plans set you up to win. Plans for you to reach an anticipated, expected, preordained end. But if you choose not to walk in them, fine. Okay.
01:10:18
Speaker
A later generation will.
01:10:22
Speaker
The Oversight. During these dark patches, God's redemption purposes are put on hold. Think of in Jesus' day.
01:10:33
Speaker
People are like, the Messiah! We're waiting on the Messiah! The Messiah is going to defeat the Romans! He's going to save us! He's going to bring in the kingdom! Okay, well that didn't happen. Why not? Because God's contemporary, sorry, Jesus' contemporaries did not want it.
01:10:48
Speaker
They chose not to receive what he had for them. They chose not to step into the Lord's best. Well, an act of their will They chose to behead John the Baptist, crucify Jesus, and hunt the apostles, rather than to take hold of the salvation that they were being offered.
01:11:15
Speaker
Even today, many of you probably heard, revival, revival, revival, revival. Yes, God's plans the nation are indeed for revival. But do God's people want revival?
01:11:27
Speaker
going to be honest with you, a lot of them don't. Do the Lost Wand revival? going to be honest with you. of them aren't interested. So God has amazing plans in every generation.
01:11:42
Speaker
Will people step into those plans? Well, that will depend. and The fulfillment of those plans will depend on human decision. God will not force his love on anyone.
01:11:55
Speaker
People have to willingly choose it.
01:11:59
Speaker
Or reject it.
01:12:02
Speaker
And then we have the resume. Once the people return to fellowship, God picks up where he left off. And the missing years are treated as if they had never happened.
01:12:20
Speaker
610 years between the Exodus and the beginning of the temple construction.
01:12:31
Speaker
God only chooses to count 480 of those years. He chooses to ignore the 131 years of rebellion.
01:12:43
Speaker
That is a picture of the love of God. Isaiah 44, 22. I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.
01:12:56
Speaker
Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Your sins are gone. As far as the east is from the west, so far removed your sins from you. You cannot catch up with them.
01:13:08
Speaker
They are dead as a dodo.
01:13:12
Speaker
Hebrews 8.12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
01:13:24
Speaker
He chooses not to to remember the wickedness you've done, said, thought, felt, meditated on planned any longer.
01:13:42
Speaker
Those 131 years of sacrificing babies to demons, mutilating boys and putting them in dresses,
01:13:56
Speaker
Telling women to speak and look like men and forgo their femininity. Of gang rape. Of hacking bodies into 12 pieces and sending them around the country in the post. 131 years of shame and disgust and I choose to remember it no more.
01:14:19
Speaker
What is it that you are remembering about your life that God is not even thinking about? What is it that you are meditating on that you are holding against yourself, that you are self-flagellating, beating yourself up over, when God has said, i remember it no more.
01:14:46
Speaker
The blood of Jesus has washed it clean. It is done. it is dealt with. It is finished. You are clean. You're all to a fresh start.
01:14:58
Speaker
It's a new day. New adventures. You have a future gain. Don't look back on the past.
01:15:11
Speaker
Don't let it chain you. Don't let it hold you captive. Don't let it hold you down.
01:15:23
Speaker
I'm going to finish off But two more things. Well, two more slides. It's the same point. The year of Jubilee. In Leviticus chapter 25, the Lord said that every 49 years to commemorate a year of Jubilee.
01:15:45
Speaker
um A special year of paying off debts. A year where you stop labouring and you just... rest in the Lord's absolute goodness.
01:15:59
Speaker
Now, 10 Jubilee cycles pass between the Exodus and the day the temple opened its doors to the people. Okay? It took about seven years for the temple to be built.
01:16:15
Speaker
So, in Matthew 18, 22, we've looked at this Bible verse quite a few times in these studies, This is when Jesus says, Peter asks, you know, how often should I forgive my enemy?
01:16:29
Speaker
And Jesus says, 70 times seven, which 490.
01:16:39
Speaker
Forgive an infinite number of times if you need to. The soul is an onion. Onions have layers, ogres have layers, souls have layers. And you might forgive someone to a certain degree,
01:16:53
Speaker
But if the wound or the offense was deep, it's possible that um you've been more cut, more badly wounded than you realized. And there are more layers in need of healing, in need of that touch from the Lord, in need of restoration.
01:17:08
Speaker
So he's basically saying forgive an infinite number of times if that's how long it takes. But 70 times seven, Maybe there's something to that.
01:17:18
Speaker
maybe there's something to that Maybe the Lord is secretly hinting at something that air we sometimes miss if we don't study the word thoroughly enough.
01:17:30
Speaker
Let's apply the 490 year Jubilee cycle to this story, the Exodus, the dedication of Solomon's temple. First King 6.1 said the foundation of the temple was lain in the 480th year. okay This was when it began.
01:17:51
Speaker
It took seven years to build the temple. Okay, 480 plus seven is 487. And eighty seven
01:18:02
Speaker
and then they furnished it. And that took another three years. And then on the Feast of Tabernacles, they dedicated So is 490. Now Jesus said...
01:18:15
Speaker
plus three is four hundred and ninety nay jesus said Forgive people 490 times. Give them unlimited forgiveness.
01:18:29
Speaker
And the 490th year, if we look at the tabernacle, so if we look at them the year of Jubilee, if include that, from the moment that they left Egypt to the moment God's glory filled the temple,
01:18:46
Speaker
Exactly one forgiveness cycle, one perfect, unlimited forgiveness cycle had passed. And on a national level, not just personal, not just communal, on a national level, the people returned to God and they received his forgiveness and restoration to fellowship.
01:19:14
Speaker
So, He started building it in his 480th year. So 479 were totally finished. He omitted 131 years of sin, which would bring us 610. But if we include the year of Jubilee in the counting, that brings a tally from 480 to 490.
01:19:39
Speaker
And that is the number of God's perfect forgiveness. Because he no longer remembers your sin. That still omits the 131 years of sin and oppression.
01:19:53
Speaker
So whatever you're going through today, whatever point you've arrived at on your journey, know that God is not looking at you through the lens of the 131 years of your sin.
01:20:08
Speaker
You might be. Demons probably are. The people around you undoubtedly are. Jesus doesn't. God doesn't. Holy Spirit doesn't.
01:20:20
Speaker
So you shouldn't. You need to reach a point where you agree with God unquestionably. And if he does not remember these things or hold them against you, why are you thinking about them every single day?
01:20:36
Speaker
And why are you holding them against yourself? And he also discounts from that 131, the years of oppression.
01:20:48
Speaker
You might be going through a tough time now, many people are, but the goodness of God is so good. And the restoration, whatever your 100% the past His restoration brings you beyond that point, 110%, 150%, 200%. It it eclipses all the oppression you've gone through.
01:21:17
Speaker
So good are the days of the Lord's favor, you won't even remember the days that sucked.
01:21:25
Speaker
That was true for the heroes of the Old Testament, and that is true. for us today.
01:21:36
Speaker
In Jesus name.
01:21:40
Speaker
Amen.
01:21:42
Speaker
Amen. And amen. Amen.
01:21:49
Speaker
All right, guys, thank you so much for your attention today. i know there was a lot in that and the yeah the Bible study version is even longer and more detailed. That is about 31, 32 pages.
01:22:03
Speaker
Very, very detailed. but encourage you to to pick that up and to explore book of Judges in even more detail. But are there any comments, queries, or questions at the moment on anything from today?
01:22:19
Speaker
ah Yeah, Brendan, I have one. um In the time of the judges, yeah because you when when the prophets were starting to emerge, ah that God would communicate through the prophets.
01:22:33
Speaker
So in the time of the judges, would be Jesus coming directly through to them, to speak to them? Or would God communicate in different, in in like similar manner?
01:22:46
Speaker
Great question. It was different for all the prophets. and There are times, let's say, with Solomon, where he had just begun his kingship and Jesus appeared to him at the foot of his bed in a dream and asked him, what would you like, kid?
01:23:05
Speaker
And Solomon said, wisdom. And Lord said, okay, that's a great answer. And because of that, I'm going to give you more wisdom than anyone anyone else has. And I'm also going to make you incredibly rich, the with richest man on earth, because that's what most people would have asked for.
01:23:22
Speaker
So then I give you everyone else's heart's desire, and as well as my desire for you, which that you'd be able to rule your nation wisely and in step with me. So you could speak in a dream, which would be Jesus.
01:23:39
Speaker
And then there were times when be an open vision, like with Isaiah, where Jesus would appear the temple on his sapphire throne And there were... Seraphim flying all around him. Seraphim... They look like snakes to us with wings.
01:24:02
Speaker
And they're on fire. They're not in pain. let's say they look. It's heaven. Everything's on fire in heaven. They're they're flying underground. They're alright. And they're just singing holy, holy, holies. The Lord God Almighty.
01:24:16
Speaker
i am Then you have... im Let's see, times when they would hear the audible voice of God.
01:24:28
Speaker
um You would have times when they would be given a prophetic picture. and So, for example, Solomon's son was not so great.
01:24:40
Speaker
Rehoboam. And the kingdom split because of his sin. And a prophet was given a picture of getting a new cloak, which was very unfortunate. He probably just bought it probably spent a lot of money on it.
01:24:53
Speaker
And he was told to tear it into shreds and to basically say, OK, this big pile will be the nation of Israel. This little pile is going to be the kingdom of Judah. Sorry, the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah.
01:25:08
Speaker
The nation was split into two different kingdoms of 10 tribes and two tribes. And so you also had things like that as well, where they might see Jesus, might just hear God's voice.
01:25:21
Speaker
might feel the unction of Holy Spirit or they might be given a physical picture to de as a demonstration of a spiritual reality. So yeah, the Judges begins with Othniel and some might say it ends with Samson but I usually include Samuel in there because effectively he is the intermediary. He's when the Judges ended and the prophets came. I see him as both um And from Samuel onwards, yeah, it was primarily the prophets that God would speak through and concerning Israel.
01:25:59
Speaker
All right. Brilliant. Thank you very much. You're welcome. But he had many ways of doing it. Hi, Brendan. That was very powerful. And, you know, when you were talking about the times and the season, something tapped into my mind is about Ecclesiastes 3.
01:26:18
Speaker
ah Chapter 3 verses 1 to 8, says ah everything what Solomon says, that everything has a time, a purposeful ah timing, everything, because there is no magic, because we all wanted to think, you know, especially right now when we see our life, when it will happen. Because what you're saying, like, we become, even this is for myself, when it will happen, when we see for those days, 400 years, 7, 10 years,
01:26:48
Speaker
We can't even wait for one year, three months, maybe one week. You know, we are a human beings and we thought we are human beings suffered a lot. But this is what, but what, when you say that this came to me, this is scripture of Ecclesiastes, I hope I'm saying that the right thing. Yeah, yeah, Ecclesiastes.
01:27:09
Speaker
Chapter 3, verses 1 to 8, And it says everything has a season, a season of weeping and laughing, a season of planting and harvesting.
01:27:20
Speaker
And a season like when we find things going on and we messed up, no? When we messed up, we don't know because we go into that mode of shame and the rejection. We went on this procrastination. We went on piling things because fear grabbed us.
01:27:40
Speaker
Isn't it? And and and we forgot, even though we ask God, but we want God to do magic. And magic does not exist because what you have said, amazing, the numbers of the years are amazing. So i am taking from that is ah God has the purposeful timing.
01:28:01
Speaker
there is a specific time ah for every matter or activity on earth. And today I'll be humble and grateful for that because you know what, you explained that very, I don't like talking much, but it's touched me so much because we are all going through that and and and we don't see the perfect timing of God, you know, and we don't see God's sovereignty in it, you know, because God made everything So beautiful in everything, in every season.
01:28:34
Speaker
And then the other thing, what we do, we are we God gives us authority to speak, to talk, not to gossip, but not do to take problems and make it the ah because we can't, you know, when somebody tells you something is a great confidentiality, it's the weight of of of this problem. How we will ah we will process it. Instead of process it, lay it to God, surrender it to God. We just go to other people, we just say things or it went ah wrong way. Even though when we ask for prayer, nowadays with GDPR, with privacy, trespassing there and here, we Christians, we are forgetting about why we are saying that, why we are asking. Because... ah
01:29:24
Speaker
when we ask for a prayer request, it's not about GDP, it's about lay there as we're laid to the Lord and Lord won't come down.
01:29:34
Speaker
Lord will send a man to deliver a man, isn't it? So this is, you know, today when you say it it ah it's really, it's just so many things like I'm browsing or what, but then I find out It's all about balanced life. Yes. sp Yes, we make mistakes.
01:29:58
Speaker
Yes, we will mess up. We are human beings. Thank God we are not robots. Amen. you You know what? Robots won't mess up. Maybe they will mess up with technology, but we are human. That's where in our weakness, the Lord make us perfect. That's right. In our sorrow, the Lord see our joy. In in our weakness, Lord does so many things. This is where he comes But sometimes we just forget because we feel the pain of the flesh. Instead of the of the spirit go stronger, Lord gave us authority. I have the authority to speak. I have this mouth to speak. you know So this is ah what I want to add up because we human, we have limitations.
01:30:47
Speaker
We have 99% of limitation. We don't use the brain much, but he used the brain for us because he gave us Holy Spirit. And Holy Spirit instruct us, talk to us, teach us, mold us, tame us. Where we make mistakes, we are like that Barbie, you know, a small Barbie. Come on there, push there, push here, push there. yeah But sometimes we don't like it.
01:31:16
Speaker
We are pushed here, pushed there, but the Lord knows it all. That's right, 100%. And that's where as we are human beings and we are the children of God, we are a great family, a strong family, and we are bound together so well, Brandon. So what you have said today,
01:31:38
Speaker
This is what I want to say because it really struck me about the years of waiting. And we could not wait. You know, we find 30 years is is is a long time. How about motors? How about Samsung? How about when you're saying all of them?
01:31:56
Speaker
The years, the years. yeah and Thank you so thank you it's very very powerful thank you the Lord bless you Thank you so much Freya Amen and yeah it's so true that there is a the time for everything under the sun and so often people miss the timing um they they pray oh God give me the opportunity to tell someone about Jesus and God's like okay
01:32:28
Speaker
And he gives them opportunity like the very next day. And it's like, oh, God, send someone to talk to that girl who's crying on the bus. And God's like, you're on the bus. Go sit beside, go talk or ask what's wrong. Oh, God, send someone to.
01:32:42
Speaker
Nonsense. People will pray for opportunities, but they don't see it through. So for myself, I no longer pray for opportunities to show Jesus. I say, God, give me the bravery and the words to say to someone.
01:32:57
Speaker
To share with Jesus. To share Jesus with. Amen. um Because so often God will give a time but we miss it. Or our people drag out times. Because we are distracted. Distracted. Exactly.
01:33:12
Speaker
Or afraid. Or if it's a time of spiritual warfare. Sometimes we're complicit with the enemy. Let's be honest.
01:33:23
Speaker
I had times as in my life when I was a child and i the enemy came against me and God had told me in a dream that he would. And
01:33:34
Speaker
that attack, I'll be honest with you, I believe it could have just lasted a few months or a few weeks. I believe with the biblical knowledge that I had,
01:33:47
Speaker
It did not have to last seven or eight years. Absolutely not. Stolen time. But I had the knowledge. i didn't have the wisdom.
01:33:59
Speaker
yeah i had the knowledge. I did not have the application. yeah I had the knowledge. I did not have the support. if I had the knowledge. I did not have Christians in my world that I could turn to or trust.
01:34:11
Speaker
And something that could have lasted a few weeks or a few months went on for... but i was 15 when it ended.
01:34:22
Speaker
And by that stage, I'd spent most of my life under the film of the enemy. I'd had seven happy years and eight crappy ones. Happy, crappy.
01:34:32
Speaker
um I don't believe that was necessary. That was me dragging out a season. Because I kind of liked being a victim. I'll be honest.
01:34:45
Speaker
So that's become under procrastination then. And procrastination. And not even knowing that I had a choice. I thought it was just normal. I just thought, okay, well this is just my life now. It is what it is.
01:34:59
Speaker
And it's not going to change. No point resisting. No point fighting. Until eventually I had to stop myself one day and say, said I'm supposed to be living life to the full in all its abundance.
01:35:11
Speaker
I said, That the enemy steals, kills, and destroys. Well, I see a lot of stealing, killing, and destroying. I don't see a lot of abundance. I see an abundance of stealing, killing, and destroying. Not a lot of God's goodness.
01:35:25
Speaker
And I said, God, is the problem me? it's It took me eight years, but I got there.
Ongoing Biblical Journey and Gender Roles
01:35:33
Speaker
I said, God, just for once in my life, I'm going to assume I am the problem. There's something wrong going on and in here or in here, in my head or in my heart.
01:35:41
Speaker
And that was the night everything changed forever. um And how I've gotten to where I am today. So yeah, sometimes we we drag out the wrong season. And sometimes we cut short the right season.
01:35:56
Speaker
God wants to do something amazing. But we get distracted or we procrastinate or we don't have the stamina or the tenacity. Sometimes we just don't care. We're just too indifferent. And i would say also trustworthy. We don't trust our own people of God because we are afraid that confidentiality will be breached out.
01:36:18
Speaker
Sure, 100%. It's a major one. And sometimes it's an irrational fear. Very often it's built on real life experience when we needed God's people there and they didn't show.
01:36:34
Speaker
Or we needed their support and instead they chose drama. and It's kind of like that meme, you know, I woke up this morning and I chose violence. When someone wants to be a drama queen. and Sometimes God's kids end up doing that.
01:36:51
Speaker
And so much of what God wants to do in the earth. Yes, he will use you in your own lane. But for the bigger stuff, he does want unity. He himself is united. God the Father, Son, Holy his Spirit.
01:37:04
Speaker
They have always agreed with each other totally and everything. He wants his people on the earth to similarly agree. Sometimes to agree to disagree, but still to be in unity.
01:37:15
Speaker
and And when we don't, or when we look at the Christians in our world and we just can't trust them, and yes, that will also...
01:37:26
Speaker
slow down the things of God, it will mean that we miss moments. It'll mean that things God wants to happen don't happen or seasons that are supposed to be so amazing get cut terribly short.
01:37:42
Speaker
And Brandon, can I, I don't know if I'm right or wrong, please correct me. Do you think sometimes we ah i have to put myself into it because practice what you you preach. Um,
01:37:54
Speaker
um Do you think also we people of God can be pride because we think we know so much? We know the Bible, but the Bible you never know much. But we think we know the Bible, we know the scripture, so we know it all.
01:38:10
Speaker
Do you think pride also comes under what you teach today? When I was a child, I did postal Bible studies. A Baptist church in Ireland made them.
01:38:22
Speaker
And literally they send a Bible study to your house. You did it and you sent back for a correction. And once a year they had a big and yeah a award ceremony.
01:38:34
Speaker
And I 100% thought that I was the bee's knees of Christianity. No one knew the word of God better than once.
01:38:46
Speaker
And I'll be honest, those studies were amazing. I learned a heck of a lot and I probably did know the Bible more than most people in world, I'll honest. Not going to say I knew it better than the whole world, but that's what my seven-year-old brain thought.
01:39:00
Speaker
a Now, I choose to remain so humble that what I taught you today, those missing 131 years, showed me that is something god showed me in Pakistan in January.
01:39:19
Speaker
I had never seen that before. and Before, I would have been like one of those, la la, la the blood no contradict itself, it just makes sense, just not reading it right, Christian.
01:39:31
Speaker
In January, in Pakistan, that's when God showed me 131 years remissing. Wow, amazing. And he shows me more each year he shows me more each year than I had ever known before.
01:39:48
Speaker
So by December 2026, I know for a fact that I will know the Word of God more than I did on the 1st of January 2026. Wow, I e knew more about the Word of God on the 31st of December 2025 than I knew on the 1st of January 2025.
01:40:09
Speaker
So now whenever I pick up the Bible, I never assume I know a story. I always to assume there's something in it I haven't seen before. Especially the stories that we're so familiar with that we just scan. Nah, straight and all that's not right. No.
01:40:29
Speaker
I read it now and assume that I don't know it. Like Debra, living during the days of lockdown. No one was on the roads. No one was to be seen. There was nobody around.
01:40:41
Speaker
And the men who should have been fighting the enemy... were locked at their homes, and when she said, all right, guys, up and out.
01:40:51
Speaker
Okay, some of them appeared. Others could not be bothered. That is the body of Christ in 2026. In May.
01:41:02
Speaker
A lockdown for year and a half. And comparatively, even like look at the disciples of Wednesdays. Always more women than men.
01:41:16
Speaker
Look at Sundays. Always more women than men. um Look at any church event. Almost always exclusively more women than men. If it's a men's event, very few men will turn up by comparison who God tells to be there.
01:41:34
Speaker
Days of lockdown. And what does it do to the men? it emasculates them. It exposes the ones who just don't give toss.
01:41:45
Speaker
That's something God showed me last year. i hadn't had it before. But because the wouldn't own their zone, and Barak said, oh, Deborah, unless you go and lead us, I will not be on the battlefield.
01:42:03
Speaker
God said, okay, a woman's going to get the victory. So therefore, I know that I know that I know that God is going to do absolutely phenomenal things through women in these days. Yes, he wants his son to rise to the occasion.
01:42:18
Speaker
But women are on the battlefield. Women are reading the word. Women are praying. So we're going to see God do phenomenal things on women these days. Thanks so much, Jamie. Lovely message to the chat box. Have a good night now.
01:42:34
Speaker
So, and yeah, get ready to see God using his daughters yeah miraculously and amazingly and authoritatively because they haven't let up.
01:42:47
Speaker
The women are the ones who are still carrying the sword in one hand, the word of God, and the trowel for m digging away in the other.
01:42:58
Speaker
So, um yeah, we're living in many Many biblical narratives are coinciding right now. We're living prophetic narrative of many of them.
01:43:09
Speaker
But a big one are the days of Deborah. Thank you so much. Amen.
Conclusion and Prayer
01:43:15
Speaker
Amen. queen man Amen. then All right, guys. Any final questions before we finish off for tonight?
01:43:24
Speaker
but Your head's all full. All
01:43:30
Speaker
um all right. Well, thank you so much for joining, for sitting under the words, for the questions afterwards, for the engagement, the interaction. Thank you for ah entrusting me to share something of value with you. i don't take that lightly. I don't take that for granted.
01:43:50
Speaker
so Lord God, I pray a special blessing over Vimal, Tuita, Hazel, Priya, John, um Over Carolina God, over Kajal, over Jamie, and
01:44:11
Speaker
over Hades, anyone else who's here Lord God, who I've forgotten. am Over anyone who watches this on YouTube Lord Jesus. That you touch them and bless them.
01:44:25
Speaker
You open their eyes to see, their ears to hear, their hearts to know and understand. everything that you have for them. If they, like the Israelites, are living days of cyclical bondage, free bondage, freedom, bondage, freedom, bondage, freedom, addiction, freedom, addiction, but it stops. The book stops now. It ends with them, with the blood of Jesus.
01:44:50
Speaker
Amen. If they've been living under the bondage and the tyranny of the enemy. Lord God, remind them. As soon as they next put a foot wrong, the 131 years are discounted.
01:45:07
Speaker
it is unreckoned time. Uncounted erased removed It is time you do not remember. They need to stop saying.
01:45:19
Speaker
fixating their minds and their hearts on it themselves and step into the fullness of what you have given them. Total, complete forgiveness.
01:45:33
Speaker
Abundant, exceeding, unmerited, undeserved, free, life-changing, new life-empowering, grace upon grace, strength upon strength,
01:45:49
Speaker
And when they are weak, you, God, are strong. You are the all-sufficient sovereign strong. And your grace is sufficient for them.
01:46:02
Speaker
In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. then Amen. God bless you, brother. Good night. Good night, Aaron. God bless you mightily. And on Sunday, we are going to look at Absalom part two, as well as the fall of Satan. What turned Lucifer into the devil?
01:46:24
Speaker
and you're going to hear the story in a way you've never heard it before. so I look forward to seeing you in half a week. Good night, friends. God bless. Good night. Bye-bye.