Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. We used church candy for our new church plant the Garden, and the response blew me and my team away. At our new church Plant the Garden, we ran simple invite ads through none other than church candy, and hundreds of people responded. Seriously. People who had never even heard of us, who had never met me or heard me preach. They saw an ad on Facebook or Instagram. They showed up to a launch party or launch team training. Some of them have joined our team. Here's the best part. A good amount of them have started giving and tithing, which means the ads have paid for themselves. Our church plant is growing, and it's because we chose the right partner. We didn't have to figure out marketing strategies or spend hours tinkering with ad settings. Church candy handled it all and it worked. You might not be planting a church, but if you're a pastor who wants to see more new faces on Sunday. And by the way, I've never met a pastor who doesn't want to see more new faces on Sunday. It's time to check them out. How about you go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a discovery call? Let their team show you what's possible when the right people hear about your church family. Welcome to day 142. We are in judges chapter three to five. And today we are going to cover four of the judges. Okay, four judges. We got Othmiel, Ehud, Shamgar, and Deborah. So we got four judges that we're going to cover in today's content. We're going to move really fast because we got four judges that we have to talk about. Some of these judges will talk about more than others. But if you have done the reading for the day, if you already read judges chapter three, four, and five, I'm proud of you. Good work. If you haven't done the reading, I'm still proud of you. But, like, don't use the podcast content or these episodes as a substitute for reading your Bible. You already know the drill. Do the reading first, then come listen to the content to give you context. Okay. Where the judges, the cycle of the judges is our context. We got four judges. To be completely honest, these are the the best four judges we got. Okay? We're gonna. We're gonna already see in these chapters, like, a decline in quality. But by the time we get to tomorrow, by the time we get to judges chapter six and eight and we look at Gideon, there's some serious questions about this dude. Like, Gideon is gonna see a. We're gonna see a clear shift in. Bro, I think you're kind of trash, but God is still using you. These. These judges today, these four judges, it seems like the. These. These are the. These are the cream of the crop. All right. These are first in class. So I'm kind of want to touch on something that straddles the fence between chapters two and chapters three. It says this in chapter two, verse 21, okay. Says, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. This is God talking. I will use them to test Israel. So all the conflicts that we're going to see are a test. What's the test? And to see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did. The Lord had allowed those nations to remain. He did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua. Okay, chapter three. This is today's content. These are the nations the Lord left to test. So we're going to get the word test here a bit. You're going to start to hear this theme. All those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan, he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience. So he's like, look, what good is it if your fathers won all these battles for you, but you're not going to be able to maintain it? So I need you to have some battle experience. So here's what was left. The five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, the Hivites living in Lebanon, mountains from the Mount baal, Hermon in Lebo Amoth, they were left to test. We go keyword again, the Israelites, to see whether they would obey the Lord's commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses. So lots of tests. Okay? God is testing them by not immediately driving out everybody saying, no, I'm not gonna let Joshua do all the work for you, Actually, all the tribes, you got your tribal allotments. Go to your land and go fight so that you can clear the land. So that's kind of our backdrop. That's what we get right before we get into our first judge. Our first judge is Osniel Here's a nugget. I'm pretty sure I said this in Joshua, but Othniel is not Caleb's younger brother. That's actually not a good translation. Othniel is Caleb's nephew. If he were Caleb's younger brother, he would not have been able to marry Caleb's wife. Sorry, marry Caleb's daughter. So take Caleb's daughter as his wife. So Caleb is obviously fighting companion of Joshua. He has faith. When Moses sent out the 12 spies into the land, Caleb, it takes his hill, okay, with with all the giants. He's old, but he wants to fight. And he needs a son in law. He needs. He needs his daughter to have a good godly man. That is going to be Osniel. He becomes the first judge. And then verse 10 of chapter three said, the Spirit of the Lord came on him. You're gonna hear that a lot throughout the Book of Judges. Obviously no one in the Old Testament has the indwelling power or presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes on people. The Holy Spirit does not live in people. The reason that the Holy Spirit doesn't live in people because the blood of Jesus had not cleansed us of our sins. And so we're going to see the Holy Spirit come on and then come off. Come on and then come off. And the Spirit of the Lord is gonna come on people for an assignment. And the Spirit of the Lord is gonna come on people so they can accomplish that assignment. And then the Holy Spirit is gonna come off people. Whereas the New Testament believer, the Holy Spirit dwells in the New Testament believer, giving us wisdom, giving us discernment, giving us words of knowledge, giving us the healing power of the Holy Spirit, giving us all kinds of things and giving us the ability to obey the Lord. So the Lord gave Cushan Rishathaim, King of Aram, into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land had peace for 40 years until Othniel son of Kenaz died. So Othniel becomes the gold standard. Okay, the next judge is Ehud is a left handed guy. So let's kind of talk about left handedness. Left handedness would have been seen in the ancient world as a curse from the gods. It would have been seen as a really bad omen. So you couldn't be a soldier if you were left handed. Okay, two reasons. Number one, anyone who operated in favor operated from the right side, the right hand. So like Benjamin means son of my right hand. Okay? It means son of my power, son of my authority. If the right hand is, is the. And remember, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. Anyone in a throne room with a king seated at the right hand of that king was operating in favor, okay? Whereas the, the left is seen as the exact opposite, okay? Also, your heart is on your left side of your body. And so someone who's left handed is seen as someone who follows the passions. Follow, follows. Their heart is of the flesh, okay? So left handedness, a big, big, big problem in the ancient world. Also, anything that's unexplainable is weird. And anything that's weird can be demonized. And so left handedness, a. No, no. Also, if you were a soldier, you would hold your sword in your right hand and your shield in your left hand. So if my whole battalion were getting attacked, we'd all throw up our left hands, we'd all extend our shields and it would create a wall of shields, right? So if I, if I cannot do that, then, then I create a chink in this wall of shields and that means that I'm creating a gap. And the enemy can, he can't access that vulnerable spot and he can manipulate that weakness and game's over, okay? So for all kinds of reasons, people with left handedness, and definitely soldiers with left handedness were a no, no. But what is seen as a deformity or dysfunction, Ehud is going to use it to his advantage. So because he's left handed, that means he straps his sword to his right thigh. When you went to present yourself to a king, obviously you had to get frisked and they only frisked the left thigh because someone with a right hand, right handed person would attach their sword to their left thigh. And Ehud is able to slip behind enemy lines. The reason that he's even to get into the king's meeting quarters is because he's been there before, okay? He's bringing tribute, he's bringing taxes. So Eglon is the king. And the Bible says that Eglon's fat, like really fat. And the Bible doesn't give us arbitrary details. And I kind of want to bring people into the culture of the Bible. So in biblical times, people are not fat. It's not normal for people to be fat. If someone is fat, then the Bible's actually telling us way more details than if the Bible were to say that in today's current culture, when the Bible says that someone is overweight, that means that they are lazy. Okay? Here's why that doesn't mean that in our culture today, because in our Culture today, you could have a job that requires you to sit down all day, that you're clearly not lazy because you have a job. In the ancient world, there are no computers, there's no technology. Anyone who's working is doing hard physical manual labor. So working and sweating are the same thing. Working and working out are the same thing. There's no gym. There's no need for a gym in the ancient world because you are working out by simply going to work every day. So if someone is fat, it means that other people are doing work for them, which means you're oppressing people. So when the Bible says that someone's fat, it means that they are oppressive, it means they're lazy, it means they're an oppressor. It means a myriad of things. Okay? It's not just like a neutral thing to say about someone. So Eglon being really, really fat is actually like the Bible's indictment against him. And it's the way that the Bible is describing him as an oppressor and a harsh person and an enslaver of other human beings and someone who has conscripted forced labor. So that is not an arbitrary detail. Also, when Ehud goes to stab him, the handle of the blade sinks into Ehud's fat. Now that's fat. That's real fat. You so fat that somebody stabbed you and didn't even get no blood on him. That's fat. That's real fat. So to stab someone and there's no blood. Cause now Ehud's gotta go out and there's no blood on him because the fat just sucked up the sword. Like that's just. Woo. That's a lot. Okay. I wanted to like help just with the, the culture, like translating culture into, into our current context. Okay. Next judge is a guy named Shamgar, by the way. So Moab. So let's read the end of verse 30. Sorry. Let's read the end of chapter three, verse, which is verse 30. That day Moab was made subject to Israel and the land had peace for 80 years. So after Othniel, the land has peace for 40 years. Then after Ehud, the land has rest for 80 years. That's amazing. Verse 31. After Ehud came Shamgar, son of Anat, who struck down 600 Philistines with an ox goad. He too saved Israel. All right, first interesting thing, Shamgar is a Canaanite name. This is probably not an Israelite, which is interesting. Next. Anat, his father's name is not an Israelite name. Ok. This is a Canaanite name. So also he's got an interesting tool or an interesting weapon. I'd say he doesn't even have a tool. He just has a. He has a. He doesn't even have a weapon. He has a tool as an ox, goad. It's like, like think about a cattle prodder that we would use today. And the hide of cattle is really thick. This isn't something that like hurts them or abuses them. It's just to get oxen to kind of, you know, go where you need them to go. He too saved Israel. So unlikely guy with an unlikely weapon. I want you to start to see like a pattern emerging. Unconventional people with unconventional weapons. Ehud is unconventional. And a sword is also unconventional because it's strapped to his right thigh. Okay. It's in the hand. It's a left handed person. Shamgar in his ox, goad. Unconventional guy, unconventional weapon. This is teeing up something that's gonna happen next. All right, last but not least, we get Deborah. Now the Bible is going to say that Deborah's a prophetess, a wife, and then Judges chapter five, verse seven is a mother. Okay? I do not believe that the Bible is painting a picture that it's good that Deborah's a judge. I actually think that the Bible's painting a picture that it is a failure on Israel's part that a woman has to step up and lead in this way. That doesn't mean that women don't have gifts. That doesn't mean that women aren't called. That doesn't mean that women aren't amazing. I believe all those things. Women are awesome and amazing and are called and have gifts. I'm just exegeting the text, and based on the text and the tone of the text, it seems as though Deborah is actually indicting Israel's men, that they are unwilling and that they are ill equipped to actually be leaders. Family. The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books a Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. So chapter four. Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord now that Ehud was dead. So the Lord sold him into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. That's key. If you remember Huzor. Okay, Huzor was a massive city that Joshua had won like this was a big deal. And now Hazor is back in the hands of the Canaanites. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth, Hagoyim, because he had 900 chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years, they cried out to the Lord for help. Now, Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the palm of Deborah and between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim. And the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. She set for Barak in the land of Naphtali. So she's nowhere near. Barak said to him, the Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, go. Take with you 10,000 men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the the Keyshon river and give him into your hands. Listen to like how weak and pathetic Barack's response is. If you go with me, I'll go. But if you don't go with me, I won't go. And Deborah, who is doing something important, where she is, goes. Certainly I will go with you. But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours. For the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman. Now, that woman's not going to be Deborah. That woman is going to be a woman by the name of Jael. So Deborah went with Barack to Kadesh. There, Barak summoned Zebulun and Naftali, and 10,000 men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with them. So I would say that Deborah is filling a void that should be filled by Barack, should be the judge. And there's a lot of people who would put Barack and Deborah on their list of judges. I'll read Judges, chapter 5, verse 7 to you. Villagers in Israel would not fight. They held back until I, Deborah, arose until I Arose a mother in Israel. So there's this like, yeah, no one would fight because men failed to do what they needed to do. I stepped up as a mother in Israel. Now here's the challenge that I want to give. The current ideology or worldview of feminism today says that I have to neglect things that make me feminine in order to be masculine so that I could lead. So my femininity is a problem. Therefore, I need to be masculine so that I can lead. And when God actually raises women up, the text tells us that Deborah is a mother in Israel, the wife of Lapidoth. There's nothing about her leadership that needs to be less feminine. She's a mom. She's a wife. Her being a mother and a wife is not in contradiction to her being a prophet and a leader. That these things are not at odds with each other. The current culture or narrative of feminism, especially what we would consider fourth wave feminism today, really does reject the notion of being a wife and a mother in pursuit of being professional. And I immediately look at Deborah and I go, man. Something that seems to be highlighted here is motherhood, wifeness. And that's an amazing thing that God actually wants to bring out the fullness of who people are, not to suppress certain parts of them so they can be successful in other areas that God cares about the whole person and wants holistic victory for people. That's clear to me when I look at Deborah. All right, last thing. Barack. He's not amazing, but he's not terrible. Ehud, you know, he's okay. These judges are good. None of these judges are terrible. There's nothing bad happening at this point. It's not amazing, it's not terrible. But the next judge we're about to get is. You're going to see. It is terrible. So remember, let's get into our timeless truth. Unconventional people with unconventional weapons. E hoods an unconventional person. He has an unconventional weapon. Shamgar is an unconventional person with an unconventional weapon. And Jael is going to defeat Sisera's army. When Sisera comes into her tent, she's going to put him on her lap and drive a tent peg through his temple and kill him. So the woman that Deborah prophesied would defeat Sisera is actually not herself, but another woman by the name of Jael, which who, again, this is an unconventional person with an unconventional weapon. The theme here is use the weapons that you have whenever you don't have the weapons that you actually want or the weapons that you need. So that's our timeless truth for the day. That God uses unconventional people with unconventional weapons, not unconventional person. Maybe you. And if it is, be encouraged in this season and use whatever you got. Okay, that wraps it up for today. Tomorrow we're gonna look at Gideon. We're gonna jump into Judges chapter six eight. I'm so proud of you. If you're on a streak, don't break it. If you're not on a streak, let's get a streak going. I'll see you right here tomorrow for day 143. I'm so, so proud of you. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at the Bible department and on Instagram. Hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.