Seeds Left Behind
By Pastor Jim May
Judges 3:1-9, "Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan; Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof; Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath. And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites: And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves. Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years. And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother."
Just look around you, in whatever church you find yourself, and you will see someone, and probably many people whose lives are paralleled with what we have read in this passage of scripture. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." Also, the Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Corinth said these words in 1 Corinthians 10:11, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."
Since Israel’s faults, failures, trials and tests are given for our benefit, that we may learn to serve God more faithfully and with more freedom than they did, I think it would be very beneficial for us to look at these events to see what lessons are there for us to learn.
Let us begin by remembering what events transpired prior to this passage. Israel had wandered in the desert for 40 long years until all of those who had refused to believe God and enter into the Promised Land the first time had passed on. It was a new generation that came into the Land of Canaan with Joshua – a nation reborn, born in the wilderness, and one that had not been a part of the exodus from Egypt. Their fathers and grandfathers had seen the mighty hand of God and walked by sight because they had seen the miracles, but this younger generation had to learn to walk by faith and not by sight. Surely God was with them or they would have perished in the wilderness. Surely God’s promises to them were true. God was going to bring His people home in spite of them fighting against Him all the way.
It was God who had called them, made them His own, and delivered them from bondage. Israel could not decide to be God’s nation on earth unless God called them first.
Is that not the same thing that God does for the sinner right now? It is God who calls us. It is the Holy Ghost that convicts us. It is the Father in Heaven who selects those whom He will call because only God knows the hearts of men and who will be receptive. Does God want ever man to be saved? Of course He does, and His power is great enough to forgive and wash away every sin of the whole human race. The fact is though, that God already knows who will never accept the Blood of Jesus to save their souls. He already knows who will never choose to be saved and so I am convinced that those who fall into this category may never even feel the tug of conviction upon their heart. Not because God doesn’t desire it, but because of the hardness of their own heart.
A note on the subject of pre-destination: (I know that I’m no scholar and that many others have argued pre-destination for years. But this is my own opinion based upon what I have learned by personal study of God’s Word and not by the teachings of other men.)
There are some who preach pre-destination in such a manner that it doesn’t matter how we live, God has already determined who will, and who will not, go to Heaven or Hell. That’s a very wrong view of pre-destination. Why? It is always God’s will that all men should come to repentance and that none should perish, but God will not override our power to choose to be lost if we want to. So pre-destination is not set by God’s pre-determined will and selection, but by the hardness or receptiveness of the heart of each man. Those who won’t serve Him are pre-destined to die in their sins while those who will serve him are pre-destined to spend eternity in Heaven. God already knows who will and who won’t because He knows our hearts well enough to know whether we will ever really surrender or not. It’s just that simple.
It was God then, who pre-destined Israel to be his chosen people, not Israel who chose God. But once the choice was made by God, then there had to come a time of testing to see if Israel would be faithful to God, for all who serve the Lord must be faithful. Israel is pictured all through the Old Testament as being the “wife of God upon the earth”. God treated Israel and provided for Israel as a husband would for his wife, but Israel proved to be such an “unfaithful wife” that God often had to punish them for their unfaithfulness.
If you read the story of Hosea the prophet, you will find that God told him to marry a harlot. In many ways, this was God’s way of showing Hosea, and the rest of Israel, that though they were “spiritual harlots” and were often unfaithful to God, that God still loved them anyway and only wanted the best for them.
Thus we come to the passage for tonight. Joshua had led the Children of Israel through the River Jordan and into the Promised Land.
This is a picture of the sinner who comes to Christ and is forgiven for his sin. He has to come through that “spiritual Jordan River”, allowing his sin to be washed away, allowing the old man to die in the Blood of Jesus, and a “New Man”, created in righteousness, to come out the other side. All who come to Jesus and are born again by the Spirit have crossed this “spiritual Jordan”.
Like Israel, when God told them through the mouths of both Moses and Joshua, to destroy every enemy and leave none alive when they came into the Promised Land, that same instruction is true for every Christian that is born again to this day, and it shall ever be the same until Jesus comes.
When we are cleansed by the Blood of Jesus, and we commit ourselves to serving the Lord, that’s exactly what God wants us to do. There are a lot of people who claim to be born again, but they still do the same old things after they leave the altar. They keep the same circle of friends, read the same books, go to the same places of pleasure and nothing seems to change at all about their lifestyle except now they claim to know Jesus and to be saved.
I heard one preacher saying it this way. It may seem harsh but listen.
A rough farmer came to the House of God, listened to the sermon, and at the end went down to be saved. As the preacher prayed for him, nothing seemed to happen, but then we can’t always tell what’s going on in the heart of a man. So in order to determine what did happen, the preacher said, “Well John, now that you are saved you will need to quit drinking, smoking, gambling, running around on your wife and cheating on your income taxes.” John looked back at the preacher and said, “Mr. Preacher, I came down to get saved, not to give up everything that I love to do.” That’s when the preacher said, “John, just go back to your farming and get away from this altar. I won’t accept you like that and neither will God. You aren’t saved and never will be without a change in your heart and life.” Then the preacher said, “John, I refuse to have to answer God with your blood on my hands by letting you think that you are saved just because you came to this altar tonight. Your eternal soul is at stake and I won’t be a part of allowing you to think that you are ready to meet Jesus.”
That’s not the way it is nowadays is it? We invite people to come to the altar in most churches. They come to shake the preacher’s hand and let him “transfer the power” to them. We are so concerned about hurting people’s feeling and losing their tithes that we are afraid to tell them the truth so many of them think that everything is all right because the preacher never speaks about the way they live. There will be a lot of “saints” that are cast into hell, right along with the preachers who let them go there.
When we come up from that place of repentance, after the Blood has cleansed our sin, then we need to take heed to the directions that God gave to Israel. It’s time to clean house for good. We can’t let some secret sin hang out in the corner of our heart. We can’t let the pleasures of sin’s company lure us back into the old life, not even for one minute. God said to “kill them all. Don’t let a one live.” If we don’t kill all the old man, he will surely come back to haunt us for the rest of our lives.
But, like Israel, we don’t always do what God instructs us to do. We fall into temptation again and again because we won’t kill the fleshly desires for the things of the world.
Israel let some of their enemy nations live because of a soft heart. They didn’t want to kill every one, especially since they were so pretty, so young, so handsome and so charismatic. Israel let some of their enemies hang around long enough until they actually began to love them, even more than they loved serving God. Is that a picture of modern Christianity as well? How many people still love their sin and the things of the world, more than they love God? All too many of them do just that!
God would not force Israel to do His will, anymore than He will force you and I to do so. So, like Israel, we begin to dwell with our sin and put up with it, until we get too comfortable in it. If we want to hold on the world with one hand and Jesus with the other, God won’t stop us, but you had better be careful of your grip on Jesus’ hand because it will slip in a moment.
God allowed Isreal to let some of their enemies live. He had a purpose in it. He wanted to prove Israel’s faithfulness.
Have you ever wondered why you are still plagued with temptation sometimes? Have you wondered why God allowed so many tests and trials to come your way? Have you wondered why you just can’t seem to overcome some things in your life that you know shouldn’t be there?
If we allow any sin to remain, then God will use our own lusts, our own desires and our own faults to test us. We don’t have to worry about Satan coming around to offer us an apple to bite. We go searching for the “apple” by ourselves.
James 1:14, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."
The enemies of our soul that we allow to hang around will become our source of testing! The more “enemies” we allow to hang around, the more testing will come because God has to prove our faithfulness in every facet of our lives. While we are given the free gift of salvation, the blessings and trust of God in us must be proven and earned by our faithfulness to Him.
The fact is that Israel lived among their enemies like they were part of them. Their true position was that of a “conqueror” for God had given them the victory over all these nations. But Israel chose to make them their friends and family instead. They joined their chat rooms, started instant messaging one another, started going to church together, until finally, you couldn’t tell a Hebrew from a Perizzite or a Jebusite. Today you can see very little difference between the church and the world. In fact, quite often, the world seems more religious than the church does, and accomplishes much more for the good of mankind than the church does.
Israel soon came to the place where they were so much in love with their enemies that they forgot their true God. It became as though they had never known God and were not even His children anymore. God didn’t disown Israel – Israel disowned God. God didn’t leave Isreal – Israel left God. Israel was the unfaithful partner in the covenant.
Judges 3:8 says, "Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years."
There is a great significance to me in this one verse alone for those who will play around and become involved in the world and sin after once knowing Jesus as their Savior.
God cannot condone disobedience in his own children, or anyone else for that matter. He will not wink at sin or overlook our rebellion against His will and His Law.
Therefore God sent Israel into slavery for 8 long years under a heathen king in Mesopotamia. This king was Chushanrishathaim whose name means “blackness of iniquity”. Can anyone tell me whose throne is found in the Bible to be in Mesopotamia? That land sits between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers of the Middle East. The same place where Babylon once reigned as the capital city of Nebuchadnezzar and, according to most prophetic scholars, will once again be the seat of power for the Antichrist during the end times.
Can you see what’s happening here? Israel, God’s chosen people, have backslidden from God and have become captives in the blackness of their iniquities and sin, and are held as slaves in the very stronghold of the devil. They are there for 8 years. Now 7 years is the number of fullness or completeness throughout the Bible, so why did Israel have to stay for 8? Perhaps God wanted them to understand that sin will take you farther than you wanted to go and keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and even when you have truly learned your lesson, and you are ready to come home to God, He might just let you stay captive in your sin a while longer so you can learn a lesson that you will never be able to forget.
Israel finally cried out to the Lord for forgiveness. How much did they have to suffer before they began to cry out to Him? How many oppressive taxes did they have to pay? How many times were they force to serve the idol gods? How many of them were trapped in unhappy marriages? How many were sold into harsh bondage where they worked, slaved, sweat and bled only to see it all make their captors richer?
God raised up a “deliverer” for Israel. His name was “Othniel” whose name meant “hour of God”, the son of Kenaz, whose name meant “purchaser, lamentation”. The hour had finally come when God would hear the repentant cries of His unfaithful children and then bring them home again and restore them to their place in God. He would buy them back from their sin.
That’s the good news of the gospel message to us in this hour. God has given us a “Deliverer” to set the captive free. If you are sick and tired of being a slave to your passions, a slave to your lusts, a slave to your fleshly desires and a slave to the things of the world – God has a Deliverer for you.
The Othniel, “Hour of God” has come! Jesus has come and through His blood shed upon the cross, we can find our way home again. His blood paid the price to purchase us back to God.
1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:"
In closing let me ask you – can people tell the difference between your life and those of the world around you? Are you living, acting, talking and doing everything just like the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites around you?
The Canaanites were a people that dwell in the lowlands. They are content to dig in the dirt and never attempt to go any higher in life than the valley in which they dwell.
The Hittites were a warlike people. They loved to fight, argue, scrap and thrived on trouble.
The Amorites were a people in love with themselves, absolutely self-centered. The Egyptians described them as people with fair skin, light hair, blue eyes, perfect noses, and pointed beards. They were legend in their own minds.
The Perizzites were a people of the land. They loved the ground, plants and farming. Kind of reminds me of those who would worship “Mother Earth” like the New Age people of our day.
The Hivites were partly warlike and partly people of the land. They were the kind that it was hard to tell what they were really like. They could be good farmers and good warriors, depending upon who was around. Have you been around a lot of people that you just can’t figure out where they stand on issues?
The Jebusites were the original inhabitants of the land and they were listed for utter destruction by God. These folks remind me of those who are rank sinners and who refuse to hear the gospel, make fun of Jesus, and yet we call them friends.
Do we need to take stock of who we hang out with? Do we need to cry out for deliverance? You make the call for your own life. God is waiting to hear from you.
