Judges chapter 10, and we're
going to begin reading with verse 1. We looked at verses 1 and
2 last time, but we just want to read them for continuity's
sake. And these first five verses of this chapter, first five verses
of chapter 10, have to do with two judges, and there's not much
said about them in the scripture. But I read an old preacher said,
the best men are not always the best known. And that could be
well said about these two judges. These two judges, they were judges
of the Lord. He called them. He put them in
place. They had the opportunity of bringing are being used to
bring peace to Israel for 22 years, 23 years, and that's 55
years combined. And another old preacher said,
they're not the greatest men who make the most noise in the
world. So we don't have them bragging
on themselves. We don't have them looking to
their own activities and their own doings, but they were called
of God and he put them into the ministry. I really have appreciated
that verse over there in Timothy, putting his people into the ministry. Well, it is interesting. In the first part of this, it
tells us about a judge by the name of Tola, and we found out
last week his name means worm. But when we read about him, it
says, after Abimelech, there arose to defend Israel Tola,
the son of Pua, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he dwelt
in Shimar in Mount Ephraim. And he judged Israel 23 years
and died and was buried in Shemar. With regard to this judge, we
have a list going back three generations about where he came
from. And so often it reveals to me
that he can go right back to Adam. He is a natural born man. He is not a judge because he
had special characteristics. He was not a judge because he
had special integrity, or he's not a judge because he has special
righteousness. He's a judge. God saved by his
grace and called him into this ministry. And so he could trace
his line right back. Now, the next judge that we're
introduced in verse three, and after him arose Jair, a Gileadite,
and judged Israel 20 and two years. And he had 30 sons that
rode on 30 ascots, and they had 30 cities, which are called Havahar
unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jair died
and was buried in Kaman. Three verses about another judge,
and this judge judged Israel for 22 years. We don't have a
lot of history about him, but you know, there is some things
about his name. We notice about this judge that
it doesn't talk about where he came from, but it does talk about
his children. tells us that he had 30 sons,
and they rode on 30 colts of asses, and it really speaks that
they were in a position of royalty, and we're gonna spend some time
on that in just a moment. It tells us that Jair was from
Gilead, and we find Gilead mentioned a number of times in the scripture.
One of the places that we find it is in the book of Genesis.
If you'd turn with me to the book of Genesis chapter 37, Genesis chapter 37 and it is
to a group of people from Gilead, Genesis chapter 37 and verse 23. And it came to pass when Joseph was
come unto his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his coat,
his coat of many colors that was on him. And they took him
and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty, there was
no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread, and they lifted
up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites,
came from Gilead with their camels, bearing spicery and balm and
myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto
his brethren, what profit it if we slay our brother and conceal
his blood? Come, let us sell him unto the
Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our
brother in our flesh. And his brethren were content."
Well, did you notice where these guys have been traveling from?
and what kind of things they have from trade there. It does
tell us there that they're bearing spicery and balm and myrrh. Well, there's another verse of
scripture over in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter eight. In Jeremiah chapter eight, we
have a question is asked about Gilead. In the book of Jeremiah
chapter eight and verse 22, There is a question asked here by the
Lord with regard to, and this chapter is just, you read it
and you can just see the tears running down Jeremiah's cheeks
because he is in grave concern, great concern about Israel and
he is a weeping prophet. He is in great care for these
people and they have no intention of voluntarily falling in line
with Jeremiah. But notice here in the verse
22, is there no balm in Gilead? Now, this is speaking, that balm
of Gilead is a picture of Christ. He is the medicine we are in
desperate need of. He is the balm that we're in
desperate need of. And it says, is there no physician
there? Is there no bomb in Gilead? Is
there no medical apothecary in Gilead? What's going on over
there? It's such a sad place. Don't
you have any help over there? And it goes on to say, why then
is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? So pretending
to get help through physical means means the prophet Isaiah
brings up a spiritual application and says, you know, the real
need that you have, and you know, it's natural for us to pray about
our kids and friends for a physical blessing. But we find the prophet
Jeremiah was really concerned about their spiritual welfare. And he spent a lot of time on
that subject. And here he is, isn't there Christ
over there? Isn't there a bomb of Gilead
over there? And this Gilead again. Now it's interesting that this
word means the place of rocks. Gilead means the place of rocks.
And I cannot count how many times in the Old Testament as well
as the New Testament that that particular word is used, rock. If we go to the Psalms, I think
there's some 50 times there's a comparison between rock and
Christ. There's a comparison between
a rock and our Savior. And I'd like to look up to it's
a place of rocks. We truly have a rock of ages. We have a rock of our salvation. We have a a place that we've
been drawn out of a horrible pit and placed upon, not physically
necessarily. We may have been delivered out
of a pit at one time. Our friend Joseph was, and he
was given to the Ishmaelites for 30 pieces or 20 pieces of
silver, and he went down to Egypt and spent a lot of his life down
there. The bulk of his life was spent
in Egypt. And it was down there that it was revealed to him that
those boys, his brothers, meant it for evil. You cannot hide
it. They meant it for evil. You cannot
go to the court and say that they didn't mean it for evil.
They meant it for evil. Every thought and every fiber
of their being, they were upset with this guy, jealous over him,
and they got rid of him because of their heart. But Joseph understood
that he was put in a position by Almighty God You meant it
for evil. God meant it for good. For salvation,
he says. For salvation. Now, Joseph had
a rock. Joseph had stability. It says
down there that he was in prison and the Lord was with him. And
it's interesting that this word is used, and he was a prosperous
man. Joseph is in prison, the Lord
is with him, and he was a prosperous man. He didn't have much prosperity
physically, but to have the Lord with you, it makes you a very
prosperous person. All right, turn with me, if you
would, to the Psalm, Psalm 18. As we look at the name of Gilead,
and as it's brought out here in the Psalms, Gilead means a
place of rocks, And it truly speaks about one who is our rock. The book of the Psalms, Psalm
18, if you'd look there with me, Psalm 18, verse two. Psalm 18, verse two. It says,
and this phrase is used, I didn't count them, but it's used many,
many times in the Psalms. The Lord is my rock. Now, that means he is the one
who stables me. He's the one that foundations
me. I think I shared Sunday about
speaking to a young man and I just shared this, my opinion, humble
though it be, my opinion about religion in the United States
that 99.9% of the churches in America do not know the gospel. And his comment to me was, I'm
surprised that you would say I'm not saved and that I'm a
false prophet. Well, I had nothing to say about
that. But if his entire deliverance or salvation is based upon what
people say about him, then that's a terrible plight to be in. And
I know what it was like. I was there. I was dependent
upon other people and signs and wonders and all kinds of things
to prove that I was saved. Well, when the Lord saved me
by his grace, that's not been an issue. I don't have to go
to Mike and say, what do you think? A lot of preachers have
spent a lot of time convincing people that they are saved. And
I've been asked about that and I says, I would never do that.
I had that happen to me one time. A preacher told me when I went
to him and said, I didn't think I was saved. He went through
the whole process again and nothing happened. So he just said, well,
you're called to preach. Well, that's nonsense. How can a man
do that? Anyway, so as we look here, the
Lord is my rock, he is my stability, and he's the one that guards
us. And my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler, the horn of
my salvation, my high tower. The Lord is everything, but it
begins with a rock, and that is that stability. You know his
omniscience is our stability? His omnipresence is our stability.
His omnipotence is our stability. That he would rule and reign
this world according to the good pleasure of his will is our stability. He makes us stable in the worst
of times. He keeps us stable in the best
of times. You know, one old preacher said,
there's nothing worse for a Christian than to be well off. Well, if
you're a Christian, that's not gonna be an issue. If you're
just a religious person, that will be an issue because a lot
of people, if they're well off, they forget the Lord and they
go off in another way. Well, the Lord is my rock and
my fortress. Now, another psalm, Psalm 40. This is one of my favorite
psalms. This is one that was really brought
to my attention when the Lord gave me the new birth, in the
book of the Psalms, Psalm 40, in verse two. Just remember that
that place that J.R. is from means a place of rocks. And here we have a rock, the
rock of our salvation is mentioned. That place truly speaks to us
about what Christ is to us. He is our rock. And here in the
book of Psalms, the book of the Psalms, Psalm 40, And there in
verse 2, He brought me up also out of a horrible pit. You know,
that's the truth. It is He that brings us out. We cannot get out. We're stuck
in the mud. A horrible pit out of the miry
clay. And set my feet on a rock. That He doesn't do anything else
with us but put us on a rock. He doesn't put us back in the
mud. He doesn't put us on a worldly basis. He puts us on the rock,
on the Lord Jesus, and established my goings. We are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. So He establishes
our goings. He causes us to draw towards
Him, to the high calling in Christ Jesus. And He's the one that
feeds us from His word. He knows exactly what we have
need of. He is our manna. He is our bread. He's our water
of life. But He gives us stability in
that He is our rock. Now, going back there to the
book of Judges for just a moment, in the book of Judges, We find
that in the book of Judges, J.R.' 's name, let's go there, book
of Judges chapter 10 again, Judges chapter 10. Now, I tried to find
out, and there is so much controversy, about how long is it from Joshua's
death to the time that Saul begins to reign? I've read from 200 years to 450
years. Well, if you take and add up
the peacetimes that are found in the book of Judges, you're
going to have to come up to a conclusion that is around 450 years between
Joshua died, and they turned aside from God
and he turned them loose out into the wilderness again, if
you might say that, until he raised up the first judge. And
then the last judge is going to be Samuel, but he's called
on to anoint Saul as king. So his judgeship is really over
at that time. Saul takes over. So it's a pretty
good chunk of of time, about 450 years in there. Well, 450
years of wandering. Talk about wandering in the wilderness
for 40 years. Here we have about 450 years
of wandering around. They have a judge, he keeps peace
for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, and as soon as he dies, and we're
gonna see that with this judge, as soon as he dies, they go off
a wandering again. And there are very few people
in the place that we have written about here that know the first
thing about the gospel. I'm thankful for the judge. He
knew something about it. And there's going to be a few
that the revelation of Jesus Christ is going to come to them.
But when we start reading about what happened after the judge
died, we find that the majority had nothing to begin with anyway.
I was talking to Mike today that those, when we find that the
Lord had so many, he fed 5,000 people and they're all following
him. And it says they believed, but when he started preaching
the gospel to them, oh, this is a hard saying, and they left.
Disciples left, well, nominal disciples, disciples that don't
know anything, they left. Disciples who don't want the
gospel, they left. But his disciples could not leave. Why? Because he's attached to
them. That's the only thing that kept them. So he's attached.
All right, going here into the book of the Psalms, excuse me,
not the book of the Psalms, book of Judges chapter 10, there in
verse three we have We have a name again. After him arose, forgive
me if I'm not pronouncing these names correctly, but I'm pretending
that I know how it is and not trying to stumble through it.
So, after him arose Jair, or Jair, or Jair, a Gileadite that
judged Israel 20 and two years. Now last week we found out that
that judge, even though there's only two verses written about
him, his very name meant something significant. His name means a
worm. Well, JR's name means he enlightens. Now, it doesn't mean he's enlightened,
but he enlightens. Now, in order to enlighten, you
have to be enlightened. But we find out that this is
speaking about, and it's when we go through the book of 1 John,
that word light comes up many, many times in the book of 1 John. But it's also used many, many
times in the Gospels. And that's what we have here.
The statement and the definition of the name is speaking of our
Savior. He is the one that enlightens. He is our true judge. And not judge in the sense he's
going to find out whether we've done good or bad, but judge in
the sense that he's going to watch over us. He cares for his
people. That's what these judges did.
They didn't hold court, but they were used by God to protect the
people, just like we find Gideon. He was used to the Lord to protect
the people. And that's what these two do. And for 23 years and
22 years, these guys protected the people so that they were
not oppressed by other people. Well, what a blessing we have
this very thought in the Lord. So this man's name means he enlightens. What a statement. And this speaks
of our Savior. He alone is the light which unlocks
the scriptures. It is a dark place. The scriptures
are so dark. We can read the words, but we
can't get the meaning. The spiritual things are not
revealed to us by just reading. Spiritual things are revealed
to us by the Holy Spirit, by God Almighty. So we don't have
a true revelation of the word of God by just reading it. We can't come to the correct
conclusion. I am drawn to that Ethiopian
eunuch every time I get in the subject and read there, do you
understand what you're reading? And he's as honest as rain. No. And we find out that the
Bible tells us that we can't know. It's spiritually discerned.
Natural man cannot receive the things of God. I am convinced
that when God is going to work on somebody, one of his lost
sheep, and they're reading the Bible, he is going to lead to
somebody that knows something about the Bible. He doesn't just
give us reading the Bible and we come up with the right answer.
We have to have someone do that. I'll never forget reading Arthur
W. Pink about over in the far east at one time, and they were
going through, much like we read a king in the Old Testament,
his servants were going through the temple and found that book
of the law. Been tucked there, can you imagine
the dust that was on it? And they brought it out and started
reading, and the king starts weeping over it. Oh my goodness. Well, Arthur W. Pink wrote about
a guy in one of the Far East countries that he was somebody
going through one of their temples and came up and someone had left
the Bible there. Or someone gave a Bible and went,
well, I'll just throw it over here in this place. Well, anyway,
he started reading it and he asked the priest, he says, is
there anybody that knows about this book? And he says, I don't
know anything about it, but there's a guy over in that town that
knows something about it. He'd got work. He went over there
and the guy was a preacher of the gospel. So how God moves,
it's not the reading of the word. It's the revelation through the
preaching of the word. That's what must be. And how
that, I'm thankful for sermon audio because that's preaching
of the gospel. It is. All right. Here we have this
guy's name. It means enlightened. He speaks
of our Savior. He speaks of having enlightenment. And so if you'll turn with me
to the book of John for just a few verses of scripture, we're
going to read several here in the New Testament about the blessed
benefit of the enlightener. I think of that old prophet there,
John's father. that said that when He comes,
when the Messiah comes, He is a light to lighten the Gentiles. and my people Israel. He's a
light to enlighten them. So as we look at this guy's name,
he is a picture of the light. He is an enlightener. His name
means enlightenment. So in the book of John chapter
one, if we'll turn there please, we'll look at a few verses here
about light. It's just one of those accounts
that means so much and shares so much when we start looking
at light in the scriptures. In the book of John chapter one,
And beginning with verse 1, it says, Now, if you believe that,
I mean with your whole heart, it's revelation. It is such a
hard thing to comprehend that Jesus the man is God, that
it has to come by enlightenment or revelation. We cannot get
to there. And even then, it's very difficult
for our brain to wrap around it. How come we know it's true?
By faith. That's all. We can't dissect
it, we can't figure it out, we can't say, how did God do that?
Well, he did this and, no, it's a miracle of God's grace that
we have that Messiah coming through the Virgin Mary. The same was
in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him,
and without him was not anything that was made. In him was life,
and the life was the light of men. So we're going to find out
that this word light means several things. Not only is it there,
or the sun, or the moon, as we read over in the book of Genesis,
a light to rule the day and a light to rule the night, or lights
to rule the night, but this also shares with us in this verse
of scripture that he is a light of men. In him was life, and
the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. It's a wonderful thing. If you've ever watched the earth
rotate through, it might even be through a mock-up, But when that sun starts coming,
the darkness cannot hold it back. And I'm just so thankful for
that principle about light. We could turn the lights off
in here and it'd be dark. As soon as we turn the lights
on, there is no darkness. It is dissipated. It is taken
care of. And I'm thankful for that quality
of the Lord Jesus that in Him is no darkness, but also in His
people. There is no darkness at all. It goes on to tell us here, and
the light shineth in darkness and darkness comprehended it
not. And then it tells us here in verse six, there was a man
sent from God whose name was John. And we're going to find
out about this. He is a man. He's sent from God. He's going to have a beginning
of days and end of life. He sent from God, and he came
to bear witness of God. And the Lord Jesus says in verse
seven, same came for a witness to bear witness of the light,
capital L, came to bear witness of the light that all men through
him might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. And he's the first to
admit, I'm not the light. I'm not the Messiah, I'm just
a servant. And then, that was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Now there
is a sense in which God gives everybody a light of human wisdom
and human understanding, but to the elect he gives the light
of spiritual understanding. We're not beasts. I was listening
to a Zoom meeting this afternoon, and one of the differences between
man and animals is that animals don't sit around and wonder what's
going to happen after they die. They are not given that light.
It's not something that is part of their makeup. But how many
people do? We're the only ones, the only
beings that have a thought about life after death. And to most
people, I just love what our friend up at the VA home said, we should, when we start to get
old age, we should start looking for some help because we're all
gonna die. Well, that's not natural, is it? We don't look for help,
we have to be given help. This is the true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Now, in this,
what a statement is made in here about light, light, light, light,
and light. And John's admitting, the word
is admitting, John is not that light, but there is that light.
Turn with me, if you would, just a little bit further in John
chapter three, John chapter three. In John chapter three, verse
19, we read these words. God did not give everybody a
little light and all we have to do is get it to be uncovered
and they'll have all the light. No, he has to put the light in
us. But this is the condemnation that light is come into the world. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. What a statement is
made here in the third chapter of John, verse 19. This is the
real problem that we face. This is sin comes up. This is the condemnation that
light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light. It's not natural for them. You
know, we're bedbugs. I remember my dad talking about
having bedbugs in his tent when he was in a logging camp. And,
you know, he'd wake up and turn the light on and those bugs would
just, as soon as the light was out, they're all over him. Well, that's just the way we
are. As soon as the light is out, we'll do things that we
would, oh my goodness. Brother Henry mentioned one of
his sermons one time. He said those, he went into the
Navy with a number of guys And oh, at home, around their families,
just nice guys, he says, you really find out what people are
like when they get off alone, away from their parents. Then
you find out what people are really like. Well, for everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. Again, light, light, and light.
JR's name means enlightened. And here we have this light.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light. How do we do that?
That his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. So we have to have something
happen. It's called the new birth. And the light becomes precious
to us. In fact, it says that our deeds are wrought in God.
Well, that's Ephesians 2.10 if I've ever read it. Our works
are wrought in God. We're not interested in hiding
in the darkness. We're interested in being in
the light. And that's what the Lord said
about the entire Old Testament. The light is there. The light
is there. The light is there. And all the
scriptures, the things concerning himself, what is he saying? There's
light everywhere in the Old Testament, but it is found in me and me
alone. It's not in the sacrifices, that's
darkness. It's not in all of the fakery that went on. It's
not in the priest. It's not in the sacrifices. It's
not in the angels. Those are not light, they're
darkness. But this light, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah is light
throughout the Old Testament. And he brought it into the New
Testament. Now in the book of Luke chapter two, we have that
verse of scripture. And it's interesting that in
Luke chapter two, when we think of enlightenment, This guy's
name, a judge, very little written about him. And once again, his
name bears weight with us as we look into it and find out
what it means. It means enlightenment. In the book of Luke chapter two,
Luke chapter two, verse 32, Luke chapter two, verse 32, Simeon, excuse me, I said it
was John's father, but it's Simeon. And it tells us in verse 30,
for my eyes have seen thy salvation. Where? This is not just a baby. This is God come in the flesh. This is the sin bearer. This
is the savior. which thou hast prepared before
the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and
the glory of thy people Israel." A light to lighten. And when
we were going through the book of Revelation, this word lighten
is the same word that we find over there, revelation of Jesus
Christ. So Simeon is saying a mouthful
here. How is he saying it? By the power of the Spirit. The
Spirit of God revealed unto him what enlightenment is required. and that light is God Almighty
in Christ Jesus. In the book of Ephesians, let's
look in the book of Ephesians. In the book of Ephesians, book of Ephesians chapter five, in verse eight, it tells us where we were and
by the grace of God where we are. For ye were sometimes darkness."
It doesn't say in darkness. It says darkness. You were darkness. Our thoughts were darkness, our
manners were darkness, our attitude was darkness. And then he says,
but now are ye light in the Lord. It doesn't say in the light,
it says light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. So this great and wonderful enlightenment,
this light coming on, the light of the glory of the Son of God.
It's a glorious attribute of God because it is written about
God. God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. He is light and He's the one
that gives us that light to understand the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
We have He has taken us out of darkness
into his marvelous light. And this is all an activity of
the Lord. You know, the next thing that
I found in going through that book of Judges over there is
that he's the father of many children, 30 sons. To me, that's
a pretty good family. It doesn't tell us how many daughters,
and he doesn't belittle it, but he's just, he had 30 sons. And,
you know, we find out with regard to our Savior, the Lord Jesus,
that his business, turn with me to the book of Hebrews chapter
two. Hebrews chapter two. It doesn't tell us the, folks that granddad, granddad,
great-grandfather of this judge, but it does tell us that he had
quite a number of sons. And if you'll turn with me to
the book of Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 10. We read this Sunday,
but it just right here, for it became him. Hebrews chapter 2
and verse 10, for it became him, for whom are all things, and
by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, or many
children unto glory. Many. Now, in comparison, we don't know. We're going to
go over to the book of Revelation in just a moment because it's
a number that no man can number. We don't know, but there will
be many that will not come. There'll be many who don't find
the narrow gate. There'll be many that will depend
upon their own righteousness. And there'll be many that hear
him say, depart from me. But, it tells us here to make,
in bringing many sons unto glory. Jireh had 30 sons. And you know
what? They rode like royalty. The Lord has many, bringing many
sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. And we read in 1 Peter, if you
turn with me to 1 Peter, we find that the Lord's business is bringing
many sons. His death is going to be effectual.
He's not depending upon natural man to make an agreement with
him. He's made the agreement in the
great everlasting covenant, and in
the great everlasting covenant, he has purpose to deliver all
his people from their sinful condition. Here in the book of
1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2, and there in verse 5, we read this. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also
it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But unto them that be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner. The stone of stumbling and the
rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being
disobedient, where unto us also they were appointed." It tells
us in here, it's the Lord's work in us. It's the Lord's work in
us. He's the one that brings children. He's the one, we are, as James
said, we are, thinking of the word, by his own will, begat
he us. So he has many children in this
world and many in the glory of the Lord. And then it tells us
there, that these guys, these 30 sons, a lot of sons, Jesus
is going to bring many sons into glory. These many sons wrote
on white asses, which was typical of kings writing on donkeys or
on asses. They appeared. Now he never intended
for them royalty. We don't find this judge like
Abimelech and wanting his to be king and then passes on to
his kids and so forth. Gideon said, not in this world.
The Lord is our king. And Abimelech says, oh, no, no,
I want to be king. Well, he was taken out of the
way and I don't believe that JR, or the previous king, had
any interest whatsoever of their children ever ruling or being
in that position. But they were put in that position.
And as in that position, we have one of those judges, JR, who
had many sons, riding in a sense of royalty. And turn with me,
if you would, to the book of... Oh, I'm in the wrong place right here. Book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 5, and verse 10. Now, if we think that we're worthy
to take the Lord's Supper, we're wrong. We're not ever worthy. If we think for a moment that
we are worthy to be in the family of God, we're wrong. It's not
worthiness that puts us there, it's grace that puts us there.
And here we find out more of the blessings that the Lord gives
his people. It says, and thou hast made us unto our God, on God's behalf, because of God,
he hath made unto us, he hath made us unto our God, notice
what it says, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
He has made royalty out of, well, over there in the book of Samuel, he raises us from the dung heap. What an exaltation that God gives
us. So we have a man, many, many
years ago, as a judge of Israel, whose name means enlightened.
He has a bunch of kids, which is a picture of the church of
the living God, how many there are. And they had the appearance
of royalty. And we may think, I just cannot
get there from here. I just don't feel royal at all.
Well, take it to the bank. The Lord does. I really appreciate
what I read on the Old Testament about Moses. He's just like us. I like what I read in the book
of Hebrews about Moses, God's view of it. And he's just like
us. God's view of his people is they
are perfect. That's his view. Now our view
is sometimes different than that, isn't it? Where is that? But this man had a bunch of sons. Our Savior had a lot of children
that he's bringing into glory, and they are royalty. They are royal children. He's
made them kings and priests. One translation puts king-priests,
that they have that kind of royalty. In closing, two judges, five
verses, two about one, three about another. Nowhere else is
anything mentioned about them, but they were raised up of God.
They were ordained of God. They were commissioned by God.
They did God's bidding and they did, both of them, did what all
of us shall do. They died. They died. Epitaph says they died. Well,
this will be our last Wednesday night Bible study until the New
Year, and we'll pick up in the book of Judges, chapter 10, and
verse, I believe it's verse 6, and the rest of that chapter
just is terrible. Israel and their attitude towards
God. All right, we'll stop here.