I had no idea when I started
this how much I was going to enjoy the study of the Book of
Judges, and yet there is much to be said about some of it's
just depressing. When we see what natural man
will do with the gospel, what natural man will do with a good
God, what natural man will do with God's word. And then to
find out, that's where I was. I was in that same situation. And you think you're doing fine,
and I'm sure that most of those Jews that went off after other
idols says, well, this is just about as good. And for my generation,
it's probably better than the generation. grow a little wisdom,
you know, and it turns out we're just going down the same tube.
So, but the book of Judges chapter two, if you would look at that
with me, Judges chapter two, and I want to start reading with
verse 11. And this, this is after, this
is after, This is after Joshua has died. Now, there's no mistake in how
many times Joshua's death is mentioned in the scripture. It's
there on purpose, and it certainly does share with us as we read
the book of Joshua and as we read the book of Judges, that
he had a great deal of impact upon those folks. It wasn't him,
it was the Spirit of God that had saved him and called him
into the ministry and so forth. And so we have that mention and
then we find out that after Joshua and after the generation that
was of Joshua's generation had all died, things went bad. You know, we can say the law
restrains people, but it doesn't do a thing for the heart. And
as soon as the law is lifted in their minds, at least, we're
going to just see what natural man will do without any restraint
at all. I never preach the law. The law
is holy, just, and good. It declares the holiness of God. It declares what we must have
in order to see God. We must be holy. We must be righteous. And we will not see God without
his righteousness, not our righteousness, but his righteousness. So it's
an instrument. but it never was intended to
bring anybody to salvation, and it is not intended ever to be
used as a whip to control people after they're saved. If the Spirit
of God is not able to do what he said he will do, then the
law is not going to do it either. But the spirit of God is all
powerful. The spirit of God leads his people.
I love what the Lord said about his word. My sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. Well, there's not many doing
that. That's what he said too. There's not many that will hear
that. So he's, well, you're not following.
okay, there's where you are. So we're just looking here with
regard to the book of Judges here. In Judges chapter two,
it says in verse 11, and the children of Israel did evil in
the sight of the Lord and served Balaam. And the children, and
they forsook the Lord. I just looked at that. They did
evil. They forsook the Lord God of
their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt.
Now, if we have any inclination whatsoever to say, I would not
have done that. I've had people tell me that.
I would not have been like that. Well, we are like that. If left
to ourselves, this is exactly the trail that we will travel.
He says, not only will we forsake the Lord that brought us out,
but we will serve other gods. They forsook the Lord, verse
12, the God of their fathers, which brought them out of the
land of Egypt, and followed other gods, the gods of the people
that were round about them, and bowed themselves down unto them,
and provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served
Baal and Ashtoth. The anger of the Lord was hot
against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of the spoilers
that spoiled them. And who was it that brought all
of these other peoples into the land? We just sit back and say,
it was of the Lord. This is God's work. It is his
doing. And through all of that, it never
changed a heart. It never made anybody better. And we're going to have people
crying at least 12 times in this book of Judges crying, we'll
never do that again. Please help us, Lord. Well, that
spoiled them and sold them into the hands of their enemies roundabout
so that they could no longer stand before the enemies. Whithersoever
they went out of the hand of the Lord was against them for
evil as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them,
and they were greatly distressed. Verse 16, nevertheless, the Lord
raised up judges in spite. of them, in spite of their actions,
in spite of their disobedience, in spite of them, he raised up
judges. And you know, we find in spite
of the condition that we were in and pretending that it was
okay and that we're fine and things are going along well,
we're worshiping all of these other idols, but in spite of
that, nevertheless, the Lord raised up the Lord. And it was
out of necessity if there was ever going to be anybody saved.
Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them
out of the hand of those that spoil them. And then even at
that, yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went
a whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them and
so forth and so on. through the rest of this chapter
and almost through the continuation of this book. But we'd like to
look at a few things here that we notice. They did evil, they
forsook, they followed, they bowed, they provoked, they forsook
the Lord, and on and on this goes. to forsake, or this word
forsook, is to depart from, leave behind, abandon, apostatize. And truly we see that in the
children of Israel, that they apostatize. And every one of
them would say, we have our father Abraham. And they went through
the rites that were required under the Mosaic law. before
they could enter into the promised land or settle in the promised
land, they had to renew the rights that God had given them that
they hadn't done for all those years. And so here they are,
they have all the rights of the religion and yet they forsook
the Lord. Turn with me if you would to
the book of Exodus chapter nine. As we think about this word forsook,
they forsook the Lord. This is an interesting verse
that takes place in the book of Exodus and it's in chapter
nine. And this is during the time that
that Pharaoh will not let the children of Israel go. And so
the Lord brings these different plagues upon the land. And one
of them tells us in chapter nine, verses 20 and 21, chapter nine,
verse 20 and 21. If we back up, we find those
who cared about things, They did something, but here it says,
verse 20, he that feared the word of the Lord among the servants
of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the
houses. And he that regarded not the
word of the Lord, and that word regarded not, We have here, excuse
me, left, that's the word, left his servants and his cattle in
the field. Now, those who regarded the word
says we better get our servants and our cattle in the houses,
and those who did not, left, And that's what Israel did, they
left the Lord. There really was never much of
an attachment to the Lord, and we find that by nature we have
no attachment to the Lord if it wasn't for the grace of God.
This term follows suit throughout the scriptures, and if you turn
with me over to the book of Acts chapter 14, Acts chapter 14,
we notice another statement made here from the New Testament eye,
in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 14 verse 16. Acts chapter 14
and verse 16 we have this word and it says, speaking about the
Lord, who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their
own ways. The word of the Lord says, who
in times past suffered all nations, including Israel, to walk in
their own ways. Now it's just a demonstration
to us that unless we have the Lord, we will walk in our own
ways, and we will not serve the Lord. We always have a barrier. Oh yes, I'm bound before the
Lord, but let me keep my hand on this. So this issue that is
among natural man is there from time, from the very fall until
this time, and we find out that all the people throughout the
Old Testament and today are walking, what did it say over there? suffered
all nations to walk in their own ways. And we're gonna find
a statement here in the book of Judges that says, every man
did what was right in his own eyes. Boy, everybody's religious. Man did what was right in their
own eyes. Well, it's a downhill fling. Now, there in verse 16, it says,
nevertheless, the Lord raised up Judges. You know, it's such
a, I just say, that is, what a statement. That's a bunch of
palm trees around a pool of water that the Lord would do anything
during this period of time, and it was all because of His grace. He's not required to do that,
but His grace It demonstrated here, nevertheless, the Lord
raised up judges. Now we're gonna find out that
the judges was not voted upon and the people didn't vote on
the judge either. The judge was put into that position and the
people did not vote on him. It was the Lord that raised up
judges. And we're gonna find that principle
found out throughout the scriptures with regard to our salvation.
that it was the Lord that was involved, the Lord purposed it,
the Lord did it, and we are the recipients of it. Now, I think,
when did this happen? When did God do this? When did
he say, nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges? Well, two verses
came to my mind. Sometimes I sit at my table and
I study and I get my brain full. And I just can't go any further.
And so I get up and I go out and I ruminate. Now I've had
preachers tell me that I should be in my study eight hours a
day. And I have to tell them I can't
do it. My brain gets too full. I just can't go any further.
I can't study any longer. I have to get out and ruminate
it. Well, today I was out ruminating
and I says, Lord, when did that happen? And two verses were brought
to my attention. Now it wasn't new verses to me,
it was verses that are old verses, but it made such an application
here. And if you would turn with me to the book of Ezekiel chapter
16, Ezekiel chapter 16, when did the Lord raise up judges
for these people? They are their haywire. They are desperate. They are
wicked. They bow down to anything. If you follow what they're bowing
down to, they are wicked. Tuesday, I had a young man out
at church, and we're going over, we're in the book of John, and
it said there in the book of John that something about, they
knew him not, I think it was. They asked him, who art thou,
or they knew him not. And we went over to the Old Testament
there and read a couple of passages of scripture about, and this
young man got a kick out of it. He kind of giggled when we started
reading it, because you'll go out, oh, you missed a blessing
here, Mike. You had a big tree out here that
you could really use. Cut down a tree. Part of it you
warm yourself with, part of it you bake your bread with, part
of it you roast your meat with, and part of it you carve into
an idol and bow down before it. And twice it says that they have
ears but cannot hear, they have eyes cannot see. One passage
says they have noses but cannot smell, the other, mouths that
cannot speak, hands that can't do anything, feet that can't
go anywhere. And everyone that worships them is just like that. Now when do things change? When
does God's blessing come upon his people? What activates that? What brings it to a head? What
is going to require God to come down and raise up judges? Is it because they went down
so far into the pit that he's better deliver them or they're
going to do away with themselves? Not on your life. He does it
on his own purpose. Now look, notice over here, book
of Ezekiel chapter 16. The book of Ezekiel chapter 16,
we find this wonderful passage of scripture that tells us exactly
when God deals with his people, exactly when he raised up judges.
And this is why too, in Ezekiel, let me get there. Ezekiel chapter
16 and verse eight, I think it is. And it says here, now, when
I passed by thee and looked upon thee, I was gonna go back. I looked upon
thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. What's that mean? In God's good purpose, it was
the right time to deliver this. And he's speaking about, I think
he's speaking about spiritual Israel here. It's not national
Israel. So he keeps speaking about in the time of love. Well,
had we sinned so much that now he has to take up? No, it's in
the time of love. Are we so desperately crying
out? No, it's in the time of love.
when he said, I will demonstrate, set my love upon, you shall know,
it goes on to tell us, and spread my skirt over thee. Well, that's
just another name, another word for having his robe of righteousness
applied to us. I, in the time of love, and then,
and covered thy nakedness, yea, I'll swear unto thee and enter
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. In the time of love. When did
these judges raise up? In God's time of love. I have a people that need to
hear the gospel. All right, now the New Testament
puts it this way. Would you join me over in the
book of Galatians? The New Testament puts it this way. The Old Testament,
that's only one passage I realize, but the Old Testament there mentions
in the time of love. God knows the condition. It is
bad since the beginning. He knew what was going to happen
in the Garden of Eden, and He knew how bad it was going to
be. It was so bad. The condition he saw so bad that
he must send his only begotten son to get us out of the mess
we're in. Nothing else would do. No works could do it. No other person could die for
us and pay for the penalty of sin. And so it must be his only
begotten son. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, the son of his father, Mercy,
son of his love. And then over here in the book
of, I'll get there, Galatians. Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one, verse
15. With regard to Paul. Now Paul
is, we're gonna find out a little later in our lessons, Paul is
an example of believers. He recognized that fact. God
had it cost him to understand that how God saved Saul is how
he saves his people. It's God that does it. I just
so appreciate that article by Robert Hawker. He unhorsed him.
In a field of battle, that is the worst thing that can happen
to you if you are on a horse. Be unhorsed. Now you are vulnerable. Well, he unhorsed him on the
way to Damascus and caused him to bow. And that's what he said
he would do. He would make all his people
bow and call him Lord. But when, here's this time element,
when Why didn't he do this before Stephen was killed? It's above my pay grade. I don't
know, God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty is the only
answer we have for many things that take place. Why didn't he
do this before? Why didn't he do this before?
Why didn't he do this before? And yet we find here, but when
it pleased God, that's the timing, when it pleased God. Whatever
time, when was with him, whenever, when it pleased God. Over in
the Old Testament, we read that in the time of love, it was his
time and he is going to establish judges in his time. and he is going to establish
judges when it please God. Now, it doesn't mean that the
people were any better or any worse when he brought them up,
because we found out they're already in a very terrible condition
before he even appoints a judge. How did the Lord Jesus find this
earth? Man, he came down to a real wash
tub full of dirty water. When he came down here, He wasn't
astonished by it. He knew full well what it was
like, but it was terrible. So when it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal
his son in me. God the Son had already been
with him. God the Son had already protected him. I'm sure that
there was an assassin notices out on this guy, because he is,
a terrible guy, he's a murderer. And we'll find out the Apostle
Paul's words, his own words about it. But he, when he revealed
his son in me and call me by his grace that I might preach
among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood, neither one eye up to Jerusalem. I didn't go get some
counseling. You know, that's a neat thing
that we find with regard to the Apostle Paul, and I will never,
ever invite anyone to come up and shake my hand because I have
no reason to have anybody confess their sins to me. I didn't die
for them. Look to Christ. Go to Christ. Get alone with Christ. Don't
come here. So, as we find this, nevertheless,
the Lord raised up judges in his time, in the time of love,
he raised these up, and what longsuffering the Lord demonstrated
with national Israel. What longsuffering! How longsuffering
was the Lord? Well, we find that this is one
of his wonderful attributes, particularly on our benefit,
for us, his longsuffering, that he would be longsuffering to
usward, not willing that any should perish. Boy, we gave him
every reason to snuff us out, but he's longsuffering to usward. All right, turn with me, if you
would, back to the book of Exodus, chapter 34. God speaking about
God. I love when the Bible speaks
about God. I like what is on the front of
the bulletin. I have a book by that guy, and
it's about that thick, and I'll tell you, it is strenuous reading. It's written in the 1600s, and
those guys wrote different. They say in a thousand words
what somebody could say in 15. But anyway, I found that in there
and I just said, I'm just gonna leave it on the front of the
bulletin. But here in the book of Exodus chapter 34, Exodus
34, we have God speaking about God. Exodus 34, and there in
verse five, verse five, it says here, and the Lord descended
in the cloud. Exodus 34. Verse 5, the Lord
descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed
the name of the Lord. The Lord descended and proclaimed
the name of the Lord. The Lord passed by before him
and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty. You know, He's gonna
forgive, but He will not clear by just saying, oh, I love you
so much, I'm just gonna put it away. He must, needs, go to the
cross. He must endure that wrath of
the Father on that cross. Noam is visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's children,
upon the third and fourth generation. What? Adam's sin imputed to me? Yes, that's true. I don't know
how many generations it is, but it's been a while. since Adam
did what he did, but it's still being put upon the children to
our generation. We're still dealing with it.
And there's only one that can deal with it in such a way that
it puts it away. So he is long-suffering. This
is one of the wonderful characteristics, one of the attributes of God
is he's long-suffering. My, he's long suffering with
Israel. Look at that. They just kept
going downhill and downhill and downhill and downhill. And every
time they had a quote unquote revival, after it was over with,
they went downhill and downhill. I'm getting you prepared for
the rest of the book of Judges. Thank God, in his time of love,
he raised up somebody that delivered him for a season. You know, that
is so indicative of what the Lord does in being long-suffering
to people, even wicked people, even Saul of Tarsus. long-suffering
because in their loins are going to be the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. He could have wrapped it up when
Adam sinned, but he'd already written names down in the Lamb's
Book of Life. He already had a lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He couldn't wrap it up then.
He's long-suffering. He could have wrapped it up in
Noah's time. My goodness, most of the world
was destroyed anyway. Eight souls were spared. After
all the preaching that Noah went through, eight souls went into
that ark and God closed the door. Well, we think this, things are
gonna be different now. We got rid of all the bad people.
Guess what? They were on board the boat.
They just came along with the boat and they're dumped out.
And before you know it, we have the Tower of Babel And then,
the call of Abraham. Now, what if that line had been
wiped out? God is long-suffering to usward. All right, as we look at this,
he's endured with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction. He was long-suffering to a whole
bunch of those people out of Israel. And guess what? And he
was long-suffering. You know, Moab is really a, they're
a terrible group of people, very idolatrous. And he could have
just, shook. But there was one we know of
that he was long-suffering for, and her name is Ruth. And we
call her Sister Ruth. because we've been saved out
of the same because of God's long-suffering. First, turn with
me, if you would, to 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3, as we
think of God's long-suffering, in the book of 2 Peter 3, Anybody ask you recently, what
do you think about the red heifers? They're already shipped to Israel.
Guy hired a great big airplane, carried them over there, paid
for it, lock, stock and barrel. I told a fellow today, had to
be a Baptist. He says, how come he had to be
a Baptist? I says, he's from Texas. How crazy can you be? Send four
red heifers to Israel. Yeah, it's gonna usher in the
kingdom. We're gonna have Jesus back right
away. That's his goal. Well, here in the book of 2 Peter
3, verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some
men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but all that should come to repentance. You know,
I've heard that till I wore out my ears. Without anybody ever
taking into consideration who this is written to. It's the
us word. It's the us word that this whole
book was written to. It's to saints. And God has promised
that he will not wrap this up until every one of his children
are accounted for and at his feet. Not one will be lost. He said that, I'll lose none
of them. So his long-suffering continues right now. Man, he
has every right in the world just to wrap this thing up like
a ball and throw it away. But he's long-suffering to us. And in the same book, chapter
three, verse 15, we read this. An account that the long-suffering
of our Lord is salvation. The long suffering of the Lord
in the days of Israel, after Joshua, after those men that
knew the great things that God had done, didn't change any of
their hearts. Deuteronomy says, God didn't give them the ability
to perceive, didn't change their hearts. You just think they would
act better, but we know they couldn't. Desperately wicked, desperately
wicked. Well, here it says, in the book of 2 Peter 3, verse
15, an account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even
as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given
unto him, hath written unto you. The apostle Paul was used to
write this. Now, turn with me, if you would,
to the book of 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1. We have here in 1 Timothy chapter
one and verse nine. I want to start with verse nine.
The Apostle Paul, he reminds me of Israel in the Old Testament.
He's a renegade. And those guys were. You just
turn them loose and say, head that direction. And before you
know it, they're looking over here at Baal and Balaam and Ashtroth
and all the girls and all the boys that are over there with
Baal and Balaam and Ashtroth. And before you know it, everybody's
over there and there's nobody over here. Well, that's just
the way it is by nature. We will not gravitate towards
the Lord. We will gravitate towards religion
and we'll call it worshiping the Lord. We find out after we've
been born again, we weren't worshipping the Lord one iota. We were not
worshipping the Lord with one whisper of our voice, one prayer
we ever offered, one verse of scripture we ever read. We were
never worshipping the true and the living God. We were worshipping
the God of our imagination. When we're born again, first
time we ever got to worship God. And he accepts that. All right,
notice this with me. In verse 9 of 1 Timothy chapter
1, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and for the disobedient, for the ungodly,
for sinners, for unholy, profane for murders of fathers and murders
of mothers and manslayers for whore monglers for them that
defile themselves with mankind for men stealers for liars for
he covers it we just go right back over there to the book of
Judges and find oh there they are right there whole pile of
them guess what they just came down through time and now they're
right down here where Paul is writing and he says if there be any other thing that
is contrary to sound doctrine. So if I haven't enumerated them
all, anything else you come up with, it's covered. All right,
and then he says, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God, which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who has enabled me for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. Who was before, and if we went
back up, we'd find he's already covered himself, blasphemer and
a persecutor and injurious, injurious, but I obtained mercy because
I did it ignorantly and unbelief." You know how people say, well,
because he did it ignorantly, God looked on him. You know what
he's admitting? I studied the law, I knew the
Bible inside and out, I knew all about the law, I knew about
the Old Testament, I knew everything about it, but I was ignorant
of God. Every bit of it. I was ignorant
of God. And ignorance is no excuse. In
fact, it is just a sign, pure sign of sinful heart. He's not saying, well, God kind
of looked at me and winked at me because I did it in ignorance.
No, ignorance is no excuse. It is the worst excuse. I didn't
know that that was part of the law. Well, go on here, it says,
and the grace and, oh, Verse 14, and the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which was in Christ
Jesus. That is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. How be it for this cause
I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ has shown forth
all longsuffering. for a pattern to them which he
had hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. I am a pattern
of long suffering. God had every right to rub me
out. You know, as Robert Hawker wrote,
he kind of felt like probably for the rest of his life, Saul
of Tarsus, Paul the apostle, was so thankful for the grace
of God because he had every right to put him in the pit. Well,
I obtained mercy that Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering. What a picture he is of what
we find over there in the Old Testament about those people
under the judges. God is going to demonstrate long-suffering. Long-suffering means salvation.
Not one will be lost. All will be brought in. Everyone
that God has ever purposed to ever save will be saved according
to his word and according to his long-suffering. You know,
as I mentioned, Moab was a sinful nation, and we find that mentioned
in the scriptures, but right in the middle of that is a lady
by the name of Ruth, and we find out God sent a family over there. Now, talking about commentaries,
I read a commentary where they were wrong for leaving Israel
and going over there during the famine. Well, God said it's okay,
because they went over there and took the gospel with them.
And guess what? They brought home Ruth. That's
going to be in the line of the Lord Jesus. And through her,
the Christ child would be born in Bethlehem. Notice said, as
what Paul said there in verse 16, what long suffering he gave. And He did it in ignorance, yes,
but in unbelief, yes, but that's no excuse. He's just admitting
of all the wisdom I had, natural wisdom, I didn't know the gospel.
All the training I had, didn't know a thing. Been in Gamaliel's
school of the law, didn't learn a thing, didn't know anything.
I thought I did, I was self-righteous in everything that I did and
said. And so we find as we go back to the book of Judges chapter
two. Judges chapter two. Let's look there one more time.
Judges chapter two. God is long suffering. He has
every right. But according to his covenant
of grace, he can't move. He must stay the course. I have my people to find. I'll be long suffering. All right,
going back to the book of Judges. in chapter two, chapter two,
and there in verse 16, it says, nevertheless, the Lord raised
up judges, hallelujah, which delivered them out of the hand
of those that spoiled them. Oh, thank you, Lord. And yet, and if we, for a moment, think
we would have been better than them. In this, we have deceived
ourselves. Yet they would not hearken unto
their judges, but they went a-whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves
unto them, and turned quickly out of the way, which their fathers
walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord. But they did not
sow. And when the Lord raised them
up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered
them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge."
Did you notice who was with the judge? The Lord was with the
judge. For it repented the Lord because
of their groanings by reason of them that were oppressed them
and vexed them and came to pass when the judge was dead, that
they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in following
other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them. They ceased
not from their own doing. nor from their stubborn way.
And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. And he said,
because that this people have transgressed my covenant, which
I commanded their fathers and have not hearkened to my voice,
I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the
nations which Joshua left when he died. That through them I
may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord
to walk where they're in, as their fathers did keep it or
not. Therefore the Lord left those
nations without driving them out hastily, neither delivered
he them out of the hand of Joshua. So he's gonna use all of these
things. God uses means. He demonstrates that all the
time. God uses means. And these other nations are gonna
be used as means. There's gonna be some out of
all of these people that God is gonna deliver. because of
his long suffering. He's going to deliver. He's going
to use means. How God moves means. I think of Hosea. He put up encumbrances. Sticker patches. to make this
woman go where she needed to go. And it's just like the Lord. The Lord puts up sticker patches
for us so that he moves us where we need to be at the right time
so that we can hear of his great salvation, his long suffering,
and find out what a blessing it is to know this God, the God
of spiritual Israel, I will give them a heart to love me. All right, we're going to stop
there and we'll pick up a few things in this section. There's
no, you can't say anything good about them. Man, talk about Israel. He's not talking about the Hittites
or the Amorites or the Moabites. He's talking about Israel. There's
no good in them. There is one that is good. His
name is God and he is long suffering.