#19 The Reign of the Judges

Judges 2; 4; 6-7; 13-16
I want to start off by taking a poll-by raise of hands I want you to classify yourselves as either a lover or a fighter.
If you are a fighter your tendency is to be feisty, looking for a cause, your personality is such, that when someone says you have to do such and such, you’re the type that says, “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to!”
You’re a fighter whether you fight for yourself or someone else. You may like fighting for the underdog.
You are a lover if you tend to back down when confronted, or when someone is making a fuss you are the one to put yourself in others shoes before acting on any feeling. A lover wants all situations to be fair for all those involved. You are a lover who says, “They are doing the best they can!” Even if what they are doing is completely idiotic.

Now I realize there are many of you that could be classified as both depending on the situation and circumstance, but for now just raise your hand for the type that you are most of the time. Then I will ask you to raise your hands if you would be both depending on the circumstance.

My next question is this-how would you say that the Lord fights his battles; by loving or fighting? The stories in our lesson say He fights both ways depending on the situation.

Last question-whom does the Lord use to fight His battles with him? Us of course!
Because there are both lovers and fighters in this room, is it safe to say that at one time or another we will all be involved in a battle for/with the Lord?
All of us have been put on this battlefield called Earth, whether you will be face to face fighting you whole lives or face to face loving-at one time or another we will all be faced with choices that determine which way we are fighting. Sometimes it may be fighting both ways, sometimes the lovers may need the fighters to instill in us that “fight” that will get that fire lit underneath us.

Whether you are a lover of fighter there is one thing we must all learn-when to be lover and when to be fighter.
We will discuss 3 battles today the characters involved are some of each (lovers/fighters). We will figure out who is what type and if they used their personality type at the correct time and in the right ways.

Before we move on to the stories we need to mention that we are in Judges. Judges is the book where Israel doesn’t have a particular prophet to lead them because Joshua has died and there isn’t the mention of another to take his place. There are many who are strong leaders that act as judges; these judges are more like ministers or advisors rather than sitting on a judgment seat making major decisions. They help others as they are called upon to do or as the Lord calls upon them to do.

1st Story: Our 1st story is found in Judges 4; the stars of our story are: Deborah, Barak and Jael.
Here we have the children of Israel choosing other Gods again. The Lord doesn’t like it, He had asked Barak to gather the troops and fight against it. (4:6) but Barak must not have listened or perhaps we can assume that Barak is more of a lover and doesn’t want to fight, so it takes Deborah to call him on the fact he needs to obey the Lord. Barak makes a request 4:8 that she come with him, Deborah responds 4:9 that she will go. Is she a lover or a fighter? Fighter because she’s willing to go fight and help him be ready to fight, but she’s also a lover because she loves God and wants to do what must be done. She gives a stipulation that they go for the Lord not for his honor; she states that if they go for the Lord He will help them by delivering the leader of their armies to a woman who is on the Lord’s side, who is also a fighter and will do what must be done, named Jael.
The battle comes and Deborah, who is both a lover and a fighter stays close enough to the Lord that she knows which day the Lord delivers the leader of their Army, Sisera. The leader is killed by Jael (4:21), this instance puts in motion the Israelites conquering the Canaanites and brings Israel out of bondage again and into God’s good graces.

What can we learn from these lovers and fighters? From Barak we learn that He was motivated to fight by a fighter-a friend-both of who wanted the Lord’s will. When we have friends with the same righteous goals and desires as we do we should get together and fight, whether it’s to sign petitions, stand up for what benefits us and our families and stand together against things we don’t like.

From Deborah what do we learn? To stay close to the Lord, do what He asks, when he asks and fight when it’s necessary-motivate others to fight for right causes, in a loving way.

From Jael we learn what? I’m not sure because it doesn’t say, but I believe that because of the way this whole scenario played out; the Lord told her what to do and say as far as killing Sisera goes; just as the Lord showed Deborah it would. Jael saw what needed to be done and who needed to be conquered; whether she enjoyed the killing or not she did what had to be done. Just like Nephi had to do to Laban to retrieve the plates. Now this doesn’t tell us that we should go around killing people, but it does tell us that we must be prepared to fight and follow through with unpleasant things at times for the sake of good and righteous purposes.

2nd Story: Judges 6 Israel is in bondage again by the Midianites 6:1they did evil against God again. 6:6 Israel cries again-Lord sends a prophet 6:8 to warn them. He also sends an angel to Gideon 6:12 requesting Him to stand and fight! 6:16 by verse 15 we see that he is a lover, I’m poor, I can’t fight. He gives excuses for not fighting; I like to believe because he doesn’t like the idea of fighting and causing contention. I believe this because He begins to wonder if perhaps this is an evil spirit or the Lord speaking, so he asks for a sign 6:17 in D&C 129 is says that it is okay to ask for a sign so that we can determine if the spirit we are receiving communication from is from the Lord or the other source. The angel tells him what to bring, meat, bread & broth. The angel tells him what to do then hits the rock with his staff which causes fire (which is glory) to come out of the rock (Christ) and consume everything, as it was consumed the angel is caught up into heaven.
Gideon’s response? 6:22-23 He is now ready to fight for the Lord!
6:25-26 He cuts down a grove (a place where evil worship(immorality) took place) as well as destroyed the altar, built his own altar and sacrificed a 7 year old (7=covenant to the Lord) bullock. Gideon is called to lead the army of Israel and ready to fight. (Ch 7) Here is where we learn a big lesson about whom the Lord will have fight for Him and with Him!
Gideon has 22,000 people ready to fight-the Lord wants them to be sure that they know that He is the one that will be delivering them, not themselves. So He tells Gideon to reduce the army to the most valiant and best fighters-those who are ready physically and spiritually.
He first tells Gideon to tell those who are afraid or have any fear to go home! So what that tells me that to fight for/with the Lord we cannot FEAR! Can we fight our battles w/o fear? Are we willing to trust in the Lord-sometimes that’s asking a lot-but if we can’t trust him we don’t deserve Him! This cuts the number to less than ½ (10,000 men). Then He has Gideon tell them to get a drink. The Lord says 7:5 if they kneel on knees and cup their hand for water, they are the ones with physical strength and restraint enough to take their time to drink, as well as being a humble people-they are the ones He wants to fight with Him! That # ends up equaling 300 men. Now I understand why the Lord would want those who love their bodies enough to respect them and have the physical restraint to take their time; but why would He want them to be humble? I believe so we would be open to His instructions as well as humble enough to give credit to the Lord and testify of His help afterwards.
Now that he’s chosen the men who will fight, He gives them their weapons-now I don’t know about you but when I think of battle I think of swords and sharp things-the Lord has another weapon in mind (7:8) The Lord has them use musical instruments, split up 7:16 on every side of the enemies camp, blow their trumpets and visceral’s in the middle of the night and yell (7:18) “Sword of the Lord and of Gideon” 7:19-20 As they did so 7:21 it scared their enemies so bad they were running and crying and fled. That started the battle where the Lord delivered them.
So what do we learn about being a lover/fighter from Gideon?

3rd Story: Judges 13-16
Here Israel again is in bondage to the Philistines and Samson is our main Character I would classify him as a fighter through and through, a selfish fighter (14:3) In fact the more I read this story I realize Samson’s “fight” turns on when He needs Revenge for being offended. (14:19; 15:3-7; 15:14-15; etc.) He doesn’t turn to the Lord much. Even though the scriptures say “the spirit of the Lord was with Him” the OT manual says that this isn’t to be taken in the sense we would normally take it. This tells us that He has a spiritual gift, that of physical strength, but not necessarily the Spirit of the Lord in him, otherwise why would he act out of revenge every time? The long hair was symbolic of the covenant between Him and the Lord. Most all the fight’s he got into were because of his own selfishness and desires of revenge. He did seek and receive help from the Lord at the end when He had been shaven, taken, & used for sport. The Philistines had taken him and used him as part of their entertainment-mocking him about his God. God doesn’t stand for that so when Samson calls on him for strength (16:28) and help in knocking down their temple and killing everyone involved, he does. Sad as that story is even in the end Samson was after revenge more than helping God.
Now I didn’t dwell on this story too much because I’m not sure I’ll have time to get to it as well as the fact I just wanted to mention what being a fighter w/o being a bit of a lover can do to a person. If we don’t love God and want to fight for Him and with Him then being a fighter doesn’t accomplish as much good as it could and help as many people as it would. The prophecy that he would BEGIN to destroy the Philistines was true, he did kill many of them and obviously his life’s purpose was fulfilled. But what I learned from Samson and the others is this: I know that the Lord wants us to fight when it’s time to fight and love when it’s time to love- He wants us to learn when those times are in our lives. But whether we’re lovers or fighters we are always fighting either FOR or AGAINST Him. Let us be fighters for good let us be humble and stay close to the Lord so we know how to fight the way the Lord would have us fight-with Him at our sides! In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.