Judges 3:7-31
How Do You Know Who Your Savior Is?

I. How Do You Know Who Your Savior Is?
A. How People Decide Who Their Savior Is: Charisma, personal magnetism, anointing, charm; or Institutionalism, the right organization appoints; or the celebrity they will go hysterical for.
B. Who Your Savior Is Depends On What You Think You Need Salvation From
1. If you think that your greatest need is romance, the “soul-mate”, then your savior is that one.
2. The cult of romance: life is about finding that special someone.
3. Rugged individualists think they are self-sufficient; that they don’t really need a savior.
II. Othniel (3:7-11): the man who won his bride by conquering Kiriath-sepher (1:12)
A. Rebellion (3:7): the Israelites do evil
1. Forget: They forget the Lord.
a. To “forget” means to let something slide out of memory. It’s a passive.
b. They neglected to remind themselves about the Lord.
2. Serve: Baal and Asheroth
a. These people forgot and so they served the fertility gods, attractive to farmers.
b. Today people forget God and so accept the prosperity gospel, moralistic, therapeutic religion, or maybe they chase the almighty dollar, their ego, their bank account.
B. Retribution (3:8)
1. The anger of the Lord is kindled against them, like a fire: hard to start, hard to put out.
2. God “sold them” the hand of “Cushan-rishathaim”, “Cushan of double wickedness”.
C. Repentance (3:9): they “cried out to the Lord”
1. Repentance is more than remorse, feeling sorry. It’s turning away from sin, to the Lord.
D. Rescue (3:9): “the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel who saved them”
1. “The Spirit of the Lord was upon” Othniel. We can tell because he because he saved.
E. Rest (3:11): God’s true savior gives his people rest.
1. False saviors pile on a list of rules that you have to keep: don’t eat this or drink that.
2. A true deliverer brings you to rest.
III. Ehud (3:12-30): the cycle starts over
A. The Misery (3:12-14): “the Lord strengthened Eglon”
1. God is in absolute control. This tyrant got power over Israel because the Lord enabled him.
2. God’s “steadfast love” will pursue them in their rebellion and use misery to bring them back.
B. The Man (3:15): a left-handed man, implies a handicap. He was one of the weak.
C. The Mission (3:16): Strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter.
1. He makes a double-edged dagger; easiest for a south-paw (left-handed) like him to get it.
D. The Message (3:17-25): Ehud has a pointed message to give Eglon.
1. Eglon has gotten fat off of oppressing Israel. He’s in his palace with a cool roof chamber.
2. A gruesome scene: the blade goes all the way in and his intestines come out.
E. The Mandate (3:26-27): Ehud he sounds the trumpet, the people gather, and he is their leader.
F. The Manifestation (3:28-30): Ehud manifests that he was a (small “s”) savior.
1. He leads them to seize the fords of the Jordan so the Moabites can’t rally under a new leader.
IV. Shamgar (3:31): kills 600 Philistines with an ox-goad. He defeats the enemies of God’s people with a farmer’s tool. He also is a savior.
V. Invitation: Shamgar shows us how simple it is: Your savior is the one who saves you. When finally we see what our need is, what we need saving from, then we’ll understand who our savior is. Our greatest problem is sin. We have kindled God’s anger against us because of our sins. Looking to money or pleasure or romance to complete us, angers the Lord the most. That is the essence of sin. Death has been raised up by God to separate us from things we loved instead of God. Death has gotten fat off of devouring nearly every person. Jesus defeated our enemies, first, with carpenter’s tools: hammers and nails. Then by conquering death. Jesus put out the fire of God’s wrath and defeated that last enemy. He rose from the dead. He’s the one who saves you.