And also the baby pops with surgery this week and there may still be others.
I'm not sure. Is there nothing to be audrey today?
I guess we're going to send her home tomorrow because we have such a long schedule.
Okay, we're going to send her home tomorrow.
Alright, let's open our Bibles together to the book of Judges.
And the ninth chapter. Are you able to hear me okay?
A rather strange and awful story actually about a man named Abimelech.
It is a story that is unique in the book of Judges.
Abimelech actually was not a judge in the sense as we have defined that term.
He was a man who was more of a renegade than anything else.
So some have asked, well why is this included in the book of Judges, this story about the man?
The answer to that is probably at least three-fold.
First of all, it gives us some insight as to the extent of Baal worship in that part of Palestine this time.
Baal was a part of the pantheon of the Canaanites.
He was the son of El, who was their head god.
And his name still is retained today over in that area.
Some of you have perhaps been to the ruins in Lebanon called Baalbek,
which I think is accessible anymore because of the war there.
But the name is still retained today and we'll see it in tonight's lesson as well.
Secondly, the story gives us the conditions that existed in central Israel during this period of time.
Most of the stories in Judges take place in the northern part of Palestine or in the southern part.
This hits right in the middle and it tells us what it was like there.
It also gives to us early on an expression of the tendency on the part of the people of Israel toward a monarchy,
showing us that they wanted a king to rule over them.
They were not satisfied, they were not content with a theocracy, the rule of God.
They wanted the rule of one king.
And this gives us an example of what's a limited number of people involved,
a limited geographical area still shows us that that was the heart's desire.
It says, And Abimelech the son of Jeroboabol went to Shechem to his mother's relatives.
Back up a few verses to chapter 8 and look at verse 31.
Jeroboabol is of course another name for Gideon.
And it says in verse 31, his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son and he named him Abimelech.
And so now we have a little bit of understanding as to the origin of Abimelech.
He is the son of a slave woman.
And he lived, she lived in the city of Shechem so that's where her relatives were from.
That's why Shechem is so important in what happens in chapter 9.
This was his home turf so to speak.
His name also is interesting because Abimelech means his father is king.
Now Gideon had been offered the kingship and had refused it.
And yet he went on to live like a king in wealth and a lot of wives and concubines.
And so even the naming of his son suggests to us that while he refused the title,
he nonetheless rather enjoyed that image, his father as king.
And perhaps because he grew up with that name, Abimelech is early on tempted toward becoming the next king,
the first king actually of Israel.
And Abimelech the son of Jehovah-Wilbent to Shechem, his mother's relatives,
and spoke to them and the whole clan of the household of his mother's father saying,
Speak now in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem, which is better for you,
that seventy men, all the sons of Jehovah-Wilbent, rule over you or that one man rule over you?
So he's giving them a choice. He says, would you rather have seventy people to give tribute to
and to honor his king or his many kings or would you rather just have one?
And then he goes on to say, oh by the way, remember that I'm your bone and your flesh.
And so he presents to them an alternative.
The implication seems to be here that somebody's about to rule over you.
Now whether that was true or not, we don't know.
Gideon was dead by this time. Were his sons in fact planning to put themselves in a position of ruling over the nation?
That is the implication. That's what Abimelech at least wanted them to think.
And they were Israelites and he was half-Kinanite.
And so who would they rather have rule over them?
These seventy Jews or one who was at least partially like them?
And his mother's relatives spoke these words in his behalf in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem.
And so they took this message back to all the people who lived there.
And the people who lived in Shechem were both Israelite and Kinnunite.
There was a mixture. And they were inclined to follow Abimelech.
But they said he is our relative. He's partly like us at least.
And so they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal Barith.
He was the lord of the covenant.
This was a temple, a place of worship of these pagan gods there in the city of Shechem.
They took some money out of the church treasury.
You understand my revised perversion there.
Out of the treasury of this temple.
And with that Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows and they followed him.
And worthless and reckless fellows is an idiomatic expression that refers to people who were ruffians.
They were hooligans. They were thugs. They were worth nothing.
They just got into trouble.
And so with this money that was given in from the temple, he hired a band of worthless guys
who then were going to carry out what he wanted them to do.
And what did he want them to do?
He wanted them to turn into okra which was not far away and they killed his brothers,
the sons of Jerubbimble.
Seventy men on one stone.
That expression seems to me that was a public massacre.
We haveyour enmassed murder of all the sons of Gideon same one because almost parenthetically it says there
at the end of verse five.
youngest son of Jerubbabel was left for he hid himself. So somehow he was able to escape this
massacre of Gideon's family and was able to preserve his life. It says all the men of Shechem and all
Beth-Milo assembled together. Beth-Milo means the house of the Phil and probably is referring to a,
as we would say today, a suburb of Shechem where some wealthy people live. The house of the Phil
probably refers to an area that been filled in with something and on that platform or that
foundation of filled dirt they built their houses. And this is where some of the more wealthy or the
more influential people apparently live. And they went and made a Bimalek king by the oak of the
pillar which was in Shechem. Now this is interesting turn back to Joshua 24 for a moment.
Here we have Joshua's final charge to the people of Israel when he says to them,
ask for me in my house we will serve the Lord. Who are you going to serve?
And it says in verse 24, and the people said to Joshua we will serve the Lord our God and we will
obey his voice. And so he made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and
an ordinance in Shechem. That's where that all took place in this very city. And he wrote the
words of the book of the law of God. He took a large stone and set it under the oak that was by
the sanctuary of the Lord. It was the same place where years later a Bimalek is named the king of
Israel. And so we have a little bit of a cross reference there on this location. It was very
meaningful in Israel's history is where Joshua led the people in recommitting themselves to God.
It was there they buried the covenant. There they honored the Lord. It was at that place that they
chose then to name a Bimalek as this renegade king. Now the news of all this got to Jotham.
And Jotham decided to take some action. He was the only son of Gideon who was left.
So he went to the area of Shechem to a mountainside that was not far from there at all. In fact it
was right outside the city. And it's Mount Gerizim on the south side of the city. Mount
Ebal is on the north side. And you may recall that when the people of Israel entered into the
promised land, they went to this place and there they recited the blessings of the law on Mount
Gerizim and the curses of the law on Mount Ebal. That was part of the ceremony. And it was
reminded of the blessings that God would pour on them if they obeyed and the curses that would
come upon them if they disobeyed His law. And it's interesting that even today Mount Gerizim is a
mountain that has green growing on it. There's life there. Mount Ebal just across the greenness
of valleys is barren as can be. Just rock. The blessings and the cursings of the law.
Well it is to Mount Gerizim now that Jotham goes. And he goes there because this area is sort of
like a natural amphitheater in the sense that his voice would carry for a good distance. And
that's what he wanted. This is not a tall mountain as though you were going up thousands of feet.
It's only a few hundred feet high. But because of a situation his voice would carry. And he gave to
them what is an example of a fable as a story for it. By fable we mean that inanimate or animate
nature is given a name. Is given identity. Is given personality. And then a story is woven around
them. This story form became the parabolic form. The parable that Jesus used so much. In this
particular case the very first use of the Bible of this parable type statement. He says listen to me
O men of Shechem that God may listen to you. By that he probably means may you listen to me
so that God can hear what you're going to say in response to what I have to say. He wasn't going
to stay around for their response because his life would be in danger. He took off as soon as he got
finished saying this. But he said you listen to me and God will hear what you have to say in response.
Once the trees went forth to anoint the king over them. And they said to the olive tree
reign over us. But the olive tree said to them shall I leave my fatness with which God and men
are honored and go to wave over the trees. In other words the olive tree said no no thanks.
Then the tree said to the fig tree you come reign over us. But the fig tree said to them
shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go to wave over the trees. He said no thanks.
Then the tree said to the vine you come and reign over us. But the vine said to them shall I leave
my new wine which cheers men God and men and go to wave over the trees. So these first three trees
are trees of crotus. Trees that were important in Israel. We talk about the fig tree and the vine
and the olive tree producing the olive oil. You're talking about three very important products in
Israel. All of these valuable trees said no we don't want to move over you. Finally all the trees
said to the bramble to the thorn bush you come and reign over us. And the thorn bush said to the trees
if in truth you are anointing me as king over you come and take refuge in my shade. Now there's a
bit of sarcasm there. You know how much shade the thorn bush has. But if not may fire come out from
the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon. Oh interesting statement. Now therefore if you have
dealt in truth integrity in making a benlick king and if you have dealt well with the rubble in his
house and have dealt with them as he deserved. Then verse 19 if then you've dealt in truth and
integrity with Jerobo-Bobo's house this day. So gentlemen rejoice in a benlick and let him also
rejoice in you. But if not let fire come out from a benlick and consume the men of Shechem and Ben
Milo. And let fire come out from the men of Shechem and Ben Milo and consume a benlick.
Now we skipped over the verses that tell how worthy Gideon and his family was of honor.
They have in fact been mistreated by these people. Now Joseph in this parable and in its
interpretation tells us that the people of Shechem chose the thorn bush an unworthy man,
a benlick, a disastrous leader to be their king and he places a curse upon those people.
Now it hardly seems important to us today in our thinking but let me tell you that
curses are very real and here Jopham stands before the people he places a curse on them.
Stands before the people he places a curse on them. He says now if you treated Gideon and his
family with respect fine but if you didn't and they didn't then let fire come out from him and
destroy you and the fire come out from you and destroy him. Well we're going to see how that was
fulfilled. Joseph escaped and fled and left Tudir which means a well nobody knows where that is
and remained there because of Abimelech his brother so he's off the stage now. We go back to Abimelech.
Abimelech ruled three years. Apparently he did not live in Shechem he lived elsewhere
because Abimelech had appointed a man that we'll meet in a moment to be his lieutenant so to speak
so to speak in the city of Shechem. Now verse 23 is an interesting verse it says then God
sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem.
Now there are those who take this to mean that God caused evil attitudes to develop
and feelings went sour and it could mean that but if we take it literally for what it says
it seems to suggest that God here sent a demon which is what literally it means.
God sent a demon to create trouble between Abimelech and Shechem. Now does this strike you as being odd?
Of course it does all of this it seems out of character for God to do this.
Is there any other occasion in the Bible where we see something like this happen?
Yeah with Saul. God sent a spirit to play Saul.
You say well how do you justify this? How do you rationalize God doing this?
And of course God doesn't need any explanation from me or from you for that matter. God can do
what he wants to do. He is sovereign. The suggestion though is that what likely happened was that God
simply allowed this to take place. It wasn't that God is here condoning an evil spirit that God is
somehow in charge of that evil spirit except that ultimately God is sovereign over all things isn't
it? Even evil spirits. And here God apparently sent this evil spirit as an act of his sovereign
will and allowance and this spirit began to cause division between Abimelech and the people who had
named him king. They began to deal treacherously with Abimelech which means they broke their
agreement with him. What did they do this for? Or why did God do this rather? And verse 24 says,
in order that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbabel might come and their blood be laid
on Abimelech, their brother who killed them, and on the men of Shechem who strengthened his hands to
kill his brothers. So God is going to allow vengeance to take place upon these people
and that's part of the reason for this attitude being developed in this spirit working that
attitude. And the men of Shechem set men in ambush against him, Abimelech, on the tops of the
mountains and they robbed all who might pass by them along the road and it was told to Abimelech.
And what the situation is that the Shechem is located in a very vital commercial route.
All the caravans going north and south would pass through Shechem in central Palestine and those
caravans that would be going from the Mediterranean coast inland to the Dead Sea and beyond would
likewise pass through Shechem. So it was a heavily commercialized area, lots of caravan traffic.
And Abimelech had been taking advantage of that and now the people of Shechem
go to these caravans first and they exact a toll or a tax as it were from them
so that that money isn't now going to Abimelech. It's not supporting him any longer in his
tyranny. But the men of Shechem are enriching themselves and so when he dealt treacherously
with them, that's what it's talking about, they began to rob these people in caravans to deprive
Abimelech of his revenant. But now we're introduced in verse 26 to another individual his name is
Gael, the son of Eben who came with his relatives and crossed over into Shechem.
This man seems to have been a Canaanite again and so he was he was right at home in the city that
was largely Canaanite. And it says that the men of Shechem put their trust in him. He began to work
the crowd. He apparently was aware of the situation with Abimelech and so he began to
foster their loyalty to himself. And they went out in the field and gathered grapes for their
vineyards and brought them called a festival. This was a pagan festival and they were going to
vineyards and brought them called a festival. This was a pagan festival and from what we know the
Canaanite festivals it was a drunken sexual orgy. It's one of the magnitude. And they went to the
house of their god and they ate and drank and cursed that Abimelech. And this man Gael
replied this to them very shrewdly, who is Abimelech and who is Shechem that we should serve him.
He's saying does Abimelech fit with Shechem?
No. Is not the son of Jerubbabel? Is he not the son of Jerubbabel who was Jewish?
And does Zebul not his lieutenant serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem?
So why should we serve him? Does anybody know who Hamor is?
You find his name all the way back in the book of Genesis. Hamor was a Canaanite who lived in Shechem.
And in fact the name Shechem is named after his son Shechem and it means shoulder.
Hamor of course had long now been dead. But what this man is saying, look don't you think that you
ought to serve the descendants of Hamor, the great leader of Shechem? Why should you serve this guy
who's a half-breed, this man Abimelech whose father is a Jew? Should you not serve the traditional
ancestry of Hamor and his descendants? Then he goes on to say would therefore that this people
were under my authority then I would remove Abimelech. It sounds just like our elections
every four years. Oh that you would follow our party. And he says to them oh then I could rule
over you. I would get rid of this guy Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech increase your army and
come out. He gave a public challenge and taunt to Abimelech. He says come on and fight. Get your
army out there and let's fight Abimelech. Now was this man drunk as he says these things?
We don't know what his state of mind was. But the fact is that he was issuing a challenge.
But the fact is that he was issuing a challenge to Abimelech and these words did not go unheeded.
There was this lieutenant whose name was Zebul who was left as the ruler of the city.
And he heard these words and he got really mad at him. He was very shrewd in what he did. Before
the people could really respond to the words and the challenge of Gael, he sent a message
to Abimelech. And the message is in verses 31, 32 and so on. He says behold Gael the son of Ebon
his relatives have come to check and behold they're stirring up the city against you.
Now therefore rise by night you and the people who are with you and lie in wait in the field.
You shall come down in the morning as soon as the sun is up. You shall rise early and rush upon the
city and behold when he and the people who are with him shall come out against you. You shall do to
them whatever you can. So he gets this covert message out to Abimelech. And Abimelech gets the
message of he and his people that come to the city and they lay awake and notice that he follows
some of the pattern of his father Gideon. He divides his company up here in Fort Bruce.
And Gael went out and stood at the entrance of the city gate. This is morning now. Abimelech and all
the people who are with him arose from the ambush. So as they looked out he saw this movement. That
was early in the morning. And Zobel said don't worry. Brother Gael said look people are coming
down from the tops of the mountains. He's just seeing shadows there but he thinks he sees people
moving. Zobel plays dumb and he said oh no those are just the shadows you know this is the morning.
You just think they're people. And time passes and Gael spoke again. People are coming down from the
highest part of the land and one company comes by way of the Diviner's Oak. Now Zobel says to him
well where's your boasting now with which you said who is Abimelech that we should serve him.
Is this not the people whom you despise? Go out now and fight them. And so earlier on Gael had been
the one taunting. Now Zobel, the Abimelech's lieutenant, does some taunting. He goes Gael to get out
there and fight. He said you're going to do it. You're going to make a fool of yourself. And so Gael went
out before the leaders of Shechem. We're not sure whether that means that the leaders of Shechem
went out with him or he and his band went out and the leaders watched. Probably the latter.
And the fight took place. Abimelech chased him and he fled before him and many fell wounded
up to the entrance of the gate. And Abimelech remained at Aruma which was nearby. But Zobel drove
out Gael and his relatives so that they could not remain in Shechem. In other words Zobel arranged
that the leaders of Shechem would chase out Gael and what remained of his renegade army.
They couldn't allow them to stay in the city and they thought that this would surely please
Abimelech. And that's why on the next day the people went to the field. They said surely Abimelech
would appreciate the fact that we didn't allow these people to remain in our city. We chased them
on. And they went out to the field and Abimelech was told that he took his people and divided them
into three companies and lay them away in the field. And when he looked and saw the people coming out
from the city he arose against them and slew them. So these were unarmed people from Shechem who were
going out to the field to do their work. And he fell upon them and it was agreed that they would
be slaughtered. And it says that he and his company who was with him dashed forward stood at the
entrance of the city gate. The other two companies then dashed against all who were in the field and
slew them. They cut off their retreat. They came in from the sides and slaughtered all those who
were in the field. Abimelech fought against the city all that day and captured the city
and killed the people who were in it. Then he raised the city and tore it down and sewed it with
salt. Archaeologists have confirmed that in fact at this particular time the city was just exactly
like this. It says destroyed. The sewing with salt was a mean, it was a ritual, it was symbolic
actually. This land forever now would be unusable. It's cursed. And it says when the leaders of the
Tower of Shechem heard of it they entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-Berith. And we've
seen this name Baal-Berith before. Here it's changed to El-Berith. El being the chief god, Baal
being his son. Same place though. The Tower of Shechem is probably the same as Beth-Miloh,
the house of Phil. But out there in that part of the city, the suburban area, they had built this
fortress-like thing, this tower, in which the leaders of the city, those who were in the wealthy
and who lived down in that region, they hid inside this tower. And apparently as a part of this tower
there was this temple called the El-Berith, the god of the covenant. And it was told to Bimolek
that the leaders were out there hiding and gathered together. And so he sent up to Mount Solomon,
a hill nearby, and he and the people who were with him, and they chopped down some wood and they
brought it back on their shoulders. Interesting, that's the word Shechem. They brought the wood
back on their shoulders. And he says, what you see me do, hurry and do likewise. And the people
did exactly as he did. They started the fire and the result of the fire was smoke or the fire
killed a thousand men and women. So again, we see this tremendous loss of life because of El-Dimilek's
tyranny. Let me ask you a question at this point that is worth thinking about. What is this
activity on the part of El-Dimilek, this hot pursuit and his indiscriminate killing of people
tell you about his mental state? What's happened to this man?
What's happened to this man? Remember there is an evil spirit that is at work here.
He has mentally degenerated, deranged perhaps, to do the work for him.
He has had the taste of blood in Shechem as he killed Gale or killed in the forces of Gale.
Then he goes for the whole city, destroys it, destroys all its leaders.
It rather reminds me of the leader of Iraq, a man who was just possessed, using their word,
and was deranged with murders and can't seem to stop. Then we see what happens next. El-Dimilek
went to Thebes, that's about ten miles from the northeast. He camped against Thebes and captured
it. But there was a strong tower in the center of the city and all the men and women, all the leaders
of the city fled there and shut themselves in. They went up to the roof of the tower and so he was
going to pull the same thing over again. They went inside their fortress tower, protect themselves,
and in this case they went up to the roof of the tower. El-Dimilek came to the tower and fought
against it and approached the entrance of the tower to burn with fire, where it once and where it again.
But a certain woman threw an upper millstone on El-Dimilek's head, crushing his skull. She was up
there in the tower, this little millstone, ten inches long so to speak, weighed several pounds.
It wasn't a gigantic millstone. She just took it out there, dropped it as he was lighting the fire
and hit him right in the head. And it crushed his skull. Talk about eccentric heading. He bowed
quickly to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, draw your sword and kill me lest it be
said of me a woman who slew him. That was his biggest concern at this point. He's dying. He
doesn't want to die having said to the woman kill him. And so the young man pierced him through and
he died. Now turn over to 2nd Samuel 11 for just a moment. Here's some irony.
2nd Samuel is different from the 1st Samuel, isn't it? Yes. 2nd Samuel, chapter 11, verse 21.
But we can't explain the whole context here. This has to do with David and his arrangements
to have Uriah killed. But just notice what it says in verse 21. And if it happens that the king's
wrath rises, the 20 says, he says to you, I will not kill you. I will not kill you. I will not
kill you. Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Why did you not know that they would shoot
from the wall? Why did you get so close to the wall? Who struck down Abimelech the son of
Jerobochech? Another name could get in. Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the
wall so that he died at Tebes? So why did you go so near the wall? So he's warning about getting so
close to the wall. And you see, even hundreds of years later, it's still said a woman killed him.
So it did no good. What he did. Here's a man who's dying. Let's just back off from the character of this man.
Let's understand that here's a human being who is dying. There's no way for his life to be saved.
He's suffering. And he says to somebody else, by the way, this sword bearer's name, this armor bearer's name,
is Kevorkian. And he says to him, kill me. Kill me. And he did it. So do we have here a biblical precedent
for euthanasia? For killing someone who's about to die anyway? Isn't that the merciful thing to do?
So Kevorkian's right. Right?
Now we wouldn't agree with Kevorkian. And this, although it is sometimes referred to more commonly
as Saul's request, which is the same. His armor bearer refused to do it. So Saul killed himself,
which is more like Kevorkian method. But in these examples, we don't have some kind of foundation
for euthanasia. Nowhere is this commended by God. There is no verse that supplements these accounts
to indicate that this was good, that God's approval was on this. It's simply telling us what happened.
Okay? So that it can't be used as proof for euthanasia, which is the testimony.
And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, each departed to his home. Thus,
God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father
in killing his seventy brothers. Also, God returned all the wickedness of the men of Shechem
on their heads, and the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerobo, came upon them. Remember the curse?
The fire go out from him and destroy you, the fire go out from you and destroy him.
And so all of these people now have fallen under the curse of Jotham. Let's talk about Jotham for
just a quick moment. What are the admirable qualities that you see in this surviving son of Gideon?
Courage? How do you see that?
I mean, that's some gut. I just can't think of two words for the one of those people that I know
and stand on the rooftop of the house in the morning.
He was a very courageous individual. He was a valiant man to have done that. What kind of
a tone of voice do you think that he had as he spoke to them? Do you think that he was angry?
What kind of a tone of voice do you think that he had as he spoke to them? Do you think that he was angry?
That he was fearful? That he was sarcastic? What kind of a tone of voice did he have
as he spoke to the people of Shechem?
He was very conflicted because God honored his first place. He got his son, Goliath, and he was talking about his three thousandth of men a little ago.
God was pleased to do that, wasn't he?
I'm sorely tempted to give you an illustration of this.
And I will, in catagonal terms.
Two weeks ago, we had a special prayer meeting and we spent an evening praying that God would deliver us from curses.
A so-canic group here in the city was angry at us.
And we prayed that God would deliver us from the curses.
Do you remember how else we prayed that night?
Protection for the girl who was seeking to help.
We prayed that the curse would fall back on the hands of those who sent it.
We prayed that on Sunday night, as I recall, wasn't it?
All over the Sunday night.
And we prayed for that.
That afternoon, I had received a call from my sister in Kansas telling me that she had been in an accident with her before.
In Kansas.
And she and her daughter had escaped without serious injury, but that she had towed their car, towed the truck that she had pulled across the road in front of them.
And I had praised God that they were safe.
This sort of found a way in my mind.
It's something to give thanks to God for.
And if I'm going to tell you next, I cannot prove that I am convinced with my own heart that it is true.
The next day I got a call from the girl that we had prayed for and sought to help.
And she said, oh, by the way, my father's sister, her father is the leader of this cold room.
She says, my father's sister died yesterday.
I said, oh, really?
She said, yes, so tell me about it. I said, she was a witch.
And I thought, wow, that's something.
It's Halloween and a witch dies.
Well, how about the telephone I'm getting back?
My sister should have died on Saturday night.
My sister died Sunday.
And so I called up a friend and I said, come some more of my sponsor viewers.
So she shared some more about the heart.
That in fact, on that Halloween, she had been in a witch's circle.
And they were doing their chants and their incantations.
And they were involved in throwing curses among their enemies, including the people helping the scurril.
And we've been helping.
And the odd, who is the head of this witch's circle, was standing in a circle,
because their pagan mythology is that if they stand in the circle, they can throw curses at their enemies
and conjure up all of these spirits, and they can't be hurt.
And while she was standing in that circle, in the witch's circle, casting curses, God struck her dead.
And I want to tell you something, that sent a message. That sent a message that only God could send.
So when we see things like this in Judges chapter 9, and God tells us that what happened was the fulfillment of what Joseph had said.
And the curse that he had placed on those people, we need to understand that these are not casual words.
And I believe that God, in his own sovereign way, answered our prayers,
in allowing the curses that were sent toward us to fall back on the heads of those who were doing that.
Now I hope that doesn't scare you. What it does to me is to say, we serve a great God.
We serve a God who answers prayer. We serve a God who is pleased to work on our behalf, and to see after our welfare.
And we can trust him with everything we have, all we are. That's the kind of a God he is. Great is my faith in him.
I would ask you not to spread that story around. Do you think I can trust you with that?
That's not the kind of story you want to get wider and circulated for longer reasons.
I felt that I should share it with you tonight to illustrate what we're doing here.
And that God is a God who will stop her. And God is a God who will judge the ungodly in his way and in his time.
And I go back to the words of Deborah in the song that she wrote. And she was talking about Sisera.
Remember, he's the guy who also had a bad headache.
The tent peg went right through his temple into the ground. The enemy of the Lord, he was dead on the spot.
And she said, and let all of the enemies of the Lord be like Sisera. And I say, Amen to that.
And let the righteous rise like the sun in its strength.
And tonight you know Jesus Christ and you're one of those who belong to him.
Realize that that is what is true about your life. Quite a few speak. You're rising like the sun in its strength.
And God is with you. And of God before you, who can be against you?
You're his people. Don't ever think that lightly or think of regret. Blessings. Good night. God bless you.