When Evil Camps Out in Your Life - Judges 4:17–6:7 (Session 6)

Judges 4 concludes with Sisera fleeing from the battlefield after God destroys his army. Once the commander of nine hundred iron chariots, Sisera suddenly finds himself running on foot and searching for safety. He enters the tent of Jael because there was peace between her household and King Jabin, but the refuge he trusts becomes the place of his death.

In this session, Glenn and Steve discuss why no true peace can be found while running from God. Sisera believed he had control during twenty years of oppression, but his situation changed within minutes. His defeat also fulfills Deborah’s prophecy that the honor of victory would go to a woman. Jael acts freely, yet her actions accomplish what God had already declared, providing an example of divine providence working through human decisions.

Judges 5 then records the Song of Deborah, a poetic celebration of God’s victory. The song praises Yahweh as Israel’s true commander and emphasizes the importance of leaders who lead and people who willingly respond. Some tribes answer the call to battle, while others remain home because everyday responsibilities become more important than joining God’s work.

The session also examines what life was like under Canaanite oppression. Roads became unsafe, travelers avoided the highways, military strength had disappeared, and Israel lacked courageous leadership. When people and societies turn from God, peace and security begin to disappear.

After God provides victory, the land rests for forty years. Yet Judges 6 begins another cycle. Israel again does evil in the Lord’s sight, and the Midianites raid the land for seven years. They destroy crops, steal livestock, and leave Israel impoverished and hiding in mountain caves.

The Midianites function like parasites, allowing Israel to labor and then returning at harvest time to consume the results. Only after seven years does Israel finally cry out to God.

This passage warns believers not to tolerate sin and spiritual oppression when God is ready to hear genuine repentance. The fastest way out is not pride, self-reliance, or trying to repair everything alone. It is returning to God and allowing Him to address what has taken root.

Scripture: Judges 4:17–6:7
Series: The Book of Judges — An RTTB Study

 Questions discussed in this session:

•  Can people who are not following God also be fulfilling God’s will? 
• Are nations and cultures safe even if they disobey God? 
• How should church leaders act when there is disagreement in the church?
• Does the Bible contain good literature? 
• What happens when evil comes and stays in our life? 

Transcript

Deborah, Barak, and God's Providence

Speaker 2 0:20

Welcome back to our next session of Reasoning through the Bible . We're working our way through the Book of Judges . We've gotten to a point where we , in chapter 4 and chapter 5 of the Book of Judges , we're talking about Deborah and Barak in relation to God , raising them up and what he's done . In this part . We're going to finish up chapter 4 and then talk a little bit about chapter 5 . So we're right at the point , glenn , where the battle is starting to take place . Cicera is coming down with his chariots and they're going to start with Barak going against him .

Speaker 1 0:54

Yes , so in chapter 4 , verse 17, . Maybe we should read these few verses here . So we're in Judges , chapter 4 , starting in verse 17 . Now Cicera fled away on foot to the tent of Jail .

Speaker 1 1:05

The wife of Heber the Kenite for there was peace between Jaban and the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite Jail went out to meet Cicera and said to him turn aside my master , turn aside to me , do not be afraid . And he turned aside to her in the tent and she covered him with a rug . He said to her please give me a little water to drink , for I am thirsty . So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink . Then she covered him and he said to her stand in the doorway of the tent , and it shall be , if anyone comes and inquires of you and says , is there anyone here ? That you say no .

Speaker 1 1:41

But Jail , heber's wife , took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple and it went through into the ground , for he was sound asleep and exhausted . So he died . And behold , as Barak pursued Cicera , jail came out to meet him and said to him come and I will show you the man whom you are seeking . And he entered with her and behold , cicera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple . So God subdued on that day Jaban the king of Canaan before the sons of Israel . The hand of the sons of Israel pressed heavier and heavier upon Jaban the king of Canaan until they had destroyed Jaban the king of Canaan . So with that we have here that this guy , cicera , who was one of the enemies of God . He ran in verse 17 . Who did he run to ? He runs to somebody where he had a peace treaty . Now , if you're running from God , where can you run to get peace ?

Speaker 2 2:38

You can't run anywhere where you'll get true peace . You might be able to get some false peace , but not really true peace .

Speaker 1 2:46

This guy was running from God and we talked about that when we went through the book of Joshua . All of the people of Canaan had ample opportunities to repent , as Rahab did , and fall before God and ask for forgiveness , but they had repeatedly turned it away . That's why these people are being pursued . So these people don't have peace . They're running from God . They're seeking peace , and you cannot have true peace if you're running from God . You can buy yourself distractions , but God has a funny way of kind of getting in and around your distractions .

Speaker 2 3:19

And also Cicera in our story . Just moments before all this happened , he had been oppressing part of oppressing the Israelites for 20 years . He had the 900 chariots under his power . So in a matter of minutes , his life has completely changed .

Speaker 1 3:36

Things change suddenly , and who's really in control here ? During those 20 years he thinks , oh God's nothing to worry about , I've got it all under control . But then who's really , in the end , under control . So he runs and he hides in this woman's tent , trying to find a safe place to hide . Is there ever a safe place to hide when you're running from God ? No , tend to get found out In verse 18, . What does this woman tell Cicera ?

Speaker 2 4:01

Hey , she actually sees him running . You get the picture of seeing him running and she motions to him and says hey , hey , come on in here inside the tent here .

Speaker 1 4:09

He's afraid of the people of Israel that's chasing him . Who should he be afraid of he ?

Speaker 2 4:15

should be afraid of God .

Speaker 1 4:18

He should be afraid of her , because what she's going to do here ?

Speaker 2 4:20

in Israel .

Speaker 1 4:20

Yeah , sometimes the people trying to be nice to you aren't always nice . I think a lot of Christians are a little gullible sometimes . So in verse 21 , she waits until he's asleep and she kills him . This woman shows no sign of being a follower of God . Here's what's interesting . Wrap your brain around this one . This woman shows no sign of being a follower of God . Yes , she's doing God's will , and not only that , but she did a perfectly free will act on her own , of her own free will .

Speaker 1 4:51

The philosophers speak of human agency . We have the ability to cause our own actions . So she's doing a free will act , but yet , nevertheless , she is fulfilling a prophecy that the prophet Deborah said back in in verse nine Remember , in verse nine , when Deborah was originally mentioning this , she says a woman will cause the victory here . This woman , here , jl , through her own free will act , fulfills God's prophecy . That's called God's providence . He works through things in ways that we don't understand , but nevertheless he has the power to work through the free will acts of human people . He wasn't forcing her , she acted freely , and that's one of the things we'll pick up as time goes on . So she kills this man of her own free will , and also Ciceroa drew his army to the Kishin River out of his own free will . God says he drew Ciceroa there . So therefore , god can act to cause things through the free will acts of people . God is what's called the primary cause and our free will acts are a secondary cause . Speaks of that throughout Christian history

God's Unusual Weapons and Deborah's Song

Speaker 1 6:00

.

Speaker 1 6:00

So when God is fighting , do you need a weapon of war to win the battle ? Sure help if they had some swords to fight . But what is this person ultimately win with A tent peg ? What did David use to kill Goliath ? A smooth stone , smooth stone , river stone , a sling and a lot of people misunderstand what slings were . In the days of David , a sling was a weapon of war . It just wasn't a powerful weapon of war like a sword . It wasn't the same thing as a sword , but they were used in battle . You can kill somebody with a sling and a stone . God will provide . That's the message here . God will provide and we're going to learn when we get to Gideon . God's going to provide victory with some unusual things . You don't always need more power than the next guy . So this is a very ugly scene . It's very horrible scene . She kills this guy . It's really ugly when people are running away from the Lord . Is it ever pretty ?

Speaker 2 6:55

No Is sin ever pretty .

Speaker 1 6:57

No , sometimes we , as my father used to say , sometimes you can put lipstick on pig , but it's still pig . Do we have ugliness in the world around us today ? Has there ever been a time in the world when there was no ugliness ? No , yes , I submit .

Speaker 2 7:14

Well , yes , I submit , there was a time .

Speaker 1 7:17

In the beginning . In the beginning , there was a time in the Garden of Eden when there was no ugliness , we had perfect relation with God and there was no death . What ended up happening ? That came into the Garden .

Speaker 2 7:29

Sin , sin and disobedience , disobedience .

Speaker 1 7:32

And we've been suffering the consequences ever since . Will there ever be a time in the future when there's no more ugliness ?

Speaker 2 7:39

Yes .

Speaker 1 7:40

In the millennial kingdom , correct ? Meanwhile we have a lot of ugliness in the world . So that brings us to the end of that chapter and going on to the next one , chapter 5 . Chapter 5 is called the Song of Deborah . Just a little bit there . This was in the days before modern electronic entertainment and people would sing songs for entertainment . And they not only sing songs for entertainment , but that was the way of remembering things . So famous battles , famous accomplishments , things that were just important to a family , would be commemorated in a poem or a song , and that's what we have . The entire chapter 5 is this Song of Deborah . And , steve , I think you had some things that you wanted to tell about this .

Speaker 2 8:27

It's broken down into nine stanzas in this song . The first stanza is the praising of God , that's in verses 2 and 3 . All of these are from chapter 5 . The second stanza talks about Yahweh as the commander in chief . Those are verses 4 and 5 . The third stanza is the emergence of Deborah , her coming to light verses 6 and 8 . The fourth stanza is the praise of God . Those are verses 9 through 11 . The fifth stanza is the response of the tribes coming and answering the call . Those are in verses 12 through 18 . The sixth stanza talks about the defeat of the Canaanites verses 19 through 23 . Seventh stanza is the praise of Yael or Jail , verses 24 through 27 . The eighth stanza talks about the mother of Cicera and describes her waiting on her son to come back , who doesn't come back . Those are verses 28 and 30 . And then it concludes in the ninth stanza with the conclusion and then the rest that came about as a result of the battle , that's in verse 31 .

Speaker 1 9:34

Hebrew poetry is typically done different than what we'd have in modern English poetry . There's no rhymes here , things like that . It's more done in what's called a couplet , and a couplet will have one line and then the next line will say basically the same thing , only with different words . When you get over to the Psalms , you'll see many , many couplets and there's adaptations on that . As an example in , verse 2 says that the leaders led in Israel , that the people volunteered . So it's talking about people stepping up and doing their jobs . These are things that are through this , so we're not going to read the whole chapter here , but we're just going to pick up some highlights and mention some important things . The one I just read is important . The leaders led . A country can only be in good shape when the leaders do their job , and that means lead . The leaders have to step up and lead . They can't hide . Then the people have to do their role as well . The people have to take action and volunteer .

Speaker 2 10:29

It also makes a difference on the leaders , on which direction they lead . If they're leading the people away from God , then a lot of the people are going to go away from God . But if they're leading the way towards God , it's going to have a tremendous impact for people to go move towards God themselves .

Speaker 1 10:46

And speaking of leading the way towards God , verse 3 , here Deborah gives praise . To whom ? In verse 3 ? I , to the Lord , will sing . She's very clearly giving the Lord glory here and again . This was a major victory they just had . This is a song of celebration , so who are they giving the credit to right at the top of the song ?

Speaker 2 11:09

Yahweh , the God of Israel .

Speaker 1 11:11

she says what they didn't do was brag on themselves . First , look at all the great things I have done . Remember , in Daniel , the king stood up and said oh , look at the great things that I have done . What happened to him ?

Speaker 2 11:26

He ended up regretting it .

Speaker 1 11:29

That's the short version .

Speaker 2 11:30

He ended up regretting it .

Speaker 1 11:31

We'll find out . If you don't know that story , hang with us and we'll get to it when we get to Daniel . So he says in verse 3 , I will praise the Lord . She gives hero kings , hero rulers . So she's proclaiming to the great people of the world that God did this . She's giving credit to God .

Speaker 2 11:47

And I do want to just point out . She says Yahweh , the God of Israel . They're surrounded by all of these nations that are worshiping other gods and serving other gods they're calling out it's the Yahweh , the God of Israel , that's the one that is bringing the victory here .

Speaker 1 12:06

So it's making a distinction between all the other gods that are in the land , as we've pointed out several times now in this chapter 5 of Judges is one of these examples . There's many different types of literature in the Bible . Sometimes there's dry , dusty history and sometimes there's great spiritual teachings . Sometimes there's like here it's just good literature , this is a song , it's just really good literature . I think a lot of times those of us that are kind of conservative theologians , we miss the literary advantage of looking at some of these passages . But just an example look at verse 4 , the earth quaked , the heavens dripped , the clouds dripped water , the mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord . These are descriptive language that tells us what happens when God comes . In some cases it's a literal shaking , like it mentions here in verse 5 . At Sinai Remember when Moses went up on Mount Sinai there was literal earthquakes . But it's also descriptive language of what the creation does at the presence of the Lord . The Lord is so powerful that everything in creation moves when he's present .

Speaker 2 13:19

What we're seeing here are the lyrics to the song . It's a way for them to pass on what happened . This is a recounting of the battle itself and what happened in the battle and who to give the glory to .

Speaker 1 13:29

In verse 6 it mentions something . Here she's starting to go through a history and she mentions what happens before and then in the battle . And at verse 6 she's talking about how things were before this battle . And in the last half of verse 6 she says the highways were deserted and the travelers went by roundabout ways . It says I think we can draw some conclusions here about what life was like when Israel was in total rebellion against God and we're following after these idols . Things were so dangerous that you couldn't even travel on the roads . Are we that way today in our society ? What happens when we get far from God ? The violence increases .

Speaker 2 14:11

On a situation with myself . I don't venture out doing shopping at night time . I try and avoid parking lots these days at night time and filling up gas at night time and things like that . You know , the criminal element tends to come out at night . I try and be home in the night time . So and that's all because I don't feel safe , as I once did many , many years ago .

Speaker 1 14:36

I was doing some family research once and I found a news blurb about an ancestor of mine in the 1930s and they had announced in the town newspaper that these people were leaving town for two weeks to go visit some relatives . And you imagine broadcasting today . Hey , nobody's going to be home for two weeks at this time . I mean , our society has changed so much . Even when I was a kid we didn't lock our doors .

Speaker 2 15:03

I was just fixing to say that the only time that we locked our doors really was when we went on vacation . Right , whenever we would go , making trips to town or going to church on Sunday or stuff like that we didn't lock our . We didn't lock our doors . We didn't lock our house door . Be clear we're talking about our house . Yes , and obviously we didn't lock our car doors , but we didn't even lock our house .

Speaker 1 15:24

And I was seven , eight years old before they ever started locking the doors and I thought , hey , this is strange , this is silly , can't even get in the door .

Speaker 2 15:31

So we're talking , you know , 50 , 60 years ago . Well , speak to yourself , well , yeah .

Speaker 1 15:37

But you know , in this game of things .

Speaker 1 15:38

That's a relatively short time we forget how far society is gone , where things are just so far away from God now that violence increases . And that's the same thing that happened here in the book of Judges the safety of a culture . When it gets away from following God's ways , there's no peace in the land . And in each of the major victories in the book of Judges , what does it bring ? It brings peace . In verse seven , there were no rulers until Deborah stood up and began to lead . Middle of verse eight says there was no shield or spear seen among 40,000 in Israel . There were no strong soldiers who stood up with weapons to defend the country . And when there's no strong people , somebody has to be strong to save the country .

Speaker 1 16:25

When there's no leaders someone has to stand up and be a leader , and true leaders are really not afraid to stand up and take the heat . It comes with a leader .

Speaker 2 16:36

And you can also see why they were being oppressed and cruelly oppressed , was because they didn't have the soldiers , they didn't have the war equipment in order to defend themselves and to fight off these oppressive people .

Speaker 1 16:49

And I would submit in our day , we have a lack of good leaders . We have a lack of strong leaders that are willing to take the heat . We have plenty of people that will blow in the wind , but we don't always have leaders that will be able to stand up and say this is the right thing to do . I don't care what the polls say , we're going to do it because it's the right thing , and this is what God

Oppression and Divine Deliverance

Speaker 1 17:09

says . Now . Verse 9 , deborah says she has a soft spot in her heart for those who are commanding Israel , those who did so willingly . Then , in verses 10 and 11 , deborah is asking for everyone , including the rich , the poor and all people , to proclaim the great works that God has done . It's very poetic in this section . There's verses here that call for Deborah to awaken and take charge .

Speaker 1 17:31

Several groups of Israel heard the call and came to fight with Deborah and Barak . Verses 16 to 18, . Several groups of Israel stayed home and did not help fight against the enemy , and the nation of Israel was divided and some people supported the cause and some did not . So here's a question If a task needs doing and not everybody in the church supports it , what should we do ? Should we continue ? Continue to argue about it or should we stand up and lead and do something about it ? Because that's what happened here . He talks about verses . Some people stepped up and helped the cause and some of them stayed home and said , uh , I'm staying home , don't want to get involved . Some of the at least one of the tribes here stayed home watching their sheep , which was taking care of their jobs I mean , that was their job and they said , hey , my , my job's more important than helping out with fighting the enemy .

Speaker 1 18:22

Is it possible that the daily cares of life can make us ignore the more important things that God would have us to do ? Remember the parable that Jesus told of the sower went out to sow . Some of the seeds fell in the weeds , and the weeds were what the cares of life . They grew up and choked it out . So good seed . It's just sometimes the cares of life choked these things out . It's important to to make a living , but it's also sometimes more important to recognize where priorities lie , and sometimes God has to take priority .

Speaker 1 18:56

So the second half of chapter five records this aspect of the battle . Verse 20 , from heaven fought the stars . You know it's literary language here , but I think it's clear that God was working in the favor of Israel . God works in the favor of anyone who follows his ways . If we rebel against God , he doesn't work with us . But if we'll just humble ourselves before him , then he will lift us up . It says in the New Testament , in Peter . Then , in verse 31 , deborah concludes by saying Let all of your enemies perish , o Lord , but let those that love him be as the sun in its might . She's giving a blessing and proclaiming what will eventually happen , no matter how things look in the meanwhile . The Lord is going to prevail over evil . No one whoever hardens his heart against God will prevail . All the enemies may look powerful for a while but will ultimately fail . God always brings justice in the end .

Speaker 2 19:57

And it also states there that because of it , because God came through , rose up to deliver , went before them , provided the victory that they had rest for 40 years , which is twice as long as if they had been oppressed .

Speaker 1 20:11

God always brings peace in the human life and in society . So that gets us to Judges , chapter 6 . And I think we can have time to get our foot in the door there , so I'm going to read Judges , chapter 6 , the first six verses . Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord . Where have we seen that before ? Yeah , we're starting another cycle . Did evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian .

Speaker 1 20:37

Seven years the power of Midian prevailed against Israel . Because of Midian , the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves in the strongholds . For it was when Israel had sown that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them . So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel , as well as no sheep , ox or donkey , for they would come up with their livestock and their tents . They would come in like locusts for number . Both they and their camels were innumerable . They came into the land to devastate it . So Israel was brought very low because of Midian , and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord .

Speaker 1 21:24

This was the cycle again , and it happens over and over . You'd think they'd learn Somehow . It's easy to poke on at these guys saying how could their heads be so hard ? How many times has God have to teach me and you the same lesson over and over ? If I would have learned it the first time , I wouldn't be in all the situations I tend to get into .

Speaker 2 21:47

Let me give a little description of the Midianites . By the way , we've seen that the Israelites are living in the land . They're living amongst the other Canaanites that are there , but the Midianites , they are a nation that is the far east of Israel . It'd be kind of over in the area now of what we would say the Saudi Arabian . In that area they're nomadic people and they're raiders . They're coming in around the time of the harvest and they're raiding through , coming across the Jordan , going all the way over to the Mediterranean Sea because it says they go over as far as Gaza . We're seeing the different types of oppression and battles that are going on . In this case , it's not just the people that are right there in the land that they're living amongst . These are people that are coming from far east , coming in and raiding them on a regular basis for many , many years .

Speaker 1 22:47

We're told where Midian originally came from . Do you remember that story ? Midian was the son of one of the wives of Abraham . So if Abraham would have done what he was supposed to do , which was to have one wife instead of more than one wife , then we might not have had this problem . Yes , there were people in the Bible who had multiple wives polygamy but every time , every time , it created issues , and this is another one of those examples . Abraham had one wife that he was supposed to stay with that the son of promise came through . Hence the nation Israel came through . But since Abraham had these multiple wives , here we have this group of people that created issues for his sons later on , In verse two . What did Israel do in verse two ? Made for themselves dens and caves and they were hiding they're up in the mountains , they go into the mountain area .

Speaker 2 23:47

The valleys are where the fertile areas are . The valleys are where the rivers are , the streams , the water , so they're getting pushed back up into the cave areas .

Speaker 1 23:56

Well , they're basically hiding . And then in verse three and four , what did the Midianites do when they came ?

Speaker 2 24:03

Well , they came in from their crops and they were in camp and they devour the produce of the land they're stealing their food .

Speaker 1 24:09

They're stealing their food and their livestock , which is their livelihood , and that's the annual raid during the harvest time .

Speaker 2 24:15

They weren't there in planning everything themselves , they were just coming in and taking the fruit .

Speaker 1 24:21

So , israel would plant a crop and work on it and the Midianites , right when it was harvest time , would come in and steal it , which would leave Israel poor and hungry and hiding in caves . Where should they be if they were really following God ? And it's not the power of the Midianites , that's the problem here . It's verse one , which was Israel did evil on the side of the Lord . That's the problem .

Speaker 2 24:41

And as a result , the Lord gave them over to the hand of the Midianites . We see that exchange that takes place .

Speaker 1 24:48

So notice , when Israel was following God and doing what they're supposed to do and obeying God , they had great gain . They had the land flowing with milk and honey , they had great livestock , they had great crops , they were basically wealthy . But when they do evil on the side of the Lord and don't , then God allows the enemies to come in and take their food and they become poor and oppressed . And in verse the end of verse four they didn't even leave the sheep or the donkey . Israel was likely starving and couldn't work their lands . Look at verse five . It says the Midianites came with their tents . What does that tell you ? They only just come to and steal the food . They come here and camp out for a while . So what happens when evil comes and camps out and stays there for a while ? What happens when , in my life , evil comes over and camps out and stays there for a while , doesn't just pass through . Evil comes in and just stays . Is that good situation in our lives today ?

Speaker 2 25:48

No , no , it also gives you a picture of a parasite . A parasite doesn't really want to kill the host , but we see these Midianites . They come in , they live off of the land during the harvest time , then they leave and then they come back . So sometimes when you're having these type of situation , it's they're not coming in to be occupiers , they're coming in almost in a parasitic way because they don't want to kill and wipe out Israel . They're having them do the work . So evil sometimes works on us that way . What's more , acts as a parasite , doesn't really kill us , but it takes and draws the strength out of us and leads us away and leads us astray .

Speaker 1 26:28

Verse one said this had been going on for seven years and , as we've pointed out again and again here in the book of Judges , because of this is why these issues are happening . Israel didn't immediately fall on their face to God Matter of fact , they still have it . God ends up raising up somebody without them even asking . God is gracious enough to raise up a deliverer . They didn't fall on their face and ask for it , so the people are in total rebellion here and they're in misery . Look at verse six . What was it saying , verse six ? What Israel's attitude was ?

Speaker 2 27:02

They cried out to the Lord for help .

Speaker 1 27:05

They were very low and they finally , after seven years , cry out to the Lord . And in verse seven , what happens ? Cry out to the Lord on account of Midian . But they didn't . For the first seven years they just lived with this . They had evil camped out amongst them and they're in misery and they just live with it . When they finally get so low , they finally cry out and God raises up a deliverer . What's the obvious lesson for us ?

Speaker 2 27:30

Whenever things get really bad because we have gone astray , because we have maybe done something that's evil in the sight of the Lord , that the way to get out of it is to turn to him and repent and turn back to him . That's the fastest way out of it .

Speaker 1 27:48

Not trying to get out of it . What has happened every time when Israel has repented and turned to God and begged for mercy ?

Speaker 2 27:55

Every time God answers and replies and delivers them Now .

Speaker 1 27:59

We'd never be guilty of not repenting soon enough , have we , steve ? He says with tongue firmly placed in cheek . So why do people get so obstinate that we put up with this for all ? They put it up for seven years . Why would we be so obstinate ? We're not any better than them . Why would we be so obstinate that we'd put up with evil camping out in the lives for all this time and we not cry out to God ? I don't know . Pride , pride , we think we can do it ourselves , we think we're smarter

Letting God Handle Difficulties

Speaker 1 28:30

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Speaker 1 28:30

I remember there's a little book that CS Lewis wrote called the Great Divorce . It has nothing to do with husbands and wives . It has to do with the separation between heaven and hell and God's ways and man's ways . And there's this one little story . It's all this big allegory , but there's this one story of this lizard that had embedded itself into this man's shoulder , this evil , slimy , ugly lizard , and it's living on his shoulder and it's whispering evil things into his ear . An angel comes and wants to kill it and get rid of it , and the man keeps making excuses , and he makes one excuse after another . Oh , I can control it , it's not so bad . He only acts up every now and then I'll deal with it next week . The angel just says , let me kill it , let me kill it , and the man keeps making excuses . Sometimes we just need to let God and his messengers work in our lives and in the end it'll be better . Thank , you .

Speaker 2 29:27

You also mentioned that sometimes I got myself in this mess and I'll get myself out of it , and while that might be true , it's the long way around . Why not just go ahead and let God take care of it ?

Speaker 1 29:40

Most of the messes I get in just turn out to be bigger mess when I try to fix it . If I cry out to God , it always turns out right .

Speaker 2 29:46

But the one thing is to let God take care of it . We need to align ourselves back with God . We can't stay out of alignment and turn it over , the problem over to God and say take care of this problem please . We have to acknowledge and get our alignment back to God in order for him to take care of it . He's not going to deliver us out of it . If we're going to continue and do evil in his sight or living the way that we were before , We've got to get ourselves back in line with him .

Speaker 1 30:16

So probably a good spot for stopping today . We're going to leave Israel in a low spot here . They're being oppressed by Midian , but they've asked God for help and , as we've said , god always brings a deliverer . So we're going to find out what that is next time . On Reasoning Through the Bible