The Song of Zacharias from Luke 2, which, Lord willing, we will read later, but our text is from Judges chapter 3. And if you would turn there in the Pew Bibles, it's page 219. Right following the book of Joshua, following it chronologically, and here in our Bibles. Judges chapter 3, we'll read verses 7 to 11, which will be our text. And then following that, we'll read Lord's Day 48. Judges chapter 3, let us hear the word of our Lord. So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and Asherahs. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chisholm Rishthayim, king of Mesopotamia. And the children of Israel served Chisholm Rishthayim eight years. When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer from the children of Israel. Who delivered them? Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord delivered Cushon Rishthayim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand, and his hand prevailed over Cushon Rishthayim. So the land had rest for forty years. Then Othniel, the son of Kenaz, died." So far the reading of our inspired Word. And if you would also turn in the Blue Psalter hymnals in the back again, page 61 in the back, Lord's Day 48, and question and answer 123. the end of the Catechism, going through the Lord's Prayer, even as it has been accustomed since the ancient church to preach through the Lord's Prayer, to preach through the Apostles' Creed, to preach through the Ten Commandments. So, at the end of the Catechism, we come to the questions on the Lord's Prayer. And question and answer 123 is this. Question, what does the second request mean? Answer, thy kingdom come means rule us by your word in spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Keep your church strong and add to it. Destroy the devil's work. Destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your word. Do this until your kingdom is so complete and perfect that in it you are all in all." That is our confession. And dear congregation, I was unaware that Reverend Vanderpoel would be here this morning and give a presentation on mints following the service. But I am glad, and it is something that fits well with this passage, especially the presentation on mints. You might be thinking, how does Judges 3 and a presentation on mints go together? Well, the reading of the Catechism is our clue. It is the coming of the kingdom. And how does our Lord bring the kingdom? How does he work? This should be our primary concern, and I think we live in a day and age in which the word can travel so fast. Not the holy word, but the word of news media can travel so quickly and so broadly. We hear about all these negative things, and that is oftentimes a primary focus of the news is all these negative things, these wars, these cataclysms. And it's good to have some awareness of these things, even as it can almost overwhelm in a day where we get news from this side of the world and that side of the world and this side of the country and that side of the country. But our primary focus, people of God, is on the coming of the kingdom. And that is a coming which we read about in Judges 3, and how the Lord works will be our focus for this evening, how He works in that coming, how He works in His people. It is a coming we see today primarily not through the military advancement of the people into that promised, long-awaited-for promised land, but today we see in the preaching, in the going forth of the Word of God as we heard this morning in the Mintz presentation and all the work that goes out from there. So how does God work? How do we see God working in our text? Well, first, Yahweh, our Lord, Lord in all capitals, is the Lord who has chastening dominion. Dominion over His kingdom, which includes a chastening, disciplining hand. Now this point will be a little bit longer as we think about the context. And that context should really be striking to us. Because this is the long-awaited-for promised land. And it is not long after getting to that long-awaited-for land that problems arise. How do we know that the problems come about soon? The judge who is raised up, the first leader raised up to deliver the people is related to Caleb. Caleb who is 85 years old, as we read in Joshua chapter 15, as we're reading about the conquest of the land in detail throughout the book of Joshua, Caleb is an elderly man. Allowed to see the promised land because he's one of the two spies that says, yes, we can do this. But he's an elderly man. And this Ophniel is his younger brother, or perhaps his younger nephew, the word in the Hebrew can mean either. But the point either way is that wandering around in the desert, looking for this land, having been delivered from Egypt, all problems should be solved now. No, not at all what we see. Instead we read about what cycles will come in Judges 2 and in Judges 3 we see the first movement in the cycle. The cycle of people rising up in rebellion. of God chastening them, and then of God bringing deliverance. As one commentator has said though, it's not so much just a repeating cycle as it is a downward spiral. Because actually here in Judges 3, as bad as the problems are, and we'll look at those briefly, It will actually continue to get worse and worse as we go through the book of Judges. The long-awaited forepromised land is not THE long-awaited forepromised land. As much as the land flowing with milk and honey is that great picture, And something that the people really did look forward to. And as much as there really were blessings there, this is in no way the new heavens and the new earth. There are still great struggles. And what are those sins that we see in verses 5 and 6 before our text? Again, setting the context. What is verses 5 and 6? Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their gods. There's three sins there. The first sin is that all these people are still there. They were supposed to be completely conquered. This was supposed to be a land of of complete devotion to the people of God. So that's the first sin, the people are still there. What is the second sin in verse 6? The second sin is intermarriage. Again, Caleb's the younger brother, the younger nephew. This is like the first generation in the land of promise. Taking the foreign wives. Not foreign wives in the ethnic sense, like Ruth. Ruth who is a Moabitess, but who declares, your people will be your people. My God will be my God. No. The men are marrying Delilahs. And the women also are being given in marriage to godless men. And the third sin, which logically follows from the first two, The third sin is that they served their gods. The end of verse 6. There should be no great surprise though. There should be no great surprise for the people of God knew the warnings. We'll read one of those warnings if you turn back with me to Deuteronomy. One of the warnings of, you're going to the promised land, but that's not the end of the story. A call to be faithful. And what will happen when not faithful? Warnings given in Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy 11 beginning at verse 8. Deuteronomy 11, beginning at verse 8, Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command to you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land which you go to, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed, and watered it by foot as a vegetable garden. But the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it. for the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. And it shall be that if you earnestly obey my commandments, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain that you may gather in your grain, your new wine and your oil. You see, going to the promised land is not the end. You must earnestly obey so that the Lord may give blessing. And it is in this context of warnings that we see the Lord will bring His chastening hand. Because they're in the promised land, but they are not heeding the warnings that were given by Moses in Deuteronomy, that were given by Joshua on his deathbed at the end of the book of Joshua. And so it is that the Lord will emphasize, and He will use that covenant name, that name Yahweh, Lord in all capitals. I know it's been pointed out from this pulpit before, at various times. A Lord in all capitals appearing here in our text, in the five verses of our text. Boys and girls, if you count that up, look for the all capitals. That's seven times in five verses. And that's a special emphasis, an emphasis that God is the covenant God. Sometimes we use that word God, right? We make that distinction between a big G, God, the true God, God most high, and small g, false gods, right? But when we use the name Lord, when we use the name Yahweh, in the Old Testament that name is never used to describe false gods. It is a name only used for Yahweh, Lord, our true God, the God, the Lord of Israel. The Lord who makes a covenant with His people, and the Lord who will chasten His people. And it is His work, isn't it? Verse 8, Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushon or Shtayim. Unlike many other kings mentioned in the Old Testament, we don't know anything about this king outside of this text. And what we know about this king from inside this text is that this name was probably a nickname. Because it means double wickedness. Not too many mothers name their children double wickedness. Probably a nickname from the people of Israel after suffering under this king. And it's a little bit surprising that this king would come from Mesopotamia, that's relatively far distance away. But the point is that Lord God, He doesn't have to use the people that remained in the land. He can use the hand of this king from Mesopotamia, from miles away. But still, it is His work. He sold them. Even as we will see, it is God who brings deliverance. This is all the work of His hands. He is in control of all things. So He will make His people to feel His hand, for they have not obeyed what they must do in the land. But the chastening of our Lord leads to the sustaining and saving hand. And that is our second point tonight, His sustaining presence, His saving hand. For we see that even as it is He who sold them into the hand, that when the children cried out, looking again at verse 9, the Lord raised up. a deliverer. It is always His work. It is always His hand and His plan being worked out to mold, to shape His people. We're speaking mostly tonight in bigger corporate language. The people of God. The church of God advancing. But often we see this work out in individual life. God gives a great blessing. A great time of prosperity. Maybe it is a healthy baby. Maybe it's a new job. Maybe it's a promotion at a new job. Maybe it's a whole season of blessing. And maybe it's a long-awaited-for blessing. But the Promised Land of the Old Testament. And the great blessings we receive on this earth are not the final great blessings. So we still, as the people of Israel, we still do not show proper gratitude. Even the blessing itself may almost be a tripping stone on our walk. So as we think in these broad terms, These are also things which happen on the individual level. This is something that the psalmist brings out well, thinking of both how God works in His people and how yet this is a work in me, this is a work for me. Psalm 106, if you would turn to Psalm 106, Really a psalm that runs through much of the history of Israel. He will talk about the time of the judges as well. But his introduction, the first few verses, is what I will read. Psalm 106, beginning at verse 1. Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can declare all His praise? Blessed are those who keep justice, and He does righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, with Your favor You have towards Your people. O visit me with Your salvation. You hear the personal language there? Remember me? And this is a psalm that's going to walk through much of what God has done for His people. If you read it later in the week, a psalm of a little bit more length, then he'll walk through different seasons of the people of God, including the period of the judges and how God has worked, how God has shaped and molded His people. But that doesn't mean it's not also to the individual. This is how God works in us as well. So what is the deliverance? It's brought about with a judge, with a leader. Othniel. This is how the Lord will work to, as the catechism puts it, to keep your church strong, to add to it, again, done in a different way in the time of Judges than to today, in some ways, but not in every way. For what is one of the tasks of the Judges? I said Judges 3 is the beginning of the zoning in, of looking at the periods, but if we turn back just a page to Judges chapter 2, If we look in Judges chapter 2, there's kind of a description of what the judges are to do, or leaders. Judges 4 gives an example of a judge actually judging, as we usually think of that term, but it's really a broader term. We could almost just say leaders. So what do the leaders do? What are the leaders to do? Judges chapter 2, verse 16 to 18. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges. So it's just described the whole cycle, or the whole down-rolled spiral. And now, this is what the judges, the leaders are to do, what their task is as the Lord raises them up. Verse 16. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they would not listen. to their judges. But they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked and obeyed the commandments of the Lord. They did not do so. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. You see... As this makes clear throughout the whole book of the Judges, giving a picture, in a sense, in chapter 2 of all that will follow, it's the Lord who raises them up. But what's one of the tasks? We think of the military leading of the Judges. We think of judging, because that's what our ears jump to when we hear that word in the English language. And they do those things. Those are some of the tasks of the Judges. But the Judges are also to prophesy, to tell. Verse 17, they would not listen to the Judges. The Word, brought in various times at various places, through the prophets, through the kings and priests, through the judges, through the leaders, and the Word which goes forth through the preachers and through the servants of the kingdom today, through ministries such as Mintz and other such works. So we see the Lord gives His sustaining hand for some of these very specific purposes. But Othniel is only a picture. And we sang the song of Zechariah, but if we read the song of Zechariah, Luke chapter 1, the end of Luke chapter 1, striking that Zacharias, he speaks of the Lord in a way which is not what we would expect. This is not a way he could speak without the Holy Spirit's leading, in a sense. And it is the inspired song recorded for us in Luke. Blessed is the Lord God of Israel. Luke 1 verse 68. For He has visited His people, and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets who have been since the world begun. Remember, judges is like a downward spiral. There's even a sense in which the goodness of Othniel is something we won't see in the later judges. Certainly right, we don't see it in Samson, even though the author of Hebrews will say Samson is one of our heroes of the faith. But there's a sense in which Othniel stands as like the great, the type, the best judge. He's related to Caleb. He's of the house of Judah. That's a type of, what, the house of David. And He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. And also, as sometimes happens, there are not enough verses for us to read explicitly about the sins that Othniel committed. So in a sense, even that Downward Spiral, we have this judge who is Not a judge that the following leaders will be able to stand up to. Even as, in a sense, the sins of the people, as bad as they are, are not as bad as they will become. For Jesus Christ is the one who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Othniel only, even as he's better than the rest of the judges, so to speak, as a picture, He is so much less than the horn of salvation. God will visit His people. The great sustaining saving hand will come. Jesus Christ Himself. But how does the Lord do this? How does He work? Well, we see Christ certainly in Judges. implicitly. We see the Holy Spirit explicitly. Judges chapter 3, back in our text. How does it say this was done? Verse 10, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel. He went out to the war and the Lord delivered double wickedness, Cushon Resthian, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand. It is the Spirit which the Lord gives. The same Spirit which the Lord gives to work in the hearts of His saints. To testify in our hearts that the Word is true. To testify in our hearts that though we struggle in this life, even having great blessing and then back-turning, the Spirit works and testifies that the Word is true. God is our Savior, our Lord. Yes, He has a chastening hand, but He has a saving hand. And He rules with His Spirit. And this is how He works in Othniel. Othniel, the judge of both word and deed. Again, they did not listen to the judges. Othniel, only a picture of the greater horn of salvation, the greater one from the tribe of Judah to come. So now as we come to the end of our passage, and if we look at the beginning of the Catechism, and says, rule us by your Spirit, by your Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we would submit to you. The Spirit who brings deliverance to the people. The Spirit who we wait upon to rule in our hearts. And what else does this mean when we see this in Lourdes Day 48? Thy kingdom come means rule in us. Well, it means that the kingdom come is not only talking about the kingdom coming through the conversion of new saints. The kingdom doesn't only come through the preaching of the gospel to those who have never heard and who are struck by the Holy Spirit and believe. No, the coming of the kingdom comes not only through justification, the coming of the kingdom comes through sanctification. The coming of the kingdom comes through the Lord working in leaders, like Othniel. Through working in the people, what happens to the people? Verse 11, they're not turning as a whole to the false gods, the land had rest. peace. Generally, the Spirit does a mighty work. So make the kingdom to come. Make it to come to those who do not yet know, and make the kingdom to come even in those who already are your children. Make us holy. make the kingdom come in both ways, that more and more, the language of the Catechism, that more and more we may submit to You. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8 simply, do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And we need this too often, like the Israelites turning aside, and we need this this kingdom focus on our mind, not to be distracted by the news which comes so fast and so vast. Once again, let us say, may the words of the Lord's Prayer be our prayer. May the Holy Spirit make the kingdom to rule in our own hearts. May the Holy Spirit work in the hearts of those around the earth, and may that be our focus. May that be something we know about, and pray about, and think upon, and look to. Thy kingdom come, even to the final day. And Lord, come quickly. Amen. Let us pray. Father, You have been with Your people, whether it is in the Old Testament where there is rebellion and turning aside, whether it be in this day where we continue to fall short, though we have been given the full revelation and even know Jesus Christ Himself, not just as a promise but in reality. So may we look to the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and may Your Spirit work in our hearts, and may the Spirit work in the hearts of those throughout this earth. And by that Holy Spirit we pray, Amen.