In our last study, we saw the fasting of Israel was not acceptable to the Lord. They had the practice down, the religious aspects of it, but their heart was far from the Lord. The sad thing is that they didn’t recognize it. They truly thought that their actions were acceptable and that God should respond to them with favor and blessings. The reality is any religious activity for religions sake is never going to please the Lord. The attitude of the heart is what God is looking at.

Look at, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body [a]to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing."

All of these things are religious things but without love which only comes from our relationship with Jesus these things mean nothing, and cannot bring us closer to God.

The end of chapter 58 tells us that if we turn our hearts to Jesus, He will restore and bless all we do, because all we do will be His will not ours. This week in chapter 59 we will see Isaiah laying out the reason God seems to not listen or answer when they cry out to Him. Ultimately the problem is them not God.

In our study last week, we were introduced to Jephthah who was an outcast because his mother was a harlot and all of his half-brothers ran him off until they needed him to fight for them.

Up to this point, Israel had been under oppression by the Philistines and the Ammonites for 18 years. They cried out to God for help and then instead of waiting on the Lord, they quickly went after the one they had previously rejected.

This shows how indecisive the flesh can be. Love those who can offer me something, hate those who can’t, and change on a dime when it benefits us. A true relationship with the Lord doesn’t change with the wind blown circumstances.

Our God IS and will always be no matter what we see with our eyes or hear with our ears. Today we live in a world that is completely consumed with lies and deception which is all from the enemy who is the father of all lies.

John 8:44

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Jesus was speaking to the religious leaders of Israel who were not shepherding the sheep, but rather abusing and taking advantage of them for their own gain.

If He had this to say about them, what do you think He will say to those in our culture who are not feeding the sheep with the full counsel of His word?

Now this week we will pick up in Judges Chapter 11 and we will see how God did use Jephthah to defeat the enemy, but Jephthah in his flesh made a vow that he should have never made.

So in our last study we saw after Abemelech, came two judges, Tola and Jair, who judged for a total of 45 years. By the time Jair died, Israel again fell back into idolatry and they were oppressed by the Philistines and the people of Ammon. This goes on for 18 years before they cry out to the Lord for help.

This shows the pride and sin in their heart towards God. Even when they did seek the Lord, it was not completely heartfelt.

Let’s go back to verses 10-18 in chapter 10:

Judges 10:10-18

10 And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!” 11 So the LORD said to the children of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the Philistines? 12 Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and [c]Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. 13 Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. 14 “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.” 15 And the children of Israel said to the LORD, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray.” 16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.17 Then the people of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah. 18 And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin the fight against the people of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

It’s as though Israel didn’t even hear God’s response. Do what’s best but deliver us anyway. They did turn away from their idols and religiously served the Lord and even though it was half-hearted, God was moved with compassion for them.

The next thing we saw was they didn’t wait for the Lord to raise up a judge, but began to seek one out for themselves.

In our last study in judges, we saw the judgment against Abimelech and the men of Shechem who initially aligned themselves with Abimelech but later turned against him.

What we gleaned from Abimelech’s story is God does not ignore ore wink at sin. In the old covenant, God dealt with sin with harsh judgment, but always with mercy, and when judgment came, it was in administered by a perfect God who knows the heart of all men, so His judgments are right and true.

Deuteronomy 4:5-8

5 “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. 6 Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 “For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? 8 And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?

Psalm 19:9

The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

Now in the new covenant, judgment is still administered, but God’s judgment was poured out upon Jesus and all who will believe, will not face His wrath which will be poured out upon the world and those who remain in their sin. The one thing we know is Jesus is coming back for His church and in His timing, judgment will come and it will be a righteous judgment in the end as it has always been since the fall of man.

This week we will see a couple of judges raised up but we don’t have a lot of information on them. We will also see Israel once again fall back into idolatry and turn away from God which always brings the same result.

What is worship? How does one go about achieving worship? Who is the focus of our worship? All questions I’m sure have confronted most of you here today. There are many things in our physical world that clamor for our attention, even our worship. But are they all worthy of such a high position in our life? What drives you forward each day? By this I’m asking what motivates you to be successful in your job, your family, your personal life. Is it something perishable, temporary by eternal standards? Or is it someone higher, someone worthy of worship, someone who eternally can make a difference in our life – even today?

Our motivation, our attitude and even the focus of our worship to God all are summed up in the text we will be looking at today.

In our last study we saw Isaiah speaking to both his culture and his time, but also prophetically. Several times he spoke of not defiling the Sabbath but for us today, we know that Jesus is our Sabbath and it is no longer a day, week or celebration but our rest is found in our relationship with Jesus. We also saw Isaiah speaking to the leaders of Israel regarding not shepherding and leading according to the truth, but rather through tradition and self-gain. This is something for the church today. The sheep need solid food not milk and honey. We need to be shepherding and teaching, encouraging and counseling according to the full counsel of God’s word, not watering things down in order to keep everyone happy. God’s word is challenging and offensive to today’s culture. May we as pastors today hold fast to His word and let the Spirit of God bring conviction for those who will hear. In this chapter, Isaiah continues his rebuke on Judah’s leaders for their idolatry and how he will provide a way to restore them if they will turn to Him.

Last week we were introduced to Abimelech one of Gideon’s sons who was born to a concubine in Shechem. After Gideon’s death, Abimelech rose to power by killing his half-brothers, 70 in all, with only one escaping. We saw that Gideon’s bad choices lead up to this, but we know that Abimelech is accountable and responsible for his actions.

One of the key things that we saw was that God chooses imperfect people to accomplish his plans. God used Gideon mightily, but He didn’t wait for Gideon to get all of his personal affairs in order before He raised him up, and in his flawed nature he made some bad choices which we will see has severe consequences.

The same for us today. He doesn’t wait for us to get cleaned up before we can come to Him for salvation, and He wants to use us if we are willing to be used.

Romans 5:6-11

6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Being reconciled to God through Jesus means that we are surrendered to Him. At this point in our lives we have come to Him in humility and if we abide in Him, we become like Him. Unlike those before Jesus, we now in the New Covenant have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us that brings wisdom and conviction. It’s in this relationship that we are a new creation and can be used as spiritual beings not fleshly ones. This is truly God’s mercy poured out upon us.

Now in this week’s study, we will see the word spoken by Jotham the brother that survived Abimelech’s attack. We will also see the downfall of Abimelech for his treachery against his own family.

So in our last study, we saw Gideon complete the task God set before him to do. He had to deal with the jealousy of Ephraim, the ridicule of Succoth and Penuel, but none of that deterred him from completing his call. But as always, God did the work and Gideon just had to remain steadfast and obedient. Gideon however faltered after the victory. He collected the gold earrings and made an Ephod which became a snare for Gideon and his family. People began to worship the image instead of God.

 This is something we need to be aware of today. One of the danger zones for us is right after a victory. We exhale and decompress and can take our eyes off of Jesus and look at the victory itself. Satan uses this against us and we become very vulnerable. Sometimes, even fear and anguish grips us after a great victory. It happened to Elijah. 

1 Kings 19:1-4

1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” 3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

I believe Gideon just settled and became complacent and his life ended far different that it began. 

This week we will see the downfall of Israel after Gideon’s death and we will also see one bad decision destroyed his family and his legacy.

Defiling the Sabbath is to defile the Lord, by not walking in relationship but religion. Claiming to be a believer but no fruit or evidence of Jesus in their life.

As we have been studying the book of Judges and also in other studies that we have been gone through, we have seen God’s hand of judgment but at the same time, His hand of mercy. These attributes along with all of God’s attributes are always in perfect balance. Some may question God as to why He allows some things and why He doesn’t allow others, but in all reality, we can never fully comprehend His ways because they are coming from an infinite source where ours are finite. He sees all, He knows all and we only grasp what is in front of us with the 5 senses of man, Touch, taste, sight, hearing and smell. The wonderful thing that Jesus brings to us is the Holy Spirit who gives us supernatural understanding in things we normally cannot grasp. This brings peace in difficult circumstances, joy when facing grief and the ability to rest in Him when we don’t have all the answers, knowing that He does. All of this is found in our relationship with Jesus and it cannot be found without Him. With this said, I want to focus this morning on one attribute. The attribute of mercy. This attribute will touch and cross over other attributes, but this is the one I want to look at this morning. So, to begin, we need to ask what is mercy? A simple way of putting it is, mercy is not giving us what we deserve. All through scripture we read of God’s mercy.