A couple of times in the last few weeks of our series on Promises, we looked at promises God made and kept to His people in Exodus…

If you were to take pen and paper and draw out a timeline of the history of God’s people, how well do you think you would do? What happened next?

Well, they get to the edge of the Promised Land, chicken out of taking it because they’re not sufficiently ecquipped to do so, not trusting that the same God who had promised them the land would give it to them.

So in judgement, God says, “Okay, if that’s what you want… none of this generation is going in. You don’t trust me to give you a home, fine, you’ll just have to wander around homeless, until every last one of this generation dies.” And that’s what happened. That entire generation—minus Joshua and Caleb, the two faithful spies who trusted God—died off in the wilderness. But with their children, God says, “Okay, now it’s time… but Moses, you’re not going in either.”

Moses’ Last Message

Deuteronomy literally means “second law.” Moses gathered them all up and recounted again all that God had done, and much of the law already recorded in Leviticus, with some added instructions and promises, if they would keep the covenant. Among them…

You will be blessed above all peoples; there will be
no infertile male or female among you or your livestock.

Deuteronomy 7:14

That’s a great promise to hear when you’re subsistence farming, and your very survival is based on having lots of animals and lots of babies.

So Moses passes away, and Joshua lead’s God’s people into the Promised Land, they marched around Jericho… and I don’t know about you, but that’s where my timeline starts to get a little messy. My grasp of the history of God’s people takes a serious step down at this point. What is the order of events after that?

I think part of the reason why that’s the case is that the last half of Joshua is laborious reading in your yearly Bible plan, right? It’s all about the division of the Promised Land between the tribes. Names we don’t understand, laying out territory borders, a few thousand years ago on the other side of the world. It’s easy to loose track of the story.

Well, by the end of Joshua, God’s people are in the land, but they never completed the task of driving out all the Canaanites like God had commanded them. They went to their allotted territories and just started living.

Joshua knows that he’s not got much time left in this world, so he gathers the leaders of all the tribes one last time, reminds them of all God has done for them, challenges them to keep following God, and promises that if they do so, God will be with them and drive out the rest of the people of the land. They answer, “We will worship the Lord, because He is our God.”

The book of Joshua ends on a very hopeful note. God’s people are finally in the Promised Land, they’re beginning their life as a nation, establishing rule and order, setting up patterns of life and worship. Things look pretty good, all things considered.

But after Joshua dies… it’s pretty predictable what happens next:

The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua. They had seen all the Lord’s great works he had done for Israel.

Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110… That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel.

The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.

Judges 2:7–11

The Period of Judges

The book of Judges covers about 200 years of Israel’s history, and it’s a tumultous time, with some of the wildest stories in all the Bible.

  1. Israelites reject God, worship idols,
  2. God judges them, their enemies defeat them.
  3. They cry out to God because of their oppression.
  4. God has mercy and raises up a judge.
  5. Rinse and repeat

When you hear judge in this context, don’t think black robes and high powered lawyers, because it’s not that at all. These “judges” are more like military/tribal leaders. They weren’t judging all of Israel, becaues Insrael was not unified. God would raise up a judge to give relief to some portion of His people, certain areas/clans

This is a far cry from Law & Order; it’s much closer Breaking Bad. That’s actually a really good analogy, because the book of Judges is basically this downward spiral, where both the people and the judges themselves end up being weaker, more violent, and more corrupt with every generation.

Other than exile, this was probably the low point in Israel’s history. The whole thing is summed up in this phrase that appears repeatedly in the book:

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Judges 21:25, ESV

Hebrew Bible Order

Now if you’re in Judges 21, the next book in your Bible is Ruth. We were in Ruth in Feb-March 2020, right before the pandemic hit.

The book of Ruth is placed in our Bibles because it makes chronological sense—the story of Ruth happened during the time of judges. Which means, incidentally, that even during this time of turmoil and anarchy, there were still people who were worshipping God. There’s always a remnant.

But in the original order of the Bible, Ruth is not inserted there. When Jesus was a kid going to synagogue, Ruth is part of the “Scrolls”, which are read during feasts. And this section of the Bible, minus Ruth, is known as the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings).

So that means if you’re reading along, you go directly from Judges to the beginning of Samuel. (notice I’m saying Samuel, not 1 Samuel. One book, two scrolls.)

That’s important for the context, the impact of the story today.

There was a man from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. His name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives, the first named Hannah and the second Peninnah. ==(panini, in the Hebrew, that means grilled striped toast, at least that’s how I interpret it. She was apparently great at making sandwhiches!)== Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless. This man would go up from his town every year to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of Armies at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were the Lord’s priests.

1 Samuel 1:1–3

That may not mean much to you… it didn’t to the original readers, either! This family is nobodies.

Their family name didn’t get them anywhere. (some people’s does)

They were from a no-name town. (at least, not a name anyone could pronounce!)

Their family dynamics did get them somewhere—a world of hurt!

Polygamy never explicitly condemned, also never set out as the standard, and in every single story, without exception, leads to heartache and misery all the way around.

Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice, he always gave portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to each of her sons and daughters. But he gave a double portion to Hannah, for he loved her even though the Lord had kept her from conceiving. Her rival would taunt her severely just to provoke her, because the Lord had kept Hannah from conceiving. Year after year, when she went up to the Lord’s house, her rival taunted her in this way. Hannah would weep and would not eat.

1 Samuel 1:4–7

In agrarian, patriarchial culture, having children is everything!

Barrenness in any ancient writing is the effective metaphor for hopelessness for withought children there was no foreseeable future for yourself, your family, or for your people.

Brueggemann

For them, this was a tangible, objective measure of blessing/cursing.

But not just her, all of Israel is in this same position. Remember the promises? “No infertility.”

So after 200 years and 21 chapters of Judges, at one of the lowest points in Israel’s history, the story turns to a family of nobodies, in a po-dunk town, with a woman who’s struggling with infertility and marital issues? Why? What is going on? What is God doing?

==He’s doing what he always dose,
making something out of nothing
making nobodies into nobility.==

This theme runs through the whole book. In the next chapter, Hannah’s song: SPOILER ALERT in case you’ve never read this story, Hannah has a baby, and she sings a song of praise and prophecy to God in chapter 2, we’ll look at it in depth next week.

The bows of the warriors are broken, but the feeble are clothed with strength. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the trash heap. He seats them with noblemen and gives them a throne of honor.

1 Samuel 2:4,8

Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence.

1 Corinthians 1:26–29

1. Never overestimate who you are.

People use the phrase “holier-than-thou”. Here’s the reality of it: if you’re actually holier than they are, if you’re actually holy like Jesus is, then the people you’re around would never describe you as holier-than-thou. Tax collectors and prostitutes, what respectable society saw as the scum of the earth, they didn’t walk away from Jesus and say, “He thinks he’s so much more righteous than us”. No, they knew he was more righteous than them, and were changed by the fact that he welcomed them in.

Brothers and sisters, consider your calling, and what these verses mean about us. I’m gonna read those verses again, in the NLT this time, maybe it’ll hit you a little differently:

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

1 Corinthians 1:26–29, NLT

So when you get your feelings hurt, when something rubs you the wrong way, when you think you should have been treated with more respect… just remember, not many wise, powerful, wealthy; no, we’re the foolish, the powerless, the despised, the ones counted as nothing.

Aren’t you glad you tuned in tonight for this encouragement?! But actually, you should be encouraged by it, because don’t we all feel like that sometimes? It’s much better if, rather than wallowing in that feeling, you can just go, “Yep, I just locked my keys in the car. That’s right. I’m a moron. Than goodness God chooses and uses morons like me, so that everybody knows it’s Him!”

Some people graduate “summa cum laude”; I graduated thank the Laudy!

And by using people like us to accomplish his mission, God gets the glory, because it’s obvious to everyone that’s it’s by his power and his power alone!

  1. Never overestimate who you are.

2. Never discriminate against those God might use.

“Oh, I would never do that!” Are you sure?

If you walk into a church, are you more likely to sit behind the well-dressed upper middle class couple in their 50s, or the homeless drug addict who just walked in after a few nights sleeping in the park?

Like the repentance song we sang tonight, Lead Us Back

Lord we fall upon our knees
We have shunned the weak and poor
Worshipped beauty courted kings
And the things their gold affords
Prayed for those we’d like to know
Favor sings a siren tune
We’ve become a talent show
Lead us back to life in you

Sojourn Music, “Lead Us Back”

Or, more likely, if you’re already in the church, and those same people start coming regularly, are you more happy to see one than the other? If you’re looking at it from purely human terms, one is going to be a “taker” while the other a “giver.” Who are you more likely to invite to go out to eat after or come to your family barbeque tomorrow?

See how easy it is for this kind of thing to creep in, without us even realizing it? We need the Spirit’s help to constantly be on guard. “Not many noble…”

  1. Never overestimate who you are.
  2. Never discriminate against those God might use.

3. Never underestimate what God might do.

Just because we don’t overestimate our own abilities and status doesn’t mean we don’t dream big dreams about what God might do.

We’ll get into this more next weekend when we dive deeper into Hannah’s story and the birth of Samuel, but at the end of her prayer, she says,

He will give power to his king; he will lift up the horn of his anointed.

1 Samuel 2:10

Which begs the question: WHAT KING?!? You’ll have to come to church next week to find out! (or read 1 Samuel!)

The Story of Edward Kimball

Boston, April of 1855, Edward Kimble. 40 years old, very little education, taught Sunday School to teenage boys—that’s dedication!

Went into the shoe store to talk to one of the boys in his class, Dwight, who was 17 at the time, and he ended up leading the young man to faith in Christ that. His last name was Moody, Dwight Moody—D.L. Moody, as he would later come to be known, one of the greatest evangelists in American history.

On one of his trips to England, a young pastor named Fred came to hear him speak, and was encouraged and challenged by Moody’s evangelism. They would become close friends over the years. You may have read some of Fred’s 75+ books, commentaries, and devotionals, like I did this week as I prepared for this message. He also went by his initials, F.B. Meyer.

Meyer came to America and preached at Moody’s school in Massachusetts once, and he asked this question: “If you’re not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?” That question changed the life of a student from Richmond, IN named J. Wilbur Chapman.

Chapman would go on to be a pastor, evangelist, and songwriter, including a couple you probably know, One Day, and Jesus! What A Friend for Sinners.

As Chapman traveled the country doing evangelistic tent meetings, he needed an “advance man” who would go ahead of him, set up the tent, invite people, get a choir together, etc. He hired a young former baseball player to do the job, giving him his start in evangelism ministry. His name was Billy Sunday.

Billy Sunday would end up preaching the gospel to millions himself in the early 1900s, with an estimated 300K people professing faith in Christ under his ministry.

In 1924 Billy Sunday held a revival in Charlotte, NC. A men’s prayer group that started from that meeting decided to have another evangelistic event a few years later, and they invited another evangelist to come, Mordecai Ham.

Among those saved at that event was a 16 year old high schooler named known as Billy Frank… Billy Franklin Graham. Through crusades, radio, and TV, estimated lifetime audience of 2.2 billion.

All because of a simple, faithful Sunday School teacher named… do you remember his name? Exactly. God uses the small, the weak, the nobodies, the names nobody remembers, to accomplish his purposes in the world.

His name was Edward Kimble, but because of him, millions and millions of people know the name Jesus Christ.

The reason we know that line is because all of those are relatively famous people. But the reality is that every single Christian comes to faith in Christ because of the simple, ordinary faithfulness of a thousand believers before them.

Never overestimate your own importance, but never underestimate what God can do.

Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21