 Recording started. Good morning everyone. Welcome to today's session on the book of Old Testament Survey and today we would be starting on the book of Judges. Before we could start with our class, can I request one of us to please start with a word of prayer. Can I? Yes, please. Thank you, Father. Thank you for this wonderful time, Lord, that you've given us to come before you, Lord, to learn from your word, to know more of you, Father. I pray, Lord, be invite the Holy Spirit, Lord, to inspire us, Lord, to teach us, to guide us, Father, Lord, that we may rightly know you, Father, Lord, that we may come closer to you, Father. Have a deeper relationship with you, especially commit a pastor into your loving hands, Lord. You bless her, Father. You equip and empower her, Father, Lord. You give her the words to speak, Father, Lord, all that, Father, you want to convey to us, Father, Lord, let it be spoken through her, Father. You bless her in the name of our Lord and save you, Jesus Christ. You pray for each and every student, Father, Lord, we thank you, Father, for bringing each one of us here, Lord. It is not by accident, Father, Lord, we are here by your plan and your purpose, Father. Lord, what you want us to hear, what you want us to apply in our lives, may you make it known to us, Lord. Give us that revelation, knowledge, Father, and Lord, and we pray for the spirit of that wisdom and revelation to know you, Father. All these we pray in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Sophia. Okay, so today we're going to study on the book of Judges. So before we could start with a class, I will just project our notes. The book of Judges, who was the author of this book? Who was the author of this book? Joshua. Anyone else who was the author of this book? Okay, they say Samuel to be the author of this book. Okay, and the events described in the book of Judges were just after the death of Joshua. So to the beginning of the monarchy of span of 335 years, that is between 1,380 BC to 1,045. So this means that maybe Samuel lived about 30 to 40 years into the reign of Saul, could have been its author. We also see that in the New Testament suggestion period of the Judges lasted for about 450 years. We see that in the book of Acts, chapter 13 verse 20. Let's go, let's see the background of this book. The background of Judges opens with the closing days of the life of Joshua in chapter one. We see how Joshua along with the Israelites army conquered many places. They fought with fought many battles with the king of Canaanites. And in chapter two, we see the death of Joshua, which gives us, you know, a clear picture. And after Joshua's death, we see a downfall of Israelites with the other nation and everyone did what they felt right in their own eyes, because Joshua gave the land which they conquered to the 12 tribes. I will show the map in some time. The 12 tribes scattered in the place in the land of Canaanites into each position as it was allocated by Joshua. As they conquered, they captured each tribe according to their tribe and the size of each tribe Joshua allocated the land. So now what happened? The older generation were passing away. Okay, so then now we have the new generation. They don't know what the Lord has done. And, you know, they started to live their life, what they felt was right in their eyes. So, and they started sending, they started mingling with the Canaanites who stayed in that land. And, you know, so we see that there was a need of a proper leader, a proper leader. And we see how, how they're disobedient, okay, led to the, led to sin. And we can also see the consequence of their sin in this people life and how now when they cried out to the Lord, how God delivered them is what the story of judges all about. So with this, we'll see there are three type of judges. We see that the warrior judge like the Gideon, and there's a priest judge like Eli and the prophet judge like Samuel. And we also see Deborah also being the prophetess. We see the author date, the very purpose of this book to continue the history of Israel to show the nation. And also it also dictates the death of Joshua to the time of Samuel. It also shows the external threat of defeat by the other nations is not as serious as the internal threat they own immorality and the idolatry which led them to their defeat. And the third point we also see that God, how God raised judges, you know, or the leaders in time of trouble to deliver the people of Israel. And we also see that, you know, God was mindful of Israelites, even though they sinned and they went astray, but when they called just like how a child calls to the father and the father in all his kindness and mercy in love, he tries to redeem the children. We see that picture here. So much of God redeeming Israelites again and again, again and again. And the fourth point we see is Israel, a human kingship was needed to deliver the people to lead the people. And we will study on many other judges. And yes, we see there was a cycle, a repetitive cycle, that is sin, servitude, and then again the supplication and the salvation. Sin, the rebellion nature of Israelite servitude was a people. The Israelites started worshipping the idols of that place, like the Baal God. And supplication was when they were oppressed, when they were oppressed, they started seeking the one true God. And they started to deliver them through the judges. And we also see the salvation is God bringing rest and deliverance by raising the judges or raising the leaders. So in the book of Judges, we see about, you know, 13 leaders, 13 leaders. And in the book of Samuel, the two leaders have been recorded like Eli and Samuel. So we have the judges who are raised in the book of Judges. And today, in this, though they were 15, we will be covering on four judges to talk about due to the time constraint. The teaching from judges, we see the wickedness of the human art and God delights in using the weak things so that his glory is been seen in and through us. And the third, we see the Holy Spirit and the judges, how the Spirit of the Lord came upon each and every judge. And he moved them to deliver them. He moved them to give the right decision. He moved upon them to give them the strategy, how the Holy Spirit let the judges we see throughout in the book of Judges. And the comparison with the book of Joshua, we see that how Joshua was strong, sustained leadership and there was unity among the tribes. But in Judges, there was no sustained leader and there were no unity among the tribes. And in Joshua, we see Israel takes land from the Canaanites. But in Judges, we see Canaanites taking the land back from Israel. And Joshua emphasizes obedience. When we obey God, we see the victory and we can enjoy the freedom that comes from God. But in Judges, we see the disobedience which led them to be defeated and then led them to slavery and bondage among the other kingdoms. With this, we'll also move on to the outline. We have a very detailed outline how they, you know, what happened in the book of Judges, how the people fail and who are the judges that rules at northern, central, eastern, western camp, wherever people camped and they stayed and who ruled them. Who were the judges in each places. We see that. And we also see the portrayal or the shadow of Christ in the book of Judges, in saying that each judge was the savior or a ruler. When the Holy Spirit moved upon them, they started dictating to the Israelites the strategies, the things that they needed or how they can go for the battle and how God can give us the victory they started telling them. So, through, whenever there was a problem and people cried out to God, God raised a judge and that judge became the savior. That judge became the deliverer. That judge became the redeemer of that sect of tribe. So, we see portray of Christ in the book of Judges as the judge as a deliverer, as a ruler. So, with this, we'll go to the presentation. Once I can, I'll just start the presentation in the book of Judges. Everyone can see this presentation. So, the book of Judges is all about tears, triumph and strategy. Can we all see this? Yes, Ma'am. Okay, thank you. So, the Israelites, after setting into the promised land, now they no more dwell in the tents. Now, they have occupied the land and there is still a lot of land to be taken from the Canaanites in those areas. So, in chapter 2 and 3, we see how they were led by Joshua to capture many land and, you know, so Joshua also segregates these lands to the different tribes. We see that here. Okay, so Joshua gives the land to all the 12 tribes, 12 tribes of Israel, according to their size. E shares it among them. And then after that, we see the death of Joshua in chapter 2. Let's turn to book of Joshua as well. Sorry, not Joshua, book of Judges. Okay. And in chapter 2, we see the death of Joshua. So, after the death of Joshua, the Israelites compromised on God's command to eradicate the immoral and the corrupt Canaanites from the land. And as a result, sorry, there we are. Okay. Okay. As a result, they ended up repeatedly falling into the idolatry and immorality of that nation. So, the descendants who had raised and all the older generation have died and gone. Now, the new generation has come there and they were not aware of the God of Israel, how God brought them from Egypt and how God led them in the wilderness and how supernatural things, what are the supernatural things happen in their life and how God dwell among them. The younger generation were not aware of it. And so they started mingling with the Canaanites and this was like a disgrace. It was a disgrace to Israel, the Israelites, because they started leading a life of immorality and they started worshiping the idols of the Canaanites. So, because the people started sinning, they were losing the battle. No more they were winning, but they were losing and they went under the slavery or the bondage with the other Canaanites and other kingdom ruled in that place. And when people cried out to the Lord, okay, we see people cried out to the Lord and God raised the first judge, the first judge in the book of Judges. We see the first judge as Othniel. In chapter 3 verse 7 to 11, we see how God raised Othniel, sorry, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and how he fought against the king of Qushan Rishatim, the king of Mesopotamia and how he won the victory. And after that he ruled Israel and rest in this part. And then we see the second king was Eod and then Shamaag and then we see in the season of Deborah. Okay, we see how people, before that I'll say we are going to talk about the four judges, that is Deborah. Then we will talk about, we will talk about Deborah, that we'll talk about Gideon, then Jeff Hathor and then Samson. These are the four people we are going to talk about today. So Deborah chapter 4, Deborah was the only female judge in the Bible. She excelled in multiple areas, clearly one of the, one of the Bible's most outstanding figure. She served the ancient Israel as a prophet, prophetess. And we also see she, she also served as a judge and a military leader by leading the Israelites for a war against the kingdom that raised toward them. Then we also see after the victory she wrote, she was a songwriter, she wrote a song and she sang with the Israelites. And the two chapters show an exemplary moral character of Deborah, like how she led the people. To be an Ephraimite, she was from the tribe of Ephraim and Deborah judged and led the people for about 60 years in the 12th century BC. Her oversight covered approximately 20 years of leadership before the Canaanite war. As the Lord, you know, as she was a prophetess, a Lord shared a strategy and a promise of delivering these people. She, she delivered the message to the Israelites saying, Barak, Barak, you lead the troop, you lead the army and fight against the king of Canaanites so that God will give us the victory. But Barak who was a friend of Deborah said, unless and until you come with me, I would not go for the battle. So Deborah says that because you didn't take the leadership, God will, God will put, God will put the killing, the victory into a woman's hand, into a woman's hand. Here she's not talking about the women leadership of her own, but then killing of the king will be, will be given to a woman. We'll see how the story narrates. So what happened here is when they led to go against the king of Canaanite, his name was Cesare. The army was very strong. Suddenly they went into the camp to, to against the Canaanites and we see the battle and the king of this Canaanite was almost losing and he ran for his life. As he was running, he went into a tent of Hibbe, Hibbe and his wife, his wife name is, sorry guys, Jail I guess, Jail. No, I'm not guessing, it's correct. Jail, yeah. Yeah, that is how a name has been pronounced, Jail. So Jail said the king of Canaanite, Cesare, come into the tent and he came into the tent and he asked for water, but she gives him a milk, okay, which is a kind of a drink which was curdled, which will make the person drowsy. He was already tired because he was running for his life and she, she gives him the drink, he drank and she covered him with a blanket or a rug and he also told her Jail to stand outside the tent if Barak or the Israelites come searching for me. You tell them that I'm not here. So he goes to sleep. So what Jail does is once he sleeps, because of tiredness, he falls asleep, Jail see that he's sleeping, she takes the tent peg and you know, nails it exactly into the temple of his head and he falls dead right there. Later, we see Barak, Barak, the leader of the Israelites, he runs and comes and Jail says, come into the tent and see who's inside. When he comes to see, you see that death of the king of the Canaanite, Cesare, has been, he's lying dead there. So Israelites had the victory, they got the victory, but not in the hand of Barak, but then in the hand of women. So that's what Deborah already prophesied and Deborah also, you know, judged the Israelites. The Israelites asked Deborah to be their leader and under her leadership, you know, there was peace. She judged without any partiality, there was fairness and openness in her judging the people. She judged about, you know, 40 years. So there were 20 years under the slavery they bear and after that they had a battle. After the battle for 40 years, Deborah judged with fairness and she refused to show any kind of partiality to the people. So what does that we learn from the life of Deborah? One thing is leadership resides not in the gender, but in the character and gifting. Okay, it's not about men and women, but then it is about the character and the gifting which the Lord puts in us. Our strength comes from the Lord. Deborah totally depended on God. So we can see the minute she started depending on God, God started moving in her. She was a woman with courage, with strength and we can see despite her own strength, she relied on God. The minute she relied on God, God gave the victory and she led the people in the light of God and it pleased God. With this, we will move on to the next judge, Gideon to chapter 6. Somebody signed it. Okay. Okay. Chapter 6 from 11 onwards. Okay. The name Gideon means one who cuts two pieces. Okay. Gideon's hometown was Opera, Opera in the valley of Jezrelle. His father was Joe from the tribe of Manasseh. Gideon worked as a farmer. We also see him as a military commander later part after he encountered the angel of God and he also judged over Israel for about 40 years. He was the father of Abimelek as well as and also 70 unnamed sons. There were 70 sons been recorded in the Bible but then their names are not mentioned because Gideon had many wives and through them he had 70 sons. He also had a concubine and Abimelek was one of the concubines son. So Gideon as a man, as a person, he was a very reluctant warrior. He's also been recorded in the book of Hebrews under the faith of heroes. So Gideon, like many of us, he doubted his own ability because of which he suffered so many defeats and failures as he grew that even the angel of God encountered him and shared the plan what God wanted to do in him. He could not believe why did God choose me, a man with so much of weakness, a man with why did God choose a fearful man. In fact, we see in the book of chapter 6 verse 11. Verse 11, can one of us please read 11 and 12? Judges chapter 6 verses 11, the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Orpha that belonged to Josh the Ebizite where his son Gideon was stretching wheat in a wine press to keep it the Midianites when the angel of the Lord appeared. Gideon he said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. When we read about him, we see Gideon been hiding from these Midianites and we also see him, he was working in a wine press. He was working in the wine press without the knowledge of anyone. He was stretching the wheat there and that time the angel of the Lord appeared. Angel of the Lord appeared and look at the word what the angel of the Lord said, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. In some of the version it says man of warrior. So this shocked Gideon. Gideon reply was in verse 13, we see, oh my Lord, the Lord is with us. Why then all this is happening around us and where is all the miracles which our father told us about. Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt but now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of these Midianites. Okay, so we see how the angel of the Lord talked to Gideon and tried to convince him. Angel of the Lord did not, God did not look Gideon as a weak person but he greets him saying that you're a man of valor, you're a man of warrior. See this is how God looks at each one of us. God does not look at our weakness but God calls things as though they exist. God want to raise Gideon as a warrior. So God greeted, sent the angel to greet him saying you are the man of valor. Today even God is looking at each one of us and greeting us into the call and purpose of what God has called us. God does not look at our weakness. With Gideon, God never looked at his weakness but God chose him though he was hiding in the vineyard. He was hiding himself from the Midianites and other people but here God chose him to lead army against the Midianites and your Gideon is testing God. He says, okay, if this angel is from the Lord, I will offer the sacrifice. I want the sacrifice to be accepted and the angel of the Lord, he offered the sacrifice, the angel of the Lord accepted. We see God accepting that sacrifice and the second test he says, if it is from the Lord, let the dew fall around this fleece. He put the fleece and he said, let the dew fall on the fleece. First time he says and then we see the dew falling exactly. We see that in verse 37, chapter 6 verse 37 said to God, if you will save Israel by my hand, you have said, look, I shall put a fleece full on the threshing floor. If there is a dew on the fleece only, there should be dew only on the fleece that he put and the other part of the ground dry. Then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand and God did exactly what he asked for. And again, for the second time Gideon in verse 39 he says, then Gideon said to God, do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more. Let me test. I pray just once more with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on the ground let there be dew. So he asked, let the dew be on the ground and not on the fleece. He asked and God did exactly how Gideon asked. God was not upset or angry with Gideon for testing him. Why God was not upset or angry with Gideon? Can anyone tell me? Though he tested God three times, anyone in the class can unmute and share, give him courage. Yeah, it could be. See, our God is a God of understanding. God knew Gideon's heart. Gideon as a person is very fearful and he's already been hiding. He didn't have that courage. So he wants to make sure it is God who's calling him to go against the Medianites because they were very powerful people. How can a person like Gideon become a leader and take the army and go and fight against the Medianites? So he was very fearful. So that was the only reason why Gideon had to ask God for signs for three times. But God was a God of understanding. He understands us. Many times even we would have asked for certain things or certain signs like that. When God and all in his mercy and his grace, he has shown those signs for us, knowing the weakness that we have. But God is encouraging us to trust on God. Okay, so we see here, after the seven years of the oppression of the Medianites, Israel cried out to God and God chose Gideon. And Gideon raises the army. He raises the army from the tribe about, we see in the verse chapter seven, verse three, we see he raised, you know, they were about 22,000 of people. And then again, 22,000 of people. And among them he chose 10,000. And then, and, you know, God said, I don't need this many people. I need, you know, God is asking Gideon to choose, you know, the right kind of people for the battle. So how Gideon chose the right people. So he led all these people, God asked Gideon to lead them, lead them to a river. And he asked, you know, Riven asked the army to drink water. So in the manner how the people are drinking water, God will choose the people. So when, you know, we see that, we see that in the verse, yeah, in number six, the number of those who lapped and he brought the people down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon, everyone, everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself. Likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink. So here we see God is asking Gideon to choose in the way how people are drinking the water, the posture of them, posture of the matter. So we see there are two, there are two type of poachers. Some of them are kneeling on their knees and drinking the water with their mouth directly on the river. And some of them were like, you know, they were not kneeling, but they were just lapsing the water like a dog, just taking some water in the hand and drinking. So we need to know how a dog drinks. But dog never bends down to the water. It just laps the water with this, you know, laps the water and it's ready to run. If any, if it hears any sound, it is ready to leave that water and run from there. So what we see in the army here is these people who were on their knees were not ready for the battle. But these people, when the sign comes, they were ready to run for battle. So God chose the people who showed the readiness to the battle by lapsing the water in their hands. So God chose the people whoever laps the water. And that was about 300 people. And our Gideon was asking God, they were only 300, very less number. How can I face the Medianites who are large in number? But then God said, I am your strength, you need to be dependent more on me. So the 300 people were led by Gideon and God gave him a strategy, you know, God gave him a strategy how he can carry the torchlight at one hand, which is covered with a mud pot and at one hand the trumpet. With this he heads towards the Medianites cap and in the midnight, when always sleeping, he goes and God clearly tells him, you know, we see that in the later part of the verse, we see that how when they all were resting, Gideon gives a single signal. He splits the 300 into three groups and Gideon gives a signal to blow the trumpet and it brings a confusion in the Medianites tribe and all of a sudden they break the torchlight, the mud pot and with the torchlight they rush to attack the Medianites and God gives victory to Gideon. We also see a significance here, the clay pot which they covered the light and at the sound of a trumpet of the Gideon, the army breaks that mud pot and the light shines. We see the clay pot which is very weak, which is very weak just like the Gideon and the army of Israelites but when they broke that pot, the light shined from within. That is the strength of God that shines from within, which gave them the strength, which gave them the courage, the spirit of the Lord moved on them and gave them the victory. We see the hand of God again in our weakness, in the weakness of Gideon, in the weakness of the Israel army. We see the hand of God move in and through them and God gave them the victory and they overtook the Medianites, they drove them out of that place and you know they celebrated the victory. With this we will move on to the next judge. So before we could move on to the next judge, what are the lessons that we learn from the life of Gideon? Can anyone tell me? You all can unmute and answer because of I'm projecting the PPT. If you type in chat I may not be able to see it. So can you unmute and answer so that your voice has been heard and even in the other e-learning classes people can hear what you say? One thing is like that total reliance on God, like when Gideon chose so many people, God wanted him to cut it down to 300 and yeah that is like showing how much they had to depend on God. Yes, anyone else? We also see how God used Gideon in his weakness and God could use even us to do greater things like how he did through Gideon. Okay, with this we will move on to the chapter 11. Chapter 11, the story of Jefta. The story of Jefta is one of the most encouraging and at the same time one of the most tragic story in the Bible. He chimed over the rejection and you know, Jefta and he lost his daughter. How he made an unnecessary wab and he lost his daughter. Okay, let's move on to his story. Verse 1, chapter 11 verse 1 onwards. We see that Jefta's mother was a prostitute and his brothers drove him out to prevent him from getting an inheritance. So fleeing from their home in Gillett, he settled in Tobbe where he gathered a band of other powerful warriors around him. When the Ammonites threatened war against Israel, the elder of Gillett came to Jefta and asked them, could you lead the army against the Ammonites? And Jefta was reluctant and then he assured the leader that he will lead the army after that and he learned the king of Ammonites. They wanted some dispute of the land and Jefta sent a message explaining how the land came into the position of Israel and we also see the Ammonites had no legal claim to it and the king ignored Jefta's explanation and they came for the battle and Jefta made a wab to God. This was actually not required but then they were you know, if you see the background, Jefta and the other people grew along with the Canaanites. So Canaanites had this practice in them saying that for every victory they'll offer a sacrifice. They'll offer a sacrifice. So Jefta and all is, you know, excitement of, you know, getting the victory from the Lord. E makes a wab to God saying that, you know, after the victory, when God you give me the victory over the Ammonites, whatever comes front of me, I will give you a burnt offering. Okay, the burnt offering of the first thing that he saw out that comes out of his house after the war. So what was in his mind to make this wab is those days in the ground floor, in the ground floor, usually they have these cattle, animals in the ground floor and they would live in, you know, first or second floor they would live. So in the ground floor, they were most of the times the cattle and, you know, were there and what he thought is when he entered, he would get to see one of the cattle or the animal and he can offer that as a burnt offering to offer the sacrifice to God. So with this in mind, he makes a wab but when the Spirit of the Lord moved on Jefta and he won the battle against the Ammonites and when he was coming back, when he arrived home, you know, his daughter comes front of him and we see the scripture says he had the one and only daughter and she runs, you know, she runs towards his dad after the victory and, you know, Jefta was so much moved and he tears his clothes and he cries, he cries saying that daughter, what a trouble you have brought on me. Okay, and he explains it to her and, you know, is the way he has brought up was like that. So the daughter confirms the father saying that, okay, you keep up your promise what you did for God, give me two months time, I'll go to the mountain, spend some time with my friends and after that you can sacrifice me and, you know, she was after two months, she comes back, returned to her father, we see that in chapter 11 verse 39, she returned to her father and he carried out his wab with her and, you know, we see Jefta keeping up his wab with God as he promised, we kept a wab. So what was the lesson that we learned from this, from the story of Jefta? We see initial days that he was rejected by his own family, by his mom and his brothers, but rejection was not the end. Later part we see as he trusted on God with all his humility, he trusted on God, you know, God raised him as a leader, as a judge. Okay, but then at the same time, when he knew that God is going to give these ammonites into his hand, you know, I don't know whether it is a pride that came to his mind or what, but with Lord of excitement, he said whatever he was in a haste, he made this wab unto God. But then one thing we need to understand is, even in the book of Samuel, we read in 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 22. 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 22, we read that as the Lord has the Lord has great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord, behold, they behold to obey is better than sacrifice. So what is it needed from us, not the offering, not the burnt sacrifice? What God looks at us and he expects us is to obey him. Obedient, obedience is better than any kind of sacrifice. And we also should not be in a haze to make any such verb because God is not expecting any sacrifice offering from us because everything that we have belongs to him. Okay, so with this, we will move on to chapter 13, the last story of Samson. I'll quickly finish this. Yeah, chapter 13. We see Samson, the story of Samson was American. His mother was a baron and an angel appeared to her and said she would give birth to a son. Okay, and he was to be a Nazarite all his life. There's some similarity between the birth of John the Baptist to Elizabeth and also to Samson. Mother, both were baron, the angel of the Lord appeared and told them that you will bring forth a son and he is a Nazarite. Now, what does a Nazarite mean? And who are the Nazarites in the Bible? Can anyone say? Can I say something? Yes, please. A Nazarite is a person chosen to serve God even before his birth. They are usually people who are not supposed to be, they are here to be cut, something like that. Yes, yes. You're right, you're right. Exactly. From the mother's womb itself, they need to follow this. So the angel of the Lord appeared to Samson's mother and he told him that you will be, God is going to bless you with a son and he will be a Nazarite. You need to keep this bubble. You need to abstain from any kind of wine and grapes and you should not cut his hair of beard and to avoid contact with the dead bodies. So we see there were two Nazarites in the book of Hebrew or in the Hebrew Bible or we call it as the Old Testament that is Samson and Samuel. Even Samuel's mother was, we can study about him later. Even she prayed and asked for a child for a very long time. She was a parent when she prayed, God blessed her with a child and he was also a Nazarite. And the same thing happened with John the Baptist. Okay. So these are the three people, Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist in the New Testament. So when he reached manhood, okay, we see Samson's, you know, the last provoked in him and he married a Philistine woman from the pagan conqueror of the Israel. Though his parents warned him, but then he was not very keen on listening, but then he went and married her. This led to the confrontation and, you know, there was a kind of small battle among the Philistines and Samson. And on this occasion, he took the jawbone of a donkey and killed 1000 men. We see again the supernatural power of God over Samson. The strength that he had was from God. Okay. The strength that he had was from God and people, the Philistines were scared of Samson. Not, they were not scared of the Israelites or the big army, nothing, but they were scared of this one person, Samson, because of the strength that he carried within him. And, you know, we see at the later part of this book, we see how the Philistines plan, plan, they found the weakness of Samson was the women. So they planned, there was a harlot called Delilah, so they enticed her to go and entice Samson, Samson and get the secrets of him as he was weak with the women. And, you know, he liked Delilah and he was living with her. And, you know, these Philistines pressurized Delilah to know the strength of, to know the strength of Samson. And, you know, as she kept pressurizing him, it says for about seven days, he had given a riddle. And they had to tell the riddle out, if not, you know, each one have to get him a set of a new garment and some prize he said, you know, Samson had revealed. And for the seven days, you know, these Philistines asked Delilah to pressurize Samson to know the strength, to know the riddle. And he also reveals the riddle and they get to know. But later part of the story, we see how these Philistines use Delilah to know the strength of Samson. And the minute Samson could not bear the pressure of Delilah, he reveals the strength, he reveals the love that he has with God. Okay. And then the minute she gets to know, she discloses that with the Philistines. And the Philistines plans to cut off his hair, the logs of his hair. And then, you know, Samson loses his strength and then they come to attack him. But this time, because he didn't have the strength because the spirit of the Lord was not with him, it left him because his hair was cut. And then we see, you know, he was captured by the Philistines, they put out his eyes and he could not see and he was led by them and he was under the slave, under the bondage of these people. And they were mocking him and they're supposed to project him in the Philistines, some kind of conference and they brought him to a place where there were 3000 men gathered in this place and they were mocking at Samson. And this time Samson prays, he stands as, you know, you know, Samson prays. And this time when he prayed to God to give him the strength as the one final act, it had not, you know, so we see here God answered Samson's prayer and God gave him the strength, the power to break that, I'm just going to break the two pillars, to break the two pillars where all the 3000 Philistines were there, when he broke, you know, the whole, you know, some kind of auditorium, like it fell on all, including Samson was killed in this place as he pushed the pillars apart and it was in a temple, okay, it was in the temple of the Philistines. So it came crashing down and it killed 3000 Philistines, where the enemies of Israel and the saddest was even Samson was killed in this. So what do we know in this? The strength was not in the hair of Samson, but it was in the power of God, when he prayed, God answered him. So just like Samson, even we, we may have gone astray, we may have done things that displeased God, but then when we call, when we call upon God, God years our prayer and you know, he restores us back when we repent, we see God restoring us back to himself. So in the book of Judges, we see that when, when, you know, when we compromise on obeying God and His command, we see the enemy take over us, they take over us, we see that in the Samson's life, when he gave into the sinful lust of his flesh, we see sin always has its consequence. So we need to be very careful in the way we lead our life. It may start with something very small, but then it leads to something big, though God gave many warnings to Samson, but he never gave a heed to it. He went and what he pleased, what he desired to satisfy his lustful desires, he went and you know, he sinned against God and because of that sin, he had to face the consequence. And in the last moment when he repented, he cried, he turned to God and you know, he prayed and God answered his prayer. So in the book of Judges, we see that many, how the people of Israel compromised on, you know, on God's command of not driving out the Canaanites or the Ammonites or the other people who had occupied the land, if only they would have drive them out from the land, they wouldn't have faced any kind of immoral or the idolatry sin in their life. Just because they compromised on that, they thought these people will be the slave to them. Okay, but they landed up becoming slave to them, their God and they started practicing their idolatry or immorality in their life and it led to many consequences and they had to lead to many sin and they had to face the consequence of their sin and all this showed that, you know, all these stories we studied on the four Judges and everything showed us the need of a redeemer, need of a deliverer. So in each and every story that we studied today, we see there is a need of a deliverer. We need a redeemer, not the temporary Judges, where the temporary people, okay, they were there for a time of period and then they died. But then again, the people went astray. We see the cycle repeat again and again, again and again. But then there's a need of a deliverer, God knowing this. So who was our deliverer who came in the New Testament? Who was a redeemer who redeemed Israel and delivered them from all the hand of the enemies once and for all? It was Jesus. Jesus died on the cross. He paid a great price for us and He redeemed once and for all. That's why in John 3.16 we see what does John 3.16 say? For God to love the world, that He gave us only Son. Okay. That who so loved the world? Yes. Shall not perish but have everlasting life. Just go ahead and say that brother. Yes, whoever believes and is a redeemer, we will have an eternal life with God. So Jesus paid a price once and for all. He was a deliverer. He was a redeemer. He was our judge and it's not temporary but everlasting. So we know the need. So we may think, what is this battle all about? The book of Judges is only about battle, conquering and fighting and taking but then we see it is all written for a purpose. It is all written for a purpose in the book of Romans chapter 15 verse 4. We said whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of the scripture might have hope. So the book of Judges and later part, whatever comes, the kings and other, we see a lot of battles happening and how the Lord was with them faithfully to deliver them from the hand of the enemies. We see the mercy of God. We see the love of God go hand in hand. No matter how wicked the people could be, Israel again and again, they may turn their back to God but God was faithful. He was faithful and even till date, He's been faithful despite all mistakes but when we repent and turn to God, God accepts us just like, you know, we read the parable of the prodigal son. He just waits for us and he accepts us. This is what we learn from the book of Judges that God is merciful and faithful at the same time. Anything that you would like to share? Sorry, we took some extra time. Anything that you would like to share? Add to it what was our learning from this book? Sorry. Okay, let's end this class with the word of prayer. Can I request Brother Subashish to pray and end this class? Okay, Pastor. Loving Father, once again, Lord, we thank you. We praise you, Master, for this beautiful day, Lord. Thank you for speaking to us from this morning. And Lord, I thank you for the pastor. Lord, I thank you that the way, Lord, you have talked to her so that Lord seek to be able to spoken to us, Lord. In a beautiful way, Lord. We thank you. Lord, as we are learning from the word, Lord, I pray that blesses that Lord. Every day, Lord, we will see transformation in our life. Every day, Lord, we will see God speaking to us. Every day, Lord, we will see that our life is molding and we are a new creation. Lord, once again, I thank you for each and every one of us, Lord. Though, Lord, we are departing now, but Lord, I pray that you speak continuously. Once again, I thank you for the pastor, a blessing. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Have a good day. God bless. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Good bless. Thank you. Thank you. Good bless. Thank you. Thank you. Good bless. Thank you. Good bless.