Peter Barnes | Judges 13
SERMON NOTES
SAMSON’S REMARKABLE BIRTH
(Judges 13)
– 13:1 – rebellion and repression. Israel is even hostile to the thought of rescue (15:9-12)
1. God saves when we cannot.
– like the birth of Isaac, Samuel, and John the Baptist (cf. Luke 1:13-17, 66, 76-80); …
Peter Barnes | Judges 10:6-18
SERMON NOTES
JEPHTHAH: A FOOLISH VOW
(Judges 11:34-12:7)
– Simon Robinson: ‘This must be one of the most troubling passages in the Old Testament.’ Jephthah is saved (Heb.11:32).
1. Do not negotiate with God.
– 11:30-31; Jacob seems to start out with the same mentality …
Peter Barnes | Judges 11:1-33
SERMON NOTES
JEPHTHAH: THE BIBLE’S ROBIN HOOD
(Judges 11:1-33)
– He is saved (Heb.11:32)
1. God chooses an outcast.
– 11:1-3; some say that these were just unimportant people who gathered around Jephthah the outcast, but they were probably more than adventurers (NIV); note 1 …
Peter Barnes | Judges 10:6-18
SERMON NOTES
GOD REBUKES HIS PEOPLE
(Judges 10:6-18)
– something like 2:6-3:6 in explaining the cycles
1. Sin tends to spiral downwards.
– 10:6; like 3:12; 4:1; 6:1, only worse
– more than a drift (Heb.2:1)
2. Remorse is not the same as repentance.
– …
Peter Barnes | Judges 9
SERMON NOTES
ABIMELECH: A FAILED KING
(Judges 9)
– Shakespeare: ‘The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.’
1. Beware of cunning appeals.
– 9:1-6; false religion and violence together
– cream rises to the top but …
Peter Barnes | Judges 8 …
Peter Barnes | Judges 7
SERMON NOTES
THE WEAK CONFOUND THE STRONG
(Judges 7)
– like David and Goliath; the key text is 7:2b.
1. God uses the weak to confound the strong.
– 7:1-2; note Deut.8:11-17
– originally 32,000 versus 135,000 (7:12; 8:10)
– 7:3 (see Deut.20:8); 7:4-8 looks …
Peter Barnes | Judges 6
SERMON NOTES
GIDEON: WEAKNESSES AND STRENGTHS
(Judges 6:25-40)
– ‘Each victory will help you some other to win’ – but it is not mechanical. This is in the ‘rescue’ stage of the cycle.
1. Obedience despite weakness.
– 6:25-27; obedience is compulsory, but heroism looks …
Peter Barnes | Judges 6
SERMON NOTES
THE CALLING OF GIDEON
(Judges 6:1-24)
– Gideon is mentioned in Heb.11:32
1. Rebellion and Repression.
– 6:1, then 1b-6; the repression is so bad that the camels of the Midianites are compared to locusts
– Gideon cannot thresh wheat out in the …
Peter Barnes | Judges 4-5
SERMON NOTES
THE DEADLY FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
(Judges 4-5; part 2)
1. Rescue takes place despite division within Israel.
– Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, and Issachar join in, with Naphtali (5:14-15a, 18) but Reuben, Gad, Dan, and Asher dither (5:15b-17)
– Meroz (a town in …
