God Unexpected

Father, we thank you for these beautiful ancient words that we can sing.

And Father, you know way better than we do how it's easy for us to sing and hard for us to do.

And we give you thanks and praise that you know us perfectly.

You know everything strong about us, everything weak, everything which is just wrong.

You know it all.

And still you love us.

Still you sent Jesus to be our Savior and our Lord.

And still Jesus dwells within us who have put our faith and trust in him as Savior.

Still the Holy Spirit dwells within us.

We ask, Father, that your Spirit, your Holy Spirit, would bring your word and your gospel very deep into who we are.

That we might know ourselves better as we know you better.

And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Last year, this is just one of those things that ministers often know but others don't necessarily follow.

For the first eight weeks of 2019, seven of them had really, really terrible weather on Sunday morning or Saturday night, Sunday morning.

So I guess right now we're two for three in 2020 with bad weather on Sunday mornings.

One of the things, we're going to look at a weird story today.

Actually, we're going to look at two stories and a little statement.

But one of the stories is just really, really, really weird.

And the thing to keep in mind is we're looking at this weird story.

It's very graphic and violent.

It's about a guy who sticks a knife into somebody's stomach and the dung and everything comes out.

And it's one of those stories that probably doesn't get covered in Sunday school very often because I don't know how you'd do the pictures that would go with it or Bible cartoon books or something like that.

One of the things to remember, we're going through the book of Judges.

And as you can see, Amy did a really good job of coming up with a graphic or an image for this series.

It's called Messy People, Faithful God.

And I told her that, you know, trying to help her come up.

It was really hard.

I'm not very artistic at all.

I like images, but I don't know how to do it.

And I told her, I mean, really, this sermon, the book of Judges could really be described as catastrophic people, faithful God, really bad people, faithful God, constantly screwing up people, faithful God.

Like there'd be a whole list of things that the book of Judges is all about.

But it regularly shows people in very, very, very dark places.

And that's sort of the image that she came up with.

It looks almost like a scene from The Walking Dead or something, actually.

But it really captures the book.

So when we're going to look at this very odd and unusual story, but there's a shorter story to look at first.

Just keep in mind that that's what sort of the book of Judges is about.

It's not a book of virtues, not a book of heroes, not a book of really great things to follow and copy.

It's a book about complicated, messy people and God being faithful.

So the way the book is structured, so you turn in your Bibles to Judges chapter 3, verse 7.

Judges 3:7

Judges chapter 3, verse 7.

Judges 3:7

And the last two sermons and all the book up until now have been two different introductions to the book

that sort of give a type of 10,000 feet in the air theological and spiritual assessment.

And now we go into a series of stories that sort of encapsulate part of what this analysis is all about.

And here's how it begins.

Actually, it's not up there in the text.

One of the things to grasp as we look at this is just before this, it says,

so the people of Israel, those of you who have Bibles, it won't be up on the screen, verse 5 and 6.

So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites,

the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

And their daughters they took for themselves for wives, and their own daughters they give up to their sons,

and they served their gods.

And then verse 7.

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherah.

And just sort of pause there before we read anything more.

As we talked about, you're going to see it time and time and time again.

What the Bible portrays is a picture that every single human being worships.

And every single human being serves something.

We don't have an option to not worship.

We don't have an option to not serve.

We can think we don't serve, but we do.

We can think we don't worship, but we do.

We think we don't have loves and desires that form us and motivate us or make us afraid when we don't meet them.

But we do.

And so the option is always whether you will serve and love the living God, the triune God, or something else.

And that's sort of seen in how this book begins.

It begins with them not worshiping the Lord their God, and instead they worship the Baals and the gods and the goddesses of Canaan.

And just one other thing before we go on further.

Notice there the word forgot.

They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherah.

That's what I'm saying.

The word forgot is a good word, but the problem with the word forgot is that you might not get the proper sense of forgot.

My wife and I have a very simple rule.

We have lots of simple rules, but this is one simple rule.

Whoever gets out of bed last in the morning has to make the bed.

Simple rule.

Now, I have to confess that occasionally I'll forget.

I'm really pressed for time.

I'm doing things in the kitchen, et cetera, et cetera, and I just forget.

Like, I literally do forget.

I come home and I see the beds unmade, and I say to Louise, I'm really sorry.

I just forgot.

It was just absent-mindedness.

But the word here which they use for forgot is a far deeper and stronger sense of forgot.

It might be better to call, say, paid no regard.

They no longer paid any regard for the Lord God at all.

So it isn't something, oh, dang, yeah, I forgot to make the bed.

No, no, this is like a complete disregarding of the Lord.

It doesn't come into their thinking or how they understand things at all.

It's a deep disregard.

In verse 8,

I'm going to call him King Siar from now on, okay?

So king of Mesopotamia.

And the people of Israel served King Siar for eight years.

Now, just one really small thing here, but it's really important.

It's, you know, when I was speaking the other day to some people about this,

and I've shared this with you many, many times,

you could just say, let's walk to London,

or you could say one foot up, one foot down.

That's the way to London town.

They're both saying the same thing, but one's very poetic and more memorable.

And some of us really like ideas.

We like statements of some perennial truth.

But others of us like stories.

And a story can take an idea and sort of put it into our unconscious.

It can put it into sort of just enter into just how we see the world

without ever maybe being able to articulate the idea very clearly.

But one of the things that the Book of Judges do,

if you could put up the first point, that would be great,

that what we're going to see here is that the Lord has proper anger at evil.

He is never overwhelmed by anger or anger-driven.

He is mercy.

And that's going to be very important.

All the way through all of these series of stories

that we're going to see in the Book of Judges,

it's always going to illustrate that.

If God never got angry at evil, it would mean that he wasn't good.

If God never got angry at evil, it would mean that he's not loving.

Lots of us, and I'm going to talk about this a little bit more later on,

we think that God should be more like a force.

But if you think about it, if you've ever gone to Niagara Falls

and you go and you stand close to the falls,

I remember that I had been there as a kid,

and like 10 years or something ago,

I went there for the first time in like decades.

And I was in the hotel, and I was, I don't know,

like a couple of kilometers away from the falls.

And I thought to myself, what's that noise?

And then you realize as you get closer and closer to the falls,

it's the falls.

And they're just completely, I mean,

the sense of power around the Niagara Falls,

like you feel it in your body, like it shakes you.

But a force like that, it doesn't care about

whether I'm doing a good thing or a bad thing.

It doesn't care if I'm loving or unloving.

It's just a force.

So many of us think that it would be better

if God was just like a force,

but God here, he gets angry, properly angry,

because he loves and because he's good and because he's just,

when he sees injustice,

when he sees people destroying themselves with evil,

he gets angry.

But the thing that the text is going to show

is that he's never overwhelmed by anger.

He's not ultimately described by anger.

The way to always understand the triune God,

the Lord, is mercy.

Mercy.

So even in anger, he is merciful.

Even in his judgments, he is mercy.

There's a very, very, very good book

written about 30 years ago by Sheldon Van Auken

called A Severe Mercy.

And that phrase, A Severe Mercy,

which he got from C.S. Lewis,

is very, very true of all the judgments in the Bible.

Every time you read of God judging,

it is a severe mercy,

but it is a mercy.

And we're going to see that immediately.

If you go on to verse,

the next verse, which is verse 9.

So right, God is anger,

angry at what they've done.

And he allows them to come under the power of King Siar.

Their cry to him in verse 9.

But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord,

the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel

who saved them,

Othniel, the son of Kinez,

Caleb's younger brother.

Just sort of pause that.

You see, once again, what's happening here is

the cry out isn't a cry of repentance.

It's a cry of pain.

They cry out in pain towards the Lord.

And the Lord, who has, in a sense,

allowed them to be judged by this king,

come under King Siar's power,

if he was anger-driven,

if he was overwhelmed by anger,

he'd just keep punishing them.

But at the very deepest level

and the highest level of who God is,

he is mercy.

And so he hears their cry,

not even a cry to come back to him,

just a cry of how painful

and miserable their life is.

And in response, not to their faith,

not to their repentance,

not to their religion,

not to their spirituality,

but despite all of those things,

just purely out of their pain,

he provides a deliverer to save them.

Othniel, son of Kinez,

Caleb's younger brother.

Verse 10,

And the Spirit of the Lord was upon him,

and he judged Israel or delivered Israel.

He went out to war,

and the Lord gave King Siar of Mesopotamia

into his hand,

and his hand prevailed over King Siar.

So the land had rest for 40 years.

Then Othniel, the son of Kinez, died.

And it's a very, very simple little story

of the Lord sending somebody to deliver him.

Now, one of the things,

one of the things that's very interesting,

and also looks very much like a hero story, right?

The Lord, Caleb, was like a hero to Israel.

If you go back and you read the books

that come before this,

God brings the people of Israel

out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land.

And before they're going to enter into the really fully,

it gets them out of Egypt.

And before they make it to the Promised Land,

just on the edge of the Promised Land,

the people of Israel send out 12 spies

just to sort of map out the land.

And the 12 men come back,

and 10 of the men say,

the Promised Land, we can't go into it.

Everybody there is richer than us,

smarter than us,

bigger than us,

stronger than us.

They have better armies.

They have better technology.

They have everything about them

as better, bigger, faster, smarter, stronger.

We can't do it.

We just can't do it.

And there's only two people who said,

no, no, no, no, no,

with the Lord we can do it.

And one of them was Joshua

who brought them into the Promised Land.

The other one is Caleb.

And as some of you know the story,

as part of God's judgment,

God said that because you wouldn't believe me

and trust me, all those,

that whole generation that refused,

that believed the 10

and wouldn't listen to the two,

that whole generation will die in the wilderness.

And only two out of that entire generation

who was brought out of slavery in Egypt,

only two would be brought into the Promised Land,

and one of them was Caleb.

So he is like a hero.

And he's given land.

And if you go back and read earlier in Judges,

Othniel as well was a hero.

He believes God.

He trusts God.

He's given the land.

He trusts the promises.

He gets his own parcel of land.

He's an important person.

And it's like a very standard hero type of story.

God raises up a deliverer.

He picks like part of the lineage of Caleb.

The Holy Spirit comes upon him.

People recognize him.

They follow him.

The Lord gives, defeats the king,

and the whole land has rest.

And it looks really good.

It looks like that's a great story.

Like Marvel could do something with a story like that.

It's a great story.

One of the things they teach you in counseling,

if you ever take a counseling course,

is there's two or three things you should never say in counseling.

One of the things you should never say in counseling is,

it will get better.

Are you God?

Do you know if it's going to get better?

Another thing you should never say is,

it will work out.

Another thing you should never say is,

it's all over.

And some of us are old enough to know that

we've talked to people,

and it just seems as if something bad happens to them,

and then something worse happens to them,

and something even worse happens to them,

and then they die.

And it's just,

so you never say in counseling,

it's an easy thing for us to say.

We want to say,

we think it will give them comfort.

Oh, it's all over.

Everything's over.

It'll all work out.

It'll get better.

And in a sense,

what we see next with the next story

is that if somebody had said after Othniel,

okay, land has rest.

It's all over.

It's just going to get better.

Things have been sorted out.

We're all following the Lord.

No, if that advice had been given,

it wouldn't have worked out

because look what happens in verse 12.

And the people of Israel again did what was evil

in the sight of the Lord.

And the Lord strengthened Eglon,

the king of Moab,

against Israel

because they had done what was evil

in the sight of the Lord.

He gathered to himself

the Ammonites,

the Amalekites,

and went and defeated Israel.

And they took possession

of the city of Palms.

And the people of Israel

served Eglon,

the king of Moab,

18 years.

Now, there's a couple of things

that have to be sort of

pulled out of all of this.

Notice here that the Lord

strengthens Eglon,

the king of Moab.

And because they had done

what was evil

in the sight of the Lord.

You know,

I'm going to take a big risk.

I hope I don't lose you

for the rest of the sermon.

The United States is doing

way better financially

under Trump

than they were before.

Just,

just,

it's just a fact.

Okay.

Do you think,

and this isn't an anti-Trump thing,

do you think Trump

might ever think to himself,

I wonder if God's

behind things

getting better?

Or do you think

Trump would say,

it's me.

Now,

it's easy for us

to think that about Trump.

But let's just say

that over the next

couple of years

under Trudeau,

the economy

goes really,

really,

really well.

Or let's say it doesn't.

And I'm not picking

any political sides here,

just an easy name.

Trudeau loses

the next election.

Rona Ambrose

leads the conservatives

to a convincing victory.

And under her leadership

over the next four years,

the economy

just goes like that.

Just,

whoa,

way up.

Now,

it's a human problem.

Do you think Rona Ambrose,

I'm not picking on her,

Peter McKay,

pick whoever you want,

pick any politician you want.

Do you think Rona Ambrose

would say,

I wonder if God

is behind our country

getting really prosperous?

Or would she say,

it's me.

You know,

people wonder

why God

allows bad things

to happen to good people.

And they sort of imply

that if God

really wanted to be known,

he should have

good things happen to them.

do you think

there's more Christians

in Rockcliffe

that really love Jesus

than other places?

Do you think

that if you went

into a poor community,

there'd be very few people

who love and trust Jesus,

but you go to Rockcliffe,

it's filled with people

who love and trust Jesus,

who every day

when they get up,

say,

Lord,

I thank you so much

that you have blessed me

so mightily and powerfully.

I know it came

from your hand,

not mine.

If you put it so baldly,

most of us probably

would not be surprised

to find out

that there's vastly more

poor people

who follow Jesus

than rich people.

This is a very,

very tiny little thing

within this story.

I just pointed out

because many of us

sort of think

that somehow blessings

will lead us to God,

despite all the evidence

to the contrary,

including in our own lives.

That we might ask,

why am I as a good person

having these hard times?

And we never say,

why am I having good times?

Somehow,

if it's a bad time,

it's somebody else's fault.

And if it's a good time,

it's all my accomplishment.

And we never stop

to think about it.

And what we're going to see

in the story here,

this weird story,

is that the good things

that happen to Eglon

don't create any sense

that there is a God

that he must give an account to

and that he should give thanks to.

But his good things

make him arrogant.

And the arrogance

is what drives the story.

So verse 14

ends with

he's conquered

the people of Israel.

In fact,

he's done it

in a very, very powerful way.

Moab isn't actually

even part of the promised land.

Moab is out of the promised land.

And what it means

is that the Moabites

with their allies

have come in

and the part of Israel

that they took over

would have been

especially galling

and humbling

to the Israelites

because it was the first place

that the Israelites

had triumph

in the promised land.

City of Palms

is Jericho.

A great moment

of God's victory.

And here now

it's under

pagan control.

They're completely

and utterly

under the thumb

of this

pagan king Eglon.

And verse 15

then the people

of Israel

cried out.

Once again

it's a cry of pain.

It's not a cry of repentance.

They cry out

to the Lord.

And the Lord

raised up for them

a deliverer.

Ehud

the son of Gerah

the Benjaminite

a left-handed man.

The people of Israel

sent tribute

by him.

Actually it's literally

by his hand

to Eglon

the king of Moab.

And we have to pause here.

This verse is the key

to the whole story

but it's

I have to confess

I've never preached

on this story

and so I didn't know this

but you actually

do research

there's a bit of a debate

about it

but the majority

of scholars

would say that

they translated

his left hand

but literally

it means

a man whose right arm

doesn't work.

In other words

he's handicapped.

He has a crippled

or withered

right arm.

The only arm

he can use

is his left hand.

So it's not

that he's ambidextrous

it's not that

he is a very

very clever guy

who trained himself

to use his left hand

so that he can fool people

he

well he wouldn't be

standing like this.

he would be

standing

like this

and his left hand

would be

his left arm

would be

something

like this

that doesn't work

I can't illustrate it

and maybe it would be

bound in some way

like this

and it would just

flop around

and he only has

one hand

and he's handicapped

and it's

a very very

powerful thing

in the original language

because

it's by his hand

his

in a sense

his withered

crippled hand

that he is to

hand over

the tribute

on behalf

of Israel

he is

from Eglon's

point of view

a completely

safe person

to bring

because Eglon

number one

and Ehud

with no right hand

and it's a bit

of a story

about Israel

for 18 years

their strength

is withered

and they're

crippled

and God

is raising up

this

handicapped

man

to be

the deliverer

and you'll notice

in the story

it isn't that

the people of Israel

said

ah

God

is going

to choose

that man

that handicapped

man

to deliver us

so we will

send him

to go and

pay the tribute

there's no

spirit of the

Lord coming

upon him

there's no

general sense

that he can

be the leader

to lead

the people

of Israel

against their

oppressor

he's probably

chosen

to lead

them

because

it would

serve

Eglon's

pleasure

to think

ah

this is like

a walking

parable

of the

people

of Israel

a non-warrior

with a crippled

fighting arm

representing

the people

of Israel

as to how

they are

my vassal

and I am

their Lord

and I am

their conqueror

and I have

grown fat

by oppressing

them

now we are

going to

unpack this

in a moment

but we need

to go through

the rest

of the story

so verse 16

just fairly

quickly

and this is

where the

story gets

very graphic

quite quickly

and Ehud

made for

himself a

sword with

two edges

a cubit

in length

in the

original

language

this can

end up

being anywhere

from about

18 inches

long to

about 19

inches

about 9

inches

long

and those

of you

who like

reading

American

crime

novels

and stuff

like that

it would

really be

like a

shiv

it's just

a piece

of sharpened

metal

sharpened

on both

sides

without a

hilt

and it's

strapped

on the

right hand

side

normally

of course

a right

handed

person

if they're

going to

get a

sword

would be

on their

left

side

he has

something

here

his arm

just

hanging

down

obviously

handicapped

this

shiv

this 9

to 18

inch

piece

of sharpened

double edged

metal

on his

right

thigh

easy

to use

with a

left

hand

but

it's

not

where

you

would

normally

have

something

hidden

so to

speak

and

verse 16

again

and Ehud

made for

himself

a sword

with two

edges

a cubit

in length

and he

bound it

on his

right

thigh

under his

clothes

and he

presented

the tribute

to Eglon

king of

Moab

now Eglon

was a very

fat man

verse 17

and when

Ehud

had finished

presenting

the tribute

he sent

away the

people who

carried the

tribute

that he

there is

Ehud

but he

himself

turned back

at the

idols

near Gilgal

and said

I have a

secret message

for you

oh king

and the

king commanded

silence

and all of his

attendants

went out

from his

presence

and just

sort of

pause there

for a second

just a little

tiny mess

a little

tiny

detail

but in

Gilgal

which is

under

nominally

Israelite

control

although

ultimately

Eglon

is their

over ruler

there's

idols

and it's

just

mentioned

as a little

bit part

of it

just showing

how

idol worship

has become

part of the

people of

Israel

Ehud

goes past

this spot

sends everybody

else away

he goes back

to Eglon

all by himself

handicapped

man

obviously

looking

unarmed

and he goes

back

an unarmed

handicapped

man

to the

great and

mighty

Eglon

the king

of Moab

and he says

I have a

private message

for you

and in

verse 20

and

Ehud

came to him

as he was

sitting

that's

Eglon

the king

and the

king

is sitting

alone

in this

cool

roof

chamber

and Ehud

says

I have a

message

from God

for you

and

Eglon

rises

from his

seat

and as

Eglon

rises

from his

seat

Ehud

reached

with his

left

hand

took

the

sword

from his

right

thigh

and

thrust

it

into

the

king's

belly

and

the

hilt

also

went

in

after

the

blade

and

the

fat

closed

over

the

blade

for

he

did

not

that is

Ehud

did not

pull

the sword

out

of

the

king's

belly

and

the

dung

came

out

he

soiled

himself

you can

see

why

it's

probably

not

in

most

Sunday

school

curriculums

be an

interesting

craft

time

for the

teachers

after

the

part

of

the

class

then

Ehud

went

out

into

the

porch

and

closed

the

doors

of

the

roof

chamber

behind

him

and

locked

them

so part

of the

story

here

of

course

is

the

arrogance

of

the

arrogance

of

Eglon

he's

the

great

and

mighty

he's

a

big

guy

he's

a

prosperous

looking

guy

he's

powerful

he has

this

handicapped

guy

in front

of him

handicapped

in a

way

that

affects

his

ability

to

fight

he has

no

sense

of

danger

nothing

to

do

he

doesn't

worry

about

it

all

he sends

out

his

attendants

his

guards

he lets

this

guy

get

really

close

to

him

and

this

handicapped

nobody

kills

him

and

while

Eglon

had

no

sense

that

maybe

his

prosperity

and

maybe

his

power

was

something

that

was

being

given

to

him

as

a

gift

from

God

but

he

takes

it

upon

himself

to

think

it's

all

his

and

it

makes

him

arrogant

it

makes

him

think

he's

competent

when

he's

not

and

all

of the

rest

of the

story

just

shows

incompetence

upon

incompetence

and

incompetence

upon

incompetence

and in

fact

in the

next

little

bit

when

it

talks

about

stout

or

strong

men

it's

a

word

in

Hebrew

which

can

either

mean

stout

or

strong

or

fat

in

other

words

it

ends

up

emphasizing

that

they

go

into

this

thinking

that

they're

big

and

powerful

but

it

ends

up

revealing

that

they're

just

easily

killed

look

how it

continues

in

verse

24

when

he

that is

Ehud

had

gone

the

servants

came

and

when

they

saw

that

the

doors

of

the

roof

chamber

were

locked

they

thought

surely

the

king

is

having

a

poop

in

the

closet

of

the

cool

chamber

and

they

waited

till

they

were

embarrassed

but

when

he

still

did

not

open

the

doors

of

the

roof

chamber

they

took

the

key

and

opened

them

and

there

lay

their

lord

dead

on

the

floor

Ehud

escaped

while

they

delayed

and

he

passed

beyond

the

idols

and

escaped

to

Sarah

when

he

arrived

he

sounded

the

trumpet

in

the

hill

country

of

Ephraim

then

the

people

of

Israel

went

down

with

him

from

the

hill

country

and

he

was

their

leader

and

he

said

to

them

follow

after

me

for

the

Lord

has

given

your

enemies

the

Moabites

into

your

hand

so

they

went

down

after

him

and

seized

the

fords

of

the

Jordan

against

the

Moabites

and

did

not

allow

anyone

to

pass

over

and

just

sort

of

pause

there

for

a

second

you

know

we're

just

so

used

to

the

fact

that

after

something

like

this

you

can

hop

in

your

car

drive

125

kilometers

an

hour

down

the

Queens

way

if

it's

the

right

type

of

day

and

you

could

be

a

far

distant

you

know

back

then

you

would

have

walked

and

one

of

the

funny

things

if

any

of

you

have

ever

lived

in

rural

areas

is

gossip

travels

faster

than

you

can

walk

I

mean

I

don't

know

how

it

works

but

even

without

phones

it

just

travels

really

quick

and

so

the

news

of

the

fact

that

the

king

of

Moab

has

died

has

spread

and

so

because

of

this

they

rally

around

this

handicapped

guy

they

go

down

to

the

fords

and

we'll

look

what

happens

in

verse

29

to

the

end

and

they

killed

at

that

time

about

10,000

of

the

Moabites

all

strong

able-bodied

men

strong

able-bodied

men

literally

means

stout

and it

could

either

mean

stout

or

fat

not

a

man

escaped

so

Moab

was

subdued

that

day

under

the

land

of

Israel

and

the

land

had

rest

for

80

years

and

just

before

I

read

the

next

little

bit

when

you

read

the

book

of

Judges

every

time

you

read

it

you

have

to

ask

yourself

a

question

about

a

number

do

they

mean

the

number

in

a

numeric

sense

or

a

symbolic

or

metaphorical

sense

so

it

probably

wasn't

10,000

people

who

heard me

say

a

couple

of

times

maybe

I'll

talk

about

what

it

was

like

when

I

was

a

kid

and

I'll

say

100

million

years

ago

and

I

31

the

next

deliverer

after

him

was

Shamgar

the

son

of

Anath

who

killed

600

of

the

Philistines

with

an

ox

goad

and

he

also

saved

or

delivered

Israel

and

just

before

we

sort

of

sum

it

up

it's

a

very

interesting

thing

there's

a

good

chance

that

Shamgar

is

not

Jewish

so

the

next

deliverer

so

God

goes

from

like

the

stereotypical

deliverer

who

has

good

lineage

and

has

land

and

has

some

recognition

as being

a

person

of

substance

and

importance

the

next

deliverer

is a

handicapped

man

and

the

next

deliverer

worships

Baal's

sister

who

is the

goddess

of war

who

is

worshipped

because

people

believed

that

if you

shed

blood

on

land

it

would

make

it

more

fertile

and

there's

good

reason

to

think

that

if

he

was

Jewish

he

wasn't

a

very

good

Jew

because

he

was

understood

to

serve

the

goddess

Anath

but

by his

name

he

might

have

in fact

not

even

been

Jewish

and

God

uses

them

to

deliver

him

so

how

do we

sort of

wrap up

all of

this

stuff

in terms

of

the

power

of

the

story

you

know

actually

Andrew

if you

could put

up

the

second

point

you

long

for

a

left

handed

God

to

provide

a

left

handed

savior

who

saves

you

in

a

left

handed

way

and

I'll

try to

explain

what that

what that

means

like the

average

Canadian

like when I

get a chance

to actually

talk to a lot

of non-Christians

about the

Christian faith

in the

gospel

you can

see that

it

disappoints

them

it's a

letdown

they were

hoping for

something

more

and that's

because

at the

level of

our

imagination

at the

level of

our

surface

how we

think

what we'd

like is

one of

three

things

or some

combination

of three

types of

things to

solve our

problem

we'd

either

like

God

to be