Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Can you help me?
Logan and his baloon car project.
We worked together on building and improving the first model.
Switching out wheels, changing the length and width of the wheel base, etc… Then he takes it in for the first test and discovers the rubric on how it is going to be graded.
It’s scored on how much we improve the car between the first test and two more tests.
So you would think “Dad, can you help me make the car better after the first test?”
But no. “Dad, do you remember how it didn’t work very well at first?
Can you help me put it back like that for the first test?”
No, I won’t help you sandbag the experiment.
Then we had a talk about scientific integrity.
Destroying Benjamin
Recap
The Trial
White-washed story.
Cleaned up and edited to make the Levite appear as a wholly innocent victim.
Even the potentially embarrassing fact that the men of Gibeah wanted to rape him: he only says they “meant to kill me”.
The Levite manipulates the crowd and it is effective.
But Benjamin rises to defend their town.
Instead they gather in force.
26,000 men (or 26 companies of men).
700 of them were left-handed!
But Israel has 400 companies of men!
They are confident in their numbers and they come to ask God: who gets to go first?
The terrain is hilly, rocky, hard for superior numbers to count.
And the men of Benjamin are described as elite warriors, especially their 700 left-handed slingers.
And the men of Judah get crushed.
But they pull themselves together.
Notice the change in tone between their first prayer and their second?
Now they are weeping before the Lord.
Now they ask: should we even go again?
Again they attack… but again they are defeated.
Now they come before God in an entirely different spirit.
And this time they attack in a totally different way.
I think, inspired by the Lord, they come with an epic battle plan.
The people of Israel go up against Benjamin just like before, but they send men in ambush around Gibeah.
They fall back before the Benjamites, drawing their armies further from the city, falling back and falling back.
Then the men in ambush, 10 companies of elite, chosen men, they fall upon Gibeah and sack it, burning it.
And when the rest of the army sees the smoke from Gibeah, they start fighting and smash the Benjamites between the two armies.
They killed 25 companies of Benjamin in that fight and as the armies fled from place to place.
Fire and devastation and nearly wiped the tribe of Benjamin from the map.
The Contrast
Prayer 1:
The prayer of the people of Israel here, at the end of the Judges period is this: God help me do what I want to do.
Let’s contrast this with their very similar prayer at the beginning of the Judges period, just after the death of Joshua.
God gave them the command: conquer the Land.
God gave the command.
And they ask: “who goes first?”
The “who goes first” part is the same… but the whole tone of the prayer is different.
The prayer in Judges 1 is in response to God’s command, God, this is what you are doing, what you have already told me to do, I just want to know how I can be a part of what you’re doing.
And God answers that prayer, and note that it comes with the promise of success.
The prayer at the end of Judges essentially says “God help me do what I want to do.”
I will even give you input, God, on how I go about it.
I think this is why they fail.
God doesn’t rebuke them directly, but we see the radical shift in their posture towards God through this story.
By the third time, now they are praying and fasting, submitting before God and seeking His Will, His Way, before the ark of the covenant.
By the third time, they are coming before God where He is and asking what they should be doing.
Only then does God include the promise of “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.”
Our Prayer
Ask God to show His plans, not bless your dreams.
-Billy Graham
Ask God to show you His plans and then give you the strength to follow them.
Let’s repent of “God help me do my thing.”
This is a change in posture.
We still do life, we still move forward, we still make plans and make decisions.
And much of the time, most of the time, making those decisions is going to feel just like we are making it up as we go along… not like we are receiving divine marching orders.
But the posture in which we proceed is everything.
Wholly submitted.
Listening hard for God’s leading and direction by the Holy Spirit.
Praying and fasting, weeping before God’s presence which, no longer in the Ark of the Covenant, but now residing within all by faith in Christ.
Submitting to His Word, to His commands, being transformed in heart and mind so that my will conforms to His Will more and more.
God, let me be a part of what you’re doing.
Point me in the right direction.
In your direction.
God guide the strategy, the objectives, the tactics and the method.
Start to finish.
The prayer of the follower is: God let me be a part of what you’re doing.
Jesus’ Prayer and Example
Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.
Not what I want: what do you want?
This is a posture of total submission.
An ongoing practice of surrender.
It didn’t start with this prayer, this prayer is the external vocalization of what Jesus practiced every moment of his life:
Not what I want: what do you want?
“I only do what I see the Father doing.”
Jesus has a will and a mind, he has choice and will, but fully and always submitted all of those to the will and mind of His Father.
It didn’t start in the garden.
Communion
Hours earlier, just before this moment, Jesus taught his disciples to remember his coming sacrifice.
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