Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

A Bible Study for Women using the authorized King James Bible, the only inerrant Word of God

By Patricia Dowers

Introduction

God created women uniquely to bear, care for, mentor, or have a godly influence over children. Even women who have not borne their own children or are past childbearing age have a responsibility to use their influence to help bring children to belief in Christ and godly adulthood. We do this as mothers, grandmothers, aunts, Sunday school teachers and wherever God gives us opportunity. Child psychologists believe by the age of seven most children have developed a value system that will remain with them the rest of their lives. Between the ages of eight and thirteen they begin copying adult behavior. We therefore, should never underestimate the value of early teaching and living a godly life before children.

Please join me in this Bible study as we examine two examples of motherly influence; one that goes horribly wrong and the other, with God’s help and the faithfulness of godly women, leads to generations of faithful believers.

Please note: In this study, as in all others, it is important to read all Scripture references for yourself that you may know what God has to say.

Session 1

We begin our study in the book of Judges. God’s people had occupied the Promised Land of Canaan for approximately fifty years. The land was divided among the twelve tribes with two shares going to the descendants of Joseph but none to the tribe of Levi as they were the priestly tribe and were to dwell among all of the tribes to fulfill their priestly function (Josh.14:1-5). In the beginning of the conquest of Canaan God gave the Israelites specific instruction to drive out the Canaanite tribes from the land. The purpose of this commandment was to keep God’s people and His worship pure. The Israelites complied in a half-hearted way which is the same as disobedience. As a result, the pagan nations were a plague to God’s people and God’s full blessing was missed for generations resulting in the ultimate loss and captivity of the Promised Land (Josh. 23:6-8).

Please read about a specific account that comes to us from the book of Judges. This account begins with a Hebrew woman who was also a mother. She had no idea what she was engendering but she should have. There was no excuse. Please read Judges 17 aloud with your group.

Here we have a woman of the tribe of Ephraim and her adult son, Micah. We begin with a confession. (v. 2) What had Micah done? ___________________________. What was his mother’s response? ___________________________.

Is her reaction strange? Not really. We have all heard of women, perhaps even in our own extended families whose children can do no wrong and have been indulged so much as to warp their sense of even worldly values, not to mention godly values. These women will cover bad behavior (even crimes) and spin everything so that their child emerges shining.

Micah was a product of his upbringing, but let us look at his mother. What happened in her life?

Micah’s mother lived in an area of Ephraim where she was obviously exposed to the pagan gods and life style of Canaanite neighbors who were never completely purged from the land as instructed by God. Over time this life style must have appealed to her enough to make her forget or compromise God’s commandments. This can happen to any one of us if we let our guard down even a little. Please copy II Tim. 2:15 in the space below.

As if this lapse was not bad enough, she passes these compromised values on to her son. When she and Micah finally decided she would have the stolen money back she rewarded him in a forbidden way for a Hebrew woman. What did she do with the money? (Judges 17:3,4)

To whom did she tell Micah the money was dedicated?

Here we see she had given herself permission to commit sin by invoking the name of the Lord. As Christian women we view this as a blatantly sinful act but don’t we do the same thing when we ask for or expect the Lord’s blessing on some worldly venture that we should know from Scripture is sinful?

As we learn from v.5 she followed through with her plan and Micah added it to his “house of gods” which also contained an ephod (a sleeveless garment worn by Hebrew priests) and teraphim (items dedicated to idol worship). This was not a casual deviation. This was a new combined religion. Now we see the ever-widening circles of the ripple effect of sin. Who does Micah consecrate to oversee his new religion?

Now we have the involvement of the third generation. Sin passed from parent to child. Does this situation remind you of the many different sects broken away from true faith? Please discuss this with your group.

It would be good to note here that this is the last we hear of Micah’s mother. It is not however, the last we here of the effects of her sin. It reached out literally through many generations. One would not think that decisions made in one private home would make that much difference but nothing happens in a vacuum. That is why we must always be on guard and in the Word.

The tribe of Judah was a neighbor to the tribe of Ephraim. In v. 7 we learn of a young man who was a Levite and sojourning in the area. Remember, the priestly tribe of Levi did not possess their own land but served the sacrificial and spiritual needs of all the tribes. As the Levite passed through Ephraim, he met Micah.

Micah thought this was his lucky day! Here was a true Levite looking for a home and a job. Now he could have an official religion with a real Levitical priest! This had to be blessed by God. But, oh so wrong, Micah. We see in v. 10 the Levite was offered the position plus room and board and he immediately accepted. This must have been quite an enticement because the Levite was the one person who should have condemned Micah’s false religion and set him straight, warning him of the wrath of God. We have an example of this sin from another time and place. Please read Exo. 32:7-10 aloud with your group.

Instead, Scripture tells us the Levite was “content” to dwell with Micah and became like one of the family. Sometimes the world seems like a soft, comfortable place to land but eventually becomes a nest of vipers. Chapter 17 ends with Micah’s foolish statement that all is well because he has God’s blessing. Session 2 will reveal how wrong he was!

Session 2

We learned in Session 1 that Micah’s mother made some forbidden choices that started a procession of bad choices that led Micah and others further from God. I’m sure Micah’s mother didn’t suddenly decide to buy an idol. It is important for you and I to remember that sin does not usually come banging on the door. It creeps in little by little in a beguiling way that allows us to become comfortable with disobedience. Micah’s mother may have become a little envious of her neighbors’ looser life style. Perhaps they appeared to be more successful than she. That is how the serpent enticed Eve. Scripture gives us so many examples and warnings to be on guard. Please read Psa. 139:23-24; Prov. 10:28-30; Prov. 23:17; and II Tim. 3:13-14 aloud with your group. Discuss how God’s warnings and instruction give us incentive for obedience.

Now let us return to the account of Micah. Please read Judges 18:1-14 aloud with your group. We learn two important facts from the opening verse.

There was no _________________________.
The Danites sought them _____________________.

The tribe of Dan was dissatisfied with their land allotment (just south of Ephraim) in Canaan (Josh.19:47). Judges 18:2 tells us they sent spies out to search the land with the intention of commandeering and claiming more land for their tribe. There is no mention here of consulting the Lord. On the contrary, they probably felt God had slighted them and they would need to take it upon themselves to correct the situation. These were men ripe and ready to fall into deeper sin. Their journey took them to Mt. Ephraim and they encamped on Micah’s property. While there, they came upon someone they recognized. It was Micah’s Levite priest. What a coincidence! (Probably, not. Canaan is a relatively small land and these were neighboring tribes.) The spies asked the Levite how he came to be there and the Levite explained in verse 4 his “fortunate” set-up.

What do the spies ask of the Levite in verse 5?

Without even questioning that this was not a godly relationship, the spies asked him to inquire of the Lord if they would be successful in their mission. What we see here is layer upon layer of people assuming that God was in something when He most certainly was not! How does the Levite respond to them in verse 6?

Be careful when someone says they know God’s will for you. If you are in obedience and in the Word, God will speak to you personally. Remember also that just because things seem to be working out in the short run does not mean God is in it. We can trust that God will never put us into something that is contrary to His Word. We do that to ourselves.

Have you noticed the Levite did not even make a pretense of consulting the Lord? Has he convinced himself he already knows the mind of God? Everyone in Micah’s world is sinking deeper in the mire of sin. What a convenient religion this is!

They make it up as they go. Does this sound familiar. The world is full of this sort of religion.

Below is a familiar hymn that speaks to our hearts of the Lord’s faithfulness in rescuing the wanderer from sin. Please ask someone in your group to read the words aloud without the music as you listen.

COME THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING

Written by the 18th-century pastor Robert Robinson at age 22 in the year 1757.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothèd then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

The spies depart, in v.7, and journey north until they come to the little isolated city of Laish. From what the spies can see this unsuspecting city is ripe for the taking with no help from anyone nearby. The spies make fast tracks back to their own cities and report they have found a place perfectly situated and easy to take. To seal the deal, what do the spies tell them (in v.10) about God?

Now we have many people believing second-hand information about God’s will. In verse 11, how many men appointed for war did they take with them? _________

In verse 13, where did they stop along the way?

The spies could not leave what they believed was a plum situation alone. They told the army of 600 men what Micah possessed in his house. At the end of verse 14 they voice an intriguing and leading statement. “Consider what ye have to do”. Did they know in their hearts that God was not protecting this place or had their arrogance just taken over their senses. It is interesting to look back in time at the prophecy that Jacob made regarding his son, Dan in Gen. 49:17. The tribe of Dan inherited the legacy of being “sneaky and lethal”.

In Session 3 we will “consider what they did”.

Session 3

Our last sessions revealed that Micah believed he was blessed because things seemed to be going his way. Soon he will see that the fount of every blessing only comes from the Lord and no other source. Please read Judges 18:15-31 aloud with your group.

After “considering what they had to do”, they decided they needed to commandeer this “good fortune” for themselves. Verses 15 and 16 tell us they marched right into Micah’s compound and up to the house of the astonished Levite and told him the plan. Next the spies led them to the house of Micah where they took the ephod, teraphim, and graven images. Finally, the Levite finds his voice and asks, “What do ye?”

In verse 19 the men of Dan respond with four statements and a leading question. What are the statements?

Hold _____________________.
Lay ______________________.
Go _______________________.
Be________________________________________.

Let us look at these statements more closely. These are the signposts along the way on the path of sin that many young people face. Each milestone makes it more difficult to return. Perhaps you have experienced something similar. First, we are told to hold our peace. In other words, just stand and watch. We justify this by saying I’m not actually doing anything, only watching. In Acts 7:57 and 58 we read of Saul standing by at the stoning of Stephen. Please ask someone in your group to read those verses aloud.

Secondly, we are told to lay our hand over our mouth. Don’t say anything. No one needs to know. Just keep it to yourself.

Please read Gen. 37:22 and 29-30. Here we see Reuben being expected to keep quiet to cover the sin of his brothers.

Please do not make the mistake that there is passive sin and active sin. All sin is sin to God and separates us from Him. The unbeliever is separated from Him eternally and the sinning believer is separated from fellowship with God and His blessings. Many times, young people and weaker Christians do not completely grasp this truth and give themselves permission to dabble in sin. This is dangerous.

Next, we are asked to “go along”. Just do what makes you feel comfortable. You don’t have to go along with everything. Does this sound familiar? This is how believers get involved in breakaway religious sects and worldly organizations. Please read Eph. 5:6-8 with your group and copy verse 8 in the space below.

Finally, we hear “be to us a father and a priest”. This is not only full participation but actual leadership in the sinful activity. The build-up is gradual but the final temptation is compelling. It usually appeals to the pride of life which involves all of the senses. Please read II Cor. 6: 14-18. In verse 17 what are the three instructions?

What is the promise?

Now let us take another look at the leading question at the end of Judges 18:19. The Danites asked a final question of the Levite that persuaded him to go along willingly and gladly. It was another offer he could not refuse. This offer was even better than Micah’s offer. What was it?

The world teaches young people to be successful by worldly standards and take every opportunity to move up quickly. The Bible teaches this is not God’s way. Even as we seek God’s will, the Lord sometimes moves things along so slowly that we begin to doubt. The important lesson here is patience in waiting on the Lord. His timing is always perfect and His standard for success is obedience not outcomes.

In Judges 18:22 we read that Micah, along with some of his neighbors, takes up pursuit to retrieve his belongings. Were these Hebrew neighbors or Canaanite neighbors? Perhaps they were the same neighbors who influenced Micah’s mother to purchase an idol in the first place. Whoever they were, they were invested enough to confront an army of six hundred men. The Danites found this amusing and sarcastically asked what was Micah’s problem.

Micah responded, Ye have taken away_____________ which I __________ and the ________________.

One would think that Micah would hear his own voice saying that this was an idol his mother commissioned and realize he was risking lives for something that was not real (Isa.44:9,10). The last we hear of Micah he is returning home without his idols and his priest, thinking there is nothing left in his life. Micah and his mother’s choices, however, go on radiating broader ripples as we follow the tribe of Dan in their journey away from God.

Verses 27-29 of Judges18 relate how the Danites fulfilled their mission of attacking and utterly destroying the little city of Laish. They built their own city and named it Dan, after their own tribe. Verses 30 and 31 tell us they set up Micah’s idols and worshipped them until the time of the captivity (by Nebuchadnezzar) and never turned back to the Lord. Even king David did not purge this pagan worship from the land. King Solomon allowed it and Jeroboam’s divided kingdom embraced it. This was all spawned of a single sinful choice from an overindulgent mother. Our choices do matter. Each one is a stepping stone. Where will they lead?

We will conclude in Session 4 with women who made godly choices that produced men used of God to perfect His purpose and His will.

Session 4

Not long after the time of Micah and his mother, while still in the time of the Judges, The Bible gives us another account of a godly Hebrew woman and her daughter-in-law. Most of us are familiar with the book of Ruth and how Naomi had fled the famine in Israel with her family into the pagan country of Moab where her son married the Moabitess, Ruth. Despite all of her tragedies and losses, Naomi must have modeled godly behavior so that Ruth came to love her and chose to leave her homeland to follow Naomi back to her people and her God. Those who spend time in the book of Ruth discover a wonderful love story and an example of the kinsman redeemer we know in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

For our purposes in this lesson, please read Ruth 4:13-22 aloud with your group. This is the end of the account of Ruth and as we see from the final verses, there is an interesting genealogy that we will examine further on. What stands out in our Scripture reading is the fact that this is a very happy ending. But how did we arrive here? The answer is godly choices. Let us look at some of them.

Please read Ruth 1:6. What was the decision that Naomi made?

If we find that we have wandered away from the Lord, our first and best decision is to return. But first we must be sure we belong to the Lord. The Bible teaches “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). The Lord Jesus Christ, the only sinless sacrifice worthy to remove our sin, bore our sin on the cross and rose from the dead conquering our sin for all time making us “accepted in the Beloved” (Rom. 4:7,8). All we need to do is believe it. I pray that you do.

Naomi was returning with an empty heart but she was returning to her people and her God. This is all God expects from us. God does His best work with broken hearts. Next we have a decision from Ruth. Please read Ruth 1:15-17. I count at least seven parts to her decision:

These are some of the things we are sometimes asked to do or leave behind in following the Lord. We must be careful not to discourage young people in following the Lord. When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined, even though she could not see any future in it, she trusted the Lord and allowed Ruth to come along (Ruth 1:18,19).

We see the next decision in Ruth 2:2. What is decided?

The best way to spend our time while waiting on the Lord’s direction is working. Young people need to learn early that there is danger in idleness (Eze.16:49). We also see that in Ruth 2:7 and 11 that Ruth chose to go about her work humbly and diligently while living out her godly testimony before others. This touched the heart of Boaz who was a godly Hebrew man who placed her under his protection.

As we move through chapter 2 of Ruth and into chapter 3, we notice that Naomi and Ruth, as well as Boaz are careful to follow God’s laws and instructions that keep His people from falling into sin and allow them to become vessels for His use. Please read Ruth 3:10 and 11.

Why did Boaz bless Ruth?

What would Boaz do as a result?

Let us look at some other examples of godly mentoring and obedience from Scripture. In I Samuel, chapter one, Elkanah and His wife, Hannah were barren and prayed for a child. Hannah promised the Lord if He would grant her petition, she would give her child to the service of the Lord (v. 11). God gave her a son and Hannah kept her promise. In verses 24-28 what did Hannah do?

In I Sam. 3:19,20 what became of Hannah’s child, Samuel?

Another child raised by godly parents was John the Baptist. God had a special plan for this child but He required the dedicated hearts of parents to raise him in the knowledge and obedience of God. Please read Luke 1:16 and 17. What was the important mission of John the Baptist?

What did Jesus say of John in Luke 7:28?

There are many other examples in Scripture of children and young people raised as useful vessels for God by godly parents and mentors. Another familiar example is young Timothy who was brought up in the Lord by his mother and grandmother, then went on to be mentored by the Apostle, Paul. Perhaps some in your group can think of present-day examples they would like to share.

We will end this lesson with an intriguing short line of genealogy that we read in Ruth 4:17. Here we have the descendants of Boaz and Ruth. We see their son, Obed who was raised by his three godly parents, Naomi, Ruth and Boaz. Next we have Jesse, the son of Obed. In I Sam. 16:1 we read that God sent the prophet and priest, Samuel to anoint one of the sons of Jesse as the new king over Israel. Jesse must have been raising his sons to honor God because Jesse’s youngest son, David, who was God’s choice, later gave the testimony that as a youth, he trusted and gave the honor and glory for his deliverance to God. What was the circumstance (I Sam. 17:37)?

Conclusion

David went on to trust God in many other circumstances but sadly did not apply the same godly mentoring to his own children. It only takes a generation for children to forget God. I hope this lesson inspires all of us to stay the course so we can obediently offer up the children with whom the Lord has entrusted us and we can faithfully pray…

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing.