Transcript
Religious Teacher (0:01)
All right, my Bible in 365 brothers and sisters, we have arrived at the Book of Judges. And folks, I have to tell you that the Book of Judges, in my opinion, may be one of the most somber books in the Bible. Now don't get me wrong, we see many stories in the Book of Judges, some of which represent victory, some of which represent conquest, some of which represent so many encouraging themes. But the problem in the Book of Judges is the pattern. The problem in the Book of Judges is when we see the blessing of God coming upon a people who then allow the blessing to get to their head. And when the blessing gets to their head, they go to God and they say, I got this. And it's amazing because in their minds they think they're big and tough and, and everything is going to be okay. When in reality, what's really being said, even though they don't hear it, is God. I got this. You know what I mean? Listen, that might just be an excuse to use a funny effect, but the one thing I want you to know is that Judges does a phenomenal job at showing the nature of humanity, that when we are blessed by God, we tend to ignore the one who blessed us first. And it is poof. It is shocking. It makes literally no sense. It makes literally no sense. I can give you even a modern day example of this, and I'm going to talk about it in a minute because I can promise you when I give you this example, it is going to hit very, very close to home. But if I were to find a passage in the Book of Judges and that creates what, in my opinion is a phenomenal and accurate anchoring point, it would be verse 25 of Judges, chapter 21. And again, this is extraordinarily heartbreaking. Very, very sad. But it is reflective of a very specific condition. Okay? And it's important that we understand that. Look what it says in Judges 21, verse 25, it says, in those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Now this is important because a lot of people will say that because there was no king, this is why they choose. They chose to follow their own morality. But no king here translates to no God. Okay? And that's a very important aspect of what we're talking about. By the way, it's no coincidence that there's a popular movement here in the United States of America that's called the no Kings movement.
Religious Teacher (2:56)
Why?
Religious Teacher (2:57)
It has nothing to do with Kings versus not kings. And it's nothing to do with Donald Trump. It has everything to do with the group of people whose hearts and minds have strayed so far apart from God that they're willing to say we have no desire for anything that would constrain us from fulfilling the very desires of our flesh. In other words, we choose to do what is right in our eyes, not what is right in God's eyes. That's the issue. And by the way, when I read that verse to you, verse 25, it's not just a simple isolated verse at the end. It's certainly not a summary at the end. It is the heartbeat, the literal heartbeat of the whole book. And that's why I say it's somber. So let's talk about why this is an anchor, okay? And I think it's an important one to understand. It explains the chaos that you see through Judges. Again, let me go through the pattern. God blesses them. They get up there, I got this. God says, oh, do you really? Okay, you can have it. They get judged. They fall down to the pits. They cry out to God, they say, oh, God, please help us. God says, okay, I'm going to bless you. And then they get to the point where they're super blessed by God. I got this. That's where they go, I got this. I got this. I got this. Then when they go back to the Lord after being judged again and they repent, God brings them back up. It's the ebb and flow of self sufficiency. So it exposes the root problem, not just the symptoms that occurred. And by the way, this applies to human nature. It shows the spiritual condition of the people, not just the political instability that existed with respect to the absence of judges during that time.