Immanuel Sermon Audio
Judges (7:66)
In an outline came in late. Got him at the front. There we go. There you go. There you go. All right, the Book of Judges. Find it in your Bible. We're gonna do some reading in Judges. Flipping around in Judges. How many of you guys have ever watched an episode of the Twilight Zone? You guys ever watched this old TV show? You can sing. Anybody like this show? I like this show. There's been like, you can Google it. You can look it up. And there's been like four runnings of the show. And the original ones are the good ones. The ones in the '80s and early '90s are just kind of goofy. But the original ones are the good ones. And my all time favorite episode of the Twilight Zone is called Button Button. And they actually, a couple of years ago, made this into a movie. Made it into a full link feature movie and Drew Barrymore is in it. And I didn't know this 'til this week. I didn't know that there was a movie, but I found it reading about Button Button. And the movie's called The Box. And so you can see this couple there with the box. But reading about it, it did not sound as good as the original 30 minute episode of the Twilight Zone called Button Button. And the story in the episode is really, really simple. There's a couple, Arthur and Norma. And I know that picture is dull and it's fuzzy and the projectors are old, but you get the idea. Arthur and Norma. And they're just sort of a regular blue collar working class couple struggling to make it. And one night, they're sitting around the house and they get a visit from a guy named Mr. Stewart. And Mr. Stewart walks into the house and you can see it down here on the bottom. There's a brown box and it's got a little glass dome on the top and inside that dome there's a red button. And he brings this to this couple. And Mr. Stewart says, look, here's the deal. I'm gonna leave this with you. If you flip the thing up and push the button, I will visit you the next day and give you $200,000 cash. In the movie, they up the ante and they said a million dollars but you get the idea. You push the button and I come back and I give you $200,000 cash. All you have to do is push the button. But you need to understand that when you push the button, someone you don't know is going to die because you pushed the button. Not somebody who would have otherwise died but someone will die if you push the button but the very next day, $200,000. So he leaves this button and of course to build the tension, they just set it right out there in the middle of the house. And initially they say, no way. You gotta be kidding me, we're not. We wouldn't do anything like that. And a couple of days go by, weeks go by and there's a financial crisis in the family. Something happens or someone loses a job or there's bills to pay or something and they sort of start thinking about it. Well, $200,000, that's a lot of money. And he did say it would be somebody we don't know. No, no, no, no, no, we can't push it, we can't push it. And so a little time goes by and something else happens and they say, we really need the money. Do you know how far $200,000 would go to solving our problems? Maybe we should push the button and they start trying to talk each other into it. And one of them says something like, well, maybe the person who's gonna die is a poor Chinese peasant who wants to die. And we would be doing that person a favor. They're just eking out a life and they don't wanna be alive anyways. And maybe that's who it is. There's a lot of those Chinese people over there. Odds are it's one of them and they don't wanna live anyways and so we just push the button and they work it themselves up and they decide we're gonna push the button and they push the button. Nothing happens. They sort of wait and the next day knock at the door. Here comes Mr. Stewart. Here you go, $200,000 and I'll take the box. They say, that's it? Is that easy? Yeah, I told you, you push the button. Someone you don't know died because you pushed it but here's your $200,000, I'll take the box. And on his way out of the house, he turns around and he says, "I'm gonna be taking this to somebody you don't know." (audience laughs) And then the cue the music, the spiral thing at the end of the episode, nah, nah, nah. And you get this eerie feeling thinking, oh, all the pieces come together and you know that they're next eventually. And that's just kind of representative of the Twilight Zone. If you've ever watched this TV series, you watch the series and through most of the episode, you're thinking, I don't really understand this. This is a little bit boring. It's just, when you go back and watch them now, you say it's dragging, it's moving so slow. But if you hang in there till the end, there's sort of this aha moment and it makes sense. But all along the way, as you're watching and you're trying to make sense of the story, you just have this feeling and you know, it's the Twilight Zone and you know, something is not right here. Something is off a little bit. Things are not exactly as they ought to be. Listen, when you read the book of judges, it's kind of like being in the Twilight Zone. You read the stuff in judges and sometimes there's some things that sort of you say, yeah, that's good, that's great. And then you keep reading to the next paragraph and you think, really? That doesn't seem right. I thought these people were kind of supposed to be heroes, people we look up to and people we admire and when you read judges, they just don't seem very heroic. And the whole thing really has an eerie feeling. So, we're gonna talk about judges. First of all, we're gonna review and just sort of backtrack a little bit and think about, I'm gonna put on the screen, these are the books of the Bible we've covered so far. We're not gonna do this through every book of the Bible, but listen, the further you get into the story, the more helpful it is to go back and think about what's come before it. We didn't really do that in Genesis and Exodus very much 'cause you're right there in the beginning of the story. But the deeper you get into the story and you understand the Bible is one story. It's not just an anthology of stories, but it's one continuous story. You gotta kinda go back and just remember. So, we looked at Genesis. In the beginning, God creates the heavens and the earth. God's people rebel against him. They're kicked out of his presence. Sin spreads through the earth. God punishes them with a flood. Starts over after Noah. Sin spreads through the earth. He punishes them at Babel. Sin spreads through the earth. And finally, God says, okay, we're gonna change directions here. And instead of these worldwide judgments, I'm gonna begin a process to save people. And he picks a man named Abraham. And then all these promises to Abraham get passed down to Isaac and then Jacob. And eventually, Jacob has 12 sons. And one of them is Joseph who ends up in Egypt. That's how Genesis ends, right? Everybody eventually ends up in Egypt because Joseph saves them. He come to Exodus. There's a new Pharaoh. He doesn't think so highly of Joseph's family. So he enslaves them. God sends Moses to bring the people out. The 10 plagues of Egypt. The parting of the Red Sea. All of those amazing, amazing miracles take place in Exodus. God gets them out. He gives them the law. And in with that law, he says, you need to build a tent. Giant tent. And I'm gonna come live with you in this tent. And he gives them all these instructions about how they're supposed to do it. And you read that and then you read again, this is how they did it. And in the end of the book, God comes and he lives with the people. So that's Exodus. Then you get to Leviticus, a bunch of rules. You remember the outline for Leviticus. Purity rules, holiness rules, sacrificial rules, rules, rules, rules, rules, rules. All sorts of things God is saying, look, if you and I are going to have this relationship, I've brought you out by my grace. I've saved you. We have this relationship. Here's how I want you to live. I want you to be different than all of the other people that surround you. So that's Leviticus. Then you come to numbers. If you remember numbers, numbers is like a train wreck, right? The people are out. They have God's law. They have God with them. They're ready to go into the promised land and they totally went out. We can't do it. We don't wanna go. God says, okay, you don't have to go. Die in the wilderness and I'll bring your kids in. So they walk around. They die and eventually the new generation is counted at the end of the book and that's numbers. Deuteronomy. Moses knows he's not going in with this new generation but he's given him one last pep talk, one last sermon saying, look, this is what happened to your parents. This is what God wants you to do. He's bringing you into this land. You need to be faithful to him. Deuteronomy, the second law he gives him the law again. Joshua, last week. Moses dies and Joshua leads the people across the Jordan River into the promised land. They fight at Jericho. They fight up in the north. They fight in the south. They divvy up all the land. God is with them in all these victories and then Joshua gives them one last pep talk, one last charge. And you remember what Joshua told them at the very end. This is what we ended with last week. Joshua says to the folks, listen. This is what God wants you to do. You have a decision to make. Choose this day whom you will serve. Make a decision. And you remember the people say what? Far be it from us to turn against the Lord. We're with God. 100%. And Joshua turns around and says what? No, you're not. You can't do it. You're not going to do it. Your parents didn't do it. And you're not going to do it. And you get to the book of Judges and lo and behold, they don't do it, right? Judges is like numbers all over again, right? Different part in the story. But it's an absolute train wreck. And things are going wrong left and right. And you just wonder what in the world does it matter with these people? It's total chaos. Here's where the book of Judges fits in the history of Israel. I gave you these last week a couple of words that summarize the history of Israel. The conquest, the period of the Judges. And this period we're in right here in red includes the book of Judges. And next week we'll talk about the book of Ruth. Both of those books fit into that red line of Judges. Then the monarchy with David, division in the kingdom, Rehoboam and Jeroboam split it. Both kingdoms rebel. They're all sent into exile. And then God brings a remnant back. So that's where we're at in the history of Israel. Here's the outline for Judges. Really, really simple. Three sections in the book of Judges. Chapters one to two, introduction summary of the book. Just sets the stage for everything that you're about to read and explains, puts into context everything that happens. Chapters three to 16 are the twelve judges. Okay, twelve judges. In chapter 17 to 21 at the end, lots of ways you could describe it. I just described it as depravity unleashed. It just, total chaos breaks out at the end of the book of Judges. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong towards the end of the book in Judges. So as I'm looking at that and as I'm studying Judges this week, I'm thinking, how do you teach Judges? There's a lot of ways you could, in a 30, 40 minute spot, break down the book of Judges. We could just talk about the twelve judges. You could talk about the overarching storyline. I think the best way is just to look at each of these three sections and point out a few things in the first section, the introduction, the second section, the judges, and then read a few things out of that last section. So take your Bible and we're going to start with the beginning of the book of Judges. Chapter one, verse one and verse two says this. After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord. It's a good start. Who should go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them? And when you read that, you initially think, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. What did I just read in Joshua? I thought they just did that in Joshua, went and fought against the Canaanites. But if you read carefully before, and during, and after, you understand that God told the people, look, I'm going to bring you in, and I'm going to get you firmly established in the land. It will be your land, but I'm not going to drive all of these people out at once. It's going to be a process. I'm going to bring you in, and I'm going to be with you, but you're going to have to keep fighting to get these people out. So there goes their general. Joshua, Moses is gone. Joshua is gone. And they say to God in prayer, who's going to go for us? Who's going to lead us to fight? The Lord said, Judah shall go up. Behold, I have given the land into his hand. And so you keep reading in verse 3 all the way to about verse 18, and it just talks about their fighting. They're doing what God wanted them to do. They're taking over the land, little bit by little bit by little bit, and look down all the way in chapter 1 verse 19. It says, "And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country. But," and if you want to understand the book of Judges, that's a turning point. "But he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron." So there's a but in there. He did what God is asking him to do, but he didn't do it completely. He couldn't take out this last group of people. And so look at chapter 2. There's disobedience that follows. Chapter 2, starting in verse 8, it says, "This Joshua, the Son of Nun, the servant of the Lord died at the age of 110 years. They buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnoth Harris in the hill country of a frame, north of the mountain of Gash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. And when you read that, you ought to just almost be in shock in total disbelief. And you say, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you telling me that there was a generation of these Israelites who grew up? And on the whole, if you're describing the generation, they don't know the things that God had done for Israel. They don't know about the Exodus. They don't know about the plagues in Egypt. They don't know about the manna and the wilderness and the quail and the water from the rock. And they don't know about the law that God gave him at Sinai. And they don't know about the battles that Joshua and his generation fought coming in. They don't know about any of those things. And what you're reading in verse 10 is that there's a failure from one generation to pass down the faith to the next generation. There was a lack of teaching. There was a lack of discipleship. There was a lack of preaching. There was a lack of proclamation. Whatever you want to say, this one generation totally failed to pass down and to teach the next generation the things about God and the truth about God. So this new generation arose. They did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. And so they failed to pass down the faith. Now we're going to read a long section here starting in verse 11. And, and that and connects it with what came before. They didn't know. Their parents didn't teach them. And as a consequence, as a result, the people of the Lord did what was evil in the side of the Lord. And served the bales. And they abandoned the Lord. The God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. Remember, they didn't know that. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them. And they bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the bales in the ashtrath. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm. As the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were in terrible distress. Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet, they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord. And they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge. And he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved by pity by their groaning because of those who were afflicted and oppressed them. Those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and they were more corrupt than their fathers going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he said, "Because this people has transgressed "my covenant that I command their fathers "and have not obeyed my voice, "I will no longer drive out before them "any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, "in order to test Israel by them, "whether they will take care to walk in the way "of the Lord as their fathers did or not." So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua. That really summarizes chapter two, one and two is the introduction. It summarizes the period of the judges that follow. And here's the sequence during the period of the judges, the pattern of judges three to six. There's sin on behalf of the people. There's punishment that comes from God. He gives them over to their enemies. There is, you may put this in quotes, repentance or groaning or crying out to God for mercy. So God sends a judge and the judge brings deliverance and the people respond with sin. And round and round and round and round you go. Where you stop, nobody knows. That's the pattern over and over and over and over again. Sin, punishment, repentance, a judge, deliverance and sin. So in that pattern, there's 12 different judges that we read about. And on your outline, I gave you the minor judges 'cause I'm so kind, right? These are the guys who are not talked about very much, not minor because they were little people or not important or not good fighters. Just, they're not described very much. You guys tell me without cheating, who are the four major judges? Deborah, one, Gideon, two. Deborah, we got Deborah. Deborah Gideon, Samson. One more. He's a piece of work. Jephthah, Jephthah. So we'll put him up there. Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson. Technically, if you wanted to add one more, you could say that Samuel was one of these judges because when you get to first Samuel, it says Samuel was the last judge of Israel. And you remember, Samuel's the one we'll find out in a couple of weeks who anoints the first king of Israel. So he's the last judge leading up to the monarchy. But here's the major guys. Deborah Gideon, Jephthah, Samson. So you look at that list, 12 judges. And all I can say about these people is, the more that the book of judges describes them, the less you think of them. The more they're talked about, the more you realize things are not like they're supposed to be. This is total chaos. Some of these guys are barely mentioned. Some of them are mentioned more, Ehud. Ehud was an assassin. And he went one night and killed a really, really fat guy named Eglon. And Eglon was so fat that when Ehud killed him, he stuck him in the gullet and he couldn't get his sword out. Lost his sword in his belly. But he was an assassin, snuck in, by deceit, assassinated a man and then ran away. Not exactly an upstanding, valiant night, right? A backhanded, you could say cowardly assassin. Deborah, Deborah had to save Israel because in her day, in her place, the men were too scared to fight. So she stood up and fought. And she was helped by a woman named J.L. And there's a great story about J.L. driving the spike of a tent through a man's temple. And she did that because her husband was too scared to do it. So you look in Deborah's day and J.L.'s day and you say the men were just a bunch of pansies, bunch of cowards who wouldn't do anything. And so the ladies had to stand up and fight for Israel. Gideon. Sometimes we think of Gideon as a hero, as a good guy. He saved Israel in an amazing battle. But as soon as that was done, he turned around and he made an idol for the people to worship. He was a judge. He made an idol that the people worshiped. Jephthah. Jephthah is the guy who made a vow when he was out fighting about popped off like some big machismo big shot. When I get home, I'm going to kill the first thing I see offer it as a sacrifice to God. And when he got home, what was the first thing that he saw coming out of his house? His daughter. And he was such an arrogant, prideful. Wanted to live up to, I'd do what I say I'm going to do. He didn't say, oh, that was stupid. I take it back. He said, well, I said it. I guess I better do it. Killed his daughter. That was one of the judges. And you look at these guys, person after person, and you just say, they're all screw ups. Things are not right in this book. These are the people that God is using. We haven't even talked about the most famous judge of all of them, who is who? Samson. He's the biggest loser of the whole lot. He's absolutely pitiful. We went-- there's Samson. Look at him. Looks like a superhero. Looks like part, incredible Hulk. Part, I don't know what. He's just muscly and tough, and he's pushing the pillars down. Me and my girls went last Friday. Emma wanted to get her name put on her Bible. And so we were at Mardelle and walking around Mardelle while they stamped her name on it. And we went by the action figure section in Mardelle, right? Bible action figures. And they had three in stock. You could buy three different action figure dolls. David-- OK, that's not bad. Goliath and Samson. Those were the guys that you could buy. And I'm looking at that thinking, two out of the three are pitiful. David had his moments, but two out of the three ones of Philistine who blasphemed God and the other was a drunk hormonger. That's Samson, right? He is absolutely pitiful from beginning to end. I was so interested when the Bible miniseries came out and they started showing previews. And you knew they're going to put Samson in here. And they put Samson in there. And he's just this big giant muscly guy. And I was so curious to see, how do they present him? Do they make him the hero of the story? Or do they show him to be the loser that he really is? And it was sort of a mixed bag on how they presented him. So let's talk about Samson. Samson from birth was set apart to be something special, right? Set apart to be a Nazarite from birth. Now, there were some people in Israel who would take a Nazarite vow and say, I'm going to take a Nazarite vow for a month. And some people would say, I'm going to take a Nazarite vow until such and such happens. And there was other people who were set apart from birth to be Nazarites all of their life. Being a Nazarite meant three things. Tell me what they are. No booze, don't cut your hair, and what else? Don't touch anything that is unclean, right? Go back to Leviticus. Brush up on Leviticus. Don't touch anything that's unclean. No booze. Don't cut your hair. Don't touch anything that's unclean. And Samson is set apart to do those three things from birth for his entire life. So you dig into Judges, and you start reading about Samson. He starts where Judges, Jeptha is chapter 11, the birth of Samson, chapter 13. So he starts in 13 and goes up through 16. When you get past the fact that he treated women like trash, which he did, and you get past the fact that he was a spiteful, vengeful jerk, which he was. And you move past the fact that he could not obey God's command, or he would not obey God's command to stay away from foreign women, which he would not. You say, OK, well, at least how did he do on the Nazarite vow, booze, unclean things in your hair? Well, you can look in Judges 14, and he's hanging out where? In a vineyard. That's not an incidental detail. He's not there because he's interested in horticulture. He is there because he likes to get drunk. And when you factor that into Samson, it makes sense of a lot of the things that he does that seem totally irrational, totally ridiculously insane. You say, well, that sounds like a person who's drunk. Well, he probably was, because he liked to hang out in vineyards. So first aspect of the Nazarite vow, scratch it off. He's not following that one. Second one, Judges 14, he's walking along one day, and he sees a dead lion with honey in it. Dead animals are, according to Leviticus, unclean. And he bends down and digs around in it and eats the honey. And why does he lie to his family about it when he gets back? I always wondered that growing up. That's just strange. He lies about it because he broke his vow. Don't touch anything unclean. Stay away from it. Well, he just jumps right in, and he's all about it. When he decides to fight one time, what does he use to pick up and fight with? A bone of a, what, dead donkey? I'm going to pick, what can I fight with? Tree branch, no, sword, no, jaw bone of a donkey. Yes. I'll break the vow again. Alcohol, scratch it off. Things unclean, scratch it off. You get to chapter 16, and it talks about him going to a prostitute. Great way to start off a story at any point in the Bible. And he gets down, talks about Delilah in verse 4. And you guys know the story. We're not going to read it. He gets to the end, opens his mouth. His wife cuts his hair. There you go. I can remember as a kid, there was a little time in like the late '80s where there was a whole bunch of Bible cartoons put out. There was a series of all these different people putting out cartoons of Bible stories. And I can remember three or four versions of the Samson story. And all of them, when you think about Samson, focus on what? The hair. Samson and Delilah, that's the thing we always talk about. And if you're reading it, you say, what is the big deal with the hair? Really? He tells his wife something intimate and true. And God takes away his strength just because of that. That seems ridiculous. Don't miss the fact that leading up to that, he was an all around rotten person who made a complete mockery of everything that he was supposed to be his entire life. I like to drink wine. I'm going to touch unclean things whenever I want to. And the hair thing he eventually gives in because he can't resist women. So you get to the end of Judges 16 and you're reading about Samson. And if you're honest, if you're not trying to put Samson up on some phony pedestal, if you're just honest in what you read, you come to the end and you say, he's a loser. He's pitiful. He is absolutely pitiful. His best moment is his dying moment where he asks God to give him strength and he pushes the things down. And even in that, when you read about it, you think his heart is still tinged by a little bit of desire for revenge and to get even with his enemies. He's a total creep. Listen, if there's any lesson you learn in Judges, it's this, God can use creeps. Because he does it through the whole book. It's almost like I look around. There's no men who want to fight. Okay, I'll use a woman to go out and kill people. Fine, unheard of in that day and time. Okay, there's no one godly here to use. I'll take, I guess Gideon, Samson, Jeptha. Okay, if I got to use these guys, these are the people I can use. I will use these people. God can use sinful people. There's another lesson you learn in Judges when you read it backwards from the New Testament. And you read it especially in light of the quote unquote, Hall of Faith in Hebrews. And the author of Hebrews has the audacity to list some of these guys as what? Heroes of the faith. These people are the people you ought to in a sense emulate. And you read that and you say, you got to be kidding me. Have you read the story of Samson? Do you remember what Jeptha did? And Hebrews is not saying anything positive about these people morally or even in their character. What Hebrews is saying is these were people of faith. Were they perfect, far from it? But they were people who trusted God in crucial moments and had faith in God and God used them despite themselves. I hope on some level that provides hope for you when you think about your life. And if you're honest with yourself about your life and you think about things that you've done, things that you've said, things that you've thought, and you say, you're telling me God's going to use a person like me? Will he use Samson? And he used Jeptha and he used Gideon and he used Ehud and he used all these other numb skulls and scallywags and knuckleheads. And he used them because in crucial moments they had faith in God. And Hebrews sets them up in some sense as an example. Now, all that aside, right? We say, good, you had faith, that's great. You still did some really stupid stuff. And there were really, really serious consequences for the stupid things that you did. That's another lesson you can take away from judges. You can say, is God a forgiving God? Yes, he is. Is God willing and ready and able to use centers for his purposes when they believe in him and have faith in him? Absolutely. Are there still going to be consequences for the sin in your life? Yes. Those are not going to be just wiped away, swept under the rug or forgotten about. There will always be consequences. And so you get to the end of Judges 16 and 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 all go together. And here's the thing that changes after Samson. After Samson, there's no more repentance in Judges. It ends, right? So you go back to chapter one and two and it says, here's the cycle. They sin, there's punishment. They cry out to God, he sends a judge. The judge gives them deliverance and they respond with sin. And we go round and round. But eventually the people cry out to God. Eventually they ask God for help. Eventually they tell God they're sorry. You get to Samson. Here's the cycle at the end of the book after Samson. Sin, punishment. It ends, right there. Sin, punishment. Sin, punishment. You take the repentance out. There's no more judges at the end of the book. Samson's the last one listed. There's no more deliverance at the end of the book. And it's sin, punishment, sin, punishment all the way through the end. So, how many of you have read the book of Judges? If I wanted to preach a full and accurate sermon series on Judges 17 to 21, you'd have to rate it not appropriate for children. There's stuff in the last part of the book of Judges. I'll be honest with you. We are not going to teach you that I want us. We're going to teach the Bible. They're going to learn Bible verses. We're not going to talk about those things at Judges accurately as Judges describes them. Because the stuff that happens is ridiculous. Idolatry, civil war, murder, prostitutes, kidnappings, dismemberment on and on and on. It's like a B horror movie where you just keep watching this horror movie thinking they're just throwing this in to be disgusting. It doesn't advance the story. This is not needed for the plot, it's just gore. And when you read that in Judges 17, eventually you start to think this is disgusting. Are you kidding me? And there's the pattern, sin, punishment, sin, punishment. You reap the consequences for your sin. No more repentance, no more judges, no more deliverance. Here's the problem, take your Bible. The book of Judges says this four times and it's all, all of them in this last section of Judges. Judges, look at chapter 17, verse six. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. There is no king and everyone just does whatever they want to do. Says the exact same thing, chapter 18, verse one. In those days there was no king in Israel. You can draw a line from 17, six to 18, one and say he's making the same point. He's setting up what he's about to describe and he's telling you there's no king. Everybody's just doing whatever they want to do. Sin, punishment, sin, punishment. Look at chapter 19, verse one. In those days, by the way, there was no king in Israel on and on about a certain Levite in his concubine. No king in Israel. Look at the very last verse in the book of Judges. An exact quote from chapter 17, six. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So at the beginning of this tonight, I sort of made light of this verse saying, I'm not gonna tell you what to sing. We'll sing what's right in your own eyes. But you see the disaster of that when it really plays out amongst the people in the book of Judges. There is no authority. There is no king in Israel and everyone does whatever they want to do. Everyone makes their own decisions about what is true or not true. Everyone makes their own decisions about what is moral and not moral. Sound like anything you've experienced in the last few years? There's no objective truth. There's no objective morality. It's all up to you. How do you feel about it? What do you want to be true for your life? How do you want to live your life? Do you want to live it this way or that way? Okay, however you want to live it, that's fine. There is no king in Israel. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes. And you get through the book of Judges and you think, that's like an episode of the Twilight Zone, but there's no kicker at the end. It just sort of all unravels even more at the end. And whoever wrote the book of Judges, some people say it was Samuel. Whoever wrote the book of Judges ends the book with that statement for a reason, right? He begins and ends 17 to 21 with the exact same statement, trying to make a point. When everything goes completely haywire, he brackets it with, there was no king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And if you're reading that and you're trying to understand what the author is trying to tell you, the obvious conclusion is, well, these people need a king, they need a king. Because he says there's no king, so they're doing whatever's right in their own eyes. They shouldn't be doing whatever's right in their own eyes. And the author of the book of Judges says what they need is a king. And so you get to the book of Ruth and we'll look at Ruth next week. And Ruth is sort of the positive counterweight to the ugliness of judges. It's during the period of the judges. And you read Ruth and you say, okay. Maybe it's not all lost. Maybe all hope is not gone. And I'll just steal my own thunder. You get to the end of the book of Ruth and who does Ruth point us towards? David, right? King David, this family, this family member, this lady, this guy, David. And you're saying, okay, he's on his way. You get to first and second Samuel and Israel gets a king. These are the very next books of the Bible moving in order. And the first king they get is Saul. And you read about Saul and you say, well, that didn't help. That didn't make anything better. I thought you said they needed a king. Well, then they get David, a man after God's own heart. And for a while you think, okay, here we go. Judges said it, they need a king, they need a king. Now they've got one. They've got one that loves God. And you get about halfway through David's story. Halfway through David's reign is king and what happens? The wheels come off again. You think, oh my goodness, here we go again. Round and round and round we go. It's the same old story. It's just like the book of numbers. It's just like the book of judges. It's just like the story of the kings of Israel. And we go round and we go round and we go round and we go round and ultimately listen. Judges is not pointing you towards Saul. And judges and Ruth are not even pointing you towards David. They're pointing you towards, Tony said it a minute ago, Jesus. They need Jesus. They need the true king. So even way back here in judges, we're looking for Jesus and we're waiting for Jesus and we're hoping for Jesus. So let's pray to Jesus, a prayer of thanksgiving that our king has come and then we'll sing a little bit more. Father, we love you. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the hope that we have in Jesus. Thank you for his rule in his reign over our life. And Father, thank you for the hope that we have that one day Jesus will return. He will put an end to the nonsense and the foolishness that is going on in our world that we see every day. And he will sit on the throne of a new heavens and a new earth and he will rule as king. King of all kings and Lord of all lords. And Father, we realize that until that happens, we will in effect be stuck in this same cycle. That there's nothing that we can do to break it. We can't preach enough sermons. We can't have enough Bible studies. We can't elect enough godly politicians. Father, this has been going on for thousands and thousands of years and our hope is not in ourselves and our hope is not in earthly kings and earthly leaders and earthly politicians. But our hope is in Jesus Christ, the king of all kings. And help us as we think about the book of judges and the pattern in this book and the warnings of this book, help us to fix our eyes on Jesus who is the author and the perfecter of our faith. Thank you for the Bible. Thank you for the book of judges. Give us wisdom to apply it to our lives. We pray in Jesus' name.