Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
The book of Judges is a prophetic book. It’s a book that is numbered among what are called the Former Prophets. These books showed God’s principles in action and they formed prophetic warnings to God’s people. We don’t just read the book of Judges as a collection of exciting stories, in spite of the fact that the book is full of exciting stories. Judges is much more than that.
The book of Judges closes with a demonstration of how the Levites failed to guard the worship of Israel (in chapters 17 and 18). Then, chapters 19 through 21 show the Levites failing to guard moral purity in Israel.
There was a problem in the nation of Israel. Very early in the book a disturbing pattern develops. Four things point to the pattern:
o Apostasy
o Punishment
o Repentance
o Deliverance
Canaanite religion was polytheistic – that is, they believed in many gods. These gods were the personification of the powers of nature. They were linked to the seasons of the year and many of them were tied to the fertility of the land, livestock and people. The moral climate of the day was debased. Religious prostitution was prominent. Human sacrifices were also common.
Israel came into this environment with a religious faith based on something completely different. Instead of believing in many gods, the Hebrews believed in one god almighty, Yahweh. Israel’s faith was also complemented by a highly moral approach to life. Their life grew out of a unique relationship with Jehovah God. But, the period of the Judges was a time of unprecedented anarchy. There was unchecked highway robbery and civil war. God’s authority was rejected and as a result, there was a near meltdown of the society. As the book closes, Judges 21:25 reveals how bad the times were.
Moral and religious decline were severe. Israel failed to complete the conquest of the land. She was surrounded by Canaanite religion with its appeal to the sensual side of man. Mixed marriages among God’s people and the heathen world took their toll, as they always do.
In Judges chapter one we see that God’s people didn’t drive out the Canaanites, but rather they allowed them to live among them. After some time, the Israelites began to dwell among the Canaanites. Then, the Canaanites began to drive out the Israelites. Judges chapter 18 records the migration of the Danites. It shows the religious apostasy that caused their inability to conquer the land that God gave them. Now, the Canaanites had a recognized border. They’re weren’t hiding out in Israel; they had taken over the land.
How could that happen? This land belonged to Israel. God had given it to them.
Judges 2:1-2 ¶And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
They knew God’s will toward the Canaanites. Israel ignored God’s commands. They made peace with their enemy, the Canaanites.
Judges 2:7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.
Judges 2:10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
God’s people forgot what He had done for them. They even forgot who God was.
Judges 2:11-13 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
Compromise with evil killed Israel.
Today, we look across our great country and we can see a similar pattern. In 1993 William J. Bennett, the one time secretary of education, reported some very disturbing stats on our society.
Since 1960 virtually every economic indicator has pointed to an affluence of our society like no other time in history. But, during that same time period there has been a 560 percent increase in violent crime; a 419 percent increase in illegitimate births; a 4 fold increase in the divorce rate; a 3 fold increase in the number of kids who live in single parent homes; more than 200 percent increase in teenage suicides; and a drop of almost 80 points in SAT scores. So-called fundamentalist Christianity didn’t cause all this!
It’s clear that our society, and our young people in particular have embraced the values of our society. Self-expression has taken the place of self-control. The hard truth is that in a free society the ultimate responsibility rests with people themselves. What is self-inflicted can be self-corrected, if people will resolve to fix what ails them.
Let’s go back to ancient Israel in the book of Judges. What was to blame for their decline?
First of all – parents were to blame. The mothers and fathers were to be blamed. A generation came up that didn’t know God.
Judges 2:10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
That can only occur if parents neglect their obligation to instruct their own children about the ways of God. Parents didn’t teach their children.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ¶Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
The admonition of Moses had been forgotten. If God’s law had been written on their hearts by continual teaching Israel would have never forgotten what God said. They would have remembered who He was and what He had done for them. They wouldn’t have ignored God’s command to avoid idolatry. But the parents weren’t alone in their failure. They had some help.
The spiritual leaders of Israel failed, too. A false sanctuary accompanied by a false priesthood was established according to what we read in Judges chapters 17 and 18. A man named Micah established his own shrine, complete with every type of idolatry. All he lacked was a priest. So he promptly bought a Levite’s services who agreed to do his bidding. Micah thought the essence of religion was to manipulate God, not to be submissive to Him. Micah thought God Jehovah would bless him because he had other gods under his control. His money bought him God’s priests.
Judges 17:12-13 And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
Instead of keeping the faith, the Levites prostituted themselves and disgraced the law of God. The Levitical priesthood is personified in Micah’s hiring them to do his bidding.
The people of Dan failed to conquer the land God gave them. They wanted something easy, something they could conquer in their own puny way. They didn’t seek the help of God. Rather they sought an oracle from the false priest of Micah. People who leave the truth always look for a preacher who will tickle their ears with what they want to hear. The false priest knew what to tell them.
The hired priest used every chance to make merchandise of his brethren. He sought worldly glory and he found it.
Meanwhile, the Levites did nothing to stop the moral decline in Israel. In chapter 19 we see a story that demonstrates discourteous God’s people were treated. A man and his wife purposefully travel to a city of Israelites only to find no place to stay.
Judges 19:15 says, for there was no man that took them into his house to lodging.
An old man spots them and inquires what they’re doing. They explain they are traveling and he invites them into his house so they can get off the street. But the story gets very sordid. Sodomites, homosexuals if you please, surround the house. They call for the man of God to come out so they can have sex with him. We’re totally shocked by this disgraceful display of moral decay. The Levite actually sends out his wife to be raped to death.
This religious teacher of Israel must be examined closely. He was a cruel coward who didn’t love his wife as the New Testament commands of husbands. How could any man throw his wife to an angry mob to be raped and brutalized? His cruelty is beyond our reasoning.
The message to Israel was clear. The nation should have been doing many good works toward God. Instead they were playing the harlot and dying. The Levites should have been serving to guard God’s people, but they weren’t. The Levites weren’t sounding any warnings to the people as they should have been. They weren’t preaching the word of God. Wherever the word of God is NOT preached, destruction is sure to come.
What about our society? As we look across a troubled country we can place blame exactly where blame belonged in ancient times. Fathers and mothers have failed to bring up children who know God.
Ephesians 6:1-4 ¶Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Children are living lives devoted to sin by the droves. That has its impact on kids in the church, too. We’re not naïve to the devices of Satan in that regard. Children in the church too frequently are devoting themselves to the same moral standards of their worldly friends. Parents don’t always restrain their children as they should. Parents don’t always condemn the conduct of their children as they should. Parents don’t always provide the examples they should either.
Even Christian families are in disarray. Divorce is too common among God’s people – frequently without scriptural cause. Our families ought to be beacons of hope.
Matthew 5:16 ought to speak to our individual lives, but it ought to speak of our homes as well. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Too many kids are rebellious, bored, unconverted, promiscuous, dishonest and worldly. Perhaps too many of them are like their parents. The Israelites in the book of Judges were busy doing what was right in their own eyes. Today, many people are doing the same thing.
But, parents aren’t alone. Preachers and teachers stand in the place of the Levites of old. Teaching the will of God is the command.
2 Timothy 2:2-3 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
Preachers and teachers of God’s word are under no mandate to be popular. That isn’t their function. It shouldn’t have been the function of the Levites either. Their function is to speak the truth in love.
Ephesians 4:14-15 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Some preachers and teachers are failing the people of God today. Instead of boldly proclaiming the significance of God’s word they are waffling. Rather than leading people down the old paths of the gospel, some are preaching beyond that which is written. They are pushing us toward that same abyss where Israel was – a place where every man does what is right in his own eyes.
There is an advocacy today in religious circles, and sometimes in the Lord’s church, for us to have a subjective approach to the Bible. This means that these people believe Truth is subject to what each individual person feels is true and right.
Rubel Shelly edits a paper called Wineskins, a periodical that leads the way in eroding the old paths. According to him, the pattern approach to God’s word is our undoing as a people of God. Instead, he insists that we have to apply our modern culture to God’s word and forget the ancient order of things.
Another proponent of this idea is C. Leonard Allen, a professor in a so-called Church of Christ university. Allen says that using Bible commands, examples and necessary inferences we form a pattern for belief and practice, but doing so excludes the human element, which he argues we need. In short, Allen claims that the use of inductive reasoning in interpreting the scripture is failing God’s people because it doesn’t take into account our culture or society.
Shelly and Allen are hard at work to lead men to believe that our perceptions of the Bible as a book of facts, coupled with our belief that it is a book about the character of God is all wrong. The fact is, these men know that if God’s people continue to apply logic (that is, the very reasoning God gave mankind) – then their message of a church based on culture will fall on deaf ears because men will see it for the error it really is. The problem is that too many don’t see it because their message appeals to the sensual part of man. The message tickles ears!
Brethren, the Genesis record is not a myth. The virgin birth of our Lord is not folklore, but reality. We could go on and on. The Bible is a book of FACT and a book that reveals the mind of God. It is, entirely and unquestionably TRUE!
These new ideas on how to read the Bible and interpret the Bible are borne of men who want to do what is right in their own eyes. Some have called it a “new hermeneutic.” Hermeneutics is simply the “science” of discerning the message of God’s word. These men claim we need a new approach to the scriptures because the old way is outdated. The world, they argue, is different and we need to change our approach to the Bible because of that.
The problem is that Jesus used the same approach we’ve always used. Look at his head-to-head confrontation with Satan in Matthew 4. During this conflict Jesus used direct statements, accounts of actions or examples, and implications. We follow exactly what Jesus did. We apply the same logic, yet some claim that it’s all wrong today. These are the same preachers who claim we should fellowship those who worship with instruments of music. They are shouting that we ought to embrace the differences that exist among religious beliefs.
But men intent on doing what is right in their own eyes don’t stop there. They claim the Holy Spirit prompts all their new ideas. In addition to the word of God, Christians are being urged more and more to open up to the thought of allowing the direct operation of the Holy Spirit to guide them. These men are writing and preaching that we need to open ourselves up to the mysterious side of God. Some who call themselves members of the Lord’s church claim to speak in an unknown heavenly tongue. They claim it’s a divine power they have.
Galatians 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Was that only true in Paul’s day or does it apply today, too? Mystical encounters with the Holy Spirit cannot be supported in the gospel. The word of God directs us. The Holy Spirit gave the word. Therefore, the Holy Spirit directs us, but not in the sense that these men proclaim. They clamor for a “better felt than told” religion because it can’t be questioned. You can’t argue with someone’s feelings. It removes a standard for authority. It makes religion subjective.
Men intent on doing what is right in their own eyes have a warped sense of justification by grace. They argue that it is outrageous to teach that salvation hinges on any human activity. Rubel Shelley writes “we don’t contribute one whit to our salvation.”
God sent His son to the earth to obey and surrender to the cross. However, He also said those who keep His commandments will be saved.
Matthew 7:21-23 ¶Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
John 14:15 ¶If ye love me, keep my commandments.
If we place salvation on the basis of grace only then we imply universal salvation, because Jesus died for everyone according to John 3:16. If no human response to the Lord’s sacrifice is required, then all are saved. If Mr. Shelley is correct in his claim that we don’t contribute one whit to our own salvation then we are fools for teaching the gospel to anyone. What is the point of preaching? What is the point of hearing? What is the point of believing? What is the point of repenting, confessing or being baptized? These are fruitless endeavors according to what he claims.
Baptism for the remission of sins, the very thing that places us INTO Christ, is at risk if we tolerate these prevailing winds of error. Indeed, preachers and teachers are abandoning the old paths and walking not in the ways of their fathers.
The Lord’s church cannot accept the assertions being put forth by many today. If we do, then we’ll walk in the paths of the Israelites of the book of Judges – we’ll all do what is right in our own eyes while we ignore what is right in the sight of God.
The Israelites suffered many things because they insisted on doing what was right in their own eyes. We have to admit that we’re incapable of directing our own affairs.
Jeremiah 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
It should be easy for us to all realize that when men are left to themselves, bad things happen. It was so in Old Testament times, and it is so today, too. Mercifully, God has provided the much-needed direction that we need.
Psalms 119:11 ¶Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Psalms 119:105 ¶Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
It is necessary for us to have civil law. The scriptures teach us that God ordains civil law and authority according to Romans chapter 13. But, unless God’s moral law under girds civil authority, it becomes tyrannical. Unless citizens restrain themselves because of respect for God’s authority, it becomes necessary for the government to restrain them by force. Lawlessness can’t prevail or anarchy happens. Society depends on God’s people. The presence of Christians benefits society.
The need today is for plain, aggressive preaching of God’s word. It’s the only hope we have to avoid the dangers of ancient Israel.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
All scripture is God breathed. It is indeed the Holy Word of God, all of it. Also, it is
{Profitable for teaching …} If the church would prosper, let it teach the word of Scripture, for there is no profit in the postulations of men.
It is also profitable {For reproof …} Christian morality is the only true ethic governing human behavior. The pre-Christian Gentiles forsook God, and the result was the near-universal debauchery of the human race. We’ve seen what happened in the book of Judges. There can be no doubt that forsaking the New Testament ethics on such things as adultery, homosexuality, drunkenness, etc., if persisted in, will have the same final result. The world will wax worse and worse. We can ill afford to let the Church slip.
It is also profitable {For correction, for instruction …} our correction and instruction must NOT be based on what we think is okay or what we think is wrong. It must be based on God’s word.
2 Timothy 4:1-5 ¶I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
{Preach the word …} Something of what this means has been lost in the modern definition of preaching. The true meaning is “Herald the word of God in its completeness, not altering it in any way, nor adding anything of his own that is borrowed from another source.” It also includes the mandate to announce to men the total message as God gave it. Paul said, “I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Lenski writes, “Many a preacher who should be a herald and is not … must stammer and blush when he faces Christ’s appearance and his kingdom.”
{Be urgent in season, out of season …} To state this negatively, it means that preaching should not be limited to convenient times. As White said:
Do not ask yourself if this is a suitable occasion for preaching? But ask rather why this should not be a suitable occasion. Have no limited season; let it always be thy season.
Spence stated what God wants of his ministers positively in these words:
(He wants) a restless, sleepless earnestness, which struggles on with the Master’s work in spite of bodily weakness and discouragement, in face of dangers and the bitterest opposition.
{Reprove …} This means to censure, as for a fault, and to express disapproval of the actions of others, certainly a lost art in modern preaching.
{Rebuke …} This is even a stronger word that means “to reprove sharply, to reprimand with authority.” The preacher should never forget WHOSE word it is that he preaches.
{Exhort …} The meaning here is “to urge by earnest appeal or argument,” but it also carries the idea of persuasion.
{With all longsuffering and teaching …} This requires the love and tenderness of the preacher. The true preacher should not be like Jonah who indeed heralded the message of God, inwardly hoping to see the awful sentence executed, who did not even invite his hearers to repent, who indeed hoped they would not heed the message, and who was disappointed and angry when they did!
{When they will not endure the sound doctrine …} The thought here is that, as the future unfolds, Christians will more and more despise and hate the doctrine taught by the apostles of Christ, preferring their own philosophies, systems and devices to those of the sacred Scriptures. Timothy must keep in mind that things in the church of Christ on earth will not change for the better.
{But, having itching ears …} This comes from a verb which in the active means to tickle; hence in the passive to be tickled, thus, to itch, or have an irritating desire. The thought is that men in the church will strongly prefer to hear novelties, tantalizing theories, stimulating rhetoric and flowery phrases rather than the word which is able to make them wise unto salvation.
{And will heap to themselves teachers …} The desire for pleasure is insatiable, and is increased by indulgence; hence the heaping up of those who may minister to it.
{After their own lusts …} Here is the seat of the trouble. The lusts of men, which at all risks they are determined to satisfy, lead them to despise the truth which condemns them; and yet, desiring to keep some semblance of religion, they are beguiled by evil ministers who deceive them with soothing words, fantasies, speculations and philosophies of men.
{and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables.} What happens to people who despise and turn away from God’s truth is revealed here; they are duped by fables. When a child of God falls away from the truth, there is absolutely nothing too ridiculous or preposterous for him to receive. It is always the most bizarre and extreme cults that are able to seduce and proselyte Christians.
Today, as always, the very nature and work of the church are at risk because of the subjectivity of men. We cannot afford to mindlessly mirror the society in which we live. We have to reclaim what Christ died to establish, what He built.
The word of God is our only creed. We should maintain our ability to go by a “thus saith the Lord.” We should work hard to increase our knowledge and increase our faith in the gospel.
The words of Moses are worth hearing again. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ¶Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
If the Israelites had done what Moses commanded, they would have certainly avoided the tragedies of a subjective religion.