Will you please turn to the book of Judges, Chapter 17, Verse 6.
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
— Judges 17:6
Now turn to Judges 21, the last verse, Verse 25.
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
— Judges 21:25
Dear Lord, as we gather together unto Thyself, we bow to worship Thee for all Thy goodness to us. We thank Thee for giving Thy blood for us and giving Thy life to us. Thou art truly our beloved Savior. Thou hast bought us with a price, and we want to offer ourselves to Thee as a living sacrifice.
We want to accept Thee as our Lord, as our King. We pray that all that Thou hast ordained for Thy people will be fully realized.
Lord, as we gather here in Thy presence, we ask that Thou wilt speak to each one of us. Speak to our hearts, open our understanding, and give us a heart to repent, that Thy Word will really become life to us.
We trust Thy Holy Spirit to do this work, that Thy name may be glorified. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us these few days. The burden of our time together is on the book of Judges.
The book of Judges is the continuation of the book of Joshua. In the book of Joshua, we find how God led His children into the promised land. God was the Captain of the host of His army, and He led them from victory to victory.
He dispossessed all the enemies that were in the land, and He gave the land to the children of Israel. So, the book of Joshua is really a joyful book. As you read the book of Joshua, you feel joy and peace.
But the following book is the book of Judges, and the atmosphere in this book is entirely different. When you read it, you feel very sad.
Even though the children of Israel were in the promised land, God had promised to give them the whole land. God had also promised that all the enemies would be destroyed. They should have gone from victory to victory, occupied the whole land, and enjoyed what God had promised to give them.
Unfortunately, we find that after Joshua died, when the first generation passed away, the second generation that was in the land did not know God. They did not know the works of God.
Now, of course, they must have heard about God. They must have heard of the wonderful work of God with their forefathers. Mentally, they believed in God, but it was a matter of tradition. It was not a matter of a living relationship with God.
Very soon, you find that weaknesses were exposed. They were not able to drive out their enemies. They were not able to occupy the promised land.
They allowed their enemies to dwell with them; they even dwelt among their enemies. They did not obey God’s commandment to be a separated people. Because they lived among the nations, there was intermarriage, and they began to follow the customs of the nations.
They drifted away from the living God, and they began to worship the idols of the nations. Because of this, God was angry with them. God is a righteous God; He is a holy God. When His people rebel against Him, His anger is hot toward His own people.
He began to discipline His people. We have said again and again, whom God loves, He disciplines. He loves His own children, and He wants to see them grow up rightly.
Because of their departure, God began to allow their enemies to oppress them.
In the book of Judges, you find a picture of departure—how they departed from God. It is a picture of oppression: they were oppressed by their enemies. It is also a picture of repentance. They suffered enough, cried to God, and repented.
God looked upon their grief, and God’s heart was touched. He raised up judges to deliver them out of their enemies and to give them a period of rest, a period of peace.
But unfortunately, after that judge died, they drifted away again. The same thing happened throughout the book of Judges. You find seven cycles: departure from God, oppression by enemies, suffering, repentance, and God raising up a judge to deliver them.
They went around and around seven times, and the whole book of Judges occupied approximately 450 years. During those years, the people of God in the land went through this cycle. They were never able to enjoy the land or fulfill all that God had promised to them.
So we say it is a very sad story. Yet it is in the Word of God. Just as the book of Joshua is in God’s Word, the book of Judges is also recorded in Scripture for our admonition.
The book of Joshua is for us, and the book of Judges is also for us. We learn lessons in the book of Joshua, and we must learn lessons in the book of Judges.
We are sharing on the book of Judges not merely as past history, as the history of another people that has nothing to do with us. No, we share on the book of Judges as our history. God is speaking to us today. If we can hear His voice, then we have really read this book of Judges.
We mentioned in the beginning that the book of Judges can be divided into three parts.
This morning we are on the third part. We are not able to go back to the first and second parts, so we will be on Judges 17–21. If you want to know the details, I hope you will go back and read these chapters.
These chapters give us the inner story of the people in the land. During those 450 years, what was their spiritual condition? Why was it that they went through such cycles? You find the answer in these chapters.
Actually, in these chapters you find three major things that depict the condition of the children of Israel in the land:
Judges 17 and 18 tell us of religious departure—religious degeneration. These chapters are different from the chapters before because the previous chapters tell us the history chronologically, while these chapters tell us the inner story.
In Judges 17, there was a man of Mount Ephraim whose name was Micah. He stole his mother’s money. When his mother discovered that the money was gone, she cursed whoever had taken it. She did not know that her son had stolen it.
After she cursed the one who stole the money, her son came to her and said, “I took the money.” When she found that it was her son, she said, “Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son.” You see, there was no standard. She cursed and she blessed, and she would curse in the name of the Lord and bless in the name of the Lord.
She said, “This money I have determined to devote unto the Lord, that the Lord may bless you.” When the son returned the money, she took two hundred pieces of it and gave it to a founder to make a graven image and a molten image. These images were placed in their home.
In their home there was a house of gods. They not only made images, but they also made an ephod and teraphim. Micah separated one of his sons to be a priest there.
The children of Israel were supposed to be the people of God. They were to worship the one true and living God. God had commanded that they should not make any image, and yet here they worshiped with images.
In the house of Micah, they mixed up everything. They changed the living revelation of God into a man-made religion. They made images and considered these images to represent the Lord.
According to the Word of God, only the Levites, the sons of Aaron, were separated as priests. Yet Micah separated one of his own sons to be priest.
Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.” The whole concept was blessing, blessing, blessing. The whole thing had degenerated. They were still using the name of the Lord, yet they violated everything that God had commanded.
The very purpose of worshiping God is God. We worship God for His glory, but they worshiped for their own blessings. Everything had changed. It became a man-made religion, though they still called upon the name of the Lord.
There was also a Levite who left his home and wandered, searching for a place. The Levites were supposed to serve God’s sanctuary. At that time the sanctuary was at Shiloh, and he should have gone there to serve God.
Instead, he was wandering around, trying to find a place to live and a place to serve. It so happened that he came to the house of Micah.
Micah asked him, “What are you doing?” The Levite said that he was seeking a place. It was as if the place at Shiloh was not good enough for him. He wanted to find a place for himself and to serve as a priest of God on his own terms.
Micah said, “Stay with me, and be unto me a father and a priest. I will give you ten shekels of silver by the year, a suit of apparel, and your food.” The Levite considered it a good bargain and stayed there as priest of Micah’s household.
Do you know who that Levite was? He was Jonathan, the grandson of Moses. Think of Moses, the man of God, the servant of God, to whom God revealed Himself and through whom He gave the children of Israel the Ten Commandments. Should not his grandson have known better?
Yet he was seeking his own interest. God had already ordained a place and service for him, but he was not satisfied. He wanted something for himself. He sold his ministry. He was hired by Micah, received a salary, and became a priest of the house of Micah.
How far he had fallen! Ministry is spiritual in nature. Worshiping and serving God is a holy privilege. Yet they had profaned that ministry by taking it for themselves. He used his gift and became an employee of men instead of a servant of God.
But that is not the end of the story. In Judges 18, the tribe of Dan had not yet occupied their inheritance. They were still seeking to possess what God had apportioned to them, so they sent five men to spy out the land.
As they went to spy out the land, they came to the house of Micah. They saw the young Levite and asked, “What are you doing here?” He told them that Micah had hired him to be the priest of that household.
After they spied out the land, they returned and reported that the people there were peaceful and could be attacked. Then the tribe of Dan began to move to that place.
When they passed through Micah’s home, they took the images, the ephod, the teraphim, and the priest. They said to the Levite, “Come with us and become priest to a tribe. Is it not better for you to be priest to a tribe than priest to one family?”
The young man was happy about that. That was promotion. He gladly took the images and followed them.
When Micah pursued them, he said, “Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and are gone away: and what have I more?” They told him to be quiet, lest angry men attack him. Micah realized that he was no match for the tribe.
The Danites destroyed the city, changed its name, and called it Dan. Then they set up Micah’s graven image for themselves as long as the house of God was in Shiloh.
In other words, they set up a false religion against what God had established at Shiloh. Dan became the first tribe to establish this idolatrous worship.
The whole story shows us how they had degenerated religiously: from a living revelation of God into a mere form; from what was spiritual into that which was only physical; from what was heavenly into what was earthly; and from living faith into superstition. Ministry had fallen from being spiritual into something merely human.
Now, brothers and sisters, when you apply this to us today, what do you see in Christianity? In the beginning, it was a revelation. It was living, vibrant, personal, spiritual, and heavenly.
But through the centuries, Christianity has fallen. Instead of being a living thing, it has become a tradition. Instead of a revelation, it has become forms and rituals.
God is invisible. God is Spirit. Yet human beings always long for something tangible. They want to see; they want to touch. So they began to make images.
When you enter into a Roman Catholic church, people pray before images. In the Greek Orthodox Church, there may not be statues, but there are pictures and icons, and people pray before those icons.
Even if you go to Protestant churches today, you find that many have begun to take up these things. There are gowns, rituals, and forms in place of a living relationship with God.
You find even ministry is for hire. To be called of God is such an honor. To worship God and serve God is such a privilege. We are all supposed to be priests; we are all to serve God.
But instead, you find a system. If you have a gift, perhaps you begin as pastor of a village church. Then, if people begin to hear about you, you may be invited to pastor in a city church, with a higher salary.
If you become really famous, one church is not enough. You become a conference speaker and become well known throughout the world. What is this? This is not different from what you find in the book of Judges. It is degeneration; it is departure.
What is the comment of the Holy Spirit? Why did such things happen? The comment of the Holy Spirit is this: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
Brothers and sisters, God is our King. Christ is our King. We are His people, and we are supposed to listen to Him and obey Him.
But when the children of Israel rejected God as their King, they themselves became kings. Everyone did what seemed good to himself. When this happens, it affects religious life.
Their religion was made by themselves and for themselves. It was no longer a revelation from God; it came from man’s concepts. This is the god that we make, and he is supposed to bless us. Then we can do anything we want, because we made him.
Brothers and sisters, is this not true even with us today? It is because we do not honor God as our King. Each one does what is good in his own eyes. That was the condition of the people at that time, and unfortunately it reflects our condition today.
The second thing is found in Judges 19. There was another Levite, also from Mount Ephraim, and he had a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
The concubine departed from him and returned to her father’s house. After four months, the Levite went to Bethlehem in Judah to take her back.
His father-in-law entertained him and tried to keep him there. Finally, late one afternoon, he decided that he had to leave. He took his concubine and his servant, and they began to travel back to Mount Ephraim.
Because they left late in the afternoon, darkness soon came. They passed through the city of the Jebusites, but the Levite did not want to stay there. He preferred to stay in a city belonging to the people of God, so they came to Gibeah, which belonged to the tribe of Benjamin.
They went to the city square. At that time, there was a custom of hospitality: a traveler would sit in the city square, and a citizen of that city would receive him into his home.
But nobody asked them to come into his home. Finally, an old man came. He too was a stranger in that city, and he was from Mount Ephraim. He received them into his home.
While they were eating, men of the city surrounded the house and demanded that the host bring out the Levite so that they might know him. This meant that they wanted sexual relations with him.
The host said, “This is my guest. I cannot do this. I have a daughter; do whatever you like with my daughter.” But they were not satisfied. Finally, the Levite pushed his concubine out to them.
The next morning, when the Levite wanted to return home, he found the concubine lying at the door. He took her home, cut her body into twelve pieces, and sent the pieces throughout the tribes of Israel, saying, “Consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.”
The whole tribe of Israel gathered together and said that such a thing had never been done in the land of Israel. Here you find moral degradation. It was not only religious degeneration; there was also moral degeneration.
Here you find the people of God practicing sodomy. There was no shame and no repentance. They took it as if it were usual, as if it were commonplace. The people of God were supposed to be distinct from the world, but here they did worse than what the world would do.
Brothers and sisters, what about God’s people today? Do you think we are better than the children of Israel? We find that the moral condition among God’s people is so low.
In the church at Corinth, there was one who had taken his father’s wife. Such a thing did not happen even among the Gentiles, and yet he did not repent. The whole church felt that they could tolerate it.
Brothers and sisters, God is righteous. He will not allow such things to remain in the church. Christ is our Passover, and we are to keep the feast of unleavened bread. All the leaven must be removed; otherwise, the whole church will be leavened.
You find in the church today how we allow things to remain in the church. There is no repentance, but there is tolerance. Yet a little leaven leavens the whole lump. We must purge out the leaven because the church is holy.
Why does this happen? The comment of the Holy Spirit is the same: there is no king in Israel, and everybody does whatever he thinks is right.
In this world, everything is relative. People say that there is no such thing as an absolute. But God is absolute. He is absolutely righteous and absolutely holy. With God’s people, we have an absolute standard.
When we reject God as our King, we reject the whole standard of absoluteness. Everything becomes relative, and we fall morally.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. When we do not fear God, we lose our minds and we fall. This is the condition of the children of Israel, and certainly this is the condition of the church.
Then you come to Judges 20 and 21. When this news was spread throughout Israel, the tribes gathered together and asked the Levite what had happened. The Levite told them what had happened and asked them what they should do.
How self-righteous these tribes were! Actually, they were no better than the Benjamites. Yet they became very self-righteous and said that such a thing ought not to be done.
They demanded that Gibeah give up these men. But the whole tribe of Benjamin did not stand with what was right; they stood with their own men and their own tribal loyalty.
There was self-destruction. Finally, the tribe of Benjamin was almost wiped out. Only six hundred men remained.
The other tribes had vowed among themselves that they would not give their daughters to Benjamin as wives. Then they discovered that one tribe would be lost.
They found one city that had not come to the assembly. They killed all the men and all the married women there, and gave four hundred young women to the six hundred Benjamites.
But there were still not enough women. Every year at Shiloh there was a feast, and the maidens came out to dance. So they told two hundred men to go there and seize wives for themselves from among the daughters of Shiloh.
How terrible this is—self-destruction. What is the reason? The same comment of the Holy Spirit: there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you know this happens to God’s people today? How God’s people fight against one another; how God’s people are separated; how they look upon their brethren as inferior to themselves; how they criticize, judge, and slaughter one another with their words.
How God’s people are divided, and how God’s people self-destruct. Why? Because we do not hold fast the Head, who is Christ.
If we hold fast the Head, all the members will be united together, ministering to one another, and there will be the increase of God.
Brothers and sisters, may we humble ourselves before the Lord. Have we not failed to let Christ be our Head? He alone is Head. We cannot be head over other people, and we are not head even over ourselves. Christ is the Head of all men and Christ is the Head of the church.
If we hold fast the Head, we are united together and minister to one another. If we do not hold fast the Head, we will be scattered and we will be self-destructed.
May the Lord have mercy upon us.
Dear Lord, we fall before Thee, acknowledging that we are no better than our fathers. How we have left the living revelation of God and degenerated into human tradition. How we have left that which is spiritual and become earthly; how it is no longer divine, but human.
Lord, we acknowledge our sin. We ask for forgiveness. We pray that Thou wilt truly be our King and restore us to that religious purity.
Lord, we acknowledge that we have degenerated morally. We have lost the standard of absoluteness, and we look at things relatively. We lose our bearings. Lord, we pray that Thou wilt purify us and restore us, that we may be an unleavened bread as an offering unto Thyself.
Lord, we acknowledge how we kill one another and how we are not united. We pray that we may hold fast the Head, acknowledging Thee as our Head, that we may be united as one and minister to one another, that Christ may increase.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.