Breaking Badly 12: The Book of Judges

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Breaking Badly Episode twelve, No King in the Land. If Disney had written the story of Israel, it ends with unity and gratitude and worshiping songs echoing across the Central Highlands. But that's not how it goes. Instead, the defining line of the Book of Judges is this, everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And equally as important, they didn't go to Shiloh, they didn't go to worship God. They didn't get into the presence of God. That's the uncomfortable truth. And it doesn't sound that ancient. It sounds kind of like us today. We're gonna look at something unravel, not just a person or family, but the entire religious system. This is Breaking Badly. Welcome to Gospel Read podcast and doctor Bill Senyord YouTube channel. I'm your host, Doctor Bill s free wherever you get podcasts of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below if you're on YouTube or emailing me at Bill at gospeldaesshap dot com. And if you're watching, if you're listening this on a podcast, and thank you. Ahead of time for that. Thanks for making Gospel Rant Podcast one of the top ten percent in the world. Thank you for listening every week. We hope that it helps regularly to hear about God's love for the unlovable, unloved and lovely, unworthy and unlikely. That's all of us, that's me, that's you, on any given day, if we were just a little bit honest, and believe me, it helps to be honest. I'm want to get right into this. After a brief word from our sponsors, we'll be right back. Let me read something from Deuteronomy thirty one. Quote. When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk, and the land I promised on oath to their forefathers, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods. This is Deuteronomy, and worship them rejecting me and breaking my covenant. And when many disasters and difficulties come upon them, this song, this quote will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath. Deuteronomy thirty one, twenty to twenty one. Wow. See, this is the amazing mercy and compassion of God. He loves sinners, he loves to the unworthy. He knows these people, he knows me, he knows you. Man. Just let that rattle around our brains a little bit, and he still did it. I mean me, humanly speaking, I would go, well, you know, I know you're going to mess up, so I don't think I can give you the land. It wouldn't be an idea, but it's a bigger plan for God's a It's a bigger rescue that involves his own son, right. Catch the word disposed. So he's not saying he's not talking about bad circumstances that happen. It's not just about weak leadership. It's not even primarily about rebellion. It's deeper. There is something in us, a default setting, a bad wiring, daddy issues that says I got this. I'm going to take it from here. I don't I don't need God anymore. Thanks God for rescuing. That's what I've got this. It's not evil necessarily, but it is self sufficient. It's not dependence, which is the thing that makes most sense if you sit back and think about it. We have a God who loves us, who wants to give us a name, who wants to give us a sense of value and worth and honor in his embrace, and we go. I got this. And here's what's wild that happened. It's that self sufficiency shows up in two situations that I've observed. One is when life is going really well, and two when life is falling apart success or suffering. Both expose the same thing. I don't want to be dependent. Dependence is a four letter word, right. It's like Groundhog Day, same pattern, same decisions, same outcomes, over and over and over until one realization breaks the cycle. We don't need a better strategy, We don't need a better posture. We don't need to just make a choice. We need something else. What is that? We need to run to God, who is there right there in a New Testament sense, His spirit is at our interviewing. It's an open door policy for sinners. We need to look up into his eyes, see his favor towards us as we are, his like for us, his adoration of us and them Israel, and submit again. Another four letter word is the substance of faith. And by the way, heavenly faith. It's not the temple or land, or birthlight, or elders, or circumcision or religious practices or even sacrifices that made a Jew a Jew. It was the presence of an actual relationship with Yahweh where He loved them as they were, and that's true today for Christianity, so they could feel His favorable presence. That's original Judaism at its core. If you lose that, this favorable presence of God, the delighting gaze of God, and if you miss it by one ench, it becomes paganism to one degree or another. No matter what you want to call it, it is unsatisfying, particularly for those who knew the feeling of being in the presence of God's favor. No matter how much denial, They're dissatisfied, something's wrong in their brain and left to themselves. We can be left to ourselves, we can become cynical and nasty, and we call that, we have a word for that religion. Rather, in the presence of God, we're invited, as we are to one admit that we have an ongoing bent to narcissistic, consumeristic self sufficiency. And that's on a good day, and the anxiety fears, the visions, angst, dissatisfaction, individuality, loneliness that comes from that powerlessness. Two to admit our need for external help power and run to God. Three to look up into his loving gaze and be surprised again. Four to be filled with his spirit and power. Five to go and be loved and to love others with that powerful love Ephesians three. And love God with a new power and motivation. So it's a core value. Come as you are, be filled with the spirit of God. Wrestle with the gospel. It's too good, It really is too good to believe. And then go once you're experiencing that powerful love from God, to actually go and love God and others with that love. Yeah. So what it Israel choose? In those days? Israel had no king Chapter seventeen six, eighteen one, nineteen one, twenty one, twenty five twice combined with everyone did what was right in his own eyes seventeen six, twenty one twenty five, with no clear thought of any consequences to choices. And again, it's not evil per se. Rather, it's the result of our human bent to not be dependent. Ever, this is one of the things we need to be rescued from and I think it's even worse here in the United States. We're proud of our independence. And if we lose that presence of God even a little, and religion becomes something else altogether, religion goes sideways. Right, It's superb storytelling. The man's name is Micah yehoo, which means who is like yahweh? I think that's so subtle. Who is like yahweh? And you know the cultural answer is who anyway? At face value, it sounds good, right, It sounds like something you would print on a cup or a T shirt. But he had stolen a boatload of silver from his wealthy mother is returning it after he heard his religious mom uttering a curse to God against whoever stole the silver. Quote now, a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephrium said to his mother the eleven hundred shekels about twenty eight pounds, I mean a lot of silver. She must have been a very wealthy lady that we're taken from you, and about which I heard you utter a curse. I have that silver with me. I took it to his credit. Then his mother said, the Lord bless you, my son. Verse three, when he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother. She said, I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol. I will give it back to you verse four. So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels about five pounds of silver, not all of it, by the way, again this is great storytelling. And gave them to a silversmith who made them into an image and the idol, and they were put in Micah's house Verse five. Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ethot and some idols that installed one of his sons as his priest. This is just normal stuff. Hey, what do we do? Well, we need priest Verse six. In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit Judges seventeen one to six. Well, you would have to think that his repentance lacked a certain authenticity or awareness of God. He wasn't living up to his name. But I'm pretty sure that we are to understand that he is responding to her curse. So he's afraid, right, he's protecting himself. He's trying to fix a dangerous, potentially dangerous situation, or superstitious. Perhaps he might have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life fearing the wrath of some god let's call him yeah, because his mother's curse. Of course, that's not Judaism. This isn't the religion of Ya. This is pagan superstition, not love for Yahweh at all. Neither is it true repentance godly sorrow. In Second Corinthians, he gets his notion of religion from his mom. In one sense, she quickly utters an anti curse, a Yahweh blessing. Right, So it's pagodism. I'm going to curse you or bless you, a very strange quid pro quo to the protector's deity. Her heightened word sounds good in one sense, I solemnly dedicate or I dedicate dedicate in the Hebrew the silver in question to the Lord sounds religious. It's a prayer after all, But again it's paganism. She's worried about the anti curse not sticking that the DV will not cancel the curse. But what is this dedication really? I mean, I would suggest that it's playing the god as if the god was stupid or human. It's code for well, I can't do a ritual dedicating the silver to a god, but I can still use it kind of like blessing collateral. Oh, the joy of paganism games with the gods. And of course you're just never sure if any of this works. Right, she could lose a sun. Is there cause to read this cynically? Oh? Yeah, she only dedicates under a fifth right twenty eight pounds versus five pounds to protecting her son from the anger of God initiated by our curse. It's almost it's laughable and sad. This is the mindset of paganism, not even honest paganism, not anything Yahweh represents. Look, they're bigger problem. The elephant in the room isn't even the theft, the terrible confession, the anti curse. Right, they're so far out of sync with Yahweh that they don't even blink an eye when they conspire to shape a graven image. Here's how far out of sink they are. What is the legal sentence for idolatry or theft for that matter, in Yahweh's court death even twenty eight pounds of silver won't get you free. You need a savior. I mean, look, twenty eight pounds would make you my friend, but I'm not God. God has much higher standards. If it could, then we have huge issues with the Cross. Right, Micah forms his own religion with his own hands, so right, he did what was right in his own eyes. It's now a physical manifestation of his narcissistic consumerism. This doing what is right in your own eyes has formed a religion, formed a denomination. I'm just saying. Shiloh not mentioned. Yahweh just mentioned in his name, but Shiloh is not mentioned with him as the functioning high priest and his sons is priest under him. A new religion, a new legacy, has begun an Israel. It does not look like Israel. You can literally hear the disgust of the author editor what he says. In those days, Israel had no king on the surface, speaking of a human king, but in a larger, more tragic sense, there's no God in the land. There's no Yahweh. Everybody is a God to themselves. Everybody serves whatever God they choose to serve. Just a little silver a priest or two and who needs all the baggage with Yahweh? Why go all that way to Shiloh? You know all the commandments. It's not evil per se per se in the bigger sense, it is, but it's just secularism. It's humanism, it's paganism. This is religion that sounds like the real deal. Reasonable maybe in one sense, but that wild card. Yahweh not personally at the center until there is real external intervention done by Yahweh through his own son, We the readers, know that Israel can never be the people individually or corporately that they were called to be. They are headed the wrong direction and in huge denial doing what is right in their own eyes. I mean, this is so relevant. This is our tendency, this is our bent. Every day when we wake up for Israel and judges, there's no possibility of any real significance or security or belonging except just momentarily dopamine hits only a shadow of the real deal. The judges aren't safe, and the people don't end up going to Shiloh. And then comes the line again, everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Then if you can believe this, it gets worse a levite shows up, I mean a real priest. Micah hires him for his religion, right. I guess they had a resume, and you know they went online and said I need a priest. So they give him salary and benefits, room and board. And suddenly Micah says, now I know God will be good to me. Why because now his system looks legitimate. This is chilling. Think think of today of legitimate religious institutions and how we feel right because now we've moved from personal distortion to institutionalized distortion. The priest doesn't care who he serves. Micah does care what's true as long as it works. He doesn't get killed by the curse. And that's not faith, that's paganism, that's spiritual consumerism. Then the tribe of Dan enters. They were given land by God, but it was too hard. The enemies had chariots, so they said, this must not be God's will. It's too hard. So instead of trusting God, the command was to go and defeat the people in that land, and that's land's yours. They go looking for some easier land and they find a place called Leyish. It's undefended, it's comfortable as convenient. It's going to cause lots of problems in the future, but at the moment, yeah, it's an easy thing. On the way, they kidnapped MICA's priest, My Goodness and steal his accouterments of worship, you know, the silver, it gets stolen a second time. The Danites are not only acting out of unbelief by not stepping forward to defeat the Philistines the land of Promise. They do what is right in their own eyes and move north. But technically they to get to Layish, they have to walk a stone's throw from the temple in Shiloh. I mean, they are walking by the temple of Shiloh. You can probably see it in a distance. But honestly, if you were one of the leaders of dan you wouldn't risk going to inquire of God, then would you. I mean, first of all, you're kind of a walk of shame because you're not doing what God commanded. And then you just robbed a person and kidnapped a priest. You know, I wonder what God might say. Let's go ask him. You know, we're got to keep going. It's not too harsh to say that they didn't know God at all. I mean don't think in modern terms of being saved or not saved. They weren't living in the presence of God. They weren't living under the umbrella of God's favor. They, like the rest of Israel, had become more Canaanites. They didn't defeat the Canaanites, that became them very superstitious. The entire culture was unanchored. There was no king, There was no worship of Yahweh except probably in that except probably in Shiloh. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And Dan they set up an altar high place to worship Yahweh at least probably what they named the temple their altar, at least the entity the power they baptized as Jahweh. The punchline of the section is more like a kidney punch. Now we find the name of the mysterious priest from Bethlehem, verse thirty. There the Danites set up for themselves the Idols, and Jonathan, the son of Gersham, the son of Moses. The priest the Levite was a grandson of Moses, the scripture goes on, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of captivity of the land. They continued to use the idols Mike had made all the time the House of God was in Shiloh. Oh, Man, that's just tearful. All the time the House of God was in Shiloh Judges eighteen thirty thirty one. So who was the unnamed levied? Shocking like a Paul Harvey. And now you know the rest of the story. The corruption had penetrated the very family of Moses, just two generations out. All the time God was in Shiloh. All the time there was hope amongst them at Shiloh. And we can hear the tragic frustration of the editor from his or her perspective, likely post exile, and all could have been different all the while God was at Shiloh. Wow, this isn't just Israel story. It's mind yours, the bent. We're not that different. We adjust instead of trust, we manage instead of surrender, we perform instead of relate to God, and we call it faith no judgment. It's just what orphans do. It's what people like us with my I mean daddy issues do. Kids living on the streets, so to speak, just trying to survive, never willing or able or in fact or we're afraid to trust the man God, even someone who looks upon them with love and honor, because we can't, we won't. We can't imagine God being that merciful and that compassionate, because nobody on the streets is but strictly do the spirit we today we can with his power, through His power in our inter being. We have the same core wounds, the same relational issues, the same fears of relationships, the same inability to really believe that we're indeed lovable and worthy by God, because that comes from God's intervention and rescue. That's a heavenly grace, that's a heavenly fruit of the spirit. So our role is to stop doing what is right in our own eyes, even doing religion right, and how by asking God to intervene. That's the first thing. Don't try to stop doing what is right in your own eye. Instead, run to God and ask him to intervene with his power to make me want to look up and make me want to get how much He delights in me as I am. And humanly speaking, it's irrationally crazy. The imitation hadn't changed, not then, not now. We come as we are. We admit the need we look up, we rediscover something shocking. God is not waiting to just tolerate me. He is waiting to receive me into his arms, his embrace, experiencing that love. Because the real solution of judges is this. They needed a king, and so do I and I have one, and yet my pattern is to run to layish on my own. What's next? I'll let you know after this brief word from our sponsors. Well, I've been talking about it. My new book Would talks all about this sort of stuff. Good Enough Christian. It's a sequel to Good Enough Parent. Here's the back cover. So many Christians feel stuck. I mean, we could have said Israelites, right, how do we experience more? Are you a Christian who believes the Gospel but doesn't feel loved by God? You're not alone. If you've ever felt spiritually stuck. If you've quietly wondered why the abundant life Jesus promised feels out of reach. If you've sat in church hoping to feel loved, yet left unchanged. If you haven't felt that inner stirring for a long while, maybe you've already left church for well, you know, lots of reasons. The pattern's unmistakable. Since here christians who love Jesus but feel stalled in their faith, not rebellious, not apathetic, wondering if they've somehow become a disappointment to God. With warmth, honesty, biblical depth, and disarming humor, this book invites readers into the shame free exploration of why so many believers struggle to experience the love of Christ, not just believe it intellectually. You'll discover why feeling spiritually underwhelmed is more common that you think, hidden obstacles that dull our experience of God's love. The role of the Holy Spirit in making Christ's love real, not theoretical, how your brain, background and church culture shape your faith experience a gentler, more grace saturated path forward. This is not a call to try harder. It's an invitation to experience more of what Jesus purchased for you. If you've ever wanted to ask, without shame, what does the love of Jesus actually feel like? This book was written for you. Welcome to good enough Christian check it out. It's not expensive, it's not long. You can read it in a couple of sittings. Get copies for your Church. It's in paperback kindle and it'll be an audible. Get it for Bible Studies, Book Club, Personal Devotion, Enjoy. Well, thanks for listening to Breaking Badly. We have one more next time. We moved towards the final Talk and Breaking Badly series on Judges, stories that showed just how far Israel had fallen and veered and drifted in why people would soon cry out for a king, but even that king would not ultimately solve the problem, because what humanity truly needs is a savior. After Judges will be getting into Ecclesiastes, Boyd, and you're not gonna believe where we're going to go at that. Yeah, we'll see you next time. Take our child of God.