The book of Judges displays, in graphic form, the tragedy of autonomy. It shows what it looks like when every man does what is right in his own eyes. In the book of Joshua, we observed faithfulness and the rest God gave His people on every side. The book of Judges shows us what disobedience looks like and the effects of doing what is right in your own eyes. It is violent, unsettling, and even embarrassing to read in certain places. It records family feuds, civil wars, sexual abuse, radical immaturity, and unspeakable violence that occurred over a 350-year timeframe. Judges provides us with one of the most dramatic warnings in the Bible. 

Okay, so, you know, we've been talking about the themes of the basic books that we've covered so far. Genesis, Beginnings, Exodus, Deliverance, Leviticus, Worship or Holiness, Numbers, Wilderness Wanderings, Deuteronomy, the Laws of Love, and Joshua, the Meditation on the Book of the Law. And now we come to Judges, and Judges is about a faithless people. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. I was reading a commentary on Judges and he talked about kind of the three books that are together in Scripture, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.

You have the conquest of the land and then you have this time of the judges after the conquest. And he characterized it like this. He said that Joshua is characterized by no failing words. Remember, none of the words that Joshua spoke fell to the ground. With judges, it's no steady people.

And then he said, Ruth is characterized by no hopeless future. I can't wait until we get to the book of Ruth because it really does tell you about the hope that there is in the hardest, most difficult circumstances in life. So here we are in the book of Judges. Judges illustrates the tragedy of autonomy, the tragedy of autonomy, Because it shows what it looks like when every man does what's right in his own eyes. In contrast to the faithfulness that we see in the book of Joshua and how God gave them rest on every side.

Judges shows us what disobedience looks like and the effects of what it looks to do what's right in your own eyes and how peace eludes you and how your disobedience, you know, terrorizes you. You see that over and over in the book of Judges. Now Judges, in a lot of ways, is both a difficult book and it's also extremely contemporary. There are so many violent, unsettling, even embarrassing scenes in Judges. As you read through the book of Judges, you'll read about family feuds, you'll read about civil wars, you'll read about some of the most horrific sexual abuse that you'll ever read about in any literature anywhere.

There is radical immaturity, there is sexual violence, there's fake religion on steroids. It's unbelievable how foolish, how stupid you get when you do what's right in your own eyes. It's just full of shocking scenes. Like, for example, there's a woman in the book of Judges who is called Blessed. And you know why she's called Blessed?

Because she drove a tent peg through a man's temple. You'll read about that in chapter 5, verses 24 through 26. So Judges is a shocking book. You know, when my kids were little, there were a couple scenes in Judges we skipped over. As they got older, we didn't skip over them anymore.

But you know the thing about the Bible when it speaks about issues it always places it in its right context and uses the appropriate terminology. When you read about sexual violence and immorality in the Bible, you're always reading the right words to explain it. When you look at it in the media or read it in corrupt books, they don't talk about it right. But God always talks about immorality right. The book of Judges is a good place for parents to teach their children about matters of immaturity and sexual abuse and things like that because it uses the right language and it nuances it properly.

Okay, I'm going to give you some key verses that you'll bump into in the book of Judges. And the first one is in Judges 2, 11-14. If you could turn in your Bibles, I'm going to read this section. This one has to do with the devastating consequences of disobedience. In chapter 2, verse 11, we read this, then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

And they forsook the God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. And they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, so he delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them and sold them into the hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

So this picture is one that you'll see over and over again, where the people of Israel, they are distracted by the idols of the day, and then as a result, God brings judgment against them. And he delivers them into the hand of plunderers, as it says in verse 14. And the second thing, after we consider the terrible consequences of disobedience, there's the blessing of judges. The second set of verses I'd like to bring to us is chapter 2, verses 18 and 19. Because while the people of God go astray, God is kind.

He's not done with his people. And 2, 18 and 19 speak of this. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. And it came to pass when the judge was dead that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and bow down to them.

They did not cease from their own doings nor from their own stubborn way." So in these two verses You see the mercy of God. He has pity on his people. He sees the pain that they're in. And he sends a judge in his divine mercy. This is what God does.

You know, you might think if someone is disobedient and they run away from the Lord, that somehow it's all over for them. That is not the way it works with God. God looks at those who are suffering from their own sins, and He doesn't say, sleep in your own bed, you made it. Now He does allow the consequences of their sin to come on them, but here it says that He had pity on them because of their groaning, because they were so harassed. God has mercy and pity on those who've turned away from him.

But, the cycle is revealed here that when that judge died, then they reverted. And for over 400 years this happened. God's people fell into idolatry. The pain got so huge that God had mercy on them. He sent a judge.

They turned to the Lord and when that judge died, they returned to their vomit, you know, worse than before. And then finally in terms of these three critical verses, in chapter 21 verse 25 we find the disappointing reality, the conclusion, the heart of the matter. The reason this whole book is written is to teach us this one thing. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

That's chapter 21 verse 25. So those verses I think form the basic flow of thought and the message of the book of Judges. Now the location of this is in the land of Canaan. Joshua entered the Promised Land, he took possession of those lands, and so now the children of Israel in the land of Canaan. Now the children of Israel have been in the land of Canaan for 350 years.

That's the time frame that the Judges records. 350 years. Okay? So remember it took Joshua a little over 20 years to conquer the land and then to allocate to the various tribes. Now we have 350 years.

That's why Joshua, Judges, and Ruth are often collected together in a commentary, because they record that same time frame from the time of the entry into the land with Joshua for 350 years right up to the time of Samuel. So that's the period. Ruth is in the time of the judges. So Joshua, Judges, Ruth should be read together because it tells the whole story of the conquering of the land and then what happened for 350 years after that. The Time of writing is declared in the book.

The very first verse in the first chapter and the last verse of the last chapter give you the time frame in which this was written. In chapter 1 verse 1 it says it was written after the death of Joshua. I'll just read it. Now, after the death of Joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites and fight against them? So Joshua died in 1370 B.C.

Got that? Joshua died in 1370. Now if you go to the end of the book and read the last verse at the end of the book, you read, in those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So this was before the first king in Israel. After the death of Joshua and before the first king in Israel, who was the first king in Israel?

Saul. So it was before the time of Saul, you know, who appointed Saul? Samuel. So it was some time from the time of the death of Joshua into the days of Samuel. Samuel reigned from 1065 to 1004 BC.

You learn that in 1 Samuel 11, 14 through Chapter 12, through verse 2. So before Saul reigned in 1052. So the Judges was written by Samuel somewhere between 1052 BC and 1020 BC. So, that's the time of writing. Now, Why should we study Judges?

It was such a despicable time. Who wants to read about all that garbage? Well, here are a few reasons. First of all, the Book of Judges is inspired. It is one of the 66 books of the Bible.

It's one of the 39 books of the Old Testament. There's a testimony of the inspiration of the Book of Judges. Do you remember that story of the Dead Sea Scrolls? There was a Jewish Bedouin out in the desert, and he was herding his flocks, and one of his goats went into a cave and to scare that goat out of the cave he threw a rock into the cave and he heard a sound that didn't sound like it hit a rock or a goat. It sounded like it hit a pot or something.

So he went in there and he found all these large pots full of ancient scrolls of the Bible. These are the Dead Sea Scrolls. And one of the scrolls was the entire scroll of the book of Judges. It was one of the best preserved and the entire book of Judges was found in the Dead Sea scrolls. So let's just say we should study it because it's in the inspired Word of God.

Secondly, because it gives us a warning. It shows us what a disaster awaits us when we want to do things that are right in our own eyes. When you want to follow your heart, here's what you get. When you want to depart from the instruction of the Word of God or your parents, when you want to do your own thing, get ready. Here's what's going to happen to you.

You know, my generation grew up with the mantra, do your own thing. It was the worst thing that anyone can ever do. So there's a warning here. Also, there's really a disclosure about government, how to govern. Interestingly enough, Richard Rogers in 1615 wrote a commentary on the book of Judges.

He dedicated it. He wrote it to the civil magistrate and He did that in order to say to the civil magistrate Here's how you govern. Here's how you don't govern This book of the Bible helps us to understand how one should govern his own life and how one should govern his nation as well. The fourth thing that we learn is God's wrath against His enemies. Now, you'll find many peoples attacking the people of God.

You'll find the Midianites and all kinds of people. They attack the people of God. Now, God sends these people in to attack them. But here's what you always see in Scripture. Even though God sends one of his enemies into attack of his own people, he's going to punish those enemies for it.

It doesn't go well with people who attack the people of God. And if you lift your hand in opposition to the church you won't prosper. The Apostle Paul said it like this, he who destroys the temple of God him I will destroy. So you find a disclosure of the fate of those who hate the people of God. Whenever you see a government or an institution rise up to try to harm the Church of God, don't worry about it.

God is going to make it right. The fifth thing that you see in the book of Judges is the cycle of sin and the heartache that's revealed here. Here's the cycle. The people do what's right in their own eyes. The people become so bloodied and wounded and broken that God sends a judge to save them.

Then the people turn to God and God blesses his people. And then that judge dies and the people revert back to their old ways only greater and then the same thing happens again and this happens for 350 years okay and I think this book is here to say hey you don't need to do this this has already been done here's an example you know God is very gracious to show us the results of things. And so the cycle of sin and heartache is revealed. The sixth thing is the blessing of repentance. Judges shows the mercy of God toward repentant sinners.

The judges speak, the people's hearts are moved, and they repent. God relents and He embraces His unwise people. And here's the lesson, if you have a ruined life through disobedience and you return to God there's hope. You know people mess their lives up in a lot of different ways. If you became addicted to drugs, if you had an abortion, if you ruined your marriage, if you hurt relationships through immorality or evil or theft or anything like that, all is not lost.

All is not lost. And you learn that from the judges. All is not lost, even when you did what was right in your own eyes. Now you might suffer some significant consequences, but all is not lost. Okay, let's talk about what are the judges.

That's an important question to clear before you get into the book. The term judges is the term shofar team, and it has to do with those who rule, those who regulate, those who make judgments. Don't think of a Supreme Court justice when you think of the judges. Don't think of a person sitting behind a bench. The judges had a very broad role, and they were raised up to turn people back to God.

They were really crying out, turn to God. They were calling judgment on the evils of society and crying out for repentance. That's what they were doing. That's what a judge was doing. They were discerning between good and evil.

They were good influences. Now, when you think about the period of the judges, think about this. Think about what a blessing it would be to have a judge like these judges for a president. Here's why I say that. We've never had a president in America that I know of that turned the nation back to God, that cried out for holiness and righteousness, that cried out for a return to God.

You know, maybe someday God will give us a president that will stand up and say, turn to God, repent of your sins. Well, that's the kind of people the judges were. I pray that God would give our nation a president like the judges. Now, who were the judges? Well, there were 12 or 15 judges.

There were the minor judges and the major judges. Why do I say that? The minor judges didn't have much to say about them. The major judges did. In this survey here, I'm going to walk through the major judges.

By the way, the book of Ruth was included in the book of Judges until about the fifth century, because it happened during that time. Now, you're going to read about lots of enemies of the people of God, and you're going to read about the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Sidonians, the Hivites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Moabites. Do any of those sound familiar? We bumped into those where? In the book of Joshua.

These were the Canaanite tribes that Joshua was commanded to drive out of the land, and They were commanded to be eliminated, exterminated during the days of Joshua. But guess what? He didn't do a complete job. They're still there. He made alliances with them.

He went soft on them. Here's what you learn from this. It shows you what happens when you do not do complete obedience. It'll come back on you. Joshua didn't complete the job, and as a result there was tremendous suffering as a result of it.

Also, you're going to read about deities, you're going to read about gods and goddesses, You're going to read about Baal and Asherah and Dagon. Baal's focus was fornication and fertility, self-mutilation, human sacrifice. This is what these gods were all about. They're no different than the gods of today, the pagan gods. Okay, so let's walk through the book, and I'll do that by looking at the outline.

You see the outline here in front of you. In chapters 1-16, there are these wars of deliverance, the cycles of evil. And then from chapter 17-21 are lots of situations that depict the social and the moral collapse during that period. You have these really specific situations where judges come in to rescue and attackers come in to attack, but then when you get to chapter 17 to 21, it's just a picture of what happens when every man does what's right in his own eyes. We don't know exactly when all those things happen, but it's the kind of things that were happening during that period.

In the first three chapters, we see the children of Israel living with the Canaanites. Now, if you'll look at this, there are different ways to break up the book of Judges, but here's the way I've got it anyway. Living with the Canaanites, chapter 1, verse 1 through 3, verse 4, and then at war with the Canaanites, and that's chapter 3, verse 5 to 1631, and then living like the Canaanites, Chapter 17, 1 to the end of the book. So that's the progression. You're living with the Canaanites, you're at war with the Canaanites, and then you start living like the Canaanites.

It was a, you know, a progression of degradation, Because they didn't turn away from the ways of the Gentiles, because Egypt and Babylon were in their souls, they ended up just living like the Canaanites. The Canaanite morality ended up taking over. So let's start looking at some of the details here. In this first section in chapter 1, verse 1 through the first part of chapter 3, We learn that Israel did not complete the conquest, so this theme of faithlessness is presented. It says here in Joshua that they took them, not destroying them.

They took them, not destroying them. That was the problem. They were afraid to complete it. In chapter 1 verse 21 we read this, But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem. So the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

You know, the Benjamites had the area around Jerusalem, and they did not drive out the Jebusites. That was the problem. Look at verse 28 in chapter 1. It says, And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites under tribute but did not completely drive them out. So the greed of the Israelites drove them to play patty cake and a soft pedal, what they were supposed to do.

Instead of driving them out, they put them under tribute. In other words, they put them to work and said, you work for us and send us money. They didn't do what God told them to do. They came up with a new way. Then we read about the judgment of God and the apostasy.

Look at chapter 2, verse 10. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work which he had done in Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals." So there's another generation that rose up. What was their problem? Well, they did not know the Lord, nor the work which He had done for Israel.

In other words, the parents didn't teach their children. The parents didn't tell their children what happened in Egypt and what happened at the Passover, what happened at the Red Sea, what happened with the manna, what happened with God's protection of them throughout their history. They did not know because they were not told. This is always the beginning of the collapse of any culture, when parents do not tell their children about what's happened in history, and they don't bring the Word of God to their children. And the result is in verse 12, and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them.

And they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. Then they forsook the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. So they didn't know the Lord. They followed the gods of the land, and they bowed down to them, and they forsook the Lord. One of the commentators, Ralph Davis, on this book said this, your path to apostasy is paved by what you are able to tolerate.

And what you see in Israel is that they tolerated the Canaanites, they tolerated paganism. They were told to exterminate it, but they just tolerated it. And that's why Ralph Davis says your path to apostasy is paved by what you are able to tolerate. You know, what sin are you tolerating in your life? You know, what sin have you made peace with?

You've made it your friend. You treat it very nicely instead of harshly. That's what we see here. But then in chapter 2, verse 16, we read that God raised up judges. 2 16, nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who had plundered them.

Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with their gods and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do so." And then in verse 18 of chapter 2, you see this bondage of the cycles of sin. This whole cycle thing is stated here. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judges and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies, all the days of the judge, for the Lord was moved to pity for their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them and it came to pass when the judge was dead that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers.

So that's what happened. They fell into these cycles. Now there are various judges here. The first are Othniel, Ehud, and Deborah, and including Barak. And that takes us to chapter 3, verse 7 to the end of chapter 5.

Now with these three judges there's no negative criticism. And then there are three more after that in chapter 6 through 9, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. So that's how it's kind of arranged. Now, there are various attacks that go on, and as I said before, these various attacks are profiled in chapter 3 verse 5 to chapter 16 31. The first one is the Mesopotamian invasion and Othniel who is the judge and you read about that in chapter 3 verses 7 through 11 And then you read about the Moabites invasion and Ehud and Shamgar.

Those are the two judges. And you see that in chapter 3 verses 12 through 31. I'll read verse 15. But when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud, the son of Gerah, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon, king of Moab." So you remember, you know, the Moabites, they were an evil people their entire history.

Isaiah speaks about their final destruction, but they cried out to the Lord as a result of their being attacked by the Moabites. And then you have shifting from the Moabites to the Canaanite invasion with Deborah and Barak, Jael and Caesara. So in chapter 4 verse 1 we read, when Ehud was dead the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin the king of Canaan who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Caesara who dwelt in Harashath, Hagoyim.

So now you have this Canaanite invasion and who's to deal with it? Deborah, Barak, Jael and Sisera. And Remember what happened with Sisera, the commander of the army. Ooh, bad night. He had a tent peg driven through his temple.

Not good. You see this characterization of the army in verse 3, in that chapter, in chapter 4. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he harshly oppressed the children of Israel. Now Deborah the prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. So picture the children of Israel, they're being attacked, they're under siege, troops are always coming in and stealing their stuff, burning their crops, you know, harming their women.

This is going on, on and on and on. There's a really interesting phrase in this section, village life ceased in the time of Deborah. Village life ceased. You know, this is what you see in the places where ISIS is operating in the middle east. They go in and they kill people, village life ceases.

It just destroys the economy because people don't want to go outside. That's what happened here. When you have disobedience, you have situations where the economy gets slowed down or is a result of evil. After that invasion, you have the Midianite invasion and the Midianites attack and you have these three judges Gideon, Tola and Jair and you find this testimony in chapter 6 verse 1 to chapter 10 verse 5. Now the story of Gideon is such a wonderful story.

It's a story of human weakness. It's what the New Testament talks about, strength being made perfect in weakness. Because children of Israel were weaker than their enemies. And that's true all the way through. And so in this weakness is expressed in chapter seven, verse two.

And the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying, my own hand has saved me. So the children of Israel were already outnumbered, but God didn't want there to be a large army in Israel so that the people wouldn't think that it was their power that saved them. So God leads Gideon through this process of making the army small, like ridiculously small. They start out with tens of thousands of people and they end up with 300. So the story goes on in verse 3, Now therefore proclaim in the hearing of the people saying, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.

And twenty-two thousand of the people returned and ten thousand remained. Now, so here you had two-thirds of the people were afraid. They didn't want to go to battle. God wanted to make it a smaller army. First of all, called on those who were afraid.

So now you have ten thousand, verse four. But the Lord said to Gideon, the people are still too many, bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Then it will be that of whom I say to you, this one shall go with you, the same shall go with you, and whomever I say this one shall not go with you, the same shall not go." So he brought the people down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon, everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps you shall set apart by himself. Likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink and the number of those who lapped putting their hand to their mouth was 300 men and all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water." Can you imagine what Gideon must have been thinking? Oh, no.

Everybody is doing the wrong thing. You know, you think he felt like going around and coaching people? No, don't do that. Because he knew that he was gonna lose all those who were going to drink wrongly verse 7 says then the Lord said to Gideon by the 300 men who laughed I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.

So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands and he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those 300 men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley." So God cuts down his army. Remember this story is to demonstrate that strength is perfected in weakness. God and man is a majority in any situation. So after this, you have this Ammonite invasion.

Well, Hey, it's such a dramatic story about Gideon. Gideon tears down his father's idols. It makes everybody so mad he's on the run. They're chasing him down because he tore down his father's idols. Thankfully, though, Gideon's father was the supporter of his son.

And anyway, it's just a great story. And then you have the Ammonite invasion with Jephthah in chapter 10 verse 6 to chapter 11 verse 40. God saves with very unlikely instruments. Jephthah is not the most significant person you've ever met in the Bible. He was illegitimate.

And he wins in battle. That terrible story of Jephthah offering up his daughter. Well, he made an oath that if God allowed him to win the battle, then he would sacrifice whatever came out of his house first when he got back. And guess who came out of his house? His daughter.

And so he took an oath. So he gave her some time to, you know, to ponder the matter. Then she came back. Now, did he kill her? Did he sacrifice her?

Or was it some other kind of thing? It's hard to know. The scriptures, I think the scriptures can be interpreted either way. Many believe he did sacrifice her. I'm not confident he did.

When you make an unlawful oath, You have the right to revoke it. The Baptist Confession makes that clear. But we don't know. The whole story is not told. There are some good articles about it that give both sides.

And Then you have the Philistine invasion. The Philistines interact with Samson, Shamgar, and then finally Samuel, Saul, and David. The Philistines are afflicting the people of God for a long time. But In Judges, the focus is Samson. Now, Samson is a really interesting study.

Why in the world would God put somebody so immature to be a judge, to lead a people. Why would he put such a hormonally and emotionally driven man in the place of bringing reformation to his people and to protect them? Well, only God knows. You see the tragic leadership of Samson. He brings us this reality that our leaders often disappoint us.

You know, Where is the elder qualified leader in Israel? That's the question you ask when you think about Samson. He was foolish from the get-go. He has this attraction to Delilah and Interestingly enough in the text it says She was right in his eyes She was right in his eyes Samson made his decision just by his eyes and his hormones and his emotions. And when you see this phrase, she was right in his eyes.

I believe that that phrase is there to show us that everyone in Israel at that time was a little Samson. Every man is doing what's right in his own eyes and that's the whole problem. Samson chooses a wife just because she's right in his own eyes, and he doesn't really consult biblical wisdom. Where is the elder qualified leader? They don't exist in Judges.

I think the book of Judges prepares you for Jesus. You know, you can't rely on man to save you. You know, where can you find a Savior? Where can you find a leader? It's in the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ alone.

We just passed through sort of a general summary of the attacks, the cycles of disobedience, the various judges, you know, from Othniel all the way down to Samson and everybody in between. Now you see this picture of living like the Canaanites in chapter 17 verse 1 to the end of the book. And here's a general picture of what it looks like when Every man is doing what's right in his own eyes. You know, we're in one of the historical books. We're in one of the books where it's full of narrative.

This is almost all narrative. And you see lots of things happening that shouldn't happen. You know, it helps you to understand how you interpret narrative. Narrative is not imperative. Just because you see something happening in the Bible doesn't make it right.

You have to ask, is it right by the other passages of Scripture? But in these narratives you find people living like the world and Here's what you see you see chaos you see relational chaos You see governmental chaos. You see moral chaos. You see political chaos You see religious chaos you find men buying priests paying them money so that they'll do what they want them to do, have their little puppet priests. It's incredible what you find here.

You see false religion, you see this mess, it's a moral mess. You know, when you get to Judges 19, you wonder, You know, why would anyone want to do what's right in their own eyes if this is the result? But when you get to Judges 19, which is one of the most despicable chapters in the book, it takes you back to Genesis 19. What happens in Genesis 19? Sodom.

And that terrible scene with Lot and the men of the city who are seeking to have carnal relations with the men. And they're crazed. They're moral madmen. And they break into his house and what does Lot do? He gives his daughters to them.

Judges 19 is a lot like Genesis 19. You know, in chapter 17 there's this religious mess. You know, Dan becomes apostate in chapter 17 through 21. So that's this religious mess. And then in chapters 19 to 21, it's just a total moral mess.

Just two piles of junk. Religious pile of junk and moral pile of junk. That's what happens. It's what you get when every man does what's right in his own eyes. In chapter 17 verse 1 to 1831, the sins of idolatry resulting in false worship.

Chapter 19 verse 1 to 1930, sins of immorality. Chapter 20 verse 1 to chapter 21 verse 25, sins in the civil realm. You have personal and religious and civil chaos in these last chapters. Okay, applications. Number one, God disciplines those whom he loves.

God sent calamity into people's lives so that they would cry out to him and when they would cry out to him he would send a judge and he would relieve them. Sometimes for decades there would be blessing and then they would turn. Secondly, look to yourself and to your contemporaries And it'll be a disaster. Don't look to yourself. Don't look to your contemporaries.

Don't look to this world. Don't look to Babylon. Look to God. Every man was doing what was right in his own eyes, and this should forever be burned into your consciousness. And then finally, live like a judge.

Start living like a judge. Call the people around you back to God. That's what the judges did. They had compassion on the pain and the suffering of those who'd fallen into sin, but they called people back to God. And you know when they did, there was blessing.

And you'll read about those times of blessing. Cycles of blessing and then disobedience. You know what happens to people is that God blesses them and then they become comfortable and then they become like the people around them. The greatest danger for the Christian is to become syncretized into the society in which Christians live. To become like the Americans, to become like the Europeans would be a disaster for you.

Look to the Lord and recognize how dangerous it is to do what is right in your own eyes. That's the whole message of the judges.