There was No King in Isreal

In the book of Judges, one primary theme that emerges is: “There was no king in Israel, therefore everyone did what was right in his eyes.” We see God using the judges to overcome the enemies of the Israelites, but the question has to be asked: “Why did God have to save the Israelites at all?” The Lord promised them they would be His people, that is, until they broke the promises they made to God. The book of Judges exists because of the promises they made to God but refused to keep, yet God was still faithful to His promises. This is especially true when we enter the latter years of the time of Judges.  

In order to have a better understanding of current applications, we need to look at the two distinguishing groups in this part of Scripture. Some desire to worship idols and those who profit from idol worship. Romans describes idols as images made in the likeness of things found on this earth that take the place of God. If a person were to find himself in the ancient cultures, he would see statues of gods in the likeness of man and/or animals. People wanted to own these idols, so there was a great deal of profit made through the promotion and selling of these statues. In either case, whether it was the desire to worship or the desire to profit, both issues have the same conclusions. God is no longer king.  

In Judges 17, we learn of Micah. Micah stole 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother, and he returned the money only after he found out it had a curse placed upon it. She took 200 of those shekels, gave them to a silversmith, and he constructed an idol for her. She took the idol and placed it in her home, and began to worship it. The fact that someone would build an idol and then worship it seems completely irrational. However, if you already believe you are a god in your own eyes, then it is not a hard leap to worship something you created. The image you made represents you. We might believe that idol worship is not part of our lives today. However, idol worship is not so untrue today as much as we would like to believe it is. We have more similarities to the book of Judges than we might think.  

These idols come in different forms other than the stone, metal, and wood that were made in the past. Now they come in the form of plastic and glass. They come in different shapes and sizes. Some fit in our hands. Sometimes we go out to see. Still others, we hang on our walls, or we put them on stands in the place where we most often reside in our houses. It is not always easy to see that our devices have taken the place of those old statues. However, they have accomplished the same thing. We can identify through the images we see and live vicariously through them. We can be a hero, a detective, a lawyer, we can be on the field with our team, a singer, or a magician. We are told we can go where we want to go and be who we want to be. There is no limit, and we can do it from the sanctity of our own home. However, we have become so immune to these forms of idols that we do not consider what they are doing to us. The very things we would be appalled to find at church are the very things we justify at home.  

In Judges 19:7-11, Micah approaches a Levite who was from the town of Bethlehem living amongst the people of Judah. This Levite was looking for a new home; we are not told why. Micah sees this as an opportunity to validate his idol worship. He thought, “This is a Levite; now my worship will be blessed because I have a man set aside for the priesthood.” Micah hired a man who would do what he wanted, say what he wanted, and lead worship how he wanted. He would give the Levite a home and a purpose. It did not matter to Micah that this man was not of the sons of Aaron. Micah wanted to find some legitimacy for his idol worship. When you look outside of the parameters of God’s Word and His will, you will have no trouble finding someone to do your bidding.  

In the New Testament, we find a very similar problem in Paul’s letter to Timothy: 

2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; (4) and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”  

Preachers who proclaim a different gospel, which is a gospel of convenience and conformity to oneself, are warned against it. Paul warns repeatedly about this type of gospel, for there is a grave danger in following oneself. It may be the gospel that is convenient, but it is also the gospel that will eventually lead to death.  

We might be thinking the gospel of convenience only applies to the health and wealth gospels or some of the New Age philosophies that have found their way into the church. We might believe these false gospels only exist in books with catchy titles such as Your Best Life Now. Let me challenge you with this thought: These false gospels are not just found in these things mentioned above. The false gospel of convenience penetrates churches everywhere. These same false gospels are masked in all sorts of ways, but they all contain the same issues at their core. They are typically hidden under the guise of tradition. This may seem uncomfortable because tradition often drives our actions and thoughts. Some, after reading this, might be squirming in their pews, because the thought of change either scares us or causes us to bulwark against it. It is about God and what He has done for us. Traditions can come in every shape and size, and I am not here to criticize or to create rifts in the body of Christ. It is a truth we cannot ignore for the sake of comfort. When worship is based upon what we like and change has become impossible mentally or physically, then it has become an idol to us.  

The question becomes, why is this important? Idols are idols, no matter how they look or what they might sound like. Most things are benign on their own. However, when we put a value equal to or greater than the gospel, it has become an idol to us. What we see Micah do in Judges 17 is no different from what many people do today. He was a Jew. He had the same word as every other Jew. He would have known of the mistakes made previously by his generation and how his ancestors wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Only after those guilty had died were the rest able to enter the promised land. He would have heard about all the other judges who had come before, and how God used them to free their people, but it seems like he had forgotten the one thing that connected all these things: man. He disobeyed God first and broke God’s commands.  

I have often wondered how a generation of people who saw all of God’s wonders continued to deny Him. They saw the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. They saw the power of God to save and destroy. They saw firsthand the punishment God would bring when a foreign people denied Him and fought against Him. However, they reasoned amongst themselves, “If God is going to go through all this trouble to save us, then he would not destroy us.” I don’t think it ever crossed their minds until the judgment came that God was going to deny them access to the promised land. I also believe they did not consider that God’s grace has limits, and it stops when we stop caring about what God thinks, and we put ourselves in His place. It is the pitfall that so many people, including Christians, believe and practice.  

However, we see another issue arise when those things are threatened by something else. In the case of Micah, it was the Danites. They were traveling through the area, saw this Levite, and decided they wanted him for themselves. They took the Levite away from Micah, including his god, and they returned to their home and began to worship the image. I find the account ironic, for the man who desired to worship something had that very thing stolen from him and left with nothing. His faith was based upon a thing instead of the one who created all things.  

There is a reason why Genesis starts the way that it does, “In the Beginning God created…” God wanted people to understand this one truth: the God who can create all things has the power over all things. Therefore, He is worthy of worship alone. Hence why we see recorded in the book of Romans these words: 

Romans 1:20-21: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, (21) because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” 

The heart of the one who stands opposed to God first rejects the power of God and places it upon himself. Man creates all sorts of images that represent what he wants to worship. This often takes the form of an animal or the thing that satisfies him. It is not by coincidence that many of these idols are often worshipped through the practice of fornication. The babies of that worship have often been offered as a sacrifice to the idol. This is a horrible travesty; however, when there is no king, there is no law and no sense of wrong. Therefore, they all did—and do—what is right in their own eyes. 

Now that we talked about the problem, let’s talk about the solution. It has become more abundantly clear to me that when we are not gospel minded people, we will focus only on ourselves. We should instead focus on the things that bring us joy and/or contentment. The gospel creates friction with a lifestyle of self-worship. It challenges us to think differently and to be different. I think of Peter, James, and John, and how there were times when they only saw themselves. They only saw their glory and not God’s glory. James and John appeared to have wanted to have the places of honor beside Jesus, but did not understand that the places of honor would bring pain before they brought reward. It seems they misunderstood what it looked like to have a king and follow Him. They were not His advisors. They were His tools, he would use.  

Once they understood this point, they followed Jesus and not themselves. They came out singing after being beaten. You see this as well with Paul and Timothy in prison, as they were worshipping the Lord despite their circumstances. As Christians, we must put Jesus on the throne. He is Lord. He has commissioned us to a task, and we cannot ignore it. “Go into all the world...” These are not just words to admire; these are our marching orders. If the Levite truly wanted to worship the Lord, he should have turned down the offer to Micah and pointed him to the tabernacle, but the Levite had as many issues with pride as Micah did. The issue they both struggled to understand was their own hubris. The solution of pride is easy to know, but hard to implement, because a person has to admit he is wrong and humble himself before the Lord.  

Jesus talks about the impact of humility on the life of the believer, how it changes us from a person who is inward-focused to one who is outward-focused. The humble person sees the needs of others and recognizes the downfall of self-worship. The example that often comes to mind is the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee prays loudly with hands raised high, thanking God that he is not like this tax collector. The tax collector is on his knees, praying for forgiveness, because he is a sinner and needs saving. Both received their rewards. We look at that account, and we can be just like the Pharisee when we say, “I am so glad I am not like this Pharisee,” when in reality we need to be like the tax collector and imitate his actions. We need to focus on our failures without comparing ourselves to the failures of others.  

The ones who are humble in heart see the need to take the plank out of their own eye and recognize that we can be just like Micah. We can make the same mistakes, follow the same paths, and worship the same idols. They may not be made of silver, but they are made up of ourselves, and we must stop and think about what they are doing to us. We must get back to the study and get out of the man cave. We must get back to the prayer closet and away from the constant need to be entertained. We need to take into account the things we do and place them on a priority list. We then need to list the things that are currently our priorities based on the time we spend doing them. It might amaze us how much time we invest in the things that are not true priorities. We go to bed exhausted, feeling unaccomplished, knowing we had failed our true priorities. We have to rethink the way we live and spend some more time with God, knowing we have failed Him.  

The second thing we need to do is to take ownership of our failures. Too often, people make excuses for why they are not at fault, but until we take ownership of our sins, nothing is ever going to change. Micah never took ownership because, in his mind, he was doing right by God. However, if he had recognized what God truly wanted from him, and he had the desire to follow God, he would have repented. However, he, like so many people, refused to look at what went wrong when the Danites took the Levite. Micah was left with nothing: no idol, no priest, and no hope.  

The final point is to place our hope in Jesus where it belongs. We look at so many external things to help us in our time of need. We look to friends, family, or government, but they cannot solve the problem of the heart and mind. That must be resolved in ourselves through Christ our Lord. Too often, we reject God as King and deny the power of God, not because we do not know Him; rather, we do not understand what He expects of us and what we can expect of Him. He is a king who loves us and who wants nothing more than to take care of us. 

Hope, then, is the expectation of things coming to pass, acknowledging the promises of God, knowing they are going to take place. God is our King. We must not have the attitude of the people of God in the book of Judges. They struggled because they lost perspective. They forgot the promises God had made them, both the promises of blessings and the promises of judgment. Let us not forget the promises God made to us, as well as what God has done for us, and what He continues to do for us. The kingdom of God is His church, and we are His people. Let’s continue to follow Him and give Him everything we have so that people may know who we are because they see the King who lives within us. We need to let our lights shine to a world that is lost and dying, not follow idols into oblivion, and reveal to the world that they can have victory in Jesus.  

There is a King over Israel. He is mighty, He is powerful, and He is Lord! Praise be to God for we can know Him, worship Him, and honor Him!