The book of Judges presents a very dark and chaotic situation among the children of Israel who rejected Jehovah as their Husband, Lord, King, and Head; in their degradation, Israel became chaotic in government, worship, and morality.
One phrase was repeated again and again in Judges, which gives you the impression of what was happening then, In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judg. 21:25).
This week we come to the last crystal in the book of Judges, which is, The Children of Israel not having a King and Everyone doing what was Right in His Own Eyes.
We may read this book and be appalled that God’s people could do such things, and we may think that we would never do such things; however, the situation in Judges portrays quite accurately the situation in Christianity today.
It is good to read the Word of God and allow the Lord to shine on us; it is good to just open our being to the Lord and allow Him to shine and impress us with His desire and purpose.
As we read the Bible and allow the Lord to shine on us, we will be exposed, for our situation in our Christian life and history is very similar to the situation of the children of Israel, and our experience many times is similar to theirs.
We may not be in an utter degradation as the children of Israel were, but if we look around in the so-called body of Christianity, we will be shocked to see how much immorality, idol-worship, and self-exaltation we see; it seems that everyone does what is right in their own eyes.
Whenever we reject the Lord as our King, whenever we forsake Him as our Head, Lord, Husband, and King, degradation comes in, and all kinds of evil things will take place.
We should not think that we are immune to what the children of Israel passed through, for we are in the church life in the Lord’s recovery; we shouldn’t just look over the fence and say that this is the fallen and degraded situation in Christianity.
Rather, we need to realize that the departure from God’s desire, the unfaithfulness to the Lord, and the degradation can at various times and in particular ways creep into the Lord’s recovery.
This week we are getting into a weighty matter, something that is applicable to our Christian life.
We will see a picture of the degradation of the children of Israel, and we need to learn from this history lesson, for we under God’s New Testament economy can also fall into degradation if we don’t take Christ as our King, our Lord, our Husband, and our Head.
In the midst of the chaotic and degraded situation we see today in Christianity, the Lord is working to raise up His overcomers, and we want to be such ones: we want to be the Lord’s overcomers who do His will to bring in the kingdom and consummate the age.
If God’s Kingdom is not Established in us, Degradation comes in and Idolatry is Present
God gave the children of Israel the good land, but they were not diligent to take it completely; rather, at one point they stopped fighting to gain the land, and they even inter-mixed with the people of the land.
God’s purpose was not merely that they would defeat the enemies and take full possession of the good land but that they would set up a kingdom, the kingdom of God on earth, with the city of Jerusalem and the temple on Mount Zion for His expression and representation.
However, because the children of Israel did not fulfil God’s purpose, degradation came in. Because they did not set up the kingdom of God on earth, degradation came in and idolatry was prevailing.
The conclusion of the book of Judges was that the children of Israel did whatever was right in their own eyes because there was no king or kingdom.
In their degradation, Israel became chaotic in government, worship, and morality (Judg. 3:7-15; 8:33-35; 13:1; 17:5-6; 18:30-31).
After the children of Israel possessed the land as their inheritance, they did not obey God’s command to utterly drive out and destroy the seven tribes inhabiting Canaan (Judg. 1:27-36).
If we are not absolute to obey the Lord’s command and deal with all the evil things in the air, we open a door for degradation to come in.
If we do not establish the kingdom of God and do not set up the Lord as the King in our heart, taking Him as our Lord, King, Husband, and Head, degradation will come in, and idolatry will be present.
Because Israel didn’t set up the kingdom of God on earth but fell short of dispossessing the nations around them and establishing God’s kingdom, they mixed with the people around them and served their gods, thus doing evil in the sight of the Lord (Judg. 2:10-18). Oh, Lord!
The children of Israel forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed the gods of the people that were around them; they bowed themselves down to them and provoked Jehovah to anger (10:6-7).
We could say that the gods of the people, signifying the satanic powers in Satan’s kingdom, are surrounding everyone on the earth; if we do not set up the Lord as the King in us, we will serve others’ gods.
This means that we may be just like them, spending hours and hours online, on our smartphone, indulging in this and in that activity as they do, and immersing ourselves in the same dissolution as others do. Oh, Lord!
We may think that this is OK, for others do it also, but we don’t realize what the effect is, both immediately and long-term.
Because the children of Israel forsook God, He delivered them into the hands of spoilers, and He sold them into the hands of their enemies so that they could no longer stand; whenever they went out, the Lord’s hand was against them for evil (Judg. 2:11-15).
What a tragic situation!
Instead of the Lord blessing them and making them a blessing, everything was working against them.
The age of the judges may be considered the darkest period in the history of Israel; it was also a period of tragedy.
At that time, among the children of Israel, there were rebellions against God, idolatry (Judges 17-18), infighting (ch. 9), hostility and controversy among the tribes (chs. 20—21), fornication (ch. 19), filthiness, brutal killings, and all manner of evil doing.
It is almost unbearable to read such things happening among God’s chosen and redeemed people, among God’s called-out people.
May the Lord save us from forsaking Him as our Lord, our King, our Husband, and our Head.
May we enthrone Him in our being and never forsake Him as our King, and may we allow Him to rule and reign in us and in the church life!
Lord Jesus, we enthrone You in our being: set up Your throne in the center of our being. You are our Lord, our King, our Husband, and our Head. We give You preeminence in all things. May our whole being with all the things related to us, all the activities we do and all our thoughts, decisions, desires, and doings, may all of this be under Your rulership. May we be in the kingdom of God in a practical way, and may there be no part of us in the kingdom of Satan and of darkness. Save us from entering into degradation by forsaking You as our King. Oh Lord, we love You and we worship You. We forsake all other things to just cling to You, and we enthrone You in our whole being!
When God is not the King in us, it is as if we Annul God and His Status and do not recognize God’s Kingship
In the Old Testament, we see that the children of Israel did not obey God but rather rebelled against Him in the wilderness, so God allowed them to wander in the wilderness for forty years until the whole generation that rebelled against Him died in the wilderness.
However, later in Judges we see a period of approximately four hundred fifty years of even a worse situation, for the children of Israel rebelled against God and rejected Him as their king, doing what was right in their own eyes, and the situation was even worse (Judg. 21:25).
They forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed the gods of the people that were around them.
This provoked Jehovah to anger, so He delivered them into the hand of the spoilers and sold them into the hands of their enemies so that they could no longer stand.
After a while, they repented to God and He raised up judges to deliver them out of the hands who spoil them; still, the people turned quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked.
They corrupted themselves more than their fathers and did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way (Judges 2:16-19).
What a sad situation and condition we see among them – it’s almost as if they were not the people of God, those chosen and called by Him, the citizens of the kingdom of God.
When the people of Israel said that there was no king among them, this didn’t mean that they didn’t want a human king to rule over them but that they rejected God as their king.
To say that we have no king but that we do what is right in our own eyes means that we annul God and His status, for He is our King, and we don’t recognize God’s kingship (Judg. 17:6; 18:1; 19:1).
This is what is happening in the world today: wherever we look, people live, behave, act, and do things as if there is no God – they know there is a God, but they annul Him and His status in their mind, and they live in sin, immorality, wickedness, and lusts.
The children of Israel annulled God and His status and didn’t recognize His kingship when they said that there was no king among them, thus doing what was right each in his own eyes.
They didn’t annul God in a doctrinal way, in their concepts, but in their being and in their living. They annulled God by annulling His authority, by denying His kingship.
Although God’s tabernacle was at Shiloh and the high priest had the Urim and Thummim, there was no government, no administration, in Israel, because they had annulled God and His status as their King; the result was that there was no expression of God in Judges (Judg. 18:31; Exo. 28:30, footnote 1 in the Recovery Version).
When we do not take Christ as our Lord, when we reject His kingship and live according to what is right in our own eyes, it is as if we annul God and His kingship, and we live like the rest of the people in the world.
It is so sad to see Christians who live and do things according to what is right in their own eyes, not taking God as their King, Lord, Head, and Husband.
Even among us in the church life, we cannot just do things or initiate things; we can’t just do what is right in our own eyes.
May the Lord save us from annulling Him and denying His kingship in us and over us.
Lord Jesus, save us from annulling God and His status as King in us. Save us from being like the rest of the nations around us, living in rebellion against God and doing what is right in our own eyes. We enthrone You in our being; we give You the first place, and we acknowledge Jesus as Lord in us. Amen, Lord, set up Your throne in our heart and bring our whole being and living in Your kingdom. We refuse to do what is right in our own eyes and we come to You in Your word to know You, enjoy You, be infused with You, and live You. Amen, Lord, we want to be Your expression and Your kingdom on the earth for You to carry out Your purpose through the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Truth Lessons—Level One, vol. 1, lsn. 10 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 9, The Children of Israel not Having a King and Everyone doing what was Right in His Own Eyes.
- Hymns on this topic:
– His life with His authority / Enthrones Him now within our hearts / To govern all our words and deeds / And regulate our inward parts. / The Lord enthroned within our hearts / His Kingdom doth establish there, / Assuring His full right to reign / And for God’s purpose to prepare. (Hymns #942)
– Lord, make us pure in heart; / For we’ll be not content until / You all our being fill, / O Lord, renew our mind, emotion, will— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. / Yes, Lord, impress our heart / That we must take You in each day; / The seed will have its way; / Your growing brings the kingdom here to stay— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132)
– Oh, tame me, Lord! rebellious nature calm, / Oh, tame me, Lord! / This heart, so tossed and filled with wild alarm, / Oh, tame me, Lord! / These human longings, let them end in Thee, / And let me be Thy bondslave, even me! (Hymns #385)
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