Today we begin Judges Chapter One.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE.
For the King James Bible, click HERE.
Alrighty, let me just go ahead and say it.
The primary and most important theme underlying the Book of Judges is missed by practically every pastor, preacher and Bible teacher on the planet.
And I’m not even kidding.
The real purpose behind the book of Judges is missed by almost everyone.
And that purpose is that in Judges the Lord is demonstrating to Israel the NEED for a king to rule over them.
The common and wrong assumption most folks harbor is when the Lord gave Israel their first king in the form of Saul, He was actually doing something He didn’t want to do.
However, as we’re going to see, the Book of Judges will reveal the opposite.
Because what God was really teaching Israel is that they’re incapable of functioning properly minus a king ruling over them.
And that minus a king properly guiding them, it’s impossible to follow God’s commandments and His divine Law as contained in the Torah.
And by the way, Joshua is a good example.
Before you start howling in protest, let me just say I’m well aware he wasn’t officially crowned a king by God.
But if you take a good look at his life, you’ll notice in many ways he did indeed play the role of a king.
Joshua actually fulfilled Hashem’s definition of a king as opposed to man’s definition.
That’s right homies.
Joshua demonstrated the qualities of a Godly king, one that Israel because of their attraction to idolatry failed to follow.
Unfortunately, we’re not going to get another one like Joshua until Messiah comes back.
So let’s just get clear the difference between man’s and God’s idea of a king.
Man’s idea of a king is a person who…
…is royalty who rules over the people.
…is served by his subjects and…
…uses the members of his kingdom as human shields to protect himself during war.
In comparison, God’s idea of a king is a person who…
…willingly sacrifices his life for the people.
…acts as both a shepherd and a servant to his people…
…AND…
…perfectly obeys God’s Law
(none of this nonsensical teaching
about the Law being done away with).
So to close, the problem with Israel when they asked God for a king is they wanted one like the kings of the gentiles.
In other words, they wanted a king according to man’s definition of a king, not God’s.
It was the type of king that Israel wanted that was always the issue, not whether or not having a king was right or wrong in God’s eyes.
Alright, I’m done.
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