Today we begin Judges Chapter 18.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE.
For the King James Version, click HERE.
Judges Chapter 18 kicks off with the words “In those days, there was no king in Israel”.
We have to understand the intention of this statement was not to communicate some historical fact…
Everyone knew Israel didn’t have a king at this time.
Rather it’s the spiritual meaning behind this statement that’s important.
The Biblical author is giving us the reason WHY the chaos that’s about to unfold happened…
And it’s because Israel didn’t have a king.
Without a strong and Godly authority over them, men will do whatever they darn well please.
Which is exactly what happened to Israel when they fell into a state of total and utter depravity.
The only restraints they had placed on themselves were their own manmade philosophies based on what gentile nations around them considered “moral”.
Wow!
Doesn’t that sound familiar?
We could very well be talking about our modern world, couldn’t we?
Now as I mentioned before, the events in this chapter took place a couple of hundred years BEFORE Samson ever came on the scene.
This was a time when the tribe of Dan had abandoned the idea of conquering and settling in the territory God had assigned to them.
They instead decided to move up north near the Lebanese border…
Which also explains why Samson who was of the tribe of Dan wasn’t living in his own tribal territory…
Rather he was living in a small village inside Judah’s territory.
The majority of that village’s population were Danites however.
So this is as good a time as ever to clarify something here.
It’s incorrect to take a black-and-white approach and think that inside the territory of Judah, the only folks who lived there were Judahites.
Or that inside the territory of Gad, only members of the tribe of Gad lived there.
There was all kinds of cross-migration going on for all kinds of reasons (usually economic).
It wasn’t like there was some Torah law or something that prohibited movement across different tribal territories.
It’s like what goes on in the United States for instance.
Individuals and families are always moving from one state to another for different reasons.
Usually it was no big deal for a family or even an entire clan to move into a tribal territory not their own as long as they weren’t trouble makers or criminals.
We’re not talking about some mass movement of illegal immigrants like what the US experiences with Mexico.
Cross-migration inside the land of Israel occurred regularly and for the most part it was cool…
A point which leads me to my takeaway for today.
Since the Creator is the ultimate owner of all the real estate on planet earth, He alone possesses the authority to decide who gets to live where.
And He has made a sovereign decision that the land of Canaan be turned over over to His chosen people Israel.
It is to be their eternal possession…
Which means once God made that decision, the status of the native inhabitants of the land instantly changed to that of illegal immigrants…
Per the Lord’s divine commandment, they were to be driven out of the land or exterminated.
This is the politically incorrect truth that nobody wants to hear…
Yet it is still the TRUTH nonetheless.
Over and out.
Good to be reminded.
Absolutely. We can never have enough reminders from the Lord’s pure and holy Word. Be blessed!