When I read the last few chapters of the book of Judges, it really brings to light many of the things that we are seeing today in our world around us. It's almost a snapshot of what we see in the world when men forget God and they turn aside from the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so what people do without a king, to rule over them, the king that God has sent from heaven. Everyone just does what's right in his own eyes. And so it's a real picture to me of what we see in the world that's around us. This is the first message that we're going to do in looking at the book of 1 Samuel. And you might ask, well, if we're looking at 1 Samuel, why are you turning us to the book of Judges? Well, I wanted to give us a little bit of a context for the book of 1 Samuel this morning. and just kind of give a picture, a little bit of what has transpired for the people of Israel. in their deliverance from Egypt, the coming into the promised land, and then their desire then for a king, the raising up of Samuel and so forth. Things don't happen in a vacuum. They happen in terms of context and providence and history. And so I wanted to give you a little bit of a feel for the history that leads up to 1 Samuel. Hopefully this will be a sermon and not a lecture. I'm not just going to be talking about history, but we're going to be seeing how God works in history and what our responsibility is and our looking and our believing. And so I want to really focus our attention today on the book of Joshua and the book of Judges. You say, well, one sermon, two books. So here we go. But I believe that these two books, the sort of lead up and including the book of Ruth with that, the lead up to 1 Samuel, really a study in contrast of how the Lord worked through a people, their response to him in belief, and great days really in the history of God's people. I think of the book of Joshua as kind of the Acts of the Old Testament. The book of Acts is a is a study of great progress in the gospel, in the gospel going from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth. Yes, there were some trips and falls in that, but basically, It's a story of God's grace and the conquest, maybe you might say, of the nations in the Book of Acts. Well, Joshua is kind of like that, but in the Old Testament. It was days of great feats and great enterprises and great conquest in the Book of Joshua. Judges, on the other hand, is very different because it's a story about what happens when the people reject their God. and what the kinds of things that they fall into when they reject the testimony of the Lord. So it really is a study in contrast, and that's where 1 Samuel really begins. So bear with me, we're going to look at these two mindsets, these two ways, and seek to apply them to ourselves. Because Joshua has something to say to us, in terms of hope and believing and progressing. And judges has something to say to us by way of warning, by way of warning, okay? But first, what I want to do is just very quickly, and this is not going to be complete, but I want to just say a couple of things about how the Bible views history. The Bible's view of history is very different from the way people generally look at history. In the first place, it's very selective. The Lord begins his history, so to speak, of the world, well, where it ought to begin, with creation. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And that's the beginning of history as we know it, Genesis 1-1. And it describes, of course, the fall of man in the garden, the ruin man in the garden, and then God's promise that he would send a Redeemer. He would send a Messiah who would come and would crush the head of the serpent and would save his people. And that's the beginning of the story, really, the storyline of the Bible. And it's very selective. It doesn't cover the sort of great men of the world, you know, it doesn't say anything about Marco Polo or Alexander the Great or, you know, any of these other figures that the world would look at and say, oh, great men of history. No, it focuses almost entirely upon God's people and God's way of redemption and the history of God's working in the world through his people. So it's a very narrow slice of history and And yet, it is God's particular slice, you might say. He's, of course, interested in all of history and has His hand in everything that happens, but His particular interest is in this stream of redeeming grace for His people. I don't know about you, but that encourages me. That encourages me, that God is concerned and has his eye and his hand upon me and upon you, upon his church. That's why I've said many times that the most important things that happen in the world are the things that happen in the church of Jesus Christ. The most important things in the world are what happens in God's church, not in D.C., not in London, not unless they have churches there, and there are churches there. But you know what I'm talking about. It's not what goes on in the secular world that ought to grab our attention, but what God is doing among his people and in his world that goes to all the nations, you see. And that's what the history, that's what the Bible's history should teach us, is that God is concerned about his people. And His eye is upon them, His hand is upon them, and He's moving among them. It gives us great encouragement. And then secondly, that God is sovereign over all. I shouldn't have to tell you all that. You know that from day one here in this church, that God is absolutely sovereign over it all. Now, all that means is that the rule of history is the rule of God. It is God's rule being worked out in all sorts of different ways and in all sorts of different places, but God's hand. Some have said, kind of metaphorically, that history is really the God's hand in the glove of circumstances. You see that? God's hand in the glove of circumstances. We see the circumstances, we see what's going on here and there and everywhere, and it's God's hand that is in it all. Sometimes that hand is well hidden. And you wouldn't say, well, that's God's doing, but it is everywhere. That's what the Bible teaches us about history, is that it, as some have, I don't think it's trite, have said, that it's His story, right? That's what history is. It's His story. It's His working out. I want to just turn to one place. We could go many places, but look at Isaiah chapter 10. just a few verses here that that kind of speak to that and again this is a huge subject and I'm just really just hitting the one or two little high points of it but this speaks of God's hand in the in the glove of circumcision. Isaiah 10 What God is talking about here or what he's revealing in his word is what is going to happen to Israel when the Assyrians come. He's predicting the fall of Israel and being carried off into captivity by the Assyrians. It hasn't happened yet. hasn't happened yet, but it's going to happen. This is probably a couple, maybe a couple hundred years, 150 years before it actually happens, and Isaiah is prophesying it, okay? He's speaking about what's going to happen. And he's now, and the Lord, this is the Lord speaking through the prophet, he says in verse 5, The rod of my anger. Right off the bat. Syria is in my hand. They are my rod that I am using. Okay? So that's the first thing. The staff in their hands is my fury. They're doing it, but I'm the one who's in charge. I'm sovereign. Against a godless nation, I send him, and against the people of my wrath, I command him. In other words, I'm going to discipline and chasten my own people, and I'm going to use Assyria in that. They are the rod of my anger. Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets." God is speaking as a big God here, right? But he, that is Assyria, okay, God is speaking now about Assyria, but he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think. What does he mean by that? Well, what he means is that Assyria has no, the king of Assyria has no idea that God is actually working in him and through him as the rod of his anger. He has no clue. And we could say that about all the kings and princes of the world who are, even now today, accomplishing the purposes of God. They have no clue that that's what they're doing. But the Bible says that's exactly what they're doing. They're accomplishing, even in their sin, the purposes of God. That's a high thought, isn't it? There's mystery in that, and yet it's true because that's what the Bible says. But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think. But it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations, not a few. In other words, his intent is evil. And that's what's in his heart, and that's what he wants to do. I'm going to use the evil, even of Assyria, to accomplish a good purpose in my people. I'm going to chasten my people, but I'm going to accomplish good in that chastening, you see. He doesn't intend it, but that's my... For he says, are not my commanders all kings? That's a great line. All commanders. Every commander, every king, every prince, whatever nation they happen to reign over, even today, the Lord says, they're mine. They're mine. They're going to do what I want them to do, what I'm going to allow them to do, what I'm going to command them to do. Are not my commanders all kings? The answer, of course, is yes. Is not Kalno like Carchemish? In other words, he's naming here a bunch of cities. We don't necessarily need to know them, but basically it's all the cities of the world. that the Lord is commanding. It's not Calno like Carchemish, it's not Hamath like Arpad, it's not Samaria like Damascus, it's not Washington like London, it's not Rio de Janeiro like, you know, Santiago. They're all the same because they're all under my authority, my command. As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria. Not greater in terms, maybe in their lavish display was greater. Boy, they got some big idols over there. You know, they don't have these little places, these little synagogues where we go in and worship, these little churches like we have. They're not like, boy, they have a big thing, cavernous rooms and huge idols. Boy, there's some big stuff there. And he says, carved images are greater, quotation marks, in a sense, But my hand is reached there. They're not outside of my command, my control, my sovereign display. Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I've done to Samaria and her images? That's a word to the church, by the way. You have idols? You have idols in the heart? The Lord looks on those idols in the same way that he looks on the pagans and their idols. This is the same. He says, and I'm going to deal with those too. Right? I've done that to make these images. When the Lord has finished all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. In other words, I'm going to deal with Assyria's sin. You know, people, this explodes their minds. They say, well, how could he judge Assyria if he's actually causing Assyria to do his dirty work, so to speak? What's the answer to that? I don't know. I don't know. It's the sovereign justice and mercy of God. Assyria's sinning, and he's sinning at will, and it's his own will to sin, and yet God is using that sinning to accomplish his purpose, and then he's going to judge this sinner. He's God. He's God. He's going to punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. For he says, that is Assyria, by the strength of my hand, I've done it. By my wisdom, for I have understanding. Notice the personal pronouns here. I remove the boundaries of people. This is fallen, human, king of Assyria, raising himself up above God and saying, I'm doing all of this. Isn't this so human? We do one or two things. Yeah, I've done it. I've done this great thing. No, you haven't. No, you haven't. I remove the boundaries of people and plunder their treasures. Like a bull, I bring down those who sit on thrones. How great I am! My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples, and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth." Can you just see the pride that is coming, slithering off of this king of Assyria? And he's representative, really, of the kings of the earth. There was none that moved a wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped. And it's like the Lord is standing back and goes, shall the axe boast over him who hews with it? Or the saw magnify itself against him who wills it? Do you get what he's saying there? You pick up a saw, you're going to cut a tree down, and you're sawing away, and all of a sudden, that saw starts talking. It said, boy, am I doing a great thing. That's crazy. You're doing it. You're sawing. The saw is an implement. It's an instrument. As if the rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood. Therefore, the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory A burning will be kindled like the burning of fire. The light of Israel will become a fire and his holy one a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briars in one day. I'm going to do this. This is what I'm going to do. The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the Lord will destroy. Both soul and body will be as when a sick man wastes away. This is what Assyria is going to be. the remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down. This is what I'm going to do. You see what, and this is just a snatch of how the Lord looks upon his world. Sovereign flow of history is all according to plan. Even the evil, even the evil that is such a mystery to us the Lord uses it, even to accomplish His own purpose. I've been thinking this week that Psalm 29, which speaks about the God of storms, the devastation that was wreaked upon Panama City, where our relatives are from, and how hearts continue to go out to those people there. And yet, it's God. It's God. showing His might and His power, His greatness and His glory, they don't just happen. They happen because our Lord is absolutely in control, and even over the hearts of men. There's much more we could say about how the Bible views history, but it's something that we need to really understand and glory in that our God is truly sovereign over all things, over all. Okay, so let's look particularly now at Joshua. If you'll turn to Joshua, remember that we're going to be looking at 1 Samuel, but first we want to look at Joshua and Judges, okay? And Joshua here, if you're taking notes, is under the heading of the Acts of the Old Testament or the Conquest. But turn to Joshua chapter 1. And this, we said, there's a study of contrast here. This is glorious. The conquest of Israel going into the promised land was nearly complete. There were a few hiccups. We'll point them out. When Joshua does not do what he's supposed to do, that's when things go south. But when Joshua obeys the Lord, boom, it's a complete and utter victory, so the conquest. But let's look at these first few verses here, Joshua chapter 1. It says, After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant. Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you just as I promised to Moses. First thing we need to recognize here is that the Lord is a promise-making and a promise-keeping God. He's made promises and He's about fulfilling them. Again, He's the sovereign Lord of history, so when He makes promises, He has the wherewithal to keep them. And that's what He's doing. Every place will tread upon, just as I promised to Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you." The law there, the Torah, everything that you've been instructed and what has been revealed through Moses, that's where you're to put your mind and your heart. Do not turn from it, to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law, this Torah, shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Boy, what a pep talk there that the Lord gives to Joshua right at the beginning. It says really three things. One, the Lord makes promises and he keeps his promises. He is able to bring them about and he's going to be doing that among his people. But notice here as well how important it is that Joshua obey the Lord. And these things are wrapped together. God's promise to his people and for his people is wrapped into his people's obedience. It's a means of the conquest, and we're going to see that worked out in Joshua. When Joshua obeys the Lord, when he submits to the Lord, and he obeys what the Lord shows him in the word of God, his way is prosperous. The armies win all the time, every single one, and they win in really some very weird ways, you know, the walls of Jericho that come tumbling down, you know, that the kids like to sing about. That was a momentous occasion. And by the way, if you don't believe that that happened, you can go to the archaeological site of Jericho and even the smart guys that look at that say, this was kind of a weird thing because we came upon Jericho and all these walls have fallen down except this one side of the wall here where it appeared that it didn't fall. You remember that Rahab We've got the spies out through the wall that didn't fall down. And there it is, you know, the archaeologists can look at it and it's there. But these amazing deliverances, but through Obedience. The priority for God's people is obedience. You see, the Lord, as He works out His promises, it's not like, okay, I'm going to work this promise out. You just sit back, and watch me work." He says, no, no, I'm going to accomplish these promises through you and through your obedience to them. Well, you might say, well, what if we disobeyed and would the Lord break his promise? No. He wouldn't, but he maybe would leave you on the sideline and work through someone else in order to accomplish his purposes. He accomplishes his purposes through the obedience of his people. That is the first priority of a Christian, is to obey the Lord. And notice here, Joshua, a lot of times we might have a sense of Joshua as being this I don't know if you all saw the movie Ten Commandments. I'm an old man, so I remember when that movie came out. And I remember the character they had for Joshua, and he was this dashing, young, strong, virile guy. But the Bible's presentation of Joshua, it seems to me, is not that way. Why do I say that? a number of times in these first nine verses, what does the Lord say to Joshua? He says, don't be afraid. Why do you think he had to tell Joshua not to be afraid? Because he was afraid. He was fearful. He was not this robust, you know, I'll take on the whole A lot of those Canaanites, and they're going to fall right before me. He was not like the king of Assyria, thinking that he could do anything. He was fearful. Moses, the great leader, was dead. And now it is passed to me, Joshua, to lead these people into Canaan. I can't do this. I can't. And so the Lord has to tell him, look at verse 6, be strong and courageous. You don't have to be told to be strong and courageous if you're already strong and courageous. You have to be told to be strong and courageous when you're weak and fearful. That's my picture of Joshua, is that he's not strong and courageous and he needs this bucking up that the Lord gives to him. But how is his strength and courage going to be shown? It's in obedience. in obedience, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. That is the secret of success. Joshua's success is going to be absolutely dependent in the sovereign plan of God on his obedience. And it's the same thing for us. It's the same thing for us. It's God's way of working out His historical plan is through the obedience of His people. The faithfulness of His people. What has God called you to do? as a Christian? What are the things that God has called you to do? Very plainly, perhaps, in His Word, as a husband, as a father, as a worker, as a witness, as a testimony, as a wife, as a mother. What does He call? What does He plainly instructed you to do. He's going to accomplish purposes that are sovereign in their extent through the obedience, daily obedience of His people. That's what Joshua is teaching us. And it's a lesson that we need to learn, isn't it? Sometimes we think, well, you know, my little corner of the world is very small and, you know, nobody's really caring if I'm obedient to the Lord today or in this particular area. Listen, it has huge consequences. It has huge consequences. The priority of God's people is obedience. And then, how is that worked out? This book of the law, verse 8, shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. And the Hebrew word for meditate, learned in Sunday school has the idea of muttering, just muttering. It's like something is in your mind and it's in your heart, and what do you tend to do? You tend to talk about it. You mutter it. It goes over and over in your mind. The Greek word has to do with chewing on it. You're chewing on the Word of God. It's part and parcel of how you think. It becomes how you think as more and more you are in and meditate on and learn and memorize the Word of God. It becomes a part of your thinking. Do not be transformed or do not be conformed to the world, Paul says in Romans, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind over and over. That doesn't happen in one day. It's daily. I'm under the Word of God. I'm in the Word of God. I'm meditating upon the Word of God. I'm reading on the Word of God. The Word of God becomes how I think. That was Joshua's key to success. If you want to look for a key, that was it. Okay, that was it. The Lord said, Joshua, I want you to do this. Boom, he did it. Success. Joshua, I want you to do this. Boom, he did it. Success. One right after another. And the only time that they didn't have success is when Joshua didn't inquire of the Lord. He did it on his own. He's a commander. Oh, I got this. Or a couple of times when Joshua, you know, had seen success and he kind of, oh, okay, this is good. I can do this. Flat on his face. It's when he heard and obeyed the Word of God, success. And God blessed it. God blessed it. God blesses obedience. He does. He blesses obedience. The Bible is full of that. The Proverbs speak to the one who obeys, to one who fears the Lord. He prospers in His way. That's again and again and again and again. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. And what? He will make your paths straight. See, that's the Word of the Lord. That's how the Lord accomplishes His sovereign work in history, and in your little part of that history, it is through your obedience and mine. That's His way. And you remember at the end of Joshua, when Joshua was old and about to die, and sort of the last will and testament, so to speak. Turn there, Joshua 24 and verse 14, and he's speaking to these people who are going to come after him. And he says, now therefore, this is verse 14, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. I think because of humility, Joshua didn't say, as I have done. But he could have said that. He could have said it. Put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord. Let's just stop right there for a second. Let me ask you, is it evil in your eyes to serve the Lord? Are you a Christian? See, if you're not a Christian, what you're saying really is, that's evil. That's evil. And we wouldn't use those words. I appreciate Joshua's using those words here, because that really is true. The man who does not come to Christ, who will not come to Christ, is really rejecting Him. It's saying, what I've got is good, that is evil. And Joshua here is putting it right down in front of them. And he's saying, look, if it's evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites. in whose land you dwell, they'd come in, they'd occupied the land, and yet they have these neighbors, you know, around them who are worshipping other gods and they're going their own way, they're doing what's right in their own eyes, they're not serving Yahweh, they're not, you know, meditating upon his Torah. It's kind of like today, you know, you live and move and have your being in the world People who, you know, they just kind of do what's right in their own eyes. Sometimes that works out, most of the time it doesn't. And he's saying, look, choose who you will serve. Then the people answered, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went. among all the peoples, and blah, blah, blah. It's a testimony, and perhaps that's what they want, but we're going to see in the book of Judges that that's not what they did. They spoke with their mouths, and Joshua told them, you know, choose this day whom you will serve, and they're, oh yeah, we'll do it. We'll do it. We're going to do it. And Joshua says in verse 19, Joshua's a realist. Joshua said to the people, you are not able to serve the Lord for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and do you harm and consume you after having done you good. That is a That's a hard word, but it's a real word. Joshua was being realistic with them here. It's a warning. God makes and keeps his promises, but also God warns, and he keeps his warnings. He keeps his warnings. And that's the end of the book of Joshua. Joshua wrote these words in the book and took a stone and set it up. It's the stone that was a witness to the people. Joshua could sit back and say, look, the Lord has just prospered us abundantly, and he's given us grace to obey him, and we've occupied the land. It's great. There's still work to be done, and in order to do it, you're going to have to keep on obeying the Lord. You're going to have to keep on trusting the Lord. You're going to have to keep on believing the Lord. Because if you don't, it's not going to go well. And when we turn the page over to the book of Judges, we see God's Word, true to form, exactly what happens. The failure and the turning away. Whereas Joshua, the high note, Judges, in a sense, the low note. And just look, Judges chapter 2, we're going to end here, but Judges chapter 2 and verse 6, 2 and verse 6 says, when Joshua dismissed the people, The people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. There was an influence, evidently, of the obedience of Joshua that carried over. Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years, and they buried him within the boundaries of inheritance in Timnath Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and then read the next sentence, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. They forgot. And we could say they forgot, they closed their eyes to it. They closed their eyes to the Torah that God had said, meditate upon that Torah, that teaching of the law of God, meditate it, put it in your heart, remember it, work it over in your mind and heart. And they did not. They turned away. and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals." This is very important. The beginning of their falling away was religious. I mean, it was a God-centered turning away. It did not immediately show itself in immorality, you know, and all the things that are going to happen, violence, and all of the stuff that follows after. And it's just as true today as ever. Where it begins is that man pushes back against the knowledge of God. You could put Judges 2 and Romans chapter 1 and put them right together, and they're saying exactly the same way or the same thing. In Romans chapter 1, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in their ungodliness. What may be known about God is plain to them. God has shown it to them. He's shown him his goodness, his greatness, and his majesty, and what he's done is he's turned away from that. He's pushed against the knowledge of God, and what happens next? It gives way to all sorts of immorality. That's exactly what happens in the book of Judges. They turned away from the living God, and they began to serve the Baals. Now, it's interesting here because the Lord is so good, He is so merciful to His people. You might have said, well, they turned away from Yahweh, so Yahweh just smashed them to bits, and He wouldn't have anything more to do with them. But that's not what we see in the book of Judges. What we see in the book of Judges is the Lord constantly sending them judges, sending them deliverers. He sent them Othniel, He sent them Gideon, He sent them Deborah, He sent them Samson, He sent them a whole list. You could put their pictures up on the wall there, sort of the wall of fame, so to speak. a whole cast of characters that the Lord raised up to deliver his people. But it was always, because their hearts were turned against Yahweh in their worship, it was always temporary. They would deliver for a time, and then boom, it would fall. The whole story of Judges is kind of like, okay, here's a little bit of a revival here, here's Gideon, things are going well, boom. Gideon dies, or leaves, and boom. And then here's another one, and here's Israel again, and then boom, he dies. It was never a complete and a thorough kind of reformation that existed under Joshua. And it was not Joshua. Remember, he's fearful and had to be bucked up, but it was the Lord's grace to him and it was obedience to his word. The thing that's different is that in the book of Judges, the people basically said, no, no, we're not, we're not going to have God's word. We'll, we'll go along with Gideon. We'll go along cause he's a deliverer. We'll go along with Deborah. We'll go along with Samson. You know, we'll, we'll, we'll go along, but once they're out of the picture, then there's a fall, there's a falling off. Until finally you get into these last few chapters here over in Judges chapter 17, and things really are just falling apart. If you read those, we're not gonna read the whole thing of 17, 18, 19, 20, but it's just one catastrophe after another. And a lot of it is just, I mean, it's just gross wickedness. It's in the Bible, so we read it, but it's the kind of thing that'll turn your stomach. They went from being a people who were the Lord's people under his word, meditating upon the law of the Lord, and great success, and falling into their own religion, violence, social unrest, that's chapter 18. Chapter 19 is really complete moral collapse. And then chapter 20 and 21, which makes me think of the US, national division, political power plays, and no lasting solutions at all. That's kind of where we are, isn't it? All it is just is power plays, one side or the other. No godliness, no righteousness, but just moral failure and division. and interspersed through these chapters, Judges chapter 17 and verse 6. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 18 verse 1, in those days, there was no king in Israel. It's almost like the Lord is explaining why the people are like this is because they don't have a king. They're looking forward to a human king, but whenever you see that in the Old Testament, what do we think about? We think about the king who is to come. The one that they were looking for in reality, and all of these kings that are going to come on down the line, the one that's really the one they need is the great king. It's King Jesus when he comes. The whole Old Testament is looking forward to this great king. And they don't realize that's what they're doing often, but they're looking forward to the king who's coming. But in those days, no king, no king, and moral collapse. 19 verse 1, in those days when there was no king in Israel, And then chapter 21 and verse 25 that we read, in those days, as if it were explaining why all of these horrid, violent things happened, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The book of Ruth that comes after is a little bit of a It's a little bit of a gleam of hope, so to speak, in fact, that there is this little stream of godliness, and out of that stream is going to come David, the king, and out of that line is going to come the great king, the Lord Jesus Christ. So right there in the book of Ruth, in the midst of all this catastrophe, is the Lord plotting and planning and sovereignly working his will. And so the Book of Judges is just kind of repeating this theme to us. We need something. We have a great need. They saw it as an earthly king, but in reality, what they really needed was a king who would rule over them with his word. And folks, we have a king. We have a long-looked-for King who has arrived and who has dealt once for all with our sin upon the cross. He has undone for us, His people, the great ruin of the fall. And all of these things that His working out of this plan through these Old Testament books is really just a pointer to Him. And let's say something else as well. Sometimes when we read things here in the book of Judges, we kind of say, man, that's horrible. That's gross. How could people do things like that? Well, do you know your own heart? Do you know your own sinful nature? What you and I are capable of apart from the grace of God? That's what the Bible teaches us. We have a sinful nature. And that nature is still the same. It is a fallen nature. And we have really, in a sense, these two books kind of give us two patterns, two ways of life, so to speak. One, oh, I'm following the king, his word. I meditate upon his word. Success awaits. Or, eh, I'll just do what I think is right. I'm going to do what I want. I'm going to just go the way of everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And you see this utter catastrophe, utter destruction. Two ways that are held out to every one of us sitting here today. Where are you? Where do you stand? Are you one who, oh, meditates upon the Word of God? Word of God is my fortress. It's my refuge. Oh, the rock of Jesus Christ. And so when I hear the Word of God, James chapter 2, I hear the Word of God and I make it a part of my thinking. I make it the reality of my thinking in reality. James chapter 2 says that we receive the implanted Word which is able to save our souls. We're in the same position that Joshua was in with the same word, in a sense, it's much more extensive and much more clear about how the Lord Jesus Christ has come. And will we hear Him? Will we obey Him? Will we put it into practice? Or will we be like those people and judges who kind of heard about, you know, glorious days and they heard about truth, They really didn't want it. They wanted their own way. They wanted their own religion, and their own way, and would not bow to the king. It's interesting, in the Greek, there are two words. One of the words is akuo, and it means to hear. Akuo, you know, we get the word acoustic. It has to do with hearing. And then, you know what the word for obey is in the Bible? It's hupakuo. It's kind of like really here. You know, you hear, but then do you really hear? Obedience is really hearing. You can hear it. It goes in one ear and out the other. That's a kuo. Hupakuo is here and obey. That's what the Greek word for obey is. Hupakuo is really hearing. What about you? Do you really hear or do you just hear? Do you really hear? See, Joshua really heard. He meditated upon the Word of God, and the Lord gave him success. You know, boom, boom, boom. Judges, yeah, we heard it, but they didn't really hear it, did they? They turned away, and they were given over to idolatry, moral, sexual, I mean, in every way, catastrophe that followed in their wake. It seems to me that's where we live. And the people of God, to be different, to be the called people of God. Let's follow Joshua, right? Let's follow the Joshua way. and obey the Word of God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your Word that speaks truth to us. Even these Old Testament books that seem kind of strange to us in many ways. Your truth, your governance, sovereign display of glory and history And you're giving us these models of what it looks like when a man, a people, obey the Lord. May it be true, Lord of us, that we be a people that are full of not only accuing, not only hearing the Word, but, oh Lord, putting it into practice, obeying it, submitting our way to Him. Please, Lord, do not give us up to ourselves, where everyone does what's right in his own eyes. That is a recipe for disaster. Lord would you help us and would you revive your church in America that you would that you would do away with all the trappings and all of the things and give us your word and by your Holy Spirit, Lord, give us grace to believe it and put it into practice, to see revival in our own days. Lord, not just temporary, but fulsome. Lord, would you do that for your people? And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.