Day 83 of the podcast, reading Judges 17-19 NET, read along at:

https://netbible.org/bible/Judges+17-19/

This is day 83 of our journey.

Samson was the LAST Judge listed in the book of Judges. The rest of the book, instead of being a repeating cycle of sin and salvation, shows us a picture of God’s people caught in a rapid free-fall of sin, death, and chaos. The last few chapters go from bad to worse. Today we are given 3 examples of that depravity. First we have a man named Micah who forms silver idols and sets them up in his home to worship them with a Levite as priest. Then, the tribe of Dan (still trying to find a land for themselves) happens upon Micah's home, they steal his idols and convince his Levite to abandon him and serve them. Finally we have a Levite man living in Bethlehem who was traveling with his concubine. They came to the Israelite city of Gibeah to rest for the night, but received the same treatment as the angels in Sodom and Gomorrah, the Levite gave his own concubine to the men to protect himself and the men of the city abused her all night until she arrived back at the doorstep dead.

Judges 17:6 sums up what is happening, "In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right." We need a leader who will guide us in the proper way, otherwise, we will travel the same path as these Israelites, chasing after whatever feels right at the time.

Join me in Judges 17-19 to see the result of a vacuum of Godly leadership.

Key verses:

Judges 17:6

In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right.

Judges 18:27

Now the Danites took what Micah had made, as well as his priest, and came to Laish, where the people were undisturbed and unsuspecting. They struck them down with the sword and burned the city.

Judges 19:25

The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite grabbed his concubine and made her go outside. They raped her and abused her all night long until morning. They let her go at dawn.

All Scriptures are from the NET.