Ep 263 – Judges 17-18

This is our twelfth episode on the book of Judges and covers chapters 17-18. It's entitled, "A Spiritual free-for-all" and deals with yet another less-than-stellar story involving the people of Israel and their almost inconceivable propensity to sin against God. In chapter 17, we read these extremely insightful and disturbing words: "In those days there was no king in Israel. And everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6 ESV). This was the period of the judges. The people had rejected God as their king and had yet to reach the point where they would demand a human king. The various tribes had spread throughout the land of Canaan, settling in their respective territories and trying to make the most of their situation. But everybody was doing their own thing, not God's. Rather than seek the will of God, they were giving in to their own self-centered desires, seeking false gods and making forbidden alliances with the nations that occupied the land. And in the middle of all this we are introduced to a character named Micah, who will provide us with a real-life example of just how bad things had gotten in Israel. It was every man for himself. The 12 tribes of Israel were all living in varying degrees of disobedience to God. And Micah will provide us with an up-close-and-personal look into the spiritual free-for-all that was taking place in the land.