The One True King

Prayer

No Moral Authority but Our Own

Chuck Colson used to say that if a people will not be governed by the conscience, they will be governed by the constable. The loss of conscience always leads to the loss of freedom.

The idea is that morality, good behavior, is spurred by two sources. Either through our consciences - choose to abide by an internal sense of duty to do the good (which is ultimately rooted in God, he is the source of our conscience) - or, by force, outside authority compelling us to behave - law enforcement, police officers.

Either way (or both), we are under some moral authority - either submitting to God, the author of our conscience, God who made us to live a certain way and we know when we are not) or the moral authority of the state, king, ruler, whatever laws and rules they issue.

This was the clear-eyed view of our Founding Fathers - who uniquely recognized the freedom of the individual, individual sovereignty, which represented a radical change in how government was viewed. Role of state was to protect individual rights that pre-existed, inalienable is the language used, our rights are inalienable, bestowed on us by God. Which meant that it wasn’t the role of the state to grant (or deny) those rights.

But this, they argued, would only work for as John Adams, our second president, stated, a “religious and moral people”. That our Constitution was again, in Adams’ words, “wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Their belief was simple - our system of government, rooted in individual freedom, would only work if you had a people who were guided by conscience, who willingly surrendered to the moral authority of God. If they didn’t, the only other solution was the constable. Behavior compelled by the state.

Which is why Chuck Colson said that the loss of conscience always leads to the loss of freedom. If you won’t govern yourself, then the state will. We may well be there, as a culture - as John Stonestreet argues, “we’re no longer a people moral or religious enough to sustain the freedoms of self government.”

Certainly where the Israelites were by the period that makes up the end of the book of Judges - they were certainly not moral or religious enough. It’s described differently in Judges, but it means the same thing: Judges 17:6, In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

This is the central theme of Judges, why things kept getting worse and worse and worse - we’ll see that big time today. They had no king, no constable, no monarchy or governing authority to enforce morality, to ensure that the people were obedient to the commands given them by God.

And gradually and consistently, they had given up on conscience, they no longer bound themselves to God’s moral order, his good. They had forsaken faithfulness to the Lord - and instead had chased after the gods of the neighboring nations. And that forsaking led to terrible, terrible consequences, which is what we’re going to look at now.

Israelites Fall into Depravity

We’re going to cover two stories today, one briefly from Judges 17 & 18, and then the main one, which is found in Judges 19-21. The first story is about a man named Micah - it goes on for two chapters, but we’re going to cover just the first few verses, which is enough to capture the wickedness of Israelites. Judges 17:1-6...

Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim 2 said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have that silver with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son!” 3 When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.” 4 So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol. And it was put in Micah’s house. 5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest. 6 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

So, just to get a sense of how bad it’s gotten with the people of Israel, look at the sins just in this one part of the story - so we have this man named Micah - who, first, has engaged in stealing, seriously felony level theft (a lot of money). Second, he steals it from his mother - breaking the command not to dishonor your father and mother. And only reason he returns it is that he fears the curse she uttered. Then, when she gives him some of the silver, what’s the purpose? To make an idol, an image overlaid with silver - which she says it an act of consecration to the Lord. Micah and his mother are both deep into idolatry - Micah takes the idol and sets it up in his house, where he has his own household shrine. He makes an ephod, normally worn only by the priests - used to divine sacred guidance. Then he sets up one of his sons as his personal priest (this family, they are not Levites). So forget who God set up as priests - we’ll do it ourselves.

Hard to imagine the next story is even worse, but it is. You may notice that there are no judges, no leaders that God raises up, in these stories. Stories are not about God delivering them from nations oppressing them, these stories are to highlight the wickedness of the people of Israel. The next story begins in Judges 19:1 with those ominous words, “In those days Israel had no king.”

It’s a long story, so here’s the summary: There’s a Levite, who takes a concubine (a wife, but a second class wife) from Judah. We’re not given the reason how or why, but she is unfaithful to him, leaving him to return back to her parents’ home.

Levite goes to Judah, to Bethlehem, to her parents’ home in order to persuade her to return. There he is welcomed by his father-in-law, who shows him great hospitality. And that hospitality keeps getting extended - starts with the usual three days, then the father-in-law persuades him to stay another day, and then another.

Levite gets antsy to return home, so he decides to leave on the fifth day, but it’s later in the day. His wife agrees to return home with him, and so they make their way to nearby Jerusalem, but that city is still under the control of the Jebusites (won’t come under Israelite control until King David conquers it). So they make their way to Gibeah, a Benjamite city.

There they go to the city square, but, shockingly, no one offers them hospitality. That is, until an old man returns from working in the fields. This man welcomes them into his home with a bit of a warning, “Only don’t spend the night in the square.” So, they make their way to his home, where they enjoy his hospitality. Then it begins, a familiar and disturbing scene:

Judges 19:22-24 - While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.” 23 The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this outrageous thing. 24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.”

Getting a little deja vu? If you remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah - the language, wording, is remarkably similar between the two stories. That’s not an accident, the reader is meant to draw the comparison - because it reveals how terribly wicked it’s gotten among the people of Israel.

But the old man’s plea for decency - and the perverse bargain he offers the men don’t work. So the Levite takes his concubine, his wife, and sends her out to the men. These men take this women, and they rape and abuse her throughout the night, leaving her for dead. It’s all horrific - the unthinkable sexual violence, the old man and the Levite’s failure to protect this woman

That callousness is further on display the next morning, Judges 19:27-28, When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28 He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. Lots of compassion there, bud.

Then, when you think it can’t get any worse - it does. The Levite takes his dead concubine, cuts her up into twelve parts and sends one piece to each of the twelve tribes to share the hideous thing that had happened. The shocking act has the intended effect, Judges 19:30...

Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must be do something! So speak up!”

More than speak up, they move to action - their consciences are not totally seared. The tribes gather to go to war against Gibeah, to destroy them for their evil. But the tribe of Benjamin wouldn’t go against their fellow tribe members, so they decide to defend them against the rest of the tribes. So war breaks out among all the tribes of Israel.

In spite of their numbers advantage, it doesn’t go well for the eleven tribes against the Benjamites - at first. They finally defeat and then almost entirely destroy the tribe of Benjamin. The story plays in the rest of Judges 20 & 21, where the rest of the tribes must figure out a way to find wives for the remaining Benjamite men because of a rash vow they made not to give their daughters to them in marriage. I’ll let you read that for yourself (by the way, helpful practice to read all of these books in their entirety).

The book of Judges ends with where we started our time of teaching, with the central theme of Judges, 21:25 - In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. We see here exactly what Chuck Colson often said - if a people are not willing to be governed by the conscience, they will be governed by the constable. Israel will get their king, their constable, and as God warns them, it will not be the utopia they believe it will be. We’ll see that when we get to book of 1 Samuel in September.

Of course the solution was never about having an earthly king - it was about embracing the King they already had, the God who made them his own, brought them out of slavery in Egypt and brought them into covenant relationship, giving them the commandments, teaching them how to live. And, of course, this is the King we are to embrace, the one true King.

And by embracing I mean - will we willingly and readily seek to obey his commands? Will we be governed by conscience rather than by the constable?

The One True King

Ultimately, the problem with the constable, with state enforced morality - it doesn’t change our hearts. Obedience is driven more by a fear of consequences, what would happen if I were to do the act and then get caught. It doesn’t come out of a heart that desires the good, it just wants to avoid the punishment (much like Micah returning the silver to his mother because he feared the curse she uttered).

This was the fatal flaw of the Israelites - they weren’t truly bound to God AND they had no king, no constable, so they did as they saw fit. What they saw fit was idolatry. As far as they were concerned, the gods of the neighboring nations offered more. I suspect the more was being free to do what they really wanted to do. They chased after gods that in their eyes were less restrictive. Instead of living out being made in God’s image, they chased after gods that were made in their own image.

A whole series of movies were made based on the premise of what would happen if there was a night when you could do whatever you wanted, no legal consequences - the Purge movies. The people in those movies essentially broke into two groups, those who went hog wild - killing, stealing, destroying, and those who hid in fear, locked themselves away.

We’re already getting a taste of this around our country - social experiments all around the country showing what happens when you remove the constable: One city declared they wouldn’t convict for shoplifting under $950 retail value - what do you think happened (closure of a lot of stores)? Another state decriminalized small amounts of illicit drugs - open drug use became rampant, there’s been widespread push back. Recreational marijuana use is legal in Colorado - We were just driving through parts of Colorado on our vacation- it didn’t matter how small the town was, how few operating businesses it had - every town had a Cannabis shop.

All that to say, state enforced morality - the stick - doesn’t change our hearts. When the opportunity arises, people will do what they want to do. Something bigger and better is needed - a King worth following. A King we want to be obey. A King who can change our hearts.

What stirs the conscience, what makes us a “religious and moral people” is recognizing that we have a King worthy to be followed. A King to whom we willingly say, I will follow you. I will do what you command. And even here in Judges, we get glimpses of that King. Even in those horrific stories, we can see hints of the Gospel.

Judges gives us a Levite who, in order to save his own skin, sends his wife out to violent men waiting outside. In Jesus, we find a very different husband: Ephesians 5:25-26, 28…Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy…In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. Jesus is the husband who laid down his life for his wife, his bride, the church.

Judges gives us the tribes of Israel, who gather together to destroy their own, first the town of Gibeah for their wickedness, then the entire tribe of Benjamin as they come to their defense. Jesus came not to destroy his own, even though we share in that wickedness, but to offer his life on our behalf.

Romans 5:6-8 - You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

In the Gospel we discover a King who is worthy to be followed. A King who is good. A King who is for his people. His character, his actions demonstrate that all he shows and teaches us are for our good, and the good of others. Jesus commands aren’t for him, for his benefit. There’s nothing selfish or life-denying in the commands that Jesus gives us. We can trust that because we can know who he is!

Gospel invites us to say, I want to be like that, I want to be like my King. Good. True inner goodness - not a good that is surface level, maintained only to avoid punishment. Goodness governed by a conscience made clean, washed by Jesus Christ, led by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So we would freely say, I have a King. His name is Jesus. I will live in obedience to him.

I will live in obedience to him because he is worthy. Because he, out of obedience to the Father, willingly laid down his life for my sake - before I ever made the slightest inclination of honoring him. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The beauty of the Gospel points to the goodness of Jesus. A King worthy following.

This speaks right to the heart of one of our core values as a church - lived obedience to Jesus. That we would not do as we see fit, but as Jesus teaches us is fit. Encourage you to engage in Spiritual Disciplines, soul training exercises to help you (and me) to put Jesus’ teachings, what he commands, into practice.

Spend time reflecting on the Gospel this week (looking forward to Capernaum camp!), be re-evangelized. Let the good news stir your love toward Jesus - change your heart. Your willingness to follow him. Choose a verse to recite and pray every day - Romans 5:6-8, John 3:16, Romans 6, 1 John 4, Colossians 1, Philippians 2, Ephesians 2. Goal is to move out of an obedience based on fear towards an obedience rooted in love - love spurred by being rooted in Jesus’ love for us, revealed in his sacrificial death.

Lived Obedience to Jesus - Guided by the Holy Spirit, his leading, move toward greater obedience in one area in your life. Perhaps you’ve become aware that God wants you to grow in patience, or being less judgmental in your thoughts. Too quick to gossip. Or God wants you to grow in actively loving others around you. Prayerfully consider what practices you might engage in to become more obedient - verse you can memorize and pray through daily. Someone to keep you accountable. Bible study on that topic, change your thinking. Specific practice that will counter the action (silence or paying compliments instead of gossip, choosing a long line at store to combat impatience, intentional acts of service, etc.)

Our choice - the conscience or the constable. Let us choose to willingly give ourselves in obedience to our King, Jesus.