5-3-2026 When They Refused the King

Order in the court.

The book of Judges is now resuming.

Last week we covered the first 4 of the 12 judges in the book of Judges and how they mirrored Jesus in some way.

- Othniel -Ehud - Shamgar - Deborah

Othniel was not an Israelite, but was adopted in, much like we are adopted into the family of God and receive the inheritance of a son or daughter of the king.

Ehud has a fire for the Lord and obeying his word. His job as judge was different than our job as followers of Jesus, so please, love your neighbor and enemies, don’t kill them.

Shamgar taught me what an Ox goad was and Deborah taught us to put God and others before ourselves in service.

Today we are going to cover the remaining 8 judges.

And we are going to break up the remaining 8 into 2 categories. The Shorter and the Longer.

Which means exactly that 5 have very short accounts and the other three much longer. It doesn’t mean we can’t learn from the shorter five, but we can learn some bite sized nuggets bits of wisdom.

First we have 2 judges in 5 verses

Judges 10:1–5 ESV

1 After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 2 And he judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried at Shamir. 3 After him arose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years. 4 And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities, called Havvoth-jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. 5 And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

In the order of judges we’ve only skipped one so far.

After Deborah we have Gideon, who we’ll get to in a minutes, but Gideon’s son Abimelech was not a good guy, and he set himself up as King. And an evil kings at that. He did a great deal of harm to the nation and was killed much like Sisera, by a woman who threw a millstone at his head.

Tola came after and shows us you don’t need a big story to be a part of the story. He judged Israel for 23 years and there was nothing worth mentioning, which means he did his job and kept the peace.

Sometimes that is what we are called to do. Follow Jesus and keep the peace.

Jair did the same. It said he had 30 sons who rode 30 donkey’s. Donkey’s are ridden in peace time, horses in war time.

All together Israel seems to have peace for 45 years thanks to Tola and Jair.

Just to put that in perspective. The United States is celebrating 250 years as an independent nation. And in 250 years we have had all of 3 years from 1828-1830 where we were not at odds with another country, or having a major internal conflict.

45 years of no conflict, is quite the achievement. But that was a straight shot, what about a grand total.

Judges 12:8–15 ESV

8 After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. 9 He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. 10 Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem. 11 After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel, and he judged Israel ten years. 12 Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. 13 After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. 14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys, and he judged Israel eight years. 15 Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Three more judges and 25 more years. That’s a grand total of 70 years of no conflict in the nation of Israel.

410 years in the book of judges. Which is 17%, doesn’t sound great.

pi chart is v us

Compared to the United States in our 250 years we’ve had 11 total years we could say , in total, we’ve not been in conflict.

That’s about 4 percent.

Peace can only be truly achieved with God’s help and these Judges, when they followed God, did just that.

Now, none of us are part of the leadership of this country. We are not in a large position to affect major change, but we can pray for those who do.

The other thing we can do is effect local peace. That’s so hard. I wish it was easy. Because like the nation of Israel we have people either in our lives or nearby who would love nothing more than to see us gone.

But Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself and he said love your enemies.

The goal of every believer should always be restoration.

And we are learning about the Judges here, but what we aren’t diving into is the time between. because it’s all the same. Israel rejects God as their King and then, as many passages state. God sells them into the hands of a neighboring nation.

God is not doing that because he is sick of Israel. It’s because he loves them so much that sometimes Israel needed God to turn away so they could see how much they needed him.

Sometimes we too have to step out of some ones life. Not because we hate them or want them gone, but their actions are hurting either themselves or someone else, so sometimes a drastic step back must be taken to help them see that going on their own is much harder that going it together.

Thus the judges would be called in to re-unite and lead Israel. We too can seek restoration. And I hope we all do.

Okay. so the Five judges with little more than a sentence or two to their names taught us that peace is worth pursuing.

Let’s back track to Gideon.

He has a few chapters in the book of Judges and he has a few familiar stories. He had the fleece where he tested God. He whittled down, at God’s instructions, thousands of soldiers down to 300 and won a war without lifting a sword.

But there is another account with Gideon that is less told, in my experience, but of equal value.

Judges 8:22–28 ESV

22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest for forty years in the days of Gideon.

Up until this point the judges don’t seem to have any moral failure. Othniel, Ehud, and Deborah seemed to do what God wanted and were content with what God wanted.

The people wanted to set up Gideon as King, and while he refused, we see from this passage the beginnings of him acting like one. He makes an Ephod, which are for priests, not judges and the people begin to worship it. My translations says they whored after it.

In the following passage it mentions Gideon’s many wives, a concubine. And a son that after Gideon’s death sets himself up as king. Not a great ending.

I look over at the building site and I am constantly in a state of awe in what God is doing and a constant reminder that apart from him I do nothing.

The moment I start taking credit for the things done over there, the more I look like Gideon.

Jesus spoke against living for the material quite a bit.

Luke 12:15–21 ESV

15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Gideon forgot later in life who he was working for. He let himself look more important than he really was. Scripture says the Ephod became a snare to Gideon and his family. But it also says there was peace for forty years, this was not in our number in the beginning but it ups the time of peace over the 410 years to 27%.

Sometimes, we do the wrong things and good still happens.

Gideon allowed himself to be snared. His son set himself up as King and led Israel to more sin.

So often we take a little step away and nothing bad happens, so we take another step.

Jesus is clear. Our treasure is in heaven, not here.

Can we have nice things, sure. But our stuff, or our fame is not based on our works or our achievements. They are based on God and what he has done and is doing.

Our treasure is in him and in heaven, not in Gideon, not in our stuff, not in our achievements.

Gideon teaches us, through his mistakes that God should always be number one.

A couple weeks ago we asked what the greatest commandment was and the answer was, boiled down, love God. That happens when we look away from self and look to what God looks at.

ANd when we look to what God looks at we see our next Judge

Jephthah was a neat guy and got the short end of the stick in life in some ways. His dad had an affair with a prostitute and he was born. His other brothers or half brothers, kicked him out of the house. Seems they forgot that children aren’t supposed to pay for the sins of their fathers, nor are you to disinherit an essentially adopted son. Jephthah is not exactly like Othniel, but he should have been treated better by his family.

Jephthah judged only for 6 years and he did some great things for Israel. But he lost sight of what God loves.

You see when you love God, you are going to love what he loves.

We get a lot out of that. As followers of Jesus we should care for the environment, because God created the earth and commissioned us to care for it, so do that.

smog field

He gave us dominion over the animals so, we take care of them. I get really angry when people kill animals for the process. I’m not against hunting, thats food, I’m not even against killing animals for sport, that can, when done properly, keep populations in check.

hunt

What I am against is people using animals for sport or torturing them to death and making light of it. We are to care for the world, because God loves the world.

But there is one thing God loves more than all these and that is people. There is nothing more important than people. God loves us with such a passion that upon seeing us walking away from him he stepped in and gave his life so that we could live.

Jephthah did something really dumb.

Judges 11:29–32 ESV

29 Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand.

Judges 11:34–35 ESV

34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.”

Sure he can. The Lord has said in so many places, don’t sacrifice humans. That is wrong. A daughter playing a tambourine, an annoying son, a child in the womb. The answer is NO. Do not murder them, ever!!!

Somewhere along the line Jephthah forgot who God loves more than anything. I know the question may arise, if God didn’t want her sacrificed then why didn’t Israel just lose the battle that Jephthah had made the vow for?

Have you ever been forced into a bad decision? It actually has a name called a

Morton’s Fork

When you have two bad choices and must make one.

The one that is closest to our passage is you are a train operator and are at a switch. you do nothing and the train and all of the passengers will die. You throw the switch to change tracks and a small child who was playing on the tracks will die, but everyone else will live.

Neither is a good option. But one has to be made and I hope I never have to make a decision like that

And we might ask, why doesn’t God just interrupt and stop the sacrifice. If you look at the story of Jephthah you will see that while Jephthah talks to God, he doesn’t stop and listen. In fact, in the whole book of Judges God only speaks 5 times, maybe he’s speaking more than that, but no one was listening.

God could have let Israel get slaughtered so the girl could live, or he could deliver Israel, and allow one girl to die.

It does seem to mirror another instance that God was faced with. Allow all of mankind to die and be separated from God for ever, or allow his son to give his life to save us.

This story gives a dirty mirror example of Christ’s love of us, but I am also reminded that if Jephthah truly loved God, he would never had made that vow. Because if you Love God, then you will love people. And I’m not saying the guy didn’t love his daughter, he tore his clothes when he saw her come out of the house. But if he truly loved God like he said, and if we truly love God, then we will do everything in our power to save lives and not give up on them.

Which leads us to our final judge.

I worked with a guy for a few years and he loved suckers. We often had them at the front counter and when he’s come by he would snag one. We got along well and one time we had a bowl full of

Dum Dums

he walked by, grabbed on and I said, “Carlos, you know, you are what you eat.” He looked at the sucker and laughed very hard. Then next time I came to work the bowl was filled, not with suckers but with

Smarties

and every time we walked by, he’s grab some and say, I am what I eat.

Samson, must have lived on Dum Dums.

IF you heard my character study on the guy a few months ago, you know how I feel about the guy. I don’t like him. He made every bad choice you could make and instead of learning from them, he just made worse ones.

I want to say only one thing about Samson, because everything he did was selfish, self-centered- and self -serving, all things I’ve been guilty of and many of here as well.

But he did one thing right. After his mistake of telling his prostitute how to weaken him, Samson had his strength taken away and his eyes gouged out.

Judges 16:28–30 ESV

28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

Samson’s life time job was to protect God’s people from people who would harm them. Namely the Philistines. Instead he married one, slept with another and made countless other bad decisions.

Finally he submits to God and says, let me do now, what I should have been doing for 20 years. Loving God and Loving People.

The book of Judges continues for 5 more chapters, but no more judges are mentioned. But the phrase, “when Israel had no King” was mentioned a few times.

God, is the King. Not just of Israel, but of all of creation. We are called to love him with all of our mind, soul and strength. God also loves people. And he wants us to love them too. Sometimes, when we act in a way that does not love God or People, we, for lack of better phrasing, get sent to time out. Not to cut us off, but to bring us back.

That is the whole book of Judges and that is a whole picture of Jesus.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God loves you so much that he gave his own son to die, so that we could live with him forever.

The debt has been paid, the forgiveness is offered. But so many refuse to accept it. They are either stubborn, or think they have to do something to earn it, but that is not the case. God Loves us, and we can love him too.

Next week is mother’s day and we get to celebrate mom’s a bit and, as it turns our, we get to look at the book of Ruth and how she became a mom.

There are so many reasons we can come up with to hate some one. A mom, a dad, a neighbor, doesn’t matter, we are humans and we fall short.

But my encouragement to you today, is to love those who hate you. To love those you have hated. That doesn’t always mean go running into their arms. There are instances where safety is a concern. But that doesn’t mean you can’t love them. Imagine letting go of the bitterness and anger and just saying, “I’m choosing to love,” what a release that will be.

Love God, and Love people and you will be free.

Let’s pray.