January 11, 2022

Passage Read: Judges 18-21
Meditation Verse: 21:25

Thought

This statement appears several times in these last chapters of Judges, as if to say that had there been a king, then everyone would have followed the Lord. But they had the priests who should have been studying the law of God and teaching it to the people. But as evidenced by Jonathan son of Gershom, grandson of Moses, the priests didn't know their duty. Jonathan wasn't authorized to be a priest, he was merely a Levite, yet he gladly took the role of a priest, and that with idols and graven images, which God forbid! He knew nothing of God's ways or cared nothing for what God said. Yes, perhaps a godly king with the authority to rule and enforce his commands, such a king could lead the people to act righteously, though perhaps not truly believe the Lord.

Application

The problem is the heart of each man. A nation can form its laws according to God's, but no law and no king can make men believe from the heart. Unless men are changed from the heart, at best a ruler can only force the people to conform to the standard of righteousness. He cannot change hearts. Only God can do that. And if God won't do that, we can plead and rebuke and pressure people to do what is right, but ultimately, we have no power to change them. We have no power to ensure they are saved and transformed. But we can still require a Christian community to act the part, or else be cut off from that community. I won't have authority to cut people off from CMA, because it's a company not a church, and I don't have that authority. But I will need to counsel leadership if problems do arise.