Israel’s Continual Slide Into Ruin Judges 17 – 21 Israel’s Continual Slide Into Ruin

Judges 17 – 18 In Judges 17, we have the story of Micah and the Levites. Micah’s mother uses returned money for her son to make an idol. The real issue in worship-by-images is the desire to shape and revise God spiritually. We can end up worshiping a comfortable God, but also a non- existent one.

God reveals himself, we do not discover him. The tragedy of a man-made religion is that it always reduces God. If we know Jesus is ultimately all we have, we discover that he is eternally all we need.

Judges 19 In Judges 19, we see a man treat a woman like an object and a piece of property. Men, are there ways in which we listen to our culture about how we should view (either treat, or look at) women? In what ways are we in danger of treating women as property, as things?

Judges 20 – 21 Judges 20-21, there is a civil war between the tribes, because there is no spiritual leadership. Israel forgot that God is their king. We do that as well. We must look to the greatest King --- or we will serve a false one. Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.