SERMON: Judges 17:1-13 “Nothing More Than a Good Luck Charm”
…So, the Lord was to be king over Israel. And Israel was to follow the Lord as king, and to do everything the Lord required of them, which according to our memory verse for the week, was to “fear the LORD…to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD with all their heart and with all their soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD…”
To help Israel heed these things, God gave his people human leaders to serve in their presence. God told Moses in Deuteronomy 17, that Israel could indeed install a human king over them, assuming that this man was a king of God’s own choosing, and assuming that he was a man from among God’s covenant people, that he was not a pagan. And the purpose of the king was not to carry out a monarchy, but to act as God’s own representative, to keep the people faithful to the Lord’s covenant and all the demands and decrees stated within. That was the purpose of an Israelite king.
But Israel rejected the Lord as king, and rejected his chosen emissaries as king, and instead did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. And so, at that time in Israel, most everything was false religion, even though, the outward appearance was one of covenant loyalty. They used God’s name. They called themselves by God’s name. They used religious artifacts and rites and rituals in their homes. But most of it was simply a fake, a fraud, a forgery, a façade, a farce, flimflam.
