What Can Happen to Society, Pt 1

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

What has amazed me is just how far down a society can devolve. It has happened throughout history and it is happening now and it appears we have not hit bottom yet. If we want to learn exactly what society can look like in the future, we need only go to the past to the book of Judges.

There is a statement repeatedly made throughout Judges that sums up the problem in a nutshell.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25 NKJV)

The second portion of that statement is indeed very telling, because that particular statement says a great deal. The time during Judges was after Joshua, the man who led the Israelites into the Promised Land, had died. It was also before any human beings became kings over Israel. Israel should not have asked for a king because God intended Himself to be King over Israel.

However, the Israelites wanted to be like neighboring nations who had kings. They wanted someone they could go to and complain about issues that affected them. They wanted a human king to lead them into battle against enemies; someone they could see. In essence, they didn’t trust Almighty God because He was invisible and because the only way to ascertain guidance from the LORD was through the Levitical priesthood and, specifically, the high priest, who would bring requests before the LORD and use the Urim and Thummin to learn God’s mind.

So, the people of Israel needed to rely on the priests to be a go-between to God. In essence, during the Old Testament times, God was not necessarily easily approachable. There was a system and process God instituted in order to be able to approach Him. This does not mean, by the way, rec salvation during the Old Testament times was any different than receiving salvation is today; by faith. However, since Jesus had not yet come to earth, lived a sinless life, died a criminal’s death and rose again on the third day, the Law had not been completely fulfilled yet. The fact that the curtain within the Temple separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place, completely tore in two from top to bottom signified the curtain was no longer needed to represent a point of separation between God and man (Matt. 27:51; cf. Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45).

This curtain had represented that separation between God and man and only one person could go into the Holy of Holies beyond the curtain and only once each year and that was the High Priest of Israel. But Jesus fulfilled the entire Law, with the sacrifice of His Person while living and Body in death fully fulfilled and completed all the Law. There was nothing left to fulfill, except prophesies related to His second coming. People were now free to go directly to God through the Person of God the Son, Jesus, by faith, in His bodily propitiation for our sin. This of course, was unheard of in the Old Testament, yet people still had to approach God in faith and their faith was counted as righteousness (cf. Genesis 15:6; Hebrews 11:7).

So it’s always been faith in God that allows God to deem someone righteous. In that same sense then, all authentic believers are considered to be and proclaimed righteous by God. This label of righteousness cannot be removed from us.

Of course, the problem with many in the Old Testament, as well as many within the Church today, is a lack of continuing faith in God. We’ll get to Christians and how often believers fail to follow His ways, but for now, I want to focus on several incidents in Judges that clearly show the absolute lack of faith in God’s ability to guide and provide.

The book of Judges doesn’t really get off to a good start. We read in Judges 1 that the Israelites asked the LORD about which tribe should lead the Israelites in their military campaign against the Canaanites. Clearly, in spite of what Reformed and Covenant theologians often believe, the Land had not been fully settled and much work still needed to be done to eradicate Israel’s and God’s enemies.

We come to Judges 1:27-35 and are immediately met with the fact that numerous tribes did not fully eradicate or drive out their enemies and those enemies remained in the Land and created major problems for Israel. In Judges 2, the LORD Himself lets Israel know that He was displeased with their disobedience. Israel had been created by God to be not only a light to the world, but the arm of His judgment against those nations who rejected Him and His rule. We will see how this is supposed to work during the Millennial Kingdom.

Because the Israelites failed to drive their enemies out of the Land, God said He would not drive them out either and they would become thorns in Israel’s sides (Judges 2:3). In fact, the false gods worshipped by those neighboring societies would harm Israel by becoming a snare to the people of Israel who would start worshiping them with their neighbors.

This was the beginning of Israel’s downfall spiritually and the remainder of the book of Judges highlights specific incidents that prove this. Christians today should not think, “Well, that cannot happen to me because I am a Christian, saved by His grace and declared righteous.” Anyone who thinks like that lacks understanding. All we have to do is look at King David’s life and others within the Bible to see how easy it is to fall and fail.

In fact, just this past week, I read of two more instances of senior pastors being charged with breaking the law. Are they truly Christian? I have no idea actually, but I’ll assume for argument’s sake that they are authentic Christians who have fallen from grace. Need I remind readers of Steve Lawson, who, incidentally, posted a message on X recently in which he accepted full responsibility for his actions, being involved with a younger woman, not his wife? He admitted that he and he alone bears the full responsibility for his actions and those actions have brought disgrace to his wife, family and ministries. Moreover, he said he will live with the consequences of his behavior for the rest of his life. Lawson certainly seems humbled by his transgression and though he has canceled himself out of formal ministry, he is doing what he can to regain fellowship with other believers. My heart goes out to him, his wife and his family.

This type of thing happens and it usually does because we let our guards down, but Satan never does. He is all too happy to continue putting on the pressure in order to make us fall. 1 Peter 5:8 tells the sobering story.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

I believe this is also why God allows persecution to come to Christians, like the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, Syria and elsewhere. It separates the sheep from the goats; the authentic believers and the false. Persecution can bring us closer to God, but who among us wants it? I’d rather “pummel” myself spiritually, forcing myself to do what is right, rather than have unpalatable circumstances do it for me. Even then, there is no guarantee that we will not face persecution in this life.

The ancient Israelites were simply not vigilant. They didn’t care. In fact, the reason they did horrendous things that were not in keeping with God’s will, was because of their lack of vigilance and uncaring attitude. Their idolatry was no big deal to them because God seemed not to notice even though it was God’s patience that kept His hand of judgment stayed for a time.

The Israelites came to a point where their actions were the result of what they thought was right. It turns out they were often wrong and their downward spiral became greater and greater as they supplanted the LORD’s will with their own.

It wasn’t long after Joshua’s death that the people of Israel proved what was in their heart of hearts.

11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; 12 and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. (Judges 2:11-13)

What a tragic commentary on the Israelites! They literally forsook or completely turned their backs on Almighty God to worship gods that are not gods at all, but demons (1 Corinthians 10:20). Because they had not pushed out or destroyed the pagan nations around them, they became sucked up in worshiping the same gods those nations worshiped, just as God had said they would (and Moses before Joshua warned them of the same thing).

Judges 2:14-15 shows how God reacted to their treachery and spiritual idolatry. He allowed those pagan nations to overcome Israel and the Israelites became slaves to those nations. God was putting the pressure on Israel in order to bring them back into submission to Him.

This was the tragic cycle that Israel experienced repeatedly because of their lack of faith in God’s leadership. Often, one generation of Israelites, under severe pressure, sought the LORD and He eventually saved them from their troubles. Things went on well for a while and then another generation rose up only to sink. Why? Because often that new generation did not know the Lord. Why? Because the adults/parents did not take the time to instruct their children in all that the LORD had done for them since their escape from Egypt.

Because of this constant cycle, God selected certain individuals who acted as judges for Israel. Because these judges were, to some extent, leaders guiding the nation, it was often someone whom the Israelites could look to and get behind. However, even some of these judges were very inconsistent in their desire to follow the LORD. Some we know very little about except their names and how long they judged. Other judges give us a great deal of information about them, their victories and their failures.

Yet, even with individual judges, the Israelites often failed to continue following the LORD.

17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so.

So, it appears that though there were certainly faithful Israelites within Israel, there were many who were completely unfaithful to God and did what they wanted to do. This becomes even more apparent as we go through the book of Judges.

Though Israel endeavored to follow this judge or that judge’s leadership, as soon as that judge died, the people of Israel reverted back to their former ways and began again to worship foreign gods (v19). It is amazing to me that God continued to put up with that and if not for His unconditional covenant with Israel, He would have completely wiped that nation off the face of the earth. He did not do that though He often destroyed many within Israel because of how they rejected Him continually.

Judges 3 is another sad chapter. In it, we learn just how bad things were between Israel and the nations around them. We can clearly see just how many in Israel thought. They did what they wanted to do or thought best because it seemed right to them in their own eyes. It was, in fact, fairly lawless. Yet, when the Israelites cried out to God, He would faithfully deliver them from their persecutors. This seems to be happening throughout global society today. It’s what people think is right that they do, even within the visible Church.

In the midst of this, God raised up Ehud as Judge. Ehud managed to start to turn things around for Israel. Of course, as soon as Ehud died, the Israelites again began to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD. After his death, God raised up a woman, Deborah, as Judge.

I again mention this because it is part of Scripture and should serve as a warning to all believers. Yes, we are saved by faith and declared righteous by God whether we feel/believe that or not. However, none of us are in the position of being perfect nor are we never in danger of falling away from Him. By that, I do not mean the loss of our salvation. But if we are not careful, our hearts can grow cold toward God. We can begin to tempt ourselves with forbidden fruits and ultimately turn our backs on Him. In that sense, we are no different from the ancient Israelites when that happens.

Of course, there is one thing that separates us from the Israelites. While many then were actual believers in God, the Holy Spirit never lived within them to empower them to live as they should have lived. For our part, we have the amazing blessing of the Holy Spirit living within us, who empowers us, loves through us, teaches us how to live and seals us so that we will never lose our salvation. John 14 bears witness to these truths.

Judge Deborah with Barak, brought about great victories for Israel. In fact, the victories were so great that Judges 5 highlights a detailed song that Deborah sang following those victories.

Next time, we will pick up with Judges 6 and Gideon. Though we will see great victories, we will also see a continuing downward spiral for Israel. It needs to be understood that Christians can follow the same trajectory if we are not careful.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Source: https://studygrowknowblog.com/2025/03/17/what-can-happen-to-society-pt-1/