[222 words]
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).
God would be a terrible obituary writer. You know, no matter how the person lived his or her life, the blurb in the newspaper always says glowing things about the person … but God tells it how it is! They were a chosen race, but they had chosen sin. They were a royal priesthood, but they had bowed down to idols of their own making. They were a holy nation, but they had fashioned the Creator in their own image. They were a people for His own possession, but possessions had been gathered for their own selfish pleasures. They were all this so they could “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called [them] out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9-10). Oh, but wait, how did my Bible get flipped open to the New Testament? We were talking about the Israelites, after all! There are so many similarities between God’s people in the time of Judges and now that the lessons not learned by them then should be taken to heart today. What would God change in the obituary of His church if the last verse of this book were written today? What would you be remembered for?
Doug Kashorek
Plattsburgh church of Christ
Plattsburgh, NY