Yesterday I mentioned one
similarity between churches in 2016 and life in Israel in the time of the judges roughly three thousand years ago.
This was an era repeatedly characterized with the statements, “There was no king in Israel” and “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes”. There was, of course, God’s law, given to Moses, and the name of Jehovah, the
God who had brought Israel out of Egypt into Canaan. These somewhat influenced but
did not control the daily habits of Israelite worshipers. The revealed truth of God was thoroughly
co-mingled with the thinking and religious influences of Israel’s pagan
neighbours.
In short, Israel was a
chaotic mess.