Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Does the Perfect Christian Life Exist? | Judges | Judges 17

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the Book of Judges. If you haven't subscribed to our new podcast, Truth Over Tribe, I'd encourage you to take some time and go do that right now. We've got interviews about culture, politics, and the things you really care about with people like John Mark Comer, John Tyson, Oz Guinness, and many, many others. It's going to be a great podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:33 I've been excited about the interviews and the topics that we've taken on. So stop right now. Go subscribe to Truth Over Tribe on your podcast player. Eric and I just got back from a 20th anniversary trip to Arizona. And the resort where we stayed for the last couple of days of our trip had this little chapel next to the bell stand. And of course, I had to go in and check it out. There were crosses and candles, a few chairs,

Starting point is 00:00:57 and some obituaries left behind from loved ones. It was a quaint and a quiet little place. I appreciated it for its refuge and its honor there in the middle of a bustling resort in a busy city. And I glanced up to look around the small room at the walls and the ceiling, and I noticed a plaque toward the rear with a person's face etched on the left side. I was curious, so I walked over to get a closer look, and it was a dedication to the person who had found it and established the property in the early 20th century. And it was thanking him for his vision and his hard work to make this little refuge in the desert. but it was the last line of the plaque that really got my wheels spinning. After describing his vision and career, the last line of dedication read,

Starting point is 00:01:39 He lived the perfect Christian life every single day. I needed to process what I just read, so I called Erick in to see it too, and I just pointed to the last line. He read it and said, wow, Jesus lived here? We chuckled. It's funny, but not really funny, but I think you get my point. I think the people who made that plaque really loved that man. He must have been a wonderful leader who did a lot of wonderful things.

Starting point is 00:02:04 Maybe he was one of the best and most pure-hearted men that ever lived. But how did he live the perfect Christian life every single day? In Judges Chapter 17, the focus takes a shift into the internal condition of the people of Israel and the way they were doing religion. Their ability to rightly worship God is weakening and decaying as they get further and further from the knowledge of the true God and his law. there's a ton of religious language being used. There are lots of religious symbols lying around.

Starting point is 00:02:35 There are religious practices going on. It's a chapter full of religion, but who is it all about? Who does it all point to? The scene takes place in Ephraim, and the main character is Micah, whose name really means who is like Yahweh. It's ironic because his name was supposed to be one of devotion and honor to the one true God. But his mom had a silver idol made for him out of money she consecrated to the Lord. The whole situation there is just backward. So Micah is trying to practice religion and we might

Starting point is 00:03:07 be sympathetic toward him because it appears that he's trying to make his house a place of worship. He has a shrine. He makes an Ephan for his priest, household gods, and he appoints his son and he ordained him as a priest. He's trying to establish a sanctuary, if you will, where he and members of his household can go and perform rituals and ceremonies to connect with something or someone bigger than themselves. He has a desire to worship something. He takes us even a step further when he comes across a priest from the tribe of Levi looking for work. Also problematic, by the way, because the priest should have been provided for through tithes. Anyway, again, Micah seems to be a sympathetic character because he offers the priest a job in his own home and he offers to pay him and he treats him

Starting point is 00:03:54 like a son. Interestingly, we don't know what happened to Micah's own son that he'd already ordained. There are several problems with this whole thing. He's making and worshipping idols out of metal. He's ordaining people as priest even though he has no power to ordain. He's worshipping in a shrine in his personal compound. Out of desire for connection with something greater, he's basically mixing and matching elements of true worship with practices that are completely unacceptable to God. partially this was a leadership problem. Micah's mother, Micah himself, the Levitical priest who came to his compound, they all lack spiritual leaders to teach them and hold them accountable to what God commanded in His Word. Because they didn't know, they filled in the gaps with what

Starting point is 00:04:41 made sense to them and their culture and their way of life at the time. This was also a heart problem. Micah wasn't really devoted to any one God in particular, but he liked having lots of ways and freedoms to worship and fill connected. The text reveals the largest problem, however, and it was a perspective problem. After the household gods were cast, after the Ephod was made, after the son and the Levi were ordained as priest out of turn, Micah had a sense of satisfaction and said, Now I know that the Lord will prosper me because I have a Levite as a priest. He's literally speaking of the I am, but he wants a Lord that does things for him.

Starting point is 00:05:29 He wants to be part of a religion that has a God who sees all the boxes he's checked and good things he's done and answered his prayers accordingly. He wants the Lord that follows him. And if we're honest, we may have this desire to have that kind of God sometimes because in a way it would be easier. If we can make sense of the world and the good and bad things that happen to us, based on what we've done for the Lord, then the Lord and his actions would be easier to anticipate,

Starting point is 00:05:59 to control, to explain, and to predict. I get confused when I hear people say things like, we know the Lord will answer our prayer, and they mean that he'll do something specific, or we know the Lord will heal this person, and they mean physical healing.

Starting point is 00:06:14 Or sometimes it sounds like this. I prayed for money, and the Lord sent me exactly what I needed. God is good. I prayed for a child, and the Lord gave me a baby. God is good. I prayed for a spouse and the Lord led me to the right person. God is good. I hear that and I wonder, would God be just as good if he didn't give money, a child, or a spouse? Is God good because he did those things or good because he is God?

Starting point is 00:06:44 See, Micah defined prosperity in terms of what he wanted from God. But the Bible defines prosperity in the cross. The cross. It's the place where everything we have ever needed has been given and done on our behalf. The cross is the place where the things we have done are covered by the blood of Jesus, and that which we can't do is done for us by his blood. And there's nothing in the cross that looks like our world's definition of prosperity. To the Roman world, the cross was a place of shame, guilt, and disgrace. The cross was the lowest and most humiliating form of death. Yet, Jesus. Jesus took on that humiliation for us, knowing we could never do enough things right enough to live the perfect Christian life, making it so we don't have to. All he asks of us

Starting point is 00:07:39 is surrender to him, surrender to his plans, his timing, his ways, his cross. Our pastor recently just to memorize Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul for his namesake. I was walking on the trail, phone and hand saying those verses, and I couldn't help but think about how different those words are from Micah's when he says, now I know the Lord will prosper me because I've appointed a Levite as a priest. See, Psalm 23 paints a life of prosperity where we are surrendered to God's leadership, where prosperity is defined by the nature of his kingdom and not ours,

Starting point is 00:08:29 where we're at peace because our outcomes are in his hand. The Christian life is not one perfectly lived, but one imperfectly surrendered to Jesus. He's the only one who can give us everything we will ever truly hunger and thirst for. We may lack health, finances, time, sleep, affirmation. But we will not lack eternal hope and security. We will not lack unconditional love. We will not fall short of mercy and grace.

Starting point is 00:09:00 And we will not lack true righteousness. Now I know the Lord will prosper me because he is the Lord. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give you. us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Does the Perfect Christian Life Exist? | Judges | Judges 17

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