Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who is Your King? | Historical Books | Judges 11:1-28

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

We love freedom, and we despise kings. But everyone worships a king. Who sits on the throne of your heart?  In today's episode, Patrick shares how Judges 11:1-28 encourages us to worship the one true King of Kings. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Judges 11:1-28

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 Patrick Miller. Freedom. It's something that most Americans value, something many Americans have died to protect. It's something everyone desires who lives under oppressive regimes, someone who's imprisoned by the state or a social system will seek after. And this makes sense because God gave us free will. He designed us to have volition, to make choices. But like any good thing, freedom can become an unlawful. idol when we make it into an ultimate thing. And again, I think that it's tempting for many in the modern West to make freedom into an idol, but especially in America. We don't like kings. We don't have kings.

If any American sees a king on TV, it's probably the Burger King, not the King of England or the king of any other country. We got out from under the thumb of King George in 1776. We're not going back, unless you believe in beef patties, of course. We can have that kind of Burger King. And I think it's because we all know the truth. There can only be one king in our life. When it comes to matters of state or matters of the human heart, there can't be two kings at once. And we Westerners prefer to be kings of our own lives.

We don't want some monarch in a distant country ruling over us. Every throne is a one-seater. Kings don't share, and we like that seat. I mean, even countries with kings sometimes don't even like them. Back in 2017, Burger King drew the wrath of Belgium's king for a hilarious online publicity stunt. At the time, they were preparing to expand their franchises into Belgium, and to get attention, they posted an online poll with two cartoon characters, the Burger King on one side, and a cartoon of King Philip of Belgium on the other side.

Beneath the Kings, there was a question. Two kings, one crown, who shall reign? The Burger Chain then invited Belgium to vote, and they voted for the Burger King. Anyway, apparently King Philip was He said that he didn't give the campaign approval to use his likeness. In the end, it seems he agreed with a campaign. There really can only be one king, and he doesn't want it to be the Burger King. And this is a theme, this idea that there can only be one king. Well, it runs through the book of judges. The book begins and ends with a refrain. In those days, there was no king. People did what was right in their own eyes. You see, God was supposed to be their king, but the people continually refused. to bow the knee. They did what was right in their own eyes. Every throne is a one-seater,

and they wanted to be on the throne. And so the cycle in the book of judges, it's more than a cycle, this cycle of God's people rejecting God and then being put under the oppressive reign of foreign regimes, then being rescued by a judge that God sent to save them. Well, this happened, and it was recorded to show us what happens when humans refused to accept God's kingship. And one of the lessons that God wants people to see is that if they continually rebel against him, it's not only their personal lives that suffer, eventually whole communities suffer, eventually a whole society suffers. How? Well, eventually, if people want their freedom, they want to be kings and queens at their own lives. Well, eventually, God gives the people the insufferable rulers that they want.

Put differently, a society that gives itself over to immorality, injustice, and idolatry ends up with immoral, unjust, and idolatrous rulers. And that's precisely what happened with a man named Jefftha. He was a judge, just like the judges we've talked about in the past. But unlike the other judges, he's not a judge that God actually calls or gifts. He's a judge that an immoral, unjust, and idolatrous people choose. And God accepts their decision, as strange as that is. He says, if you want to be ruled by a criminal, so be it. You see what happens. Let's pick up in judges Chapter 11. Jefftha, the Gileadite, was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead. His mother was a prostitute. Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away.

You are not going to get any inheritance in our family, they said, because you are the son of another woman. So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him. Now, I think it's tempting to be. empathetic towards Jefftha, like he was just this misunderstood soul. And perhaps that was true. It probably was, but I think that's a really postmodern way of reading this. We like anti-heroes, you know bad boys who turn out to be good guys. But in reality, those kinds of people don't usually exist. Bad people just turn out to be bad people. And the Bible is a real story. So what the author wants us to see is that Jefftha was born to a man and a woman who both partook in criminal activity.

and he grew up himself to become a criminal. Now, the way his brothers treat him isn't fair at all. It's criminal in its own right, which isn't surprising, given his family. But again, the author wants us to see a complex picture. Jephtha wasn't a good guy at all. In verse 3, we learned that when he ran away, he gathered a criminal syndicate around him, a syndicate of violent evildoers, a, quote, gang of scoundrels. They likely raided the countryside together.

They likely pillaged, maybe even raped, the people that they found, and we have to imagine that this included both Israelites and non-Israelites. Jephthah is not a good guy. But then the Israelites, they start getting bullied by a foreign people called the Ammonites. In verse 4, we read this. Some time afterward, the Ammonites made war against Israel. And sometimes when you're getting bullied, the easiest solution is just to find a bigger bully. That's exactly what the Israelites do. They turn to a strong man. They turn to a criminal. They turn to a man who surrounds himself with worthless men. And they say to him, Jefftha, rescue us.

Verse 5. And when the Ammonites attacked Israel, Gilead's elders went to bring Jefftha back from the land of Tob. They said to him, come be our commander so that we can fight against the Ammonites. But Jefftha replied to Gilead's elders, aren't you the ones who hated me and drove me away from my father's household? Why are you coming to me now when you're in trouble? Gilead's elders answered Jephtha. That may be, but now we're turning back to you. So come with us and fight the Ammonites.

Then you'll become the leader over us and everyone who lives in Gilead. And Jephthah said to Gilead's elders, if you bring me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them over to me, I alone will be your leader. Every throne is a one-seater. There's two key differences between Jephthah and all of the other judges. First, all of the other judges come after the people cry out. to God for help. But that doesn't happen here. The people don't cry out to God as their king. They don't even ask God for help. They're trusting themselves. The second difference is that all the other judges are called and chosen by God. But not in this case. The people call Jephtha. God does eventually use Jephthah. He sends his spirit upon him. He accepts the Israelites' decision. We'll get to that

tomorrow. But I don't want us to miss the author's clear point. He's breaking the pattern of the cycle of judges, where the people cry out to God and God answers them, he cuts that whole part out. And he wants us to see that the end result of refusing God's kingship is not that we end up living without a king. It's that we end up living with the wrong kind of kings. The people agree to make Jeff the their leader in desperation. And so instead of having an eternal king of love, goodness, justice, and beauty on the throne, they get a criminal. There's only one throne in your heart.

Who will sit on it? your favorite ideology, your favorite politician, or yourself, your own desires, your own vision. Every throne is a one-seater, and every throne will be filled. The question is, who will sit on it? Will the refrain of judges be true in your life? There was no king in those days, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Or will you take the lesson of judges to heart? Will you realize that when you, when we reject God's kingship, we don't get freedom. We just get criminal kings, bad kings, destructive kings. And yes, even you are a tyrant. Following yourself, putting yourself on the throne will only lead you to self-destruction. So today, I want you to repent of the ways you've given your

heart to other kings than Jesus. And instead, give your heart to him. He's the good king. He's the true king. He's the beautiful king. He's the only king who rules, not as a destructive tyrant, but as a freedom-giving cultivator of the good.