The book of Judges begins with optimism as God’s ancient people enter the land of promise. As the book concludes, however, we discover the spiritual and moral bankruptcy of Israel as they walk away from God and descend into chaos. These chapters provide a confronting picture of a world where we choose to exclude God as king.

Religion is our human endeavour to relate to God. While it is right to seek to relate to God, in Judges 17–18 we see the folly of trying to pursue God through our own human endeavours. Man-made religion, though often sincere, inevitably leads to superstition and doesn’t achieve its goal. Judges 17–18 warns us of the danger of seeking God on our own terms.

We often find ourselves asking, “How could God allow that?” Through the life of Samson and ultimately in the life of Jesus, we learn that God can work through sin to bring about salvation for His people.

What could this horror story possibly teach us?… That manipulating God is both unnecessary and tragic. We’ll need to prayerfully think about how we readily fall in to doing that and why.

God is king. What happens, however, when we remove God from the picture? What happens when we ignore God’s rightful rule and live as though we were in charge? Judges 9 revels the danger and consequences of leaving God out of the picture

Gideon, like all of us, would not, could not and did not, but God would, could and did.

If there was a way to bottle up peace and sell it, it would be the hottest gift this Mother’s Day. In our text today, there has been chaos in Israel for 20 years. Deborah, a mother in Israel, rises up and to bring peace to her people. But there’s a surprise! It’s not Deborah but someone else who brings peace and gets the glory.

Israel have been handed over again for their rebellion, but God rescues them through an unlikely saviour, showing himself to be far superior than the nations they served.

By nature we naturally forget God and drift toward self-confidence, compromise, and idolatry. God, however, pursues his people with his unrelenting love and undeserved grace.