The older I get, the more I treasure the Bible. Recently re-reading the Old Testament book of Judges brought home to me the truth about human nature and our desperate need for the divine Messiah.

The older I get, the more I treasure the Bible. Recently re-reading the Old Testament book of Judges brought home to me the truth about human nature and our desperate need for the divine Messiah.

Judges is set in the 200-year period between the Israelites’ conquest of the Promised Land in around 1200 BC and the establishment of the monarchy in Israel in 1000. It is a time of spiritual and moral chaos in the land as the Israelites repeatedly fall into idolatry and disobedience until God raises up a judge (a military leader) to save them from the pagan nations that subjugate them. But when the judge dies, the Israelites revert to idolatry.

The last five chapters of Judges are an account, both shocking and satirical, of the corruption of a nation. The narrative concludes with the statement: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25 – King James Version).