The Worst Story Ever Told?

Transcript

It's good to be back and to see so many familiar faces. Thank you for inviting me to share these thoughts. This one's been on the shelf for a little while, just collecting dust. And it's something that I've sort of been wrestling with for a little while and thinking about. As a teacher, I know the power of story. I teach 10 and 11 year olds very hard to keep their attention. But you break into any story and you immediately have everyone's eyes. All I have to say is, my wife and I last night went to, or when my son was six and all of a sudden people pay attention because there's a story coming and stories are so important. And if you've ever had the privilege of teaching Sunday school, you know just the power of stories in the Bible, how they captivate. And it's very intentional that God has left us such narrative to motivate us, to teach us, to encourage us. They're just so captivating. We're drawn into these stories. And of course, the stories we're talking about, they're nonfiction. These are real events that occurred. And as you go through Genesis, you're just story after story that are just amazing that you read of. And then when you get into the judges and you read of these famous stories of these judges, once again, you're captivated by these stories. And I was going through Judges 17, 18, and then on into 19, 20, and 21. And all of a sudden, it was just this feeling of what is going on here? Who are these people? It just seems to break the mold of everything that we've been, when you start in Genesis and you read through, it just, there's something amiss. And Judges 17 and 18 for me for years was just a head scratcher. And even into 19, 20, and 21, which we will not be getting into tonight, but just sort of left me like, what is that all about? And then I just leave it and move on in the readings or whatever it was. But I decided to have a little bit of a deeper dive into these stories. So that's just sort of as an opening of just the importance of story. And I've named this talk, The Worst Story Ever Told. And I put it as a question because how can we name the worst story ever told? It's just sort of a provocative statement. But just one other thought before we dive into it. I was listening to a podcast. And I think this hits at what I'm getting at tonight. And the podcast was between a Christian scholar named N.T. Wright, maybe some of you have heard of him, and a journalist named Douglas Murray. So you have a Christian. And then Douglas Murray was an atheist. He might be more agnostic now. And they were discussing, actually, the benefits, the value of Christianity, the Judeo-Christian ethic. And I found that they talked for about an hour, hour and 20 minutes on this podcast. And I found it really encouraging, actually, just the way this atheist, this agnostic was saying, oh, we need Christianity. And it has something to offer the world that nothing else does. It was really surprising in many ways how generous he was to Christianity, considering his view. And in some ways, he was saying that belief comes easy to some people. You just believe. And he goes, for some of us, it's not that easy. And he got the sense there was a tension that he wants to believe the Bible, but he just has these struggles in making that full step. But anyway, in their conversation, this Douglas Murray was talking about South Africa during the time of apartheid and how they were coming out of it and they had this truth and reconciliation, a way of working through all the problems that went on for decades and decades. And the mediators were working with these different groups. And this one group said, we're trying to explain how difficult it was to just forgive and to work through this truth and reconciliation process. And their comment was, they said, you don't understand. We don't have a book. And the point they were making was, when you're atheist, when you don't have a Bible, a source outside of yourself to look to for clear guidance in what is right and wrong, then you're going to struggle with finding out what is right and wrong. And so many people in this process could look to scripture, could look to the words of Jesus and say, OK, there's a clear path about repentance and forgiveness and loving your enemies and all these principles that we can be guided by. And there's these other groups saying, we don't have a book. We don't have something outside of us to look to. And I just found that a really amazing statement. And Douglas Murray, his point was, you have a book. You have a moral compass. And you've got to share that compass with the world. He was really encouraging the importance of getting down to the fundamentals of what scripture teaches. And almost like he was saying, that's the only light that's out there. So afterward, if anyone wants to know the name of the podcast and stuff, we can get into it. But I think that gets to the essence of Judges 17, 18, and further on. There was an absence of a compass, of an anchor in these people's lives, even though it was there. They were not going to it. And so just this idea of the importance of having a book. And we live, we're seeing it in the school system. We live with a society that no longer has a book. They don't turn to scripture anymore. They don't turn to the teachings of Christ to say, OK, what's the right way to handle this? Or how should I be handling this? Or what have I done wrong? And how do I fix it? So where do people turn? And that's when you get statements like this. Well, follow your heart. Follow your passions. Let your feelings and emotions make your decisions. You hear things like, you can be anything you want to be. Speak your truth. It doesn't matter. There is no longer a source of truth. So speak your truth. You're the author of your life. You make your decisions. There is no God. You get to decide. And we're beginning to see the story of society developing under those sorts of pieces of what people will call wisdom. And it would be interesting if this was written into a story so we could see, OK, what does society look like when you completely abandon the Bible? I've heard terms like, we're living in the shadow of the Judeo-Christian ethic. Or we're living in the world where it's like a rose that's been cut. We no longer have those sources of life flowing into us. And society is just going to get darker and darker and wilt away. And I think what we have in Judges 17 and 18 is a picture of what life is like when you don't have that book. And it's framed by, we get this pretty clearly. God is, I think, very strongly making a point. And he makes it in a few places. But in Judges 17, right near the beginning, in verse 6, it says, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And then right near the end of the Book of Judges, in Judges 21, verse 25, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. It's like saying we have no book, even though, as we'll see, there was a source of truth that was accessible. And then there's a few, I think, two other places, Judges 18, verse 1, and 19, verse 1, that refer to, there was no king in Israel. And kings can be good, and kings can be bad, but I think it's pointing to the fact that God, at this point, was supposed to be their king. And they were not turning to their God. I looked for the earliest passage that sort of refers to God as a king, and I came up with Exodus 15, verse 8, in the Song of Moses, and I don't know if anyone can find anything earlier than that, but just this idea that it was recognizable that God was their king, and Exodus 15, verse 8, Exodus 15, verse 18, it says, the Lord shall reign forever and ever. And so in the Song of Moses, he was acknowledging that God is reigning, he is their king, and he should be treated as a king. Okay, so hopefully I've painted that picture of we're dealing with stories where there is no book. Everyone does what's right in their own eyes. They live their own truth. They are the author of their own lives. Do what your heart tells you to do. And we're going to get a picture, God's giving us a picture of what that story looks like. So let's think about just stories for a little bit. What makes a good story? So one of the best stories I can think of that I enjoy reading are Sherlock Holmes. I just find them very compelling. But here's Stephen King. I don't read Stephen King, but he's obviously a very successful storyteller. And he says, I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say they're character driven. So character is obviously very important in a story. So as we go through Judges 17, we're going to keep an eye on the characters and are they compelling? Do they draw us in? Do they appeal to us? Do we relate to them? So character. And when we think of other stories in the Bible, character is huge. And it doesn't mean the character is perfect. Quite often the characters that we're most compelled by are flawed, but they have principles and they have struggles and we end up rooting for them. Okay, so keep an eye on that. Who in the story in Judges 17 are we rooting for? And we usually see with character, there's a growth. Okay, they start off like this and there's some growth and we see them develop as they go along. There's usually an adversary that they're fighting against. Sometimes it's themselves, sometimes it's other people, but usually there's some sort of a struggle and then there's victorious. So characters are very important to a good story. A good story also needs some sort of conflict. And so Wes Anderson is a very famous director. A storyteller. And he says there's no story if there isn't some conflict. So I think we do see some conflict in Judges 17, as we'll see, but it doesn't seem to be a conflict that's driving the story towards some culminating message. But throughout scripture, there's always an adversary, right? In Genesis chapter three, there's this adversary. There's somebody there or something or a kingdom who's really there for a purpose to refine people, to test them, to test their resolve and their resilience, their faith. And so the Bible is full of conflict that tries to draw out the best in characters. Okay, so, and the last thing, what makes a good story is there's some progression in the narrative, right? So this is Barbara Kingsolver, so she's an author as well. And she said, the plot is the architecture of your novel. You wouldn't build a house without a plan. If I wrote without a plot, now listen to this, it would just be a pile of bricks. She says characters are your servants. So she's arguing sort of against Stephen King. She says characters serve the narrative progression. And so, I remember being back in high school and learning this idea, this pattern of most stories, how there's some sort of beginning, there's conflict, there's rising action. It keeps building till there's some climax. And at the end of the story, there's this falling action and resolution. When we go through the judges, we see this narrative progression that something is being built through all these stories. And throughout judges, it's this cycle that we all know where there's oppression, there's crying out, there's deliverance, they then commit adultery, there's oppression. And so at least the story's going somewhere and we get this pattern, we know what's going on. So that's what we would look for in a good story. And there's many other things. But we're going to dive into Judges 17. Two things before we do. Number one is where is Judges 17, 18, 19, 20, 21? Where is it in the chronology of judges? Well, here's one chart and I've found this over and over again. I always thought that it's at the end of the Book of Judges, it's going to be somewhere towards the end of the Book of Judges. But more and more scholars, scholars that I've read are saying no, it's probably somewhere towards the beginning of Judges. And I think there's some evidence for that. I haven't done a lot of research into that aspect. But it's sort of this glimpse, it's out of chronological order, these chapters. It's a glimpse of what's happening somebody's writing on my screen. It's a glimpse of what's happening at times when people were idolatrous and when they were turning away from God. So just an idea, and that's something you may want to look into. When exactly is this taking place? And we'll look at one little proof of why it might be towards the beginning of the Judges. Where does it take place? It takes place in Ephraim. Let me just see if I can, if I can get rid of all that. So it talks about the mountains of Ephraim. And so this is where the story's basically going to take place. Does anyone know how to get rid of these markings on my screen? Yeah, I'm not sure. I've never seen that before. Oh, here's an eraser, let's see. Oh, yeah, here we go. There you go. Erase all, well, erase all. Shift A, I apologize for this. No, I think maybe the person who did it has to erase it. All right, we'll move on. All right, so where was I, Ephraim, okay. So let's dive into the story. So I was thinking if this was a talk show and they had these characters come on to a late night with Jonathan Kay, even though I think that's Jimmy Fallon. So I used AI for a lot of these images because it's free, there's no copyright and it can be quite creative. But the characters in Judges 17 are Micah, Micah's mom and the Levite. There's also other characters like Micah's son, but we're not gonna get into him too much. So let's get into the characters. So if we turn to Judges 17, it says, now there is a man from the mountains of Ephraim whose name was Micah. And he said to his mother, the 1,100 shekels of silver that were taken from you and on which you put a curse, even saying in my ears, here's the silver with me, I took it. And so here's this character. And once again, good stories have compelling characters that we can somehow relate to in some way. So he steals $1,100 or shekels from his mom. And already we might say, okay, here's the bad guy in the story. We've identified the bad guy, but then he returns it. And we might think, okay, maybe he's repentant and he's returning it. And we're gonna see this back and forth with these characters, but he returns it out of fear. It says, and he said to his mother, the 1,100 shekels of silver that were taken from you and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears, here's the silver with me, I took it. So it's like, mom's made a curse and I heard it. And I don't want that curse to come against me. So he returns the money to his mom. So the motivation of returning it doesn't seem to be all that good either. Then he takes, it says that he has set up a shrine with idols. If we go down in verse five, the man Micah had a shrine and made an ephod and household idols. And he consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. And there's that comment. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So here we have somebody who's motivated by, okay, what do I wanna do? What feels right? I would like a shrine. I would like idols. I'd like to set up a place of worship. And just to keep in mind, he's in the mountains of Ephraim and Shiloh is where the tabernacle was. So it's not like he has a huge distance to travel in order to get to the tabernacle, to get to Levites, to get to priests, to make sacrifices. But he feels he's going to set up in his own home. And we can kind of get that sense that people do that as well. Well, you know, I don't get along with other people or I don't like the things I'm saying. I'm gonna worship at home. This is going to be my place. Now, in his defense, the worship in Shiloh wasn't always the best. Now, this is at the end of the time of the judges when Elias is priest. And in 1 Samuel chapter two, we can find out that Shiloh, at least at times, was not somewhere people actually wanted to go to offer sacrifices because the way the priests were behaving. In chapter 1 Samuel two, verse 12, it says, now the sons of Eli were corrupt. They did not know the Lord. You know, it might be another way of saying there was no king in the land or they did what was right in their own heart. And the priest's custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with three-pronged flesh hook in his hand. And while the meat was boiling, they would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. And the priest would take for himself all that the flesh hook brought up. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Also, before they burned the fat, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who sacrificed, give meat for roasting to the priest, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but raw. And if the man said to him, they should really burn the fat first, then you may take as much as your heart desires. He would then answer him, no, but you must give it now. And if not, I will take it by force. Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. So I don't know if this was the situation earlier as well that at times, just like in the land, people moved to idolatry. Maybe the priests were corrupt at different times throughout the judges as well. But for whatever reason, Micah decides to break some laws and set up a shrine with idols. And it's this idea of mixing things with true worship too. Yahweh's name is brought up a number of times in this chapter, the whole idea of having a priest and an ephod, but it's all mixed up with idolatry as well. And then later on, if we continue to read, he sets up his son as a priest, and then this young Levite comes along, and so he fires his son and hires this Levite, and offers him a job as his priest. And so it's this back and forth, he steals, he returns, he sets up his son, he fires his son, he hires a Levite. And then he just has this idea that somehow all of this, now I know that the Lord will prosper me because I have a Levite as priest. And just this idea like, well, you can, in your own justification, make things seem right, make things seem right. I've got a Levite, I'm gonna ignore the fact that I have set up a shrine in my house with idols, but at least I have a Levite, and God's gonna be favorable towards me because I've done that. And so we get this idea that, okay, Micah, his name means who is like God, but maybe that's more like, almost like a sarcastic comment. Here's somebody who's clearly not like God. And so it's a very confusing person, but once again, that whole idea that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So let's move on to the mom. And as we read, she curses the person who stole her $1,100, or shekels. She gets her money back, and she blesses her son to the Lord. So okay, maybe this is the good person. Maybe this is the person that is the heroine of the story. But look what happens with her. It says, his mother said, "'May you be blessed by the Lord my son.'" Then verse three. "'When he had returned the 1,100 shekels of silver "'to his mother, his mother said, "'I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand "'to the Lord for my son, "'to make a carved image and a molded image.'" So you just, what? You know, you got your money back. You're dedicating it wholly to the Lord to make idols. And once again, what happens to people when they have no book, when they have no king, God is their king, when they do what is right in their own eyes? And so it says she dedicates it all to the Lord, to her son to make idols. But then she spends, it says she takes $200, 200 silver shekels, verse four. "'Then he returned the silver to his mother, "'then his mother took 200 shekels of silver "'and gave them to the silversmith, "'and he made it into a carved image and a molded image, "'and they were in the house of Micah.'" So she says, I'm gonna dedicate it all to the Lord. And then she takes 200. So it's almost like it's a horrible thing she's doing anyway, making these idols. But she's not even sticking to her commitment of dedicating it all. And so we find out that the mom is not the person who's going to redeem this story. Well, what about the Levite? Maybe this Levite who's wandering around is gonna make things right. Verse seven, it says, "'There was a young man from Bethlehem and Judah, "'of the family of Judah, and he was a Levite, "'and he was staying there.'" Let me continue there, verse eight. "'The man departed from the city of Bethlehem and Judah "'to stay wherever he could find a place. "'Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, "'to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. "'And Micah said to him, where do you come from? "'So he said to him, I am a Levite from Bethlehem and Judah, "'and I'm on my way to find a place to stay.'" So he's wandering the hills. He doesn't seem to have any specific destination. We might ask, why isn't he in Shiloh? Why isn't he around the tabernacle? He's living in Bethlehem, it says, or he was living in Bethlehem, and that was not a city that was given to the Levites, when you see that in Numbers 18, verse 20. He doesn't seem to have any purpose. He's just wandering, looking for a place. And that really, I think, once again, stresses this idea. God's giving us a picture. If you don't have a book, as it says, if you don't have a king, if you follow what your heart desires, your feelings, if you're the author of your life, where's the purpose in that? And so he says, okay, I'll take the job of a father and priest for $10, 10 shekels, a year, clothing, room, and board. So now he's taking on this job in an idolatrous house, a shrine, not in Shiloh, and so now we can't even look to the Levite to be the redeemer of this story. And later on, we find out that he advances. He takes this advancement, becoming a priest for the whole tribe of Dan, of the Danites. So there is one more big reveal with the Levite. If we go to chapter 19, verse one, I think it is, sorry, 18, verse 30. And we'll get to what happens in chapter 18, but it says, the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. Now my Bible says that, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, but it has a little asterisks there, and it says, the son of Moses, a descendant of Moses. So many scholars think this was a grandson, the grandson of Moses, which would put it at the beginning of Judges. But here you have a descendant of Moses, perhaps his grandson, setting up this for the Danites, the city and this place of idolatrous worship and becoming their Levite. So the word Manasseh there, it says in the Vulgate, it's Moses, descendant of Moses, which is quite shocking. And I think a little bit more proof for that perhaps is in Judges 18, verse three, when the Danites are going through, or this group that has been sent to search out a place, it says, while they were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. So he was obviously renowned in some way, because they heard him and they recognized, hey, isn't that, you know, Jonathan? So that sort of takes it to a whole nother level that this descent into idolatry was happening so quickly. So just to talk about the characters again and what makes a good story. So characters, the characters that we see in this story, we don't see any growth. There's no spiritual growth. There's no, you know, emotional growth. There's no growth in their personalities. They just are sort of purposeless, surface level. Let's see, I've got a nice line here that describes them. Yeah, here we have a collection of the most uninteresting shallow, self-serving, unprincipled, and ultimately meaningless characters. And that sort of fits them. There's nothing that comes out from any of them. There's no one to root for. We don't see any moral fiber. We don't see them leaning on any, as I said, a moral compass or anything. They're just doing what their heart is telling them to do. You know, I want an idol, let's get an idol. I want a shrine. I'll make my son a priest, okay? Oh, here's a Levite. This is a step up. I'll take the Levite, make him a priest. It just, there's a loss of meaning when they chase meaningless things. And just think about the laws that were broken just in this chapter 17. We know that you're supposed to honor your father and mother and Micah's stealing from his mother. That connects with do not steal, do not covet, no carved images. They were making carved images. Not keeping your oath. You know, perhaps, you know, she said all the money's going to go to this and then only $200 does. They're only to worship God where he says, and in Deuteronomy 12, 13, and 14, they're told it was to be Shiloh at that time. Only Levites were to serve. And here we have Micah setting up his son to serve as a priest. And now we have a Levite working at an idolatrous shrine. And Ezekiel 44 has some stuff to say about that. So it becomes a very difficult story to really attach ourselves to in any way. And another thing that makes a good story is the plot, the narrative progression. And so we look for something like this in this story or like this, but we get something a little bit more like this. There's no pulse to this story. It just doesn't go anywhere. The quote that we used in the beginning, the lady said, if there's no plot, it's just a pile of bricks. And that's the feeling I get when I read Judges Chapter 17 and 18. It's just a pile of bricks. Nothing is built by this story. I mean, you think about it, she has money, it's stolen. Her son steals it, he gives it back. They set up a shrine with idols. They make the son a priest, and then they find a better priest. It's just really a terrible story. And I think the point is, and we'll get to it, that God has a point by putting this story in here that he's trying to convey to us. But as we get into Chapter 18, and we're not gonna read Chapter 18, no, we're doing it for time, we get to this group of Danites, and we think, okay, maybe here the Danites are gonna bring some sense to this. They're going to be the good guys in this story. Well, we learn from Judges Chapter 1, Verse 34, right in here, this was their assigned territory. And what's happening in Judges 1, Verse 34, it says they, well, let's go there, it says they couldn't take the land, or they weren't willing to. From Verse 27 on in Judges Chapter 1, it's talking about all the land that wasn't conquered. And in Verse 34, it says the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley. And the Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Heres, and Agilon, and Shalabim. And so they couldn't go anywhere. They were unwilling to take this land. So what they do is they get a group of men to go up through Ephraim, this is when they go up and they see Micah, and they find Jonathan the Levite, and they're going up here to take this territory up here, which they call Dan, it's Laish, and they rename it Dan. And they find this unsuspecting people living in peace. And so instead of taking what God allotted for them, they head up here and take this land up here, and they set up this idolatrous worship up in Dan, which later on, when Jeroboam becomes king, he sort of takes control of that and says, yep, this is going to be one place that people can come to worship these calves. And so the Danites do not redeem the story. In fact, as they come through, and it just sort of shows the pointlessness of everything that Micah's done in setting up a shrine, and the idols, and the Ephod, and getting a Levite, because the Danites come through, and they just take the priest. They take the Ephod, they take the idols. Micah goes running out after them, he wants them back, and they say, you better go back home, or else it's not going to end well with you. And so what happens here? Micah makes right, they have the power. So everything that the story is sort of like trying to build this is just destroyed, at least in Micah's mind. As we read it, we know it was a mess from the beginning. And then the story, we're not going to go on into it, but it's just one disaster to the next. As you read on in chapter 19 and 20, there's the horrendous account of the Levite, the concubine, and the old man, and the men of Gibeah. There's almost a complete annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin, and then they kidnap women for wives, for the Benjamites. At the end of Judges, God is saying, this is a mess, and it's purposefully put there for us. And so you might ask, what is the purpose of the worst story ever told, as I suggest it might be? Well, I think God clearly is showing us, it paints a picture of what life without a king, without our God, or without the book looks like. And sadly, our society is heading into a continuation of that story, life without a king. I've just been noticing how often you see those signs now that say, we will not tolerate any abusive language or behavior, you'll be asked to leave. And I remember seeing it maybe one place when you're younger, now you see it in restaurants, you see it at airports, you see it at schools, you see it, I worked in a food bank, it was at the food bank. Like there's just this falling apart of a morality, and that's what happens when everyone makes their own truth, and when we have no book to go to and say, this is what is right. And so our story becomes purposeless. Our story becomes meaningless when we decide to chase meaningless things. And I think that's the reason this horrible story becomes a very valuable story for God to put into his word for us to learn from. Now, I just want to end with this because there was, back in 1947, a radio show called The Greatest Story Ever Told. And they took that radio show and they turned it into a book in 1949, and then in the 60s, I think, they made it into a movie called The Greatest Story Ever Told. If you just turn to Isaiah 53, we have the complete opposite of what we were reading in Judges 17. Isaiah 53, we know it well. But just consider the character in this story. I'm just gonna read a few verses, and you can just immediately see the difference because here we have a principled character. He's compelling. He has a conflict with the flesh. There's a plot that makes us a part of the narrative. It pulls us in. It leads us through pain and suffering to victory. So let's just start at verse two. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. And just keep in mind, this is the story that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading when Philip came along, right? And he was compelled by this story. Who is this man? Verse four, surely he is born our griefs and carried our sorrows. And yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it sheers silent. So he opened not his mouth. So here we have a character and he's suffering, but there's a point to it. He's suffering for us. Verse eight and nine, he's treated terribly. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people he was stricken. And they made his grave with the wicked. But with the rich at his death. Because he had done no violence. Nor was any deceit in his mouth. So here's someone who's treated terribly yet he's done nothing wrong. And no one seems to notice at the time. And yet when we get to verse 10 and 11 and on, we see that there is a purpose to it. We see the structure, this foundation that's being built. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. I love this verse. And he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him of portion with the great. And he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors. He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. So here we have just this amazing character. And when we compare it to the characters that we see in Judges 17 and 18, we see the contrast. We're pulled into the story. We're rooting for this character. He's working on our behalf. So just to close, hopefully we can see the importance of Judges 17 through to the end of Judges. Not that it's a beautiful story. Not that it's even an interesting story. But it really paints a picture for us. God is showing us what life is like if we don't have that moral compass, that book, that we don't choose our heavenly father and his son as our king, the one to follow and to lead us to victory.