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The Gift of Warlords: Judges · Reformed Thinking

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Some sounded brief audio intro reformed thinking.
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Welcome back to the Deep Dive. So today we're shifting gears,
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moving out of Israel's founding era, and we're heading into what
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well, pretty much everyone agrees is one of the really dark
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periods in the nation's history. Yeah, it's often called the Dark
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Age. We're talking about that stretch
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about 175 years right after Joshua died.
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Exactly. And the sources we're looking
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at, they paint a pretty bleak picture.
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You've got political fragmentation, moral self
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destruction, widespread spiritual decay, apostasy.
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All in there. We've got a stack of documents
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here detailing this really catastrophic time.
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We've titled this Look When Warlords ruled.
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And it's important to see the story isn't just history, right?
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It's structured as a theological argument.
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So our mission today really is to unpack that argument.
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We want to show how the, you know, the moral and political
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anarchy that just defines this period, how it came directly
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from two big failures, failures that totally intertwined.
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First, there's no strong central king who's keeping the covenant.
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And 2nd, you see this utter collapse of the nation's
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spiritual guides, the Levites. Right.
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And the narrator of Judges kind of gives us the key, right?
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The end, doesn't he? With that repeated phrase, the
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inclusio. Absolutely, that's the textual
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signal. It frames the most chaotic
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parts, bookending them. And it hammers home the point.
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It's the whole point. The book is driving towards that
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core refrain. You hear it four times in those
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closing chapters. In those days, Israel had no
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king. Everyone did as he saw fit.
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And that's not just a throwaway line.
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No, not at all. The sources framed this whole
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chaotic time as basically Exhibit A for why the current
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system just wasn't working. It was unsustainable.
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So everyone did as he saw fit. Means what exactly?
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Just personal freedom. Well, not in a good way.
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It means people basically threw out God's revealed laws and just
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follow their own desires, their own opinions.
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They chose evil. The text basically calls them
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moral fools. Society run by subjective
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self-interest instead of God's objective truth.
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That's the picture. OK, let's try and get a handle
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on this 175 year stretch. So the sources put it roughly
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from Joshua's death, maybe 1225 BC give or take down to when the
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monarchy starts with Saul around 10:50 BCA.
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Long time for things to go wrong.
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A very long time and it was marked by constant struggle both
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inside Israel and with enemies all around.
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Now, about the leaders. We call the book Judges, but
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you're saying that term sopatum in Hebrew might be a bit
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misleading. Yet judges gives us maybe too
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narrow a picture. The roots back does involve
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deciding cases, sure, but when you look at what these figures
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Gideon Sanson Jeffia actually did.
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Our military leaders. Primarily a better English
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description, given the context, is probably warlords.
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These were charismatic, often regional heroes.
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Their main job was military deliverance, keeping some
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semblance of order. But ideally, the role was bigger
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than just fighting, right? The sources outline 3
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despondent. That's right, Ideally so #1
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externally the deliverer rescuing Israel from enemies #2
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internally administering justice.
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But the third one, the crucial 1.
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The religious one. Yes, they were supposed to be IA
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Miss Covenant keeper making sure the nation stayed faithful.
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And it's that third function where things really breakdown.
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Exactly. That's the failure that leads
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straight into the anarchy we see at the end.
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The warlords consistently failed to uphold the covenant, and this
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failure shows up in 2 main ways. Spiritual apostasy and then that
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moral and political chaos where, you know, tribal squabbles
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trumped any national unity. And the spiritual slide starts
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almost immediately, doesn't it? The generation after Joshua.
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Right away the text is clear, they quickly forgot I am started
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serving the king like gods, especially Baal.
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And this wasn't like flipping a switch.
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It was gradual. Incremental syncretism.
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That's the term I crept in. Little compromises at first.
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Like what? Well, right at the start of the
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book you see Judah and the House of Joseph getting called out.
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They didn't fully carry out Orem, that policy of total
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destruction against the Canaanite cities they were
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supposed to conquer. So they didn't wipe them out
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completely. No, and that wasn't just a
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military lapse. It was a direct violation of the
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Taurus commands. Instead of removing the
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spiritual contagion, they often just made treaties or put them
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to forced labor. Let them stick around.
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OK, but why was that specific failure not fully executing Orem
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so bad? Why was Bell worship so
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attractive so quickly? What was the?
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Pull. Well, think about the Canaanite
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system. Bail, his consort Ashura.
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It was all very practical, very transactional, different from
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the covenants moral demands. How so?
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Bail is the storm God, right? God of rain, crops, fertility.
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So if you're a farmer, you need a good harvest.
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The belief was you perform certain rituals, sometimes
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involving sex, static rights and bail delivers.
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Pay your dues, get the goods. Instant gratification.
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Almost. Sort of compared to the
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covenant, which demanded moral obedience, justice, total
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loyalty to I am, whether you got rain that year or not.
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The blessings were tied to faithfulness, not just ritual
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performance. So it was easier, maybe more
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immediately satisfying, to go the bail route, tangible results
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tied to, well, sensual things instead of the harder path of
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moral obedience and waiting on God.
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That seems to be the dynamic. And that choice, repeated over
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and over, just poisoned the whole nation from the inside
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out, allowed the Canaanite worldview to take root.
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And this spiritual rot you're saying is even reflected in how
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Book of Judges itself is put together.
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Yeah, the. Structure shows degeneration.
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Look at the early stories. The successes are pretty clean,
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decisive off Neil E Hood, but as you move through the Warlords.
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The cycles change. Right.
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The periods of oppression under foreign kings get longer, and
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the periods of rest that the warlords managed to win they get
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shorter. Our data highlights that, yeah,
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by the time you get to Jeff, the the oppression years actually
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start outnumbering the peace years.
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The land isn't really getting rest anymore.
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It's a sign, a sign of the covenant curse is kicking in.
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The system is failing. And the leaders themselves are
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degenerating too. Absolutely.
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The later warlords, they start acting more like, well, secular
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politicians. Think about guys like Jair,
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Ibzan, Abdan. The text mentions their sons,
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their wealth, their attempts to consolidate power.
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Make it hereditary, almost. So they're trying to secure
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their own position. They're becoming warlords
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through political science, you could say, trying to build
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dynasties rather than just responding to a direct
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charismatic call from God for a specific crisis.
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So the divine system of these intermittent spirit empowered
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deliverers, it's buttering out. It's proving inadequate for long
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term stability, and it's pushing the nation painful step by
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painful step toward realizing they need something permanent.
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They need a king. OK, so the warlords show a
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failure in civil leadership, but you mentioned the sources really
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zero in on the spiritual leaders, the Levites, that their
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failure was somehow even more catastrophic.
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That's what the sources argue, especially in that horrifying
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double epilogue at the end of the book, chapters 17 through
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21. They specifically finger the
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tribe of Levite is the villain. The argument is that their
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failure was the root cause. The root cause of the whole
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national collapse. That's the implication.
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Their failure at the altar LED directly to Israel's failure in
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the field, the political and moral disintegration.
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What was their job supposed to be exactly?
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Why were they so central? They were set apart by God, no
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land inheritance like the other tribes.
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Their specific calling was to preserve Israel's piety, its
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morality. Their number one job carefully
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instruct Israel in their covenant history and
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obligations. So teaching the law catechism,
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essentially. Exactly.
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They were the teachers, the priests, the guardians in the
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Torah. They were the built in defense
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mechanism against exactly the kind of syncretism in decay that
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took over. And instead.
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They completely dropped the ball, abandoned their sacred
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trust wire, materialism, self-interest, opportunism.
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They just neglected the word of God.
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And the narrative connects their failure at the altar, their
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spiritual job, directly to the chaos in the nation.
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Directly it's cause and effect in the text.
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OK, can you give us specifics? How did this Levite failure play
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out? The sources detailed 2 main
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examples. Right, Two stories in the
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epilogue that show just how corrupted the system had become.
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The first one, it's a story of, frankly, careerism mixed with
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blatant idolatry. The Levites had become sort of
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wandering for higher priests. And this involves a specific
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young Levite, Jonathan. Yes, Jonathan.
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And the text adds this gut punch detail.
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Yeah, he's Moses's great grandson.
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Wow, that makes it even worse. It does shows how far things
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have fallen. So this Jonathan, a Levite from
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the line of Moses, is basically just looking for work, wandering
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around. He gets hired by this guy Micah.
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To do what? To be the personal priest for
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Micah's little household shrine, Micah had made his own idols,
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his own ephod. Totally illegitimate setup.
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And Jonathan took the job. Took the job, the pay was eased.
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10 shekels of silver a year, plus clothes and food.
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A city gig. But then the tribe of Dan comes
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through. They're migrating N looking for
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territory because they couldn't conquer their allotted land.
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They stumble upon Micah's shrine.
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And they like what they see. They steal Micah's idols, his
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whole setup, and then they approach Jonathan the Levi
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priest. And offer him a better job.
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Exactly, They say hey, why be a priest for one family?
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Come with us, Be the priest for a whole tribe.
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More prestigious, probably better pay.
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Jumps at the chance. Immediately abandons Micah.
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Takes the job with the tribe of Dan.
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He chose status and security over covenant faithfulness.
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So he basically mediated the installation of a completely
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false cult for an entire tribe. That's exactly what happened,
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and the text notes that this idolatrous shrine and Dan lasted
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for generations. It shows the rot wasn't just
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external. It had infected the religious
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heart of Israel, the Levites themselves.
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What's sobering? What's the second failure?
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You said it escalates. Things It escalates things from,
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you know, professional failure and idolatry to outright moral
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depravity leading to national bloodshed and civil war.
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This story involves another Levite, unnamed, described as
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calloused and violent. This is the story said in
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Gibeah, right? It's incredibly.
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Disturbing. Deeply disturbing.
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And it's meant to be. It marks the absolute moral low
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point. So this Levite is traveling with
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his concubine. They end up staying overnight in
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Gibia, a Benjamin like town. And the text explicitly compares
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Gibia to Sodom. Yes, signaling extreme
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wickedness, a mob of worthless men surrounds the house,
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demanding the host bring out the Levite so they can gang rape
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him, just like Sodom. And the Levites response?
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It's unbelief. It's an act of staggering
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cowardice and cruelty. He takes his own concubine,
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shoves her out the door to the mob to save himself.
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Throws her out. Throws her out.
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She's brutally raped and abused all night.
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She collapses and dies on the doorstep.
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It doesn't even end there. No, he finds her in the morning,
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puts her body on his donkey, takes her home, and then does
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something utterly grotesque. He dismembers her corpse, limb
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by limb, 12 pieces, sends one piece to each of the 12 tribes
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of Israel. It's a gruesome, shocking call
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to arms, a demand for vengeance. But wait, if Levites were the
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teachers of the law, how could he even think of doing this?
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First, the moral horror of abandoning his concubine.
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Second, wasn't there a prohibition against priests
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touching dead bodies, let alone this?
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Exactly. It shows a complete disregard
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for the law he was supposed to uphold.
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The desecration of the body, the moral failure.
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It's total and lack of accountability you're pointing
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to. That is the point the source
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material is making. The whole system had collapsed
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internally. There was no one to check him.
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So he uses this horrific act to rally the tribes.
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Yes, he uses the lingering respect for his office, a Levite
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demanding justice, to incite war.
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But then when the tribes assemble and he stands up as the
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sole witness, he lies. He lies how?
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His testimony is full of half truth and distortions.
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He conveniently leaves out the part where he threw her out.
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He makes it sound like the men of Gidea intended to kill him
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and that they murdered her. He twist the story to maximize
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outrage. Ignoring the law's requirements
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for multiple witnesses for investigation.
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Totally ignores it. Demands immediate punitive
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action based purely on emotion and his distorted account.
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And the Israelites already morally adrift because the
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Levites hadn't taught them properly.
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They buy it. They follow his lead.
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And that leads directly to the Civil war against Benjamin.
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Devastating civil war. Benjamin makes things worse by
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defending the guilty man of Givia instead of handing them
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over for justice, so the other tribes go to war against them.
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And Benjamin is nearly wiped out.
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Nearly exterminated, but the tragedy keeps compounding.
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The other Israelites, in their self-righteous fury, end up
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committing horrific acts themselves.
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They basically put Benjamin under a kind of false Urim,
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destroying towns, killing inhabitants.
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And then they realized they made a foolish oath not to give their
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daughters to the surviving Benjamite men.
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Right, another rash oath. So to fix that problem, they
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resort to more violence. They massacre the inhabitants of
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Javish Gilead because they didn't join the war effort and
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kidnapped the virgins. Then they arrange for the
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Benjamites to abduct young women from Shiloh during a festival.
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It's just layer upon layer of violence and injustice, all
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stemming from that initial Levite failure and the
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subsequent lies. Using legalistic loopholes to
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justify breaking oaths they shouldn't have made, Committing
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atrocities to fix earlier atrocities.
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It's the ultimate picture of anarchy when everyone,
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especially spiritual leaders, just does whatever seems right
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in their own eyes. The result is national self
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destruction. OK, so that's the spiritual
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leadership failure. Now let's pivot back to the
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civil leaders, the warlords. You said their individual
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stories also mirror this national decline, even the ones
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who started well. Yeah, the book seems structured
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that way. It pairs the early successes
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with the later, much more flawed leaders to show the downward
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trend over time. So the first three off Neil,
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Ehud, Deborah and Barack, their successes were unqualified.
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Why? Because, according to the
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sources, they acted largely infidelity to the covenant.
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God raised them up for specific tasks, and they more or less
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carried them out faithfully. Their victories were seen as
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God's victories. Off Neil's story is pretty
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brief. Simple, straightforward faith
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leads to deliverance. There's that little detail about
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his wife ASA, faithfully asking for and receiving the upper and
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lower springs, a sign of blessing in a dry land.
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And Ehud, the left-handed Benjamin Knight.
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He's a fascinating figure, his assassination of the obese
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Moabite king Eglon using trickery.
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His left handedness is presented as part of holy war strategy,
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trusting God to make his deception work.
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And he ambushed the Moabites at the Jordan Fords.
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Secured a period of rest. Pretty clean success.
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Then Deborah and Barack. Here, God's intervention seems
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even more direct. Definitely.
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That's the story where God is clearly the real warlord.
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Their victory over Sisera's huge Canaanite army with all those
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iron Chariots, it was miraculous.
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Because of the storm. Exactly.
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God sends a massive thunderstorm.
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The Kishan River floods turns the battlefield into a mud pit,
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completely neutralizing the Chariots, the enemy's main
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advantage. And the final victory, the
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killing of Sisera doesn't even go to Barack.
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No, Deborah prophesied the honor would go to a woman because
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Barack initially hesitated, saying he wouldn't go without
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her. And it does.
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It goes to jail. The wife of Hebrew, the Kenite,
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right? She wasn't even an Israelite.
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Technically. Her husband had a treaty with
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the Canaanite king where she ignores that, invites the
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fleeing Cicero into her tent, gives him milk, waits till he
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sleeps. And drives a tent peg through
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his temple. Brutal but decisive, the text
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holds her up as the real heroine.
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She acted boldly, decisively, in faith.
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Where Barack wavered. She gets the honor.
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OK, so those are the unqualified successes.
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Now let's shift to the next group where the sources say the
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decline really sets in. Gideon, Jetha, Samson.
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Their successes were only qualified.
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Right. Their stories are much messier.
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Their personal flaws start to over shadow their victories and
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directly contribute to Israel's ongoing problems.
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Gideon seems like the turning point.
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He wins that incredible victory against Midian with just three
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hundred men. A clear act of God inspired
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faith initially, but Gideon himself was deeply flawed,
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fearful, vengeful. And his big failure,
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theologically speaking, was the ephod.
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Yes, after the victory, he takes the gold plunder from the
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Midianites and makes an ephod. Which was some kind of priestly
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garment, or maybe a divining tool?
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Why was making one so bad? Because it wasn't authorized, it
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became a rival religious object. He took plunder that should have
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been dedicated to God, or perhaps destroyed, and turned it
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into something he controlled, setting up a focus for worship
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away from the Tabernacle, away from the legitimate priesthood.
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And the result. Disaster.
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The text says all Israel prostituted themselves by
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worshipping it, and right after Gideon dies, they make Balbarith
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their God. Gideon's action, even if maybe
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well-intentioned, directly led the nation back into idolatry.
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And he had that vengeful streak too, right Against his own
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people. Yes, when the men of Sukkoth and
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Penuel refused to give his tired army food during the pursuit, he
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came back later and brutally tortured the elders of Sukkoth,
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tore down the tower of Penuel, killed the men there.
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That's not justice, that's personal revenge.
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And he killed the Midianite tings for personal reasons too.
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Claimed blood vengeance for his brothers, not just executing
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God's judgement. His motives were mixed, leaning
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towards self glory and revenge rather than purely God's honor.
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OK. Next up, Jeff the he mentioned
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his opportunism and violence. Yeah, Jeff, the story is tragic.
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He starts out as an outcast, a son of a prostitute driven out
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by his half brothers. So when the Gileadites
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desperately need a military leader against the Ammonites,
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they come crawling back to them. And he drives a hard bargain.
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He does before he agrees to lead, he makes them promise him
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permanent leadership, headship over Gilead if he wins.
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Securing his own position is priority #1.
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And then comes that infamous vow.
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The rash vow, one of the most disturbing parts of the book.
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He promises God, If you give the Ammonites into my hands,
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whatever or whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me
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when I return in triumph will be the Lord's, and I will sacrifice
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it as a burnt offering. And it's his daughter, his only
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child. Comes out dancing to greet him
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and he follows through. He sacrifices her.
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Which again highlights the Levites failure right?
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The law forbids human sacrifice. Absolutely forbids it,
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Associates it with the detestable worship of Molech.
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Jephthah clearly had no idea he made a Pagan style vow thinking
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God needed or wanted a human sacrifice for victory because
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the Levites failed to teach the law.
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Jephthah committed this horrific act, treating his daughter like
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an animal for a burnt offering. It's presented as just
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appalling. And his rash violence wasn't
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just the vow. He also turned on fellow
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Israelites. Yes, the Ephraimites, they
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complain. After the victory, feeling
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slighted instead of diplomacy, Jephthah gathers his men, fights
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them, and captures the chords of the Jordan.
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Same place he who'd killed Moabites.
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And he uses a password test. Shibboleth.
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Right to identify and slaughter thousands of Ephraimites.
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Just brutal internal conflict triggered by his pride and
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refusal to negotiate shows how tribalism was tearing the nation
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apart. Which brings us, finally, to
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Samson. The most famous, Maybe most
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charismatic, you said, but morally the worst.
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That's how the sources seem to frame him.
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His story is almost like Israel's story in miniature.
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He is the embodiment of doing what is right in his own eyes.
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Starting with his demand to marry a Philistine woman.
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Yep, against his parents please. Against the lost spirit.
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Why? She is the right one for me
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purely based on personal desire that sets the pattern for his
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whole life. And he was under a Nazarite vow
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from birth, wasn't he? Special dedication to God.
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Yes, set apart for holiness, but he breaks the vows constantly
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touches a dead lion carcass, drinks wine, likely at his
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wedding feast, and ultimately tells Delilah the secret of his
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hair, leading to it being cut. And you said his pursuit of
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foreign women mirrors Israel's pursuit of foreign gods.
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That's a key interpretation from the sources, yeah.
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Samson's weakness for Philistine women parallels Israel's
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disastrous attraction to the Canaanite gods, especially the
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fertility cults. His personal story reflects the
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nation's spiritual adultery. But he had incredible strength.
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The Spirit of God came upon him, killing 1000 Philistines with
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the donkey's jawbone. Amazing feats of strength.
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But notice even with that divine power, his success is limited.
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The Angel told his mother he would only begin the deliverance
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from the Philistines. He doesn't finish the job.
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Why not? Because his motives are almost
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always personal. Revenge, lust or pride, not
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covenant faithfulness. His strength isn't matched by
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character. And his own tribe, Judah, even
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turned against him at one point. Yeah, that's a low point. 3000
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men of Judah come down to arrest him and hand him over to the
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Philistines. Why?
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They complained to him. Don't you realize the
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Philistines are rulers over us? They've given up, resigned to
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Philistine domination after 40 years.
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So even Samson's incredible spirit given power wasn't enough
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to overcome the nation's moral apathy and failure.
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Exactly. The charismatic leader, however
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gifted, couldn't fix the deep seated problems alone.
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OK, so we've seen the cycle. Sin judgement, flawed
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deliverance by warlords coupled with the failure of the
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priesthood. The Thorses seem to be building
21:34
a case then. If this system doesn't work,
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what's the answer? The answer the narrator is
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pushing you towards is inescapable by the end of the
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book. The whole structure, the whole
21:43
narrative arc of degeneration is designed to prove one thing.
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The system of decentralized charismatic warlords and corrupt
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Levites is broken. It cannot bring lasting peace or
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spiritual health. It can't lead the people to rest
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in the land. Right.
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That period of anarchy, all that suffering, is like a harsh
22:00
lesson designed to teach Israel you need a king.
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Not just any king though, no. You need a specific kind of
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king. A charismatic leader, yes, but
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one who will unify the tribes, enforce justice fairly and
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critically lead the people in keeping the covenant with I am.
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And the immediate historical figure this points towards is
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David. David is the first answer.
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He does many things the warlords couldn't.
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He centralizes power in Jerusalem.
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He brings the ark there, centralizing worship.
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He largely succeeds in unifying the tribes and enforcing
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justice, despite his own significant failings.
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He provides the model of a king committed to the law, trying to
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correct the errors of the judges.
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Period. You're saying the argument
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doesn't stop with David because he wasn't perfect either.
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Exactly. David's model is crucial, but
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it's still flawed. The source texts ultimate
22:51
theological claim goes further. It argues that the need
22:54
demonstrated in Judges the need for a perfect priest king who
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can truly keep the covenant and solve the problem of human
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anarchy that finds its final complete fulfillment only in
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Jesus Christ. He's the only one who perfectly
23:07
fits the bill. The.
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Only perfect covenant keeping king.
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Now, you mentioned the Spirit earlier, empowering Samson and
23:13
others. You said we need to understand
23:15
how the Spirit worked then differently from now.
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That seems important, especially for our listeners.
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Yes, it's a really key theological distinction.
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The way the Ruah, the Hebrew word for Spirit or wind,
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operates in the Old Testament, especially in Judges, is often
23:29
quite different from the Holy Spirit's work after Pentecost.
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How so describe the difference? In judges, the spirit often
23:35
comes upon individuals as this almost urgent, compulsive,
23:39
overwhelming force. It's an external empowerment.
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For a specific task. Exactly.
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Usually for a God ordained objective, often political or
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physical. Samsung gets superhuman strength
23:51
to fight Philistines. Jephthah is empowered to gather
23:54
an army. You gave another example
23:55
earlier, the Zala. Right in Exodus, God fills bizal
23:59
with the roof specifically for artistic skill, the
24:01
craftsmanship needed to build the Tabernacle.
24:04
It's about enabling an external task needed for God's Kingdom
24:08
purposes on earth at that time. OK, so it's task oriented
24:11
external empowerment, not necessarily linked to the
24:14
person's inner character. That's the crucial point.
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The sources stress this phenomenon.
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The spirit coming upon someone for power or skill did not
24:22
presuppose any particular level of spirituality or moral
24:26
superiority on the part of the recipient.
24:27
So Jeff Deck can be empowered by the Spirit to lead an army.
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While simultaneously being ignorant enough of God's law to
24:34
make that horrific vow about his daughter.
24:36
And Samson can have God-given strength.
24:38
While living a life driven by lust and revenge, constantly
24:41
breaking his vows, the rue empower the external deed, the
24:44
political or military act, but it didn't necessarily change or
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sanctify the person's heart or character.
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Which is fundamentally different from the New covenant promise.
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Fundamentally, the prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel looked
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forward to a time when God would make a new covenant.
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He wouldn't just write the law on stone tablets, but on
25:03
people's hearts. He would put his Spirit within
25:05
them. Not just upon them
25:07
intermittently, but inside them. Inside them specifically so they
25:11
would have the internal desire and ability to obey His Torah,
25:15
His instructions. And the New Testament presents
25:17
Pentecost as the fulfillment of this.
25:20
Exactly after Jesus ascension, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell
25:24
all believers permanently and the focus shifts dramatically.
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From external empowerment for tasks.
25:30
To internal spiritual transformation, sanctification.
25:33
The Spirit now works within believers to produce the food of
25:36
the Spirit. Lovejoy, peace, patience and so
25:40
on. He empowers us to put sin to
25:42
death, to live Christ like lives.
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A power for internal holiness that just wasn't available in
25:47
the same way during the time of the judges.
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Right. That internal transforming power
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is the hallmark of the New Covenant people of God.
25:53
The lack of it is painfully obvious throughout Judges.
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So wrapping this up, the core lesson from Judges seems pretty
25:59
stark. Failure to live by faith
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combined with the total breakdown in leadership, both
26:04
civil and spiritual, it leads straight to chaos and national
26:08
self destruction. It's a grim showcase of human
26:11
depravity when God's order is rejected and everyone did as he
26:14
saw fit. It truly is.
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But you know, amidst all that darkness, the source material
26:19
leaves us with this surprising, almost scandalous note of grace.
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How so? Think about who the New
26:25
Testament remembers from this period.
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Hebrews Chapter 11, that great list of faith heroes who gets
26:30
mentioned from Judges. Gideon, Samson, Jephthah.
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Barack exactly. Gideon, the guy who made the
26:36
idolizing ephod and acted out of revenge.
26:39
Jephthah, who made the horrific vow driven by personal
26:42
vendettas. Yet Hebrews remembers their
26:44
faith. It focuses on Gideon's trust in
26:45
God with the 300 men, not his later failure.
26:48
So God chooses to highlight the moments of faith, even in deeply
26:51
flawed people. That seems to be the point.
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If God, in his sovereignty and grace, chooses to record and
26:58
remember the often meager, inconsistent faith of these
27:02
warlords despite their huge moral failings, well, what might
27:07
that say about His grace towards us, towards the small, perhaps
27:10
inconsistent acts of faith that you listening might show today,
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even in the midst of your own struggles and failings?
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That's definitely something to reflect on.
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A challenging but hopeful thought.
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It is. Well, that brings us to the end
27:21
of this deep dive into the book of judges.
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Thanks for walking us through that.
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My pleasure.