[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] It's Rick. Welcome back to the Nomad Pastor Podcast. Today's a big day. It's the first episode of 2026 and it's the first episode of season six, which is crazy to say because, you know, I started this years and years ago and I said I'm just doing this if, if even it brings one person to Christ. I felt like this is what was God was calling me to do and hopefully it's helped people. Hopefully people have listened and shared and got something out of it.
[00:00:37] I'm just trying to follow what God's telling me to do and hopefully I'll be able to see that someday. And if I don't, well, I'm still doing what God told me to do. I think that's in ministry we like to think about and see the fruit.
[00:00:54] We love to see the outcome of people's lives that maybe we've touched.
[00:01:00] But the problem is that's really a worldly mentality. In my mind. I'm probably wrong, but that's okay because in ministry we touch people every day and we may never see that it could be 6, 7, 8, 10, 20 years later that something you said or I said stuck with them. And that was kind of what put them over the edge.
[00:01:23] So I'm going to keep doing this whether I see it or not and just continue to pray that God is going to put people in a position to hear what I have to say and hopefully they'll understand it.
[00:01:33] And so as we start 2026, I've been saying for a couple episodes now that we're going to kind of walk through Judges and the reason I wanted to walk through Judges and the reason I wanted to start it at the beginning of this year is Judges is this entire book about when people or when a nation walks away from God.
[00:01:57] And I think it kind of mirrors what we're going through today in the world, you know, and as we start this journey, it's going to take us into one of what I believe to be one of the most honest, kind of rough edged, relevant books of the entire Bible. And I don't know how many weeks it's going to take.
[00:02:20] It might take three, four, it might take ten, I don't know. But we're going to walk through that book.
[00:02:26] And I want you to know right up front that this isn't a book about ancient failure.
[00:02:32] It is a book about our current reality.
[00:02:36] Judges show us a nation that has drifted away from God slowly, quietly, over a period of time.
[00:02:45] And Scripture tells us that this Drift happened after faithful leadership had passed away.
[00:02:53] In Judges 2:10, it says, all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which he had done for Israel.
[00:03:09] And if you are paying attention to the world right now, you can feel that same drift unfolding every single day.
[00:03:19] So today we're going to. It's all about setting a foundation, right? Who were the judges?
[00:03:25] What happened to Israel?
[00:03:28] How did a nation that once walked hand in hand with God fall into this chaos?
[00:03:36] And then we'll talk about what does it say about the time and the moment that we're living in right here, right now?
[00:03:44] And so to do this, I think we have to start with just a simple truth, right? And that simple truth is judges is not a book about them, about them being Israel.
[00:03:57] It's a book about us today.
[00:04:01] So to start this out, we got to understand what was a judge, right? Because when we hear the word judge today, we think about a courtroom, we think about a gavel and sentencing and this black robe.
[00:04:13] But that's not the picture. In Scripture, the Hebrew word is Shaphat, and that carries the idea of delivering or rescuing.
[00:04:23] It kind of means setting things right.
[00:04:27] And in Judges 2:16, it says, Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them.
[00:04:35] You see, these judges were not elected.
[00:04:40] They were not part of a dynasty. They were not appointed by a government.
[00:04:45] They were not chosen by committees or subcommittees or however we do it today in the US they were chosen by God for specific moments when Israel desperately needed intervention.
[00:05:02] And that is kind of the theme or the first theme for the entire series of Judges.
[00:05:08] When God's people rejects God's leadership, he then raises up a leader to pull them back. And it is not always gently, it is certainly not always comfortable, but it is 100% with a purpose that is, I think, very key.
[00:05:37] And that key is that the truth has never changed.
[00:05:44] So Judges begins in this vacuum of leadership, right? Moses is gone. Joshua is gone.
[00:05:50] And no one was prepared next, right? No one prepared that next generation.
[00:05:58] In Judges 2:7, it says, Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua.
[00:06:07] But when that leadership ended, the obedience to God began to fade.
[00:06:13] There was no intentional discipleship.
[00:06:18] There was no plan for continuity, right? If you come from kind of the corporate background, you are always planning for a successor. What is your succession plan?
[00:06:29] And there was no succession plan. And even in churches and ministry in everything that we do, when you have leadership, there should always be a succession plan.
[00:06:40] But there was no. In this time of Judges after Joshua, there was no urgency to pass on the faith to the younger generations. And as a result of that, what came out of it was chaos, right? It was spiritual confusion.
[00:06:57] It was the moral collapse, because people started to compromise.
[00:07:05] And in Scripture, it says, right, Everyone did what was right in his own eyes, right?
[00:07:10] In Judges 21, 25, it says, in those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
[00:07:19] That, to me, describes our world today, right? It described Israel then, but it 100% describes the world we live in today.
[00:07:29] Everyone doing what is right in their own eyes, Right?
[00:07:35] People believe that truth is no longer absolute or that morality is based on some feeling.
[00:07:44] And our convictions are oftentimes replaced by convenience.
[00:07:51] And God warned his people long before Judges that this would happen if they abandoned him, right? In Proverbs 14:12, it says, There is a way which seems right to man, but in the end is the way of death.
[00:08:05] We are living in the modern version of Judges right now.
[00:08:11] And that's why I think it's important to start this year to try to understand and look at Scripture to help us recognize the pattern, right? Because the Book of Judges continually follows this repeated pattern, right? Israel rebels against God.
[00:08:29] God allows consequences.
[00:08:32] The people cry out to God for help. God sends a deliverer, peace returns for some period of time.
[00:08:41] And then that cycle repeats itself.
[00:08:45] Israel rebels. God allows it. People cry out, God sends a deliverer, peace returns. And then they do it again.
[00:08:54] In Judges 2, 11, 16, it says, the Son of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel. When they cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a Judge to save them.
[00:09:07] This is not just a cycle.
[00:09:11] It's a downward spiral.
[00:09:14] And that's how sin works in people's lives. That's how sin works in the life of a nation, that house. That's how sin works in the world we live in today.
[00:09:24] Galatians 6:7 says, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows this, he will also reap.
[00:09:34] You got to remember that drift, that drift away from God. It's slow.
[00:09:43] If you think of, like, erosion, right? Like water comes up and erodes the bank. And then, you know, our stream is eroding something. Erosion is gradual.
[00:09:56] The collapse, it comes later.
[00:10:00] The collapse doesn't come when the drift starts.
[00:10:03] Collapse doesn't come at the Beginning of the erosion, it comes later.
[00:10:09] And we have to remember that right with every step that we take. Don't be. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows this, he will also reap.
[00:10:19] We are living in a time where nations and individuals have decided that God is optional.
[00:10:29] And scripture warns us about this.
[00:10:32] You know, Romans 1:21 says, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks.
[00:10:40] So just like Israel in our world today, we are seeing moral confusion.
[00:10:47] We're seeing truth treated as subjective. And I did a whole podcast about objective and subjective truth. You could go back and listen to that.
[00:10:55] But we're also living in a world that the leadership rejects God's authority.
[00:11:02] And Isaiah 5:20 says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.
[00:11:09] You can turn on the news at almost any hour of the day and see people calling good evil and calling evil good.
[00:11:24] It's backwards today, and I don't understand it.
[00:11:32] We have this blessing, we have this freedom, but so many people have lost the fear of God.
[00:11:41] And Proverbs 9, 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
[00:11:49] You see, I think this series matters because one Judges isn't a feel good book, right? There's, there's some joy books in the Bible, but. But Judges is not one of them. It's a warning. It's a guide.
[00:12:03] And the world we're living in today, Judges is the mirror.
[00:12:08] God is showing us what happens when people forget him, but at the same time, he's showing us his patience and his mercy.
[00:12:21] In First Corinthians 10, 11, it says, now these things happened to them as an example, and then they were written for our instruction.
[00:12:32] Judges happened as an example.
[00:12:37] And we can look at it and either decide to listen to the instruction, right? And they were written for our instruction, or we can decide to ignore it.
[00:12:48] Because the heart of Judges is Judges one, right? It shows incomplete obedience. Right? The tribes took the land, but not fully right, even though God told them to.
[00:13:02] Judges 1:19 says, but they did not drive out the inhabitants.
[00:13:06] They tolerated what God commanded them to remove. God said, drive them out.
[00:13:12] But they didn't.
[00:13:14] And God also warned them, right? In numbers 33, 55, he said, those whom you let remain will become as thorns in your sides.
[00:13:24] Half obedience. And if you are halfway obedient, you are still disobedient.
[00:13:33] Sit with that for a minute.
[00:13:36] If you're only obedient to half of what you're supposed to be, you're disobedient. To half.
[00:13:46] 1st Samuel 15:22 says, to obey is better than sacrifice.
[00:13:52] We're supposed to be obedient to God.
[00:13:58] We are tolerating what God says.
[00:14:04] We're not obedient to what God says. And by only tolerating it, that will destroy us.
[00:14:14] Many of you know that I love Romans. Romans 12:2 says, do not be conformed to this world.
[00:14:20] In society today, I think far too many people are negotiating with sin.
[00:14:27] And then they're confused. They wonder, why is there no peace?
[00:14:33] Because you're negotiating with sin.
[00:14:39] You have to really think about that.
[00:14:44] To obey is better than to sacrifice. Do not be conformed to this world. First Corinthians 5:6 says, A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.
[00:14:53] Stop negotiating with sin.
[00:14:57] And then cry out, how come all these bad things are happening in my life? How come this? How come that? Why doesn't God step in? Well, stop negotiating with sin.
[00:15:11] You know, I still believe that Judges is a book of hope, right?
[00:15:17] Because God does bring a deliverer, right?
[00:15:22] Judges 2:18, when they cried out to the Lord, the Lord was moved to pity.
[00:15:31] In Luke 19:10, it says, for the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.
[00:15:37] Jesus is the deliverer who breaks the cycle.
[00:15:42] There doesn't need to be another Judge. Jesus came for the Son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost.
[00:15:51] Stop negotiating with sin. Follow Jesus Christ.
[00:15:59] We are called to examine ourselves.
[00:16:04] In 2 Corinthians 13:5, it says, examine yourselves to see whether you are in faith.
[00:16:11] Examine yourself.
[00:16:13] Where have you drifted?
[00:16:16] Where are you tolerating what God told you to remove?
[00:16:22] Where are you doing what is right in your own eyes?
[00:16:27] Because the promise is still there. The promise remains.
[00:16:32] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us. That's First John 1:9, just like he did for Israel.
[00:16:45] Now I know I didn't, like, go and read the whole chapter. You know, you guys have listened to my podcast before. I'm not going to do that, because I want you to go read it.
[00:16:54] Next week, I'll do another one and we'll start talking about specific judges. Or maybe it'll come out in two weeks. We'll start talking about specific judges, and we're going to walk through history, and you're going to see how. Where we are today is a mirror to what happened in the Book of Judges.
[00:17:11] I challenge you to read Judges a chapter of a half a chapter, whatever it might be every day and ask yourself those questions.
[00:17:28] Where have I drifted?
[00:17:32] Where have I tolerated what God told me to remove?
[00:17:38] Where am I doing what is right in my own eyes?
[00:17:44] And when you find those things, confess your sins because he is faithful and righteous to forgive us.
[00:17:56] I want to thank you for listening today.
[00:17:59] Again, this is Rick with the Nomad Pastor podcast. If you want to talk, have a question, want to hear a specific topic, or just get my point of view. If you don't belong to a Bible believing church, send me an email and I will find one in your area. If you need prayers, send me an email. You can do
[email protected] Again, I want you to have a blessed day and I want you to remember to love God and love people. It.
