Everything is so mixed up at this time in Israel. The Ephramites are again mad that they weren’t called to fight. The Gileadites say they did call them, though we have no record in the previous chapter that they did. There is lying, jealousy, pride. They fight. Tens of thousands are killed because of their sin.

I started thinking that everything seems so mixed up now in the church. Not that the church has replaced Israel, but the church has been brought into Israel, so we can take Israel in some measure as a reference to the church.

The church is so mixed up. It is similar to what I see in Judges. Everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. All the denominations know they are right. Leaders being raised up over God’s people here and there over certain groups but never in unity as one body. Believers and churches seek after their own, guarding their truth, their rights.

I have the hardest time being part of a church. I don’t fit in there. I sometimes struggle wondering where are the people who are seeking after Jesus and just want to know the Father and love Him and love others through the powerful working of the Spirit?

I then thought that next in Israel’s history is them asking for a king. Who do they get? Saul.

He leads them astray even more, not following God’s commands, and turning them to follow a man instead of God as their true and only king.

Then what happens? God removes that king and replaces him with a king after his own heart whose kingdom will have no end, David, our shadow of Jesus as king.

A thought hit me as I was thinking how mixed-up things were now in the church. In Israel’s history, next comes a king, and then the rightful king. What does that mean for us? Antichrist and then Christ!

So, while we need to be on the lookout for false revival and false hopes in the church, there is real hope. There is always hope, so much hope.