Judges: Jesus Meets Lord of the Flies

The noble savage is something of a myth. The popular narrative that says natives in their own land are generally good at heart and would never hurt a fly—unless encroached upon—is simply unfounded.

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The Bible makes it abundantly clear that all men are “dead” in their “trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). It’s no fun to say this, but there are no “innocent old grannies” in a remote village on some long lost island out there. No, all are dead. All are broken. All are estranged from their Maker. All are alienated and without God and without hope in the world.

Shockingly, even some of the most likely candidates in human history for common decency were not very decent. I”m speaking here of the Israelites. Years after Joshua’s passing—Joshua was the famed leader, post-Moses, who led the Israelites into the Promised Land—it was said of the people of God:

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

It would be one thing if this two-liner only occurred once in Judges. You know, repent and redo. Makeup and move on. But no, the whole book of Judges is characterized by this sort of shenanigan. Notice this copy-and-paste in the final verse of Judges:

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

But it gets worse. In Judges 19:1, we read, “In those days, when there was no king in Israel,” and then what follows proves to be one of the most barbaric, tummy-turning tales in all of Scripture. You can go read the gruesome chapter for yourself, but suffice to say that Judges 19 makes the book Lord of the Flies feel like a PG-rated Disney cartoon from the 1980s. Folks, this is pure, unadulterated yuck. And yet yuck is the story of mankind. Paul makes sense of this seeming nonsense in Romans 1.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18).

That about nails it, doesn’t it? The people of this world “suppress” the truth. They smash truth down like trash in the kitchen trash can, shrinking it down with the sole of their foot.

“No one is gonna tell me what to do,” they mumble under their clinched lip. And then they go on to do their despicable practices.

But alas, the gospel has come, thanks to the Incarnate Son! All over the planet the gospel is bearing fruit and increasing among those who understand the grace of God (Col. 1:6). The power of the enemy has been broken, because Jesus walked out of the grave on Easter morning. And now King Jesus, coronated and seated at the right hand of the Majesty, has bound the so-called strong man, “so that he [that is, the devil] might not deceive the nations any longer” (Rev. 20:3).

The kingless days are numbered. Jesus is worthy of his Crown Rights. And no lesser “king” or “kingdom” is going to slow Jesus down. The Lord of the Flies has a new Lord in town.

Do you want to see real-life examples of Christ making good on his Crown Rights? My new book, Jesus in Beijing: A Missionary Memoir of Christ’s Victory in China, tells story after story of how Jesus is changing lives. The book is available here.